An habitation of God through the Spirit.

"An habitation of God through the Spirit."

Ephesians 2:1-22.

Lecture 9 of ’The New Testament Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.’

W. Kelly.

Though I have read this chapter of the epistle as a whole, my intention is to take up almost exclusively the last few words: the reason why will appear presently. The Holy Spirit views the Church, not merely as the body of Christ, but as the habitation of God. The body of Christ specially brings before us our communion with Himself as a head in heaven; the habitation of God connects itself just as simply and clearly with the actual place of the Church now on the earth. This is not the only difference; but it is considerable, and important too. Nevertheless both agree in this, that there can be neither the body of Christ any more than the habitation of God, save through the, Holy Ghost, and founded upon redemption. This is of great consequence doctrinally, but it is not less so practically. Collaterally also it decides, to any man who is really subject to God’s word, the limits of the Church — the time when its formation began. Thus the Church is consequent on redemption.

There was no such thing as either the body of Christ or God’s habitation through the Spirit, till sin was judged in the cross, when the Holy Ghost was sent down from heaven to the earth to form it. To know this is an immense step for many a heart. There is not one in this room that has known this truth long; there are comparatively few of the children of God who admit it to be a truth at all; and so much the worse for them. It is not that the participation of the blessing is lost thereby; for not the relationship, but our enjoyment depends on our knowledge of it. And this is a very great mercy on God’s part. So far, it is with this as with other privileges that His grace confers. Many a soul really looks to Christ alone, and consequently has eternal life; but if you asked, "Have you life everlasting?" there might be no little hesitation there; and even those who are not conscious of this difficulty, have no adequate conception of the nature of eternal life. They would not question the words that Scripture makes use of; but what the character, nature, and consequences (now and by-and-by) of eternal life are they are exceedingly ill-acquainted with. So it fares with the truth of the Church of God in either aspect — its union with Christ above, or its affording God’s dwelling-place by the Spirit below. Last night we looked a little at the former of these truths; tonight we shall search the Scriptures an the latter, though one cannot do more than direct the enquirer to those parts of God’s word which develop with divine certainty either great truth. I shall touch by the way on some of the practical consequences; for, certainly, we never do taste the blessing of any truth, any more than we honour God by it, until we are sufficiently awakened by the Holy Ghost to gather for our souls, and also to cultivate in our experience, ways, and worship, the fruits of that which God has made known to us. In reading the verses that have just been before us, it is obvious that the point to which the Holy Ghost has arrived in this epistle is the setting aside of the Jewish system, and the bringing in of that which was entirely new on the earth. Being altogether unprecedented, God dealt in a wholly new way. He brought in Gentiles, who before this were, as He says, the uncircumcision in the flesh. Not only so; but having brought in those Gentiles, who, before they received the gospel, had been aliens and strangers, without hope and without God in the world, He put both them and those who now believe from Israel together in one new position before Himself. Why all this? Because redemption is now accomplished. Now, is it not strange that Christians should have any question as to this? Is it not an extraordinary fact (for it is a fact), that theory should be allowed to upset that which is the most evident and unquestionable teaching of God’s own word? Our whole epistle, from beginning to end, contemplates Christians and Christians only. If I take some isolated word, I may, no doubt, apply it to Old Testament saints (for instance, the very word "saints"); but then I never find even such an expression alone. If we read of saints, all is set in a new connection. Thus it is said in the very beginning, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus." There was nothing of the kind in the Old Testament: we could not possibly hear of any faithful in Christ there. The language would have been wholly unintelligible, and could not in anywise be conceived to be spoken in those times. Not that some were not faithful; not that there were not saints; but they could not be thus spoken of. They were waiting, according to promise and prophecy, for the Messiah. God’s Spirit had not failed to work in them, of course. Precious fruits too there were in their season; but not a single phrase, as far as I am aware, of this epistle could have been uttered at any moment of any one soul in the whole course of Old Testament times. What, then, must one think of men who apply every word of it to all times? Why simply that they do not at all understand its bearing. I do not in the least deny that they have reaped good from the Saviour, because they do see Himself; they have tasted grace in Him; they do see some sweet mercies that are shown the Christian, But assuredly the depth of present privileges and their peculiarity, as well as their force and heavenly character, are obscured, attenuated, and blunted to their souls by the vague haze which is thrown over the whole, by unduly extending to all saints what God has revealed distinctly and solely of the souls that are now brought into the knowledge of His grace since He manifested Himself in Christ, and the work of redemption was wrought. Hence I maintain that, as a whole, every thought, every sentence, contemplates exclusively the saints that have been called since Christ appeared in the world to die in atonement, and before He comes again to receive them to Himself.

All this needs no argument, I suppose, to most here. It is a simple question of believing the word that opens the New Testament mystery, and of comparing the language with any part of the Old Testament, which, of course, is the part of Scripture alone capable of letting us know with unerring certainty the state, condition, and experiences of the Old Testament saints. My motive for alluding to this which, after all, ought to be here, at least, a trite and familiar truth, is to remark, that all attempts to fritter away the differences of the word and the ways of God have an enfeebling effect on our appreciation of that to which God is now calling His children. And there is no one mistake which has wrought greater mischief, as to the very truth which is now before us, than allowing these generalities to swamp the precision of God’s revelation. Men think that it has been always the Church, for instance, that God has been dealing with in this world; that it now has a little more light, and a little more blessing (for differences cannot be denied); but that, nevertheless, substantially it is the same system from beginning to end. This I wholly deny; but I entreat those who have not as yet duly considered the matter, not to receive what I have said, but to examine it by the word of God; I entreat them to examine what they have hitherto held by the word of God; I entreat them to bring all their own thoughts, and the suggestions of others, on this great matter to the sole test that God acknowledges, the only means of light and truth possible for any one.

If we are willing thus to subject our thoughts touching the Church, as God’s habitation by the Spirit here below, we learn, first of all, that the work of redemption is applied to souls after a wholly indiscriminate sort. That is, there is no question now whether a man be a Jew or a Gentile: if there had been this difference in the ground on which the Church is formed (whether in the aspect of the body of Christ on the one hand, or of God’s dwelling-place on the other), in either case there is supposed for this new work the total subversion of that which God had sanctioned and set up in former days. Hence we find the language proceeds: "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity." Thus vanishes the partition which subsisted in Old Testament times by God’s appointment, "even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man." That is, it is not merely blotting out our sins, nor simply ensuring heaven by-and-by; but forming here below a creation entirely unknown before. It is the communication of privileges unheard of and impossible, while God still dealt with His ancient people, and acted among them and governed them by a law as in Israel. "That he might [consequently we are told] reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father."

Here we come to the point which is more particularly before us to-night. "Now therefore," it is said, "ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Take notice that it is not a question of the Old Testament prophets here. The order in which the Holy Spirit wrote excludes this sense; for if the Ephesian saints were "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets," what could be less natural than an allusion to the Old Testament prophets in such a case or fashion as this? "The apostles" are put before "the prophets." More than this, the construction of the phrase means a common class of persons who form a foundation for this building, that God was about to construct. And when was this foundation laid? Not just after man had sinned, not in the time of the elders, did God begin to execute this great work in the earth. Here we find that late in the day, after four thousand years had passed, and Christ had come and died, then was the foundation laid (not the work, long in course, brought to a completion) by the apostles and prophets. The common class, signified by one Greek article, forbids our thinking of the Old Testament prophets that were past. The prophets were then present, and associated with the apostles in this work.* Both apostles and prophets, namely, of the New Testament, were those that laid this new foundation, "in whom all the building," says he, "fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord." Such is the ultimate result. This holy temple will be seen by-and-by: but note the last clause; "In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." What I draw from it is, I conceive, a simple and sure inference — that there is now, before the holy temple is grown to its full proportions, this work on earth displacing the system of Israel, a new building altogether, which really is God’s habitation in virtue of the Spirit’s presence.

* Compare Ephesians 3:6. "It is now revealed" to both.

Thus, believers now, were they Gentiles in nature before they had received the gospel, are brought, with Jews who may now believe, into this dwelling-place of God, "in whom ye also" — addressing the Ephesians — "are builded together for an habitation of God." The manner of it is declared to be "through" or "in the Spirit." That is, the Spirit is just as necessary for the habitation of God, as for the body of Christ, into which we were last enquiring. Nevertheless, the habitation of God is, in some respects, not so exclusively a new thought as the body of Christ. We find, at least, more distinct types of the great truth of God’s dwelling among men on earth in the Old Testament Scriptures. But nothing whatever was revealed of the joining of Jew and Gentile in one body; still less that they together should compose the body of Christ. Of course we have the type of Adam’s marriage, or union, with Eve; but this discloses nothing of its components, tells us nothing of Jew and Gentile — a distinction not then hinted at — joining in one. The fact can only be used, and we know it was used by the Spirit of God, when the Church came to light, but nothing more. As to the habitation of God, we have, as is well known, no trace whatever of it in Genesis. There is not even a promise as yet. And this is the more striking, because if there is a book in the Old Testament that is more than any other fertile in germs of divine truth, it is the book of Genesis. All the other books put together, it is not too much perhaps to say, do not present so many views of that which God was about to work in due time; yet there is this remarkable exception: God’s habitation, God’s design to have a dwelling-place on earth, is never once alluded to. The reason is manifest. Though we see the beginning of sacrifices in Genesis, though burnt offerings are spoken of, though covenant dealings are often brought before us, there is yet no redemption. Redemption is also as remarkable an exception as God’s dwelling-place throughout this wonderful book.

Then comes the second book of the law, not so remarkable for presenting in this manifold way the unfoldings, so to speak, of the ways of God and the counsels that were afterwards to have effect given to them in Christ. But certainly the book of Exodus claims our special attention now; inasmuch as it presents us, in type, the very truth we are in quest of — first, indeed, redemption, and then God’s dwelling with men. We may add by the way, that although of course the law comes in too, within that law we find the renewed assurance of this very truth. Thus the great truths which stand out in the book of Exodus are among the things revealed in Ephesians 2:1-22, and in similar order. The first part of Exodus is occupied in showing us the forlorn, miserable, debased condition of the people of God. Thanks be to God, it was not merely that they cried out of the depth of their ruin, but the Lord hearkened, and occupies Himself for their deliverance. Not content with sending messages of mercy, in due time He works, not first in judgment, though He did judge, but claiming His people for Himself. He sends Moses and Aaron, and, as signs following their mission, plagues, in which He chastises the pride of the world that kept His people in bondage. Finally comes before us the most remarkable type of redemption that the Old Testament affords, and this in both its parts — the blood of the Lamb with death and resurrection, the Passover and the Red Sea. Either one or other alone was inadequate to set forth redemption, which can only be rightly known when they are both received together. For if we look at the Passover, we find, after all, God still judging; and it must be so. God is armed with power, God is dealing in vengeance on that which was evil, but at the same time in His own admirable wisdom providing a righteous means of shelter for His people.

Thus the most prominent truth that appears in the Passover is God in judgment, though with provision to spare His own. Substantially the same thing appears in one aspect of the gospel. One of the central thoughts in the gospel is, that God is righteous therein. (Romans 1:17) It is not mere mercy. However precious this may be, it is quite a different thought from the righteousness of God, though there never could have been the founding or display of the righteousness of God without His mercy; but His righteousness in justifying is the boast of the gospel. While the sinner is accounted righteous, it is not merely that God pardons and shows mercy, but is just in justifying. So it is with the Passover. God that night came down in judgment of man as well as of the gods of Egypt. He was marking His hatred of sin as He had never done before; and this, too, in quite as evident a manner in His dealings with Israel as with the Egyptians. No doubt there was death. That night, in every Egyptian house, the first-born lay dead, and the wail of sorrow declared all over the land what it was to despise the admonitions of the Lord; but in every dwelling of the Israelites the bloodstained doorposts as truly and still more blessedly declared that God is just, and at the same time the Justifier — spoke of a substitute indeed — of another’s blood; spoke, at least in God’s ears of His death, who should become man, though most truly God; spoke of the Lamb of God, and the shedding of His blood.

Nevertheless this was not all the blessing, even typically. The Paschal Lamb simply kept God outside, only stayed His judgment from falling on the persons of the Israelites themselves. Is this the full character of redemption — to shut God out from His own? It is the notion that too many have of redemption; but how far short it falls of redemption according to God! Most important as it unquestionably is, it is not the whole truth of the matter, but very far from it. And therefore it is we find that along with this God appends another type as its complement — namely, the Red Sea, where the flower of Egypt found a grave, and God gave the Israelites to pass through what seemed to be sure death to them, what in truth became in type life everlasting, and their best security. So it is precisely that the believer finds the death and resurrection of Christ. Then for the first time God deigns to speak of salvation in relation to His people. (Exodus 14:13; Exodus 14:30, Exodus 15:2.) He never speaks of anything, however glorious, wrought previously as "salvation."

