A DISCOURSE Concerning The OPERATIONS OF The HOLY SPIRIT TOGETHER WITH A Confutation of some part of Dr. OWEN'S Book Upon that Subject Imprimatur May 4th 1677. Guil. Jane R.P.D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã sacris domest LONDON Printed by J. C. for Hen. Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1678. THE PREFACE AMongst other things which are usually aimed at in a Preface one is to invite the Reader to the Book The Author of this Book does not think it worthy of every man's perusal into whose hands it may chance to come and therefore does not commend it to All. It was written principally for their sake who have been made to believe that the Ministers of the Church of England have departed from the Scriptures in their Doctrine concerning the Operations and Grace of the Holy Spirit which is one of those prejudices that have been instill'd into the dissenting party by their Leaders to confirm them in their Separation The Author thinks he has made it plain that they do not onely accuse us very wrongfully but that they themselves are guilty of that Crime which they lay to our charge And he hopes their Followers cannot think it an unreasonable request that they would impartially consider what is said on both sides and judge accordingly But if he should be mistaken in that he has this satisfaction however that he has done his Part by giving them a fair occasion so to do If some of them should be inclined by the weightiness of the subject to read the Discourse and yet be tempted on the other hand to throw it aside merely because it pretends to be a Confutation of some of Dr. Owen's Principles Dr. Owen himself will help to cure them of so unreasonable a prejudice For he has told you long since in a Book of his called The duty of Pastors and People distinguished that you are not to take any Doctrine of Religion on the credit of his Authority Alas says he you are in a miserable condition if you have all this while relied upon the Authority of men in Heavenly things He that builds his Faith upon Preachers though they preach nothing but truth and he pretend to believe it hath indeed no Faith at all but a wavering opinion built upon a rotten Foundation Now you know the Authority of the Doctor is no more than the Authority of a Man and therefore you have his own word for it that to build your Faith upon his Authority is to build it upon a rotten Foundation Whether you have so done all this while I cannot say but if you have he tells you that you are in a miserable condition And if you have not you will easily be perswaded to take this opportunity now offered to you of examining his Doctrine by the Word of God to which the Author does appeal as heartily as the Doctor himself can do I confess I am not altogether of his minde in the fore-mentioned passage for it seems to imply that all men are in a state of Damnation who rely upon the honesty and wisdom of their Spiritual Guides in matters of Faith But I doubt there are some persons incapable of inquiring much further and I hope some of these do so firmly believe the truth upon the testimony of God's Ministers as to live according to it which if they do God forbid that I should say they are in a damnable condition But you see in what strict terms the Doctor admonishes every one of you not to rely upon the Authority of men but to examine their Doctrines by the Word of God Possibly he means no more than that this is a duty to be discharged by all Christians according to the measure of those Means Abilities and Opportunities which God has been pleased to give them and this surely is a great truth But then I desire you to consider that every one of you are more concerned to look to it that you omit not this duty than many other Christians are and that for this reason because you have withdrawn your selves from the communion of the Lawful Guides of this Church to follow those that take upon them to lead you without any known Authority by which they do so For if you follow these your Leaders into errour it will be no excuse for you to say they led you into errour because you set them up to your selves against the will of your rightful Superiours both in Church and State Whereas if the Christians of our Communion should be led into some great mistake as I am perswaded they are not by relying upon the Authority and Wisdom of their Pastors though it would not totally excuse them yet it would be some mitigation of their fault that they were misled by those Guides and Ministers which God had set over them The Doctor himself tells you in that Book that the people are bound to hear those who possess the place of teaching in the Church And that if the Law accounts onely such Assemblies to be Conventicles where the Assemblers contemn and despise the service of God in publick he had not spoken one word in favour of them You do not wonder I suppose at these passages for you know this Book was written by him above thirty years since when he was a Presbyterian as he there solemnly declares himself to be and engaged by the Interest of his Party to contend for some Church-decency and Order as he there does after his manner Indeed since that time he turned Independant But however you have no reason to conclude from thence that he has changed his minde in that other point also of the peoples being bound to examine by the Word of God the