It was therefore to be expected from the character of the people, and the language, that the miraculous effusion of God's holy Spirit, the testimony of "him whom he had sent," would be spoken of under the figure of personification; nor is there any probability, if we judge from his several discourses, which are highly figurative, that Jesus, conversing with Jews, would express himself differently from what their mental habits authorized.

There is no more ground for supposing that the holy Spirit has a distinct personal existence, because it has personal influence and power attributed to it, than for inferring from Solomon's poetic figure, as some have done, that WISDOM was the Word in the sense of the Platonizing Fathers; the intellect of the Father-God, which emanated from him, in order to create the universe.

The idea of distinct personality in this efflux of the energy of God is assisted in the vulgar imagination by the translation of spirit or breath into Ghost; with which there is always something connected of an individual definite form, and even of a human shape. So momentous are the effects of words! The original is a noun of the neuter gender, implying a thing, and therefore impersonal: TO TYEUμa-the breath.

It is further strengthened by the natural circumstance of the Spirit of God, through which he communicated his will and impressed his influence, being used, by metonymy, for God himself. Rey. ii.

11, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches"-what God, through his Spirit, declared by Christ. Acts x. 19, "The Spirit said unto him, Behold! three men seek thee." That is, God, by his Spirit, so impressed his mind. 1 Tim. iv. 1, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith." That is, God speaketh

through his spirit; from whose operation originated the power of prophecy.

JOHN xvi. 13. When he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever be shall hear, that shall be speak. 14. He shail glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. 15. All things that the Father hath, are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.

The verses 13, 14, are thought decisive of Christ's divinity. How, it is asked, can the Spirit, which is God, even on the Unitarian scheme, "not speak of himself," speak only what he hears, and receive of Christ's, unless Christ be also God? But the Unitarians consider the Spirit sometimes as God himself, at other times as only his operating energy; and the advocates of a co-equal Trinity will have no less difficulty in explaining how the co-ordinate Spirit speaks, not of himself, but as he hears.

The passage is expressed in strong metaphor, but not in a manner without a parallel in the Jewish writings. "He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he hears, that shall he speak," signifies "he shall influence others to speak; and that they who are under this influence shall speak as the impulse teaches them;" agreeably to the instruction of Christ, Mark xiii. 11, "Take no thought before-hand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate; but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the holy Ghost."-"The receiving of Christ's" is explained by Christ himself, as intimating that "all things [in the Gospel kingdom] were committed to him by the Father;" that the energy of the Spirit would he transmitted through his hands; and that this energy would show them "things to come," relative to the "glory which should follow" his sufferings.

That the Spirit is used for the power or operation of the Spirit, or for the mind itself under its influence, appears from other passages. Romans viii. 26, "The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."

On this Dr. Gill, an advocate for the personality of the Spirit, nevertheless observes, "Not that the Spirit of God groans, but that he stirs up groans in the saints." So 1 Cor. ii. 10, "God hath revealed them unto us by HIS Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." Not that the Spirit of God searcheth the things of God, but that the mind under its operation searches them.

But that the Apostles did not conceive of the Spirit as a personal intelligent subsistence, distinct from God, however united to his being, will appear from an accurate attention to their writings. 1 Cor. ii. 11, "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no one but the Spirit of God." As the spirit of the man signifies the man, the spirit of GOD must signify GOD. So in Gen. vi. 3, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man [I shall not always strive]." Isaiah xlviii. 16, "And now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me [hath sent me by his Spirit]."

It has been said, with an affectation of philosophy, that an attribute cannot be communicated. What shall be thought of communicating a person or divine subsistence? Yet not only Jesus, but his Apostles, communicated the holy Spirit. It is not the attribute itself, but the influence of the attribute, that is imparted.

The Spirit, although sometimes by an easy figure used as the title of the Being who operates by its means, is most frequently spoken of in unequivocal terms as a gift or power; as a thing shed

forth or communicated; which is totally irreconcileable with personality. Acts viii. 16, "For as yet IT was fallen upon none of them." Though the common version reads "he." John xiv. 17, "The Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive; because it seeth IT not, neither knoweth IT: but ye know IT; because IT abideth with you, and is in you." auro, the neuter pronoun, is rendered, in our Bible version, him. What would be thought, if it were applied to THE FATHER, GOD?

It is admitted by some Trinitarians, that what Christ "shed forth," Acts ii. 32, was not the very Spirit, but its plenary gifts and special influences. But if this be so, the argument for the Spirit's personality, derived from the title of "the Comforter," falls to the ground. The Comforter or Advocate which Christ promised, was then only an abundance of spiritual powers: for this "shedding forth" of a miraculous gift on the day of Pentecost, indicated visibly by the symbol of a tongue of fire, was the very promise of the holy Ghost which Christ imparted, not of himself, but "having received it from the Father."

The Holy Spirit is expressly named "the Spirit of GOD," and "the Spirit of the FATHER." Rom. viii. 11, "If the Spirit of HIM that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; HE that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by HIS Spirit that dwelleth in you." 1 Cor. vi. 11, "Ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our GoD.". Acts ii. 16-8, "This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel, And it shall come to pass in the last days (saith GoD), I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh; and on my servants, and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of MY. Spirit, and they shall prophecy." Isaiah xlii. 1, "Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth! I have put My

Spirit upon him." Matt. x. 20, "It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your FATHER which speaketh in you."

JOHN xiv. 26. But the comforter which is the holy Ghost, whoni the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things.

Much disingenuity is used by theologians in arguing the distinct personality of the holy Ghost from the separate office of Comforter; whereas the original word paraclete, rapaxλros, is also applied to Jesus Christ, though it is rendered in our version advocate. 1 John ii. 1, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

The offices of Christ and the operation of the Spirit are also intermingled in the act of intercession. Hebrews vii. 25, "He [Christ] ever liveth to make intercession for them." Rom. viii. 26, "We know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." This, indeed, applies to the mind under influence of the Spirit, rather than to the Spirit itself; but it is equally to the purpose.

Advocacy and intercession, as applied to the Spirit of GoD, equally with Christ, cannot be understood as peculiar to the latter only, nor in the sense of pacifying God, and inducing him to be propitious. Christ is the advocate and intercedes for us, as reconciling us to him by bringing us from under the power of sin, and as being the medium of God's propitiousness, and the declarer of the Gospel terms of forgiveness, which originated in the love and free grace of GoD. And GOD is described, in the Old Testament, as pleading for us with himself; a mode of expression which describes the process of divine mercy and its selforiginating nature.