SERMON VIa.

The Office and Operations of the

HOLY SPIRIT.

JOHN, ch. xiv. ✯ 16, etc. And I will pray the Father, and he Shall give you another COMFORTER, that he may abide with you for

I

ever; even the SPIRIT OF TRUTH
He dwelleth with you, and shall
be in you
which is the HOLY
GHOST, whom the Father will fend
in MY NAME. He Shall TEACH

YOU ALL THINGS.

N the foregoing difcourfe, where I fpoke of that part of the character and office of JESUS which concerns

• The reader will hardly need to be told that this discourse (as the preceding) is the substance of several fermons.

the

SERM. the SANCTIFICATION of mankind, I obVI. ferved, that this Sanctification was of two forts, the aggregate, and particular: that he performed the first in his own person; the second, mediately, thro' the operation of the HOLY SPIRIT. And this I now propose to confider more at large.

The bleffed JESUS came into the world, ON THE PART OF GOD, to declare the good will of our heavenly Father to the forfeited posterity of Adam. He teftified the truth of his miffion by amazing miracles; and fealed the redemption of `mankind by the more amazing devotion of himself to an ignominious death.

But as the REDEMPTION, fo generally procured, could only operate on particulars, under certain circumftances of FAITH and OBEDIENCE Very repugnant to our corrupted nature, the bleffed Jesus, on his leaving the world, promised his followers his interceffion with the Father, to fend another divine perfon ON THE PART OF MAN, namely the HOLY GHOST, called the Spirit of truth, and the Comforter, who, agreeably to the import of those names, should cooperate with us in establishing Faith, and

in

in perfecting obedience; or, in other words, SER M. fhould fanctify us to redemption.

This is a fuccinct account of the economy of Grace: entirely confonant to our best conceptions of the nature of God and of the condition of man. For if man was to be reinstated in a free gift, juftly forfeited, we cannot but fuppofe that as, on the one hand, it might be restored on what conditions best pleased the giver; fo on the other, God would graciously provide that it should not be bestowed in vain.

An atonement, therefore, was to be made for the offended majefty of the Father; and this was the work of the Son: And a remedy was to be provided for the miferable condition of man, which hindered the atonement from producing its effects, and this was the office of the Holy Ghoft: So that both were joint workers in the great bufinefs of reconciling God

to man.

The preceding discourse hath explained the character and office of the Son; we are now to confider the office and operations of the Holy Ghost.

His

VI.

SERM.

His office in general, as my text points VI. out to us, is to ENLIGHTEN THE UNDERSTANDING, and to RECTIFY THE

WILL.

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We have seen, in the preceding difcourse, the preffing need of his descent, from the total corruption, both in principle and practice, which had at that time overspread the world; when, as the apostle of the Gentiles obferves, << They changed the glory of God to an image made like to man, to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things --- they were filled with "all unrighteousness, fornication, wicked"nefs, covetousness, maliciousness; full of "envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, defpightful, proud, boafters, inventers of evil things, difobedient to parents, "covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful "." Under this horrid picture, humanity disappears and we fee, that nothing but the omnipotency of the Holy Spirit could be able to difperfe the contagion of that poison, which Hell had now, for many

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b Rom. ch. v.

ages,

ages, been breathing out upon the world. The Holy Ghoft (fays Jesus) whom the Father will fend in my name, he shall teach you all things. That is, all which concern FAITH and OBEDIENCE. These two branches of his office, in the first of which he is called the Spirit of truth; in the other, the Comforter, I fhall confider in their order.

I.

Let us fee then the method divine wifdom was pleased to employ in manifesting the operation of the Holy Ghoft, as the Spirit and guide of truth.

The first extraordinary attestation of his descent was in the GIFT OF TONGUES at the day of Pentecost.

Besides the great, and almoft indifpenfable use of this endowment to the firft minifters of the Gofpel, who were to carry the glad tidings of it throughout the world; the elegance and propriety, in the choice of this miracle to atteft the real descent of that Spirit who was to teach : all things, can never be enough admired:

us

John ch. xvi. 13.

SER M.

vI.

for