any other, by any one who is of any authority among the Hebrews. Wherefore it is evident that some amongst us, too much Judaizing, do err, whilst they fear not to expound this literally of Josiah. But that this is to be understood of the Messiah only is showed by Rabbi Solomon, who expounds it of him, and not of Josiah; which, according to his way, he would never have done, if, without the injury of his Talmud and Targum, and the prejudice of all his predecessors, he could have expounded it otherwise." So far he.

It is not a little strange that some Christians should venture farther in perverting the testimonies of Scripture concerning the MesIsiah than the Jews dare to do.

4. He makes and appoints to himself and his service ministers of the church, Acts xiii. 2, giving unto them powers, and working various and wonderful works, as he pleaseth, 1 Cor. xii. 8–11.

5. He is sinned against, and so offended with sin that the sin against him shall never be forgiven, Matt. xii. 31; though it be not against his person, but some especial grace and dispensation of his.

6. He is the object of divine worship,' we being baptized into his name, as that of the Father and Son, Matt. xxviii. 19. And grace

is prayed for from him as from Father and Son, 2 Cor. xiii. 14; Rev. i. 4, 5; Rom. x. 14. He is to be head of churches, Rev. ii. iii.; but God will not give this glory to another, Isa. xlii. 8. Also, he hath the name of God given him, Isa. vi. 8, 9, compared with Acts xxviii. 25, 26; and Isa. lxiii. 13, 14, with Ps. lxxviii. 41, 52; 2 Sam. xxiii. 2, 3; Acts v. 3, 4.

7. And the attributes of God are ascribed to him, as,-(1.) Ubiquity, or omnipresence, Ps. cxxxix. 7; 1 Cor. iii. 16. (2.) Omniscience, 1 Cor. ii. 10; John xvi. 13. His omnipotency and eternity are both manifest from the creation. 8. To all this, in a word, it may be added that he is a person, the denial whereof is the only xpnopuysrov of the Socinians. They acknowledge that if he be a person, he is God. But, (1.) He is a person who hath a name, and in whose name something is done, as we are said to be baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost, Matt. xxviii. 19. And, (2.) He is conjoined with the other divine persons as one of them, 2 Cor. xiii. 14; Rev. i. 4, 5; Matt. xxviii. 19. (3.) He

1 "Nota quod in locis innumeris in Talmud hoc exponitur de Messia, et nunquam de alio, ab aliquo qui alicujus apud Hebræos authoritatis sit. Quare patet quod errant, nimium judaizantes nostri, qui hoc de Josia ad literam non verentur exponere. De solo quippe Messia hoc intelligendum fore ostenditur per R. Solomon, qui hoc de ipso non de Josia exponit; quod juxta morem suum nunquam egisset, si absque injuria sui Talmud et Targum, et sine prædecessorum suorum omnium præjudicio, aliter exponere potuisset."-Raymund. Martin. Pug. Fid. p. 3, d. 1, c. xi.

2 Οὗτος ὁ Θεὸς δοξαζόμενος ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ, πατὴρ ἀεὶ, υἱὸς ἀεὶ, πνεῦμα ἅγιον αεί.—Epiphan. Ancorat. cap. lxxiii. Τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, τὸ σὺν Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ συμπροσκυνούμενον, καὶ uvdoğa Kóμevov.-Symbol. Conc. Constant.

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hath an understanding, 1 Cor. ii. 11; and a will, chap. xii. 11. (4.) To him are speaking and words ascribed, and such actions as are peculiar to persons, Acts xiii. 2, xx. 28, etc.

What remains of this chapter will be of a brief and easy despatch. The next question is, "Whence is the Holy Ghost sent ?-A. 1 Pet. i. 12, 'Down from heaven.""

1. This advantageth not at all Mr B.'s design against the Holy Ghost, to prove him not to be God, that he is "sent down from heaven;" whereby he supposeth that his coming from one place to another is intimated, seeing he supposes God to be so in heaven, yea, in some certain place of heaven, as at the same time not to be elsewhere, so that if ever he be in the earth he must come down from heaven.

2. Nor is there any thing in his being sent prejudicial to the prerogative of his divine being; for he who is God, equal in nature to the Father and Son, yet, in respect of the order of that dispensation that these three who are in heaven, who are also one, 1 John v. 7, have engaged in for the salvation of men, may be sent of the Father and the Son, having the execution of that work, which they respectively concur in, in an eminent manner to him committed.

