Thirdly. This presence of the Spirit is promised and given unto the church by an everlasting covenant, Isa. lix. 21 : " As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." To whom is this promise made? It is made unto the gospel church. In the verse foregoing, " The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them." With whom ? With them the Redeemer comes to in Zion, to redeem from iniquity. What is God's covenant with them ? It is his word ; his word shall be in them. Suppose this promise to cease, and God doth not con-
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tinue his word to any people; will not their church-state cease, which is built upon the doctrine of the prophets and apostles, which is the word of God ? Yes, take away the foundation, the state must fall. God's covenant is broken with a people, where he doth not continue his word. But how is it with the " Spirit of God?" He is also pro- mised in the same covenant. Now, suppose there be not a continu- ance of this promise, — then I say, all covenant relation between God and a people must be dissolved ; " For this is my covenant, saith the Lord/' etc. ; — as if he had said, " If I maintain a covenant with a people, I will give them my Spirit, to abide with them for ever." That covenant whereby you are joined, is dependent on this great promise; and if this be not made good, your church-state comes to an end, notwithstanding whatever outward order there may be among you. But he hath given his church a covenant which " shall abide for ever."
Fourthly. It is from hence that the ministry of the gospel is " the ministry of the Spirit," 2 Cor. iii. 6-8, " Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit." There were never but two ministrations, or two ministries, in the world, that were accepted of God ; the one was " the ministration of the letter and of death;" the other was, and is, " the ministration of the Spirit, and of life:" and they were both glorious ministrations. That of the letter and death was glorious from its institution. You know what a glorious institution it had at mount Sinai, from the manner of its performance, in a glorious sanctuary or tabernacle, and temple. And from its signification it was glorious. " But the minis- tration of the Spirit is much more glorious." There never were but these two ministrations. If there be a ministration that is not a ministration of the letter and of death, nor a ministration of the Spirit and of life, it is Antichrist's. Now, the first it cannot be: the ministration of the letter and of death is the ministration of the law ; and the ministration of the gospel is the ministration of the Spirit. But say some, " It is so, because the Spirit of God hath revealed all gospel dispensations ; without which it had not been within the com- pass of the reason of man to have found them out." But, in answer to this, the Spirit of God revealed all the ordinances and ministra- tions of old, from first to last, even the little additions that David made after Moses' time. 1 Cliron. xxviii. 12, 19, "All these things did the hand of God teach me by the Spirit." So that if it be the ministration of the Spirit, because the Spirit revealed them; so was the law the ministration of the Spirit, because the Spirit revealed that. The ministration of the Spirit must signify, either that the Spirit is the efficient of the ministration, or the effect of it. If the Spirit be the efficient of the ministration, then it is the Holy Spirit
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of God giving spiritual gifts and abilities to the ministers of the gospel, to enable them to administer all gospel ordinances to the glory of Christ and the edification of the church. Or the ministra- tion of the Spirit may signify the communication of him, and so be the effect of the ministration. Gal. iii. 2, " Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith V — that is, " Re- ceived ye the Spirit by the law, or by the gospel?" Then this follows, that so long as there is the preaching of the gospel, there is the com- munication of the Spirit, Take it which way you will, it is sufficient for my end. If you take the Spirit to be the efficient of the minis- tration of the church, enabling its ministers to perform their work, or for the. effect of the ministration, — he is to abide with the church for ever. For the clearing of this, which is the hinge on which all gospel order turns, we have gone thus far, — that Christ hath promised the Spirit to be with the church ; that it is neither the essential presence of his divine or human nature in particular ; and that the Spirit is promised to be with the church by an everlasting and unchangeable covenant: from whence it is the gospel is the ministration of the Spirit and of life, and not of death.