to my thirsty soul that I may ever drink from Thee, that, accord-
ing to Thy sacred and faithful promise, waters of life may flow
from my belly. O Fountain of Life, fiU my mind with the river
of Thy pleasures, and make my soul drunk with the sober drunk-
enness of Thy love ; that I may forget whatever is vain and
earthly, and may keep Thee alone continually in my memory, as
it is written, Memor fui Dei, et delectatus sum.*

" Give me Thy Holy Spirit, signified by those waters, which
Thou didst promise to give to the thirsty. Grant, I beseech Thee,
that with my whole desire and with every endeavor I may strive
thitherward, whither we believe Thee to have ascended on the
fortieth day after Thy Resurrection ; that I may be detained in
this present mlseiy with my body alone, but may be alwa}'S with
Thee in thought and longing, that my heart may be there where
Thou art, my desirable and incomparable and most lovely Treas-
ure. For in the great deluge of this life, where we are tossed
about by the storms around us, and no safe haven is to be found,
no dry spot where the foot of the dove may rest for a while, there
is no safe peace, no secure rest, everywhere war and strife, every-
where enemies, without fightings, within fears. And because in
one part we are of heaven, in the other of earth, the corruptible
body presseth down the soul. Therefore my mind, my Compan-
ion and Friend, being weary with the way waxes faint, and lies
wounded and torn by the vanities it has passed through : it hun-

* Ps. Isxvi. 4, coiTCsponding to Ixxvii. 3, in oiu* Version, in which the
sense is just the reverse: I remembered God, and teas troubled.



NOTE H. 325

gers and thirsts greatly ; and I have nought to set before it ; for I
am poor and destitute. Do Thou, O Lord my God, who art rich
in all good, and a most bountiful Dispenser of the banquet of
heavenly satiety, give meat to Thy weary, collect Thy scattered,
restore Thy wounded servant. Lo, he stands at the door and
knocks : I beseech Thee by the bowels of Thy compassion, where-
with Thou visitedst us as the Dayspring from on high, open the
hand of Thy mercy to this miserable beggar, and command with a
winning condescension that he come to Thee, that he rest in
Thee, that he may be strengthened by Thee with living, heavenly
bread; wherewith when he is satisfied, and has recovered his
strength, he may mount higher, and, borne on the wings of holy
desires from this valley of tears, may fly to Thy heavenly
Kingdom.

" Let my spirit. Lord, I beseech Thee, put forth wings like an
eagle, and fly, and not faint ; let it fly and mount even to the
beauty of Thy house, to the place where Thine honor dwelleth,
that there, on the table where the citizens above find refreshment,
it may be fed with Thy secret things in the place of Thy pasture,
near the ovei-flowing rivers ; that my heart may rest in Thee, O
my God, my heart, a vast sea, swelling with waves. Thou, who
didst command the winds and the sea, and there was a great
calm, come and walk on the waves of my heart, that eveiy thing
in me may become calm and serene, while I embrace Thee, my
only Good, and behold Thee, the sweet Light of my eyes, without
being blinded by the darkness of my troubled thoughts. Let my
spirit. Lord, fly beneath the shadow of Thy wings from the
scorching cares of this world, that, being hidden in Thy refresh-
ing coolness, it may sing rejoicingly, and say, / icill lay me down
in peace and sleep.

" Let my memory, I beseech Thee, O Lord my God, sleep from
all things that are under heaven, watching to Thee, as it is writ-
ten, / sleep, and my heart icatclies. Let my soul be safe, be
always secure under the wings of Thy protection, O my God.
Let it abide in Thee, and be always nourished by Thee. Let it
behold Thee, when my consciousness forsakes me, and sing Thy
praises with shouts of joy : and let these Thy sweet gifts be my
consolation in the mean while amid these whirlwinds, until I come
to Thee, who art true Peace, where there is no bow or shield or
sword or war, but the highest and most perfect security, and secure^
28



326 NOTE I.

tranquillity, tranquil pleasure, and pleasant happiness, and happy
eternity, and eternal blessedness, and the blessed vision and
praises of Thee, world without end. Amen."



Note I : p. 50.

