,, DISSERTATION V. 357 of the Spirit of truth, as well as because divine veracity belohgs to his nature as God, who is the God of the truth. Perhaps this explication of this text may seem a little too unnatural and figurative to some persons, who are truly zealous for the deity of the Holy Spirit : But let them consider, that every interpreter of this scripture, who preserves the doctrine of his deity, is constrained to near as figurative a sense as this is. And whatsoever subordinations are ascribed to a supposed, real, proper divine person, may be better ascribed to a divine power, under the subordinate character of a messenger in the divine economy. It is none but the Arians who ca`n keep precisely to the letter of the text here, because they make the Spirit an in- ferior or created being. II. Another remarkable text is ; John xv. 26. " But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Fa- ther, even theSpirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me :" Which may be explained thus, the Spirit may be said to proceed from the Father,. because God, in the person of the Father, is considered as exhibiting the prime phy- sical idea or essence of godhead, and thus may be conceived as the original of the two divine powers, viz. the Word and the Spirit : Thus the word and the Spirit may be said to proceed from the Father, as powers from the essence. Again, God the Father is considered as sustaining the prime moral idea or dignity of godhead, and thus has the original right and power of sending the Spirit, of bestowing the gifts and graces of his own Spirit, or of conferring gifts and graces by his own Spirit, and in this sense also the Spirit is said to,proceed from the Father ; the Father is the original agent, and sustains the supreme character in the divine economy, and assuch he is called the Father. Sometimes God condescends to confer these gifts by the mi- nistration of the apostles, and by imposition of their hands. Many persons received the Holy Ghost by the hands of the apostles, as instruments, when in reality it was God communi- cated those sacred gifts, even as miracles weresaid to be wrought bymen, when in reality the Spirit of God performed them. Sometimes Jesus Christ is said to send the Spirit from heaven, but then Christ is not only considered as the most glorious vice- gerent, or minister of God, by whose mediation and ministra- tion, divine influences descendon the disciples from the Father; but he is considered also as one in whom the fulness of the god- head dwells bodily, as one who is God in human nature, as the eternal Word or wisdom of the Father dwelling in flesh. Now, in this respect the Spirit may be properly called the Spirit of Christ, and is said to be given, sent, and shed forth by Jesus z3
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