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tion. Such gifts are not now to be expected; nor are they necessary to the conversion of men, or to the edification of the church: but the illuminating, converting, sanctifying, and strengthening operation of the Holy Spirit remains in connexion with the faithful administration of Christianity, which it creates and energizes, and is absolutely necessary to the success of the Gospel institute. The Holy Spirit, according to the promise of Christ, thus abides with the church for ever; and is, to use the language of Scott, "as vitally united to the church, as souls are to their bodies." "To say that these operations of the Holy Spirit were peculiar to the first ages of the church, and therefore have now ceased, is in effect to make the dispensation of the Gospel cease." + Rather, "The promise of Christ (Luke xi. 13) assures to us the continual presence and influence of the Holy Ghost for all the purposes of guidance and direction, of grace and assistance, of comfort and support, in our Christian course." The extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were not usually, nor at all necessarily, connected with the individual conversion of sinners. The one dispensation of the Spirit was intended to be temporary, the other to be permanent; and this is the usual reason for the distinction of the operations of the Holy Ghost as extraordinary and ordinary. "Ordinary, not as if they were absolutely common, or not to be highly esteemed; but, by this term they are distinguished from those gifts which were miraculous, and because they are continued in the ordinary state of the church, and will be so until the consummation of all things."§ The divine Spirit, in the plenitude of his power, is inseparable from Christianity, and waits to be gracious in all its ordinances and institutions: in its worship, in the preaching of the word, and in the sacraments. Not that his saving operation is necessarily connected with worship, as such, irrespective of its spiritual or formal character, by virtue of the work done; nor thus with preaching or the sacraments of our religion in any state of the hearer of the one, or the recipient of the other; so that those who join in professedly Christian worship, who participate in the outward signs of the sacraments, or who hear the word preached, must therefore be blessed. This error of the Papists is, in all its forms, to be carefully shunned still, however, it must be maintained, should be cordially and practically believed, and our minds should learn to act habitually amidst the realities of such faith, that in every act of sincere worship, whether in private or public, whether of individual men or of congregations, to every real worshipper the Holy Ghost is present, inspiring and sustaining such worship; and ready to bestow, with divine liberality, such good things as shall supply all necessity, and pardon, sanctify, and save. So nowhere, nor under any circumstance, is Christ preached without there being a sufficiency of the influence of the same Holy Spirit to accomplish all the merciful purposes of the Gospel message, to all who mix faith with their hearing. On every such occasion, the converting, sanctifying, and edifying power of God is there and then available; may be possessed, and should be received and improved: and thus, also, is the Holy Spirit present to make the sacraments not only signs but seals of blessing. The collective influ

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* Scott's Christian Life, part. ii., chap. 7.

Whitby's Five Points. Edit. 1710. 8vo., p. 241.
Dr. Owen on the Holy Spirit.

Tillotson.

ence of churches, in prosecuting the evangelical work of the Gospel, is equally dependent on the same divine Person, and his necessary and accessible operations; without which, all talent, organization, direction, effort, liberality, self-denial, and sacrifice must fail us, being but human. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." But while the churches are thus dependent, that on which they depend for success is real, present, and always applicable to strengthen weakness, cure folly, and give wisdom to man's sagacity; to support under discouragement in labour; and to grant and preserve success above all we ask or think; in a word, to accomplish prophecy, the conversion of a world, and the mediatorial triumph of the Redeemer.

The religious prosperity of individuals and churches is unquestionably dependent on the right apprehension and practical recognition of the necessity and reality of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. This cannot in any way be neglected, without manifest prejudice to personal piety, and to the efficiency of the worship and service of churches. Its neglect in times past produced the externalism of Rome, with all its withering and soul-destroying influence; and its comparative neglect enfeebles the religion of many, and exerts upon our collective Christianity a hinderance to its spirituality, power, and usefulness in the world. Hence arises much of formal and unproductive worship, both in public and in private; and much that renders the present condition of our churches unsatisfactory, and the ministry less successful than it is designed to be. As the gift of the Holy Ghost has been vouchsafed in abundant mercy, and in gracious and perfect adaptation to our fallen and helpless condition; so if it be neglected, we despise that love from which this donation proceeds, and the sacrifice through which it comes; and thus grieve the Spirit to our detriment or undoing. The great principle of God's government is applicable here: "Them that honour me, I will honour; and they that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed." This should encourage faith, and admonish negligence. Spirituality of mind is only produced by the Holy Ghost, and it can only be maintained by habitual reliance on and fellowship with Him. If He dwell in individuals, and in congregations, as in his temple, their worship will be acceptable, profitable, and saving. Without this indwelling, sense, the great antagonist of faith, will prevail; and the neglect of the Spirit's presence and power is fearful evidence of its triumphs: and is there not reason to fear, that, in too many instances, faith is thus hindered?