Andrewes, in his Sermon on our Lord's words, If ye love Me,
keep Mjj commandments ; and I will pray the Father ; and He loill
give you another Comforter, that He may abide ivilh you for ever ; —
the third of those on the Sending of the Holy Ghost, — argues the
question, " How shall we love Christ, or keep His commandments,
that we may receive the Holy Ghost, when, unless we first
receive, we can neither love Him, nor keep them ? — How saith
He, Keep, and I loill give, when He must give, or we cannot
keejj ? " He replies, that to him who hath shall be given, both in
a higher degree, and in a different kind ; an answer sufficient for
the immediate question, and agreeing in substance with Augus-
tin's, from whose 14th Tractate on St. John the words of the
question are translated : only Augustin, after his fashion, is more
difluse and rhetorical, and, as is very often the case with him, winds
round and round and round the point, instead of coming up to it and
clenching it. " We consider (Andrewes adds), as St. Peter (1.
iv. 10), the Spirit in His graces, or the graces of the Spirit, as of
many kinds ; — of many kinds ; for our wants and defects are
many. Not to go out of the Chapter, — in the very words He is
called the Sjnrit of Truth ; and that is one kind of grace, to cure
us of error. In the 26 verse after, the Spirit of Holiness. — And
here He is termed the Comforter ; and that is against heaviness
and trouble of mind. To him that hath Him as the Spirit of
Truth, which is one grace. He may be promised as the Spirit of
Holiness, or Comfort, which is another. It is well known, many
partake Him as the Spirit of Truth in knowledge, which may well
be pi'omised them (for sure yet they have Him not) as the sancti-
fying Spirit.* And both these ways may He be had of some, who

* The meaning of this sentence is much obscured, nay, quite perverted,
in the late Oxford reprint, by the omission of the marivs of parenthesis.
Andrewes says, that there are many persons, who partake the Spirit of
Trutli in knowledge, and to whom yet the Spirit may be promised as the
Spirit of Holiness, seeing that they have Him not as such. But it would



NOTE I. 327

are subject to the Apostle's disease here, heavy and cast down,
and no cheerful spirit within them. So they were not clean des-
titute of the Spirit at this promise making, but had Him ; and so

be difficnlt to make this out from the Oxford text : " It is well known,
many partake Him as ' the Spirit of Truth ' in knowledge, which may well
be promised them, for sure yet they have Him not as the sanctifying
Spirit" (p. 155). When thus pointed, the words mean, that the Spirit of
Truth may well be promised to those who have not the sanctifying Spirit ;
which being at variance with the whole purport of the passage, I referred
to the old Folio, and there saw plainly what Andrewes intended to say. I
know no writer in whom the nicest accuracy in punctuation is so much
needed to render him intelligible, owing to the parenthetical knottiness of
his style, in which juxtaposition is a very unsafe criterion of continuity.
He himself seems to have attended to it carefully in his manuscripts, if we
may judge from the curious system followed in the old editions, — a sys-
tem which may indeed be simplified with advantage ; only at every
change one should look out sharph"- lest the meaning be misrepresented or
obscured. In the next line the Oxford text gives, " the Apostle's disease,"
as if it were the disease of some one Apostle, not of the whole body. This is
one of a class of mistakes common in the reprints of our older writers, aris-
ing from the ignorance which prevails concerning the histor}'' of our gram-
mar. Few persons are distinctly aware that the practice of denoting the
genitive ' singular by an apostrophe was not common, except in certain
peculiar words, till the latter part of the seventeenth century ; or that the
absurd and unmeaning mark, which we now subjoin to denote the genitive
plural, only got into vogue about the middle of the eighteenth. If our
editors bore this in mind, they would feel called upon to exercise a little
discrimination, when they come to an ambiguous form. Ten lines back,
where the edition of 1641 has " in the very words," the Oxford gives "in
the very next words." The insertion of next may rest upon authority;
but it looks like an intei'polation : the shorter expi-ession is more iu
Andrewes manner.

I do not make these remarks censoriouslj-. In this age of speed and
slovenliness, — of water colors and lithography and photography, — when
everybody has so many things to do, that nobody can do any thing, and the
only way of keeping the world's wheels in motion is to make matter do the
work of mind, — and when that patient and unwearible love of study,
which animated men in former generations, and which thoiiglit no labor
too great to be spent even on miimte questions of grammar and ortho
graphy, if it did but lead to a satisfactorj^ result, is no longer to be found,
owing to the blighting system of using emulation, instead of the love of
knowledge, as the main instrument of education, — the reprint of Andrewes
is certainly among the more creditable samples of its class. But now that
the most valuable portions of our early literature are gaining circulation in
modern types in the remotest quarters of the globe, where people will have



328 NOTE I.

well miglit love Him, and in some sort keep His commandments,
and yet remain capable of the promise of a Comforter for all
that."

