DISCOURSE ON THE HOLY SPIRIT. EZEK. xxxvi. 25, 26, 27. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and 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 an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. OUR blessed Saviour shewed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of his apostles forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and being assembled together with them, he commanded them, that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me; for John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. And according to his most true promise, the Holy Ghost came down as at this time from heaven, with a sudden great sound, as it had been a mighty wind, in the likeness of fiery tongues, lighting upon the apostles, to teach them, and to lead them to all truth, giving them both the gifts of divers languages, and also boldness with fervent zeal, constantly to preach the gospel unto all nations, whereby we have been brought out of darkness and error, into the clear light and true knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is the subject of the present festival. We are here assembled to commemorate the gifts and graces which the holy Spirit bestowed upon the apostles, and to bless God for our interest in them. The same Spirit is still with us, and will abide with us for ever. He is with us, not to bring the world over to the outward profession of Christianity; for that is already effected, and the extraordinary powers, which were necessary to effect it are ceased. Christianity is established, and outward miracles are no longer needful to be the outward proofs of it. But the holy Spirit has still the same inward work to carry on, which he had in the apostles' time, and it requires the same degree of divine and almighty power, although it be not exerted in outward miracles. The mind of every man is by nature in darkness and ignorance, blind as to the things of God; this he has to enlighten with saving truth. The will and all the affections are depraved, and it is his gracious office to incline and dispose them to comply with the will of God. And after the understanding is enlightened, and the heart renewed, we have still no power to walk in the ways of holiness, without the special grace of the holy Spirit, whose guidance is necessary every moment, and for every thought, and word, and work. These are called the ordinary opera tions of the Spirit of God, not as if they were less divine, or any thing short of the almighty operations, in the apostolic age, but because these were extraordinary, given for a certain fixed time, to carry on a particular work, but the former were common to all believers, to the apostles themselves as believers, and are to be the ordinary gifts and graces of every Christian unto the end of the world. And whoever has received these ordinary operations, has in his own heart clear and full testimony of the Godhead, and almighty power of the blessed Spirit. He wants no outward miracles. This great inward work is to him complete evidence; and he is able to rest his salvation with as full trust and confidence upon it, as if he had seen the apostles exert their miraculous gifts and/ graces. May the Lord and giver of all grace be pleased to bestow upon you this inward witness, and may he enable to him for it while I am, to look you First, Illustrating these truths from the prophet's authority in the text, and then up Secondly, Applying them to your spiritual use and benefit. And by the consideration of these two particulars, I hope to be able to answer the good purposes of our present meeting. We are called together by the will of a late charitable and pious lady, who appointed a sermon to be preached upon this day concerning the "benefit which the holy Spirit of God is of to man, 66 during his journey through this life." The subject is suitable to the great festival, which the church now celebrates, and the words which I have read contain a clear and full account of the benefit we receive from the holy Spirit from the beginning to the end of our Christian life. "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, "and ye shall be clean," &c. The clean water was to be sprinkled upon them to cleanse the soul; this effect is here ascribed to it; but water cannot reach the soul, or if it could, yet it was not able so to act upon it, as to cleanse it from any sinful filthiness. But the Spirit of God acts upon our spirits, as water does upon the body, and therefore it was the outward and visible sign of his inward and spiritual grace in the Old Testament, as well as the New. The phrase of sprinkling clean water to cleanse them from sin refers to the legalablutions, and more particularly to the great typical purification for sin, of which we read Numbers xix. The ashes of the red heifer, which was burnt without the camp, were to be mixed with pure running water to be a purification for sin, and whoever contracted any legal uncleanness, and had not this sin-water sprinkled upon him to purify himself, that soul was to be cut off from among the congregation. St. Paul has applied part of this service to our Lord's suffering without the gate, Heb. xiii. 11, 12, 13. and St. John has applied the other part, John vii. 38, 39. where upon Christ's describing the rivers of living water, which should flow from believers, he says, "But this he spake of the "Spirit," he spake of water as the known emblem of the Spirit, and the Christian church has always used it for his emblem in the sacrament of baptism, wherein his grace cleanses to the purifying of the soul, as water cleanses to the purifying of the flesh. Water then is the instituted type of the holy Spirit, and pouring out water to cleanse, is, in the scripture manner of expression, pouring out of the holy Spirit to cleanse the soul; and his cleansing grace must be the thing here spoken of, because it was to purify them from all sin. "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, "and ye shall be clean, from all your filthiness and "from all your idols will I cleanse you," from all the filthiness of sin, and from all the guilt of idolatry I will purify them. Sin polluted all the faculties of the soul, and my good Spirit shall cleanse them all. The understanding he shall purify by removing its natural blindness, and by opening their eyes to see the error of their ways, that they may be brought to Jesus Christ for salvation, and may have their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience with the all purifying blood of the Lamb of God which will justify them, and may have grace and power to walk in the statutes of the Lord, and to keep his judgments, which will sanctify them; and thus he cleanses all the faculties: for it follows in the second verse of the text, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and 1 66 "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, "and I will give you an heart of flesh." The cleansing of the heart is the greatest work of divine grace, because there is in every sinner hardness, and an impenitent heart, which no human power can soften. The scripture speaks of it in the strongest expressions, "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and "with the point of a diamond, it is graven upon the "table of the heart;" and what power is able to erase this deep engraving, except the almighty God, who declares, "I will give you a new heart," renewed in all its faculties, "and a new spirit will I put within you," endued with new appetites and new affections, "and I "will take away the stony heart," the refreshing streams of my grace shall soften the old hardened heart of sin, which would take no good impression, "and I will give you an heart of flesh," soft and pliable, yielding to the motions of my grace, and willing to have the law engraved by the Spirit of the living God upon the fleshly tables of the heart. And after the heart and the affections are thus renewed, and disposed to love the will of God, the holy Spirit was still to proceed, and to go on in the work of sanctification, in which his grace is absolutely necessary. Even after the stony heart is taken out we still want his guidance, and whenever he leaves us to ourselves, we cannot take one step in our journey towards heaven. And therefore God promises to them who had a new heart, "that he would put his Spirit "within them, and cause them to walk in his statutes." His Spirit should be their guide, both to lead them into the way of God's commandments, and to give them strength and power to walk in these ways steadily unto the end for the light of nature could never direct sinners into the paths of God's commandments, nor could the best natural abilities go forward in them, unless God should put his Spirit within us, and give us power to walk in his statutes. We want his support every step we take throughout the whole work of sanctification. If we go forward, he is the cause. He : |