dove, the wind,-water, and fire. Not that these objects can in any manner shew us what is his own proper nature; for who can find out God to perfection? But they are illustrative of his operations and his mode of acting upon the human mind and, from the nature and manner of acting of these natural objects, we may obtain some faint ideas of the workings of the eternal Spirit of Truth and Holiness. For as the voice of the Lord,-the hand of the Almighty God, —a consuming fire, are all figurative modes of expression, applied in Scripture to God the Father, so also is it figurative, when the Holy Ghost is represented as a dove, or wind, or water, or fire. 3. Several passages of the Holy Scriptures represent the Holy Ghost under the similitude of a Dove: For when Jesus was baptized ; "Lo the heavens were opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon Him ....And straightway, coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a Dove descending upon him.... And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him ....and John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a Dove, and it abode upon him." 1 The ancient Jews also considered the Dove as an emblem of the Holy Spirit: For the Chaldee Paraphrast explains, (Cant. ii. 12.) "The voice of the Turtle is heard," that is, the voice of the Holy Spirit.2 4. As the Dove is innocent and harmless, so the influences of the Holy Ghost lead men to gentleness of temper, and innocency of life, and infuse into 1 Mat. iii. 16; Mark i. 10; Luke iii. 22; John i. 32. them a meek and quiet disposition. When our Lord commissioned the twelve to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he says, "Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye, therefore, wise as serpents and harmless as doves," (Mat. x. 16.) Nor was this Dove-like temper and state of mind to be peculiar to the Apostles: it was to form an essential part of the Christian character, in every age of the Church of Christ; for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth, and meekness and gentleness. They who are led by the Spirit are harmless and separate from sinners; and are induced to suffer injuries with meekness and forbearance, and not to cause or inflict them. They are longsuffering, kind, and gentle; for they are led by his Spirit who was meek and lowly in heart. 5. Another characteristic of the Dove, is its very affectionate disposition: and they who are born of the Holy Spirit are tender-hearted, merciful and kind. For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." (Gal. v. 22, 23.) As the carnal mind is enmity against God; so the renewing of the Holy Ghost produces a new heart, and fills the mind with love both to God and man; and they who are renewed, approve themselves as the sons of God, 66 by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned.' (2 Cor. vi. 6.) As love is the fulfilling of the law, this heavenly temper is wrought in the hearts of them that truly believe, by the power of the ever-blessed Spirit; and by this temper are they especially dis 1 Eph. v. 9; Gal. v. 22, 23. tinguished from those who are carnally-minded, and dead in sin. 6. With what care, also, does the Dove brood over and rear its young, hatching them by its genial heat, and afterwards feeding them with persevering assiduity and when the earth was without form and void, when all was chaos and unformed; then "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters;" then the Spirit of God brooded as it were over the lifeless mass, and infused its warmth and vivifying power into the whole. And so does it brood over the soul that is spiritually dead, and warms and cherishes it till spiritual life is produced; so that they who were dead in trespasses and in sins are quickened unto newness of life. The love of God is shed abroad in their hearts, by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto them; and as a most powerful and active principle, this Love excites them to the discharge of every duty, and gladly to suffer even tribulation for Christ's sake. Is the Dove tender to its young ? How much more so the Holy Spirit to the humble, devout follower of Jesus; for he is eminently the Comforter, whose indwelling power and presence more than compensate for Christ's bodily absence. If we know Christ no longer after the flesh, yet he has not left his people comfortless, but has amply supplied his absence by the consolations of the Spirit and hence he says, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth" (John xiv. 16, 17;) and hence (Acts ix. 31); when the Churches had rest and were edified, they walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost." Does then the Dove 66 warm, cherish, and comfort its young, much more does the Holy Spirit warm, cherish, and comfort the humble soul by his secret influence, by his inward witness, and by his strong consolations. 7. But the Dove is, moreover, particularly fruitful, producing its young several times in the year; and how strongly does this represent the fructifying nature of the Holy Spirit, by which He makes the naturally barren soul to become fruitful in all the works of righteousness. The influences of the eternal Spirit are not barren and unproductive; but, like the kindly rain from the clouds, and the genial warmth from the sun, they generate the fruits of truth, of purity, of meekness, of patience, of humility; in a word, of holiness in all its various kinds and degrees; for the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance....in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth....the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost: " and hence the God of hope fills his adopted children with all joy and peace in believing; so that they abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." Is the Dove, then, innocent, harmless, and affectionate; is it tender and fruitful? How happily, then, does it represent the Holy Spirit in his quickening and renewing influences, by which the dead in sin are raised to spiritual life; the mischievous are rendered innocent and harmless; the unkind are made affectionate, and by which the unfeeling and hard-hearted become gentle, tender, and merciful. 8. A second emblem, by which the Holy Spirit 1 Gal. v. 22; Eph. v. 9: Rom. xiv. 17; xv. 13. is represented unto us, is the wind, or air in motion: "The wind bloweth where it listeth," says our Lord to Nicodemus, "and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (John iii. 8.) And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, and the disciples were waiting for the gift of the Holy Ghost, suddenly there comes "a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty Wind, and it filled all the house were they were sitting: (Acts ii. 2.) and immediately they were all filled with The derivation of the word the Holy Ghost." 66 Spirit, whether we regard the Greek, or the Latin, clearly proves what a fit emblem the wind is of the Holy Spirit; for Pneuma in Greek-Spirit-is from Pneo, to blow; and Spiritus in Latin, is from Spiro, to breath, or blow and hence our Lord, (John xx. 22); breathed on the disciples, "and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." The name Ghost or Ghast, in the ancient Saxon language, signifies a Spirit; and hence the Holy Spirit is so frequently called the Holy Ghost. 9. And as the wind, or air in motion is unseen, but felt; so is it with the operations of the Holy Spirit thou hearest the sound of the wind, thou perceivest its powerful effects, but thou seest not itself. So are the operations of the Spirit of God, unseen, but felt; invisible, but clear and evident in their mighty results: and hence the Church of England, in her seventeenth article, describes Godly persons' to be those, who feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things. To deny |