mate, and a spirit to inspire and give us
breath? The divine fpirit, from his na-
ture and office, takes his name from the
air or natural spirit of the world, which
fupplies us with the breath of life. On
the day of Pentecoft he defcended from
heaven under the outward fign of a rushing
mighty wind; that from his philofophical
emblem we might understand his nature
and operations; who, like the wind, is
invifible, irrefiftible, the medium of life,
and the infpirer of the prophets and apof-
tles, who all fpake as the Spitit gave them
utterance. The air is the inftrument of
fpeech, and the vehicle of found. Such
was the divine fpirit to the apoftles; by
whofe aid and operation, their found went
out into all lands. The ways of the Spirit
of God in the birth of man unto grace,
are hidden from us: we diftinguish him
only by his effects: fo it is in nature; wę
hear the found of the wind, but we cannot
tell whence it cometh, nor whither it go.
eth. Thus did our Saviour himself illuf-
trate the operations of the
from thofe of the air; and,

Holy Ghost

what is very
remarkable,

LECT.

LECT. remarkable, he communicated the Holy Ghost to his disciples under the outward fign of breathing upon them.

In the invisible kingdom of God, there is a fun of righteoufness which rises upon a world that lieth in darkness; raising up the dead to a new life, and restoring all that fin and death had deftroyed. So doth the vifible world prefent to us the great luminary of the day, whofe operations are in all respects like to those of the fun of righteousness. In the morning it prevails over darkness, and in the spring it restores the face of Nature.

When the scriptures fay that the powers of the word and spirit of God are necessary to the fouls of men; they fay no more than what the most scrupulous philofophy must admit in regard to their bodies: for certainly mankind cannot fubfift without the fun and the air.

to live by as well

They must have light,

as to fee by; and they

must have breath, without which they can

neither live, nor fpeak, nor hear.

We

We are to argue farther; that as we LECT. must suppose a sun to shine before we can

suppose a man to exift upon earth: fo, by
parity of reason, the Divine light was pre-
existent to all those who are faved by it:
and to presume that Jefus Chrift, who is
that light, is only a man like ourselves,
is as false in divinity, as it would be false
in philofophy to report the fun in the
heavens as a thing
a thing of yesterday, and
formed like ourselves out of the' duft of
the ground. Doth not philofophy teach
us, that the elementary powers of light
and air are in nature fupreme and fovereign?
for, is there any thing above them? Is
there a fun above the fun that rules the
day; and is there a spirit above the wind
that gives us breath? therefore, so are
the perfons of Chrift and the Holy Ghost
fupreme and divine in the invifible king-
dom of God. If not, it must lead us into
idolatry and blafphemy, when we see them
represented to us in the fcripture by these
fovereign powers in nature. God is Light,
and God is a Spirit; therefore, that perfon
who is called the Spirit must be divine;

and

LECT. and Jefus Chrift who is the true Light must be the true God.

Wherefoever we go in divinity, thither will philofophy ftill follow us as a faithful witnefs. For if we are affured by revelation, that there is a power of divine justice to execute vengeance on the enemies of God, and which fhall deftroy with a fearful destruction the ungodly and impenitent whenever it fhall reach them: we find in nature the irresistible power of fire, which diffipates and deftroys what it acts upon, and which in many inftances hath been applied as the inftrument of vengeance upon wicked men. Sacrifices were confumed by fire, to fignify that wrath from heaven is due to fin, and would fall upon the finful offerer himself, if the victim did not receive it for him by fubftitution. When the law was given on Mount Sinai, the heavens flamed with fire, and the mountain burned below, to give the people a fense of the terrors of divine judgment. With allufion to which exhibition, and other examples of the actual effects of his

wrath,

wrath, God is faid to be a confuming fire: LECT. and happy are they who regard the power of it, and flee from it, as Lot and his family fled from the flames of Sodom.

IV. Another doctrine, peculiar to the fcripture, is, the danger to which we are exposed in our religious capacity from the malignity and power of the Devil; whose works are manifeft, though he himself is invifible. But the natural creation bears witness to his existence, and to all his evil properties; where the wifdom of God hath fet before us that creature the Serpent, a fingular phænomenon of the fame kind; whose bite diffufes death fo fuddenly and miraculously through the body, that he may be faid, in comparison of all other creatures, to have the power of death. He is double tongued and infidious; often undiscovered till he has given the fatal wound. In a word, he is such a pattern of the invisible adversary of mankind, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, that the hieroglyphical language of the Bible fpeaks of him in the history of the