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    receive power ^ after that Hie holy tpikd is come upon you ; a « d ye shall be witnes&es unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria , and unto the uttermost parts of the earth .

    Tbis explains what our L , ord meant when he said of the comforter or advacate , " tie shall testify of « ie . He shall glorify »* € > for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you . ' *

    But that our Lord , by the comforter or advocate , could not mean a person , but only that inspiration of the truth which they should receive , and which , in his discourse with them , he personifies , by giving to it the personal name comforter * will appear still more evidently , by comparing the promise with its fulfilment . That fulfilment

    i » recorded , Acts ii . 1—4 , m these vrords : ** And when the day of Pentecost was fully come , they were all with one accord in one place , and sud * denly tbare cauie a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty ivind , and it

    filled all the house where they were sitting ; and there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire , and it sat Upon each of tfceiti , and they were all filled with the holy wind , and began to speak with -other tongues as the wind ( the divine inspiration with

    which they were filled ) gave them utterance . ' WJjat was the promise of our Lord to his disciples ? " I will pray the Father / ' he says , " and he shall give you another comforter * that he may abide with you for ever . " The term comforter was ambiguous and liable to misconstruction : our

    Lord , therefore , immediately explains what he intended by it . Now when a speaker explains a term he has used , that explanation must contain its real meanings and any other construction of his words must be a perversion of them : what then did he promise to

    send his disciples ? He tells them , * the spirit , the breath or inspiration of the truth . " Such was the promise , how was it fulfilled ? Was it by the coming of a divine person ? No such thing , but by the coming of a wind from heaven , filling all the house

    where . they were Mtting , so that they were literally baptized * immersed in the holy tviiid ^^ nd , all of 1 hem filled with it . Peter thus coumieuts upon it : ver . 3 % 33 , addressing the Jews he says , " This Jewus hath God raited up , whereof we are witnesses } there-

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    fore being by the right band of Ged exalted , &nd having received of the Father the promise of the holy spirit ^" the hdy wind , or holy inspiration , " fee Jiatfc $ h * d forth this , * ' that is this powerful inspiration , " whie-h you now see and hear . " If the promise was

    fulfilled , not by sending a divine per son ., but by sending upon them a wind and the appearance of cloven tongues as of fire ; then such a person could not be the subject of the promise . Jesus promised the holy spirit ; Jesus received that promise of the Father ,

    and shed it forth * and this , the Jews who were present , saw and beard . The spirit is said to have fallen upon the apostles at this time , and afterwards it is said to have been poured out and to have / alien upon others in Jike manner as upon them * * This

    literally and exactly corresponds with the fact , as recorded in the second of the Acts , and must also literally correspond with the promise of which it was the accomplishment ; but all this is inapplicable to a person , and therefore a person could not be intended by our Lord in the promi se *

    Mr , Ward law admits that this language is inapplicable to a person , while at tli-e same time he admits that it is applied to the Holy Spirit \ bat he says , + " There i * in such expressions , in which sense soever we understand them , a fi gure 4 tt any rate .

    A person , it is very true , cannot literal iy be poured out . " But although a person cannot literally be poured out , yet wind can , and really was poured out . Jesus promised to send the spirit upon them , which literally means wind or breath , and therefore it

    was literally fulfilled in this event . But admitting the language to be figurative , what will "follow ? Why this , that if the fulfilment of the promise be figurative , the promise cannot be literal but must also be figurative ; and then the argument for the

    personality of the Spirit ^ founded upon if , is completely done away . Instead therefore of this being " h figure m& any rate , " it is no figure at sill . The only figure by which the Holy Spirit is here spoken of f seems to be its personification under the borrowed uanae comforter , , .,.-... ,

    * Act * x . 44-40 i xi . 1 &—VU - ~~ t P . 290 .

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    LID Mr . Marsoui on the Q&fy iff ike Hvty &pirit *~~ Letter H

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1818, page 110, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2473/page/30/