CHAPTER III: Of the works of the Holy Ghost upon Christ our Saviour
Thus much for some general observations premised.
CHAPTER III
Of the works of the Holy Ghost upon Christ our Saviour.
The summing up of the works of the Holy Spirit, and laying them altogether in one heap, that we find scattered up and down in the Scriptures, would, if we were able to recollect them all, and every particular, arise to a very great bulk. I shall reduce them which I have gleaned as most eminent unto these three heads,
I. What work and use he is, and was of, to Christ our head.
II. What to the church, taken collectively.
III. What to every saint. And in the filling up of these, I shall not mention anything that may by consequence be argued his, but what the Scriptures do expressly attribute to him.
I. I shall first describe his operations upon Christ our head.
1. It was the Holy Ghost that formed his human nature in the womb:
Mat. 1:18, it is said that Mary 'was found with child of the Holy Ghost'; and ver. 20, 'That which is conceived in her is of the Holy
Ghost.' So then he made the man Jesus, both body and soul.
2. Some divines do further ascribe unto this Spirit the special honour of tying that marriage knot, or union, between the Son of God and that man Jesus, whom the Holy Ghost formed in the virgin's womb.
Now if their meaning be that he, in common with the Father and the Son, did join in that great action, I grant it, according to the measure of that general rule, that opera ad extra sunt indivisa, all works outward, or that are wrought not within the Godhead itself (which
admit some exception), all the three persons had a joint common hand in. But that which is my proper subject, is, what special honour in those works doth by way of eminency belong to the Holy Ghost in any of these works. And so considered, I have not found a ground why to attribute the personal union more particularly to the Holy
Ghost; but rather (according unto what occurs to my observation in the Scriptures, and to consonant reason), that action is more peculiarly to be attributed to the Son himself, as second person, who took up into one person with himself that human nature. The Father indeed sent the Son into the world, to take flesh; and the Holy Ghost formed that flesh he assumed; but it was the Son's special act to take it up into himself, and to assume it. So the apostle tells us, Heb. 2:16,
'He took on him* the seed of Abraham;' or he took to himself, assumpsit ad, which word denotes the very act of that union. And it was his own single act, and in reason it must have been so; for it was an act of a person knowing, and actually intelligent in what he did, when it was done by him. And that thing he did was a taking to himself a foreign nature, to be one person with himself; as a person affording his own subsistence unto that nature, to be a person with himself. Himself must communicate that personality, and none other for him, for it is properly his own to bestow; unto which that in chap.
10 accords, 'When he comes into the world, he says, A body hast thou prepared me,' speaking to his Father, who prepared that body by the Holy Ghost; and it was his Father's ordination he should take it; but he, as a person existing afore he took it, as coming into the world by assuming it, says, 'Lo, I come to do thy will, O God,' as ver. 7 it is more expressly added. But, 3. It was the Holy Ghost had the honour of the consecration of him to be the Christ, and that by anointing him 'without' or 'above measure,' as John the Baptist witnessed, John 3:34. It was with power and all grace that he was anointed: Isa. 11:2, 'The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counse and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.' What is Messiah, or Χριστὸς, but the Most Holy One anointed? Dan. 9. Now, with what oil was Jesus anointed, and so
made Christ? Acts 10:38, 'God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost.' The Holy Ghost is that oil he is anointed with above his fellows; and he hath his name of Christ, which is the chief name of his person, from the Holy Ghost, as he hath that of Jesus for saving us, which is his work. Christ, the anointed, is the name that speaks all his offices. Kings, priests, and prophets, who were only his shadows, were anointed. And it is made the true, proper sign and token of his person's being the Son of God, that the Holy Ghost came visibly on him, and abode upon him: John 1:32–34, 'And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record, that this is the Son of God;' with which compare John 7:38, 39, 'He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified);' whereupon, ver. 40,
41, 'Many of the people, when they heard that saying, Of a truth, said they, this is that Prophet; others, This is the Christ.' This descending visibly of the Spirit (which was done first to him), was the highest evidence of these that could be, excepting only that of the Father:
'This is my beloved Son.' The Baptist makes these his highest characters, that it was he baptized with the Holy Ghost as with fire; and that he received the Spirit without measure, though he was personally full of grace and truth himself, as he was the Son of God.
4. It was the Holy Ghost anointed him to all his offices, as first to be a prophet and preacher of the gospel, which was first spoken by the Lord, Heb. 2. Thus, Luke 4:18 (and some think it was his first text),
'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.'
Whether you take the words οὗ ἕνεκεν antecedently or consequently, either that because by God he was designed to be a preacher,
therefore the Spirit was on him; or that because the Spirit was on him, he therefore was fitted to be a preacher, it comes all to one as to my purpose. The Spirit was he that made him a preacher of the gospel, to utter things which man never did, and to speak in such a manner as man never did. And this is evident by the context in that Luke 4, for it was his first sermon after his baptism, when the Holy
Ghost had anew fallen on him, and he had returned 'full of the Holy Ghost,' as Luke 4:1; and again in ver. 14 he returned (or went) 'full of the Holy Ghost' into Galilee, his ordinary standing diocese for his ordinary preaching, as the evangelists shew.
5. The Holy Ghost anointed him with power to do all his miracles, and all the good he did; so in Acts 10:38, 'He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power: going about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil;' whom it is expressly said he cast out 'by the Spirit,' Mat. 12:28.
6. When Christ was dead, who was it raised him up from the grave?
Which work was so great a work, as God himself accounts it as a new begetting, or making him anew, and as it were a second conception of him, a new edition of his Son Christ: Acts 13:33, 'He raised up
Jesus again; as it is written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.' God rejoiceth, as having but then recovered and found his Son, that was as it were lost in the likeness of sinful flesh. Now, who was the immediate cause of this new advancement, whereby he was born into the other world? The Holy
Ghost: Rom. 8:11, 'But 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.'
God by his Spirit raiseth up both Christ and us.
7. When he ascended, who filled him with that glory? The Holy Ghost: Ps. 45, he was 'anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows;' which oil, Acts 10:38, is said to be the Holy Ghost.