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ESSAY IX.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

THOSE things which God's most favoured servants under the old dispensation--which "many prophets and kings had in vain desired to see and hear," the disciples of Jesus had been permitted to witness. They had seen the man whom " God had anointed with the Holy Ghost," and "given it unto Him not by measure ;""" the image of the invisible God," "whom no man hath seen

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at any time," but whom "the only-begotten Son had declared unto them;" "being the express image of his person. Imperfect and indistinct indeed, perhaps we may say confused, must have been the notions they entertained respecting the

a Acts x. 38.

c Coloss. i. 15.

e John i. 18.

b John iii. 34.

d 1 John iv. 12; also John i. 18.

f Heb. i. 3.

mysterious Person with whom they had been so long holding intercourse. Such must be our notions also concerning Him, unless they be erroneous; for the ideas we form on a subject surpassing the powers of our present minds, and which Scripture has but indistinctly revealed, cannot be, at once, clear, and correct. The disciples, however, had, during our Lord's abode with them, even more imperfect notions respecting Him than they were afterwards taught to form. He had " many things to say unto them, which yet they could not bear." But they "knew and were sure that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God," and that "He had the words of eternal life:" and they had latterly been further taught that they were not to regard Him as merely bearing the commission of the Most High, like the prophets of old; nor yet as merely some Being of a superhuman nature, whether a creature, or (according to the presumptuous fancies which afterwards prevailed) some Eon or Emanation from the Deity, and partaking of the divine nature; for when asked by Philip, who probably

The Gnostics (i. e. men of "science, falsely so called,") taught the doctrine of successive emanations (" endless

was disposed to entertain some such notion, to show them the Father, He replied, "Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how then sayest thou, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?h the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself; but the

genealogies" alluded to by St. Paul) from the Deity (whom they called the "Fulness"), and from one another, of these celestial beings; in whom they personified many of the Scripture-terms relating to the character or the dispensations of the Most High. Such as Logos (the Word), of whom they regarded Christ as an incarnation; Phôs (Light), feigned to have been incarnate in John the Baptist; Aletheia (Truth); Zoe (Life); Monogenes (only-begotten), and others. Without some acquaintance with this tissue of impious absurdity, it is impossible to understand fully the opening of St. John's Gospel.

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St. Paul's expressions also, "in Him dwelleth all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily”. "it hath pleased the Father that in Him should all Fulness dwell," have reference probably to the same heresy.

h This mode of expression seems to have been employed, as it constantly is, by our Lord, to guard his hearers against the notion of a local Deity,-against literally attributing place to the Divine Mind: thus, He says, "abide in me, and I in you" and "the same dwelleth in me, and I in him," &c.

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Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake." (John xiv.)

§ 1. Well therefore might the disciples, when thus far taught, anticipate with grief and dismay the approaching loss of this their Divine Master,--the destruction of" the temple of his body," and the withdrawing of this "manifestation of God in the flesh," with which they had been so long favoured; and He most tenderly sets himself to relieve their fears and sorrows, by assuring them of his speedy return to abide with them for ever; "I go away, and come again unto you; a little while and ye shall not see me, and again a little while and ye shall see me." It was not, indeed, the bodily presence of their Master in the flesh, that they were to look for as continuing with them "always, even unto the end of the world," as these and several other of his expressions would have led them to suppose, had there not been others to modify and explain them; it was another comforter,---the Holy Spirit, whom the Father should send in Christ's name, that should teach them all

things, and should "abide with" them " for ever;" though still Jesus suffers them not to suppose that they were to transfer their love and allegiance to a new master, or to look for consolation and instruction to any distinct being from Himself; though after his ascension He would no longer be, as heretofore, the object daily present to their senses; "That Spirit of Truth," He said, they knew ; "for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you :" "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you; yet a little while and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me; because I live, ye shall live also: at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you"i. "he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him". . . . . " my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him:" "abide in me, and I in you; i as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me;---without me ye can do nothing." (John xv.)