Secondly, He is * that Spirit ' in regard of his disjoensations towards his church and children. ' The Lord is that Spirit ;' that is, [1.] of all truths, and [2.] of all persons, to give life and quickening to them.
(1.) First, of truths. What is the scope of the whole Scriptures but Christ ? from the first promise of the blessed seed, ' The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head,' Gen. iii, 15, to the end of the book. What is all the Scriptures without Christ ? The law is a dead letter ; yea, and so is the gospel too without Christ. He is ' that Spirit ' which gives life unto all the Scriptures. Moses without Christ is but a shadow without a body, or a body without a soul. Take away Chi-ist, what was the brazen serpent ? What was the ark ? What were the sacrifices ? What is all ? Is not Christ * all in all' these ? The kings, and priests, and prophets, they were types of Christ ; all the promises they were made and fulfilled in Christ. The law ceremonial aimed at Christ ; the law moral is to drive us to Christ. Christ is the Spirit of all. And the Scripture without Christ it is but a mere dead thing ; it is but a shell without a kernel, as it is to the Jews at this day.
(2.) Christ is ' that Spirit,' in regard of persons, quickening them. He is a universal principle of spiritual life, infusing it into all his church and children. Christ is always with his church from the beginning of the world, and will be to the end. It was no loss to the church that Christ in his bodily presence left it, for he left them ' the Comforter,' his Spirit, by which he wrought greater works after his ascension than he did before. He is * anointed with the oil of gladness,' and grace ' above his fellows,' Ps. xlv. 7, but all was for his fellows. Whatsoever he is, or hath, all is for his
208 EXCELLENCY OF THE GOSPEL
church and chiklrcn. ' For us ' he was born, ' for us' ho was given. Ho is a King, a Priest, a Prophet for us. He died for us, ho rose again for us. And he doth all he doth towards the church, as he hath the Spirit, and by the Spirit. The Father is the first in the Trinity, 'from whom' all comes ; and the Son, ' bij whom ' all things arc ; but the Holy Ghost is the immediate worker of all things, next the creature. All things are applied //-ow. God the Father, thwiKjk the Son, hij the Spirit. What Christ wrought, and what the Father in wisdom devised, was ai)plied by the Spirit ; and so the framing of us to be fit for such a glorious condition as we havo by Christ, is also by the Spirit. And this is the reason why Christ giveth the Spirit to those to whom he purposeth to give faith or love, or to work any gracious work.
For where Christ saveth, he doth it not only by merit and satisfying the wrath of God for us, but also by sanctifying and eti'ectual working in us, that he might be a perfect Saviour. Now the essential vigour and operative principle in all things, either wrought by or from the Father or the Son, is the Spirit. As in man there is his will from which he resolveth and purposeth, there is wisdom and understanding by which he proceedeth, and then there is a vigorous power in man by which he executeth and doth all. So is it in this working of God. The Father plotteth* and determineth of what is to be done ; the Son, ' who is the wisdom of the Father,' 1 Cor. i. 24, dispeuseth what the Father willeth ; the Holy Spirit, the power of both, finisheth and worketh all upon us, and therefore he is called the ' power of the highest,' Luke i. 35.
Whatsoever works come from God to the creature in general, and aro wrought in the world, as works of creation and providence, are immediately by the Holy Spirit nakedly considered, as the third person coming from the Father and the Son. And in those special works, wrought in his church and on his children, all things cometh from the Holy Ghost, but not simply considered as the third person, but as he is ' the Spirit of Christ ; ' that is, first sanctifying and filling the human nature of Christ, and then sancti- fying and filling us. Christ could not give the Holy Ghost immediately to us, we being in enmity with God, and separated from him through our sins ; but he must first take it to himself, who having by his death and suflerings reconciled us to his Father, and purchased the Spirit /or us, may now dispense and give forth his Spirit to us.
If we had stood in Adam, we should not have received grace so as now we do ; for we should have received it from the first Adam but as from a man. Now we receive it not from mere man, but, which is much more, from the ' second Adam,' who is God-man. Nay, Adam himself received not his grace after so glorious a manner as we do, for he received it from the Spmt nakedly considered as the third person in the Trinity, and as all other creatures received their excellencies. But we receive it from the Holy Spirit, which doth not only proceed from the Father and the Son, but cometh, as it were, through our own nature, which was marvellously united to God the Son, and made one with him, unto us, and worketh in us.