Now it is doubtless quite true that they, in whom the Spirit
dwells, and who submit to his governance, will be led by Him
from one grace to another, and that, when new emergencies and
difficvilties arise, new powers to meet them will be unfolded in
th^ir souls. Only Andrewes, from the character of his mind, as
well as from the philosophy in which he had been trained, was
disposed to look at the work of the Spirit rather as mechanical,
than as dynamical or organical, agreeing herein with the great
tody of theologians, who have been readier to conceive that the
Spirit brings some fresh gift on every fresh occasion, than that
He is a principle of life abiding in the soul, swaying its desires,
exalting and purifying its affections, strengthening its faculties,
and turning them to their appropriate purpose.* In so many
regions of thought do we find counterparts to the opposite views,

no means of referring to the original text, it is desirable that our editors
should more than ever feel that laborious accuracy in the least things is an
indispensable part of their duty.

* As this sheet is passing through the press, I have met with a like remark
referring to a different part of the work of the Spirit, but expressed almost in
the same words, by AckeiToann, one of the ablest among the rising theolo-
gians of Germany, in an elaborate and in many respects very valuable Dis-
sertation on the meaning of the words nviv^a, vovg, and the German Geist,
published in the Theolor/isclie Stiidlen unci Kritilcen for 1839. " Theologians
have not unfrequently been guilty of a gross error with regard to the bibli-
cal idea of inspiration, from looking upon it as mechanical, instead of dy-
namical. From the passages cited (Gen. xii. 38, Job. xxxii. 8, Isai. xl. 2,
Matth. X. 20, Luke ii. 40, John xiv. 17, 26, xvi. 13, Rom. vii. 16, 1 Cor. ii.
10, xii. 3, Gal. iv. 6, 2 Pet. i. 21) it is sufficiently evident that the Bible
â– speaks of the working of the Spirit of God as dynamical. Hence theo-
logians ought never to "have adopted or encouraged the crude notion, that
persons under inspiration were like so many dra\yers, wherein the Holy
â– Ghost put such and such things, which they then took out as something
leady made, and laid before the world ; so that their recipiency with refer-
ence to the Spirit inspiring them was like that of a letter box. Whereas
inspiration, according to the Bible, is to be regarded as a vivifj-ing and ani-
mating operation on the spiritual fiicultj' in man; by which its energy and
capacity are extraordinarily heightened, so that his powers of internal per-
ception discern things spread otit before them clearly and distinctly,
which at other times lay beyond his range of vision, and were dark aud
hidden." p. 890.



NOTE I. 329

which regard light, the one as a composite aggi'egate, the other as
a plastic and multiform unit. Besides it is a very inadequate con-
ception of the change which was to be effected in the Apostles by
the Comforter, — and wliich, we know from the Book of Acts, was
accomplished ■\\nthin a few days of the Ascension, — to speak of
them as having Hun already as the Spirit of Truth, and as the
Spirit of Holiness, and so needing Him only as the Spirit of Com-
fort. Andrewes did not mean this, though his words would seem
to imply something of the sort. For all our Lord's expressions
about the sending of the Comforter plainly declare that His pre-
sence was to be something entirely new, and the like of which
had not yet been seen upon earth ; that it depended in some mys-
terious manner on His own death and resurrection, and was to be
totally different from any spiritual influences which the Apostles
had till then received ; in a word, that it was to be the great dis-
tinctive privilege of His Church. Such emphatical words as I
tvill send you another Comforter, and the other similar expressions,
are far more than a promise that One, who was dwelling in them
already, should show forth His power in a new way, under tliis
fresh affliction. So too those words of St. John, which formed the
subject of the last Note, certify us that the Apostles cannot at
this time have received the Spirit, in that sense in which His gifts
were to be the peculiar blessing of the Christian Dispensation.

