8. The third caution concerns liun and his woj-k, in the dispen- sation of that great ordinance of the tuorcl. Stephen tells the Jews, Acts vii. 51, that they " resisted the Holy Ghost." How did they do it? Why, as their fathers did it: "As your fathers did, so do ye." How did their fathers resist the Holy Ghost? Verse 52, " They persecuted the prophets, and slew them;" their opposition to the prophets in preaching the gospel, or their sliOAving of the coming of the Just 'One, was their resisting of the Holy Ghost. Now, the Holy Ghost is said to be resisted in the contempt of the preaching of the word ; because the gift of preaching of it is from him. ^ " The mani- festation of the Spirit is given to profit." Hence, when our Saviour
' 1 Cor, xii 7.
268 OF COMMUNION WITH THE HOLT GHOST.
promisetli the Spirit to his disciples, to be present with them for the con^dction of the world, he tells them he will give them a mouth and wisdom, which their adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor re- sist, Luke XXL 15; concerning which, in the accomplishment of it in Stephen, it is said that they " were not able to resist the Spirit by which he spake," Acts vi. 1 0. The Holy Ghost then setting up a mi- nistry in the church, separating men thereto, furnishing them with gifts and abilities for the dispensation of the word ; the not obeying of that word, opposing of it, not falling down before it, is called resisting of the Holy Ghost. This, in the examples of the wickedness of others, are we cautioned against. And this inwraps the third general rule of our communion with the Holy Ghost: — in the dispensation of the word of the gospel, the authority, wisdom, and goodness of the Holy Ghost, in furnishing men with gifts for that end and purpose, and his presence with them, as to the virtue thereof, is to be eyed, and subjection given unto it on that account. On this reason, I say, on this ground, is obedience to be yielded to the word, in the minis- terial dispensation thereof, — because the Holy Ghost, and he alone, doth furnish with gifts to that end and purpose. When this conside- ration causeth us to fall low before the word, then have we commu- nion with the Holy Ghost in that ordinance. But this is commonly f-^poken unto.
CHAPTER VIII.
Particulai" directions for communion with the Holy Ghost.
Before I name particular directions for our communion with the Holy Ghost, I must premise some cautions, as far as the directions to be given, concerning his worship.
First. The divine nature is the reason and cause of all worship; so that it is impossible to worship any one person, and not woi^ship the whole Trinity. It is, and that not without ground, denied by the schoolmen, that the formal reason and object of divine Avorship is in the persons precisely considered; that is, under the formally-con- stitutive reason of their personality, which is their relation to each other. But this belongs to the divine nature and essence, and to their distinct persons as they are identified with the essence itself Hence is that way of praying to the Trinity, by the repetition of the same petition to the several persons (as in the Litany), groundless, if not impious. It supposeth that one person is worshipped, and not an- other, when each person is worshipped as God, and each person is so; — as thoTigh we fir.st should desire one thing of the Father, and
OF COMMUNION WITH THE HOLY GHOST. 269
be heard and gi-anted by bim, then ask the same thing of the Son, and so of the Holy Ghost ; and so act as to the same thing three dis- tinct acts of worship, and expect to be heard and have the same thing granted three times distinctly, when all the works of the Trinity, ad extra, are indivisible.
The proper and peculiar object of divine worship and invocation is the essence of God, in its infinite excellency, dignity, majesty, and its causality, as the first sovereign cause of all things. Now, this is common to all the three persons, and is proper to each of them ; not formally as a person, but as God blessed for ever. All adoration respects that which is common to all ; so that in each act of adoration and worship, all are adored and worshipped. The creatures worship their Creator; and a man, him in whose image he was created, — namely, him "fi-om whom descendeth every good and perfect gift:" all this describing God as God. Hence, —
Secondly. When we begin our prayers to God the Father, and end them in the name of Jesus Christ, yet the Son is no less invocated and worshipped in the beginning than the Father, though he be pe- culiarly mentioned as mediator in the close, — not as Son to himself, but as mediator to the ^vhole Trinity, or God in Trinity. But in the invocation of God the Father we invocate every person ; because we invocate the Father as God, every person being so.
Tlihdly. In that heavenly directory which we have, Eph. ii. 18, this whole business is declared. Our access in our worship is said to be " to the Father ; " and this "through Christ," or his mediation; "by the Spirit," or his assistance. Here is a distinction of the persons, as to their operations, but not at all as to their being the object of our worship. For the Son and the Holy Ghost are no less worshipped in our access to God than the Father himself; only, the grace of the Father, which we obtain by the mediation of the Son and the assist- ance of the Spirit, is that which we draw nigh to God for. So that when, by the distinct dispensation of the Trinity, and every person, we are led to worship (that is, to act faith on or invocate) any person, we do herein worship the whole Trinity; and every person, by what name soever, of Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, we invocate him. So that this is to be observed in this whole matter, — that when any Avork of the Holy Ghost (or any other person), which is appropriated to him (we never exclude the coiicurrence of other persons), draws us to the worship of him, yet he is not worshipped exclusively, but the whole Godhead is worehipped.