THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT.
2 Col. iii. 18. " We all, w;th o2en.face beholdlng a a glass tle glory of tle Iovl, are changed into the saine image from glory to glory, even as by the Soeirit of t£e Iord."
OSES lrayed for this one thing, that he might " see God's glory;" and he was allowed fo behold it in such measure, that when he came down from the Mount, "the sldn of his face shone," so that the people "were afraid to corne nigh him." Only to him was this privilege vouehsafed in this intimate way, and that but once; but a pronfise was given, that at some future rime it should be extended to the whole emoEh. God said to hiln, "As tnfly as I live, all the emoEh shall be filled with the glory of the Lord," that.glory whieh the Israelites had seen in glimlses and had lrofaned. Afterwards the prophets Isaiah and Habakkuk foretold, in like manner, that the emoEh shofld be filled with the Lord's glory and the knowledge of it. When Christ came, these promises were fulfilled, for "we beheld His glory," St. John says, "the glory as of the OLly-begotten of the Father." 1 In the chapter which ends with the gext, St. Paul contrasts the shadows and earnests under the Law, of "the glory that should follow" Christ's coming, with that glory itself. He says that he and his brother Apostles are "not as Moses, who pug a veil over his face." Af length the gtory of Goal in thll measure was the privilege and birthright of ail believers, who now, '" in the unveiled face of Christ their Sa.viour, beheld the reflection of the Lord's gtory," and were "changed ino Itis likeness from one measnre of glory go another." Onr Saviour's words in tIis last prayer for tIis Apostles, and for al1 His disciples as included nnder them, convey to us the saine gracious tnth. IIe says, " The glo TE which Thou gavest Me, I have given them. ''= This glorious I)isl»ensation, nnder which the Church now exists, is called by St. Paul, in the smne chapter, " the ministration of the Spirit;" and again in the text, we are said fo be changed into the glorious image of Christ, " by the Spirit of the Lord." And further, the Church, as being thus honoured and exalted by the presence of the Spirit of Christ, is called "the Kingdom of God," "the Kingdom of Heaven;" as, for instance, by our Lord Himself. "The Kingdom of Heaven is af hand:" " Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. '' 1 Exod. xxxiv. 30; Numb. xiv. 21; Isa. xi. 9; Itab. il. 14; John i. 14. John xvii. 22. lIatt, x. î; John ifi. 5.
I propose nmv fo make some remarks on this peculiar gift of the Gospel Dispensation, whieh, as in the fore- ç,'oi"« passages, is spoken of as the gift of "the Spirit," the gift of "glory," and through whieh the Chnreh bas beeome what it was hot before, the Kingdom of Heaven. And here, before entering upon the subjeet, I would observe, that as tlere is a sense in whieh the ant of glory was ruade even under the Law, riz., in its miracles (as when the I:radites are eondemned for having "seen the glory of the Lord and t[is miracles," and yet "hot having hearkened to His voiee"), so in another point of view if belongs exelusively to the promised blessedness hereafter. Still there is a peeuliar and suffieient sense in whieh it is aseribed to the Christian Chm'el, and what this is, is the question now before us. 1. In the first place, some insight is given into the force of the word "glory," as our present privilege, by eonsidering the meaning of the tifle "Kingdom of lteaven," whieh, as lins been just observed, has also belonged fo the Chureh sinee Christ came. The Chureh is ealled by this naine as being the court and domain of Almighty God, who retreated from the earth, as far as His kingly presenee was eoneerned, when man fell. Not that He left Himself without witness in any age, but even in His most graeious manifestations, still He eondueted Himself as if in an enemy's country, "as a stranger in the land, and as a wa)oEaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night." " 13ut when Chrisl had reeoneiled Him to ttis fallen ereatures, He returned aeeording to the propheey, "I will dwell in them, and 1 Numb. Mv. 22. "- Jet. xiv. 8.
