First, He is said to teach us: Luke xii. 12, "The Holy Ghost shall teach you what ye ought to say.'' John xiv. 26, " The Com- forter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your re- membrance." 1 John ii. 27, He is the " anointing which teacheth us all things ;" how and whence he is so called shall be afterward declared. He is the great Teacher of the church, unto whom the accomplish- ment of that great promise is committed, " And they shall be all taught of God," John vi. 45. It is sad with the church of God when her teachers are removed into a corner, and her eyes see them not; but better lose all other teachers, and that utterly, than to lose this great Teacher only : for although he is pleased to make use of them, he can teach effectually and savingly without them where they are removed and taken away ; but they cannot teach without him unto the least spiritual advantage. And those who pretend to be teachers
84 DIVINE NATURE AND PERSONALITY OF THE [BOOK I.
of others^ and yet despise his teaching assistance, will one day find that they undertook a work which was none of theirs. But as unto our use of this assertion, it is excepted " That the apostle affirms that Datura also teaches us: 1 Cor. xi. 14, ' Doth not even nature itself teach you?' now, nature is not a person." This is the way and manner of them with whom we have to do. If any word in a testimony produced by us have been anywhere used metaphorically, though it be never so evident tliat it is so used in that place, instantly it must have the same figurative application in the testimony excepted against, although they can give no reason why it should so signify ! And if this course of excepting be allowed, there will be nothing left intelligible in the Scripture, nor in any other author, nor in common conversation in the world ; for there is scarce any word or name of [a] thing but, one where or other, is or hath been abused or used metaphorically. In particular, nature in this place of the apostle is said to teach us objectively, as the heavens and earth teach us in what we learn from them ; for it is said to teach us what we may learn from the customs and actings of them who live, proceed, and act, according to the principles, dictates, and inclinations of it. Every one sees that here is no intimation of an active teaching by instruc- tion, or a real communication of knowledge, but it is said figuratively to do what we do with respect unto it. And not only in several places, but in the same sentence, a word may be used properly with respect unto one thing and abusively with respect unto another; as in that saying of the poet, —
" Disce, puer, virtutem ex me, verumque laborem ; Fortimam ex aliis:" [Mn., xii. 435.]
for virtue and industry are to be learned properly, but fortune, as they called it, or prosperous events, are not so. These things, there- fore, are very different, and their difference is obvious unto all. But we insist not merely on this or that particular instance. Let any man not absolutely prepossessed with jDrejudice read over that dis- course of our Saviour unto his disciples, wherein he purposely in- structs them in the nature and work of the Spirit of God, on whom, as it were, he then devolved the care of them and the gospel, accord- I ing unto the promise, John xiv., xv., xvi., and he will need no farther ' instruction or confirmation in this matter. He is there frequently called " The Comforter," the name of a person, and that vested with an office, with respect unto the work that he would do; and "Another Comforter," in answer and conformity unto the Lord Christ, who was one Comforter and a person, as all grant, chap. xiv. 16, 26. If he be not so, the intention of this expression with these circumstances must be to deceive us, and not instruct us. He tells them, moreover, that he is one whom the world neither sees nor knows, but who abideth
CnAP. III.] HOLY SPIEIT PKOVED AND VINDICATED. 85
with and dwelletli in believers, verse 1 7; one whom the Father would send, and who would come accordingly, and that to teach them, to lead and guide them, and to Lring things to their remembrance, verse 26; a Comforter that should come and testify or bear witness unto him, chap. xv. 26; one that should be sent of him, "to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment," chap. xvi. 7, 8, and to abide with his disciples, to supply his own bodily absence. So is he said to " speak," " guide," " teach," " hear," to " receive of Christ's and to show it unto others," John xiv. 26, xvi. 18, 14, with sundry other things of the same nature and importance. And these things are not spoken of him occasionally or in transitu, but in a direct continued discourse, designed on purpose by our Lord Jesus Christ to acquaint his disciples who he was, and what he would do for them And if there were nothing spoken of him in the whole Scripture but what is here declared by our Saviour, all unprejudiced men must and would acknowledge him to be a divine person. And it is a confidence swelling above all bounds of modesty, to suppose that because one or other of these things is or may be metaphorically or metaleptically ascribed unto this or that thing which are not persons, when the figurativeness of such an ascription is plain and open, that therefore they are all of them in like manner so ascribed unto the Holy Ghost in that discourse of our Saviour unto his disciples, wherein he de- signed the instruction of them, as above declared. Of the same nature is that which we discoursed before concerninsj his searching of all things, from 1 Cor. ii. 10; which as it proves him to be an un- derstanding agent, so it undeniably denotes a personal action. Such also are the things mentioned, Rom. viii. 16, 26: He "helpeth our infirmities," he " maketh intercession for us," he himself " beareth witness with our spirit;" the particular meaning of all which expres- sions shall be afterward inquired into. Here the only refuge of our adversaries is to cry up a prosopopoeia (Schlichting. p. 627) But how do they prove it? Only by saying that " these things belong properly to a person, which the Spirit is not." Now, this is nothing but to set up their own false hypothesis against our arguments, and, not being able to contend with the premises, to deny the conclusion.