"Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,
if so be
that
the Spirit of God dwell in you." Romans viii. 9.
[Note 1] GOD the Son has graciously vouchsafed to reveal the Father
to His creatures from without; God the Holy Ghost, by inward communications.
Who can compare these separate works of condescension, either of them being
beyond our understanding? We can but silently adore the Infinite Love which
encompasses us on every side. The Son of God is called the Word, as declaring
His glory throughout created nature, and impressing the evidence of it
on every part of it. He has given us to read it in His works of goodness,
holiness, and wisdom. He is the Living and Eternal Law of Truth and Perfection,
that Image of God's unapproachable Attributes, which men have ever seen
by glimpses on the face of the world, felt that it was sovereign, but knew
not whether to say it was a fundamental Rule and self-existing Destiny,
or the Offspring and Mirror of the Divine Will. Such has He been from the
beginning, graciously sent forth from the Father to reflect His glory upon
all things, distinct from Him, while mysteriously one with Him; and in
due time visiting us with an infinitely deeper mercy, when for our redemption
He humbled Himself to take upon Him that fallen nature which He had originally
created after His own image.
The condescension of the Blessed Spirit is as incomprehensible as that
of the Son. He has ever been the secret Presence of God within the Creation:
a source of life amid the chaos, bringing out into form and order what
was at first shapeless and void, and the voice of Truth in the hearts of
all rational beings, tuning them into harmony with the intimations of God's
Law, which were externally made to them. Hence He is especially called
the "life-giving" Spirit; being (as it were) the Soul of universal nature,
the Strength of man and beast, the Guide of faith, the Witness against
sin, the inward Light of patriarchs and prophets, the Grace abiding in
the Christian soul, and the Lord and Ruler of the Church. Therefore let
us ever praise the Father Almighty, who is the first Source of all perfection,
in and together with His Coequal Son and Spirit, through whose gracious
ministrations we have been given to see "what manner of love" it is wherewith
the Father has loved us.
On this Festival I propose, as is suitable, to describe as scripturally
as I can, the merciful office of God the Holy Ghost, towards us Christians;
and I trust I may do so, with the sobriety and reverence which the subject
demands.
The Holy Spirit has from the beginning pleaded with man. We read in
the Book of Genesis, that, when evil began to prevail all over the earth
before the flood, the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with
man; " [Gen. vi. 3.] implying that He had hitherto striven with his corruption.
Again, when God took to Him a peculiar people, the Holy Spirit was pleased
to he
especially present with them. Nehemiah says, "Thou gavest also Thy Good
Spirit to instruct them," [Neh. ix. 20.] and Isaiah, "They rebelled and
vexed His Holy Spirit." [Isa. lxiii. 10.] Further, He manifested Himself
as the source of various gifts, intellectual and extraordinary, in the
Prophets, and others. Thus at the time the Tabernacle was constructed,
the Lord filled Bezaleel "with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding,
and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works"
[Exod. xxxi. 3, 4.] in metal, stone, and timber. At another time, when
Moses was oppressed with his labours, Almighty God vouchsafed to "take
of the Spirit" which was upon him, and to put it on seventy of the elders
of Israel, that they might share the burden with him. "And it came to pass,
that, when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease."
[Numb. xi. 17, 25.] These texts will be sufficient to remind you of many
others, in which the gifts of the Holy Ghost are spoken of under the Jewish
covenant. These were great mercies; yet, great as they were, they are as
nothing compared with that surpassing grace with which we Christians are
honoured; that great privilege of receiving into our hearts, not the mere
gifts of the Spirit, but His very presence, Himself, by a real not a figurative
indwelling.
