When our Lord says (Luke xi. 13), that our Father in heaven is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, than parents are to give good gifts unto their children, He certainly means something more by the gift of the Spirit, than the knowl- edge of his Word. Thousands hear and do not understand or believe. The Spirit is promised to attend the teaching of the Word and to render it effectual, and this is the precious gift which God promises to bestow on those who ask it. " Hereby we know," says the Apostle, " that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." (1 John iii. 24.) The Holy Ghost, therefoi-e, is a gift. It is a gift bestowed on those who already have the Word, and consequently it is something distinct from the Word.
5. Another clear proof that the Spirit exercises uj)on the minds of men an influence distinguishable from the influence of the truth either in the Lutheran or Remonstrant view, is that those who have the knowledge of the Word as read or heard, are directed to pray for the gift of the Spirit to render that Word eftectual. Of such prayei's we have many examples in the Sacred Scriptures. David, in Psalm li. 11, pi-ays, " Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." The Apostle prays in behalf of the Ephesians to whom for more than two years he had been preaching the Gospel, that God would give them the Holy Spirit, that they might have the knowledge of Him, that their eyes might be opened to know the hope of their calling, and the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints, and the exceeding greatness of the power of which they were the subjects. (Eph. i. 17-19.) He makes a similar prayer in be- half of the Colossians. (Col. i. 9-11.) On the other hand rnen are warned not to grieve or quench the Spirit lest he should depart from them. The great judgment which ever hangs over
§8.] COaOION GRACE. Q^J'd
the impenitent hearers of the Gospel is, that God may witlihoM the Holy Spirit, leaving them to themselves and to the mere power inherent in the truth. Such are reprobates ; men with whom the Spirit has ceased to strive. It is obvious, therefore, that the Scriptures recognize an influence of the Holy Ghost which may be given or withheld, and whicli is necessary to give the truth any power on the iieart.
6. The Scriptures therefore always recognize the Holy Spirit as the immediate author of regeneration, of repentance, of faith, and of all holy exercises. He dwells in believers, controlling their in- ward and out\vard life. He enlightens, leads, sanctifies, strength- ens, and comforts. All these effects are attributed to his agency. He bestows his gifts on every one severally as he will. (1 Cor. xii. 11.) The Bible does not more clearly teach that the gifts of tongues, of healing, of miracles, and of wisdom, are the fruits of the Spirit, than that the saving graces of faith, love, and hope are to be referred to his operations. The one class of gifts is no more due to the inherent power of the truth than the other. The Apostle, therefore, did not depend for the success of his preaching upon the clearness with which the truth was presented, or the earnestness with which it was enforced, but on the attenrling " demonstration of the Spirit." (1 Cor. ii. 4.) He gave thanks to God that the Gospel came to the Thessalonians " not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost." (1 Thess. i. 5.) He prayed that God would fulfil in them " the work of faith with power." (2 Thess. i. 11.) He reminded the Philip))ians that it was God who worked in them " both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Phil. ii. 13.) In Hebrews xiii. 21, he prays that God would make his people perfect, working in them "that which is well-pleasing in his sight." Indeed, every prayer recorded in the Scriptures for the conversion of men, for their sanctification, and for their consolation, is a recognition of the doctrine that God works on the mind of men by his Holy Spirit according to his own good pleasure. This is especially true of the apostolic benediction. By the " communion of the Holy Ghost," which that benediction invokes, is meant a participation in the sanctifving and saving influences of the Spirit.
7. This truth, that the Spirit does attend the Word and ordi- nances of God by a power not inherent in the Word and sacraments themselves, but granted in larger or less measures, as God sees fit, is inwrought into the faith of the whole Christian Church. All the Liturgies of the Greek, Latin, and Protestant churches are
664 PART m. ch. XIV. — vocation.
filled with prayers for the g\h of the Spirit to attend the Word and sacraments. Every Christian offers such prayers daily for himself and others. The whole history of the Church is full of the record of facts which are revelations of tliis great doctrine. Why were thousands converted on the day of Pentecost, when so few believed under the preaching of Christ himself? Why during the apostolic age did the Church make such I'apid progress ill all parts of the world ? Why at the Reformation, and at many subsequent periods, were many born in a day ? Every revival of religion is a visible manifestation of the power of the Holy Ghost accessary to the power of the truth. This, therefore, is a doctrine which no Christian should allow himself for a moment to call into question.
The Influence of the Spirit may he without the Word.
There is another unscriptural view of this subject which must at least be noticed, although its full considei-ation belongs to another department. Many admit that there is a supernatural power of the Spirit attending the Word and sacraments, but they hold that the Spirit is confined to these channels of communication ; that He works in them and by them but never without them. On this subject Romanists hold that Christ gave the Holy Spirit to the Apostles. They transmitted the gift to their successors the bishops. Bishops in the laying on of hands in ordination communicate the grace of orders to the priests. In virtue of this grace the priests have supernatural power to render the sacraments the channels of grace to those who submit to their ministrations. Those, there- fore, who are in the Romish Church, and those only, are, through the sacraments, made partakers of the Holy Spirit. All others, whether adults or infants, perish because they are not partakers of those ordinances through which alone the saving influences of the Spirit are communicated. This also is the doctrine held by those called Anglicans in the Church of England.
The Lutheran Church rejected with great earnestness the doc- trine of Apostolic Succession, the Grace of Orders, and the Priest- hood of the Christian Ministry as held by the Church of Rome. Lutherans, however, tanglit not only that there is " a mystical union " between the Si)irit and the Word, as we have already seen, so that all saving effects are produced by the powei' inherent in the Word itself, and that the Spirit does not operate on the hearts of men Avithout the Word, but also that there is an objec- tive supernatural power in the sacraments themselves, so that they