walk in them; I will set My sanctuary in the mids o1" them for evermore."l Front t.hat rime there bas really been a heaven upon eart.h, in fulfihnent of Jaeol's vision. Tlteneeforfl the Chureh was hot a earnal ordinanee, ruade of perishable materials, like t.he Jewish Tabernacle, which had been a t.ype of the Dispensation to which it belmged. It beeame "a kingdom whieh emmot be moved," being sweetened, purified, and spiritualized hy the pom'ing out of Christ's blood in if. I became once more an integral part of that unseen, but really existing worhl, of which "the Lrd is the everlasting Light;" and it had fellowship wit.h its blessed inhabitants. St. Paul flms deseribes if in his episfle to the Hebrews: "Ye are eome fo Mount Sion;" fo t.he true "momitain of the Lord's House," of which the earthly Sion was a type; "and to the eity of the Living (Iod, the heavenly Jerusalem;" that is, as he elsevhere ealls it, "the Jerusalem that is above," or, as he speaks in another place, " out eit.izenship is in heaven;" " and to an immmerable eompany of Angels, to fle festive eoneourse and Chureh of t.he First-born enroed in heaven, and fo God fle Judge of all, and to the spiHts of the perfeeted Just, and to Jesus the Mediator of the « 1 New Covenm , and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh beLter things than that of Abel. ''e Sinee then rite Christian Chureh is a Heaven upon earflb iL is hot surprising t.lat in some sense or other its distinguishing privilege or gift should be glory, tbr this is the one attribute whieh we ever att.ach to our notion of Heaven itself, aeeording to the Seripture int.imations 1 Cor. vi. 16; Ezek. xxxvii. 26. 2 Heb. xii. 22-2L
58 The Gift of the Sf)irit.
eoneerning if. The glm-y here may be conceived of by eonsidering what wc bclieve of the glory hereafter. 2. Next, if we eonsider the variety and dignit,y of the gifts ministered by the Spirit., we shall, perhaps, diseern in a measure, why out state under t.he Gospel is ealled a st, are of glm'y. If is nog uneonnnoll, in the present day, to divide the works of t, he Iloly Ghost in t.he Church into t, wo kinds, miraculous and moral. y »imculous are meang sueh as I[e manifesed iu the firs ages of lhe Gospel, mmwels out of the course of nature, addressed to out senses; such as the power of healing, of raising the dead, and the like; or, again, sueh as speaking with /ongues or propheey. On he oher hand, by moral operal.ions or influences are mean sueh as aet upon out minds, and enable us tobe wha we oherwise eould not be, holy and aeeepted iu.all lranehes of the Christian eharaeter; in a word, all sueh as issue in Sanctification, as i is ea.lled. These distine works of the tloly Spirit, viewed in their effeets, are eomlnonly ealled exgraordilmry and ordinary, or yif and yg'coe; and ig is usuM to sa.y, t, hat gifts have eeased, and graees alone remain o us, and henee, to limig he present "millisfrafiol of the bpiri" to certain influences on out moral nat.ure, to the office of ehanghg, renewing, pnrifying he hear and mind, implaning a good will, imparing knowledge of out dugy and power fo do i, and eultivating and maturing wihin us aH right desires and habis, aud leading us to all holy works. Now, all hese influences and operations eert, ainly do belong to the "minisgraion of the Spirig;" but in wha appropriate sense tan any effees uought in us be called " which now have more intelligible glory?" Add to them the miracles ceased, and you will iudeed gain a meaning of the word, but hot even then any nleaning peculiar to the Gospel. The Jewish Church was gifted by a more abiding superhunlan preseuce than the Christian, and with as overpowering miracles, yet if did hot possess this privilege of glory. Again, ifs patriarchs and teachers rose fo degrees of sa.nctificatiol quite as nluch above our power of lueasuring theln as those atta.ilaed by Apostles and Martyrs uuder the Gospcl; nor, to all huluan appearance, is the actual sanctification of the nlass of Christians more true or complete than was that of the Jews: how then a.re we in a state of glolT, and the Jewish Church uot? Granting then that the gift of the Spirit mentioned in Scripture illchdes in it both the miracles of the first ages and tlle influences of grace; granting also tha.t the sanctifying grace bestowed on eacll Christian is given with far greater fulness, variety, and power, than it -cas vouchsafed to the Jews (whether if be evelltually quenched or hot); granting, too, that holiness is really the characteristic of tht gift vhich the Holy Spirit nlinisters now, as miracles were its outward nlallifest;ttion in t.he first ages; still all this is hot a sufficient accourir of it; it is hot equivalent to our great Gospel