SERM. itself affordeth good arguments against the principal errors XXXIV.about this matter. His being called the Spirit of God, may engage us to confider his nature and original; his being faid to dwell in us, doth imply his personality; his divinity appears in that Chriftians are called the temple of God, because the Holy Ghost dwelleth in them; his fanctifying virtue may be inferred from his conftituting us temples by his presence in us. I fhall then in order profecute 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 fight, but do by confpicuous effects difcover their exiftence, there is scarce any thing in substance more pure and fubtile, in motion more quick and nimble, in efficacy more ftrong and powerful, than wind, (or fpirit.) Hence in common use of most languages the name of wind or spirit doth serve to exprefs 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; fo naturalifts, we fee, are wont to name that which in any body is moft abftrufe, most agile, and moft operative in spirit. Hence it comes that this word is transferred to denote thofe fubftances which are free of matter, and removed from fenfe, but are endued (as with understanding, fo) with a very powerful activity and virtue. Even among the Pagans these fort of beings were called Spirits: the fouls of men are by them fo termed; (anima hath its derivation from ave, wind.) Our life, faith Cicero, is contained by (or comprised in) body and fpirita: and, We, faith he again, are at the fame time received into the light, and endued with this heavenly Spirit, that is, with our foul. Particularly the Stoicks ufed to apply this name to our foul; I allege the Stoicks, faith Tertullian, who call the foul a Spirit, almost therein 5 a Vita corpore et fpiritu continetur. Cic. Or. pro Mar. b Eodem tempore fufcipimur in lucem, et hoc cœlefti fpiritu augemur. De Arufp. refp. agreeing with us Chriftians. They likewife frequently SERM. did attribute this appellation to God; -Cœlum et terram campofque liquentes, Lucentemque globum terræ, Titaniaque aftra XXXIV. En. vi. faid the prince of their poets: by the word fpirit underftanding (as Lactantius and Macrobius do interpret him) La&t. i. 5. God himself, that pierceth and acteth all things; yea he so otherwhere expoundeth his own mind, when he to the fame purpose fings, Deum ire per omnes Terrafque tractufque 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 fo confpiring together, be fo performed, if they were not contained (or kept together) by one divine and continued Spirit: and Seneca clearly; God, faith he, is nigh to thee, he is with thee, he is in thee: I tell thee, O Lucilius, a holy Spirit refideth within us, an obferver and guardian of our good and our bad things, (or doings,) who, as he hath been dealt with by us, fo 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, paffing through the whole world: Pofidonius alfo more largely; God is an intellectual and fiery Spirit, not having shape; but changing into what things he will, and affimilated to all things5, c Stoicos allego, qui spiritum dicunt animam, pene nobifcum. Tert, de Anim. 5. Hæc ita fieri omnibus inter fe continentibus mundi partibus profecto non poffent, nifi ea uno, et divino continuato spiritu continerentur. De Nat, Deor. ii. p. 60. e Prope eft a te Deus, tecum eft, intus eft; ita dico, Lucili, facer intra nos fpiritus fedet, malorumque bonorumque noftrorum obfervator, et hic prout a nobis tractatus eft, ita nos ipfe tractat; bonus vir fine Deo non eft, Sen. Ep. 41. 5 Θεός ἐσι πνεῦμα, διῆκον δι ̓ ὅλα τα κόσμε. Zeno. 8 Θεός ἰσι πνεῦμα νοιρὸν, καὶ πυρῶδες, ἐκ ἔχον μορφὴν, μεταβάλλον δὲ εἰς ἃ βάλεται, ¿ izopaápua rãon, Pofid, apud Stob. Georg. iv. SERM. In like manner hence the holy Scriptures, with regard XXXIV. to our capacity and manner of conceiving, do with the fame appellation adumbrate all thofe kind of fubftances void of corporeal bulk and concretion; human fouls, all the angelical natures, and the incomprehenfible Deity itself. And to God indeed this name is attributed to fignify his moft fimple nature and his most powerful energy; but to other fubftances of this kind it seemeth alfo affigned to imply the manner of their origin, because God did by a kind of fpiration produce them: for which cause likewise (at least in part) we may suppose that the holy Scripture doth more fignally and in a peculiar manner affign that name to one Being, that most excellent Being, which is the subject of our present difcourfe: the which is called the Spirit of God; (that is, of God the Father, who by reason of his priority of nature is often called God, in a personal fignification;) the good Spirit of God; the Spirit of Chrift; the Holy Spirit; and often abfolutely, in way of excellence, the Spirit. The fame is also called the power or virtue of God: about the reason of which appellation we may briefly observe, that whereas in every intellectual being there are conceived to be three principal faculties, will, understanding, efficacy; and correfpondent to these three perfections, goodness, wifdom, power; a certain one of these (according to that mystical economy or husbandry of notions, whereby the manner and order of subsisting and operation proper to each person in the blessed Trinity is infinuated) is in a certain manner appropriated to each perfon; (fo I now by anticipation