If then we need the Spirit as much as they did of old, we may expect it as well as they.]
2. The promises relating to the communications of the Spirit, are made to us, as much as to any per- sons whatever —
[Those of the Old Testament extend to the Church in every age. Shall we confine to the apostolic age such declara- tions as those ; " Turn you at my reproof, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you1:" " All thy children shall be taught of the Lordm:" " This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel ; I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, saying, Know the Lord ; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them11:" "I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes ° ?" To deny our interest in such passages as these, were to rob us of half the Scriptures.
And what shall we say to the promises of the New Testa- ment ? Shall we limit those also to the Apostles' days ? Hear what our Lord says ; " If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your hea- venly Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask him??" " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink ; and out
e 2 Cor. iv. 4. f Eph. ii. 1. si Cor. ii. 14. i> i Cor. ii. 12. • Luke xxiv. 45. k 1 Cor. ii. 11. with 1 John ii. 20, 27. 1 Prov. i. 23. m Isai. liv. 13. with John vi. 45.
" Jer. xxxi. 33,34. » Ezek. xxxvi. 27. p Luke xi. 13.