ens the dead sinner; and, as a Spirit of illumination and understanding, he enlightens him, testifies of Christ to him, works faith in him to believe, regenerates and renews him; takes the Lord's righteousness and peace, and shews them to the sinner; works the life and power of reigning grace in him, and sets up the kingdom of God in the heart, which stands in power, in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. The law of faith by the Saviour, which the isles were to wait for, is applied and made effectual by the Holy Ghost, who is our last law-giver. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." He bears witness to our adoption, and empowers us to claim it; produces the first-fruits of glory in our hearts, which are called the first-fruits of the

Spirit; and is the pledge and earnest of the future inheritance. He seals us up to the day of redemption; renews us, or restores the lost image of God to us, and sanctifies us, and carries on

his sanctifying, renewing, and transforming work in us, and makes us meet for the inheritance with the saints in light: "that the offering up of the Gentiles may be accepted, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost."

Sins against the Holy Spirit, in his work and operations, are taken notice of in a very particular manner, and are highly resented, even in the saints, and punished with peculiar severity in the daring and presumptuous. The Israelites in the wilderness vexed his Holy Spirit, till he turned to be their enemy, and fought against them. Some of the young Gentile converts grieved him, and many were sickly and weak among them, and many slept, for their unbecoming behaviour at the Lord's table. The Holy Spirit (says Christ) shall glorify me. And the Spirit is grieved when the Lord is dishonoured. Ananias and Sapphira, agreeing together in sin, tempted the Spirit of the Lord, and Satan filled their hearts to lie to the Holy Ghost. "Thou hast not lied unto men, but

unto God," says Peter, Acts v. Therefore the Holy Ghost is God. And they were both struck dead upon the spot for it. Great and innumerable sins against God in his law, as in Manasseh and others, have been forgiven; and many awful things done and spoken against the Son of man have been pardoned, as may be seen in Paul. But those that do despite to the Spirit of Grace; who willingly and wilfully counteract his operations and designs in the souls of God's people; and who see his power, and yet oppose, hate, and fight against it; and who ridicule and blaspheme both the author and his operations, never have been, nor ever will be, forgiven; for "the sin against the Holy Ghost shall not be be forgiven unto men," Matt. xii. 31. And can any man in his senses believe, or attempt to affirm, that the all-wise God, the Judge of all the earth, who is rich in mercy and abundant in goodness and in truth, would exclude men from all possibility of pardon, and doom them to eternal damnation, for

sinning against a name, an accident, or only a quality, attribute, perfection, or a power in God, which may be transiently put forth, and displayed as an operation on man? Surely sinning against God the Father himself, which is sinning against all the revealed perfections and attributes of his nature, must be a more heinous crime than sinning against a single quality in him. And yet all manner of sins and blasphemies committed against him in the law have been forgiven unto men (Matt. xii. 31); but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost never was, nor ever will be. And why this sin unto death should be emphatically called "the great transgression " I cannot conceive, if the Holy Ghost, against whom it is committed, be not the great and terrible God.

The dispensation of the gospel, in the administration of it, is peculiarly his hence it is called, "the ministration of the Spirit," that exceeds the former ministration in glory, 2 Cor. iii, 8. He is the operator and worker

of all good from God, through Christ, in men; and of all the glory and praise that redounds to God by men; and will be greatly concerned in the first resurrection, the resurrection of the just. "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God;" and the Spirit will attend it, and quicken them all, as it is written-" But, if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in you," Rom. viii. Î1.

I must beg my dear brother's pardon for the length of this epistle. My pen ran on; and, being deeply engaged in the subject, I had quite forgotten myself. Ponder these matters over attentively, and send me your thoughts upon the subject. I have written them as I see and believe them; and to see and believe, in my judgment, is to walk in the ways of God safely.

Ever yours,

W. HUNTINGTON.