88 DIVINE NATURE AND PERSONALITY OF THE [BOOK I.
the words, verse 4, "Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God." These things are so plain and positive that the faith of believers will not be concerned in the sophistical evasions of our adversaries. In / like manner, he is said to be resisted, Acts vii. 51 ; which is the / moral reaction or opposition of one person unto another. So also ' is he said to be grieved,, or we are commanded not to grieve him, Ej)h. iv. 80; as they of old were said to have "rebelled and vexed the Holy Spirit of God," Isa. Ixiii. 10. A figurative exi:)ression is allowed in these words. Properly, the Spirit of God caimot be grieved or vexed ; for these things include such imperfections as are incompetent unto the divine nature. But as God is said to " repent" and to be " grieved at his heart," Gen. vi. 6, when he would do things corresjDondent unto those which men will do or judge fit to be done on such provocations, and when he would declare what effects they would produce in a nature capable of such perturbations; so on the same reason is the Spirit of God said to be grieved and vexed. But this can no way be spoken of him if he be not one whose respect unto sin may, from the analogy unto human persons, be represented by this figurative expression. To talk of grieving a virtue or an ac- tual emanation of power, is to speak that which no man can under- stand the meaning or intention of Surely he that is thus tempted, resisted, and grieved by sin and sinners, is one that can understand, judge, and determine concerning them; and these things being else- where absolutely spoken concerning God, it declares that he is so with respect unto whom they are mentioned in particular.
The whole of the truth contended for is yet more evident in that discourse of our Saviour, Matt. xii. 24. The Pharisees said, " He doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of devils." And Jesus /answered, verse 28, "It I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you." Verses 31, 32, " Wherefore 1 1 say unto you. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasj)hemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him." To the same purpose, see Luke xii. 8-10. The Spirit is here expressly distin- guished from the Son, as one person from another. They are both spoken of with respect unto the same things in the same manner, and the things mentioned are spoken concerning them universally in the same sense. Now, if the Holy Ghost were only the virtue and power of God, then present with Jesus Christ in all that he did, Christ and that power could not be distinctly spoken against, for tliey were but one and the same. The Pharisees blasphemed, say- ing, that "he cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils."
CHAP. III.] HOLY SPIRIT PROVED AND VINDICATED. 89
A person they iutencled, and so expressed him by his name, nature, and office. To which our Saviour replies, that he cast them out by the Spirit of God, — a divine person, opposed to him who is diaboli- cal. Hereunto he immediately subjoins his instruction and caution, that they should take heed how they blasphemed that Holy Spirit, by assigning his effects and works to the prince of devils. And blasphemy against him directly manifests both what and who he is, especially such a peculiar blasphemy as carrieth an aggravation of guilt along with it above all that human nature in any other instance is capable of It is supposed that blasphemy may be against the person of the Father: so was it in him who "blasphemed the name of Jehovah and cursed" by it, Lev. xxiv. 11. The Son, as to his dis- tinct person, may be blasphemed; so it is said here expressly; — and thereon it is added that the Holy Ghost also may be distinctly blas- phemed, or be the immediate object of that sin which is declared to be inexpiable. To suppose now that this Holy Ghost is not a divine person is for men to dream whilst they seem to be awake.
I suppose by all these testimonies we have fully confirmed what was designed to be proved by them, — namely, that the Holy Spirit is not a quality, as some speak, residing in the divine nature ; not a mere emanation of virtue and power from God ; not the acting of the power of God in and unto our sanctification ; but a holy intelli- / gent subsistent or person. And in our passage many instances have been given, whence it is undeniably evident that he is a divine, self-suffijcient, self-subsisting person, together with the Father and the Son equally participant of the divine nature. Nor is this dis- tinctly much disputed by them with whom we have to do; for they confess that such things are ascribed unto him as none but God can effect: wherefore, denying him so to be, they lay up all their hopes of . success in denying him to be a person. But yet, because the subject we are upon doth require it, and it may be useful to the faith of some, I will call over a few testimonies given expressly unto his deity also.