If closet devotion be considered, and the seasons of retirement professedly and intentionally to hold fellowship with God, and to make known our requests with thanksgiving to our heavenly Father, be honestly reviewed, will no barren seasons be observed and remembered? Has no formality obtruded there? Has expectation of present blessing, founded on the promise of God, the prevalence of the atonement, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, always accompanied us? Have we never left our closets without realizing the divine benediction, unblessed, because we had but little, and certainly no intense and confiding, expectation of blessing? Can we discern no contrast between our unsatisfactory state of principle and feeling at such times, and the state of our faith and hope when, practically recognising the present Comforter, we held intercourse with heaven, certain, felt, and

sanctifying; and have rejoiced in God through Christ? How marked the difference! Are we to satisfy ourselves with thankfulness for our better seasons, and not lament over the other? Which constitute the majority? Let us not refer such difference to the divine sovereignty. The sovereignty of love is not capricious, but immutable; and the diversity is not to be accounted for by change in the administration of God the Spirit, but in the versatility of our qualifications for worship; arising from our unbelief, our unwatchfulness, or our sensuality. Much which causes our lamentation may be fairly traced up to this lack of duly and constantly honouring God. Humiliation becomes us; our better seasons encourage our amendment; and we may and should improve each occasion to personal and present profit.

The application of these thoughts to our family worship, discipline, hopes and fears, successes and failures, is easy; and will suggest to those who in this view enter into their consideration, important and profitable lessons of admonition and encouragement. Have we always, by the light of the Spirit, seen the sacrifice on our household altar? always heard the Spirit say, "Come," to ourselves and our endeared circle? always, in faith, responded to that call? Have we depended for, and, as we might, secured promised help at times when our most tender and pious care, and our utmost wisdom and experience, could avail but little? There have been such seasons, rich in family blessings; but all, though they might, have not been so characterized. Through the vagueness of the future veiling the certain present, many occasions of blessing have been unimproved, and sometimes opposite results have followed. Here, as in the closet, the Spirit should be honoured; for here He waits to glorify Christ in them on whom our most tender affection rests, and for whom our most lively and deep solicitude is excited. If we here wait on God with our faith and prayer, and with the confidence of hope, He will create upon our dwelling-place a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night," always discovered and rejoiced in; and "upon all the glory there shall be a defence.”

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So, also, of our public worship and the divine institutions of Christianity, intended to be efficacious by the accompanying power and blessing of the Holy Ghost; and, by his presence and agency, to be always so. "In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." (Exod. xx. 24.) This promise, made to the ancient church, is revived with great force under the Gospel: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. xviii. 20.) Mark, not, I will be,' but 'There I am, to quicken, refresh, and comfort them by my Spirit.' Present as the sun in the midst of the universe."* "There is my restingplace, and there I am, by my Spirit and grace, like one come thither beforehand to bid them welcome."+ Wherever Christianity is preached, and its institutions are set up,-for Christianity is eminently the dispensation of the Spirit, there all these institutions are surrounded by an atmosphere of divine light and power. Wherever the Gospel is preached, there is the Holy Spirit, moving and acting upon the heart, putting man into a capacity to hear with profit, leading him to think of his way, and to turn to God." Too much stress cannot + Guyse.

*Matthew Henry.

Richard Watson, Sermon lxxix.

