70. I am ashamed to add the rest. You
expect to be glorified together with Christ; (“if so be that we
suffer with him that we may be also glorified
together;”
Rom. viii.
17.) but you do not
glorify the “Spirit of holiness”
Rom. i. 4.
together with Christ, as though He were not worthy to receive equal
honour even with you. You hope to “reign
with”
2 Tim. ii.
12. Christ; but you
“do despite unto the Spirit of grace”
Heb. x. 29. by assigning Him the rank of a slave and
a subordinate. And I say this not to demonstrate that so much
is due to the Spirit in the ascription of glory, but to prove the
unfairness of those who will not ever give so much as this, and
shrink from the fellowship of the Spirit with Son and Father as from
impiety. Who could touch on these things without a
sigh?
cf. Verg., Æn. ii. Quis talia
fando…temperet a lacrymis? Is it not
so plain as to be within the perception even of a child that this
present state of things preludes the threatened eclipse of the
faith? The undeniable has become the uncertain. We
profess belief in the Spirit, and then we quarrel with our own
confessions. We are baptized, and begin to fight again.
We call upon Him as the Prince of Life, and then despise Him as a
slave like ourselves. We received Him with the Father and the
Son, and we dishonour Him as a part of creation. Those who
“know not what they ought to pray for,”
Rom. viii.
26. even though they be induced to utter a
word of the Spirit with awe, as though coming near His dignity, yet
prune down all that exceeds the exact proportion of their
speech. They ought rather to bewail their weakness, in that we
are powerless to express in words our gratitude for the benefits
which we are actually receiving; for He “passes all
understanding,”
Phil. iv. 7. and convicts
speech of its natural inability even to approach His dignity in the
least degree; as it is written in the Book of Wisdom, i.e. of
Jesus the Son of Sirach, or Ecclus. xliii.
30. “Exalt Him as much as you can, for
even yet will He far exceed; and when you exalt Him put forth all
your strength, and be not weary, for you can never go far
enough.” Verily terrible is the account to be given for
words of this kind by you who have heard from God who cannot lie
that for blasphemy against the Holy Ghost there is no
forgiveness.
Luke xii. 10.