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| That our opponents refuse to concede in the case of the Spirit the terms which Scripture uses in the case of men, as reigning together with Christ.
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Chapter XXVIII.
That our opponents refuse to concede in the case of the
Spirit the terms which Scripture uses in the case of men, as reigning
together with Christ.
69. But let us see
if we can bethink us of any defence of this usage of our fathers; for
they who first originated the expression are more open to blame than we
ourselves. Paul in his Letter to the Colossians says, “And
you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision…hath He
quickened together with”1286
Christ. Did then God give to a whole people and to the Church
the boon of the life with Christ, and yet the life with Christ does
not belong to the Holy Spirit? But if this is impious even to
think of, is it not rightly reverent so to make our confession, as
They are by nature in close conjunction? Furthermore what
boundless lack of sensibility does it not shew in these men to
confess that the Saints are with Christ, (if, as we know is the
case, Paul, on becoming absent from the body, is present with
the Lord,1287
and, after departing, is with
Christ1288
) and, so far as
lies in their power, to refuse to allow to the Spirit to be with
Christ even to the same extent as men? And Paul calls himself
a “labourer together with God”1289
in the dispensation of the Gospel; will they bring an indictment for
impiety against us, if we apply the term
“fellow-labourer” to the Holy Spirit, through whom in
every creature under heaven the Gospel bringeth forth
fruit?1290
The life
of them that have trusted in the Lord “is hidden,” it
would seem, “with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then shall” they themselves also
“appear with Him in glory;”1291
and is the Spirit of life Himself, “Who made us free from the
law of sin,”1292
not with Christ,
both in the secret and hidden life with Him, and in the
manifestation of the glory which we expect to be manifested in the
saints? We are “heirs of God and joint heirs with
Christ,”1293
and is the
Spirit without part or lot in the fellowship of God and of His
Christ? “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our
spirit that we are the children of God;”1294
| 1294
Rom. viii. 16,
17. In this
passage A.V. follows the neuter of the Greek original. R.V.
has substituted “himself.” cf. note on
p. 15. | and are we not to allow to the Spirit
even that testimony of His fellowship with God which we have learnt
from the Lord? For the height of folly is reached if we
through the faith in Christ which is in the Spirit1295
hope that we shall be raised together
with Him and sit together in heavenly places,1296
whenever He shall change our vile body
from the natural to the spiritual,1297
and yet refuse to assign to the Spirit any share in the sitting
together, or in the glory, or anything else which we have received
from Him. Of all the boons of which, in accordance with the
indefeasible grant of Him who has promised them, we have believed
ourselves worthy, are we to allow none to the Holy Spirit, as though
they were all above His dignity? It is yours according to your
merit to be “ever with the Lord,” and you expect to be
caught up “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and to be
ever with the Lord.”1298
You
declare the man who numbers and ranks the Spirit with the Father and
the Son to be guilty of intolerable impiety. Can you really
now deny that the Spirit is with Christ?
70. I am ashamed to add the rest. You
expect to be glorified together with Christ; (“if so be that we
suffer with him that we may be also glorified
together;”1299
) but you do not
glorify the “Spirit of holiness”1300
together with Christ, as though He were not worthy to receive equal
honour even with you. You hope to “reign
with”1301
Christ; but you
“do despite unto the Spirit of grace”1302
by assigning Him the rank of a slave and
a subordinate. And I say this not to demonstrate that so much
is due to the Spirit in the ascription of glory, but to prove the
unfairness of those who will not ever give so much as this, and
shrink from the fellowship of the Spirit with Son and Father as from
impiety. Who could touch on these things without a
sigh?1303
| 1303
cf. Verg., Æn. ii. Quis talia
fando…temperet a lacrymis? | Is it not
so plain as to be within the perception even of a child that this
present state of things preludes the threatened eclipse of the
faith? The undeniable has become the uncertain. We
profess belief in the Spirit, and then we quarrel with our own
confessions. We are baptized, and begin to fight again.
We call upon Him as the Prince of Life, and then despise Him as a
slave like ourselves. We received Him with the Father and the
Son, and we dishonour Him as a part of creation. Those who
“know not what they ought to pray for,”1304
even though they be induced to utter a
word of the Spirit with awe, as though coming near His dignity, yet
prune down all that exceeds the exact proportion of their
speech. They ought rather to bewail their weakness, in that we
are powerless to express in words our gratitude for the benefits
which we are actually receiving; for He “passes all
understanding,”1305
and convicts
speech of its natural inability even to approach His dignity in the
least degree; as it is written in the Book of Wisdom,1306
“Exalt Him as much as you can, for
even yet will He far exceed; and when you exalt Him put forth all
your strength, and be not weary, for you can never go far
enough.” Verily terrible is the account to be given for
words of this kind by you who have heard from God who cannot lie
that for blasphemy against the Holy Ghost there is no
forgiveness.1307
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