Spirit searcheth the depths of God as Rom. 8. 27. he intimateth that God searcheth the heart of the Spirit but to search the depths of any one necessarily supposeth one understanding in him that searcheth and another understanding in him-whose depths are searched as is evident not onely by collation of other places of the Scripture as 1 Pet. 1. 11. Rev. 2. 23. but even by common sense dictating to every man so much that none can without absurdity be said to search the depths of his own understanding Whence the Apostle going about to illustrate what he had spoken of the Spirit of God by a similitude drawn from the spirit of a man doth not say that the spirit of a man doth search but know the things of a man though his former words did seem to lead him thereunto Argument XII He that hath a will distinct in number from that of God is not God The Holy Spirit hath a will distinct in number from that of God Ergo The Major is irrefragable The Minor is asserted thus He that willeth conformably to the will of God hath a will distinct in number from that of God The Holy Spirit so willeth Ergo The Major is plain for conformity must be between twain at least else it will not be conformity but Identity The Minor is confirmed by Rom. 8. 26 27. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with grones unutterable But he that searcheth the hearts knoweth the minde of the Spirit for he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Neither let any man here reply that there is no mention made in the Greek either of the will of the Spirit or of the will of God For first the word intercede which signifieth to make suit for something implyeth both the will of him that maketh the suit for if he did not will the thing he would not make suit for it and also the will of him to whom the suit is made for were he not endued with a will it would be bootless to make suit unto him all suits whatsoever being made to bend the will of him to whom they are made so that this without any more sufficiently sheweth that the Holy Spirit hath a will distinct in number from that of God since the one sueth the other is sued to at the same time and for the same thing Secondly the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in English rendred Mind doth here signifie the same with Will or Desire as appeareth from the 6. and 7. verses of this Chapter and also from the verb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} whence it is derived which signifieth to Affect Will Desire Pursue see verse 5. of the same chapter and Col. 3. 2. Thirdly though the Greek hath {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} according to God yet is this in the judgement of the English Translators themselves the same as if it had been said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} according to the will of God neither can any other commodious interpretation be put upon the words But this passage of the Apostle doth further afford us a second and third impregnable Argument of the Holy Spirit 's being inferiour to God For first he is here said to make intercession for us as we before urged his praying to Christ Argument 9. and that with grones unutterable which is not so to be understood as if the Holy Spirit were here said to help our infirmities onely by suggesting petitions and groanes unto us as is commonly but falsly affirmed for the very words of the context sufficiently exclude such a gloss since they say that the Spirit himself not we by the Spirit as we have it in the 15. verse of the same chapter maketh intercession for us yea vicarious intercession as the Greek word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth But to help others infirmities by making intercession and what is more vicarious intercession for them is not to instil petitions into them but to pour out petitions apart in their behalf as is apparent both from the thing is self since none can intercede for himself all intercession at least such as is here spoken of requiring the entermise of a third person and by the Collation of verse 34. of the same Chapter and 1 Tim. 2. 1. Heb. 7. 25. Neither let any man think to baffle off this place which is written with a beam of the Sun and hath together with that Joh. 16. 13 14. quite nonplussed not onely Modern Authors but the Fathers themselves by saying that this is improperly spoken of the Holy Spirit for besides that he hath no other ground to say so but his own preconceived opinion touching the Deity of the Holy Spirit he ought to know that the Scripture though it speaketh some things of God in a figure and improperly yet doth it nowhere say any thing that argueth his inferiority to and dependance on another But this passage of the Apostle plainly intimateth that the Holy Spirit is inferiour to God and dependent on him otherwise what need had he to make intercession to God and that with grones unutterable for the Saints Secondly the Holy Spirit is here distinguished from him that searcheth the hearts and this description is made use of to put a difference between God and the Holy Spirit but how could this be done were the holy Spirit also a searcher of the hearts For can a description that is common yea alike common to twain for so the Adversaries hold concerning God and the Holy Spirit be set to distinguish the one from the other For instance to prepare the Passover for Christ is an action common to Peter with John for they twain were sent by Christ to that purpose and did accordingly perform it see Luke 22. 8 13. wherefore can a description taken from this action be fit to difference Peter from John and is it suitable to say He that prepared the Passeover for Christ was a greater Apostle then John would not this plainly argue that John did not prepare the Passeover for Christ So that it is apparent that the Holy Spirit is not a searcher of the hearts If therefore it would not follow that the Holy Spirit is God although it had been said in the Scripture that he searcheth the hearts unless he had such a faculty originally and of himself for nothing hinders but that God may confer it upon others as we see by the Scripture that he hath de facto conferred it on Christ having given him all judgement and that because he is the Son of man John 5. 22 27. for such judgement requireth that he be a searcher of the hearts If I say it would not even then follow that he is God how clearly how irrefragably doth it on the contrary follow that he is not God but hath an
