These things at present are charged only as the miscarriages of
1 " Adcsto Sancte Spiritus, et paraclesin tuam expectantibus illabere cselitus, sanc- tifica templum corporis nostri et consecra in habitaciilum tuum ; desiclerantes te ani- mas tua prffiseiitia Ijstifica, dignam te liabitatore doinum compone ; adorna tlialamum tuum, et quictis tuse reclinatorium circumda varietatibus virtutum; stci-ue pavimenta pigmentis; iiiteat raansio tua carbunculis flammeis, et gemmarum splcndoribus; et omnium Chrismatum intiinsecus Spirent odoramenta ; affatim balsami liquor fragrantiS, .sua cubiculum suum imbuat ; et abigens indc quicquid tabidum est, quicquid corrup- telte seminarium, stabile et perpetuum hoc facias gaudium nostrum, et creationis tuse renovationem in decore immarcessibili golides in £etcrnum." — Cypr,, dc Spir. Sane.
CHAP. I.] THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS WOKK, 43
private persons. When they are received in churches, they are the cause of and an entrance into a. fatal defection and apostasy. From the foundation of the world, the principal revelation that God made of himself was in the oneness of his nature and his monarchy over all. And herein the person of the Father was immediately repre- sented with his power and authority; for he is the fountain and original of the Deity, the other persons as to their subsistence being of him : only, he did withal give out promises concerning the pecu- liar exhibition of the Son in the flesh in an appointed season, as also of the Holy Spirit, to be given by him in an especial manner. Hereby were their persons to be signally glorified in this world, it being the will of God that all " men should honour the Son as they honoured the Father," and the Holy Spirit in like manner. In this state of things, the only apostasy of the church could be polytheism and idolatry. Accordingly, so it came to pass. The church of Israel was continually prone to these abominations, so that scarcely a gene- ration passed, or very few, wherein the body of the people did not more or less defile themselves with them. To wean and recover them from this sin was the principal end of the preaching of those l^rophets which God from time to time sent unto them, 2 Kings svii. 13. And this also was the cause of all the calamities which befell them, and of all the judgments which God inflicted on them, as is testified in all the historical books of the Old Testament, and confirmed by instances innumerable. To put an end hereunto, God at length brought a total desolation upon the whole church, and caused the people to be carried into captivity out of their own land; and hereby it was so far effected that, upon their return, whatever other sins they fell into, yet they kept themselves from idols and idolatry, Ezek. xvi. 41-48, xxiii. 27, 48. And the reason hereof was, because the time was now drawing nigh wherein they were to be tried with another dispensation of God ; — the Son of God was to be sent unto them in the flesh. To receive and obey him was now to be the principal instance and trial of their faith and obedience. They were no longer to be tried merely by their faith, whether they would own only the God of Israel, in opposition unto all false gods and idols, for that ground God had now absolutely won upon them; but now all is to turn on this hinge, whether they would receive the Son of God coming in the flesh, according to the promise. Here the generality of that church and people fell by their unbelief, aposta- tized from God, and became thereby neither church nor people, John viii. 24. They being rejected, the Son of God calls and gathers another church, founding it on his own person with faith, and the pro- fession of it therein. Matt, xvi, 18, 19. In this new church, there- fore, this foundation is fixed, and this ground made good, that Jesus
44 GENERAL PRINCIPLES CONCERNING [BOOK L
Christ, the Son of God, is to be owned and honoured as we honour the Father, 1 Cor. iii. 11 ; John v. 23. And herein all that are duly called Christians do agree, as the church of Israel did in one God after their return from the captivity of Babylon. But now the Lord Jesus Christ being ascended unto his Father, hath committed his whole affairs in the church and in the world unto the Holy Spirit, John xvi. 7-11. And it is on this design of God that the person of the Spirit may be singularly exalted in the church; unto whom they were so in the dark before, that some (none of the worst of them) professed they had not so much as heard whether there were any Holy Ghost or no, Acts xix. 2, — that is, at least, as unto the peculiar dispensation of him then introduced in the church. Wherefore, the duty of the church now immediately respects the Spirit of God, who acts towards it in the' name of the Father and of the Son ; and with respect unto him it is that the church in its present state is capable of an apostasy from God. And whatever is found of this nature amongst any, here it hath its beginning ; for the sin of despising his person and re- jecting his work now is of the same nature with idolatry of old, and the Jews' rejection of the person of the Son. And whereas there was a relief provided against these sins, because there was a new dis- pensation of the grace of God to ensue, in the evangelical work of the Holy Ghost, if men sin against him and his operations, contain- ing the perfection and complement of God's revelation of himself unto them, their condition is deplorable.