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XXXIV.

God; (that is, of God the Father, who by reason of SERM. his priority of nature is often called God, in a personal signification;) the good Spirit of God; the Spirit of Christ; the Holy Spirit; and often absolutely, in way of excellence, the Spirit.

The same is also called the power or virtue of God about the reason of which appellation we may briefly observe, that whereas in every intellectual being there are conceived to be three principal faculties, will, understanding, efficacy; and correspondent to these three perfections, goodness, wisdom, power; a certain one of these (according to that mystical economy or husbandry of notions, whereby the manner and order of subsisting and operation proper to each person in the blessed Trinity is insinuated) is in a certain manner appropriated to each person; (so I now by anticipation speak, being to warrant these terms hereafter;) namely, to the Father it is ascribed, that he freely decreeth what things should be done; to the Son, that he disposeth them in a most wise method and order toward their effecting; to the Holy Ghost, that he with a powerful force doth execute and effect them: whence as God is said, according to his pleasure, to decree and determine things, [and rò féλnua, the will, is a name by some writers assigned to him; particularly Ignatius doth in his Epistles frequently so style him; and so St. Paul may be understood, where he saith, kai VIVάσKELS TO Béλypa, And thou knowest the will; that Rom. ii. 18. is, knowest God the Father: and St. Peter, For it 1 Pet.iii. 17. is better, that ye, (ei béλei tò béλnμa toï Deoũ,) if the will of God pleaseth, do suffer for well doing than for evil doing,] as the Son is called the wisdom of God, so the Holy Spirit is named the power of God; Kuive 4.3.5

Luke i. 35.

SERM. his substantial power, as we shall shew. To this XXXIV. Being, whatever it is, it is manifest that properly and primarily the name of Holy Spirit is appropriated; but (which we should consider) from thence (as is usual in other cases and matters) by figurative deflection of speech, (or by metonymy,) the manner of that operation which that Holy Spirit doth exert, his influence and efficacy, and also any sort of effects proceeding from him, do commonly assume or partake of this name. So when from this Spirit, in a very conspicuous manner, an excellent virtue of performing miraculous works was liberally imparted to the apostles, that virtue (or the manifest communi1 Cor. xii. cation thereof, the manifestation of the Spirit, as St. Paul calleth it) is named the Holy Ghost: as when in St. John's Gospel it is said, The Holy Spirit was not yet; that is, the apostles had not yet received that excellent gift; or that marvellous efficacy of the Holy Spirit had not yet discovered itself in them: as also when in the Acts some disciActs xix. 2. ples are said not to have heard whether there were any Holy Spirit; that is, they were not acquainted concerning that peculiar efficacy thereof. When also Rom. viii. there are mentioned the spirit of prophecy, the spirit of revelation, the spirit of wisdom, (which sort of 2 Kings ii spirits are said to be increased, to be taken away, to 1 Thess. v. be quenched,) it is plain, that by those phrases, not Cor. xii. the Holy Spirit of God itself, (which in no sense is Gal. v. 22. liable to such accidents,) but gifts, fruits, or effects

7.

John vii.

39.

5.

Eph. i. 7.

9.

19.

thereof are denoted; some of which sometime are in the plural number called veúμara, spirits; as when St. Paul enjoineth the Corinthians to be zealous (or earnestly desirous) of spirits; that is, of spiritual 1 Cor. xiv. gifts, or graces, or revelations and when the dis

12, 32.

XXXIV.

10.

cerning of spirits (that is, of divine revelations, SERM. true or counterfeit) is said to be granted to some, and where the spirits of prophets are said to be 1 Cor. xii. subject or subordinate to prophets, (that is, one prophet had a right and ability to judge about the revelations made to another, or pretended to be so :) but these and the like figurative senses being excluded, we discourse about the Holy Spirit in its most proper and primary sense; as it is in and from God. Which things being premised concerning the name of the Holy Spirit; for explication of his nature,

I. We do first assert, that it is a Being in some sense truly distinct from the Father and the Son; hereby rejecting the opinion of Sabellius, Noetus, Hermogenes, and Praxeas; which confounding the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and destroying their substantial properties, did of them all make but one person, under several names; affirming ev vπоστάσει τρεῖς ὀνομασίας, in one person three appellations, and making την τριάδα συναλαφήν, the Trinity to be a coincidence, as Epiphanius speaks. [I said, truly distinct; for this word distinction is by the schoolmen conceived more commodiously applied to this mystery, than others of near signification; those of diversity and difference seeming to intimate somewhat prejudicial to the unity of essence; In divinis (in the mystery of the Trinity) we must, saith Aquinas, avoid the name of diversity and of difference, but we may use the name of distinction, because of the relative opposition: which caution yet the

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η Ὡς μήτε τὴν Σαβελλίου νόσον χώραν λαβεῖν, συγχεομένων τῶν ὑποστάσεων, εἴτουν τῶν ἰδιοτήτων ἀναιρουμένων. Patres Conc. Constant. Epist. ad Conc. Rom. Theod. v. 9.