Doctrines of those Teachers whom they are bound to hear or that he believes that all that is said in Conventicles or written by those Assemblers that despise the service of God in publick may be taken upon trust No though he has chang'd his party he may still be of this minde that unless Ministers as he tells you will answer for all those souls they shall mislead and excuse them before God at the day of Tryal they ought not to debar them from trying their Doctrine Now this they cannot do for if the blinde lead the blinde both shall fall into the pit of destruction Now unless he excepts himself from a possibility of misleading you thus far I would not desire a fairer Adversary and if you think he ought not to except himself I cannot wish more equal Judges than your selves Sure I am the Doctor must either explain himself further or he must not debar you from trying his Doctrine and enquiring whether he himself be not a blinde Guide whom you may follow into the Pit of destruction For what he saith in general may be applied to him in particular that if he should mislead you he cannot excuse you before God at the day of Tryal Now the truth is although he
does not say in plain terms that he is infallible yet in that Book which I have taken the pains to consider he lays claim as you will see to such an Illumination of minde by the Holy Spirit as differs very little from that kinde of Inspiration which the Apostles had But this will not hinder you from trying the Doctor 's Spirit and way of Teaching if you consider what he very well observed in the fore-mentioned Book viz. that the Bereans were highly extoll'd for searching whether the Doctrine concerning our Saviour preached by St. Paul were so or no For he must not desire to be believed more hastily than St. Paul did who we are sure spake by an infallible Spirit The more highly any man pretends to the divine Spirit the better Testimonies he had need to produce for the truth of his pretence No wise man will lightly take up that belief of another which if he once gives way to he must believe him in all things else The brighter those Illuminations are which any Teacher boasts of the less reason you have to take his bare word for it and if he be not willing that you should examine his Doctrines he gives you great cause of suspition that they will not abide the Tryal Besides the Doctor takes notice that what was praised in the Bereans is commended in the Scripture Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God because many false spirits are gone out into the world 1 Joh. 4.1 Prophets then as he goes on must be tried before they be trusted now the reason of this holds still there are many false Teachers abroad in the world wherefore try every one try his spirit his spiritual gift of Teaching and that by the Word of God I will onely adde that the reason holds more strongly now for if false Teachers pretended to an infallible Spirit even whilst the Apostles were alive to contradict them and discover them much more likely are they to do so now when they think they may do it more securely and therefore we had need to use the more diligence in trying those Teachers that pretend loftily by that Word of God which the Apostles have left us in their Writings Now if the Doctor would have you to shut your own Eyes and then trust to that New saving Light by which he pretends to explain Gospel-Truths this were enough to make you suspect that the Light that is in him is Darkness Or if he meant to except himself from being tried when he bad you try the Spirits for that reason he is least of all to be excepted I have obeyed the Apostles advice and tried him as you may see in the following Book which I was willing to make publick because those Reasons which satisfie me that he is very much out of the way in discoursing upon spiritual things after this manner may possibly seem as clear to you as they do to my self If there be any Sophistry in them or carnal Reasoning or perverting of Holy Writ 't is more than I know and I shall thank the Doctor for making the discovery which I think he is bound to do if he can not onely for your sake but for mine too For so far as I understand my self I am not less desirous to retract any errour of my own than I am to convince you of his And therefore if he be as willing as I am I shall in all probability hear further from him In the mean time I desire you to believe neither of us but to try us both If the Doctor 's friends should be troubled to find him charg'd with Nonsence in the following Book the Author has this to say for himself that he knew no other name so fit as Nonsence to call Nonsence by And he believes that he has not onely said but prov'd also that the Doctor is guilty of Nonsence where he has charged him with it He hopes also that they will not be offended with him for taking occasion sometimes to rebuke this man for those rude Words and unjust Reproaches which he has poured forth for whole Pages together upon his Adversaries of the Church of England For if it be possible he should be taught at last to manage controversies in Religion in a more Christian manner than he has done hitherto And now the Author will onely say in behalf of himself that his designe in this Book was to clear the Truth of that Question which he has undertaken to every ordinary understanding and thereby to promote the power of Godliness