privilege, which is SOnletlling deeper, wider, ald nlore mysterious, though including botll nliracles and a'aces. In truth, the Holy Ghost has taken up His abode in the Church in a variety of gifts, as a sevenfold Spirit. For instance, is the gift of the body's immoloEa.lity rairaculous or moral? reitller, in the common sense of the word.;)'et if is a gift bestowed on us in this life, and by the power of the Holy Ghost, according fo the texts, " ¥our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost;" and '" He that raised up Christ frm the dead shall also quickcn your lnortal bodies by His indwelling Spirit." Again, is justificatio, or the application of Christ's lnerits to the soul, lnoral or lniraculous? Ncither; yet we are told that we are "washed, hallowed, justified in the naine of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." e Or is the gift of the Holy (-lhost in Ordination lnir¢culous or moral? It is neither the one nor the other, but a supernatural power of ministering effectually in holy things. Once lnore, is communion with Christ miraculous or moral? On the contrary, it is a real but mysterious union of nature with Him, according fo the text, '" we are members of IIis body, ri'oto His flesh, ald from His bones. '' Such reflections as these are calculted, perhaps, to give us SOlnewhat of a deeper view tlmn is ordinarily admitted, of the chara.cter of that Gift which attends on the presence of the tIoly Ghost in the Church, and which is called the gift of glory. I do hot say tlmt anything that lins heen just said has been sufficient to define if; rather I would maintain, tht if cammt be defined. If cannot be limited; it cannot be (livided, and exhansted by a division. This is the Vel T fiultimss of the division into lniraculons and moral, useful as this may be for particular purposes, that it professes fo elnbrace what is in tact incomprehensible and unfathomable. I would fain keep from the saine 1 Cor. vi. 19; om. viii. 11. 1 Cor. ri. 11. s 21'et.i. 4; Epb. v. 30.
mistake; and the inst.ances already given may serx e this pu'pose, enlarging out view witlmut bounding it. The gift is denoted in Scripture by the vague and mysterious terre "glory;" and a.ll the descriptions we ean give of it ean only, and should only, run out into a mystery. 3. l'erhaps, however, it may be questioned, whether the gift of lhe,_pmt, now possessed 1,y us, is really ealled by this naine; with a view of maldng this quite clear, I will here reeite a numher of passages in order, in addition to t.ho.e with which [ began; and while I do so, I would have you observe in what dose and eontinual eonneetion the "Spirit," and "glory," and « heaven" oecur. " The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." "The God of ail graee, who hat.h ealled us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suttired a while, make you perfect." '" Aceording as His divine power hath given unto us ail things that pertain unto lire and godlinêss, through the knowledge of Hin, that hath called us to glory and virtue." " Whom He did predestinate, lhem He also ealled, and whom He ealled, them He also jusified, and whom He jusified, hem He also glorifie&" "We speak the wisdom of (od in a mystery, even the hidden wis&m whieh Goal ordained belote the world unt.o ont glory..... Eye hath no seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered ino the hear of man, the things whieh Goal hath prepared for t.hem hat love Him..... The natural man reeeivet.h hot the hings of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." "P, lessed be the God and Father of our Lord,Iesus Christ, who hath blessed us wifl all spiritual blessings in heavenly pl:ces in Christ." [I pr,y] "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of gh)ry, may give unto vou the Spirit of wisdom and revclation in the knowledge of Hin, the eyes of your mderstanding being enlightened, that ye may km,w whtt is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glç, 3" of His inheritance in the Saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His pover to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He roug'ht in Christ, when He raised H in from the dead." " God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith I[e loved us, even when we were dead in sins, bath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and hath ra.ised us up together, and ruade us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus..... Through IIim we both have access by one Spirit unto the Fathel:.... lu whom [Christ.] ye also are builded together for an habitatio of God through the Spirit." [I pray] '" that He would grant you according to the riches of IIis glory, to be strengthened with Inight