(2d) As our sanctifier. So they are filled with the Spirit who have the fruits of the Spirit in great abundance, who are filled with all ' good- ness, righteousness, and truth,' ver. 9 ; that is, that have these things in a rich and plentiful measure. More particularly — (1.) Who have a powerful and prevalent principle in them to keep them from sin : Kom. viii. 13, ' If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of tlie body.' Where there is a weak and faint resistance, there is but little of the Spirit. (2.) Who are strongly inclined to God, and excited and assisted by grace to do what he commandeth. Thus Barnabas ' was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost,' Acts xi. 24 ; that is, mightily affected "with the glory of God and the good of souls. So proportionable com- mon christians, when their hearts are filled with zeal and devotion: Eom. xii. 11, ' Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord ; ' when a mighty spirit of faith and love to God cometh upon them, that they boldly appear for God : 2 Cor. iv. 13, ' We, having the same spirit of faith ; according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken ; we also believe, and therefore speak ; ' not in a bashful inconsiderate way, but openly, hazarding all their interests.
(3d) As comforter ; and so when we are filled with peace and joy in believing, this is by the power of the Holy Ghost : Eom. xv. 13, 'Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.' The impressions of the comforting Spirit do either concern our present interest or our future hopes. Our present interest, when a comfortable sense of God's love aboundeth in us, when he puts gladness in our hearts by lifting up the light of his countenance upon us. So it is said. Acts xiii. 52, ' The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.' They did so esteem the grace of the gospel, that though they suffered persecution for it, yet their hearts were filled with joy. Our future hopes, that also is matter of joy and delight to us ; and the more we find of this, the more we are filled with the Holy Ghost : Acts vii. 55, Stephen ' being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.' He was full of the Holy Ghost before, but then his faith and confidence in God was enlarged, even to some kind of ecstatic motion. As a good soldier, that hath always a habit of courage, in the danger of battle it is quickened in him, his valour is whetted, and a great ardency cometh upon him ; so holy men, that have always the spirit of faith, upon necessary occasions they are elevated beyond the line of their ordinary strength, and feel a kind of anticipation of
VeR. 18.] SERMONS UPON EPHESTANS V. 397
heavenly joys, as if they were already in heaven's blessed place, and in the midst of the glory of the world to come.
II. The inconsistency of the one with the other ; to be drunk with wine is inconsistent with being filled with the Spirit.
1. They that are filled by the one are acted by a contrary principle. The apostle Jude telleth us of ' sensual persons, not having the Spirit,* Jude 19. They whom the apostle speaketh of there were such as separated themselves from the rest of the faithful, and therefore pre- tended to a greater degree of light, and more familiarity and acquaintance with the Spirit of God, than other christians did. But the apostle disproveth their pretence and presumptions, because they were sensual, or took an inordinate liberty in the ways of the flesh, more particularly the way of fleshly lusting. Drunkenness is reckoned amongst the fruits of the flesh, Gal. v. 21 ; and temperance, whereby our fleshly appetite is kept within bounds, is among the fruits of the Spirit, ver. 23. Therefore light and darkness cannot be more contrary than these two things are ; the one implieth the most brutish of carnal pleasures, the other the highest of spiritual delights. Two contrary principles cannot stand togetlier in any prevalent degree ; now here is an opposite principle in predominancy, the loose spirit of licentiousness and drunken- ness, opposite to the holy Spirit of God.
2. This contrary principle hath such an influence on them, that the spirit of the gospel hath no place in them.
[1.] Their sight is blinded : 2 Cor. iv, 4, ' In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine upon them ; ' 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him ; neither •can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned ; ' 2 Peter i. 9, ' But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see far off.' They are acute in pleasing their appetites, but the mind can rise no higher ; they either believe not, or mind not things to come so as to quicken them to any care about them.