There are two other places of this nature, both to the same pur- pose, sufficient of themselves to confirai our faith in the truth pleaded for; and these are, Acts xiii. 2, 4, "As they ministered unto the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed." The other is chap. xx. 28, " Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers." These plnces hold a good correspondence; and what is reported in an extraordinary
86 DIVINE NATURE AND PERSONALITY OF THE [BOOK I.
case, as matter of fact, in the first, is doctrinally applied unto ordi- nary cases in the latter. And two things are remarkable in the first place: — 1. The Holy Ghost's designation of himself as the person unto who'in and whose work Barnabas and Saul were to be separat- ed and dedicated. Saith he, 'Apo^/Varg hrj (jm^ not " Separate me," as in our translation, making the Spirit only the author of the command, but " Separate unto me;" which proposeth him also as the object of the duty required, and the person whose work was to be attended. Who or what, then, is intended by that pronoun " me?" Some per- son is directed unto and signified thereby ; nor can any instance be given where it is so much as figuratively used, unless it be in a professed j^arable. That remains, therefore, to be inquired into. Who is intended in that word " me?" And the words are the words of the Holy Ghost: " The Holy Ghost said. Separate unto me;" he, therefore, alone is intended. All the answer which the wit and diligence of our adversaries can invent is, that " these words are ascribed unto the Holy Ghost because the prophets that were in the church of Antioch spake therein by his instinct and inspiration." . But in this evasion there is no regard unto the force of our argu- ment; for Ave do not argue merely from his being said to speak, but from what is spoken by him, " Separate unto me," and do inquire whether the prophets be intended by that word or no? If so, which of them? for they were many by whom the Holy Ghost spake the same thing, and some one must be intended in common by them all ; and to say that this was any of the prophets is foolish, indeed blasphemous. 2. The close of the second verse confirms this applica- tion of the word, " For the work whereunto I have called them." This confessedly is the Holy Ghost. Now, to call men to the mi- nistry is a free act of authority, choice, and wisdom ; which are pro- perties of a person, and none other. Nor is either the Father or the Son in the Scripture introduced more directly clothed with personal properties than the Holy Ghost is in these places. And the whole is confirmed, verse 4, " So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed." He called them, by furnishing them with ability and authority for their work; he commanded them to be set apart by the church, that they might be blessed and owned in their work ; and he sent them forth, by an impression of his authority on their minds, given them by th-ose former acts of his. And if a divine person be not hereby described, I know not how he may so be.
The other text speaks unto the same purpose. Acts xx. 28, it is expressly said that the Holy Ghost made the elders of the church the overseers of it. The same act of wisdom and authority is here again assigned unto him. And here is no room left for the evasion insisted on ; for these words were not spoken in a way of prophecy.
CHAP. III.] HOLY SPIUIT PROVED AND VINDICATED. S?"
nor in the name of the Holy Ghost, but concerning him. And they are explicatory of the other; for he must be meant in these expres- sions, " Separate unto me those whom I have called," by whom they are made ministers. Now, this was the Holy Ghost ; for he makes the overseers of the church. And we may do well to take notice, that if he did so then, he doth so now; for they were not persons extraordinarily inspired or called that the apostle intends, but the ordinary officers of the church. And if persons are not called and constituted officers, as at the first, in ordinary cases, the church is not the same as it was. And it is the concernment of those who take this work and office upon them to consider what there is in their whole undertaking that they can ascribe unto the Holy Ghost. Persons furnished with no spiritual gifts or abilities, entering into the ministry in the pursuit of secular advantages, will not easily satisfy themselves in this inquiry when they shall be willing, or be forced, at the last to make it.
There remains yet one sort of testimonies to the same purpose, which must briefly be passed through : and they are those where he is spoken of as the object of such actings and actions of men as none but a person can be ; for let them be applied unto any other object, and their inconsistency will quickly appear. Thus he is said to be tempted of them that sin : "How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord," Acts v. 9. In what sense soever this word is used, — whether in that which is indifferent, to try, as God is said to tempt Abraham, or in that which is evil, to provoke or induce to sin, — it never is, it never can be, used but with respect unto a person. How can a quality, an accident, an emanation of power from God, be tempted ? None can possibly be so but he that hath an understand- ing to consider what is proposed unto him, and a will to determine upon the proposal made. So Satan tempted our first parents; so men are tempted by their own lusts; so are we said to tempt God when we provoke him by our unbelief, or when we unwarrantably make experiments of his power ; — so did tliey " tempt the Holy Ghost" who sinfully ventured on his omniscience, as if he would not or could not discover their sin; or on his holiness, that he would patronize their deceit. In like manner, Ananias is said to " lie to the Holy Ghost," verse 3 ; and none is capable of lying unto any other but such an one as is capable of hearing and receiving a testi- mony, for a lie is a false testimony given unto that which is spoken or uttered in it. This he that is lied unto must be capable of judging and determining upon; which without personal properties of will and understanding none can be. And the Holy Ghost is here so declared to be a person as that he is declared to be one that is also divine; for so the apostle Peter declares in the exposition of