is not yet would it not presently follow because Ananias by lying to men endued with the Holy Spirit for even Piscator in the words acknowledgeth and the words themselves according to this Interpretation imply a Metonymie of the adjunct the Holy Spirit being put for men endued with the Holy Spirit lyed not to men but to God that there fore the Holy Spirit is God because in lying to them that are endued with the Spirit of God one may lye to God and yet neither they nor the Spirit in them be God but onely the messengers of God for what is done to the messengers redoundeth to him that sends them see 1 Thes. 4. 8. John 13. 20. Luke 10. 16. But if any man look more narrowly into the words he shall finde that the verb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is construed in a different manner namely with an accusative verse 3â— and with a dative verse 4. with an accusative it signifieth in Greek Authors to bely pretend or counterfeit thus Lucian in his Pseudomantis {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} nomen quoddam mentitus counterfeiting a certain name This being so the words are to be rendred thus Why hath Satan filled thy heart to bely the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price that is Why hast thou skffered the unclean Spirit so to prevail with thee as that thou shouldest sell thy Farm and lay down this money at his suggestion as appeareth in that thou hast purloined part of the price and not laid down all and yet to bear us in hand that thou didst it at the motion of the Holy Spirit thou hast not lyed to men but to God that is assure thy self that this dissimulation of thine is not so much to us as to God himself whose Servants we are This Exposition is not onely agreeable to the Greek context and scope of the place but is also seconded by Erasmus Calvin and Aretius But if any man will contend that though {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} be not here rendred to lye unto as I have not yet met with an instance where it is so rendred when an Accusative is put after it yet the other signification set in the Margin of our English Bible is altogether to be admitted and I confess I have in good Greek Authors found the word so used and the place to be rendred Why hath Satan filled thy heart to deceive the Holy Spirit This will overthrow the opinion touching the Godhead of the Holy Spirit For if the Holy Spirit be God then will it be all one as if it had been said Why hath Satan filled thy heart to deceive God Which seemeth to be blasphemy for it importeth either that God may be deceived or else that Satan or at least Ananias thought so otherwise he would not have purposed in his heart to do it But what force or use if this Interpretation of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} be admitted will those words have And to keep back part of the price and also those While it remained remained it not to thee and being sold was it not in thy power For these expressions argue that Ananias pretended to have received a command from the Holy Spirit to sell his Farm and lay downe the price thereof at the Apostles feet and so did not deceive or lye to but bely the Holy Spirit and consequently was guilty not onely of coverousness in keeping some of the money back but also of Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in fathering upon the Holy Spirit that which was injected into his heart by the unclean Spirit For he alike Blasphemeth the Holy Spirit who doth with Ananias wilfully father the works of the Devil upon the Holy Spirit as he who with the Pharisees Mat. 12. 24. wilfully ascribeth the works of the Holy Spirit to the Devil An Exposition of 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. What know ye not that your body is the Temple of the holy Spirit that is or dwelleth in you whom ye have from God and ye are not your own for ye have been bought with a price Wherefore glorifie God both with your body and your spirit which are God's Whereas it is objected by some out of this place that the holy Spirit is God in that our body is said to be his Temple I answer that it would follow could it be proved that our body is so the temple of the holy Spirit as to be his by the highest interest and primarily dedicated to his honour for every one will confess our body to be God's in such a manner But these things are so far from being intimated in this passage yea that our body is at all his by interest or dedicated to his honour both which are here affirmed of God contradistinctly from the Spirit as that the contrary may from thence not obscurely be evinced For after the Apostle had hinted in what respect our body is the Temple of the holy Spirit to wit by inhabitation for so much is implied by those words that is or dwelleth in you since descriptions in sacred Writers are not idle and impertinent he addeth that we have the Spirit from God thereby implying that he is disposed of and given by God to us and consequently he is ours by interest not we his and accordingly concludeth from thence that we ought with our body to glorifie not the Spirit but God who is openly distinguished from the Spirit and declared to be the Proprietor of our body An Exposition of Matth. 