be placed upon this fact, in vindication of these institutions and ordinances, and in honour of their gracious Author. The divinely-sanctioned forms of our religion are never to be regarded as mere forms; they are designed to embody and communicate the spirituality of the Christian system; they do so to all true worshippers; but viewed or used alone in their visibility, as they are by carnal men, and as they also are by those of better habits, in moments of unbelief or carelessness, they are useless as means of salvation, though they are powerful as evidences to condemn. These propositions commend themselves to our judgment: we do not doubt, but fully admit, their truth. But while this is done, has the admission, the intellectual persuasion, an unvarying practical influence in our worship? If it were so, every act of worship in the sanctuary would powerfully tend to the edification, comfort, and sanctification of believers. To them the place of worship would ever be "the house of God, and the gate of heaven." In the thankful realization of the Spirit's presence, dissipation would be checked; the circumstances and necessary human accompaniments and methods of worship would cease to exert an influence to the abatement of fervour and profit; and less dependence would be placed on even legitimate occasions and agencies of excitement. Our God would be so fully seen, by faith, as to place men and circumstances in their due subordination. This would more than supply the defects of what might be defective, in disclosing his blessing, as that which alone renders any Christian ordinance successful; and without which no Minister or service can profit us, but with which all can. We may be thankful for those occasions when we have gone up to worship with true views of the Holy Spirit's presence, and with earnest and believing expectation of blessing, and in which we have consequently been blessed; but let us not, in what we conceive to be the absence of special reasons for the anticipation of religious profit, neglect the unvarying fact, that in every service, unless we are unfaithful to God and to ourselves, we may secure all the advantages which our spiritual condition requires. Now is the accepted time, now the day of salvation, as fully and as perfectly as any day, however it may be accidentally distinguished, or dignified into importance by any occurrence, circumstance, or Minister whatever. We must be very careful that we do not neglect and grieve the Spirit habitually whilst we only afford Him occasional honour; lest that which is human and temporary magnify itself against that which is divine and constant. The danger is not so much that we should not sometimes arouse ourselves or be aroused from our unfaithful nonimprovement of ever-present blessings, but that our forgetful habits should render such occasional awakenings necessary. Those who are the subjects of such habits (and, alas! they are but too many) should offer, with unwonted emphasis and fervour of anxiety, the prayer, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me," and learn to maintain the standard of their special faith and devotion, and to go even beyond it in the ordinary and regular worship of the sanctuary. As it is the privilege, so it is the duty, of the Christian to be less dependent on circumstances which change, for his spiritual advantage and edification, than on his God, who is unchangeably accessible, and "mighty to save." By just so much as faith depends on the former, it is infirm and irregular, and the religious condition of its subjects unsatisfactory; whilst those who develope its better and constant exercise, are enabled to advance in a

course of brightness increasing unto the perfect day. A religion which can only be produced or maintained by one class of agents, or by one peculiar administration of Christian ordinances, no matter what that one class or method may be, is not of God; for though there are "differences of administration," yet it is "the same God," and not the administration, "which worketh all in all." "God is above all means. Therefore, eye him in all, through all, and above all.”*

In praying for the gracious outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the revival of the work of God, and the conversion of sinners, expectation must not be deferred, in the common forgetfulness of the present efficiency and willingness of the Spirit to bestow immediate blessing. Is there not as much of admonitory indication of responsibility as of encouragement in the truth, that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much?" Certainly there is; and prayer should refer to, and faith should be concentrated on, the present opportunity, the present means, and present converted or unconverted men. Let not the mind be diverted from the present by visions of future abundant and sovereign manifestations of the Spirit's power; as though He reserved his influences to some more favoured period. More glorious developments will not be granted to individuals or churches in their neglect of his all-sufficient, ever-present power and grace, but in their improvement of these divine advantages. Every genuine revival of religion, every extension of the church, has arisen out of, and has co-existed with, the faithful realization and improvement of this efficacy of the Holy Spirit; whilst the declension which has frequently followed, is as certainly the result of the abatement of the force of this state of mind in the restored dominion of unfaithful habits. At the best, is there not reason to complain, that revivals have too much of man in them, and, consequently, too much of imperfection and unsatisfactory consequences? In some cases man, and things human,- -sense rather than faith, have been offensively prominent: an edifice has been raised upon the sand, and the predicted fate of such a work has followed. The cure is before us, or, at least, the abatement of the evil is within our reach, in the cultivation of unremitting reliance upon, and faithful appropriation of, the Spirit's fulness, unquestionably connected as it is with all our worship, and with the right employment of all the ordinances of God. That which God does at any time, he waits to do at all times; and the faith which does not respect this, is more human than divine. One of the great needs of this day, in order to the personal profit and the evangelical usefulness of individuals and churches, is a larger measure and the more constantly pervading operation of a spiritual apprehension of the facts, that the "Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life," is inseparable from Christianity; that the consequent vital power of religion is superior to circumstances, and creative of all truly profitable ones; and that it is always equal to the supply of all our need, and to the succeeding of every work, done in God's way, tending to our profit, to the welfare and salvation of sinners, and to the glory of Christ. Let this apprehension, and its legitimate expectant confidence and work, prevail in the closet, the family, in the pulpit, in the congregations of Christian people, and in the evangelical procedure of the churches, and abounding and abiding consequences

*Wesley's Sermon on the Means of Grace.

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