July 28

And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptise with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding upon as a dove, the same is he which baptiseth with the Holy Ghost.— John 1. 33.

I PROMISED, in the name of Christ, that I would discuss to-day, since want of time prevented our handling the question at our last meeting, why it pleased God to manifest the Holy Spirit under the form of a dove. That this may be explained, we are come to the morning of another day; and I perceive that, through pious devotion and the desire of hearing, you are met together in unusual numbers. May God, from our mouth, fulfill your expectations. Love has drawn you hither: but the love of what? if of us, this, too, is well; for we desire to be loved by you, yet not for ourselves. Since, therefore, we love you in Christ, do you, in return, love us in Christ: and let our love for each other sigh and moan to Godward, for moaning is the note of the dove.

If then moaning is the dove's note, as we all know, and doves moan in love, hear what the apostle saith, and marvel not that the Holy Spirit chose to be manifested in the form of a dove; For we know not, saith he, what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with moanings which can not be uttered. What, then, my brethren? shall we say that the Spirit moans in that place where he enjoys perfect and eternal blessedness with the Father and the Son? For the Holy Spirit is God, as the Son of God is God, and the Father God. I have said "God" thrice, but I have not said "Gods three;" for it is more "God thrice" than "Gods three," in that Father and Son and Holy Ghost are one God: this ye know right well. Think not then that the Holy Spirit, in himself, with himself, in that Trinity, in that blessedness, in that eternity of his substance, doth moan; but in us he moans, in that he maketh us to moan. Nor is it a light matter, that the Holy Spirit teacheth us to moan: for he doth intimate to us that we are on pilgrimage, and teacheth us to sigh after our native land, and of very longing do we moan. He with whom it goes well in this world, or rather who thinks it goes well with him, who in the joyousness of carnal things, and the abundance of temporal things, and in a vain felicity, doth leap for gladness, he has the raven's note. For the raven's is a note of clamor, not of moaning. But he that knows that he is in the throng and pressure of this mortal state, and that he is on pilgrimage and absent from the Lord, and that he does not yet possess that perpetual blessedness which is promised to us, but that in hope he has it, being to have it in reality when the Lord shall come revealed in glory, who before came revealed in humility,—I say, he that knows this doth moan. It was the Spirit that taught him to do so; it was from the Dove he learnt this. For many groan through earthly misery; either they are shattered by losses, or they are weighed down with sickness, or they are shut up in prisons, or they are bound with chains, or they are tossed about upon the waves of the sea, or they are hemmed in by some treachery or other of their enemies. But they moan not with the moaning of the Dove, moan not through the love of God, moan not in the Spirit. And hence when such persons are set free from the pressure of these same afflictions, they exult with loud voices. Whence it is made evident that they were ravens and not doves. It is not without a meaning, that the raven was sent forth from the ark, and did not return; whereas the dove was sent forth, and returned. These two birds Noah sent forth. He had there the raven, he had also the dove; the ark contained both the one kind and the other: and if the ark was a figure of the church, you see consequently that during the deluge of this present world the church must needs contain both kinds, both the raven and the dove. Who are the ravens? They who seek their own. Who are the doves? They who seek the things which are Christ's.