If we examine the representation of the conduct of the Apos-
tles during their Lord's life, as set before us in the four Gospels, —
if we consider how weak their faith was, how easily it was troub-
led by doubts and fears, which the reiterated proofs of His divine
power could not allay, — how this its feebleness hampered and
hindered them in the exercise of the gifts with which he had
endowed them, — how carnal their wishes were still, set upon
earthly prizes, incapable of understanding the pure glory of the
Kingdom of Heaven, nay, disturbing them with jealousies and
rivalries, — and further how slow their minds were to receive the
heavenly light of their Master's teaching, — how unable they
were, even on that last evening, to apprehend the spiritual mean-
ing of His words, — we cannot but recognize, when we turn to
the Book of Acts, that a total change had been wrought in them,
a change exactly coinciding with the effects which they had been
promised, would be produced by the Comforter ; wherefore this
change may, with the amplest reason, be regarded as being, in all
28 *



330 NOTE I.

its parts, tlie fulfilment of that promise. Moreover, as according
to the terms of the promise, the Comforter was to abide with the
Church for ever, the moral powers and spiritual graces, which the
Apostles then received, have been granted ever since to believers
in Christ, after the measure of their faith. This change in the
Apostles gives us a complete explanation and confirmation of St.
John's saying, that the Spirit was not given until Jesus was glori-
fied : which saying seems incompatible with the notion that the
Apostles had received any of the distinctively Christian gifts of
the Spirit, at all events before the Kesurrection. Now divine
truth, we may feel sure, is always consistent with itself, although,
according to the form which ideas ever put on, when they are
brought down into the region of the reflective imderstanding, it will
perpetually ajij^ear to involve contradictions. Hence we must
not doubt that, if there are any passages in Scripture, which seem
repugnant to the right interpretation of this saying in St. John,
such repugnance will be removed by a more careful investigation.
For instance, the very text, in preaching on which Andrewes
introduces the passage just cited, and which, according to his in-
terpretation, would imjjly that the Apostles had already received
some of the peculiar gifts of the Spirit, — our Lord's words. If ye
love Me, keep My commandments : and I will pray the Father ; and
He will give you another Comforter, — cannot be at variance with
the declaration that the Spirit was not given till after Jesus was
glorified. Now at first sight these words seem thoroughly to con-
firm that declaration, inasmuch as they palpably refer to what was
to take place after the Resurrection. The inconsistency is merely
a matter of inference, on the ground that the disciples could not
love Jesus, or keep His commandments, except through the influ-
ence of the Spirit. But the love and obedience here spoken of
are not that pure and perfect love, and that perfect obedience,
which the Spirit desires to produce in the heart of every believer,
and which can in no respect be produced, save by His immediate
power. The love of the disciples at that time, was weak, fraU,
human love, for Him who had been their best Friend, their wisest
Teacher, their greatest Benefactor : and the only obedience which
«ould as yet be expected from them, was that which such grateful
and reverential love may beget even in the natural man, under
circumstances fitted to foster the better part of his nature. With-
out entering into the tano;led aro;ument on the character and



NOTE I. 331

extent of prevenient grace, we may assume, what is implied in
every part of the New Testament, tliat the divine aid which pre-
cedes faith, in its lower sense, is wholly distinct fix)m that special
gift of the Spirit, which is vouchsafed to believers, and to them
only.

This distinction is not sufliciently prominent in the comment of
Aquinas on this passage. " Does (he asks) the obedience of be-
lievers and their love to Christ prepare them for the Spirit ? It
seems not : because the love v/herewith we love God is bestowed
by the Holy Spirit. liom. v. 5. Tlie love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts hy the Holy Ghost which is given unio us. Moreover
obedience itself is excited in us by the Holy Spirit. Eom. viii.
14. For as many as are led hy the Spirit of God they are the sons
of God." These verses however refer to a very different love
and obedience from that required by our Lord in St. John, a love
and obedience proceeding, not from prevenient Grace, but from
the full gift of the Spirit. " Again some may say (he adds) that
by our love to the Son we merit the gift of the Holy Spirit, by
which, when obtained, we love the Father. But this is inconsis-
tent, because the love of the Father and of the Son is the same."
But the love which Jesus here requires, was that which they
could not but feel toward Plim in His Humanity, not in His
Deity. " And therefore it must be remarked on the other hand,
that this peculiarity is found in the gifts of God ; viz. : that he
who uses well a gift bestowed upon him is thereby entitled to
receive more grace and a richer blessing ; while whoever makes a
bad use of it, even that which he receives shall be taken from him.
For, as we read in Matt, xxv, the talent was taken away from the
slothful servant, and given to him who had received five. Thus,
also, it is concerning the gift of the Holy Spirit. For no one is
able to love God unless he has the Holy Spirit. Nor do we anti-
cipate the grace of God ; but it makes the first advances to us.
For He first loved us, as is said in 1 John, iv. 10. And therefore
we must say, that the Apostles at first indeed received the Holy
Spirit, that they might love God and obey His commands : but it
was indispensable, in wder to their receiving the Holy Spirit in
still greater measure, that they should well employ, by love and obe-
dience, the gift already received. And in accordance with this is
the sentiment : If ye love Me, by the aid of the Holy Spirit
which ye have, and obey My connnands, ye shall receive the