And the best thing he can say of the Book it self is that it hath been thought by men of far better judgement than he can pretend to not to be altogether improper for that end And if they are not mistaken may the All-wise and good God prosper the designe of it with his Blessing The CONTENTS Of the Introduction SECT I. THat the promise of the Holy Spirit is according to the Scriptures a great motive to diligence in Religion Page 1. That according to Dr. Owen's principles it seems to be none at all p. 3. The Author's designe p. 4. SECT II. The advantage which the Doctor makes by pretending that onely the Regenerate understand spiritual things spiritually p. 5. while he proves himself to be regenerate by his spiritual understanding of spiritual things p. 6. This Artifice of his discovered in some instances p. 7. That he allows onely himself and his party to be competent Judges of his Doctrine concerning the Operations of the Holy Spirit p. 11. SECT III. His interpretation of 1 Cor. 2.14 explained p. 15. SECT IV. That his meaning of the natural man is groundless p. 20. Of his not receiving the things of the Spirit absurd p. 21. And of their being foolishness to him blasphemous p. 25. The odde account he gives of the reasonableness of the Gospel in his Preface p. 27. Other reflections upon his sence of the fore-mentioned Text p. 30. That the Doctor 's pretended Gospel-mysteries need his interpretation of that Text but the real mysteries of the Gospel need it not p. 31. The pernicious consequence of his interpretation p. 32. SECT V. Another sence of the Text offered according to St. Chrysostome whose Authority the Doctor pretends in favour of his own p. 33. The scope of the Apostle in that and the former Chapter largely shewn p. 34. From whence it plainly appears what he meant by the natural man p. 40. The Scriptural notion of the state of nature p. 42. What is meant by the things of the Spirit of God and their being spiritually discerned p. 43. and by the spiritual man p. 45. The incoherence of the Doctor 's sence with the Context p. 46. Dr. Hammond's Paraphrase upon the Text vindicated from the exceptions of Dr. Owen p. 47. And shewn to agree with those passages of St. Chrysostome which Dr. Owen himself produceth p. 51. That the following Book is not to be
illuminated by an almighty work of the Spirit so that none but the Doctor and his enlightned ones can possibly either give or receive a rational account of the workings of the Spirit and then if we reject his talk 't is because we want that spiritual Power without which the minde cannot receive it If you ask yet further what this spiritual Power is he gives you an admirable description of it The spiritual power of the Minde consists in a spiritual light and ability to discern spiritual things in a spiritual manner So that spiritual Light is spiritual Power and spiritual Power is spiritual Light This men in the state of Nature are utterly void of but any one that is truely sanctified hath light enough to understand the spiritual things of the Gospel in a spiritual manner for we have received the Spirit of God that we may know the things that are freely given us of God What others may think of this I know not but methinks it would grieve any Christian heart to observe the Gospel of our Saviour that Divine means of making men truely wise and good thus debased and dishonoured by such a senseless use of Scripture-phrases as this man makes of them who writes himself D. D. For that which sets off all this wilde and confused talk of his which is enough to puzzle any man at the first blush is his perverting the true use of these Phrases viz. the Natural man and the state of Grace spiritual things and discerning them spiritually with which he rings the changes so often in his Book leaving a noise of the words in the fancies of his Readers instead of the true i. e. the Scriptural notion belonging to them imprinted on their Mindes That I may therefore reconcile the Reader to an opinion that I may possibly write of the operation of the Holy Spirit with more truth than this man hath done I shall prepare my way by enquiring into the sense of this Text of St. Paul The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned For it is chiefly upon this place as far as I can understand that the Doctor builds his confidence that we cannot spiritually discern Spiritual things and as by expounding thereof the use of those Phrases and such as are equivalent to them will be understood so the understanding of them will be conducible also to the main designe of this Book I shall first examine the Doctor 's interpretation of this place of Scripture and then offer that sense of it which I take to be truer than his Before I attempt either of which things I must beg his pardon if I do not think it fit to follow him as oft as he is pleased to leave the Argument and fall a railing against those that have other thoughts of the Text than he has especially where he spends almost two whole Pages upon nothing else charging his Adversaries with the want of those Vertues particularly enumerated by him which they greatly praise and extol and accusing them of Pride Ambition Covetousness Vanity and Profaneness and I know not how many Vices more Now what is all this and a great deal more of the like stuff which he hath swelled his Discourse withal to the explanation of St. Paul's