It may be remarked by the way, that it is a great injury to souls to speak of an immature and partial knowledge of God as salvation — knowledge, I mean, even of the love of Christ. Thus one often hears such talk as, "It is true, the man is not happy yet; he has no liberty of soul; but, at any rate, he is saved." Scripture never sanctions such language. What it designates as salvation is not that a soul is converted or quickened merely — is not that a soul has received of Christ that which makes it judge itself, and cry out to God, yet with a certain measure of hope. Scripture reserves "salvation" precisely though not exclusively, for the being brought into conscious liberty, for the realization of the present deliverance through the gospel from every enemy by the power of God in Christ. And hence it is that we only hear of salvation when Israel comes to the Red Sea, and when there is, therefore, the full and final quittance of the land of Egypt, and the total destruction of their proud foes. "Today," says Moses, "ye shall see the salvation of the Lord." It was not the night of the Paschal feast; it was the day when they could look back on the Red Sea crossed for ever. For this reason, it is of the greatest importance that we should speak according to Scripture as to this, not owning as salvation anything short of it. Otherwise we do not help God’s children, as we might, to a settled assurance of the mighty victory of Christ, the lack of which never fails to leave them in a sort of dead-and-alive state — an anxious and struggling condition instead of peace. It is very blessed, indeed, for a soul to be wrought in profoundly by the Spirit, and to find out what it is before God; but till it is broken down to rest with simplicity and confidence on the finished work of Christ, there is nothing that God calls "salvation" in the complete sense.

After this mighty work — as far as the type is concerned, wrought then — we find Israel for the first time singing. The song of Moses is heard on the other side of the Red Sea. Remark particularly the language of this song as bearing on our subject to-night: "I will sing unto Jehovah; for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. Jehovah is my strength and my song, and is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation." How strikingly the truth comes out! The full type of resurrection, as well as death, is brought before us then; and then, first, we hear of salvation; and immediately ensuing on this (as far, of course, as the shadow of these things is concerned), the heart desires that God should have a habitation. (Compare also Exodus 29:45-46.) How comes this? Are we to suppose for an instant that there was any quality or conduct in those who thus sung in the wilderness, which was more agreeable to God than what He had found in their fathers or other elders of the book of Genesis? The very reverse is true. Among these were some that God had put the most signal honour on — that had been chosen of God to be the depositaries of His secrets, not only exempted from a world-wide judgment, but in one instance at least taken up to heaven without death, as in another God come down to sup with His friend on the earth. Need I remind any how this last was made the object of promises, confirmed to his son, and repeated to his son’s son — promises that will not cease to roll their course of blessing, till all the ages have closed in the eternal rest of God, when good and evil shall have each their lot for ever, according to the judgment of God as well as His grace? Is it not, then, impossible to suppose it a question of persons? But for this very reason the wonders of redemption are brought into relief. Christ’s death, whether in type or in antitype, alone accounts for it; and I do not think it too much to say that redemption ought to account for it. I affirm that it is suitable, and not surprising after all, when we know what redemption deserves, and who has wrought this redemption, and how it was wrought; when we know that it needed the Son of God, and that He should come into this world as a man, not only to give up the enjoyment of all His own proper glory for a season, but that He should enter in grace the circumstances of all man’s shame, and sorrow, and suffering; and yet, after all this, instead of emerging into a place of blessedness and glory, on the contrary, should go into a deeper depth, after man had done his very worst, after Satan could do no more. For then, after all the rest, was resolved a question that had to be settled between God and that Blessed One. And that question must have been of all others the hardest for God, and in itself the most trying of all things for the Son of God. For what can compare with that wondrous hour when sin had to be judged of God, and be dealt with in the strangest place in which it was possible for man to conceive it — imputed to the person of the Holy One of God, even the Son of God, by God Himself? When one reflects on these things, who can wonder that God should see in redemption such infinite worth, and such a resting-place for Him, that the heaven of heavens should cease, so to speak, to contain Him; as though God Himself should say, "I must come down now. My Spirit must dwell where that precious blood is; He can no longer remain above!" It may have been the vilest spot in all creation; it may be that which too often lifted up its puny head in the fiercest, and, at the same time, most shameless rebellion. But no matter what the earth may be, and no matter what the people on the earth may have been proved against God, and against His Anointed, God could not consistently with His estimate of what Christ has suffered, abide in heaven any longer, but must come and find His dwelling-place in this very earth, and among the members of that very race which had treated Him with such habitual contumely. To my mind this, and this alone, accounts for the blessed truth of God’s having His dwelling among us on the earth, or even for the possibility of His having an habitation on earth. Redemption accounts for the fact, and the Holy Ghost at once makes it good when redemption is effected. And so, therefore, we see in this very chapter when the type of redemption was fulfilled, that the typical habitation of God immediately becomes desired on the earth; when the true redemption, eternal redemption, was a fact, God comes down really to dwell, abiding for ever by His Spirit in the redeemed. Thus nothing can be conceived more harmonious than either the typical facts, on the one hand, or the real accomplishment of them, on the other, in the eternal redemption Christ has acquired for the Christian. But there is another thing, too, that should be noticed here. Not only have we now the people, through Moses, expressing their common desire for preparing God a habitation, but farther on we here find (and it is a remarkable fact too) that this is the first chapter in the Bible where God’s holiness is presented. No one would suspect this; no one, I am convinced, could believe it until he had ascertained the fact for himself, that God should have waited all this time before giving a revelation of Himself in His holy character, in His dealings with men here below. There was, no doubt, an allusion to the thought of holiness, when He separated the sabbath day; and I mention this because it is the only passage which might appear exceptional. Thus, before there was any question of sin, God saw fit to enunciate in the sabbath day a pledge of that rest which "remaineth for the people of God." So it comes in due season. But when dealing with man, and man was actually before Him on the earth, not one word about holiness is uttered until Exodus 15:1-27. A little lower down we read (in Exodus 15:11), "Who is like unto thee, O Jehovah, among all the gods, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises?" This, we shall see, connects itself with God’s habitation in the New Testament. I merely point you to the striking circumstance, that the two things are for the first time presented together, consequent on the accomplishment of the typical redemption. In point of fact, it is only when redemption has been accomplished, that man can bear the full revelation of the holiness of God. There may be a call to this or that before, but manifestly it was after all only of a fleshly order; it was but ceremonial dealing with the first Adam in one way or another. But the moment there is the type of redemption, in Jehovah accomplishing deliverance, then even the Israelites can speak without anxiety, and in their measure rejoice and praise His name. Of course, it is no more than an earthly deliverance as yet; but they sing of the holiness of God.

Now, if we turn to the New Testament, we see, in the chapter from which I have already read, what answers to all this. Here we have redemption wrought. The Son of man gave His life a ransom for many; the effect of it is the bringing souls, even the most distant, nigh to God, and that in perfect peace — Christ Himself being the expression of it. "He is our peace," with which there can be nothing comparable, nothing — I will not say superior, but — so much as approaching it. But it is exactly on this that we begin to hear of the habitation of God. Nor is this truth confined to any one epistle. Take 1 Corinthians 3:1-23 as an illustration. "We are labourers," says the apostle, "together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building." The apostle speaks of his own relation to it. He says: "According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation." It is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. So here Paul takes this place, and accordingly, lower down in the chapter, appeals to them. "Know ye not," he says, "that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" At once this is the ground of a strenuous call to holiness: "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." That is, it is not merely a revelation of what the Church is to be by-and-by, but he is speaking of present facts. It seems to me that we should pay more attention to this than is usually done; for it is of the greatest consequence that believers should have a just apprehension that Christianity consists not merely of doctrines, but of facts; and that facts are the foundation of doctrine. There is a person, a real living man born, manifested in this world, who lived here, died here, and rose here, although He is now gone to heaven; and that person is not merely the means of making truth known, but is Himself the substance of the truth that He makes known. Abstract Christ from Christianity, and what remains? And now that He is gone, too, God makes Christianity good by another person, even the Holy Ghost that-is come down, who, instead of supplanting Him that is gone on high, is now the power of our knowing Him. I can only know really and according to God Him who is gone by Him who is come. It is His presence that makes the temple of God. The Holy Ghost dwells in the saints on earth; as it is said, "Ye are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

Now, I would ask my brethren before me this night, Have you sought to estimate the immense magnitude of such a fact as this? Is it this which fills your heart to overflowing, when you come together, say on the Lord’s day, or at any other time when the assembly of God is gathered, either for worshipping Him, or for edifying one another? Does the presence of the Holy Spirit comfort you as a matter of faith? Do you count on the Lord as really in the midst? or are you thinking only of those who compose that assembly, or such as open their lips in worship and edification of the saints? What would be thought of a visitor coming into some grand building, who merely occupied himself with the small accidents here or there? It is evident that the object of all would be lost upon him. But still more when we bear in mind that there is a living, divine person whom I am entitled to count on, and to know present in the assembly here below’ who makes them to be God’s assembly, as nothing else does. It is not their faith simply; for this did not make the Old Testament saints to be God’s assembly. It is not life again; for certainly all saints from the first were born again, and yet, as we know, till Pentecost God’s assembly was not. The only thing that could thus give the assembly of those who have faith, and therefore life, the title of being God’s assembly, is the presence of God Himself there; and He is there by the Holy Ghost.

Again, so paramount is this, that the fact of persons slipping in there who are not born of God does not destroy His assembly. It is sorrowful and humiliating; but I am not to be alarmed, nor overmuch cast down by it. It ought to be a pain that we had so little discernment, and that persons were allowed to come into the assembly of God who never were born of God. But there is nothing that Satan would not dare, in order to defile and destroy the assembly of God. It is the nearest thing to God upon earth; it is that in which His Son’s glory is most of all concerned now; it is that body to which God commits His truth. From it God demands an answer to His moral glory and character here below; and if He has not given unfailing power of miracles, He has sent down His Spirit to dwell with us and be in us for ever — His own habitation in the Spirit. It is not, then, because of this or that quality He so blessed us, but through His present Spirit.

Supposing there should be the sorrowful fact of those brought in who, having no life in their soul, in time depart from the Church. These are apt to turn out the greatest adversaries not only of it, but also of Christ Himself, the haters of His name, and deniers of His glory (such as, for instance, we find in Hebrews 6). They had shared astonishing powers, as we are told, yea, "were made partakers of the Holy Ghost." This is a great difficulty to some; whereas, in point of fact, it is no mean help toward understanding the very truth that we are considering tonight. So far from its being an enigma, it seems to me to be that which falls in with the truth generally, and which gives us the key to facts that may occur at any time, as they have happened from the beginning. Thus we find unquestionably that there are men who creep in unawares among the saints, and these men, when alienated, are so much the worse — twice dead, as the apostle Jude calls it — just because, having taken the place of confessors of the Lord Jesus, they have gone from Him, abandoned the truth with disdain, treated it with the utmost contempt, become, therefore, infinitely fiercer zealots against the truth of God than they even were in its favour when they commenced. These men might have had any amount of outward privileges; for there are external mercies of no mean value entirely short of eternal life. It is not said that any of these professors of Christ had ever been quickened of God. Eternal life is in no sense an external privilege Nor is there such a thing in the Bible as a man, who had once partaken of eternal life, losing that life. Those quickened of God do not afterwards fall back into death in that sense. It is very possible for a man, touched in feelings and persuaded in his judgment, to renounce the Christ he professed, and to walk no more with Him; as we read of certain disciples stumbled by the Saviour’s teaching, so unsparing to the flesh and the world. Thus we only can understand these passages consistently with others. The professor, naturally dead, was now twice dead, as Jude says, having given up what he seemed to have, and gone back to earthly ordinances or to open sin, as the case might be, with even greater relish than before, and intenser hatred than he ever had for that which he thus openly abandoned. These are the persons described in Hebrews 6, 10, and such departures every now and then present themselves before the eyes of sorrowing Christians, as Scripture explains.

Thus the flesh may go to the farthest extent in professing the truth, and may possess every conceivable external privilege and power it is possible to enjoy, and this even now more in Christian than in older times. Thus we know that in the Old Testament Saul had got among the prophets, and others were gifted with mighty powers by the Holy Ghost, who then, as ever, was the sole agent of divine energy, and might act by whom He would, and in what He would, for God’s glory. Now the grace of God opens the door, if possible, for readier abuse, if men dare to take advantage. It is quite possible also for the unconverted to deceive themselves as well as the Church of God and to rush in, assuming the profession of the name of Jesus, so much the more because with less conscience The Holy Ghost now gives His persona1 seal, which is peculiar to him who has true faith and life everlasting in Christ. But while the Spirit is given as a seal, it would be an error to forget the outward powers He confers. In Hebrews 6 the apostle does not speak of His sealing, any more than of quickening souls, nor of "the earnest" the believer has in Him of the coming inheritance of glory. There is the greatest guardedness of language in speaking of anything that ought to produce a real difficulty. Still, there is participation in the power of the Holy Ghost. This many unregenerate men may have had in the early days of Christianity. Can one wonder that such persons abandon the name of Jesus, because of which alone these powers were conferred on them? This again explains the present state of Christendom — the extension of the habitation of God to the unbelieving and profane, who nevertheless bear outwardly the name of the Lord Jesus, and venture where God’s presence is made good by the Holy Ghost. No doubt, where there was carelessness, outward privileges might be lightly used, as, for instance, baptizing unto the name of the Lord Jesus. All such like things could easily be carried out irregularly by men, so as to bring in multitudes of unconverted professors, as we know was soon the fact. Accordingly it was by some such broad-churchism, in manifold forms, which need not be entered on at present, that the house of God, although the Spirit dwelt there, was gradually corrupted in every direction, as an unhallowed ambition sought increase of sway, outside the intentions of God, and man, as ever, lost sight of his solemn responsibility, and turned the grace of God into licentiousness.

