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a wonderful change that should be effected in the hearts or dispositions of many of the House of Israel by the HOLY SPIRIT, not for their own merits, but through the grace of God.

The third is from the book of Zechariah. It implied, that the HOLY SPIRIT would bring many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem to a sense of their guilt in contributing to the death of the MESSIAH, and teach them. to supplicate for pardon him whom they had pierced.

The fourth extract is a part of Joel's prophecy. It foretold, that the effusion of the HOLY SPIRIT would not be partial but general. He particularized some of its visible effects, and also foretold, that it would be poured out in the last days, or the time of the MESSIAH, and before the great and terrible day of the LORD, by which is understood the destruction of Jerusalem.

Let us now take a review of what our LORD himself predicted concerning the descent of the HOLY GHOST.

SECTION LVI.

OUR LORD'S ASSERTIONS AND PREDICTIONS CONCERNING THE HOLY GHOST.

From John, Chap. iii. vii. xiv. xv. xvi.—Matt. x.— Luke, xxiv.-Mark, xvi.-Acts, i.

I. UNLESS a man be born of water and of the SPIRIT, he cannot enter into the kingdom of GOD.

II. When they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak; for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh

in you.

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The Holy Spirit shall teach you in that same hour what ye shall speak.

III. I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay and

resist.

IV. I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, that he may abide with you always, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him : but ye shall know him, for he shall dwell with you, and

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The Advocate, even the HOLY SPIRIT, whom the Father shall send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.

V. When the Advocate is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of

me.

VI. It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter (or Advocate) will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and judgment.

Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righte ousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

VII. When He the Spirit of truth is come, he shall guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he will shew you things to come.

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you.

VIII. Be

VIII. Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.

IX. Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

X. He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to my Father.

XI. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues;

They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

ANNOTATIONS AND REFLECTIONS.

All the foregoing predictions we have read in the course of our LORD's history, but they will the more easily be retained in memory from this collective view of them. Let us consider what they principally teach us.

I. We learn, that the baptism of the HOLY GHOST is as necessary as that of water, in order to qualify any one for admittance into the kingdom of Heaven *; for it is a part of the MESSIAH's office as Mediator to sanctify his disciples, by sending down the HOLY SPIRIT upon them: and he bestows it upon them according to their obedience and necessities; and accepts none as members of his kingdom, who do not submit to the terms on which he dispenses the HOLY SPIRIT, namely, repentance and water baptism.

* See our Lord's Discourse, Séction xv. Vol. V.

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II. We are taught, that the Apostles and first preachers of the Gospel were to be endowed with supernatural knowledge by the HOLY SPIRIT, which is the SPIRIT OF GOD; and that they were required, instead of depending on their own abilities, to expect and rely upon extraordinary illuminations, whenever they were perse cuted in the course of their ministry.

III. That these extraordinary illuminations should render them superior to those who had the greatest natural advantages over them.

IV. That the gift of the HOLY SPIRIT would be bestowed by GOD THE FATHER at the intercession of the MESSIAH, and through him. That the HOLY SPIRIT should be manifested to the Apostles, so that they should be able to distinguish his operations from the effects of imagination; and that he should be essentially present in them when they acted as ministers of the Gospel, revealing to them every truth necessary for them to be ac quainted with, and enabling them, as appointed witnesses of the ministry and resurrection of CHRIST, to recollect every circumstance requisite to be made known to the world.

V. That the HOLY SPIRIT should be an ADVOCATE to plead the cause of CHRIST, both to the Apostles and the world, and also an additional witness to the truth of his resurrection.

VI. Our LORD declared, that the HOLY SPIRIT would not be poured on the Apostles during his personal abode on earth, because the MESSIAH was to be distinguished from the beginning of his ministry to his ascension, from the rest of mankind, as the HOLY ONE, on whom the SPIRIT OF GOD rested; but after his exaltation, he was as Mediator to dispense the HOLY SPIRIT to his faithful followers, in order to enable them (in his stead, as he was no longer personally present) to reprove the world

for

for its infidelity in disbelieving the doctrine of redemption, for unrighteousness in respect to immoral acting, and for false judgment in condemning the MESSIAH to death.

VII. We are told that the HOLY SPIRIT would not speak of himself as a separate Deity, but would come as a guide to those who were in search of truth; and that all his operations would have a reference to CHRIST and his doctrine; that is to say, he would not reveal a NEW system of religion, but illustrate that which was revealed by our LORD.

VIII. That the first effusion of the HOLY SPIRIT would be at Jerusalem.

IX. That the HOLY SPIRIT would be poured down upon the Apostles in a few days after our LORD'S

ascension.

X. and XI. That its effects would be evidently miraculous and various, and more astonishing than even the miracles our LORD performed during the course of his ministry; because our LORD being exalted to the right hand of God would shew forth his power, by causing his Gospel to be more extensively propagated than it was expedient to be during his abode on earth. Our LORD called the gift of the HOLY SPIRIT the promise of his FATHER. The MESSIAH was the great promise of the Old Testament, the HOLY SPIRIT that of the New.

Let us now proceed with the history, in order to see how these predictions were accomplished.

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