Will you reply? “Well, but this is the original promise _made by our_ Lord.” I answer, not so neither, for it was before this, Jesus himself _stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, he that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And this he spake of the Spirit, which they should receive who believed on him_ (♦οὗ ἔμελλον λαμβάνειν οἱ πιστεύσαντες εἰς αὐτὸν). If I mistake not, this may more justly be termed, _our_ Lord’s _original promise of the Spirit_. And who will assert, that this is to be interpreted _chiefly, if not only_ of the apostolical church?”
♦ “οῦ ἓμελλόν λαμβὰνειν ὁι πιστεὺοντες ἐις ἀυτὸν” replaced with “οὗ ἔμελλον λαμβάνειν οἱ πιστεύσαντες εἰς αὐτὸν”
6. Your Lordship proceeds: “It occurs in the 14th and 16th chapters of St. _John_’s gospel; in which he uses these words”――――in what verses, my Lord? Why is not this specified?¹ Unless to furnish your Lordship with an opportunity of doing the very things whereof you before complained, of “confounding passages of a quite contrary nature, and jumbling together those that relate to the ♦_extraordinary_ operations of the Spirit, with those that relate to his _ordinary_ influences?”
¹ I take it for granted, that the citation of texts in the margin, which is totally wrong, is a blunder of the printer’s.
♦ “extraordinory” replaced with “extraordinary”
You cite the words thus; _When the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth, and he will shew you things to come._ (These are nearly the words that occur, chapter xvi. verse 13.)
“And again, _The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you._ These words occur in the 14th chapter, at the 26th verse.”
But my Lord, I want the original promise still; the original (I mean) of those made in this very discourse. Indeed your margin tells us, where it is, (chapter xiv. verse 16.) but the words appear not. Taken together with the context they run thus:
_If ye love me, keep my commandments._
_And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever:_
_Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knowest him._ Chapter xiv. verses 15, 16, 17.
My Lord, suffer me to enquire, why you slipt over this text? Was it not (I appeal to the Searcher of your heart!) because you was conscious to yourself, that it would necessarily drive you to that unhappy dilemma, either to assert that _for ever_, εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, meant only sixty or seventy years; or to allow, that the text must be interpreted of the _ordinary_ operations of the Spirit, in all future ages of the church.
And indeed that the promise in this text belongs to all Christians, evidently appears, not only from your Lordship’s own concession, and from the text itself, (for who can deny, that this Comforter or paraclete is now given to all them that believe?) but also from the preceding, as well as following, words. The preceding are, _If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father_――none surely can doubt, but these belong to all Christians in all ages. The following words are, _Even the Spirit of truth, whom the |world| cannot receive_. True; the _world_ cannot; but _all Christians_ can, and will receive him _for ever_.
6. The second promise of the Comforter, made in this chapter, together with its context, stands thus:
Judas _saith unto him_ (_not_ Iscariot) Lord, _how is it that thou will manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world_? Verse 22.
Jesus _answered and said unto him, if any man love me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him._ Verse 23.
_He that loveth me not, keepeth not my word: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me._ Verse 24.
_These things have I spoken unto you, being yet with you._ Verse 25.
_But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you._ Verse 26.