In divinis vitare debemus nomen diversitatis, et differentiæ,

II.

SERM. ancient Fathers do not so precisely observe; for XXXIV. sometimes in them, προσώπων ἑτερότης and διαφορά, (the

1 Cor. ii. 10, 11, &c.

John xv.

26.

diversity and difference of the persons,) sometimes also the word diaípeois, the division of them, do occur; although they seem more willingly to use the word diákpios, distinction: that which we simply affirm is, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Tois ἰδιώμασι διακρίνονται, are distinguished in properties, as Gregory Nyssen speaks; are ἄλλος καὶ ἄλλος, as Gregory Nazianzen says; that is, truly more than in mere name or conception distinguished, by their properties and relations.]

The Holy Ghost is, I say, truly distinct from the Father and the Son: this we shall first shew separately, then jointly, in regard to both.

He is distinguished from the Father; for,

1. He is called the Spirit of the Father; which relation surely is not devised by fancy, or wants a real foundation; and therefore its terms are truly distinct. 2. The Holy Spirit is said ékπopeveσbai, that is, to go out, or proceed from the Father: he is therefore another from him: for a thing cannot be deemed really to proceed from another, from which it only is distinguished in name or conceit. 3. It is John xiv. also said to be sent, conferred, given by the Father; which surely argueth some kind of true distinc1 Cor. ii. 12. tion. 4. Divers things are attributed to the Spirit, Gal. iv. 6. which do not well agree to the Father; as particuLukeiii. 33-larly that he appeared eide owμatik, in a bodily

26, 16.

possumus autem uti nomine distinctionis, propter oppositionem relativam. Thom.

Δίδασκε τοσοῦτον εἰδέναι μόνον, μονάδα ἐν τριάδι προσκυνουμένην, παρά δοξον ἔχουσαν καὶ τὴν διαίρεσιν, καὶ τὴν ἕνωσιν. Naz. Or. 23.

Apud Aug. personæ sæpe diversæ dicuntur.

XXXIV.

33.

1 John iv.

form; that he descended and rested upon our Lord, SERM. the Baptist beholding him; I saw, saith St. John, the Spirit descending as a dove, and it abode on John i. 32,1 him. But, God the Father no man, saith St. John, John i. 18. ever saw; nor, addeth St. Paul, can any man see 12. him. 5. The Holy Spirit is our advocate with God, 16. crying in our hearts, and interceding with the ther for us, (veрevτvyxάvwv, saith St. Paul :) office, that act, do manifestly suppose a true tinction.

Fa

1 Tim. vi.

that Rom. viii.

26.

dis- Gal. iv. 6.

49.

John xvi. 7.

John iii. 34.

10.

For like reasons he is also distinguished from the Son; for, 1. He is called the Spirit of the Son; and Gal. iv. 6. that relation implies a real ground. 2. He is sent by the Son; doũ éyì áпoσtéλaw, Behold, saith our Luke xxiv. Lord, I send him: and, If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 3. He descended Luke iv. I. upon Christ, and abode on him; he filled him, he led or acted him; he anointed him; by his operation Christ did assume flesh: wherefore he is distinguished from the Son. 4. Christ plainly distin- Luke xii. guishes between speaking against the Son and blas- Matt. xii. pheming against the Holy Ghost; which supposes them two objects. 5. The Holy Ghost is said to John xvi. receive from the Son that which he should tell to Christ's disciples, and thence to glorify the Son. 6. The Son did and suffered many things personally which cannot agree, and cannot be attributed to the Holy Ghost; as that he was incarnated and assumed man's nature; that he suffered, rose again, ascended into heaven. 7. He is expressly said to be distinct from the Son; I, saith he, will ask the Father, and John xiv. he will give you another Comforter. So separately may the Holy Spirit be shewed distinct from each;

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