Fourthly, The union and relation that ensues on this inhabitation of the Spirit is not immediate between him and believers, but be- tween them and Jesus Christ ; for he is sent to dwell in them by Christ, in his name, as his Spirit, to supply his room in love and grace towards them, making use of his things in all his effects and operations unto his glory. Hence, I say, is the union of believers with Christ by the Spirit, and not with the Spirit himself; for this Holy Spirit dwelling in the human nature of Christ, manifesting and acting himself in all fulness therein, as hath been declared, being sent by him to dwell in like manner and act in a limited measure in all believers, there is a mystical union thence arising between them, whereof the Spirit is the bond and vital principle.
On these considerations, I say, it is the person of the Holy Ghost that is promised unto believers, and not only the effects of his grace and power; and his person it is that always dwelleth in them. And as this, on the one hand, is an argument of his infinite condescension in complying with this part of his office and work, to be sent by the Father and Son to dwell in believers; so it is an evident demonstra- tion of his eternal deity, that the one and self-same person should at the same time inhabit so many thousands of distinct persons as are or were at any time of believers in the world, — which is fondness to imagine concerning any one that is not absolutely infinite. And, therefore, that which some oppose as unmeet for him, and beneath his glory, namely, this his inhabitation in the saints of God, is a most illustrious and incontrollable demonstration of his eternal glory: for
VOL iv. 25
386 THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A COMFORTER. [BOOK VIII.
none but he who is absolutely immense in his nature and omni- presence can be so present with and indistant from all believers in the world; and none but he whose person, by virtue of his nature, is infinite, can personally equally inhabit in them all. An infinite na- ture and person is required hereunto. And in the consideration of the incomprehensibility thereof are we to acquiesce as to the manner of his inhabitation, which we cannot conceive.
1. There are very many promises in the Old Testament that God would thus give the Holy Spirit in and by virtue of the new cove- nant, as Ezek. xxxvi. 27, Isa. lix. 21, Prov. i. 23. And in every place God calls "this promised Spirit, and as promised, his Spirit, " My Spirit;" which precisely denotes the person of the Spirit him- self. It is generally apprehended, I confess, that in these promises the Holy Spirit is intended only as unto his gracious effects and operations, but not as to any personal inhabitation. And I should not much contend upon these promises only, although, in some of them his person, as promised, be expressly distinguished from all his gracious effects, but that the exposition which is given of them in their accomplishment under the New Testament will not allow us so to judge of them ; for, —
2. We are directed to pray for the Holy Spirit, and assured that God will give him unto them that ask of him in a due manner, Luke xi. 13. If these words must be expounded metonymically, and not properly, it must be because either, — (1.) They agree not in the letter with other testimonies of Scripture ; or, (2.) contain some sense absurd and unreasonable ; or, (3.) that which is contrary unto the exjoerience of them that believe. The first cannot be said, for other testimonies innumerable concur with it; nor the second, as we shall show; and as for the third, it is that whose contrary we prove. What is it that believers intend in that request? I suppose I may say that there is no one petition wherein they are more in- tense and earnest, nor which they more frequently insist upon. As David prayed that " God would not take his Holy Spirit from him/' Ps. li. 11, so do they that God would bestow him on them; for this they do, and ought to do, even after they have received him. His continuance with him, his evidencing and manifestation of himself in and to them, are the design of their continual supplications for him. Is it merely external operations of the Spirit in grace that they desire herein? Do they not always pray for his ineffable presence and inhabitation? Will any thoughts of grace or mercy relieve or satisfy them if once they apprehend that the Holy Spirit is not in them or doth not dwell with them? Although they are not able to form any conception in their minds of the manner of his presence and residence in them, yet is it that which they pray for, and with-
CHAP. IV.] INHABITATION OF THE SPIEIT. 387
out the apprehension whereof by faith they can have neither peace nor consolation. The promise hereof being confined unto believers, those that are truly and really so, as we showed before, it is their experience whereby its accomplishment is to be judged, and not the presumption of such by whom both the Spirit himself and his whole work is despised.