Note 530 — LECTURE IX. THE COMFORTER, EVEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, WHO DWELLETH IN US, AND TEACHETH ALL THINGS. By REV. JOHN HAMILTON THOM.

“It is said that God has promised his Spirit to those who ask for it. But the gift of the SPIRIT, that unction of which St. John speaks (probably in allusion to the anointment of the Hebrew priests, the interpreters of the Old Law), was not intended as a check but as a GUIDE to the rational mind of man. ‘He will guide you into all the truth,’ namely of the simple Gospel. The Divine Spirit of TRUTH has been promised to sincere Christians, to guide them into all that concerns their moral safety. The two SPIRITS—the Spirit (i. e. the mind, so we may call it without irreverence) of God, and the spirit of man, though infinitely apart from each other in their nature, are clearly represented by St. Paul as analogous (I might say akin) to each other. Nor could it be otherwise, since the one is the fountain-head of reason, the other a derived stream. ‘Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us (with sighs not expressed in words);’ i. e. the divine impulse after holiness which is in us, makes us sigh for what we cannot express: but God, who gives us that Spirit, knows what it is we wish for.”—Observations on Heresy and Orthodoxy, by the Rev. J. B. White.