When our Lord entered upon His Ministry, He acted as though He were
a mere man, needing grace, and received the consecration of the Holy Spirit
for our sakes. He became the Christ, or Anointed, that the Spirit might
be seen to come from God, and to pass from Him to us. And, therefore, the
heavenly Gift is not simply called the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of God,
but the Spirit of Christ, that we might clearly understand, that He comes
to us from and instead of Christ. Thus St. Paul says, "God hath sent forth
the Spirit of His Son into your hearts;" and our Lord breathed on His Apostles,
saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost;" and He says elsewhere to them, "If
I depart, I will send Him unto you." [Gal. iv. 6. John xx. 22; xvi. 7.]
Accordingly this "Holy Spirit of promise" is called "the earnest of our
inheritance," "the seal and earnest of an Unseen Saviour;" [Eph. i. 14.
2 Cor. i. 22; v. 5.] being the present pledge of Him who is absent,—or
rather more than a pledge, for an earnest is not a mere token which will
be taken from us when it is fulfilled, as a pledge might be, but a something
in advance of what is one day to be given in full.
This must be clearly understood; for it would seem to follow, that if
so, the Comforter who has come instead of Christ, must have vouchsafed
to come in the same sense in which Christ came; I mean, that He has come,
not merely in the way of gifts, or of influences, or of operations, as
He came to the Prophets, for then Christ's going away would be a loss,
and not a gain, and the Spirit's presence would be a mere pledge, not an
earnest; but He comes to us as Christ came, by a real and personal visitation.
I do not say we could have inferred this thus clearly by the mere force
of the above cited texts; but it being actually so revealed to us in other
texts of Scripture, we are able to see that it may be legitimately deduced
from these. We are able to see that the Saviour, when once He entered into
this world, never so departed as to suffer things to be as before He came;
for He still is with us, not in mere gifts, but by the substitution of
His Spirit for Himself, and that, both in the Church and in the souls of
individual Christians.
For instance, St. Paul says in the text, "Ye are not in the flesh, but
in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." Again, "He
shall quicken even your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
"Know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you?" "Ye are the Temple of the Living God, as God hath said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them." The same Apostle clearly distinguishes between
the indwelling of the Spirit, and His actual operations within us, when
he says, "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us;" and again, "The Spirit Himself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God." [Rom. viii. 11. 1 Cor.
vi. 19. 2 Cor. vi. 16. Rom. v. 5; viii. 16.]
Here let us observe, before proceeding, what indirect evidence is afforded
us in these texts of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. Who can be personally
present at once with every Christian, but God Himself? Who but He, not
merely ruling in the midst of the Church invisibly, as Michael might keep
watch over Israel, or another Angel might be "the Prince of Persia,"—but
really taking up His abode as one and the same in many separate hearts,
so as to fulfil our Lord's words, that it was expedient that He should
depart; Christ's bodily presence, which was limited to place, being exchanged
for the manifold spiritual indwelling of the Comforter within us? This
consideration suggests both the dignity of our Sanctifier, and the infinite
preciousness of His Office towards us.
To proceed: The Holy Ghost, I have said, dwells in body and soul, as
in a temple. Evil spirits indeed have power to possess sinners, but His
indwelling is far more perfect; for He is all-knowing and omnipresent,
He is able to search into all our thoughts, and penetrate into every motive
of the heart. Therefore, He pervades us (if it may be so said) as light
pervades a building, or as a sweet perfume the folds of some honourable
robe; so that, in Scripture language, we are said to be in Him, and He
in us. It is plain that such an inhabitation brings the Christian into
a state altogether new and marvellous, far above the possession of mere
gifts, exalts him inconceivably in the scale of beings, and gives him a
place and an office which he had not before. In St. Peter's forcible language,
he becomes "partaker of the Divine Nature," and has "power" or authority,
as St. John says, "to become the son of God." Or, to use the words of St.
Paul, "he is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold all things
are become new." His rank is new; his parentage and service new. He is
"of God," and "is not his own," "a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet
for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work." [2 Pet. i. 4.
John i. 12. 2 Cor. v. 17. 1 John iv. 4. 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. 2 Tim. ii. 21.]