by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in vour hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to knov the love of Christ, which passeth knovledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." " Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that t[e might sanctiy nd cleanse if with the washing of water by the word; tht He might prcsent it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that if should be holy and without blemish." "If is impossible for those who were once ilhmfinated, and htve tasted of the hevenly gift, and were ruade prtakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of Goal, md the powers of the world to corne, if they shfll ill awy, fo renew them again unto repentance." I would hve you py prticul,r,ttention fo this lait pssage, which, in spealdng of those who thwart God's grace, runs through the various characteristics or titles of that glory which they forfeit:—illuminution, the heavenly gift, the Holy Ghost, the Divine Word, the powers of the world to corne; which all mem the same thing, viewed in different lights, riz., tlmt unspeakable Gospel privilege, which is an earnest and portion of heavenly glory, of the holiness and blessedness of Angels—a present entrance into the next world, opened upon our souls through participation of the Word Incarnate, ministered to us by the Holy Ghost. Such is the mysterious state in which Christiuns sta.nd, if it be right to enlu'ge upon if. They are in 1 Pet. iv. 14; v. 10; 2 Pçt. i. 3; Rom. viii. 30; 1 Cor. il. 7, 9, 14; Eph. i. 3, 17-20; ii. 4-6, 18, 22; iii. 16-19; v. 25-27; Heb. vi. 4-6.
tIeaven, in the worhl f spirits, and are placed in the way of all manner of invisilfle influences. "Their eouversatim is in hetven;" they live among Angels, and are within reach (as I nmy say) of the Saints departed. They are ministers romd the throne of their reconciled Father, "kings and priest.s unto God," having their robes wa.shed in the Lamb's blood, and being consecrated as temldes of thc lIoly (,hoA,. And this being so, we bave some insight into the meaning of St. Paul's anxiet,y that his brethren should understand "t.he breadth and lcngth," "the riches" of the glorions inheritanee which they enjoyed, and of his tbrcil,le declaratim, on the other hand, that "the nat«ral lnan" couhl hot "discern" it. If we now recur to out Saviour's words already cited, we shall find that all thtt the Apostles have tohl ns in their Epistles is but an expa.nsion of two short sentences of His- "Except a man be born of water and f t/e,çldrit, he cannot enter into, or (as if is said just befi»re) see the AïG, don of " " "' o,. The glory which Thou gavest me, I have given theln." On these texts I make the following addit.ional remarks:When NicodelnU8 doubted about out Lord's dechration, thtt a ldrth through the Spirit was lhe entrance into His kingdom, tle said, " Ii" I ha.ve tohl you earthly things, a.nd ye believe hot, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no ma.n hath ascended up fo Heaven, but t[e tht calne down from Heaven, even ihe Son of man u']tic] is i «avc." In these words our Lord plainly discloses that in some mysterious wav john iii. 5: xvii. 22.
l{e, the,qou of man, was really iii IIeaven, even while, by humau eyes, l le was seen fo be on earth, l[is discourse seems t,) ruu thus:" Are you oflnded af the doctrine tl" t, he new birth of the soul into the kingdom tf God? t[igh as it is, it is but an earthly truth compared with others I, as ctmig fl'()m Heaven, couhl dich)se. I is mysterious how regelerate nmu should be a citizeu f t hea,enly kingdom, 1,ut I 5IyselI speak, ara (t this m,»ment in tIeaven te)o, even in this 5[y human mture." Thus the greater 5IysteT of the Iucavmtitm is ruade to euvelope ad pledge to us the mystel T of the ew 1,ivth. As tle was au icflitble sense, even "in the days of l[is flesh," so are we, in out degree; according to the 1,rayer, tlmt His discil)les might "all be one; as Thou, Father, art in [e, and I it Thee, tlmt they alto may be o11 in Us." :ut I[e was i,leased to reveal this high truth more exl,licitly on a subsequent occasions; I mean in I Ils Transfiguratmn. To many persons this portion of the Sacred History lnay have appeared with,,ut ol,jcct meaning. It was, in one sense, a miracle; yet it had no beneficeut purpose or last.iug c,msequeuce, as is usuai with ont Lord's lnimcles, and it took 1,lace private. But, surely, it is of a doctrinal nature, being not.hing less than a figurative exhibit.iol of the blessed trut.h contuined in the texts under revicw, a vision of t.he gh,rious Kingd,»m which He set up on the earth His coming, t[e suid to His Apostles, "I teH you of a t.ruth, there be some standing here which shaH hot John xvii. 21.
