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 alto gether 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
CHAP. III.] IN OUK SALVATION. 11
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 :
< was found with child of the Holy Ghost ; and ver. 20,
Mat. i. 18, it is said that Mary
* 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
< He took on him* the seed
assume it. So the apostle tells us, Heb. ii. 16,
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
must have been so ; for it was an act of a person knowing, and actually in
telligent 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. x.
accords, When he comes into the world, he says, A body hast thou pre
pared 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 existin^ afore he took it, as coming into the world by assuming it, says,
Lo, I come to do thy will, God, as ver. 7 it is more expressly added.
But,
3. It was the Holy Ghost had the honour of the consecration ot him to
< without or above measure, as
be the Christ, and that by anointing him
John the Baptist witnessed, John iii. 34. It was with power and all grace
that he was anointed : Isa. xi. 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 W
Messiah, or Xgicwfc, but the Most Holy One anointed ? Dan. ix. Now, with
12 THE WOEK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I.
* God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is that
what oil was Jesus anointed, and so made Christ ? Acts x. 38,
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 i. 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 vii. 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. ii. Thus, Luke iv. 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 broken
hearted, 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 ou svexev 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 iv., 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 iv. 1 ; and again in ver. 14 he returned (or went) full of the Holy Ghost into Galilee, his ordinary standing diocese for his ordinary preach
ing, as the evangelists shew.
5. The Holy Ghost anointed him with power to do all his miracles, and
* He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power
all the good he did ; so in Acts x. 38,
: 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. xii. 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 xiii. 33, He raised up Jesus
again ; as it is written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day
CHAP. IV.] IN OUR SALVATION. 13
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. viii. 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 Chris*t and us.
7. When he ascended, who filled him with that glory ? The Holy Ghost : Ps. xlv., he was
* anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows; which
oil, Acts x. 88, is said to be the Holy Ghost.
8. It was the Holy Ghost that solemnly anointed him as king in heaven : Acts ii. 33,
* Being at the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, &c. Peter s inference from this
is, ver. 36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and
Christ.
9. It was and is the Holy Ghost that proclaims him Christ in all men s
hearts. He sets the crown upon him there also, as well as in heaven, in
so much that no man could ever come to acknowledge him the Christ but from the Spirit
< No man can say Jesns is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. So as whatever right he had in his person, or by his Father s designation (of which in Acts ii. 36, Rom. xiv. 9), yet it is the
: 1 Cor. xii. 3,
Spirit that publicly proclaimed him such, brought him in all his subjects ;
or, to use Christ s own words, He it is that glorifies me, shewing it to
them, John xvi. 14. All this he hath done to and for Christ our head.