This wonderful change from darkness to light, through the entrance of
the Spirit into the soul, is called Regeneration, or the New Birth; a blessing
which, before Christ's coming, not even Prophets and righteous men possessed,
but which is now conveyed to all men freely through the Sacrament of Baptism.
By nature we are children of wrath; the heart is sold under sin, possessed
by evil spirits; and inherits death as its eternal portion. But by the
coming of the Holy Ghost, all guilt and pollution are burned away as by
fire, the devil is driven forth, sin, original and actual, is forgiven,
and the whole man is consecrated to God. And this is the reason why He
is called "the earnest" of that Saviour who died for us, and will one day
give us the fulness of His own presence in heaven. Hence, too, He is our
"seal unto the day of redemption;" for as the potter moulds the clay, so
He impresses the Divine image on us members of the household of God. And
His work may truly be called Regeneration; for though the original nature
of the soul is not destroyed, yet its past transgressions are pardoned
once and for ever, and its source of evil staunched and gradually dried
up by the pervading health and purity which has set up its abode in it.
Instead of its own bitter waters, a spring of health and salvation is brought
within it; not the mere streams of that fountain, "clear as crystal," which
is before the Throne of God [Note 2], but, as our Lord says, "a well of
water in him," in a man's heart, "springing up into everlasting life."
Hence He elsewhere describes the heart as giving forth, not receiving,
the streams of grace: "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of Living Water."
St. John adds, "this spake He of the Spirit." [John iv. 14; vii. 38, 39.]
Such is the inhabitation of the Holy Ghost within us, applying to us
individually the precious cleansing of Christ's blood in all its manifold
benefits. Such is the great doctrine, which we hold as a matter of faith,
and without actual experience to verify it to us. Next, I must speak briefly
concerning the manner in which the Gift of grace manifests itself in the
regenerate soul; a subject which I do not willingly take up, and which
no Christian perhaps is ever able to consider without some effort, feeling
that he thereby endangers either his reverence towards God, or his humility,
but which the errors of this day, and the confident tone of their advocates,
oblige us to dwell upon, lest truth should suffer by our silence.
1. The heavenly gift of the Spirit fixes the eyes of our mind upon the
Divine Author of our salvation. By nature we are blind and carnal; but
the Holy Ghost by whom we are new-born, reveals to us the God of mercies,
and bids us recognise and adore Him as our Father with a true heart. He
impresses on us our Heavenly Father's image, whish we lost when Adam fell,
and disposes us to seek His presence by the very instinct of our new nature.
He gives us back a portion of that freedom in willing and doing, of that
uprightness and innocence, in which Adam was created. He unites us to all
holy beings, as before we had relationship with evil. He restores for us
that broken bond, which, proceeding from above, connects together into
one blessed family all that is anywhere holy and eternal, and separates
it off from the rebel world which comes to nought. Being then the sons
of God, and one with Him, our souls mount up and cry to Him continually.
This special characteristic of the regenerate soul is spoken of by St.