Another thing I would just observe too, which is, I think, of importance for judging rightly on this subject. We have in Scripture, not only the house of God, according to the divine idea described in the close of Ephesians 2:1-22, but also its responsible connection with man’s labour in 1 Corinthians 3:1-23, to which I have alluded. There is, indeed, more than this; for we have a half-moral half- prophetic sketch of that which was working, in a measure, when the apostle wrote his last epistle (2 Timothy 2:1-26), to which I must briefly refer, because it bears so powerfully on present duty. The apostle calls on Timothy to study to show himself approved unto God, and tells him of the profane and vain babblings which he was to shun, but which, nevertheless, should increase to more ungodliness. He speaks of persons who, concerning the truth, had erred, but comforts his too sensitive fellow-servant, who was clearly under pressure from the dangers and difficulties of the time, by this consolation: "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth firm, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." But this is followed by a very animated figure of what was then in existence, and afterwards to be verified yet more literally. "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work." Here we have evidently a most graphic description of what was then in rapid progress, though going on every day yet more and more. This great-house condition has arrived at the present time; it was but the anticipation of full-blown Christendom. That is, we have a vast building in these lands, where vessels of honour, as well as of dishonour, are found.

What, then, is a Christian to do? Is he to abandon the great house? Certainly not. A man cannot go outside the great house without ceasing to be a Christian; for that is precisely the condition into which the profession of Christ’s name has got. Therefore it can never be a question in any way of giving up the profession of the Lord’s name: what we have to do is to separate from all that is contrary to His will, never to relinquish the profession of His name. The profession of Christ is in itself the only stand revealed that is good and complete below. Up to it no profession can attain. It is, assuredly, also due to Him, as it is the blessing of the saint to render it, no less than His salvation. For who shall be saved but he that calls on the name of the Lord? And so all through, from the first acquaintance with Him, calling on the name of the Lord, professing His name, is clearly just as much a joy as a duty. In no case, therefore, can it be right to abandon the house which is characterized by the profession of the Lord’s name. But in that great house there are vessels of honour, as well as of dishonour. What am I to do? I am commanded to purge myself from the vessels of dishonour. Such is the meaning of the text, such the clear intention of the Holy Ghost when it is said, "If a man therefore purge himself from these" (i.e. from the vessels of dishonour). This a man does when he ceases from any evil fellowship that he knows to be judged by the word of God, from all companionship with that which, by God’s standing written testimony, is proved to be opposed to His will.

If a man therefore finds himself involved in subjection to an unscripturally formed ministry, for instance, or, again, in any prostitution of an institution of the Lord (say the Lord’s Supper), let him have done with it at once. The Lord does not warrant His servant’s sanction of what is contrary to truth and holiness. Why should I, as a Christian, endorse any ministry which is not of God? Why should I be a party by my presence to a desecration of the Lord’s Supper into a sacrament made a means of grace for the world, for anybody, for every one? He that possesses but little knowledge of God’s word about either, knows perfectly well that they cannot be defended by Scripture, and that they frustrate the Lord’s will in these grave matters. Am I then to abandon the Lord’s Supper? Am I henceforth to do without the ministry of the word? Certainly neither the one nor the other, if wise and obedient. What one has to abandon is the abuse of these things. I am to have done with that which, as being without Scripture, is clearly to the dishonour of God. I do not give up Christian ministry, therefore, I do not give up the Lord’s Supper; but I judge according to the word of God, as far as enabled by His grace, what is His will in these respects. The same principle applies to every other. Do you think of worship, for instance? I must search the Scriptures to judge what is Christian worship according to God’s word for us now, as a Jew used to do from the Old Testament. Am I not bound so to do? Am I not to follow His will? As to the question before us — What is it that God would have His saints feel as to their position on earth? That they are nothing less than His assembly. Here, therefore, we have at once an invaluable test for discovering whether that to which we hold day by day as His Church in this world, in the midst of so many conflicting claims, really for our consciences meets His will. It is not enough for me, nor should it satisfy any, the feeblest, of the children of God, that those composing it should be Christians; still less is it a question of arranging Christians in various classes of doctrine as offering the best guarantee for peace. What presumption! Who called me to arrange the saints of God? Who warranted you to order the house of God? Who gave any man title to put those here and these there? The character and testimony of the Church of God is destroyed by any such arrangement. Supposing one could have every soul in communion holding precisely my views or yours on every topic, I should regard it as a very great calamity for the Church of God. What measure could be thought of surer to blot out the truth that we are God’s assembly? What more calculated to produce a false estimate of the state of the saints than all thus banded together with identical views, all crammed with just the same thoughts, satisfied with one another, and contemptuous to those outside who did not hold similar sentiments? I am supposing now every notion correct, and the things done to be according to the mind of God. To my mind such a picture in no way answers either to Scripture, or to the love of Christ.

Brethren, let me be plain-spoken. The Church of God is not a citadel for the strong only, nor a niche for the wise and intelligent alone; it is not a front bench for those who have arrived at a certain maturity of holiness any more than of knowledge. He would have me always contemplate all saints (save those in sin or evil doctrine). So far from thinking the eclectic school according to the Lord’s mind, to my view it utterly dislocates and spoils the truth God has disinterred about His Church. What I find there is the body of Christ, and doubtless the various members in their place. There are feet as well as hands. The feeble have their use as well as the strong, and all as God is pleased to give and order. As the large-hearted apostle teaches, the uncomely parts, instead of being left outside, are treated, being in danger of scorn, with more abundant honour. Such is the way of our God, such His express word. Have we learnt to bow? Those that are strong are expected to bear the infirmities of the weak, instead of pleasing themselves. Religious rationalism might think it best to have only the strong, only those of the same mind, only such as had attained a certain given point of truth; but is it Christ? The Church of God should be before our hearts, as it is according to His word. The moment we seek to model or even to desire in our heart anything different from what is given us by Him, there is fatal insubjection stamped on the thought, and confusion must be the result wherever that theory is yielded to and carried out. And therefore, brethren, I am persuaded it is the will of God concerning us, especially in the present broken state of the Church, that he who is most strengthened in divine wisdom seek most especially to cherish the ignorant and the feeble who have attained ever so little — that we seek to walk towards all saints according to Christ’s love to the Church. Assuredly Christ cherishes, not merely the more worthy and honourable members of His body, but the Church as a whole, cherishes most of all, if there be any difference, those that need His love most. Are we in this to have communion with Him or not?

Just in the same way, as to His habitation in the Spirit, God contemplates in this His whole Church — contemplates every one that names the name of the Lord. Here of course, in Ephesians 2:1-22, those that bear His name truly have part in it; but do any one of those that name a false Christ? Not in the least degree, save for judgment. In the present state of Christendom there are vessels of dishonour. Am I to bind myself up with them? I am forbidden by the Holy Ghost. "If a man purge himself from these." Communion with any vessels to dishonour is wrong. I am called to separate myself from all such, if I cannot get them separated from that which bears the name of the Lord. Otherwise I am a party to the mystery of lawlessness; for the continuance of a Christian in fellowship with known evil is as good as saying that Christ holds communion with Belial. Sometimes it is allowance of doctrinal or practical evil; sometimes it is an indifference which ignores the presence of the Holy Ghost, or hinders His operations in that which bears the name of the Lord here below. But no matter what may be the particular forms of allowed evil, which there is no means of judging, a man is to purge himself from these. There stands the plain and positive duty. You are not presumptuous; you are assuming no improper authority; you are only obedient thus. It is not a question of setting up to be somebody, but of obeying God. It is incumbent on every man that names the name of the Lord to depart from iniquity. And instead of leaving the occasion undetermined, instead of throwing a Christian on his own mind or heart to judge what he must separate from, here is the explicit demand of the Lord that he must purge himself from vessels of dishonour, whatever and wherever they may be. If people bearing the Lord’s name (and so His name in their persons) committed themselves to sin, they were vessels to dishonour, and the Christian is bound to stand clear and undefiled. It is the prescribed course in a corrupt state of Christendom, as surely as other Scriptures deal with individuals as objects of discipline for the assembly. Value for peace or unity was not to override the character of Christ, which must not be compromised on any account. The saint cannot abdicate his responsibility. The first of duties is what we owe to Christ’s name. We can never sanction or wink at evil. Nor is it, let me say, a question only of flagrant wrongs. The Church, being God’s habitation, is intolerant of all that is unfit for His presence, though we have need of patience too; and who is so patient as God? But He will be sanctified in all that come near Him, among whom He dwells: everything contrary to His word must be judged. Supposing there be only, as men say, a little evil, am I to bind up His name and presence, not to speak of myself, with even a small evil? Be it far from us. Not that it is called for, of course, to separate for every fault; but we are never to partake in what is contrary to God, but always by God’s grace to keep ourselves pure. At the same time, the manner in which this is done must be determined by the word of God. For instance, not every censurable brother, but those guilty of wickedness (1 Corinthians 5), are to be put away from the Church; but in no case is a Christian bound to go along with that which he knows to be offensive to God. Again, we have to judge ourselves, lest we should be hasty in imputing evil. Slowness to suspect, to act, and speak in such circumstances God looks for from His children. Alas! how ready we are, because of the evil of which one is conscious within, to think of it in others. On the other hand, our comfort as well as spring of responsibility is, that God dwells in us as His habitation by the Spirit. We can and ought to count upon it, assured that He will aid us, hear us, appear for us; and therefore, whatever be the difficulty, whatever the sorrow, whatever the shame, let this be our confidence — God dwells in the assembly, His temple. It might be in a very low state; it might be only (as things are really) represented in a given place, by two or three individuals. Nay, a soul might be obliged to stand alone; or there might be no sense of the truth sufficient even to produce this result. But I adhere as to a fixed and fundamental Christian axiom, that there is no possible circumstance in which a member of Christ is obliged to have fellowship with that which is opposed to God’s will. Patient remonstrance and adequate waiting may be called for; but never allowance of evil. It is not the amount of evil (as remarked already) which destroys the quality of God’s temple, but the deliberate sanction of known evil, though it may take no stronger outward form than mere indifference. This does destroy its character: else it would suppose God Himself indifferent, who dwells there. When that which bears the name of His house commits itself to binding up His name with the evil it allows, all is over with it. Then it becomes a simple though sorrowful question (not without urgent appeals to the conscience of those who stay) of leaving that which has ceased to be in any sense a true representation of God. What claim can it longer have on the faith of His child to abide there? This is evidently of the last importance. It makes the Church question to be one of judging according to God’s word by His presence. Profession and prejudice, tradition or human will, are equally out of place. It becomes a manifestly serious step to own or to disown an assembly as His. He who does so lightly or falsely trifles with or abuses the name of God. How different this from an ecclesiastical strife! Instead of a man’s judging according to what he thinks ought to be in the Church, instead of his own feelings or mind about it, God is the criterion. How right and holy this is! Of course His word is the standard, and His Spirit is the power. Thus nothing can be simpler, but at the same time nothing more certain, than that, where there is simple faith, God will appear, hear the cry, and come to the rescue. He will make the path manifest.

Another thing may be observed. The Church undoubtedly may make mistakes. Measures taken in discipline may be hasty, slow, or erroneous. In fact it is with the habitation of God in the Spirit collectively, as with the Christian individually. If the saints are, so the saint is, the temple of God Now nobody in his wits could maintain that a Christian is exempted from evil or mistake, because the Holy Ghost dwells in him. It is exactly the same principle with the assembly; as to it the same kind of liability exists. It may be so far in practice guarded against, humanly speaking, in proportion to the men of God who are there. This or that man might easily err; but it would be difficult to think that in the midst of an assembly not one so looked to the Lord as to gather His mind. Yet it is possible; and particularly where the commanding influence of one or more weakens the dependence of the assembly on God. It is evident that a wrong principle, a false position, or even mere precipitancy, might expose an assembly of God to act amiss. Therefore there is nothing so important, no matter what servant or servants of God may help, as to bear in mind that the one safeguard is, that God is there. He may be pleased to correct the wisest of His servants on the earth by a very feeble child.