3. Wherever the Spirit is said to descend from heaven, it is to be understood according to the analogy of what we have already spoken concerning the presence of God in heaven, with his looking and going down from thence; which I shall not repeat again. Essentially he is everywhere, Ps. cxxxix. 7.

4. In that place of Peter alleged by Mr B., not the person of the Spirit, but his gifts on the apostles, and his operations in them, whose great and visible foundations were laid on the day of Pentecost, Acts ii, are intended.

The two next questions leading only to an expression of the sending of the Holy Ghost by the Father and the Son, though Mr B.'s Christians differ about the interpretation of the places produced for the proof thereof, and there lie no small argument and evidence of the deity of Christ in his sending of the Holy Ghost as the Father sends him, yet there being an agreement in the expressions themselves, I shall not insist upon them. He proceeds:-"Q. Had Jesus Christ always the power to send the Holy Ghost, or did he obtain it at a certain time?-A. Acts ii. 32, 33; John vii. 39."

1. The intendment of this query is, to conclude from some certain respect and manner of sending the Holy Ghost to the thing itself,from the sending him in a visible, glorious, plentiful, eminent manner,' as to the effusion of his gifts and graces, to the sending of him absolutely; which methinks a Master of Arts should know to be a sophistical way of arguing. 2. It endeavours, also, from the exercise 1 Απλῶς κατά τι

of power to conclude to the receiving of the power itself; and that not the absolute exercise of it neither, but in some certain respect, as was spoken. 3. This, then, is that which Mr B. concludes: "Because Christ, when he was exalted, or when he ascended into heaven, had the accomplishment of the promise actually, in the sending forth of the Spirit in that abundant and plentiful manner which was prophesied of by Joel, chap. ii. 28-31, therefore he then first received power to send the Spirit:" which, 4. By the testimony of Christ himself is false, and not the sense of the Holy Ghost in the places mentioned, seeing that before his ascension he breathed on his disciples, and bade them receive the Holy Ghost, John xx. 22. Nay, 5. That he had the power of sending the Holy Ghost, and did actually send him, not only before his ascension and exaltation, but also before his incarnation, is expressly affirmed, 1 Pet. i. 11. The Spirit that was in the prophets of old was the "Spirit of Christ," and sent by him; as was that Spirit by which he preached in the days of the old disobedient world: which places have been formerly vindicated at large. So that, 6. As that place, Acts ii. 32, 33, is there expounded to be concerning the plentiful effusion of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the times of the gospel, according to the prophecy of Joel, so also is that of John vii. 39, it being positively affirmed as to the thing itself that he gave the Holy Ghost before his exaltation, though not in that abundant manner as afterward; and so neither of them concludes any thing as to the time of Christ's receiving power to send the Spirit; which, upon the supposition of such a work as for the accomplishment whereof it was necessary the Holy Ghost should be sent, he had from eternity.

About the next question we shall not contend. It is:-"Q. What were the general benefits accruing to Christians by the Holy Ghost?" whereunto sundry texts of Scripture that make mention of the Holy Ghost, his graces, and gifts, are subjoined. Upon the whole I have only some few things to animadvert:

1. If by the words "general benefits" he limits the receiving of those benefits of the Holy Ghost to any certain time (as suppose the time of his first plentiful effusion, upon the ascension of Jesus Christ, and the preaching of the gospel to all nations thereupon), as it is a sacrilegious conception, robbing believers of after ages to the end of the world of all the fruits of the efficacy of the Spirit, without which they can neither enjoy communion with God in this life nor ever be brought to an eternal fruition of him, so it is most false, and contrary to the express prayer of our Saviour, desiring the same things for them who should believe on his name to the end of the world as he did for those who conversed with him in the days of his flesh. But I will suppose this is not his intention, because it would plainly deny that there are any Christians in the world (which yet was the

opinion of some of his friends heretofore1), for "if we have not the Spirit of Christ we are none of his," Rom. viii. 9.

2. The things enumerated may be called "general benefits," because they are common to all believers as to the substance, essence, or being of them, though in respect of their degrees they are communicated variously to the several individuals, the same Spirit dividing to every one as he will, 1 Cor. xii. 11. They are so general to them all that every particular believer enjoys them all.