Paul soon after the text. "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father." Nor are we left to utter these cries to Him, in
any vague uncertain way of our own; but He who sent the Spirit to dwell
in us habitually, gave us also a form of words to sanctify the separate
acts of our minds. Christ left His sacred Prayer to be the peculiar possession
of His people, and the voice of the Spirit. If we examine it, we shall
find in it the substance of that doctrine, to which St. Paul has given
a name in the passage just quoted. We begin it by using our privilege of
calling on Almighty God in express words as "Our Father." We proceed, according
to this beginning, in that waiting, trusting, adoring, resigned temper,
which children ought to feel; looking towards Him, rather than thinking
of ourselves; zealous for His honour rather than fearful about our safety;
resting in His present help, not with eyes timorously glancing towards
the future. His name, His kingdom, His will, are the great objects for
the Christian to contemplate and make his portion, being stable and serene,
and "complete in Him," as beseems one who has the gracious presence of
His Spirit within him. And, when he goes on to think of himself he prays,
that he may be enabled to have towards others what God has shown towards
himself, a spirit of forgiveness and loving-kindness. Thus he pours himself
out on all sides, first looking up to catch the heavenly gift, but, when
he gains it, not keeping it to himself, but diffusing "rivers of living
water" to the whole race of man, thinking of self as little as may be,
and desiring ill and destruction to nothing but that principle of temptation
and evil, which is rebellion against God;—lastly, ending, as he began,
with the contemplation of His kingdom, power, and glory ever-lasting. This
is the true "Abba, Father," which the Spirit of adoption utters within
the Christian's heart, the infallible voice of Him who "maketh intercession
for the Saints in God's way." And if he has at times, for instance, amid
trial or affliction, special visitations and comfortings from the Spirit,
"plaints unutterable" within him, yearnings after the life to come, or
bright and passing gleams of God's eternal election, and deep stirrings
of wonder and thankfulness thence following, he thinks too reverently of
"the secret of the Lord," to betray (as it were) His confidence, and, by
vaunting it to the world, to exaggerate it perchance into more than it
was meant to convey: but he is silent, and ponders it as choice encouragement
to his soul, meaning something, but he knows not how much.
2. The indwelling of the Holy Ghost raises the soul, not only to the
thought of God, but of Christ also. St. John says, "Truly our fellowship
is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." And our Lord Himself,
"If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him,
and We will come unto him, and make our abode with him." [1 John i. 5.
John xiv. 23.] Now, not to speak of other and higher ways in which these
texts are fulfilled, one surely consists in that exercise of faith and
love in the thought of the Father and Son, which the Gospel, and the Spirit
revealing it, furnish to the Christian. The Spirit came especially to "glorify"
Christ; and vouchsafes to be a shining light within the Church and the
individual Christian, reflecting the Saviour of the world in all His perfections,
all His offices, all His works. He came for the purpose of unfolding what
was yet hidden, whilst Christ was on earth; and speaks on the house-tops
what was delivered in closets, disclosing Him in the glories of His transfiguration,
who once had no comeliness in His outward form, and was but a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. First, He inspired the Holy Evangelists to record
the life of Christ, and directed them which of His words and works to select,
which to omit; next, He commented (as it were) upon these, and unfolded
their meaning in the Apostolic Epistles. The birth, the life, the death
and resurrection of Christ, has been the text which He has illuminated.
He has made history to be doctrine; telling us plainly, whether by St.
John or St. Paul, that Christ's conception and birth was the real Incarnation
of the Eternal Word,—His life, "God manifest in the Flesh,"—His death and
resurrection, the Atonement for sin, and the Justification of all believers.
Nor was this all: he continued His sacred comment in the formation of the
Church, superintending and overruling its human instruments, and bringing
out our Saviour's words and works, and the Apostles' illustrations of them,
into acts of obedience and permanent Ordinances, by the ministry of Saints
and Martyrs. Lastly, He completes His gracious work by conveying this system
of Truth, thus varied and expanded, to the heart of each individual Christian
in whom He dwells. Thus He vouchsafes to edify the whole man in faith and
holiness: "casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ." [2 Cor. x. 5.] By His wonder working
grace all things tend to perfection. Every faculty of the mind, every design,
pursuit, subject of thought, is hallowed in its degree by the abiding vision
of Christ, as Lord, Saviour, and Judge. All solemn, reverent, thankful,
and devoted feelings, all that is noble, all that is choice in the regenerate
soul, all that is self-denying in conduct, and zealous in action, is drawn
forth and offered up by the Spirit as a living sacrifice to the Son of
God. And, though the Christian is taught not to think of himself above
his measure, and dare not boast, yet he is also taught that the consciousness
of the sin which remains in him, and infects his best services, should
not separate him from God, but lead him to Him who can save. He reasons
with St. Peter, "To whom should he go?" and, without daring to decide,
or being impatient to be told how far he is able to consider as his own
every Gospel privilege in its fulness, he gazes on them all with deep thought
as the Church's possession, joins her triumphant hymns in honour of Christ,
and listens wistfully to her voice in inspired Scripture, the voice of
the Bride calling upon and blest in the Beloved.
