Again; He is called, by way of eminency, the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost} This is the most usual appellation of him in the New Testament; and it is derived from the Old: Ps. li. 11, T^y^ On,
' "Avahv •za.^a 0=au xariooffa, iv) tov; av'hjia,; ayiou; Saij,£«, '/Jv TTytufia ayiov ovof/,u?^ivtriii ot \ifoi "TTfo^nToti. — Justin Mart.
56 ' THE NAME AND TITLES [BOOK I.
" The Spirit of thy Holiness/' or " Thy Holy Spirit." Isa. Ixiii. 10, 11, it:'"!^ nii,_« The Spirit of his Holiness," or " His Holy Spirit." Hence are C'ini^ri nn and ^y^} nn, ''The Holy Spirit," and "The Spirit of Holiness," in common use among the Jews. In the New Testament he is rb Uviv/jia rh "Ayiov, "That Holy Spirit." And we must inquire into the special reasons of this adjunct. Some suppose it is only from his peculiar work of sanctifying us, or making us holy : for this effect of sanctification is his peculiar work, and that of what sort soever it be ; whether it consist in a separation from things pro- fane and common, unto holy uses and services, or whether it be the real infusion and operation of holiness in men, it is from him in an especial manner. And this also manifesteth him to be God, for it is God alone who sanctifieth his people : Lev, xx. 8, " I am Jehovah which sanctify you." And God in that work ascribes unto himself the title of Holy in an especial manner, and as such would have us to consider him: chap. xxi. 8, "I the Lord, which sanctify you, am holy." And this may be one reason of the frequent use of this property with reference unto the Spirit.
But this is not the whole reason of this name and appellation : for where he is first so mentioned, he is called " The Spirit of God's Holi- ness," Ps. li. 11, Isa. Ixiii. 10, 11; and in the New Testament ab- solutely " The Spirit of Holiness," Rom. i. 4. And this respects his nature, in the first place, and not merely his operations.^ As God, then, absolutely is called " Holy," " The Holy One," and " The Holy One of Israel," being therein described by that glorious property of his nature whereby he is "glorious in holiness," Exod. xv. 11, and whereby he is distinguished from all false gods, (" Who is like unto thee, O Jehovah, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness?") so is the Spirit called "Holy" to denote the holiness of his nature. And on this account is the opposition made between him and the unholy or unclean spirit : Mark iii. 29, 30, " He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness: because they said. He hath an unclean spirit." And herein first his personality is asserted; for the unclean spirit is a person, and if the Spirit of God were only a quality or accident, as some fancy and dream, there could no coraparativo opposition be made between him and this unclean spirit, — that is, the devil. So also are they opposed with respect unto their natures. His nature is holy, whereas that of the unclean spirit is evil and perverse. This is the foundation of his being called " Holy," even the eternal glorious holiness of his nature. And on this account he is so styled also with respect unto all his operations ; for it is not only with regard unto the particular w^ork of
Aiyirai toivvv •^viuf/.a ayiov. Avm yap Iffriv *i xvpla xai Tfparyi Tpocrnyopia h ifi(pav'n»eo- tifM i;^tv(rei rh' huvaixv, xa't ■jriptrTarot, roZ ky'tou •jtnvfAxroi rhv ipvcriv. — ChrySOSt. ub. Sup.
CHAP. II.] OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 57
regeneration and sanctification, or making of us holy, but unto all his works and operations, that he is so termed ; for he being the im- mediate operator of all divine works that outwardly are of God, and they being in themselves all holy, be they of what kind soever, he is called the " Holy Spirit." Yea, he is so called to attest and witness that all his works, all the works of God, are holy, although they may be great and terrible, and such as to corrupt reason may have another appearance ; in all which we are to acquiesce in this, that the " Holy One in the midst of us will do no iniquity," [Hos. xi. 9], Zeph. iii. 5. The Spirit of God, then, is thus frequently and almost constantly called " Holy," to attest that all the works of God, whereof he is the immediate operator, are holy: for it is the work of the Spirit to harden and blind obstinate sinners, as well as to sanctify the elect; and his acting in the one is no less holy than in the other, although holiness be not the effect of it in the objects. So, when he came to declare his dreadful work of the final hardening and rejection of the Jews, — one of the most tremendous effects of divine Providence, a work which, for the strangeness of it, men " would in no wise believe though it were declared unto them," Acts xiii. 41, — he was signally proclaimed Holy by the seraphims that attended his throne, Isa. vi. 3, 9-12; John xii. 40; Acts xxviii. 25, 26.