The office of the Holy Ghost is to produce sanctification in the people of God. This he performs immediately from the Father and the Son. It is for this reason that he is called the Spirit of holiness. The office of the Holy Ghost may be said to embrace the following things: to instruct, to regenerate, to unite to Christ and God, to rule, to comfort and strengthen.
1. The Holy Ghost enlightens and teaches us that we may know those things which we ought, and correctly understand them according to the promise of Christ . . . .
2. The Holy Spirit regenerates us, when he creates in our hearts new feelings, desires and inclinations, or effects in us faith and repentance. . . .
3. He unites us to Christ, that we may be his members and be quickened by him, and so be made partakers of all his benefits. . . .
4. He rules us. To be ruled by the Holy Spirit is to be guided and directed by him in all our actions, to be inclined to follow that which is right and good, and to do those things which love to God and our neighbor require, which comprehends all the christian virtues of the first and second table. . . .
5. The Holy Ghost comforts us in our dangers and afflictions. . . .
6. The Holy Ghost strengthens and establishes us when weak and wavering in our faith, and assures us of our salvation, or what is the same thing, he continues and preserves in us the benefits of Christ even unto the end. . . . (Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, “Lord’s Day Twenty, Of God, the Holy Ghost,†pp. 277-78)
Old Life 