parity and perfect agreement with the Father, such as no man could lay claim to. Again, Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me.* In the 13th verse our Saviour says, whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Here is a plain declaration, that whatsoever degree of power the Apostles might require, and pray for, as his disciples, he himself would grant it; and that, for a particular purpose, that God the Father might be glorified by the establishment of a religion, the foundation of which was to be a belief in God the Son. The Father and the Son are here spoken of in terms of perfect similarity, as to nature and quality; and let us here again inquire, could a mere human prophet have made such a promise as this, that he would himself grant the prayer of his followers? In the 16th verse of this chapter, our Saviour gives to his Apostles the promise of a Comforter, who should supply the place of their Master, guide, and friend, now about to be taken from them into glory. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, *John xiv. 11. even the Spirit of truth. After his resurrection from the dead, and previous to his ascension, our Lord breathed on the Apostles, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.* From these words it appears, that the Holy Ghost was at that time conferred upon the Apostles, as far as the spiritual authority of their office was concerned; although the actual descent of the Spirit did not take place till the feast of Pentecost. And we may remark, that when our Lord said to the Apostles, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, he took upon himself to do, by his own authority, that which he had told them he would pray the Father to do. As the man Jesus, in which character he was then best known to his disciples, he had said to them, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter: as the Lord of life, triumphant over the spiritual enemies of mankind, he spoke with the authority of the Son of God, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: so true was his assertion, All things that the -Father hath, are mine.† You will observe also, that, as at one time the Comforter is described * John xx. 22. + John xvi. 15. 4 as coming from the Father, while at another time our Saviour said, I will send the promise of my Father upon you; it follows, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, as well as from the Father; a truth which Christ most emphatically declared, by coupling the words, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, with that significant action of breathing upon the Apostles. These doctrines, it may be said, are mysterious. How can they be otherwise? seeing that they relate to a nature different from and infinitely superior to our own? Let it not be supposed that we are attempting to give any explanation whatever of the mode of existence, by which the two natures were united in Christ. It is sufficient for us to know, that he is described in Scripture as the only-begotten Son, one with the Father; that he emptied himself of his glory; took upon him the form of a servant; was made in the likeness of man; and that he was, to all intents and purposes, a man, during his sojourn upon earth. If all these points are separately and distinctly insisted upon in the word of God-as to any common apprehension they certainly are--it is not our part to devise schemes for avoiding the difficulties of revelation, with the vain hope of reducing all that is told us, of the nature and dispensations of God, to the level of our own understanding; but to take each truth separately, as we find it declared in Scripture, and to confess that great is the mystery of godliness. Let us be contented with the knowledge which God has been pleased to impart to us of himself, and receive it such as he has revealed it, without presuming to apply the measure of our own comprehension, limited and imperfect as it is, to the communications of that Holy Spirit, who is known to us only so far as he has seen fit to disclose himself in his Word. How just is the observation of St. Paul: The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But they are not the less true because they surpass our natural understandings: the simple question being, with us, whether they be declared in the Word of God? For the rest, let us be content to wait, till we enter into that more pure and spiritual existence, where the twilight of this uncertain state shall give place to the clearness of the perfect day; and we shall be admitted to behold the ineffable brightness of the Divinity; the majesty of the Father; the |