Three things may be intended in this adjunct of grace.
CHAP. II.] ZECH. XII. 10 OPENED AND VINDICATED. 257
[1.] A respect of the sovereign cause of his dispensation, which is no other but the mere grace of God. He may be called a " Spirit of grace," because his donation is an effect of grace, without the least respect unto any desert in those unto whom he is given. This reason of the appellation is declared, Tit. iii. 4-7. The sole cause and reason, in opposition unto our own works or deservings, of the pour- ing out of the Spirit upon us, is the love and kindness of God in Jesus Christ ; whence he may be justly called a " Spirit of grace." [2.] Because he is the author of all grace in and unto them on whom he is poured out; so God is called the " God of all grace," because he is the fountain and author of it. And that the Holy Spirit is the immediate efficient cause of all grace in us hath been elsewhere proved, both in general and in the principal instances of regeneration and sanctification ; and it shall be yet farther confirmed in what doth ensue. [3.] ID is commonly used for that grace or favour which one hath with another : " Let me find grace in thy sight;" as in the instances before quoted. And so the Spirit also may be called a " Spirit of grace," because those on whom he is poured out have grace and favour with God ; they are gracious with him, as being " accepted in the Beloved," Eph. i. 6. Whereas, therefore, all these concur wherever this Spirit is communicated, I know no reason why we may not judge them all here included, though that in the second place be especially intended. The Spirit is promised to work grace and holiness in all on whom he is bestowed.
(2.) He is, as thus poured out, a " Spirit B^^D, of supplications;" that is, of prayer for grace and mercy. The word is formed from 1^0 j as the other, to be gracious or merciful, and, expressing our act towards God, it is prayer for grace, — supplication; and it is never used but to express vocal prayer, either in the assemblies of the people of God or by private persons. " Hearken to the voice of my supplications," is rendered by the apostle Paul txsTnpiag, Heb. v. 7; in which place alone in the Scripture that word is used. Originally it signifies a bough or olive-branch wrapped about with wool or bays, or something of the like nature, which those carried in their hands and lifted up who were suppliants unto others for the obtaining of peace or the averting of their displeasure. Hence came the phrase of velamenta praferre} to hold out such covered branches. So Livy, De Bel. Punic, lib. xxiv. cap. SO, "Ramos olese, ac velamenta alia suppli- cantium porrigentes, orare,ut reciperent sese;" — "Holding forth olive- branches, and other covered tokens used by suppliants, they prayed that they might be received" into grace and favour. Which custom Virgil declares in his iEneas addressing himself to Evander: —
" Optime Grajugenum, cui me fortuna precari Et vitta comptos voluit piceteudere ramos." — Virg. iEn. viii. 127. VOL. IV. 17
258 WOEK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PRAYER. [BOOK VII.
And they called them ixerripioug SaWovg, " branches of supplication," or prayer. And they constantly called those prayers which they made solemnly unto their gods, suj)plicia and supplicationes, Liv., lib. x. cap. 23, "Eo anno prodigia multa fuerunt: quorum averruncan- dorum caussa supplicationes in biduum senatus decrevit;" a form of which kind of prayer we have in Cato, De Re Rustica, cap. xiii., " Mars pater te precor quoesoque ut calamitates ."
Some render E^nri by miserationes or lamentationes, and inter- pret it of men's bemoaning themselves in their prayers for grace and mercy, — which in the issue varies not from the sense insisted on ; but whereas it is derived from 1^0, which signifies to be merciful or gracious, and expresses an act of ours towards God, it can properly signify nothing but supplications for mercy and grace, nor is it otherwise used in the Scripture. See Job xli. 3; Prov. xviii. 23; Dan. ix. 3 ; Jer. xxxi. 9 ; 2 Chron. vi. 21 ; Jer. iii. 21 ; Ps. xxviii. 2, 6, xxxi. 22, cxvi.l, cxxx. 2, cxl. 6, cxliii. 1; Dan. ix.18, 23; Ps. lxxxvi. 6; which are all the places, besides this, where the word is used; in all which it denotes deprecation of evil and supplication for grace, con- stantly in the plural number, to denote the earnestness of men.
B^nfi, therefore, are properly supplications for grace and mercy, for freedom and deliverance from evil, put by a synecdoche for all sorts of prayer whatever. We may, therefore, inquire in what sense the Holy Spirit of God is called a " Spirit of supplications," or what is the reason of this attribution unto him. And he must be so either formally or efficiently, either because he is so in himself or unto us. If in the former way, then he is a Spirit who himself prayeth, and, according to the import of those Hebraisms, aboundeth in that duty. As a '•' man of wickedness," Isa. lv. 7, or a " man of blood," is a man wholly given to wickedness and violence; so, on the other hand, a " Spirit of supplications" should be a Spirit abounding in prayer for mercy and the diverting of evil, as the word imports. Now, the Holy Ghost cannot be thus a Spirit of supplication, neither for him- self nor us. No imagination of any such thing can be admitted with respect unto himself without the highest blasphemy. Nor can he in his own person make supplications for us; for besides that any such interposition in heaven on our behalf is in the Scripture wholly confined unto the priestly office of Christ and his intercession, all prayer, whether oral or interpretative only, is the act of a nature in- ferior unto that which is prayed unto. This the Spirit of God hath not; he hath no nature inferior unto that which is divine. We can- not, therefore, suppose him to be formally a Spirit of supplication, unless we deny his deity. He is so, therefore, efficiently with re- spect unto us, and as such he is promised unto us. Our inquiry, therefore, in general, is how or in what sense he is so. And there are