3. St. John adds, after speaking of "our fellowship with the Father
and His Son:" "These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full."
What is fulness of joy but peace? Joy is tumultuous only when it is not
full; but peace is the privilege of those who are "filled with the knowledge
of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." "Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth
in Thee." [Isa. xxvi. 3.] It is peace, springing from trust and innocence,
and then overflowing in love towards all around him. What is the effect
of mere animal ease and enjoyment, but to make a man pleased with everything
which happens? "A merry heart is a perpetual feast;" and such is peculiarly
the blessing of a soul rejoicing in the faith and fear of God. He who is
anxious, thinks of himself, is suspicious of danger, speaks hurriedly,
and has no time for the interests of others; he who lives in peace is at
leisure, wherever his lot is cast. Such is the work of the Holy Spirit
in the heart, whether in Jew or Greek, bond or free. He Himself perchance
in His mysterious nature, is the Eternal Love whereby the Father and the
Son have dwelt in each other, as ancient writers have believed; and what
He is in heaven, that He is abundantly on earth. He lives in the Christian's
heart, as the never-failing fount of charity, which is the very sweetness
of the living waters. For where He is, "there is liberty" from the tyranny
of sin, from the dread, which the natural man feels, of an offended, unreconciled
Creator. Doubt, gloom, impatience have been expelled; joy in the Gospel
has taken their place, the hope of heaven and the harmony of a pure heart,
the triumph of self-mastery, sober thoughts, and a contented mind. How
can charity towards all men fail to follow, being the mere affectionateness
of innocence and peace? Thus the Spirit of God creates in us the simplicity
and warmth of heart which children have, nay, rather the perfections of
His heavenly hosts, high and low being joined together in His mysterious
work; for what are implicit trust, ardent love, abiding purity, but the
mind both of little children and of the adoring Seraphim!
Thoughts, such as these, will affect us rightly, if they make us fear
and be watchful, while we rejoice. They cannot surely do otherwise; for
the mind of a Christian, as I have been attempting to describe it, is not
so much what we have, as what we ought to have. To look, indeed, after
dwelling on it, upon the multitude of men who have been baptized in Christ's
name, is too serious a matter, and we need not force ourselves to do so.
We need not do so, further than to pray for them, and to protest and strive
against what is evil among them; for as to the higher and more solemn thought,
how persons, set apart individually and collectively, as Temples of Truth
and Holiness, should become what they seem to be, and what their state
is in consequence in God's sight, is a question which it is a great blessing
to be allowed to put from us as not our concern. It is our concern only
to look to ourselves, and to see that, as we have received the gift, we
"grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day
of redemption;" remembering that "if any man destroy the temple of God,
him shall God destroy." This reflection and the recollection of our many
backslidings, will ever keep us, please God, from judging others, or from
priding ourselves on our privileges. Let us but consider how we have fallen
from the light and grace of our Baptism. Were we now what that Holy Sacrament
made us, we might ever ''go on our way rejoicing;" but having sullied our
heavenly garments, in one way or other, in a greater or less degree (God
knoweth! and our own consciences too in a measure), alas! the Spirit of
adoption has in part receded from us, and the sense of guilt, remorse,
sorrow, and penitence must take His place. We must renew our confession,
and seek afresh our absolution day by day, before we dare call upon God
as "our Father," or offer up Psalms and Intercessions to Him. And, whatever
pain and affliction meets us through life, we must take it as a merciful
penance imposed by a Father upon erring children, to be borne meekly and
thankfully, and as intended to remind us of the weight of that infinitely
greater punishment, which was our desert by nature, and which Christ bore
for us on the Cross.
Copyright © 2000 by Bob Elder. All rights reserved.
Used with permission. See the Newman website:
http://www.newmanreader.org/index.html
