things of God. For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the deep things of God knoweth no one save the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit which comes from God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God: which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth: comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged by no one. For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he might instruct him? But we have the mind of the Christ.' (1 Cor. 2. 10-16. Comp. 7. 40.)

The Breath of truth, or the power of revealing the words of the Lord to the saints, was a gift conferred exclusively on the apostles (John, 14. 16-18), and they only could impart spiritual gifts to the brethren by means of the imposition of their hands; for Philip, who performed miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus, was incapable of conferring this power on other disciples (Acts, 8. 14-17), so that shortly after the death of the apostles all spiritual gifts ceased to be manifested, and whosoever, since that time, claims to be moved by the Holy Breath, deceives himself and others; for since then the Lord has made no revelations to the saints, as the object for which he originally made them was fully accomplished by the testimony of his holy apostles and prophets. (Acts, 20. 27.) This is a fact to which we beg to call the attention of our brethren, for it is upon the erroneous assumption that the Holy Breath still remains with the saints that certain heretics teach God's children doctrines contrary to the Scriptures, alleging that they are guided in their testimony supernaturally, like the apostles, whereas they are, in reality, moved solely by their own carnal mind;

and by pretending to be guided by special inspiration, religious fanatics often bring discredit on the name of Jesus Christ whom they profess to honour by their zeal; but 'Woe unto the foolish prophets, saith Jehovah, that walk after their own breath, and speak without having seen anything.' (Ezek. 13. 3.)

II. The Holy Spirit in the saints.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage to be again in fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, wherein we cry, Abba! Father!' (Rom. 8. 15.)

As the word 'pneuma,' which, properly speaking, signifies breath, is used in a figurative sense to denote the frame or disposition of mind of the adopted sons of God who obey their Heavenly Father from love, it may be rendered by the word 'spirit,' and in this sense it is used by Paul, who exhorted the brethren in Galatia, saying, 'If we live by the Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit.' (Gal. 5. 25. Comp. Rom. 8. 13, 14.) That is to say, as we are sons of God let us walk as his sons, and not as slaves under the law of Moses. The Spirit of adoption, or of the adopted sons of God, is received by faith in his word; for Jesus said, 'Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be sons of God' (Matt. 5. 9); and again, 'That ye may be sons of your Father who is in heaven' (Matt. 5. 45. Comp. Gal. 3. 2), in which spirit the saints obey God as their Father, and Jesus Christ as their Lord. This spirit is called the Spirit of God because it is his gift to the saints in this dispensation (John, 4. 10; 7. 39; 20. 23. Acts, 2. 38, 39. Rom. 8. 8), and the Spirit of the Christ, because it is the Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ, and it is the Spirit of all whom God has adopted as his sons. (Rom. 8. 9.) And hence it is written that as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are sons of God, inasmuch as they obey him as their Father (Rom. 8. 14.) This is the Holy Spirit, or the dispo

sition of mind which was in Jesus, and which should animate his disciples to imitate his humility and obedience, as the apostle exhorts us, saying, 'Let the same mind be in you which was also in the Christ Jesus' (Phil. 2. 5-8), for if the Spirit of Jesus abide in us we shall have the will and the power to obey God as our Father, and shall be no longer under the dominion of the flesh or of the spirit of rebellion, as the children of Adam. (Rom. 8. 1-8.)