12. 31. All sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy against the holy Spirit shall not be forgiven For the Objection drawn from hence that the sin against the holy Spirit is unpardonable I answer that the sin against the holy Spirit is not therefore unpardonable because he is God for this the Scripture nowhere acknowledgeth and besides by the same reason every sin against God would be unpardonable but because he that sinneth against the holy Spirit doth in the same act sin against God for every sin against whomsoever committed is terminated in God with an high hand to wit either by slandering and opposing such works whereof a man is convinced in conscience that God hath wrought them by the holy Spirit as the Pharisees did or by renouncing and opposing such Truths whereof a man is convinced in conscience that God hath revealed them by his holy Spirit as the Renegadoes did who are mentioned by the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 10. 25 26 c. which things are the greatest affronts that can be offered to God who useth the ministery of the Spirit in none but things of the highest importance and maketh the clearest discovery of himself as to his Power and Majestie by him Hence it cometh to pass that a sin against the Father or the Son may be forgiven but not a sin against the holy Spirit inasmuch as it is also against the greatest light For God
heard Satan cometh immediately and taketh the word that was sown in their hearts Suppose now that the seed of the Word be sown in ten thousand places at one time as it happeneth on every Lords day How can Satan whom the Adversaries will deny to be omnipresent come and immediately snatch the Word out of the hearts of the greatest part of the hearers The same Resolution that they shall give to this Question will I apply to their own Objection If this be not sufficient take yet more proofs that may seem to evince the omnipresence of the unclean spirit Thus is he said to have been a lying spirit in the mouth of four hundred false prophets 1 King 22. 22 23. and there is the same reason between four hundred and four millions Thus is he said to hold the impenitent who make the greatest part of mankinde in his snare and to take them captive at his will 2 Tim. 2. ult. To blinde the mindes of them that believe not 2 Cor. 4. 4. To dwell in the ungodly Rev. 2. 13. To shew the wicked whatsoever they practise Joh. 8. 38. Yea to deceive the whole world Rev. 12. 9. 20. 2 3. If they dare not for all this to affirm the unclean spirit to be omnipresent Why do they on less ground conclude the omnipresence of the holy Spirit especially when the Scripture so plainly testifieth that he changeth place as Joh. 15. 26. But when the Advocate is come whom I will send you from the Father the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth or goeth out from the Father he shall testifie of me How could the holy Spirit be sent and go out from the Father to the disciples if he were already with them and could not but stay with the Father Gal. 4. 6. Because ye are sons God hath sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father This sheweth that the Spirit was not in their hearts before otherwise he needed not to be sent out into them 1 Pet. 1. 12. The things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you with the holy Spirit sent down from heaven Could the holy Spirit be sent down from heaven if he were already upon the earth and continued still in heaven For that the coming of the holy Spirit down from heaven is properly to be taken appeareth by the very sight in that John the Baptist did see the Spirit descending from heaven in a bodily shape like a dove and he abode on Christ Joh. 1. 32. compared with Luke 3. 21 22. where the words of the Scripture are diligently to be heeded for it is not said that the bodily shape did descend but the Spirit in the shape so that the descent did primarily and by it self agree to the holy Spirit but in a secondary way and by accident to the shape which he had assumed Now is it possible to descend out of heaven to the earth and not change place Or is there any thing better then an ocular demonstration to evince a change of place Certainly if notwithstanding all this and much more which may be alleadged it is yet true that the holy Spirit doth not go from place to place what assurance can I have when the Scripture saith of any one whomsoever that he is sent or cometh down or goeth out that he moveth from one place to another and doth not abide where he was before Neither is it rightly done by the Adversaries when against so many evident Scriptures they alleadge one obscure passage Psal. 139. 7 8. