of his belly shall flow rivers of living water : This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive*1." " I will send you another Comforter, who shall abide ivith you for ever1." Hear what his Apostles also say : " Believe on Christ for the remission of your sins ; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost : for the promise is to you, and to your children, and to as many as are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall ca//s." " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his4."
Language has neither force nor certainty, if such declarations as these be not to be applied to us.]
3. In the Liturgy of our Church we pray continu- ally for the communications of the Spirit to our souls —
[If we do not intend to mock God in our supplications, we must not only acknowledge our need of the Spirit's influence, but we must really feel it every time that we join in our public services" ]
But, to prevent misapprehension, we shall proceed to state distinctly,
II. What discoveries the Spirit will make to our
souls
This is certain, that no new revelation is to be ex- pected by us : the canon of Scripture is closed : and if any man pretend to new revelations, let him con- firm his pretensions, by clear and undoubted mira- cles ; or else let him be rejected as an enthusiast and deceiver. The Spirit now enlightens men only by shining upon the written word, and opening their understandings to understand it. But in this way he will make wonderful discoveries to the soul. He will give us just views,
q John vii. 37 — 39. r John xiv. 16.
s Acts ii. 38, 39. * Rom. viii. 9.
u In the Prayer for the King we say, " Replenish him with the grace of thy Holy Spirit." In the Litany, " That it may please thee to illuminate all Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, with true knowledge and understanding of thy word." [Mark this well.~\ See also the Col- lects for 1st Sunday after Epiphany — 5th Sunday after Easter — Whit- Sunday — 9th Sunday after Trinity — 19th ditto. Compare these with the text ; and see whether, in the judgment of our reformers, the best and most learned of men do not still need to have the Spirit, as a Spi- rit of wisdom and revelation, given unto them.
2005. J the spirit's influences. 281
1. Of God himself—
[Somewhat of God may be known from books, without any supernatural aid: but the knowledge gained in that way will be merely theoretical ; it will have no suitable influence upon the heart and life. But the very same truths, when applied by the Spirit to the soul, make a deep impression on the mind ; they fill it with wonder and with love ; and constrain the enraptured soul to exclaim, " I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; but now mine eye seeth thee x ! " How precious does Christ appear at such seasons ! how " unsearchable the length and breadth and depth and height of his incomprehensible lovey!" These are the mani- festations of himself which our blessed Lord promised to his Church2; and without which we cannot know aright either him or his Father3.
Let us pray then for " the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in, and for, the knoivledge of him."]
2. Of the hope to which he has called us —
[How low are our apprehensions of the Christian's portion, when no particular revelation of it is made to the soul ! We can speak of pardon and acceptance, of grace and glory ; but we speak of them with no more feeling than if they were mere fictions. But O what a "gloriously rich inheritance" does ours appear, when our eyes are opened by the Spirit to behold it! One Pisgah-view of the promised land, how does it transport the soul to heaven, and make us long to be dissolved, that we may be with Christ! As for the inheritances of princes, they then appear as worthless as the toys that amuse a child. The realities of the eternal world surpass all sublu- nary things, as the splendour of the sun exceeds the glimmering of a taper. " These things, which no carnal eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived, these things, I say, God noiv reveals to us by his Spirit1';" yea, he gives us an earnest of them in our hearts c.]