2. We stand in relations to the Holy Spirit which we can sus- tain only to a person. He is the object of our faith. We believe on the Holy Ghost. This faith we profess in baptism. We are baptized not only in the name of the Father and of the Son, but also of the Holy Ghost. The very association of the Spirit in such a connection, with the Father and the Son, as they are ad- mitted to be distinct persons, proves that the Spirit also is a person. Besides the use of the word ets to 6Vo/xa, unto the name, admits of no other explanation. By baptism we profess to acknowledge the Spirit as we acknowledge the Father and the Son, and we bind ourselves to the one as well as to the others. If when the Apos- tle tells the Corinthians that they were not baptized ek to oVo/Aa UavXov, and when he says that the Hebrews were baptized unto Moses, he means that the Corinthians were not, and that the He- brews were made the disciples, the one of Paul and the others of Moses ; then when we are baptized unto the name of the Spirit, the meaning is that in baptism we profess to be his disciples ; we bind ourselves to receive his instructions, and to submi't to his con- trol. We stand in the same relation to Him as to the Father and to the Son ; we acknowledge Him to be a person as distinctly as we acknowledge the personality of the Son, or of the Father. Chris- tians not only profess to believe on the Holy Ghost, but they are also the recipients of his gifts. He is to them an object of prayer. In the apostolic benediction, the grace of Christ, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, are solemnly in- voked. We pray to the Spirit for the communication of Himself to us, that He may, according to the promise of our Lord, dwell in us, as we pray to Christ that we may be the objects of his un- merited love. Accordingly we are exhoi'ted not " to sin against," " not to resist," not " to grieve " the Holy Spirit. He is repre- sented, therefore, as a person who can be the object of our acts ; whom we may please or offend ; with whom we may have com- munion, i. e., personal intercourse ; who can love and be loved ; who can say " thou " to us ; and whom we can invoke in every time of need.
3. The Spirit also sustains relations to us, and performs offices which none but a person can sustain or perform. He is our teacher, sanctifier, comforter, and guide. He governs every be liever who is led by the Spirit, and the whole Church. He calls, as He called Barnabas and Saul, to the work of the ministry, or to some special field of labour. Pastors or bishops are made over- seers by the Holy Ghost.
526 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. Vni. — The Holy Spirit.
4. In the exercise of these and other functions, personal acts are constantly attributed to the Spirit in the Bibje ; that is, such acts as imply intelligence, will, and activity or power. The Spirit searches, selects, reveals, and reproves. We often read that " The Spirit said." (Acts xiii. 2 ; xxi. 11 ; 1 Tim. iv. 1, etc., etc.) This is so constantly done, that the Spirit appears as a personal agent from one end of the Scriptures to the other, so that his personality is bej^ond dispute. The only possible question is whether He is a distinct person from the Father. But of this there can be no rea- sonable doubt, as He is said to be the Spirit of God and the Spirit which is of God (e/< 6eov') ; as He is distinguished from the Father in the forms of baptism and benediction ; as He proceeds from the Father ; and as He is promised, sent, and given by the Father. So that to confound the Holy Spirit with God would be to render the Scriptures unintelligible.
5. All the elements of personality, namely, intelligence, will, and individual subsistence, are not only involved in all that is thus revealed concerning the relation in which the Spirit stands to us and that which we sustain to Him, but they are all distinctly at- tributed to Him. The Spirit is said to know, to will, and to act. He searches, or knows all things, even the deep things of God. No man knoweth the things of God, but the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. ii. 10, 12.) He distributes " to every man severally as he will." (1 Cor. xii. 11.) His individual subsistence is involved in his being an agent, and in his being the object on which the activity of others terminates. If He can be loved, reverenced, and obeyed, or offended and sinned against. He must be a person.
6. The personal manifestations of the Spirit, when He descended on Christ after his baptism, and upon the Apostles at the day of Pentecost, of necessity involve his personal subsistence. It was not any attribute of God, nor his mere efficiency, but God himself, that was manifested in the burning bush, in the fire and clouds on Mount Sinai, in the pillar which guided the Israelites through the wildei'ness, and in the glory which dwelt in the Tabernacle and in the Temple.
7. The people of God have always regarded the Holy Spirit as a pei-son. They have looked to Him for instruction, sanctifica- tion, direction, and comfort. This is part of their religion. Chris- tianity (subjectively considered) would not be what it is without this sense of dependence on the Spirit, and this love and reverence for his person. All the liturgies, prayers, and praises of the Church, are filled with appeals and addresses to the Holy Ghost.