speak, being to warrant these terms hereafter;) namely, to the Father it is ascribed, that he freely decreeth what things should be done; to the Son, that he difpofeth them in a most wise method and order toward their effecting; to the Holy Ghost, that he with a powerful force doth execute and effect them: whence as God is faid, according to his pleafure, to decree and determine things, [and to Janua, the will, is a name by fome writers affigned to him; particularly Ignatius doth in his epiftles frequently fo ftyle him; and f St. : Paul may be understood, where he faith, xal yıσXELS TO SERM. Séλnua, And thou knoweft the will; that is, knoweft God XXXIV. the Father and St. Peter, For it is better, that ye, (ɛi Jéλɛ Rom. ii. 18. tò déλnua tõ Oeỡ,) if the will of God pleaseth, do fuffer for 1 Pet. iii.17. well doing than for evil doing,] as the Son is called the wisdom of God, fo the Holy Spirit is named the power of Luke i. 85. God; his substantial power, as we fhall fhew. To this xxix. 49. Being, whatever it is, it is manifeft that properly and primarily the name of Holy Spirit is appropriated; but (which we should confider) from thence (as is usual in other cafes and matters) by figurative deflection of speech, (or by metonymy,) the manner of that operation which that Holy Spirit doth exert, his influence and efficacy, and also any fort of effects proceeding from him, do commonly affume or partake of this name. So when from this Spirit, in a very confpicuous manner, an excellent virtue of performing miraculous works was liberally imparted to the Apostles, that virtue (or the manifeft communication thereof, the manifeftation of the Spirit, as St. Paul calleth 1 Cor. xii. it) is named the Holy Ghoft: as when in St. John's 7. Gospel it is faid, The Holy Spirit was not yet; that is, the John vii. Apostles had not yet received that excellent gift; or that 39. marvellous efficacy of the Holy Spirit had not yet difcovered itself in them: as alfo when in the Acts fome difciples are faid not to have heard whether there were any A&s xix. 2. Holy Spirit; that is, they were not acquainted concerning that peculiar efficacy thereof. When also there are mentioned the spirit of prophecy, the spirit of revelation, the Rom. viii. fpirit of wisdom, (which fort of fpirits are faid to be in- Eph. i. 7. creased, to be taken away, to be quenched,) it is plain, 2 Kings ii. that by those phrases, not the Holy Spirit of God itself, i Theff. v. (which in no fenfe is liable to fuch accidents,) but gifts, 19. fruits, or effects thereof are denoted; fome of which fome- Gal. v. 22. time are in the plural number called veúμara, spirits; as when St. Paul enjoineth the Corinthians to be zealous (or earnestly defirous) of Spirits; that is, of spiritual gifts, or graces, or revelations: and when the difcerning of Spirits 1 Cor. xiv. (that is, of divine revelations, true or counterfeit) is faid 12, 32. to be granted to fome, and where the Spirits of prophets 1 Cor. xii. 5. 9. 1 Cor. xii. 10. SERM. are faid to be fubject or fubordinate to prophets, (that is, XXXIV. one prophet had a right and ability to judge about the revelations made to another, or pretended to be so :) but these and the like figurative fenfes being excluded, we difcourfe about the Holy Spirit in its moft proper and primary fenfe; as it is in and from God. H. Which things being premifed concerning the name of the Holy Spirit; for explication of his nature, I. We do first affert, that it is a Being in fome sense truly distinct from the Father and the Son; hereby rejecting the opinion of Sabellius, Noetus, Hermogenes, and Praxeas; which confounding the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and destroying their substantial properties, did of them all make but one Perfon, under feveral names h; affirming ἐν μιᾷ ὑποςάσει τρεῖς ὀνομασίας, in one perfon three appellations, and making τὴν τριάδα συναλαφὴν, the Trinity to be a coincidence, as Epiphanius speaks. [I faid, truly diftinct; for this word diftinction is by the fchoolmen conceived more commodiously applied to this mystery, than others of near fignification; thofe of diverfity and difference feeming to intimate fomewhat prejudicial to the unity of effence; In divinis (in the mystery of the Trinity) we muft, faith Aquinas, avoid the name of diverfity and of difference, but we may use the name of diftinction, because of the relative oppofitioni: which caution yet the ancient Fathers do not so precisely observe; for sometimes in them, προσώπων ἑτερότης and διαφορά, (the diverfity and difference of the perfons,) fometimes alfo the word diapers, the divifion of them, do occur; although they seem more willingly to use the word diánguis, distinction: that which we fimply affirm is, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, τοῖς ἰδιώμασι διακρίνονται, are diftinguifred in properties, as Η 'Ως μήτε τὴν Σαβιλλία νόσον χώραν λαβεῖν, συγχεομένων τῶν ὑποφάσεων, εἴσαν τῶν ἰδιοτήτων ἀναιρωμένων. Patres Conc. Conftant. Epift. ad Cone, Rom. Theod. v. 9. In divinis vitare debemus nomen diverfitatis, et differentiæ, poffumus autem uti nomine diftinétionis, propter oppofitionem relativam. Thom. Δίδασης τοσῦτον εἰδέναι μόνον, μονάδα ἐν τριάδι προσκυνημένην, παράδοξον ἔχεσαν γιὰ τὴν διαίρεσιν, ἢ τὴν ἕνωσιν. Νaz. Οr. 23. Apud Aug. perfonæ fæpe diverfæ dicuntur. |