2. Because this is the great fruit of God's love, and reward of our obedience : John xiv. 23, ' If any man love me, and keep my command- ments, my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.' ' We,' that is, all the persons of the blessed Trinity ; not the Father and the Son only, but the Holy Spirit, who doth constantly and by his habitual effects abide in the hearts of the faithful, and thereby evidenceth God's love to them : John xiv. 17, Christ speaking of the Spirit of truth, saith, ' Ye know him, for lie dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.'
3. This Spirit is more discernible by us by his motions and powerful influence, and the ways which he hath to manifest himself ; and so more proper to discover and make known the dwelling of God in us than the bare habits of grace, especially both together than the latter singly and alone. Indeed, one way by which he doth discover his sanctifying presence is by that habitual bent of heart towards God which we call the new nature, and the fruits and works of it. When we find the frame of our hearts changed for the better, and if we act accordingly, we may conclude it ; but that which maketh all evident is his continual presence and powerful influence, by which we are acted and quickened ; for as the apostle saith, ' By the Spirit of God we know the things which are freely given us of God,' 1 Cor. ii. 12, both in the gospel and in our own hearts.
4. The Holy Ghost is said to dwell in believers as his temple: 1 Cor. iii, 16, ' Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
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Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? ' 1 Cor. vi. 19, ' Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you ? ' So that the Spirit himself abideth in believers ; and not only grace from the Spirit. but he is present in the soul as Christ's agent to convey light, life, and love to us ; and not as a distant agent, but as the immediate exciter of all that grace that is in us. There is his power and presence, as in his temple and proper place of residence ; he first builds up his temple, and then dwelleth in it.
II. Why this is a sure, rich, full, and pregnant evidence of God's dwelling in us.
1. Because the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon Christ was the evidence of God's love to him, and the visible demonstration of his filiation and sonship to the world : John iii. 34, ' The Father loved the Son, and gave him the Spirit without measure.' Now Christ prayed, John xvii. 26, ' That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.' Before he had said, ver. 23, ' That the world may know that thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.' None will think in degree, therefore in kind, that God manifests his love to us the same way which he did to him, and that is by the gift of the Holy Spirit, or his filiation. John knew Christ to be the Son of God by the Spirit descending and abiding on him : John i. 32, ' I, John, bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.' Yea, God himself declared this to be a visible demonstration of his sonship, Mat. iii. 17. So do we know ourselves to be the children of God, by the Spirit's inhabitation and sanctifying work upon our souls.
2. The pouring out of the Spirit was the visible evidence given to the church of the valuableness and acceptation of Christ's satisfaction for us, to set afoot the gospel covenant. When God was reconciled and pacified, then he shed forth the Spirit : Acts ii. 33, ' Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.' So John vii. 38, 39, ' He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive ; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.' Now this is true of God's reconciliation to us in particular : when pacified towards us, he giveth the Spirit ; because the part followeth the reason of the whole : Kom. v. 11, ' And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.' There is the atonement made, and the atonement received; they are both evidenced the same way, by this fountain of living waters, which is given to all believers : John iv. 14, ' But whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him siiall never thirst; but the water which I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life.' And all the good God worketh in us, he worketh as a God of peace reconciled to us by Christ.