Hence we must hold to it resolutely and watchfully, that the Church is not the assembly even of a Paul, still less of you or of me; it is God’s assembly. Consequently, in a case of discipline, for instance, it would be destructive of that assembly, if the measures taken were to be settled for it definitely by any of His servants. Every person who knows either God’s word about the Church, or its wants and difficulties practically, must acknowledge the immense value of the help of those He has given to guide and rule. There is as truly rule as there is teaching; and the Church would forsake its own mercies if it despised the help of either. Doubtless some have large spiritual capacity, and great experience in souls; and these are able, as a general rule, to judge rightly about such things much more than those less gifted and versed. Nevertheless, God is jealous, and room must be left for His own free action in His own assembly till the last moment. Where there is no room to revise whatever individuals may judge, where there is no power left to the Spirit to set aside, by the feeblest member of Christ there, the judgment of the best of guides, I no more dare call that assembly God’s than any other society of believers under the sun.

Therefore it is not a question simply of sound doctrine, or precious saints, or great gifts. What I am insisting on is yet greyer. I admit all these in their place; but the fundamental truth to apprehend and hold fast always, and under all circumstances, is, that the Church is God’s own even now; and God, because He is there, will maintain His sovereign action. He can shed fresh light. He may correct the most experienced, where unduly leaned on, by whom He pleases. There must always be this kept open; for God will not permit that we should glory in the flesh; nay, more, He will not permit that we should glory in the gifts He Himself gives us. He will convince us, however thankful we may be for all the fruits of His goodness, however we may bless Him for all He has given us, that the Church is God’s, that He loves to be owned, and that will make His presence felt in the assembly that has faith in Him.

Faith loves to see and know Jesus in the midst; and this in the darkest day, if there were but two or three gathered unto His name. And with Him thus looked to, will the Spirit fail to guide? I do not believe it; yet I allow freely that either confidence in a leader or jealousy of a leader, or any other fleshly working, or the haste of unbelief whether lax or self-righteous, may practically sever the assembly from the mind of Christ in any given case. Hence the assembly, as the individual must be ever open to the Spirit’s correction through the written word: if it should err in fact, humiliation also is due before the injured Lord.

Time forbids my touching more Scriptures now; indeed, I feel strongly how imperfectly the subject has been treated. Still, I have desired to point out some practical results, as well as the truth that we are God’s habitation through the Spirit. If the Lord be pleased to use these hints to stir up His own to examine His word about it for themselves, they will see with surprise how largely His testimony hangs on this truth. The Spirit in the Apocalypse as compared with the Epistles.

Revelation 1:4-5, Revelation 19:10.

Lecture 10 of ’The New Testament Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.’

W. Kelly.

These two portions of the Revelation have been read that we may be enabled to contrast the aspect of truth given us by the Holy Ghost in the last book of the New Testament with the testimony of the epistles. Our course now, therefore, must be somewhat discursive. For instead of confining myself to a particular Scripture, I shall endeavour to put together in a somewhat comprehensive view a number of passages scattered over the epistles, chiefly St. Paul’s, which we have looked at either not at all or for other purposes. Having taken a rapid survey of these scattered lights I shall endeavour to put into juxtaposition with them that which is furnished in the Revelation on the subject. The Holy Ghost is always presented, whatever Scripture may treat of Him, according to His own object in each book where the reference occurs. This remark applies to one topic no more than another that may be in hand; but as it is true of other doctrines, so of the Holy Ghost. Thus we have seen, in the epistle to the Romans, that righteousness is the subject, and especially the righteousness of God. Hence, till this has been thoroughly cleared, there is not one word about the Holy Ghost at all. It is only in Romans 5:1-21 where the first allusion is found, as indeed also the first statement of God’s love along with it, as already noticed. "The love of God," says the apostle, "is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Thus the whole question of our sins, and God’s judgment of them, of sin and deliverance from it, has been fully met before the Spirit of God is Himself introduced. It was not well to open the work which goes on in the heart until God had been thus shown amply vindicated in the redemption and resurrection of Christ. But it is in Romans 8:1-39 (that is, when we have had not merely our sins, but sin, fully discussed) that the apostle launches into an ample doctrinal exposition — the doctrine of the Spirit, viewed both as a condition and also as an indwelling person. But I do no more than allude to this now, as it has been already before us. Let me recall the fact, that all is viewed on the side of righteousness, and this practically, after all is clear about the righteousness of God. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." This is the only possible way now, or indeed at any time, in which the righteousness of the law could be fulfilled in the saint. It is in walking after the Spirit. The believer is first set free as in Christ before God. There must be liberty as well as life; and founded on this righteousness, the moral scope and purpose of the law is fulfilled in the believer. It is not exactly by the believer; still less is it fulfilled for the believer, which is as baseless as it deserves a harsher name. It is fulfilled in us, and is thus a more intrinsic thing than if simply by us. Love, as we are told elsewhere, is the fulfilling of the law; and this the Holy Ghost works in us as possessed of a new nature, and now able to treat the old man as judged in the cross. The new nature is then drawn out in loving God and man; and thus the righteousness of the law (in vain sought under law) is fulfilled in us who walk after the Spirit. It is the display of what is according to God’s moral nature, which is thus accomplished in the exercise of the new man by the power of the Holy Ghost. This illustrates how thoroughly the Holy Spirit, and the character of His operation in the believer, is determined by the scope of the epistle. Having laid down, first, man’s ruin as needing the gospel, and God’s righteousness as revealed in it, the apostle now turns to the answer of practical righteousness in the children of God; and the Holy Ghost takes His place in reference to both. When righteousness is cleared, the love of God can be freely spoken of as shed abroad in our hearts; and, further, the Spirit is shown to be a power that displaces not only sin, but law as an external test, which can in no way enable such as we are to work inward and practical righteousness. In the first epistle to the Corinthians we have the Holy Ghost after another sort altogether, and with remarkable fulness. What gave rise to this was carnality at work in almost every possible form except legalism. They were too loose to like the law; but their carnality was beyond all power of the law to remedy: law can only condemn the carnal. Christ alone can meet such evil, or any other; but Christ also made good by the power of the Spirit. Hence we find in this epistle the wisdom of man, first, judged by the cross (1 Corinthians 1:1-31); and, next, supplanted by the communications of God’s Spirit. These communications which he takes up in 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 are shown to be revealed by the Spirit, and set forth in words which the Holy Ghost gave, as He alone is for man the power of receiving them. Thus the Holy Ghost gave the truth, and the words, and the capacity to bow and understand. The Holy Ghost, in point of fact, has to do with everything as to the truth of God, which is only rightly seen in Christ Himself. Clearly, then, the Corinthians, who were wishing to bring in some wisdom from the world in the hope of making the gospel more palatable, were thus completely at fault, and, in fact, in opposition to the mind of God.

Then, again, the next chapter (1 Corinthians 3:1-23) shows, though I need not dwell on much of it, how the Holy Ghost is viewed as having constituted believers God’s temple. This is urged as a standing fact, as well as the consequent seriousness of meddling with God’s sanctuary, and bringing in either mere trash, or positive defilement and destructive evil. "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy." But even supposing a man did not defile the temple of God in the strongest sense, if he brought in what was worthless, all his labour should come to nothing, and be burned. He himself might be saved, but it would be as one who passed through the fire. This is, of course, figurative, but a most instructive figure, intimating the application of God’s judgment to the work, though the man himself might escape. The next, and very solemn use that is made of this gift of the Spirit, is as regards the believer’s body. It is not now that together Christians constitute the temple of God, but that each one’s body is His temple. This is a capital truth of Christianity; for the Corinthians fell into that error which has been perpetuated in our own day, that, if we be only right in heart, it matters not about the body — that we must not be too particular as to outward things, among which comes, of course, the body as the outward instrument of the man. To such it seemed an unspiritual thought to be occupied with the body: why not insist on the inner man? Let the soul be right, and the rest may be safely left. Not at all, says the apostle Paul; the Holy Ghost is pleased to dwell in the man, and makes, not the soul, but the body, His temple. If the body is consecrated to the Lord, if it is separated by the power of the Holy Ghost, the soul must surely be all right. But there might be excuses made, so as to leave the body free for self-indulgence and downright wickedness, while highflown sentiments filled the spirit of a man. This, it is evident, is hateful to God. "Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." (1 Corinthians 6:1-20)

After this (1 Corinthians 12:1-31), not to notice every passage, the Holy Ghost is described in the Church, first, operating in the way of gifts, His manifestation given to each, on which enough, perhaps, has been said to excuse my not delaying now. Again, 1 Corinthians 14:1-40 regulates the exercise of these gifts in the assembly of the saints, in God’s assembly. Thus is established the important principle, that the possession of power of the Holy Ghost exempts none from the Lord’s authority by His word. Yea, it is the Holy Ghost who applies that word to deal with Christian conscience in the use that is made of His power. In vain does a man plead that he has a word from God, and that it must be spoken. Not so, save in due season, and in the proper place. A word may be ever so truly from the Lord, but He holds to His own order in His own house. Nor does the Spirit of God set aside in the smallest degree personal responsibility in the exercise of gifts. The word, and the word alone — not the Spirit — is the standard. (Compare 2 Timothy 3:1-17) And this, I need not say, is an invaluable truth; for the tendency of men who really believe in the action of the Spirit of God is more or less to subject the word to the Spirit, instead of owning what is made so plain in Scripture, that the Holy Ghost subjects His own manifestations to the authority of the word of the Lord — the word that He has Himself inspired.

Next, in the second of Corinthians, when God had wrought powerfully to awaken and recover the souls of the saints, we have a passage of great weight connected with our theme. The apostle expressly consoles the saints who had been cast down. He himself had experienced a fearful persecution, but had been brought out of it. Next, he tells them, that "all the promises of God in him [Christ] are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." They had been, some of them, reproaching him for not having kept his purpose. Did this, at best vacillation, seem like an apostle? If any man’s word ought to be trusted, surely an apostle’s ought; but Paul had not come as he had promised. The change of purpose as to his visiting them was thus turned artfully against his authority. At any rate, he answers, if I have not kept my purpose, God keeps His in the gospel. "All the promises of God in him [Christ] are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." This is precisely what takes place in the dealings of God with the soul; and all is here presented in a remarkably full and orderly manner. The believer is established by God in Christ, which, of course, supposes that he is quickened with the life of Christ. I do not mean that this establishment in Christ is only quickening, but that, when a soul is thus established, he must needs have been quickened. This is the strongest way of putting the blessing; for Christ gives force and fulness to that which is inherited of previously existing privilege. Then, again, he is said to be "anointed;" for the Holy Ghost is the power of his knowing all things according to God. "Ye have an unction from the Holy One," as we read even of the babes in 1 John 2:1-29. So, immediately after his establishment in Christ, anointing is mentioned — the Spirit’s opening of the believer’s eyes, and giving him power to see and take in things with a new and divine capacity. Moreover, the Spirit seals the believer on the ground of accomplished redemption, and becomes to him the earnest of the future inheritance. "Who hath sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."

Let us now turn to another Scripture, where the same double thought occurs — the epistle to the Ephesians; for the brief remarks I shall make on this subject may suffice for both. In Ephesians 1:12-14 it is written, "that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ." "We"* means from among the Jews, who anticipate the nation in being brought to rest our hopes on Christ the Lord. "In whom ye [the Ephesians] also, after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance," etc. You will observe that the apostle treats of the Holy Spirit in two special points of view, and in relation to the two main subjects he had been and is setting forth in the chapter. One is the call of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; the other is the inheritance. The Holy Ghost deals with us in relation to both. Relatively to the call of God He seals the believer; and relatively to His inheritance He is the earnest in our hearts. In the one case He is the power of conscious separation unto God on the ground of that which is now complete. And therefore, you will observe, that in this very verse it is said, "After ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation." It is only consequent on this that the Holy Ghost deigns to take such place in the believer. He seals the person of him who rests on redemption; and He becomes the earnest of the inheritance of glory, which we shall share along with Christ.