taste of death till they ste thc Kingdom of God." Then, "after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John llS brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain aptrt, and was transfigured before theln. And as He prayed thc fashion of His countenance wa.s altered, and I[is raiment was white a.nd glistening. And IIis face did shine as the sun, and I[is railnent was white as the light..... And bchçld there talked with Hiln two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory..... But l'eter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep; and when they were awake, l]«?! saw His glory." Such is the Kingdom of God; Christ the centre of it, l[is glory the light of if, the Just ruade perfeet His eompanions, and the Apostles His wit.nesses fo their brethren. If realizes what the aneient Saints saw by glimpses—Jaeob at Bethel, Moses on Sinai. Such, t, hen, being the espeeial glory and "dreadfulness" whieh attaelles to the Christian Chureh, it may be asked, how far the gi,'t is also ilnpart.ed to every individual melnber of it? If is imparted fo every member on his Baptism; as may 1)lainly be inferred ri'oto out Lord's words, who, in Itis diseourse with NieodelnuS, makes a birth through the Spirit, whieh He also declares is wrought by ]3aptism, tobe the only means of entering into ttis Kingdom; so that, unless a man is thus "born of water and of the Spirit," he is in no sense a member of His ],[ingdom at ail. By this new birth the Divine Shechinah is set up within him, pervading soul and body, separating hiln really, 1 Matt. xvii. 1, &c.; Luke ix. 27, &c.; cf. John i. 1,l; 2 Pe. i. ï.
The Girl of the @irit.:6 7 no only in naine, front those who are no Chrisfians, raising him in fixe seale of being, drawing and fosering into lire what, ever remains in him of higher nure, and impart, ing o him, in due season and measure, is own surpassing and heavenly virtue. Thus, while he ea.refiflly eherishes the (lift, he is, in the words of the text., "ehanged ri'oto glory to glory, even as by t.he Spirit of t.he Lord." On the other hand, if the (lift be resisted, if. gradually withdraws its presenee, and being thwm'ted in ifs chier end, the sanctieation of our nature, is forfeited as regards ifs otler belwfits also. Sueh seelns to be the rule on which the Ahnighty (liver aets; and, could we sec the souls of men, dt.ubtless we should sec them after t.his mamel'- infants just baptized bright as the Cherubim, as flalnes of tire rising heavemvard in sacrifice to God; then as they passed ri'oto childhood to man's estate, the light within them fading or strengthening as the case lna.y.be; while of grown men the multitude, alasl might shov bu tarflfl tokens tha the Lord had once beeu among t.hem, only here and there SOlne seattered witnesses tbr Crist remaining, and they, too, sealned all over wit.h Lhe stars of sin. To eonelude. IL were well if the views I have been seLfing belote you, which in the main are, I trust, those of Llie Chureh Catholie ff'oto Lhe beginning, were more undersLood and reeeived among us. They would, under God's blessing, puL a stop to mueh of the enLhusiasm whieh prevails on all sides, while they mighL tend o dispel those cold and ordinary notions of religion whieh are t.he opposiLe exLreme. Till we understmd tiret the gifts of grace are unseen, supernatterai, and mysterious, we have bnt a ehoiee between explaining away the high and glmving expres,ions of Seripture, or giving them that rash, irreverent, self-exalting interpretation, whieh is one of the ehief errors of t.his rime. Men of awakened and sensitive minds, knowing from,qeripnre that the gift of the Holy Ghost is something great and nnearth]y, dissatisfied with t.he meagre eoneeptions of the many,)'et hot knmving where fo look for what they need, are led fo place the lire of a Çhristian, whieh "is hid with Crist in God," in a sort of religions eestasy, in a highwrought sensibility on saered subjeets, in