Exod. 31:3–6; and 35:31. And Isaiah 11:2–3, where the prophet, speaking of the Messiah, saith, “The Spirit of the Lord shall abide upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord.” Where manifestly is meant, not so many ghosts, but so many eminent graces that God would give him.
In the book of Judges, an extraordinary zeal and courage in the defence of God’s people, is called the “Spirit” of God; as when it excited Othniel, Gideon, Jephtha, and Samson to deliver them from servitude: Judges 3:10; 6:24; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19. And of Saul, upon the news of the insolence of the Ammonites towards the men of Jabesh Gilead, it is said (1 Sam. 11:6) that “the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and his anger,” (or as it is in the Latin, “his fury”) “was kindled greatly.” Where it is not probable was meant a ghost, but an extraordinary “zeal” to punish the cruelty of the Ammonites. In like manner by the “Spirit” of God, that came upon Saul, when he was amongst the prophets that praised God in songs and music (1 Sam. 19:23), is to be understood, not a ghost, but an unexpected and sudden “zeal” to join with them in their devotion.
The false prophet Zedekiah saith to Micaiah (1 Kings 22:24), “which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak to thee?” Which cannot be understood of a ghost; for Micaiah declared before the kings of Israel and Judah the event of the battle, as from a “vision,” and not as from a “spirit” speaking in him.
In the same manner it appeareth in the books of the Prophets, that though they spake by the “spirit” of God, that is to say, by a special grace of prediction; yet their knowledge of the future was not by a ghost within them, but by some supernatural “dream” or “vision.”
Gen. 2:7, it is said, “God made man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils ( spiraculum vitae ) the breath of life, and man