* "We, apostles and Jews, that had this privilege first to trust in Christ." (T. Goodwin, in loc.) "’In whom you also,’ you Ephesians you Gentiles — ’you also.’" Here is A WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST DISTINCT FROM FAITH: ’after you believed, you were sealed’. The capitals here are Dr. G.’s, who repeatedly insists on their distinctness, and controverts Piscator and Calvin, who held the common confusion He draws truly from p?ste?sa?te?, "after that ye believed," that the faith was not contemporaneous with but antecedent to the sealing of the Spirit. So Ellicott. Alford is not clear. On this subject there are often difficulties in the minds of true children of God. My only object and desire, in saying a few words now on it, is to contribute one’s mite of help, with a view to removing, I trust, some of the difficulty, and, I must add, somewhat of prejudice, that darkens the subject. That there should be some difficulty in comprehending such a theme as this ought not to surprise any who know how the world has encroached on the domain of the saints. I was thankful, the other day, in glancing over an old Puritan writer, to note, that even he admitted its distinctness from faith (and certainly Puritanism is not the quarter to which I should look for intelligence in the doctrine of the Holy Ghost). But still, just because it was little expected, it may have been the more pleasant to find a theologian lifted up above the too common legal traditions of his party. It was the homage that a godly mind paid to the plain and precious truth of God. Be it remembered too, that this good and able man, a couple of hundred years ago, wrote at a critical period, when the moral side of the law was asserted with more keenness than perhaps at any other time. Legalism ordinarily is the great hindrance in the way of understanding the Holy Ghost. It is legalism in some shape or another which causes difficulties. The Holy Ghost is the power of holiness to the believer, as law was the strength of sin to men under it. The law dealt with flesh. The Holy Ghost now dwells where the new nature is. In quickening, the Spirit of God finds a soul that has no life whatever towards God. There is nothing but fallen nature before He imparts the new creature by faith of Christ. The soul is connected by faith of the word with Christ; there is a spiritual nature communicated which it never had before. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit," as flesh comes from flesh. But the sealing of the Spirit supposes a holy thing already there, whether one looks at Christ, or the saints as in Christ. Of course, there is no sealing of the old nature. The Holy Ghost seals that new nature, or rather the quickened person. But is there not more? I believe that in our case there is another thought. It is not only that there must be something good and holy to seal, and that it would be monstrous and absurd to suppose the Holy Ghost sealing the old nature or the flesh; quickening supposes an absence of life, but sealing further implies that there is something to seal which is according to God. For even a new nature is not enough; because the saints had a new nature all through the Old Testament times (though not revealed then), yet we never hear of their being sealed of the Spirit. But now more is implied. The sealing of the Spirit does not come simply on quickening, though it always supposes it, but follows the reception of "the gospel of our salvation." "In whom after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed," etc. I do not lay any particular stress on the word "after" here, but am willing to take it, as some contend, for "having believed." Still it comes precisely to the same effect in the end. Most decidedly, in my opinion, it assumes that the saints had already believed, and that the sealing was a subsequent action of the Holy Ghost on their souls. In short men are not sealed as unbelievers, which would be the most miserable thing if possible. They are sealed as believers, as they were quickened when dead in sins. The question of the time elapsing between believing and sealing is of slight consequence, but the distinctness of the two things is of great moment. Let there be but a minute; still they are distinct, and the sealing follows faith. The unbeliever needs to be quickened, the believer to be sealed. Far from allowing it to be a doubtful point or an open question, to my mind Scripture is positive and uniform, that the sealing of the Spirit invariably follows faith, and is in no case the same thing, or even in the same moment, as faith. I hold that whoever does not see it confounds the action of the Spirit of God in quickening or giving to believe with that which is altogether of another nature. The danger too is, that people are thus exposed constantly to confound the condition of saints in the Old Testament times with Christianity. Undoubtedly the Holy Ghost dealt with souls of old; undoubtedly they were quickened, and believed. Were they sealed? Had they the earnest of the Spirit in their hearts? Neither. This brings us now to the reason of the difference. It was not because they were unbelievers, or without quickening; for their faith is certain, and to be born anew is indispensable for God’s kingdom. But the gospel of salvation was not yet a known published ground of blessing for the soul in its relation to God. That is, the condition of old was always one simply of expectancy; there was as yet no enjoyed communion with God in peace and deliverance. Christianity has brought in all this and more. Christ is come, and has accomplished redemption; and the Holy Ghost, now sent down from heaven, brings us not merely the promise — for this of itself is never Christianity — but the promises verified in the highest degree in Christ Himself: Wherever it is simply promise presented to an unconverted soul, the gospel of salvation is not yet understood. I admit, of course, that there are promises where the soul has found Christ. Some things are future, and, of course, in that sense they are not fulfilled (for instance, the resurrection of the body and the display of glory). But I maintain that Scripture attributes the greatest possible importance to the fact of (not bare promise now, but) accomplishment in Christ; and that this is precisely, therefore, what is now preached (not promised) in the gospel. It is not a mere hope of Christ, which is exactly where those under law always find themselves. They are constantly yearning to be saved, for an interest in Christ, and so on. This was all right in the Old Testament, and no person was entitled to go beyond it. The Messiah was not come, nor the work done: hence it would have been sentiment to have believed more, and not the truth of God; not reality, but imagination. It is not according to God’s present testimony to set forth promise only; indeed there is no such thing as a "promise of forgiveness" now. Forgiveness is an actual fact; while eternal life is a present possession, but future also. Salvation, in a most true sense, is the believer’s portion (Ephesians 2), and so complete that the believer is said to be risen with Christ, and seated in heavenly places with Him. Viewed as far as Christ, it is as perfect as it ever can be, although our bodies must be changed into the likeness of His body by-and-by. In this sense salvation is only at hand, not yet come.

Accordingly the Spirit of God takes a new relation or mode of action in reference to this development of the ways of God, and the impartation of the full blessing. As far as the soul is concerned, salvation is already perfect, and the Holy Ghost (in dealing with the soul now) bears the message of this, and seals the person of him who believes the gospel. The sealing supposes not only a new birth, which was true of old, but, beside this, it is based on redemption complete, and supposes the work of Christ known. Even we do not seal a thing until it is done. Nobody would think of sealing a letter till it was written. Thus it always supposes that the ground, on which an object that is sealed already stands, is finished and firm. Hence the act of sealing, which is applied by the Holy Ghost, clearly indicates the completeness of what is in question. As the Holy Ghost seals to the believer the salvation which the gospel announces (which is, in fact, the way in which the call of God now displays itself in Christ), the other side has its place. There is that which has not yet come; and the Holy Ghost even there is not a promiser, but an earnest. He is an earnest, not of Christ’s salvation, any more than of God’s love, but of the inheritance. The Christian has God’s love as complete towards him as he ever can have it. I have such a salvation for my soul that even God Himself could not make it more perfect; but I have not yet the inheritance; and the Holy Ghost, instead of merely holding out a promise now, gives me to taste it — gives me to enter into the anticipation, joy, and blessing of it even while I am in this world. Therefore, He seems to me to be called the earnest of it. This may suffice for the text in the Ephesians; but I must go back for a moment to the Galatians, though it may seem to savour of disorder. "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" They knew well, though beguiled by Judaisers, that law works never led to ministering the Holy Spirit to them, any more than to working miracles among them. (Galatians 3:1-29) This, however, does not for all minds decide that they are distinct. I shall refer to another and later expression in Galatians 4, which is very explicit. When His people were under law, "God sent forth his Son . . . . to redeem them that were under law, that we might receive sonship. And because ye [Galatians, who were not under law] are sons, God [when redemption was accomplished] hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Thus it is the Holy Ghost giving us the consciousness of the relationship already ours by faith in Christ. (Galatians 3:26.) They were sons already — "Because ye are sons." But then they might not have the known enjoyment of this relation; for this "God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." The meaning and force is thus as plain as possible. Under the law the believer, although a child, never had the consciousness of a child. He was ostensibly and in his experience in the condition of a servant, though lord of all, as the apostle elaborately explains. The reason of this was because, for the first time, he was under law. He was like a minor, under guardians and stewards till the period fixed by the father. He was held in bondage under the principles of the world, and the law scourged him, and made him feel how naughty he was, and what rebelliousness there is in human nature. All this was going on during the legal system. But now is come a wholly different state of things, as the apostle shows here. So the epistle to the Romans taught us that grand truth of Christianity as to the flesh, that I am entitled, nay bound, to regard it as dead. I am never called to die to it. This is natural, pietistic, mystic, but not at all the truth revealed in Christ. I am never called to die to the flesh. Dying, of course, to nature and the world is practically spoken of — dying daily. But it is another thought altogether, and is a question of exposure to trial and death for Christ continually. But as to the flesh, I am entitled by grace to say that I have died already; and I am called on to reckon myself henceforth and always dead. Mysticism is an effort to become dead in oneself, and sounds well; but grace gives me the title of Christ to believe in the power of His death for me, and of my death in Him; so that I may, without presumption, reckon myself dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. The epistle to the Romans gave us this teaching in connection with righteousness; but here, what is taught is in contrast with the legal system of restraints which served to deal with those under age. Redemption has brought us by faith of Christ into the place of sons, and we have the Spirit of God’s Son given to us as the power whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Such is the connection of the Holy Ghost with the doctrine of this epistle. The object of the enemy there was to draw away believers from the liberty with which they had been made free in Christ, and from that blessed relationship of sons before their God and Father, back again under ordinances of the law, in one shape or another. The Holy Ghost is the great delivering power given to us, founded upon redemption by and in Christ. But a few words more on the presentation of the Holy Ghost in the Ephesians before we pass on. We need not enlarge on all the allusions to the Holy Ghost; for there is not a chapter that does not furnish one or more. In the testimony of Ephesians 1:1-23 and Ephesians 2:1-22 the Holy Ghost is viewed as the power of access to the Father for both Jew and Gentile that believe now: at the close we are told of Him also as the constitutive power of the habitation of God. It is not the habitation of God in an external manner like Israel. No visible cloud of glory marks His presence in the Church; but there is the utmost reality in the fact that the Holy Ghost dwells there. In Ephesians 3:1-21 the Holy Ghost is not only a revealing power, as in Ephesians 1:1-23, for our intelligence, but also an inward energy for deepening the spiritual communion of the Christian, and strengthening his inner man according to those riches that are in Christ. In Ephesians 4:1-32 the doctrine of the Spirit of God is largely developed in relation to the body, as well as to individual gifts. Above all, in the latter part of the chapter we have Him alluded to as the active power and personal measure of holiness in walk. It is not merely doing this or that which can suit the new man, but not grieving this divine person, by whom we were sealed unto the day of redemption. It is not enough that we have the truth of the old man judged, and the new man given; but there is the Holy Spirit of God, whom we are on no account to grieve. Ephesians 5:1-33 furnishes another and a very interesting allusion to the Holy Spirit. We are called upon there not to yield to carnal excitement, but to be filled with the Spirit, and, in connection with this, "speaking to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord." And here I will allow myself to make some remarks which, I think, may be helpful to souls often charged with the inconsistency of using hymn-books, whilst they object to forms of prayer. There is no such thing in the New Testament as a body of praise metrically prepared for Christian use. There is no provision of psalms, or hymns, or spiritual songs, written by inspiration for the Christian; there is very abundantly for the Jew. Do you wonder at this? It seems to me simple, suitable, and full of interest. The Jew needed such praises made for him; the Church does not; for the Christian and the Church, having the Holy Ghost, as the Jew had not, has within a full spring for making melody in his heart. This seems to me the reason why there is no external supply provided for Christians. To the Church, having the ever-present and indwelling Holy Ghost, belongs the well of living water; nay, each individual Christian has it, and so far, naturally and normally, breaks out into psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Thus, what to some is an evidence of the need of human forms, or to others a ground for falling back on the psalms of David, is really the most striking proof, in the simplest possible way, of the actual blessedness of the Church of God and of the Christian, if they had only faith to use their goodly heritage. Those who are under all the dolorous experience of the law, and cannot therefore enter into proper Christian worship, may, no doubt, require to be provided and stimulated with the Jewish store of the psalms, which, if they only understood, suppose a wholly different experience as well as relationship. There is no spring of joy in themselves; they want a provision for them outside. But just because we have Christ, and, besides, the Holy Ghost as a divine power for enjoying our Saviour, with our God and Father, it would be to lower the Church’s place to make for our singing a provision of psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs in the word of God. Holy Scripture deals with the Christian as grown up to man’s estate, and supposes the Church, unless beguiled by deceivers, to be standing in full liberty before God, in intelligence of His mind, and confidence of His love, entering into the riches of His grace and of His glory in Christ; and this because the Holy Ghost is in the Christian and in the Church. The consequence is, that such conscious blessedness naturally — not to say necessarily — finds its expression, as is said here, not merely in praise, but "speaking to each other in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord."