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence If I ascend up into heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there For to omit that the Psalmist as the precedent and subquent words yea the passage it self cited at large doth shew intendeth onely to prove the omnipresence of God himself and not of his Spirit and that divers of the very Adversaries as namely the Divines of the Assembly in their Annotations on this place do by Spirit here understand the knowledge or power of God and not the holy Spirit should it be granted that thesewords Whither shall I go from thy Spirit are meant of the holy Spirit yet do they import no more then that David could go into no place but the Spirit could be there with him and so sign fie not that he is in all places at one time but can be in them at several times accordingly as David should come into them Again should it be further granted what the Adversaries are not able to evince that Davids meaning is that he could go into no place where the Spirit was not present yet would not this presently argue that he was there present in his person or substance as the Adversaries conceive when they say that he is Omnipresent and therefore God since it is sufficient for the truth hereof that he is in every place by his knowledge so that a man can be in no place whatsoever but the holy Spirit will know where he is This Omnipresence which I verily believe belongeth to the holy Spirit doth not hinder him to go from one place to another Yea whosoever diligently looketh into Davids words shall finde that he intended in this Psalm to assert no other Omnipresence to God himself then that of knowledge and power For he openly speaketh of the knowledge of God in the first six verses saying in the second of them Thou understandest my thoughts afar off Which implyeth that the person or substance of God himself was not upon the earth with David otherwise he would understand David's thought neer at hand and not afar off But in the tenth verse which is an explication of the three preceding ones he speaketh of the hand of God whereby is wont to be understood his power Afterwards vers. 11. and 12. he returneth to the knowledge of God whereof he had before spoken Moreover the main current of the Scripture runneth that way and plainly intimateth that the person or substance or shape of God I speak the language of the Scripture see Job 13. 7. Will ye accept his God's Person will ye contend for God Heb. 1. 3. Who being the brightness of his God's Glory and express Image of his person Gr. substance John 5. 37. And the Father himself which hath sent me hath born witness of me Ye have neither heard this voice at any time nor seen his shape is nowhere else but in Heaven Neither let the Adversaries reply that if I ascribe an universal knowledge of humane affairs to the holy Spirit this very thing will evince him to be God For first I have already excepted the searching of the heart proving in the twelfth Argument that it agreeth not to the holy Spirit Secondly had the holy Spirit an Universal knowledge as of other things so also of the heart yet would not this prove him to be God unless he had this knowledge originally and of himself For it is apparent from the Scripture John 5. 22. that God hath given all judgement unto Christ and consequently all knowledge without which that judgement cannot be managed But if he hath given all knowledge unto Christ he can as well give it to the holy Spirit Wherefore let the Adversaries when they are driven from their opinion by that invincible Argument drawn from the Intercession which the holy Spirit is said to make for the Saints cease to take up the same weapon and contend that the holy Spirit inasmuch as he maketh intercession for the Saints must needs know all their wants and so be God For is not Christ also said to make intercession for the Saints and doth he not intercede with God as a man and so as a man know all their wants But if Christ as a man and so as a Creature maketh intercession unto God for the Saints and knoweth all their wants why not the holy Spirit also though he be a created Spirit and not God As for the dwelling of the holy Spirit in so many persons though I might forbear to shew in what manner this is done untill the Adversaries had answered my Querie yet will I for the satisfaction of such as are studious of the truth here declare it He dwelleth therefore in all the Saints dispersed through the whole world not in his person or substance for then his person or substance would fill the world and dwell in all men a like whereas the indwelling of the holy Spirit is by the Scripture made a peculiar priviledge of the Saints Rom 8. 9. But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be or for the Spirit of God dwelleth in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Wherefore he dwelleth in them by his Gifts or Effects since no other dwelling can be imagined which is an Expression frequent in the writings of the Adversaries themselves but that they are wont to forget it when they reason about the Godhead of the holy Spirit FINIS * See Heb. 1. 1 14. whence these words are borrowed and compare it with 1 Pet. 1. 12. as also Heb. 1. 7. compared with Act. 2. 2 3 4. and it will easily appear that the holy Spirit is a minister of God as well as others a 1 Pet. 5. 8. b Zech. 13. 2. c 1 Sam. 16. 15 16. d Ibid. verse the last e 1 Kings 22. 21. See the Original a Joh. 16. 7. b Eph. 4. 30. c Neh. 9. 20. d 1 Cor. 7. 40. e Acts 10. 19. m So the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the Original perpetually signifieth amongst Greek Authors and is so rendred by the Translators themselves 1 Joh. 2. 1. and ought to have been so rendred here especially because he saith in the following words that the Holy Spirit shall convince the world for it is proper to an Advocate to convince * By Person I understand as Philosophersdo suppositum intelligens that is an intellectual substance compleat and not a mood or subststence which are fantastical sensless terms brought in to cozen the simple * Abi Ariane ad Jordanem Trinitatem videbis * For when the verb Substantive to be is joyned with the holy Spirit it signifieth his Being or Person not the gifts issuing from him