'Sealed by the miraculous power of the Holy Ghost': a Tillotson sermon for Whitsuntide
The necessity of Christ's leaving the world, in order to the coming of the Holy Ghost: "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." That it is the Holy Ghost which is here spoken of, and that as a person, and not as a quality, or power, or virtue, is plain from our Saviour's discourse all along this sermon, in which he is spoken of under the notion of a person, and that in as plain and express terms as Christ himself is, As the Father sent Christ, so is he said to send the Holy Ghost; as Christ is said to depart, so the Holy Ghost is said to come; as Christ is called an advocate, so the Holy Ghost is said to be another advocate; Christ our advocate to plead our cause with God, he Christ's advocate to plead his cause with the world ... And as Christ is our advocate with the Father in heaven; so the Spirit is Christ's advocate here on earth, and pleads his cause with the world.
'In as plain and express terms as Christ himself': it is a significant statement by Tillotson of Trinitarian faith being 'according to the Scriptures', not, as contemporary anti-Trinitarian theologies claimed, a later philosophical development alien to the Scriptures.
Tillotson makes the point that 'advocate' is a better translation of 'paraclete' - "the proper notion of the word" - than the AV's 'Comforter'. "Having thus fixed the notion of the word", he set forth the place of the coming of the Advocate in the plan of redemption:
this dispensation is very congruous and suitable to the Divine wisdom. For as it was convenient, that the Son of God should assume our nature, and come into the world, and dwell among us, that he might reform mankind, by the purity of his doctrine, and the pattern of his holy life; and likewise that he should suffer death, for the expiation of sin: in such a manner as mightnot only advance the mercy, but assert and vindicate the holiness of God, and testify his great hatred and displeasure against sin: so likewise, after he had thus abased himself to the lowest degree of meanness and suffering, it was very suitable to the Divine goodness, to reward such great sufferings with great glory, by raising him from the dead, and taking him up into heaven; but it was not fit, when he had left the world, that the great work for which he came into it should be given over, and come to nothing, for want of effectual prosecution, without any fruit and effect of so much sweat and blood ... So that, as it was expedient, that he should die and depart this life; so it was also requisite afterwards, that he who had begun this great and good work of the redemption and salvation of man, should take care to have it still prosecuted and carried on: and accordingly, when he was ascended into heaven, he still promotes the same design, per vicariam vim spiritus sancti, as Tertullian calls it, by sending the Holy Ghost, as his deputy, for the managing of this work, and the propagating and establishing of that religion which he had planted in the world.
The reference to Tertullian, by the way, is an example of the place of patristic references in Anglican preaching during the 'long 18th century'. I have recently suggested, in a post on the preaching of George Bull, that this was a consistent feature of published Anglican sermons during this period, reflecting a confident engagement by Church of England divines with patristic sources. There is, however, another likely significance to Tillotson's invocation of Tertullian. This Latin father had, of course, a defining place in the development of Trinitarian doctrine. Of all the patristic sources Tillotson could have quoted, his turn to Tertullian underlines the Trinitarian grounding of this sermon, already made explicit in the initial extract above.
As the sermon continues, Tillotson emphasises the centrality of the supernatural quality of the apostolic proclamation, flowing from Pentecost and "sealed by the miraculous power of the Holy Ghost":
We have great reason to adore the wisdom and goodness of God, in the dispensation of the gospel; that, by the sending down of his Holy Spirit, to endow the first publishers of his heavenly doctrine, with such miraculous powers and gifts, he hath given such abundant testimony to the truth of our religion, and such firm grounds for our faith to rely upon. Had God left the Christian religion to have been propagated only by its own rational force upon the minds of men, what a slow progress would it in all probability have made? How little belief would the apostles' naked testimony of our Lord's resurrection from the dead, without any other demonstration or proof, have gained while they were alive, much less after their death? how unable would their doctrine, destitute of Divine testimony, as well as of all human advantages, have been to have contested with the lusts and interests of men, the wit of the philosophers, and the powers of the princes of this world, which all set themselves against it? How could it, with any hope of success, have encountered the malice of men and devils, which was so active and busy, by all possible violence and by all imaginable arts, to root it out of the world? Had the apostles of our Lord only gone forth, in the strength of their own interest and eloquence (which in poor and unlearned men must needs be very small), how little could they have contributed to the carrying on so great and difficult a work? Nay, had they not been supported, and borne up in their spirits by a mighty strength above their own, had not their commission been sealed by the miraculous power of the Holy Ghost, which upon all occasions shewed forth itself in them, to the wonder and astonishment of men, and was a testimony from heaven to them, that they were the ambassadors of God to men ... So St. Paul intimates, that had not the mighty power of God accompanied their preaching, and made it effectual to the conversion and salvation of men, they would have been tempted to have been ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
Yet again, we are left wondering why 18th century Anglican preaching in general, and preaching by Latitudinarians in particular, is routinely characterised as moralistic and rationalistic. Tillotson unapologetically, and without any equivocation or embarrassment, declares the supernatural quality of the apostolic proclamation. It is this supernatural quality, "by the sending down of his Holy Spirit", which made the teaching of the apostles "effectual to the conversion and salvation of men". In this Whitsuntide, it is powerful reminder that - in the words of the proper preface for these days - "we have been brought out of darkness and error into the clear light and true knowledge of thee, and of thy Son Jesus Christ" by the Person, work, gifts, and presence of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.
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Tillotson's Sermon CXCVII, 'Of the Coming of the Holy Ghost, as an Advocate for Christ', is found in The Works of Tillotson, Volume VIII.
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