Again, I do not the least doubt that these psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs here spoken of were Christian compositions — not indeed extemporaneous, any more than Davidical, but their own suited expressions of various praise. They were the fruit of the Spirit of God working in the early believers, causing them to express their own proper joy to God, instead of casting them on an inspired provision, which does not enter into their distinctive privileges and joy, but in all directly belongs to others who are as yet to come. Does not this, then, fully meet those persons who urge captious difficulties, and say, "After all, you have a hymn-book, and we must have forms"? It seems to me so. The expressions here really intimate that there were known metrical compositions of these kinds; that there was a due and characteristic expression of praise and thanksgiving, as well as of the different spiritual experiences of the Christian. These varieties seem meant by "psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs." They have each their own proper character, and no one can take up a Christian book of praise to God without finding one and the other and all of these things. But, I repeat, these compositions are left room for among Christians, instead of being provided ready by God’s inspiration outside themselves; indeed, this is one of the peculiarities of the Holy Ghost’s action in the New Testament. He has come down to be in us. He is not merely One who writes for us and teaches us: there is this kind of testimony. You will find, particularly in the Apocalypse, and occasionally elsewhere, even the prophetic character of revelation still, as "The Spirit speaketh in the latter times," etc. Thus we do not lose in the New Testament the predictive element which abounds in the older Scriptures, any more than the narrative. There is in the epistles special instruction on Christian standing and conduct, ministry, etc. Besides, the Holy Ghost leads the believer in joy and praise. He does not give up His function in furnishing authoritative injunctions or visions of the future; but neither is in any way the characteristic dealing of the Holy Ghost with the Christian or the Church. The praise of children, the expression of common as well as of individual joy in the Lord, cannot but go forth from the heart now, as well as from the lips, to the praise of God, and this, too, in a rhythmical form. The only other allusion to the Spirit of God which remains to be noticed now in the Ephesians occurs in the last chapter, where prayer is called for in the Spirit: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." Never does the New Testament speak of prayer "to," but "in" the Holy Ghost. It is not that the Spirit is not worthy of worship and prayer; it is not that He is not God, equally with the Father and with the Son; but He has been pleased, since redemption, to take a place in us which precludes His being made the definite object of prayer while thus dwelling with us. Prayer to God includes the Spirit with the Father and the Son. Therefore, where Christian subjects are revealed, it is invariably praying "in the Spirit," and not to Him. Praying to the Spirit would be unconsciously not to believe in the Holy Ghost as dwelling in the Church and in the believer; as it is the expression of want of faith in one of the great distinctive Christian privileges, always known among those who confound the Church’s estate with the Jewish position.

Without touching on the minute passages in the Philippians, which speak of the Spirit in point of character rather than as an indwelling person (that is, as the source of fellowship, and the character of worship as contrasted with what was special), let us observe the remarkable omission of the Spirit of God in the doctrine of the Colossians. It has been often noticed; but I refer to it in passing. This epistle as strikingly brings out the new life or nature, as the kindred one to the Ephesians makes much of the Holy Ghost. Of course both features are connected with the peculiar strain of their respective epistles. In 1 Thessalonians the Holy Ghost is introduced with remarkable strength and simplicity, and this from their conversion throughout their whole career. (1 Thessalonians 1:5, 1 Thessalonians 4:8, 1 Thessalonians 5:19.) The texts need no extended remarks, save perhaps the last, which is sometimes misunderstood: "Quench not the Spirit." It is totally different from grieving of the Spirit, against which we are warned in Ephesians 5:1-33. Grieving Him is clearly a personal question; whereas quenching Him is just as emphatically with regard to others, and mainly, I suppose, in public action, or, at least, in the use of their gifts. I am not to hinder another, nor to raise difficulties as to the manifestation of the Holy Ghost in any brother. It may be a great work, or a very little one. This is not at all the question; but — Is it of the Spirit? Respect for the presence and operation of the Holy Ghost in all the variety of His action in the Church would keep the greatest from quenching the Spirit in the least. God certainly does not despise the day of small things. In both epistles to Timothy we hear of the Holy Ghost repeatedly. I have referred to the prophetic episode in the first epistle; but the introduction of the matter in 2 Timothy 1:7 is deeply interesting also. "God," says the apostle, "hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (See also 2 Timothy 1:14.) It is not hard to see why the Holy Ghost is so spoken of in this place. Timothy shrank from the difficulties of Christian warfare — from that sorrow and trial into which the service of Christ, more particularly among the assemblies, necessarily brings him who seeks to be faithful. Hence the apostle reminds him of the gift which had been given him through the imposition of his own hands, and adds that the Spirit, who is given to us Christians, is not the Spirit of cowardice, but of power, love, and discreetness (s?f????sµ??). There are thus two things — the gift given him by the imposition of the apostle’s hands, and, besides, the general character of the Spirit given to the saints. Clearly this was for the purpose of stirring up the trembling man of God. Why should he be surcharged with grief at difficulties, dangers, disappointments, or even the defection of those who had once laboured with the apostle himself, but were now turned against him? In Titus we have a rich passage — not about a gift to a beloved servant, but the common place of blessing into which Christianity brings a soul (Titus 3:4): "After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Here we have not the being born anew or of God, which is common, in my judgment, to all saints at all times, but that form and fulness which now pertains to the Christian. It is "the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." This appears to be distinctly the full power of the blessing which characterizes the Christian. The new birth simply is universal; but the new place and the gift of the Holy Ghost thus richly awaited the accomplishment of redemption. Therefore this is said to be "shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Thus the passage very strikingly shows both what always is and must be true, and what only became possible according to God’s wise ways when the hindrance was removed, flesh was judged, and the Holy Ghost could be shed thus abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour

There are various references in the epistle to the Hebrews; but I need only notice two expressions for a moment — "the Spirit of grace," and "the eternal Spirit." They are both to be applied to the Holy Ghost, and stand in evident contrast with Jewish things: the "Spirit of grace" in contrast with law, and the "eternal Spirit" with temporary dealings as of old.

Next, we come to a passage in 1 Peter 1:1-25, of much interest to the believer: "Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace which should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with (??) the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." Now, this passage demands and will repay the most careful consideration. First there is the clear statement of the working of the Spirit of Christ in the prophets of old; but what He was in them was a spirit of prophecy; that is, He gave them to bear witness to what was coming. He gave their souls to bear witness to the sufferings that belonged to Christ, and the glories after these. How much they understood, and how far they could enjoy, are other questions; but He set both before them. We find all this in the Psalms and prophets generally, and in Isaiah, Micah, Daniel, and Zechariah, with especial clearness. But, again, we find much more: "Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." Thus, now that the gospel is sent out, because Christ has come and the great work of redemption is accomplished, the Holy Ghost takes quite a new place — "sent down from heaven," you will mark, which is not said about the working of the Spirit of Christ before. Evidently the mission of the Holy Ghost sent from heaven is contra-distinguished from the Old Testament operations, however blessed, of the Spirit of Christ. It is the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven who is the power of the believer’s entering into that which is now reported in the gospel. Besides, there remains the accomplishment of the prophecy at another epoch, when the kingdom shall be (not preached, but) set up in power and glory here below.

Accordingly there are three things in all: first, the Holy Ghost predicting; next, the present enjoyment of soul-salvation proclaimed by the gospel in the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; and, thirdly, the revelation of grace at the appearing of Christ, which will be the fulfilment of the prophecies. That is, there is a mighty work accomplished, and, no doubt, prophecy touches on that work, though it goes far beyond what prophecy has revealed. Finally, the full accomplishment of prophecy awaits the appearing of the Lord in glory. Between the two — after Christ came to suffer, but before He appears in glory — the Holy Ghost is sent down from heaven; and we enjoy in faith by His power what the gospel announces in Christ. We shall find the importance of this by-and-by, when we look at the Revelation; but these preliminary remarks may serve to bring out the contrast with what we shall find there. On 2 Peter I need not dwell, as the chief allusion is simply to the Old Testament prophets, who spoke under the influence of the Holy Ghost.

1 John might claim a particular hearing, as we have there very full instruction as to the gift of the Holy Ghost to us, whereby we have God dwelling in us, and ourselves dwelling in God. But as this again would detain us from that which is proposed for this evening, I only refer to it by the way. At length we come to the Revelation, where the first words in which the Spirit of God is announced place the subject on entirely novel ground — novel at least in the New Testament. Here it is outside not only usual phraseology but spirit to speak of "the seven Spirits;" so much so that some ancients as well as moderns have denied the reference to the Holy Ghost, and applied the phrase to the seven presence-angels. (Revelation 8:2.) I do not myself doubt that the allusion is to the sevenfold spiritual power of which we hear in Isaiah 11:1-16. But the style is unprecedented in the New Testament. The connection differs here, of course, as applying to a transitional time of judgment on men, while the Jewish prophet was showing how the fulness of the Holy Ghost was to rest on the Messiah.

Thus the Apocalypse is not at all occupied in its prophetic visions with the ordinary objects of the New Testament. This is evidently the key to the change of the style. Hence the Revelation — about to treat not of the display of grace, but of God’s government — is pregnant with allusions to the Old Testament. No person is capable of understanding the book who has not the ways of God of old before his mind’s eye. But bearing in mind its constant allusion to the law and the prophets, while at the same time it connects New Testament elements with this leading up into the eternal state after a sort far beyond the Old Testament, one may follow its communications somewhat more intelligently.

Hence, though saying "grace be unto you, and peace," God Himself is spoken of after another manner than we have found before. It is "from him which is, and which was, and which is to come." He speaks as Jehovah. It is a translation, if one may so say, of the Hebrew "Jehovah " into the New Testament language. As God is thus brought before us, so is His Spirit — "the seven Spirits which are before his throne." Any one familiar with the New Testament must be so much the more struck by such an expression. Do we not always hear of the Spirit — yea, "one Spirit"? Is not this the emphatic teaching of the apostle Paul? Is not this the ground and formative power of the one body of Christ, that one Spirit dwells in every disciple of Christ, knitting together and incorporating into one all the various members? Surely so. Here; in the very terms of the salutation, we hear of the "seven Spirits;" and more than this, "the seven Spirits which are before his throne." It is another order of ideas, wholly different from what we find in the epistles. He is "the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven" elsewhere; He dwells in the believer; He distributes and operates in the Church. Here it is the seven Spirits that are before God’s throne. How comes this? We are entering on a scene of government and judicial dealings. We are closing the heavenly parenthesis of grace where God made the wondrous display of the mystery, hid from ages and generations in the glory of Christ on high, and of the Christian and Church united to Him there. Even in the preface of the seven churches and of Christ in relation to them, judgment is the point, and the Holy Ghost is viewed according to the governmental character that the book as a whole unfolds to us. God Himself is thus presented judging, and about to govern directly, instead of providentially. It is the book consequently where every system, and man as such, must be judged. The churches are judged in the first place; the world is next judged; then the quick (at Christ’s appearing, and before His earthly reign closes), and in the last place the dead are judged. Throughout it is judgment.

Consistently with this the Holy Ghost is viewed according to an earthly and judicial character, resuming an Old Testament aspect, but with a depth characteristic of the final and complete revelation of God. The prophet speaks of "the seven Spirits;" it is the full but varied perfection of the Holy Ghost acting according to the developed ways of God Himself in government, and therefore designated as being before His throne. In the addresses to the churches, there is a remarkably coincident manner of speaking even to them: "What the Spirit saith to the churches." It is not the working of the Spirit of God in the saint or the Church. It is not the habitation of God in the Spirit. But even He, in addressing them here, takes rather the place of warning and of expostulation as One outside. Christ Himself does the same. He is not here as the head of the Church communicating nourishment and cherishing His body. He is seen walking in priestly robe — more than a priest, but as a priest too; not indeed interceding or bearing up the believer, but, on the contrary, searching with His eyes as a flame of fire, and dealing with that which was contrary to the mind of God. This is clearly the revelation that we have even of our Lord Himself in the things seen. Consequently He Himself is described as the Son of man — an extraordinary designation relatively to the Church; and why so? Why is He seen as Son of man here? He is going to take the kingdom. Meanwhile judgment is given to Him because He is the Son of man. (John 5:1-47) Thus the Lord has taken the place of a judge, even though the subject be the churches themselves. Every kind of judgment is in His hands. "Alas! who shall live when God doeth this?" Hence we find that the best of these churches — the first of them at least — is threatened with the removal of its candlestick if it repented not; (and did it repent?) while the last of them, although called to repent, is threatened positively with being spued out of our Lord’s mouth. Thus, as for the churches, there was utter and hopeless rejection.

Then ensues a vast change; and (whatever may be judged) redeemed ones — no longer on the earth — are glorified in heaven; and the Lord is seen above as a Lamb that had been slain (a rejected Christ) in the presence of God and on His throne. There, again, is seen once more the Spirit, but still as seven Spirits, symbolized by seven lamps or torches of fire (still judicial); as also in the next chapter there is power and activity in the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth — not any longer a question of preaching the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. The Church is not in view any more than the gospel, but a mission into all the earth, where He is a Spirit, not of grace, but of government, dealing actively with the earth universally. The churches, too, are no longer heard of; they are here not even objects of testimony for the Spirit of God. Hence forth God is occupied with other and earthly plans, the heavenly joint- heirs being seen on high with Christ. The Spirit of God, then, acts in view of all the earth. This of itself sufficiently indicates the great peculiarity of the Holy Spirit’s action at this Apocalyptic period. The largest portion of the book treats of the transitional interval after the churches have disappeared from the scene, and before the Lord Jesus comes from heaven with His glorified saints in judgment of the earth. I believe that this is in brief a true account, as far as it goes, of the main subject-matter of the Apocalypse. The churches are gone, and are no more heard of after chapter 3 (save in the exhortations at the end). Then we hear, as remarked, of the seven horns and eyes representing the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. The term of long patience ceases, and divine judgments run their course. It is not that there are not saints called and witnessing; nor, of course, could there be saints without the quickening power of God’s Spirit acting by the word as of old. But what is the character of the action of the Holy Spirit in and by these saints who follow the Church on earth? What is the nature of His communications to their souls? What is the experience that He forms within, or the walk that He leads to without? The answer in the words of the Apocalypse itself is, that the Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus (for such is what I suppose the order really ought to be, though, being reciprocal, the grammar admits equally of either). It is a question here entirely of contextual propriety, whether you take first the one member or the other.

