such acts are ascribed to the Holy Spirit; as personal acts are elsewhere attributed to charity, i to sin, or to the letter of the law.k Not to mention, that those indications of that figure of speech which are obvious elsewhere, are not to be found in the passages relating to the Spirit;-God is sometimes at particular pains, so to speak, to guard us against imagining that there is any such fiction of a person, where the Holy Spirit is spoken of. Thus in 1 Cor. xii. Paul, after having in the ninth verse designated certain gifts by the term Spirits, yet straightway, verse eleventh, refers all to one Spirit, the distributor of those gifts, as to a real person. Nor, as I apprehend, will our antagonists ever be able to show, that operations of the kind mentioned in the places to which we have referred, as catching away a man ;-saying, Separate me men for the work whereunto I have called them; and interceding for one,—are not characteristical of persons. 54

x. 4thly, From his being joined in the same place and order with persons, without any mark of differThus in Mat. xxviii. 19. the joined to baptize in the name of the less than of the Father and the Son.

ence.

Apostles are en

Holy Ghost, no

Now what is it

to perform a deed in the name of any one, but to do it by his authority and command? The authority, too, of these three is here propounded as equal, or rather as one. As therefore the Father and the Son are, by this expression, declared to be the authors of baptism, the Holy Spirit is in the same manner designated the author of that institution. But if he were not a person, how could the ordinance of baptism be ascribed to him? i 1 Cor. xiii. J Rom. vii. 11. * 2 Cor. iii. 6.

54 See NOTE LIV.

Objectors indeed allege, that things which are not persons, are connected with persons in the same sentence, as in the passage where Paul commends the Church" to God, and to the word of his grace," that is, the Gospel. They add, that even the names of what are not persons, are joined to the name of a person ;

I will write upon him the name of my God, and the "name of the city of my God."m But we reply, 1. Nowhere is any thing said to be done in the name of that which is not a person. 2. Although" the word of his

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grace" elsewhere signifies the Gospel, it doth not necessarily follow, that the expression has the same meaning in Acts xx. 32. The signification of words often varies according to the variety of circumstances, and the diversified exigencies of the subject. We are not displeased with the observation of Francis Gomar, that the Word of the grace of God here refers to Christ, who, agreeably to the forms of instruction used by the ancient Hebrews, is in the writings of John denominated the Word; and who may be called the Word of grace from the effects which he produces, just as he is styled "the Word of life." In the same manner, he adds, Peter speaks of "the God of all grace," and Paul of "the Spirit of grace." Christ may be called, in fine, says that writer," the Word of the grace of God," because, as Mediator, he has obtained and announced the favour of God towards us. The propriety and concinnity of the Apostolical diction lead us thus to understand these expressions of Christ, rather than of the Gospel. It appears far more proper for the Church to be commended to Christ, than to the Gospel; which

1 Acts xx. 32. Comp. chap. xiv. 3.

m Rev. iii. 12.

0 1 Pet. v. 10.

n 1 John i. 1.

P Heb. x. 29.

·

is usually commended to the Church. If you wish, however, by all means to explain it of the Gospel, the meaning of this improper phrase will be, that believers are commended to God, in order that he may instruct and console them by the doctrine of grace. And thus the Gospel will be associated with God, as the instrumental with the principal cause;-to which there is nothing similar in the passage from which we are now reasoning.55 3. We do not urge, that every thing is a person, to which a name is attributed, or whose name is joined with the name of a person; but merely maintain the personality of that in whose name something is said to be done, and done in the same manner in which it is performed in the name of those who are undoubtedly persons.

XI. You may urge perhaps, If that in whose name we are baptized, appear to be a person, that with which

we are baptized cannot be a person; just as the water 'with which we are baptized cannot be affirmed to be a 'person. Since, it is said, therefore, that believers are

baptized with the Holy Ghost," is it not sufficiently 'clear that the Holy Spirit is not a person?' I reply, if there is any force in this argument, it will follow by parity of reason, that as the garment with which we are clothed, or the bread on which we subsist, is not a person, so neither is Christ a person, because we are commanded to put him on,s and are nourished by him as the bread of life. What else is it to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, if we intend to express ourselves in proper terms, than to be enriched with the grace and the gifts of the

91 Tim. i. 18. 2 Tim. ii. 2.

Mat. iii. 11. Acts i. 5. 1 Cor. xii. 13.

$ Rom. xiii. 14. Gal. iii. 27.

t John vi. 51.

55 See NOTE LV.

Holy Spirit? And what should hinder us from esteeming him a person, whose grace and gifts are conferred on us? We do not even hold, besides, that whenever the term Holy Spirit occurs in the sacred volume, it always designates a person; since we readily confess, that it is sometimes used metonymically, to denote the gifts of the Spirit. If then we admit that such is the case here, when we are said to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, on what pretext will you thence conclude, that the same thing ought to be understood, when we are said to be baptized in his name, whilst the expres sions are so very different?

XII. Adversaries object, that in the Sacred Scriptures the Holy Ghost is frequently called the power of God; as instances of which they produce Luke i. 35. xxiv. 49. compared with Acts i. 4, 5, 8. Chap. x. 38. and thence infer that he is not a person. But this reasoning is utterly inconclusive. Simon Magus was termed by his followers, "the great power of God;" and Christ is denominated "the power of God." Nay, the Hebrews consider a word* which signifies power, as one of the titles of God. Hence the following expression, What did Moses answer in the presence of "the Power," that is, God? On this point Elias‡ and Buxtorfs may be consulted. Some are of opinion, that the following phrase in the Gospel of Mark, is conformable to the same mode of speaking; "Ye shall "see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of "W power." It could furnish no solid objection, there

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fore, to the personality of the Holy Spirit, that he were sometimes called the power of God. But adversaries cannot even prove that he is so called. For if we mistake not, we shall see that in all the places alleged, the Holy Ghost and power are distinguished from each other. In Luke i. 35, we find ascribed to the Holy Ghost as a Divine person, "the power of "the Highest," as a property by which, and according to which he operates; for it is "the power of the Spi"rit." So also in Luke xxiv. 49, "power from on "high" doth not immediately denote the Holy Spirit, but that greatness of soul with which the Apostles were endowed; of which it is intimated that the Holy Spirit is the author, when it is said to come from on high. To this interpretation we are naturally led by what we read elsewhere: " But shall receive power, "after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ;"y that is, the power you shall obtain, is from the Holy Ghost descending on you. In like manner, in Acts x. 38, there is an intimation, first, of the cause, "God anoint"ed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost;" then, of the effect," and with power."

ye

XIII. Nor is there greater weight in the cavil against the personality of the Holy Spirit, founded on the passages where he is said to be given to men, or to be received by them; for, 1st, Even God gives himself to us, as "an exceeding great reward;"a and he is the "por“tion” or “ inheritance" of believers. 2dly, Christ is

Luke iv. 14.

* Αλλα λήψεσθει δύναμιν ἐπελθοντος τε ἁγιᾶ πνεύματος ἐφ' ὑμάς, Acts i. 8.

* Luke xi. 13. John xiv. 16, 17. Rom. v. 5.

a Gen. xv. 1.

VOL. II.

John xx. 22.