20 GENERAL PRINC they are yet in their sins. It is then of no less consi- deration and importance than the eternal welfare oftheir souls immediately concerned therein can render it, that they diligently try, examine, and search into these things, by the safe and infallible touchstone and rule of the word, whereon they may, must, and ought to ven- ture their eternal condition. I know indeed that most believers are so far satisfied in the truth of these things, and their own experience of them, that they will not be moved in the least by the oppositions which are made unto them, and the scorn that is cast upon them. For he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness ist himself, I John v. IO. But yet, as Luke wrote his gospel to Theophilus, that he migbf ssroto the certainty ofthose things wherein he had been instructed, Luke i. 4. that is, to confirm bim.in the truth, by an addition of new degrees of assurance unto him; so it is our duty to be so far excited by the clamorous oppositions that are made unto the truths which we profess, and in whose being such, we are as much concerned as our souls are IDLES CONCERNING worth, to compare them diligently with the scripture, that we may be the more fully confirmed and established in them. And upon the examination of the whole mat- ter, I shall leave them to their option, as Elijah did of old ;. ifJehovah be God, serve him, and ifBaal be God, let him be worshipped. If the things which the general- ity of professors do believe and acknowledgeconcerning the Spirit of God, and his work on their hearts, his gifts and graces in. the church, with the manner of their communication, be, for the substance of them, wherein they all generally agree, according to the scripture, taught and revealed therein on the same terms as by them received; then may they abide in the holy profes- sion of them, and rejoice in the consolations they have received by them. But if these things, with those o- ther, which in the application of them to the souls of men, are directly and necessarily deduced, and to be deduced from them, are all but vain and useless imagi- nations, it is high time the mindsof men . were disbur- dened of them. THE NAME AND TITLES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. CHAP. II. (l.)_ Of the name of the Holy Spirit.--(2.) Various uses of the words n,s and ,rv,utva. nn for she wind or any thing invisible, with asensible agitation.(3.) Amos iv. If, Mistakes of the antienIs rectified by Hierotn. (5.) nrr metaphoric-idly for vanity. (6.) Metonymically for thepart or quarter of any thing. (î.) For our vital breath. Therationed soul. The affections. Angels, good andbad.(8.) Ambiguity, flan theuse of the word, how to be removed. Rules concerning the Holy Spirit. The nameSpirit, howpeculiar and appropriated unto hint. Why he is called the Holy Spirit. Whence called the good Spirit. The Spirit of God. The Spirit of the Son, Acts ii. 32. I Pet. i. 10, 11. explained. 1 John iv. 3. vindicated. 13EFOIIE we engage into the consideration of the things themselves, concerning which we are to treat, it will be necessary to speak something unto the name whereby the third person in the Trinity is commonly known, and peculiarly called in the scripture. This is the Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost as we usually speak. And this I shall do, that we be not deceived with the homonimyof the word, nor be at a loss in the intention of those places of scripture where it is used unto other purposes. For it is so, that the name of the second person, d Toss, the word, and of the third, TO arvsvtca, the Spirit, are often applied to signify I other things; I mean, those words are so. And some make- their advantages of the ambiguous use of them. But the scripture is able of itselfto manifest its own in- tention andmeaning unto humble and diligent inquirers into it. Sect. 2. It is then acknowledged that the use of the words nn and ,rvsvtea in the Old Testament and New is very various; yet are they the words whereby alone the
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