Now, this at once lets us into the total difference in the relation of the Spirit of God towards these saints, as compared with His aspect toward the Church and the Christian. The Holy Ghost, as a present and characteristic fact, dwells in the believer as a spirit of communion. What I learn in Christ, I enjoy as mine. It is all my portion and delight. There is not a single revelation that God makes of His Son that I am not entitled to take as the comfort of my heart. The Christian has a direct interest in all His glory. He may see that which only presents Him as an object of worship for the soul, as the Son of the Father; but, still, nothing more delights him, because, as born of God, and having the Holy Ghost setting the heart free, it is the joy of the believer to have One above himself, whatever His love — One before whom he can fall down and worship. We know, alas! how John proved his own weakness here (the abuse of what in itself would be perfectly right to a divine object); but the glory of the angel for a little while dimmed the homage of his heart, and divided it: so bright was this revealing personage, that the prophet was going to worship him. But the believer (whose heart knows the Son of God, knows His grace, delights itself in His glory as the Holy Ghost brings before him Jesus) is a willing worshipper, as of the Father, so of the Son. In all other things where Christ is not simply thus as the Son, the eternal One, and divine Person, the object of worship, we have One who is both above us, and in deep and ungrudging love is pleased to share His relationship with us. In fact, all that He had given Him, He gives to us; all that He has wrought, He has caused to contribute to our infinite blessing. In all this, you observe, it is the Holy Spirit of God who takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto us. He is glorifying Christ, but it is by showing His things to us. He makes our hearts run over with the joy of Christ that we possess. This is not the case in the Apocalypse. Look at the saints in Revelation 6:1-17, which is the first place where any on earth are brought before us in the prophetic part as a matter of fact. They desire the Lord’s judgment of their adversaries. They are wistfully longing after some good they have not got. This is the case even in Solomon’s Song, not what pertains to the Church or the Christian’s relationship, as I shall show presently in speaking of the book of the Revelation. But the position of saints on earth, after the Church has disappeared, is such that the Holy Ghost is only the Spirit of prophecy. The sole testimony that He renders to Jesus is as a prophetical spirit which casts them on the future — on what they are to receive by Jesus when He appears. It is not so with the Christian; and this is a fact which may suggest much as to differing principles in the display of God and the blessing of the saint. Two things are wanted to set one in real blessedness as a present thing. I want a satisfying object for my affections, and I must possess that object; I want a stimulus for my expectations, being still in the body, and surrounded by objects that Satan uses as means to draw one away from God. Now, it is essential for me, that as I have Christ for my heart, so I should yet have Him to wait for in the other sense of my hope. We want these two things, that seem to be contradictory but in reality are the essential constituents of full blessing for the saint and for the Church. If there be not a satisfying object before my heart, what exercise or rest can there be for its affections? But the Christian has Christ. And therefore it is that the Holy Ghost does seal him, gives him this unction, gives him to know what he has, and is his power of enjoying Christ and what Christ has given him. But then the same Holy Ghost leads me to look for Christ. This we shall find in the Revelation too — for us, not for those who are to succeed the Church. It is only with the Bride that the Spirit says, "Come." It is only in dealing with her that He prompts her cry, and joins in saying, "Come." And He says "Come," because He who loves us best, and is truly loved by our hearts, has told us that He is coming. Then the Spirit, who honours His word, instils this desire, and makes us long for Him. But then He is One who loves as none other could love — who has spent Himself in His love, that I am waiting for. Therefore I have, while I have not; I have all the blessedness, consequently, of possession by faith, and yet have all the stimulus of hope, that makes me look out of the present scene, only to be perfectly satisfied when He has me and I have Him in the heavenly glory where He is gone. This is precisely what meets the heart in Christianity. Christ has come down to the world, and loves me where I am. He loved me in the midst of my folly, and in spite of my sins. At the same time He is my hope; and I shall be like Him and be with Him where He is. And this is what is found in Christianity, and nowhere else. It could not be before Christ came, because the object was not come nor fully revealed. It cannot be after Christ has come again. At His coming there will be full and everlasting blessing, and all sorrow and difficulty shall vanish away. Then the path for saints on the earth will be an easy one. But now there is the opposition of the Spirit of God to Satan’s power. Therefore there is every possible element to hinder and try the child of God. But there is the blessedness of faith and hope. The Holy Ghost is the spring of all power. He, since redemption, takes His place in the believer and in the Church. How blessed is the portion of the Church of God! But manifestly, when the Church goes on high, there will be no longer any kindred state. The Spirit of God will quicken souls, as He did before He was sent down from heaven and formed the Church. That is, there will be the same elementary and eternal work of the Holy Spirit as long as there are souls here below, and a God to know vitally. Besides, the Holy Spirit, working appropriately, will throw them upon the future. This is not wonderful; because it is simply the order then before God. Thus the contrast is plain. The heavenly saints just before will have been taken out of the world: here are these souls which are being prepared for the millennial earth It is a strictly transitional period; but the form of the Spirit’s action and testimony is to direct hearts to the future that is about to be revealed. The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. Thus it is not the opening out of the fulness of redemption. It is not the power which gives the soul the consciousness of drawing "within the veil," where there is "an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast." Nothing of our peace and joy appears: saints have this now in Jesus. But the emphatic form intimates that the Holy Ghost will direct them to look to Him for the future. They will have to wait. Other souls must also suffer like them. (Revelation 6:11) Accordingly we find some such words as these, "How long, O Lord?" They look for One who is to come; and nothing but the mighty power of God can give them to believe this: such will then be the deceit of unrighteousness.

It is not for man to dispute with God; and it is not for a believer to question the word of God. All our wisdom is in exercising at once simple faith in the Scriptures, which has a sedative effect on the soul in presence of all questions, difficulties, and doubts of mind about these matters. If God has revealed the future, He has revealed it for us to know. So far is it from being true that the Christian has enough to do in occupying himself exclusively with his own blessings, on the contrary, you rob the Christian of part of his peculiar inheritance if you induce him to quit this vantage-ground. Not only has he faith’s possession now, and hope’s anticipation, but he stands here put on an eminence whence he can survey the future, looking right into eternity itself. What can be larger, what more blessed, than the place of a Christian? Oh, how little we enter into, and know, and enjoy our proper blessing in Christ! The Apocalyptic saints will have not this, but a prophetic testimony from the Spirit of Jesus.

There is no need for me to say more now on this subject. Let me simply recall your attention to the closing words, as proving more fully what has been already asserted — that the Holy Ghost, after the prophecy terminates, is shown to us at the close in unison with the hope of the Bride, which means the Church of God, and nothing else. The attempt to apply the Bride in the Revelation to Jerusalem seems to me a delusion. "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come." Here we have clearly the Spirit guiding the Church, viewed in her own bridal anticipation of Jesus. The place where it occurs makes the call all the more striking; because, after having gone through the whole course of God’s dealings with man up to the very end, after even the final judgment before the great white throne, after fully describing the new heavens and the new earth, it might have detracted somewhat from the Christian’s own proper joy to have been so much occupied with prophecy. Indeed, such study always depresses, where there is not a counterpoise of heavenly hope. I am persuaded prophecy, when alone, tends to produce an earthly effect on the Christian’s soul, and leads one to fritter away the spiritual energy which is intended for Christ and the Church, and for souls in their need and danger, if the mind be let go after merely detailed objects of earthly judgment and curious knowledge. Of course, this is positively injurious for the saint of God, just in proportion to the measure of its exclusion of Christ and heavenly things.

Mark how the Holy Ghost has here provided against this peril in relation to the Church. We may go through all these prophetic visions which John wrote for us, and we may see in them a complete picture of the future, which unites the scattered lights of the rest of Scripture into a focus in the Apocalypse. After it is all done, the main thing that He sets Himself to do is, as it were, to establish us in looking completely out of the earthly scenes for our own proper object — Christ. And this seems to me all the more impressive if not surprising, because it is in a book so eminently prophetical. This final call, however, at once lifts US out of the lower region of prophecy into that which suits the renewed heart in its truest affections for its right and heavenly attraction — Christ on high and coming again. The Lord give us to enjoy with an ever deepening relish the marvellous light which God’s word affords us as to the Holy Spirit who deigns to be in us (though solely for Christ’s sake), and this because of His estimate both of Christ Himself and of that redemption which is our immovable foundation before God. May we not merely learn more about the Spirit, but, guided of Him, have our hearts strengthened, enjoying by Him in Christ our Lord all that God has been pleased to reveal to us in His precious word.

Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Appendix.

’The New Testament Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.’

W. Kelly.

Having freely alluded to the doctrine of the inward light held by the Friends as derogatory to the revealed truth of the Holy Ghost, I am almost bound to add briefly some of the grounds on which a severe censure has been passed on this their fundamental peculiarity. It will be evident to the intelligent reader of G. Fox, W. Penn, I. Pennington, Sewel, and other so-called Quakers, that they call the same principle right reason, grace, the Spirit, the word of God, Christ within, and God in us. Confounding all these and more with that conscience, or knowledge of good and evil, which is the universal property of man since the fall, they thus extend to all, without exception, what Scripture says of Christians only. Mosheim’s account is just and calm; and I shall quote no more than is incontrovertible. He had remarked that, though apparently novel, Quakerism was really but a modification of the mysticism of the second century, which had never died out of Christendom, fragments of which were floating about in books, tracts, and men’s conversation when Fox wandered about moodily, laying claim to divine inspiration. What he expressed confusedly was systematized by his successors, especially Penn, Barclay, Keith and Fisher. "Their chief dogma then, on which depend all the rest, is that famous and very ancient burden of the mystics, that there lies hid in the minds of all men a certain part of reason and the divine nature, a spark of that wisdom which is in God Himself. Since this is overwhelmed with the weight of the body and the darkness of the flesh which surrounds us, whoever desires happiness and eternal salvation must, by retiring from external things into self, by contemplation and by enfeebling the sensual force, draw it out, kindle, and inflame it. He who does so will feel an admirable light to dawn on him, and a heavenly voice to burst forth from the inmost recesses of his mind, — a conductor into all divine truth, and the surest pledge of our union with the Supreme Being. This treasure, natural to the human race, they call by various names, most frequently ’divine light,’ sometimes a ’ray of eternal wisdom,’ at others ’the heavenly Sophia,’ the dress of whom (married to a mortal) some of these writers set forth magniloquently. The terms more familiar to us are ’the internal word’ and ’Christ within;’ for since they hold with the ancient mystics and Origen that Christ is the very reason and wisdom of God, and they will have all men to be endowed with a portion of the divine wisdom, they necessarily conclude that Christ or the word of God is, dwells, and speaks in all men.*

* But the modern Quakers, as appears from the latest writings of Martin and others, do not know the real sentiment of their ancestors, and perpetually confound that innate light with the Holy Spirit’s light operating in the minds of the pious.

"All their singular and marvellous views flow from this parent principle. For since Christ is in all mankind, it follows, — (1.) That all religion consists in calling off the mind from outward objects, in weakening the power of the senses, in a complete introversion, and the most attentive reception of all that Christ, in the heart or the inner life, commands and dictates. — (2.) That the external word, that is, Holy Scripture, neither determines nor leads man to salvation; for letters and words, being void of life, have no adequate power to enlighten and unite man’s mind to God. The only advantage of reading Scripture is in rousing and stimulating the mind to hear the inner word, and to attend the school of Christ, who teaches within. In other words, they regard the Bible as a dumb master, which by signs points out and discovers that living master who dwells in the mind. — (3.) That those destitute of the written word, as Polytheists, Jews, Mahometans, savage tribes, want, it is true, a certain small help toward attaining salvation, but not the way and doctrine of salvation; for if they attend to their inner monitor, who is never silent when the man is silent, they will learn abundantly from him all that is needful to be known and done. — (4.) That the kingdom of Jesus Christ is of vast extent, and embraces the entire human race; for all carry Christ within them, and thereby, though utterly barbarous and in total ignorance of Christianity, they may become wise and happy both here and hereafter. Those who live virtuously, and restrain their lusts and passions, whether Jews, Mahometans, or Polytheists, shall be united to God, both here and eternally, by Christ that lies hidden within," etc. (Mosheimii Institt. E. E. Saec. xvii sect. ii. pars ii. c. iv. § vii. viii.) Take the following extracts from early Friends.

