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52. BUT why get an unfair victory for our argument by fighting
over these undignified questions, when it is within our power to prove
that the excellence of the glory is beyond dispute by adducing more
lofty considerations? If, indeed, we retreat what we have been
taught by Scripture, every one of the Pneumatomachi will peradventure
raise a loud and vehement outcry, stop their ears, pick up stones or
anything else that comes to hand for a weapon, and charge against us.
But our own security must not be regarded by us before the truth. We
have learnt from the Apostle, "the Lord direct your hearts into the
love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ" for our
tribulations. Who is the Lord that directs into the love of God and
into the patient waiting for Christ for tribulations? Let those men
answer us who are for making a slave of the Holy Spirit. For if the
argument had been about God the Father, it would certainly have
said, 'the Lord direct you into His own love,' or if about the
Son, it would have added 'into His own patience.' Let them then
seek what other Person there is who is worthy to be honoured with the
title of Lord. And parallel with this is that other passage, "and
the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another,
and toward all men, even as we do towards you; to the end He may
establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our
Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His
saints." Now what Lord does he entreat to stablish the hearts of the
faithful at Thessalonica, unblamable in holiness before God even our
Father, at the coming of our Lord? Let those answer who place the
Holy Ghost among the ministering spirits that are sent forth on
service. They cannot. Wherefore let them hear yet another testimony
which distinctly calls the Spirit Lord. "The Lord," it is said,
"is that Spirit;" and again "even as from the Lord the Spirit."
But to leave no ground for objection, I will quote the actual words
of the Apostle;--"For even unto this day remaineth the same veil
untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which yell is done
away in Christ. ... Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the
Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that
Spirit." Why does he speak thus? Because he who abides in the bare
sense of the letter, and in it busies himself with the observances of
the Law, has, as it were, got his own heart enveloped in the Jewish
acceptance of the letter, like a veil; and this be-falls him because
of his ignorance that the bodily observance of the Law is done away by
the presence of Christ, in that for the future the types are
transferred to the reality. Lamps are made needless by the advent of
the sun; and, on the appearance of the truth, the occupation of the
Law is gone, and prophecy is hushed into silence. He, on the
contrary, who has been empowered to look down into the depth of the
meaning of the Law, and, after passing through the obscurity of the
letter, as through a veil, to arrive within things unspeakable, is
like Moses taking off the veil when he spoke with God. He, too,
turns from the letter to the Spirit. So with the veil on the face of
Moses corresponds the obscurity of the teaching of the Law, and
spiritual contemplation with the turning to the Lord. He, then, who
in the reading of the Law takes away the letter and turns to the
Lord,--and the Lord is now called the Spirit,--becomes moreover
like Moses, who had his face glorified by the manifestation of God.
For just as objects which lie near brilliant colours are themselves
tinted by the brightness which is shed around, so is be who fixes his
gaze firmly on the Spirit by the Spirit's glory somehow transfigured
into greater splendour, having his heart lighted up, as it were, by
some light streaming from the truth of the Spirit. And, this is
"being changed from the glory of the Spirit "into" His own
"glory," not in niggard degree, nor dimly and indistinctly, but as
we might expect any one to be who is enlightened by the Spirit. Do
you not, O man, fear the Apostle when he says "Ye are the temple
of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you"? Could he ever
have! brooked to honour with the title of "temple" the quarters of a
slave? How can he who calls Scripture "God-inspired," because it
was written through the inspiration of the Spirit, use the language of
one who insults and belittles Him?
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