44 DIVIN NATURE Sect. 22. There are two other places of this nature both to the same purpose, sufficient of themselves to confirm our faith in the truth pleaded for. And these are, Actsxiii. 2, 4.., As they ministered unto the Lord " and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barna- " has and Saul for-the work whereunto I have called " them. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, " departed." The other is, Acts xx. 2B. " Take heed " therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over 1 the which the Holy Ghost bath made you overseers ". These places hold a good correspondence; and what is reported in an extraordinary case, as matter of fact, in the first, is doctrinally applied unto ordinary cases in the latter. And two things are remarkable tin the first place: (I.) The Holy Ghost's designation of himself as the person unto -whom and -whose work Barnabas and Saul were to be separatedand - dedicated. Saith he äpog,Px=i pc, not separate me, as in our translation, mak- ing the Spirit only the author of the command, but se- parate unto me; which proposeth him also as the object of the duty required, and the person whose work was to be attended. Who or whatthen is intended'by that pronoun me? Some person is directed -unto and signi- fied thereby. Nor can any instance be given where it is so much asffiguratively -used, unless it be in a profes- sed parable. That remains thereforeto be inquired in- to, who is intended in that word one? And the words are the words of the Holy Ghost; The Holy Ghost said, se- parate unto me; he therefore alone is intended. All the answer which the wit and diligence-of our adversaries can invent is, "'That -thesewords are ascribed unto the "o Holy Ghost, because the prophets that were in the i' church of Antioch spake therein by his instinct and " inspiration." But, in this evasion, thereis no regard unto the forceof ourargument; for we donot argue.mero- ly from hisbeing said to speak, but from what is spoken by him, separate unto me, and do inquire whether the prophets be intended by that.word or no? If so, which of them? for they were many by whom the Holy Ghost spake the same thing: and some one must be intended in common by them all. And to say that this was any of the prophets, is foolish, indeed blasphemous. (2.) The,elose of the third verse confirms this application of the word, to the work whereunto I have called them. This confessedly is the Holy Ghost. Now, to call men to the ministry is a free act of authority, choice,. and AND PERSONALITY OF wisdom, which are properties of a person, and none other. Nor is either the Father or the Son, in the scripture introduced more directly clothed with perso- nal properties than the Holy Ghost is in these places. And the whole is confirmed, verse 4. And they being sentforth by the HolyGhost, departed. He called them, by furnishing them with ability and authority for their work; he commanded them to be set apart by the church, that they might be blessed and owned in their work; andhe sent them forth by an impression of his authority on their minds given them by those former 'acts of his. And if a divine person be not hereby de. scribed, I know not how hemay so be. Sect. 27.The other text speaks unto the same pur- pose, chap. xx. 28. It is expressly said that the Holy Ghost made the elders of the church the overseers of it. The same act of wisdom and authority is ben again as- signedunto bim; and here is no room left for the eva- sion before insisted on. For these words were not spo- ken in away-of prophecy, nor in the name of the Ho- ly Ghost, but concerninghim. And they are explica- tory of the other. For he must be meant in those ex. pressions, separate unto me those whom I have called, by whom they are madeministers. Now this was the Holy Ghost; for he makes the overseers of the church. And wemay do well to take notice, that if he did so then, he doth an now; for they were not persons extra- ordinarily inspired or called that the apostle intends, but the ordinary officers ofthe church. And if persons are not called and constituted officers as at the first in ordinary cases, the church is not the same as it was. And it is the concernment ofthose who take this work and office upon them, to consider what there is in their whole undertaking that they can ascribe unto the Holy Ghost. Persons furnished with no spiritual gifts or a- bilities, entering into the ministry in the pursuit of se- cular advantages, will not easily satisfy themselves in this inquiry, when they shall be willing or be forced at the last to make it. Sect. 28.There remains yet one sort of testimonies to the same purpose which must briefly be passed through. And they are those where he is spoken of as the object of such actiogs and .actions of men as none but a person can be. For let them be applied unto any other object, and their inconsistency will quickly ap- pear. Thus he is said to betempted of them that sin,
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