Holy Spirit in the dis-
Israel by the prophet

The promise of the gift of the pensation of grace, was made to Ezekiel, who said, 'A new heart also will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my commandments.' (Ezek. 36. 27. Comp. Jer. 31. 33; Rom. 8. 1-4.) And in Hosea it is written, 'It shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be sons of the living God' (Hos. 1. 10. Rom. 9. 26); which blessing was not for Israel only, but for as many as the Lord God shall call to his kingdom. (Acts, 2. 38, 39. Rom. 5. 5; 8. 14-16. Gal. 3. 14-26.) The Holy Spirit was not given till Jesus was glorified, when he breathed on his disciples in sign thereof, saying unto them, 'Receive ye the Holy Spirit' (John, 20. 23. Comp. John, 7. 38, 39), for it is through him that God confers this gift on his disciples. (John, 4. 10, 14. Luke, 11. 13.) The Spirit or mind of the Christ is, therefore, called the Holy Spirit of promise in which the saints are sealed, and which is the earnest of their inheritance in the new Jerusalem, the everlasting abode of the blessed (Eph. 1. 13, 14), and to glorify the power of the Holy Spirit they are immersed as disciples of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 28. 19); and in this spirit, which is antagonistic to the spirit of Adam, they should walk in newness of life. (Rom. 6. 3, 4.) Therefore Paul says, 'Grieve not the Holy

Spirit wherein you are sealed for the day of deliverance ’ [from the body]. (Eph. 4. 24. Comp Gal. 5. 17.) For in this Spirit we abound in the hope of the righteous (Rom. 15. 13. Gal. 5. 5), and in its power we walk as holy brethren, to the glory of God, and not according to the flesh (Acts, 9. 31. Rom. 15. 13), for ‘Know ye not,' says Paul, 'that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and that ye are not your own? Therefore glorify God in your body' (1 Cor. 5. 19, 20), for they who are joined to the Christ have one Spirit (1 Cor. 6. 17); that is to say, they obey the law of God as he did, from love to their heavenly Father; and it is, therefore, by virtue of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that the saints glorify God, and that the Christ is glorified in them (John, 17. 10. 2 Thess. 1. 12), for being conscious of their divine birth, and of their adoption, as sons of God, they are endued thereby with the will and the moral power to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments (Ezek. 37. 27. Rom. 8. 1-4), and in the Holy Spirit they worship God, and rejoice in the Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3. 3).

III. But the word 'breath,' or 'spirit,' has many other meanings in the Scriptures of the new covenant besides those to which we have adverted, some of which we will now point out, namely,—

1. The Soul.-Matt. 26. 41; 27. 50. Mark, 8. 12; 14. 38. Luke, 8. 55. John, 11. 33. Acts, 7. 59; 17. 16; 23. 8. 1 Cor. 5. 3-5; 7. 34. 2 Cor. 7. 13. 2 Tim. 4. 22; Jam. 2. 26.

2. The Mind.—1 Cor. 2. 11. 2 Tim. 1. 7. Heb. 4. 12. Comp. Num. 14. 24; Deut. 2. 30; Ps. 51. 10.

3. The Carnal Mind.-Rom. 11. 8. Eph. 2. 2. Jam. 4. 5.

4. In 2 Cor. 3. 6-8, the Spirit means the new covenant;

and the Lord himself is called the Spirit, inasmuch as he is the Mediator of the covenant of grace. (2 Cor. 3. 17.)

5. Spiritual is the antithesis of carnal, in 1 Cor. 2. 15; 14. 37. Rom. 8. 6. Gal. 6. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 5.

6. The discerning of spirits was a supernatural gift. 1 Cor. 12. 10. 2 Thess. 2. 2. 1 John, 4. 1-3.

7. The Seven spirits were the holy angels. (Rev. 1. 4. Heb. 2. 14.) And in Luke, 24. 37, this word is the name given to a spectre or apparition.

As we shall expound the doctrine of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit more fully in the sequel, we shall now merely recapitulate the result of our search for the truth, by saying that we believe in one God the Father, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is the manifestation of the Father, and is God with us. And we believe that God moved his servants, the prophets, by his Spirit to speak in his name, and that by it he regenerates the elect; and that he has adopted all who believe in Jesus Christ as his sons, and has given them the Holy Spirit to dwell in them by which they walk in newness of life. This is the basis of the faith which has been delivered to us by the holy apostles and prophets of the Lord, and for which we must contend till he come again to receive us to himself in glory at the end of the age, when we shall have to render an account to him of our testimony as his witnesses for the truth.

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