Text which he was endeavouring Suppose I had a minde to retaliate having so large a Subject as Dr. Owen's Pranks from the year 1648 to this present time to expatiate upon what goodly work were here for the Reader Therefore all I shall say to this matter is that whereas his lewd and notorious practices against the Church and State have been exposed in Print and these charged upon him not from Tales pickt up in the Streets and at Gossiping-meetings but from his own publick Actions and Writings He hath no way to be revenged upon the Gentleman that hath done him this kindeness but by letting fly upon his whole Order with all sorts of Calumnies and Reproaches though 't is very likely he is not able to fasten his Accusations upon any one of those whom he thus bespatters since his plentiful Rage against them might satisfie any man that his Will was not wanting Wherefore it being to as little purpose to attempt the confutation of such loose and general Calumnies as it had been to have answered the Doctor if he could have satisfied his implacable malice with being at a word and calling us once for all Rogues and Villains I shall leave him in the quiet possession of his Talent at Lying and Defamation and shall now onely try whether his Reasonings be as unanswerable as his Railings SECT III. I Often finde it very difficult to fasten any meaning upon so slippery a Writer as this but to my best understanding he thus explains the phrases of the Text. 1. By the Natural man he means one that hath the use of all his rational faculties or every one that is so and that is no more than so that is every one who is not a spiritual man is not one who hath received the spirit of Christ one that hath the spirit of a man enabling him to know things Natural Civil or Political but not the Spirit of Christ to know things Spiritual So that the Natural man is one who is not a Spiritual man but a Natural man onely as the Spiritual man is one who is not onely a Natural man or thus the Natural man concerning whom the Apostle saith that he cannot know the things of the Spirit of God is one who hath not the Spirit and cannot know the things of the Spirit of God And if the Doctor had rested in this Explication I think he had been safe enough for ever being confuted But he hath a further meaning which discovers not it self till we come towards the end of his Comment For he tells us the reason why the Natural man hath no ability to discern spiritual things is because the Light it self whereby alone spiritual things can be spiritually discerned is created in us by an Almighty Act of the Power of God so that at last this is his notion of a Natural man which agrees with the rest of his Book that he is one in whose minde spiritual Light is not created by the Almighty Power of God 2. By the things of the Spirit of God he understands the mysteries of the Gospel which depend wholly on supernatural Revelation and I think this is the onely Phrase he understands right If he means honestly by supernatural Revelation viz. that Revelation which was communicated to the World by Christ and his Apostles and not any particular Revelation made to himself and his Party by an irresistible work of the Spirit upon their mindes But such a custom he has gotten to confound every thing that within two Pages he understands by it all the Commands of God whatsoever for through
that they might be Witnesses c. and the promise of the Holy Ghost which Christ received from the Father Acts 2.23 peculiarly concerned the miraculous Gifts which were bestowed after Christs Ascension and this as I conceive the Doctor acknowledgeth by saying that Christ shed forth what they saw and heard in the miraculous operations and effects of it Now saith he In this promise viz. Acts 1. vers 4 8. the Lord Christ founded the Church it self and by it he builded it up And this is the Hinge whereon the whole weight of it doth turn and depend unto this day It is indeed certain that the faith of the Church is at this day founded upon the extraordinary testimonies that were given to the Gospel by the Spirit in the first ages of the Church But that which follows is absolutely false Take away this promise suppose it to cease as unto a continual Accomplishment and there will be an absolute end of the Church of Christ in this world For as he elsewhere confesses himself Miracles are ceased and yet there is a Church He proceeds thus No Dispensation of the Spirit no Church he that would utterly separate the Spirit from the Word had as good burn his Bible Be not so hasty for although this happens to be a truth yet 't is more than you have proved The Operations of the Spirit may now be utterly separated from the Word for all Acts 1.4 And although you very truely tell us that the bare Letter of the New Testament cannot ingenerate Faith and Obedience in the hearts of men yet for any thing you have here said it may For those Texts upon which you ground your confidence speak onely of the miraculous Gifts whereby the Gospel was confirmed Now these being recorded in the New Testament together with that Doctrine which was proved by them may be as able to assure men of the truth of the Gospel and make them obedient to the Law of Christ as they were when they were seen and heard and that of themselves too for any thing you have shewn to the contrary from Acts 1. though the contrary may well be