man.

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CHAPTER III.

USE OF PNEUMA" (SPIRIT) IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

LET us now proceed to consult the New Testament writers and observe if they teach us to change or modify this idea of Inspiration. The gospel promises of Inspiration we have already had occasion to observe. We have seen that their veracity must be abandoned if they meant that infallibility should be given to Peter or any We have also seen that some, and probably all, of those promises were made, in behalf of those who should subsequently believe in Jesus, as well as on behalf of those who were his contemporary disciples. Accordingly we find the New Testament Scriptures entirely carrying out the Old Testament view of Inspiration. Whatever good thing befel, for the furtherance of the gospel, that the New Testament writers do not hesitate to ascribe to the Inspiration of God. It would be strange, indeed, if the Christian Scriptures did not allude with frequency to the agency of the Holy Spirit, for, apart from multitudinous other prophecies to the same effect, Isaiah had sung gloriously of the Messiah "on whom Jehovah had put his Spirit," * and Joel had declared that, in Messiah's days, God would "pour out "his Spirit upon all flesh:" and the sons and the

*Isaiah xlii. 1.

daughters, the old men and the young, the servants and the handmaids should all be inspired.

Throughout the whole periods of both the Old and the New Testament histories, and through all the time which intervened betwixt Malachi and the Messianic epoch, the Jews still held the same idea of all that is good coming by Inspiration. The only difference, in this respect, between Judaism and Christianity is that the inspiration of the latter, being the same in kind with the inspiration of the former, is fuller in degree.

Accordingly we find (Luke ii. 25.) that, even prior to the birth of Jesus, the Scripture recognises Simeon as a man "upon whom the Holy Ghost was:" and of John the Baptist it was foretold (Luke i. 15.) that he should be "filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's "womb.:" and accordingly too, when our Lord was to be miraculously conceived-when the spiritual father of our race was, as a man, to be created-it is recorded (Luke i. 35.) in the words "The Holy Ghost shall come upon "thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow "thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be "born of thee shall be called the Son of God:" and, in like manner, it is declared of our Saviour that, throughout his visible life in this world, the Spirit was given to him without measure" (John iii. 34.) So, it was by the Spirit that Jesus was led up into the wilderness to be tempted (Matt. iv. 1.); by the same Spirit (Matt. xii. 28.) he cast out devils; and (1 Pet. iii. 18.) by the same Spirit he was "quickened" after he had been "put "to death in the flesh."

During our Lord's lifetime, and therefore before the Spirit (cf. John vii. 39.) was yet given in that fulness which had been foretold by Joel and which began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, Jesus said to his Apostles, when he sent them on their temporary and experimental mission apart from him, (Matt. x. 20.) In your apologies "it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit "of your father which speaketh in you." Thus completely, throughout the whole history of the Jewish and Christian religion has the doctrine of the one indwelling and variously co-operative Spirit of God been recognised. Nothing, according to the gospel of Luke (xi. 13.), can be of more universal applicability than the assurance given by our Saviour, "Every one that "asketh receiveth," "If ye then being evil "know how to give good things to your children, how "much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy "Spirit to them that ask him." Nor can any thing be clearer than the assertion of John (i. 13: cf. iii. 5.) that the change in any man's mind, by which he became a believer on the Son of God and a member of the kingdom of heaven, was effected, not by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of mere humanity, but by the agency of the Spirit.

*

*

*

So far, then, the early part of the Christian dispensation shows an entire agreement with the Old Testament in recognising the Spirit of God as the originator and sustainer of every thing good. And in those extant records of Christian life, which have reference to the period subsequent to what is known as the Pentecostal

outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we shall find the same idea of Inspiration only accompanied by a belief that the beneficent Spirit of God was more deeply and more extensively diffused in his energetic and sanctifying influences.

On the day of Pentecost, and subsequently, it cannot have been the miraculous powers, imparted by the Holy Ghost, which were the novelty; for, if we credit the Old and New Testament history, there had been many miracles in ancient times; and, even in the three years immediately preceding that Pentecostal day, Jesus and his followers had been achieving a wide-spread fame by their countless and astounding deeds of healing, exorcising, and raising the dead. The novelty was, not in the miracle of Pentecost, but in the extent to which the miracle-working agents were multiplied, for, we read, "they" (apparently the 120) "were all filled with the "Holy Ghost;" (Acts ii. 4.) and at a later date again, when the Christians numbered their thousands of converts, we read (Acts iv. 31.) " They were all filled with "the Holy Ghost:" and again (Acts v. 32.) Peter declares, before the hostile authorities, that the Holy Ghost is given to them (evidently meaning to all of them) that obey God and believe on Jesus. So, too, at Samaria, the Holy Ghost was given to all on whom the apostles laid their hands (Acts viii. 17.) The churches, throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria, were multiplied (Acts ix. 31.) "walking in the comfort of the "Holy Ghost." At Antioch (Acts xiii. 2.) "the Holy "Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the

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"work whereunto I have called them." In the council at Jerusalem the form of drawing up an apostolic opinion is "It seemed good (edoxe) to the Holy Ghost and to "us" (Acts xv. 28.) If, by a dream, or by any other circumstances or causes, Paul and his companions were induced to abandon some field of missionary labour (Acts xvi. 6, 10.) and to adopt another, the Christian expression was "we were forbidden of the Holy Ghost "to preach the word in Asia" and we "assuredly gathered that the Lord had called us to preach the "gospel unto the Macedonians." In a word, if there was any thing which seemed good, in their thoughts or actions, the early Christians, like the pious Jews before them, ascribed its excellence to divine inspiration. If a believer had been in tribulation and had learned patience, experience and hope, Paul attributed such a glorious state of mind (Rom. v. 5.) to the agency of "the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." The same apostle exhorts men to be fervent in spirit (Rom. xii. 11.): he prays (Rom. xv. 13.) that the believers at Rome may abound in hope "through the power of the Holy "Ghost:" he urges men (1 Cor. vi. 19.) to "flee for"nication" because their "bodies are the temples of "the Holy Ghost, which is in them, which they have "of God:" and, so universal does he hold the inspiration of Christians to be, that (Rom. viii. 9.) he solemnly declares, in the midst of one of his most sublime chapters, "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he "is none of his :" so, too, he writes to the corrupt church at Corinth (1 Cor. iii. 16.) "The Spirit of God