3. The enumeration here given us is very far and remote from being complete, there being only some few fruits of the Spirit and privileges which we receive by our receiving of him recounted, and that in a very confused manner, one thing being added after another without any order or coherence at all. Yea, of the benefits we receive by the Spirit, of the graces he works in us, of the helps he affords us, of that joy and consolation he imparts unto us, of the daily assistances we receive from him, of the might of his power put forth in us, of the efficacy of his operations, the constancy of his presence, the privileges by him imparted, there is not by any in this life a full account to be given. To insist on particulars is not my present task; I have also in part done it elsewhere.'

4. I desire Mr B. seriously to consider whether even the things which he thinks good to mention may possibly be ascribed to a mere creature, or that all believers are by such an one "baptized into one body," or that we "are all made to drink into one Spirit," etc. But of these things before. Unto this he adds: "Q. What are the special benefits accruing to the apostles by the Holy Ghost? what saith Christ to them hereof ?-A. John xv. 26, xvi. 13."

Besides the graces of the Spirit, which the apostles, as believers, received in a plentiful manner, they had also his presence by his extraordinary gifts, to fit them for that whole extraordinary work whereunto of him they were called: for as by his authority they were separated to the work, and were to perform it unto him, Acts xiii. 2, so whatever work they were to perform, either as apostles or as penmen of the scripture of the New Testament, they had suitable gifts bestowed on them by him, 1 Cor. xii.,-inspiration from him suitable to their work; the Scripture being of inspiration from God, because the holy men that wrote it were inspired or moved by the Holy Ghost, 2 Pet. i. 21, 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.3 And as this Holy Ghost, who is God, working all in all, divideth of his gifts as he will, 1 Cor. xii. 6, 11, and giveth all gifts whatever to the church that it doth enjoy, so did he in an especial manner with the apostles.

Now, our Saviour, Christ, being to leave the world, giving gracious

1 Socin. Epist. iii, ad Matth. Rad.

Perseverance of Saints, chap. viii. (voi. xi ]

8 Ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἁγίου φερόμενοι.

promises to his disciples, he considered them under a twofold capacity or condition:-1. Of believers, of such as followed him and believed in him; wherein their estate was common with that of all them who were to believe on him to the end of the world, John xvii. 20. 2. Of apostles, and of such as he intended to employ in that great work of planting his church in the world, and propagating his gospel to the ends of it. Under both these considerations doth he promise the Spirit to his disciples, John xiv. 26, xv. 26, xvi. 7, 13, praying his Father for the accomplishment of those promises, chap. xvii.;—that as believers they might be kept in the course of their obedience to the end (in which regard he made those promises no less to us than to them); and that as apostles they might be furnished for their work, preserved, and made prosperous therein. Of this latter sort some passages in the verses here mentioned seem to be, and may have a peculiar regard thereunto, and yet in their substance they are of the first kind, and are made good to all believers. Neither is there any more said concerning the teaching and guidance of the Spirit into the truth in John xv. 26, xvi. 13, than is said in 1 John ii. 20, 27, where it is expressly assigned to all believers. Of that unction and teaching of the Spirit, of his preserving us in all truth needful for our communion with God, of his bringing to mind what Christ had spoken, for our consolation and establishment, with efficacy and power (things, I fear, despised by Mr B.), this is not a season to treat.

That which follows concerns the order and way of procedure insisted on by the Son and Holy Ghost in carrying on the work of our salvation and propagation of the gospel, whose sovereign fountain is in the bosom of the Father. His query is, "Q. Should the Holy Ghost lead them into all truth, as speaking of himself, and imparting of his own fulness? what saith Christ concerning him?— A. John xvi. 13, 14."

1. The Scripture proposeth the Holy Ghost, in the communication of his gifts and graces, under a double consideration:-(1.) Absolutely, as he is God himself; and so he speaketh of himself, and the churches are commanded to attend to what he so saith, Rev. ii. 29. And he imparts of his own fulness, "the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will," 1 Cor. xii. 11. And in this sense, what the prophets say in the Old Testament, "The word of the LORD," and "Thus saith the LORD," in the New they are said to speak by the Spirit, Matt. xxii. 43; Acts i. 16; 2 Pet. i. 21. (2.) Relatively, and that both in respect of subsistence and operation, as to the great work of saving sinners by Jesus Christ. And as in the first of these senses he is not of himself, being the Spirit of the Father and the Son, proceeding from them both, so neither doth he speak of himself, but according to what he receiveth of the Father and