There are, indeed, some actions on men and in the world that are wrought, by God's permission and in his righteous judgment, by evil spirits ; whose persons and actings are placed in opposition to the Spirit of God. So 1 Sam. xvi. 14, 15, "The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee." So also verse 23, " The evil spirit from God was upon Saul." So chap, xviii. 10, xix. 9. This spirit is called, nyn D^'7P^^"^n^ — " an evil spirit of God," chap. xvi. 15 ; and absolutely ^'''?''.^)"D^"', — "a spirit of God," verse 23, where we have supplied "evil" in the translation. But these expressions are to be regulated and explained by verse 14, where he is called '^X'^] nxo nyynn^ — "an evil spirit from the LoRD;" that is, appointed and commissioned by him for the punishing and terrifying of Saul: for as the Spirit of the Lord departed from him, by withdrawing his assistance and in- fluential operations, whereby he had wrought in him those gifts and abilities of mind which fitted him unto the discharge of his kingly office, upon the first impressions whei-eof he was "turned into another man " from what he was in his private condition, chap. x. 6-9 ; so the evil spirit came upon him to excite out of his own adust melan- choly, discontents, fears, a sense of guilt, as also to impress terrifying thoughts and apprehensions on his imagination; for so it is said, " An evil spirit from the Lord" wnj;3 chap. xvi. 14, " terrified him,"
58 THE NAME AND TITLES [BOOK I.
frighteued liim with dreadful agitations of mind. And, that we may touch a Httle on this by the way, the foundation of this trouble and distress of Saul lay in himself: for as I do grant that he was sometimes under an immediate agitation of body and mind from the powerful impressions of the devil upon him, — for under them it is said he " prophesied in the midst of the house," 1 Sam. xviii. 10, which argues an extraordinary and involuntary effect upon him, — yet principally he wrought by the excitation and provocation of his per- sonal distempers, moral and natural ; for these have in themselves a great efficacy in cruciating the minds of guilty persons. So Tacitus observes out of Plato, Annal, lib. vi. 6, " Neque frustra praestan- tissimus sapienticB firmare solitus est, si recludantur tyrannorum mentes, posse aspici laniatus et ictus; quando, ut corpora verberibus, itasgevitia, libidine, malis consultis, animus dilaceretur;" — "The most eminent wise man was not wont in vain to affirm, that if the minds of tyrants were laid open and discovered, it would be seen how they were cruciated and punished; seeing that as the body is rent and torn by stripes, so is the mind by cruelty, lusts, evil counsels an4 undertakings." So he, as I suppose from Plato de Repub. lib. ix., where Socrates disputes sundry things to that purpose. And another Roman historian gives us a signal instance hereof in Ju- gurtha, after he had contracted the guilt of many horrible wicked- nesses.^
And yet this work in itself is of the same kind with what God sometimes employs holy angels about, because it is the execution of his righteous judgments. So it was a " watcher and an holy one" that in such a case smote Nebuchadnezzar with a sudden madness and frenzy, Dan. iv. 13-17.
To return; As he is called the Holy, so he is the Good Sjnrit of God: Ps. cxliii. 10, '^^^^ nniD Tinn;_"Thy Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness;" so ours: — rather, " Thy good Spirit shall lead me;" or, as Junius, " Spiritu tuo bono deduc me," — " Lead me by thy good Spirit." The Chaldee here adds "l^'J^P, — " The good Spirit of thy holiness," or " Thy holy good Spirit." Didymus, lib. ii. de Spir. Sane, says that some copies here read rh clyiov, a re- membrance whereof is in the MS. of Thecla, and not elsewhere. So Neh. ix. 20, "Thou gavest them" nnitsn -Jjnn^ "thy good Spirit to instruct them." And he is called so princijjally from his na- ture, which is essentially good, as " there is none good but one, that is, God," Matt. xix. 1 7 ; as also from his operations, which are all ,
^ " Neque post id locorum Jugui-thce dies aut nox uUa quieta fuere : ncque loco, ue- que mortali ciiiquam, aut tempori, satis credere: civis, hostis, juxta mctuere: cir- cumspectare omnia, et omni strepitu pavescere : alio atque alio loco, soepe contra decus regium reqiiiescere : interdum, somno excitus avrcptis arinis tumultum facere : ita for- niidine, quasi yecordia, agitari." — Bell. Jugiir. Lsxii.
CHAP. II.] OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 59
good as they are holy ; and unto them that believe are full 'of good- ness in their effects. Crell. Prolegom., p. 7, distiuguisheth between this good Spu'it and the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost; for this good Spirit he would confine unto the Old Testament, making it the author or cause of those gifts of wisdom, courage, prudence, and government, that were granted unto many of the people of old. So it is said of Bezaleel, that he was " filled with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and understanding, and in knowledge," Exod. xxxi. 3; so XXXV. 31 ; — " That is," saithjie, " with this ' good Spirit of God/" So also, it is pretended, in all those places where the Spirit of God is said to " come on" men to enable them unto some great and extraordinary work, as Judges iii. 3 0. But this is plainly to contradict the apostle, who tells us that there are, indeed, various operations, but one Sphit; and that the one and self-same Spuit worketh all these things as he pleaseth, 1 Cor. xii. C, 11. And if from every different or distinct effect of the Spirit of God we must multiply spirits, and assign every one of them to a distinct spirit, no man will know what to make of the Spirit of God at last.^ Probably, we shall have so many feigned spirits as to lose the only true one. As to this particular instance, David prays that God would "lead him by his good Spirit," Ps. cxliii. 10. Now, cer- tainly, this was no other but that Holy Spirit which he prays in an- other place that the Lord would not take from him: Ps. li. 11, "Take not thy Holy Spuit from me;" which is confessed to be the Ploly Ghost. This he also mentions, 2 Sam. xxiii, 2, " The Spirit of the Lord sjsake by me, and his word was in my tongue." And what Spirit this was Peter declares, 2 Epist. i. 21, "Holy men of God spake in old time as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." So vain is this pretence.