manner under the new dispensation the Spirit is represented as not on]}^ the author of miraculous gifts, but also as the giver of the qualifications to teach and rule in the Church. All these opera- tions are independent of the sanctifying influences of the Spirit. When the Spirit came on Samson or upon Saul, it was not to render them holy, but to endue them with extraordinary physical and intellectual power ; and when He is said to have departed from them, it means that those extraordinary endowments were with- drawn.
B. The Spirit's Office in the Work of Redemption.
With regard to the office of the Spirit in the work of redemption, the Scriptures teach, —
1. That He fashioned the body, and endued the human soul of Christ with every qualification for his work. To the Virgin Mary it was said, " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." (Luke i. 35.) The prophet Isaiah predicted that the Messiah should be replenished with all spiritual gifts. " Be- hold my servant whom I uphold ; mine elect in whom my soul delighteth ; I have put my Spirit upon him : he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." (Is. xhi. 1.) " There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots : and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." (Is. xi. 1, 2.) When our Lord appeared on earth, it is said that the Spirit without measure was given unto Him. (John iii. 34.) " And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him." (John i. 32.) He was, therefore, said to have been full of the Holy Ghost.
2. That the Spirit is the revealer of all divine truth. The doc- trines of the Bible are called the things of the Spirit. With regard to the writers of the Old Testament, it is said they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The language of Micah is appli- cable to all the prophets, " Truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin." (Micah iii. 8.) What David said, the Holy Ghost is declared to have said. The New Testament writers were in like manner the organs of the Spirit. The doctrines which Paul preached he did not receive from men,
632 PART L — THEOLOGY. [Ch. VHI. — The Holt Spikit.
♦' but God," he says, " hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." (1 Cor. ii. 10.) The Spirit also guided the utterance of those truths ; for he adds, " Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth ; communicating the things of the Spirit in the words of the Spirit " (irveu/Aart/coTs TrveD/xariKa crvyKptvovTes) . The whole Bible, therefore, is to be referred to the Spirit as its author.
3. The Spirit not only thus reveals divine truth, having guided infallibly holy men of old in recording it, but He everywhere at- tends it by his power. All truth is enforced on the heart and con- science with more or less power by the Holy Spirit, wherever that truth is known. To this all-pervading influence we are indebted for all there is of morality and order in the world. But besides this general influence, which is usually called common grace, the Spirit specially illuminates the minds of the children of God, that they may knew the things freely given (or revealed to them) by God. The natural man does not receive them, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. All believers are therefore called (Trvcv/jLaTiKoC) spiritual, because thus enlightened and guided by the Spirit.
4. It is the special office of the Spirit to convince the world of sin ; to reveal Christ, to regenerate the soul, to lead men to the exercise of faith and repentance ; to dwell in those whom He thus renews, as a principle of a new and divine life. By this indwelling of the Spirit, believers are united to Christ, and to one another, so that they form one body. This is the foundation of the communion of saints, making them one in faith, one in love, one in their inward life, and one in their hopes and final destiny.
5. The Spirit also calls men to office in the Church, and endows them with the qualifications necessary for the successful discharge of its duties. The office of tlie Church, in this matter, is simply to ascertain and authenticate the call of the Spirit. Thus the Holy Ghost is the immediate author of all truth, of all holiness, of all consolation, of all authority, and of all efficiency in the children of God individually, and in the Church collectively.
§ 3. History of the Doctrine concernincf the Holy Spirit. During the Ante-Nicene period, the Church believed concerning , the Holy Ghost what was revealed on the surface of Scripture, and what was involved in the religious experience of all Christians. There is to them one God, the Father, whose favour they had fox'- feited by sin, and to wdiora they must be reconciled ; one Lord