shewn from other Scriptures Now I cannot see to what end these men when they are speaking of the Promise of the Spirit which will in all ages be accomplished should fly so often as they do to those Texts which mention those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit that were bestowed in the first unless it be to make their followers believe that the true Ministers of the Gospel are inspired as the Apostles were and that they preach in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power as the Apostles did Which because we do not pretend to it is left to them who do so to be sole owners of the Priviledge Just as the Papists support their pretence to Miracles and Infallibility by drawing the promises peculiarly made to the Apostles and first Believers into consequence for the Church of Rome in every age And I fear by the like device our Author hath laid his Plot to unchurch us quite and clean who conform to the Laws For saith he Let men cast themselves into what order they please institute what forms of Government and religious Worship they please let them do it by an attendance according to the best of their Vnderstandings unto the Letter of the Scripture i. e. let their Government and Worship be as neer the rule of the Scripture as they can possibly frame it yet if the work of the Spirit of God be disowned or disclaimed by them if they disown those extravagant pretences to the Spirit which you set up to magnifie your selves withal If there be not in them and upon them such a work of his as is promised by our Lord Jesus Christ there is no Church-state amongst them nor as such is it to be owned and esteemed And is this that you have been driving at all this while you have now found out a new colour for your Schism and it seems the separation from the Church of England must go forward upon this pretence that the work of the Spirit promised by our Lord Jesus Christ is not in us and upon us which in many places of your Book also you spare not to say we reproach and disavow But I beseech you dare you say that you have that work of the Spirit in you and upon you which is signified by the fore-mentioned Texts If you say so we shall presently desire you to convince us of it by Miracles and such signes as the Apostles did If you dare not say it then it seems that work of the Spirit is no more in you and upon you than 't is in us and then I hope we are not unchurched for not pretending to it nor fit to be accounted Reprobates because we are not Liars I acknowledge that promise of our Saviour mentioned by you in your next Section Matth. 28.20 I am with you always even unto the end of the world proves the constant presence of Christ in his Church by his Spirit but then Sir it doth not prove nor I think are you able to prove that the fore-mentioned promise made to the Apostles is the same promise with that which is here made Now as to that work of the Spirit which will indeed continue through all ages of the Church God forbid that we should disown and disclaim it But we disown the proving it from such places of Scripture as you lay the great stress of your proof upon lest we should seem to pretend to those influences of the Holy Spirit which were poured forth upon the Church at her first appearance in the world to confirm the Christian Faith by signes and wonders and not being able to make good our pretence be laughed at for our pains It would not avail us to say that we pretend not to those measures of the Spirit those extraordinary Gifts which the Apostles and first Believers had for it would be unanswerably returned upon us that these Texts cannot be proved to speak of any but these and thus we should disparage a good cause by arguing no better for it Therefore Doctor if the whole work of the Spirit in and towards the Church it self be openly derided as you complain you may I doubt in great part thank your self and such as you who by imprudent Discourses upon this subject have given profane persons occasion to make a question whether now-a-days there be any work at all of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of men I shall now endeavour to shew that there is and that by laying together what the Holy Scriptures say concerning it All which I suppose may be reduced to these three heads 1. What those effects are for the producing of which in the mindes of men God will give the Holy Spirit in all ages of the Church 2. To whom this promise of the Holy Spirit is made 3. What is the manner and measure of his Operations By
are to ask of God to give us the Holy Spirit which is done both when we use the formal Petition and when we pray for any Divine Grace or Christian Virtue And when our Souls breath after true Goodness when they hunger and thirst after Righteousness when they zealously strive against every evil desire and every evil work that we may perfect Holiness in the fear of God then do we importunately ask the Holy Spirit we do effectually invoke him and attract those Divine Aids to our selves which will make us what we desire to be the true followers of Christ and holy as he was holy in all manner of Conversation 3. And by consequence the Operations of the Holy Spirit are supposed in those places of Scripture where God is said to give or work any Grace or good Disposition in our mindes for if it be the same thing to ask any such Grace and to ask the Holy Spirit then