impassioned thoughts, a soft and languid tone of feeling, and an mmatnral profession of all this in conversation. And thrther, ri'oto the saine cause, their ignorance of the sq»«ratural character of the Heavenly Gift, they attempt to measnre if in each other by its sensible effects, and accç, unt none to be Christians but those whom they suppose they can ascertain fo be such, by their profession, language, and can'iage. On the other lmnd, sensible and sol,er-minded men, offended af such excesses, acquiesce in t]le notion, that the gift of the Holy (ihost was almost peculiar to the Apostles' da3-, that now, af least, it does nothing more than make us decent and orderly members of society; the privileges bestowed upon us in Scriptnre being, as they conceive, but of an external nature, education and the like, or, af the most, a pardon of oto" sins and admission fo {_od's favour, nnaccompanied by any actual and inherent powers bestowed upon us. uch are the consequences which naturally fidlow, xhen, from one cause or otlml', any of those doctrines are o]scured, hich ]mve been revealed in mercy to out necessities. The mind catches at the words of lire, and t.ries to apprehend them; and being debarred mir true meaning, takes up with this or that form of error, as the ca.e may l,e, in the semi,lance of truth, by way of compensation. For ourselves, in proportion as we realize that higher vicw t,f the sulject, which we may hmnl,ly trust is the trne oue, let us be careflfi to act up to if. Let us adore the Sacred l'resenee within us wifl all tçar, and " rcjoice with trembling." Let us oflbr up our best gifts in sacrifice to Him xho, instead of abhorring, bas taken up His abode in these sinflfl hem'es of «,urs. l'rayer, praise, a.nd thanksgiving, "good works and ahns-deeds," a b.ld and true confession and a selfdenying walk, are the ritual of worship ly which we serve ][im in these His Temples. IIow the distinct and 1,articular works of faith avail to out final aeeeptance, we kllOV llOt; neither do we know how they are eea.cious in cha.uging our -ills aud eharacters, which, througlt God's graee, they certailfly do. Ail we know is, that as we persevere in them, the inward light grows brigqter and brighter, and God manifests Himself in us in a way the world knows not of. In this, then, consiss our whole duty, first in eontemplating Ahnighty God, as in Heaveu, so in out hearts and souls; aml next, vhile we eontemplate Him, in aeting towards and for Him in the works of every day; in viewing by faith His glory without and wit.hin us, and in aeknowledging if by out obedience. Thus ve
Shal|| mfite conceptims the most lofl.y concerning t[is ma..iesty and bomity towards us, with the most lowly, miroite, and unostenta.tious service to Him. Lastly, tl,e doctrine on which I have been dwelling cannot thil to produce in us deeper and more reverent feelings towa.rds tire Church of Christ, as His especial dwelling-lflace. Itis evident we are in a mndt more extraordina W state tlmn we are at ail aware o£ The mltitude h, hot mdmtand this. Soit was in lsrael once. There was a rime when, even at Bethel, where (h»d had ah'eadv wmehsafed a warning against such ign.rance, the very ehildren of the city "' moeked" His prolhet, little thinking he had with him the mantle of Elijdt. In an art.er age, the prolfltet Ezekiel was bid prophesy to the people, "whether tlmy would hear or whether they would forbear;" and, it was added, " and they, whether they will hear or whether *hey will fm'bear, yet shall know that there lmth been a prophet among them. '' Let us not fear, therefore, *o be but a few among many in onr belie£ Let us hot fear opposition, suspieion, reproach, or ridicule. God sees us; and His Angels, they are looking on. They know we are fight, and bear witness to us; and, « yet a little while, and 1le that cmneth shall corne, and will not tan T. ow the just shtll lire byfaila. '' 2 Kings ii. 23; Ezek. ii. , V. = Heb. x. 37, as.