Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, he is in his natural, state, in that state which the Scriptures term the flesh, and "they that "are in the flesh cannot please God; they "that live after the flesh shall die";" "shall of the flesh reap corruption"."

Hence then arises the necessity of our receiving the help of the Holy Ghost. Hence it was that our Saviour said, "Ex"cept a man be born again-born of water "and of the Spirit-he cannot enter into "the kingdom of God"." Hence it was, that St. Paul so repeatedly exhorts his converts to be" renewed in the spirit of "their minds," and "to put on the new "man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness ¶."

66

"In strict agreement with this doctrine of Scripture are the prayers of our Church. In them we acknowledge "that such is the frailty of man, that without God we cannot "but fall;" that, "through the weakness of "our mortal nature we can do no good

66

[ocr errors]

thing without God;" that, "if we have "good desires in our hearts, or think those n Rom. viii. 8, 13. ° Gal. vi. 8. P John iii, Ephes. iv. 23, 24.

3, 5.

[ocr errors]

"things that are good," they are put into our minds by the preventing grace of God, that is, by the grace of God going before our thoughts to purify and guide them. We pray in one collect that "we may be daily renewed by God's Holy Spirit;" in another," that by the same Spirit we may "have a right judgment in all things;" and in another we say, "forasmuch as without "thee we are not able to please thee, mer"cifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may "all things direct and rule our hearts."

in

The Communion Service, and the occasional offices, particularly those for Baptism, are full of expressions to the same purport.

Weak and frail as we are in ourselves, and encompassed as we are with moral and spiritual dangers, yet, "God's grace is suf"ficient for us," and "his strength is "made perfect in our weakness." "The

66

Spirit still helpeth our infirmities," and we may "be able to do all things through "Christ strengthening ust."

From the beginning of time, the Holy Spirit, we doubt not, was ready to help Rom. viii. 26. Phil. iv. 13.

2 Cor. xii. 9.

those who sought his aid; but under the Gospel dispensation his influences were to be more plentifully poured forth. "A new "heart will I give you, saith the Lord, and "a new spirit will I put within you." "And I will put my Spirit within you, and "cause you to walk in my statutes; and

[ocr errors]

'ye shall keep my judgments, and do "them"." And again, "the Spirit shall "be poured upon us from on high, and "the work of righteousness shall be peace, " and the effect of righteousness quietness "and assurance for ever" Our Lord just before his death, in one of his last affec tionate discourses to his disciples, says, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give 66 you another Comforter, that he may abide "with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, "whom the world cannot receive, because "it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; "but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you"." Accordingly St. Paul speaks of the bodies of Christians as being the temple of the Holy Ghost." II. We will now, in the second place, * Isaiah xxxii. 15, 17. See also chapters xv. and xvi.

" Ezek. xxxvi. 27. ▾ John xiv. 16, 17.

proceed to enquire into the proper fruits of the Spirit, into the effects which follow from our partaking of his fellowship or communion.

And first, we are repeatedly assured by St. Paul," that if we walk in the Spirit, we "shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." What the works of the flesh are you well know. Some of them are enumerated by St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Galatians. "The works of the flesh," says he, "are "manifest, which are these: adultery, for"nication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idol"atry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emu"lations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, "envyings, murders, drunkenness, revel"lings, and such like."

To be guilty of any of these works of the flesh, shews that we are not wholly led by the Spirit. All the sins of unchastity appear to be peculiarly repugnant to the influence of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul argues against them on this very ground. "Flee "fornication: every sin that a man doeth "is without the body; but he that com"mitteth fornication sinneth against his 2 Gal. v. 19, 20, 21.

"own body. What? know ye not that your

66

body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, "which is in you, which ye have of God?" and "if any man defile the temple of God, "him will God destroy"." Drunkenness also St. Paul appears to place in particular opposition to the influence of the Spirit: and certainly this may well be said of a sin, which besots even a man's natural reason and conscience, and deprives him of the common knowledge of right and wrong. If, my friends, you are in the habit of giving way to any of these lusts of the flesh; to drunkenness, for instance, or unchastity, or hatred, or a quarrelsome disposition, you may be sure that you are not duly led by the Spirit, and are therefore far from the kingdom of God.

Among the positive effects of the communion of the Holy Ghost, one of the first that I shall mention is, a sincere practical belief in the Christian dispensation, especially in that main branch of it, the redemption of the world by the death of Christ. True Christian faith is the offspring

21 Cor. vi. 18, 19.

1 Cor. iii. 17.

с

Ephes. v. 18.

« AnteriorContinuar »