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I believe in the Holy Ghost.

SERMON XXXIV.

THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST.

1 COR. iii. 16.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

My purpose is at this time, for our edification in SERM.
Christian knowledge concerning that grand object XXXIV.
of our faith and author of our salvation, the Holy
Ghost; and for arming us against erroneous opinions
about him, such as have been vented in former ages,
and have been revived in this; to explain briefly the
name, nature, and original of the Holy Ghost, (ac-
cording to what appears discovered of him in the
sacred writings;) to consider also the peculiar cha-
racters, offices, and operations, which (according to
the mysterious economy revealed in the gospel) are
assigned and attributed to him; so that incident-
ally by testimonies of scripture, and arguments de-
duced thence, I shall assert the principal doctrines
received in the church, in opposition to the most fa-
mously heterodox dogmatists that have appeared.
For the doing which this text of St. Paul doth min-
BARROW, VOL. VI.

B

XXXIV.

SERM. ister good occasion: for the full explication thereof doth require a clearing of the particulars mentioned, and itself affordeth good arguments against the principal errors about this matter. His being called the Spirit of God, may engage us to consider his nature and original; his being said to dwell in us, doth imply his personality; his divinity appears in that Christians are called the temple of God, because the Holy Ghost dwelleth in them; his sanctifying virtue may be inferred from his constituting us temples by his presence in us. I shall then in order prosecute the points mentioned; and lastly shall adjoin somewhat of practical application.

1. First, then, for the name of the Holy Spirit ; whereby also his nature and origin are intimated.

Of those things which do not immediately incur our sight, but do by conspicuous effects discover their existence, there is scarce any thing in substance more pure and subtile, in motion more quick and nimble, in efficacy more strong and powerful, than wind, (or spirit.) Hence in common use of most languages the name of wind or spirit doth serve to express those things, which from the subtilty or tenuity of their nature being indiscernible to us, are yet conceived to be moved with great pernicity, and to be endued with great force; so naturalists, we see, are wont to name that which in any body is most abstruse, most agile, and most operative in spirit. Hence it comes that this word is transferred to denote those substances which are free of matter, and removed from sense, but are endued (as with understanding, so) with a very powerful activity and virtue. Even among the pagans these sort of beings were called spirits: the souls of men are by them

XXXIV.

so termed; (anima hath its derivation from veμos, SERM. wind.) Our life, saith Cicero, is contained by (or comprised in) body and spirita: and, We, saith he again, are at the same time received into the light, and endued with this heavenly spirit, that is, with our soul. Particularly the Stoics used to apply this name to our soul. I allege the Stoics, saith Tertullian, who call the soul a spirit, almost therein agreeing with us Christians. They likewise frequently did attribute this appellation to God;

-Coelum et terram camposque liquentes,

Lucentemque globum terræ, Titaniaque astra
Spiritus intus agit-

Æn. vi.

said the prince of their poets: by the word spirit understanding (as Lactantius and Macrobius do inter- Lact. i. 5. pret him) God himself, that pierceth and acteth all things; yea he so otherwhere expoundeth his own mind, when he to the same purpose sings,

-Deum ire per omnes

Terrasque tractusque maris, cœlumque profundum. And the Orator, in his Dialogues, maketh Balbus to speak thus; These things truly could not, all the parts of the world so conspiring together, be so performed, if they were not contained (or kept together) by one divine and continued spirit: and Seneca clearly; God, saith he, is nigh to thee, he is Vita corpore et spiritu continetur. Cic. Or. pro Mar.

b Eodem tempore suscipimur in lucem, et hoc coelesti spiritu augemur. De Arusp. resp.

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Stoicos allego, qui spiritum dicunt animam, pene nobiscum. Tert. de Anim. 5.

d Hæc ita fieri omnibus inter se continentibus mundi partibus profecto non possent, nisi ea uno, et divino continuato spiritu continerentur. De Nat. Deor. ii. p. 60.

Georg.iv.

SERM. with thee, he is in thee: I tell thee, O Lucilius, a XXXIV. holy Spirit resideth within us, an observer and guardian of our good and our bad things, (or doings,) who, as he hath been dealt with by us, so he dealeth with us; there is no good man (or no man is good) without Gode: and Zeno defined God thus; God is a Spirit, passing through the whole world: Posidonius also more largely; God is an intellectual and fiery Spirit, not having shape; but changing into what things he will, and assimilated to all things 8.

In like manner hence the holy scriptures, with regard to our capacity and manner of conceiving, do with the same appellation adumbrate all those kind of substances void of corporeal bulk and concretion; human souls, all the angelical natures, and the incomprehensible Deity itself. And to God indeed this name is attributed to signify his most simple nature and his most powerful energy; but to other substances of this kind it seemeth also assigned to imply the manner of their origin, because God did by a kind of spiration produce them for which cause likewise (at least in part) we may suppose that the holy scripture doth more signally and in a peculiar manner assign that name to one Being, that most excellent Being, which is the subject of our present discourse: the which is called the Spirit of

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Prope est a te Deus, tecum est, intus est; ita dico, Lucili, sacer intra nos spiritus sedet, malorumque bonorumque nostrorum observator, et hic prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse tractat; bonus vir sine Deo non est. Sen. Ep. 41.

· Θεός ἐστι πνεῦμα, διῆκον δι ̓ ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου. Zeno.

Β Θεός ἐστι πνεῦμα νοερὸν, καὶ πυρῶδες, οὐκ ἔχον μορφήν, μεταβάλλον δὲ εἰς ἃ βούλεται, καὶ ἐξομοιούμενον πᾶσιν. Posid. apud Stob.

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