Fox: "And as I was walking by the steeple-house aide, in the town of Mansfield, the Lord said unto me, That which people do trample upon must be thy food. And as the Lord spake, he opened it to me, how that people and professors did trample upon the life, even the life of Christ was trampled upon; and they fed upon words, and fed one another with words; but trampled upon the life; and trampled under foot the blood of the Son of God (which blood was my life); and they lived in their airy notions, talking of him. It seemed strange to me at the first, that I should feed on that which the high professors trampled upon; but the Lord opened it to me clearly by his eternal Spirit and power.

"Then came people from far and near to see me; and I was fearful of being drawn out by them; yet I was made to speak and open things to them. There was one Brown, who had great prophecies and sights upon his death-bed of me. And he spake openly of what I should be made instrumental by the Lord to bring forth. And of others he spake that they should come to nothing: which was fulfilled in some that were something in shew. And when this man was buried, a great work of the Lord fell upon me, to the admiration of many who thought I had been dead. And many came to see me for about fourteen days’ time; for I was very much altered in countenance and person, as if my body had been new-moulded or changed. And while I was in that condition I had a sense of discerning given me by the Lord, through which I saw plainly that when many people talked of God and of Christ, etc., the serpent spake in them. But this was hard to be borne. Yet the work of the Lord went on in some, and my sorrows and troubles began to wear off, and tears of joy dropped from me, so that I could have wept night and day with tears of joy to the Lord in humility and brokenness of heart. And I saw into that which was without end, and things which cannot be uttered, and of the greatness and infiniteness of the love of God, which cannot be express by words. For I had been brought through the very ocean of darkness and death, and through the power and over the power of Satan, by the eternal, glorious power of Christ; even through that darkness was I brought which covered over all the world, and which chained down all, and shut up all in the death. And the same eternal power of God, which brought me through these things, was that which afterwards shook the nations, priests, professors, and people. Then could I say I had been in spiritual Babylon, Sodom, Egypt, and the grave; but by the eternal power of God I was come out of it, and was brought over it, and the power of it, into the power of Christ. And I saw the harvest white, and the seed of God lying thick in the ground as ever did wheat, that was sown outwardly; and none to gather it And for this I mourned with tears. And a report went abroad of me, that I was a young man that had a discerning spirit. Whereupon many came to me from far and near — professors, priests, and people; and the Lord’s power brake forth. And I had great openings and prophecies, and spake unto them of the things of God . . . .

"And they were discoursing of the blood of Christ. And as they were discoursing of it, I saw through the immediate opening of the invisible Spirit, the blood of Christ. And I cried out among them, and said, ’Do ye not see the blood of Christ? See it in your hearts, to sprinkle your hearts and consciences from dead works to serve the living God. For I saw it, the blood of the New Covenant, how it came into the heart.’ This startled the professor, who would have the blood only without them, and not in them. . . . .

"Now was I come up in Spirit through the flaming sword into the paradise of God. All things were new; and all the creation gave another smell unto me than before, beyond what words can utter. I knew nothing but pureness, and innocency, and righteousness, being renewed up into the image of God by Christ Jesus; so that, I say, I was come up to the state of Adam, which he was in before he fell. The creation was opened to me; and it was showed me how all things had their names given them according to their nature and virtue. And I was at a stand in my mind whether I should practise physic for the good of mankind, seeing the nature and virtues of the creatures were so opened to me by the Lord. But I was immediately taken up in Spirit to see into another or more stedfast state than Adam’s in innocency, even into a state in Christ Jesus that should never fall. And the Lord showed me that such as were faithful to him in the power and light of Christ should come up into that state in which Adam was before he fell: in which the admirable works of the creation, and the virtues thereof, may be known, through the openings of that divine word of wisdom and power by which they were made. . . . .

"And on a certain time, as I was walking in the fields, the Lord said unto me, ’Thy name is written in the Lamb’s book of life, which was before the foundation of the world.’ And as the Lord spake it, I believed, and saw it in the new birth. Then, sometime after, the Lord commanded me to go abroad into the world    And I was to turn them to the grace of God, and to the truth in the heart, which came by Jesus. . . . . For I saw that Christ had died for all men, and was a propitiation for all; and had enlightened all men and women with his divine and saving light; and that none could be a true believer but who believed in it. I saw that the grace of God, which brings salvation, had appeared to all men, and that the manifestation of the Spirit of God was given to every man to profit withal These things I did not see by the help of man, nor by the letter (though they are written in the letter); but I saw them in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his immediate Spirit and power, as did the holy men of God, by whom the holy Scriptures were written. Yet I had no slight esteem of the holy Scriptures; but they were very precious to me. For I was in that Spirit by which they were given forth; and what the Lord opened in me, I afterwards found was acceptable to them. . . . .

"Therefore I exhorted the people to come off from all these things, and directed them to the Spirit and grace of God in themselves, and to the light of Jesus in their own hearts, that they might come to know Christ, their free Teacher, to bring them salvation, and to open the Scriptures to them."

"Whosoever witnesseth Christ within, they witness the end of imputation, they witness the thing itself, and they possess their sanctification, and such come to know faith and love. And such as may have all the Scriptures, and preach of justification and sanctification without them, and not within them, be as the Jews, be as the witches and reprobates."

PENN: "The same Christ, Word-God, who has lighted all men, is by sin grieved and burdened, and bears the iniquities of such as so sin and reject his benefits. But as any hear his knocks, and let him into their hearts, he first wounds, and then heals; afterwards he atones, mediates, and reinstates man in the holy image he has fallen from by sin." Again: "All the disadvantages the Protestant is under in this is that of his greater modesty, and that he submits his belief to be tried, while the other refuses under the pretence of unaccountable infallibility. To that authority reason demurs; right reason, I mean; the reason of 1 John 1:1-9; for so Tertullian, and some other ancient as well as modern critics, give us the word Logos; and the divine reason is, one and all, the lamp of God which lights our candle, and enlightens our darkness, and is the measure and test of our knowledge."

"I have chosen to speak in the language of the Scripture, which is that of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth and wisdom, that wanted no art or direction of man to speak by, and express itself fitly to, man’s understanding. But yet that blessed principle, the Eternal Word, I begun with to you, and which is that light, spirit, grace, and truth, I have exhorted you to in all its holy appearances or manifestations in yourselves, by which all things were at fist made, and man enlightened to salvation, is Pythagoras’s great light and salt of ages;

Anaxagoras’s divine mind;

Socrates’s good spirit;

Timaeus’s unbegotten principle and author of all light;

Hieron’s God in man;

Plato’s eternal, ineffable, and perfect principle of truth;

Zeno’s Maker and Father of all; and

Plotin’s root of the soul: who as they thus styled the Eternal Word; so for the appearance of it in man they wanted not very significant words:

’A domestic God or God within,’ say Hieron, Pythagoras, Epictetus, and Seneca.

’Genius, angel, or guide,’ say Socrates and Timaeus.

’The light and Spirit of God,’ says Plato.

’The divine principle in man,’ says Plotin.

’The divine power and reason, the infallible, immortal Law in the minds of men,’ says Philo; and

’The law and living rule of the mind, the interior guide of the soul, and everlasting foundation of the soul,’ says Plutarch."

"The condemnation or justification of persons is not from the imputation of another’s righteousness, but the actual performance and keeping of God’s righteous statutes or commandments; otherwise God should forget to be equal. Therefore, how wickedly unequal are those who, not from Scripture evidences, but their own dark conjectures and interpretations of obscure passages, would frame a doctrine so manifestly inconsistent with God’s most pure and equal nature, making him to condemn the righteous to death, and justify the wicked to life from the imputation of another’s righteousness — a most unequal way indeed!"

"The way to justification and sonship is through the obedience of the Spirit’s leadings; that is, manifesting the holy fruits thereof by an innocent life and conversation."

"The Trinity of distinct and separate Persons in the unity of essence may be refuted from Scripture, and also from right reason. "

"If each Person be God, and that God subsists in three Persons, then in each Person there are three Persons or Gods, and from three they will increase to nine, and so on ad infinitum."

"The vulgar doctrine of satisfaction, being dependent on the second Person of the Trinity, is refuted from Scripture and right reason."

"The same light and life which afterwards clothed itself with that outward body."

"Though we believe that the eternal power, light, and life, which inhabited that holy Person who was born at Bethlehem was and is chiefly and eminently the Saviour, yet we reverently confess the holy manhood was instrumentally a Saviour, as prepared and chosen for the work that Christ, the Word-God, had then to do in it."

BARCLAY: "it will not from thence follow that these divine revelations are to be subjected to the examination either of the outward testimony of Scripture, or of the human or natural reason of man, as to a more noble and certain rule and touchstone. "

"We may not call them [the Scriptures] the principal fountain of all truth and knowledge, nor yet the first adequate rule of faith and manners, because the principal fountain of truth must be the truth itself; i.e., that whose authority and certainty depends not upon another." Again: "God hath committed and gives unto every man a measure of light of his own Son — a measure of grace, or a measure of the Spirit. This, as it is received, and not resisted, works the salvation of all, even of those who are ignorant of the death and sufferings of Christ."

"Though we affirm that Christ dwells in us, yet not immediately, but mediately, as he is in that seed which is in us; whereas he, to wit, the Eternal Word, which was with God and was God, dwelt immediately in that holy man."

"From this large description [John 6:1-71] of the origin, nature, and effects of this body, flesh, and blood of Christ, it is apparent that it is spiritual, and to be understood of a spiritual body, and not of that body or temple of Jesus Christ which was born of the Virgin Mary, and in which he walked, lived, and suffered in the land of Judea, because that it is said that it came down from heaven, yea, that it is he that came down from heaven. . . . That this body and spiritual flesh and blood of Christ is to be understood of that divine and heavenly seed, before spoken of by us, appears both by the nature and the fruits of it. . . . So, then, as there was the outward visible body and temple of Jesus Christ, which took its origin from the Virgin Mary, so there is also the spiritual body of Christ, by and through which he that was the Word in the beginning with God, and was and is God, did reveal himself to the sons of men, in all ages, and whereby men in all ages come to be made partakers of eternal life, and to have communion and fellowship with God and Christ    For as Jesus Christ, in obedience to the will of the [father, did by the eternal Spirit offer up that body for a propitiation for the remission of sins, and finished his testimony upon earth thereby, is a most perfect example of patience, resignation, and holiness, that all might be made partakers of the fruit of that sacrifice: so hath he likewise poured forth into the hearts of all men a measure of that divine light and seed wherewith he is clothed; that thereby, reaching unto the consciences of all, he may raise them up out of death and darkness by his life and light; and they thereby may be made partakers of his body, and there-through come to have fellowship with the Father and with the Son."

PENNINGTON: "How came the Scriptures to declare of Christ? Was it not from the Spirit? And is not that same light still with the Spirit, by which the Scriptures were given forth? And can he not give it forth without the letter, where he seeth need of it, and vouchsafeth so to do? Why may not men now by the light of the Spirit come to know that Christ is come, dead, and risen, as well as these things were known and believed before the Scriptures were written’"

"But we believe the Spirit to be a touchstone beyond the Scriptures, and to be that which giveth ability to try and discern, not only words, but spirits."

"The light is near all mankind, to discover to them and help them against the darkness. The knowledge of those, and belief of those who own the light, is owned by God’s Spirit (in this our day) for the true believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and for that knowledge which is life eternal; and the knowing and believing on him, as men account it, according to their apprehension of the letter, without this, is reckoned with God for ignorance and unbelief."

Answering the question, "Whether the writings of any now be of equal weight with the Scriptures?" he says, "Yea, the immediate word of the Lord, spoken and declared this day by any man to Whom it pleaseth the Lord to commit the same, is of no less authority, nor more to be slighted now, than it was in his servants in the days past, by whom the Scriptures were given forth."

"I will grant a great deal to the letter and ministration outward, but I must attribute more to the inward, or else God’s light, and the holy experience he hath given me, will condemn me." Again, "The Holy Spirit of God and the Scriptures are not always joined together; for some in the dark corners of the earth may be visited by the Spirit, and receive the Spirit, who never heard of the Scriptures."

"The Scriptures give testimony concerning the one thing necessary to salvation; but the thing itself, Christ himself, the seed itself, is not contained in the Scriptures, but revealed in the shinings of the true light, and so received or rejected inwardly in the heart."*

* For most of the quotations from Pennington, I am indebted to "The British Friend" of November, 1867; and he who extracts them subscribes himself "a believer in our first principles," and commends strongly these and other such statements of an author who, he allows, was "by no means the most extreme in his views, or the most trenchant in his expressions."