332 NOTE I.

Holy Spirit, wliicli ye already possess in greater measure." These
words, it is plain, are very far from expressing the difference,
implied in our Lord's words, between the gift of the Spirit which
the disciples were to receive in answer to His prayer, and that
which they already had. But thus it is for ever in the Schoolmen,
that, while they are exceedingly ingenious in devising all manner
of artificial and arbitrary distinctions, those which actually exist
they often overlook.

There is more uncertainty with regard to the meaning of the
last words in the next verse : The Spirit of Truth, tchom the icorld
cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, nor Icnoiceth Him : hut ye
know Him ; for He dwelleth tcith you, and shall be in you. What
rich treasures of knowledge are contained in this verse concerning
the whole relation between man and God, nay, between man and
all heavenly truth ! But I merely cite it here for the light which
the last words seem to afford as to the previous condition of the
Apostles. In the text to this Note I have interpreted them, with-
out consulting the expositions given by others, as though the dif-
ference of tense were meant to denote a difference of time, and
as though the former clause, — for He dicelleth icith you, — referred
to that acquaintance with the Spirit which the Apostles had already
enjoyed, — the latter clause, f;«rZ shall be in you, ioiXiat higher
gift which was to be granted to them on the day of Pentecost. A
like explanation, I find, is proposed by Lampe. " Witness is here
borne to the disciples, that they possess a better temper than the
world, because they know the Spirit. Not as yet indeed had the
excellence of the Holy Spirit and the nature of His Economy and
operations become fully known to the Apostles. Nevertheless they
had already so far become acquainted with the Sjiirit, that their
knowledge surpassed the revelations of flesh and blood (Matt. xvi.
17), as well as the knowledge of John's disciples. Acts xix. 1. —
For they knew the divinity of miracles, and the truth of Christ's
doctrine, and the excellency of His person. Which could not have
been, unless at the same time they tacitly believed Him to be that
Prophet, who had been promised and was to be anointed by the
richest measure of the Spirit. Is. xi. 2, Ixi. 1 , 2, 3, Ps. xlv. 8. There-
fore, just as in verse 7, He had attributed to His disciples a knowl-
edge of the Father, so now He attributes to them a knowledge of
the Spirit, imperfect indeed, but still having a true basis and
commencement. The orio;in of this condition of mind He indicates



NOTE I. . 333

in the words : for He dwdleth with you. Thus interpreters gener-
ally understand the Avords, and the sense is appropriate. They
had now received the first fruits of the Spirit. He had drawn
them by an eiFcctual calling, that they might follow Christ with
the denial of self. The same Spirit constantly abode with them In
their many temi^tations, so that, although many otiiers strayed away
from Jesus, they remained faithful. To this Spirit abiding with
them should be ascribed all the knowledge which the disciples pos-
sessed. For spiritual things cannot be known except by the Spirit."

" Nevertheless (he continues) it would not be absurd to render
the hit here by wlierefore^ or on account o/tchicJi, a sense which is
not unusual in the ISTew Testament. Compare Luke vii. 47, and
above John viii. 44. And then the promise just now given is
repeated in these words, and it is declared, that the mansion, which
Jesus promised, was to be confidently expected by them, because
they had already actually begun to possess spiritual knowledge.
I confess that I rather prefer this to the received version."

By this latter explanation both clauses are referred to the pro-
mised effusion of the Spirit ; and thus, so far as I can find, has the
passage been understood by the great body of divines from the
earliest times to the present. Indeed the Vulgate, in the received
edition, renders all the three verbs in the future: But ye shall
know Him; because He icill remain icith you, and shall be in you.
This too is the reading in the old Latin translation of the Treatise