Rom. viii. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of his a.
MAN at his first creation was made in the Divine image ; God communed with him as a friend, and dwelt in him as a temple : but this harmony was not of long continuance : man sinned ; and God in right- eous judgment departed from him. Not willing how- ever that his apostate creatures should irrecoverably perish, God sent his Son to make atonement for their sins, and his Spirit to renew their natures, that so they might be restored to his favour, and rendered meet for the inheritance they had forfeited. It is of this Spirit that the Apostle speaks in the text, and declares that we must have him dwelling in us if we would belong to Christ. We might understand the Spirit as referring to the disposition of Christ ; but that the context evidently confines its import to that blessed Spirit, who " raised up Christ from the dead, and will in due time raise up us also." He is called "the Spirit of God," and "the Spirit of Christ," be- cause Christ is God, and the Spirit acts as his deputy. We propose to shew, I. That we may have the Spirit —
By " having the Spirit " we do not mean, that we are to have those common operations of the Spirit, which the most ungodly men both experience and resist b (for then the Apostle's assertion would be frivolous in the extreme ;) nor do we mean those miraculous powers, which were given in the apostolic age (for many, who were Christ's, never received those powers ; and many exercised those powers who never belonged to Christ0;) but we mean those special influences of the Spirit, whereby men are enlightened,
a This is retained as being totally different from those which fol- low, and as being useful to any one who may wish to see a more concise view of the subject.
» Gen. vi. 3. Isai. lxiii. 10. c Matt. vii. 22, 23.