the same thing is meant by Gods giving the one and his giving the other i. e. as Dr. Owen very often and very truely notes when God bestoweth any Blessing of this nature he doth it by his Spirit So that all those Texts which ascribe Christian Vertues to a Divine Operation and consequently those Prayers of St. Paul in behalf of the Christians that God would make them eminent in all kindes of Goodness are places pertinent to this subject and proper to inform us what we are to believe concerning those Operations of the Holy Spirit which I am now discoursing of But that which is most necessary of all to observe is this 4. That this promise of our Saviour concerning the Holy Spirit does equally regard the Church in all ages to the end of the world For those Effects which his Operations are here promised to produce are needful for all Christians and not onely for those to whom Christ spake in person Now the reason why God would give his Holy Spirit to them being this that they needed those things which he had taught them to pray for and because God was their Father it follows that upon the performance of the same condition we shall obtain the Holy Spirit for God is our Father too and those things we ask in the Lords Prayer are as needful for us and for all Believers as they could be for them to whom the Promise was made at first Therefore the gift of the Holy Ghost here promised did not determine with the age of Miracles Lastly it is not improbable that as by the latter Similitude where it is observed that Children obtain of their Parents things needful for themselves our Saviour doth encourage every one of his Disciples to ask the Holy Spirit in his own behalf So by the former Similitude where the man is said to prevail who requested of his Neighbour what was needful for his Friend we are encouraged to pray for one another that God would give us his Holy Spirit to convert us from all our sins and to encrease his Graces in us This I conceive may be one intention of our Saviour in that Similitude viz. to excite us to this â—…nd of Charity by letting us know that we fare the better for the earnest Prayers we make in each others behalf and it is the more probable because he used that Similitude immediately after he had taught his Disciples to pray for one another by prescribing to them a Form of Prayer in the use of which they could not do otherwise These things seem to be clearly implied in that place of St. Luke which we have been considering and not improper to be observed And now I should forthwith proceed to those places of Scripture which expresly mention the several Graces of the Holy Spirit and shew that those needful effects for the producing of which the Holy Spirit is here in general promised to Believers are in several of them particularly ascribed to his Operations But I am sensible that I should then leave behinde me a great Objection against what I have already said viz. that I have given a very lame account of those Qualifications which are needful to Salvation For Dr. Owen comes and tells us that there is a Qualification of quite another kinde than any I have named absolutely necessary to Salvation and that you must know is Regeneration Now indeed our Saviour saith Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3.3 And this Regeneration our Saviour likewise ascribeth to the Operation of the Holy Spirit Except a man be born of the Spirit he cannot c. vers 5. Wherefore God forbid that any Christian should deny Regeneration to be needful even in the degree of necessity to qualifie us for eternal Life or to be an effect of the Holy Spirit wherever it is But I cannot think it to be so unintelligible a thing as our Author represents it who makes it to be somewhat distinct from believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ. Wherefore I shall in the next place particularly enquire into the true notion of Regeneration and because this is not onely a matter of great Consequence but the great Out-cry which has been long raised by the Doctor and his Brethren of the Separation against the present Ministers of the Church of England is this that we are not Orthodox in the point of Regeneration I shall throughly consider what the Doctor hath written Pro and Con in this Book of his concerning it CHAP. III. Of the state of Regeneration SECT I. THat we are Regenerated by the Operations of the Holy Spirit and thereby qualified for eternal Life is agreed between us but I can by no means grant our Authors notion of Regeneration to be true and I think his mistake in that may have led him into divers others To proceed therefore with the more clearness I come to shew what it is to be Regenerate or born again And here I shall be forced to consider the Doctors notion of Regeneration as far as I can understand it because if the principle upon which he goes in stating his notion be true it fundamentally overthrows that which I take to be the true Scriptural notion thereof For he contends that these Expressions to be born again to be a new creature and to have a new heart and the like do properly and literally signifie that which is intended by them I say they signifie it figuratively It must therefore be debated in the first place whether they be proper or Metaphorical expressions before we can settle the true notion of the words This must be done by inquiring whether to be born again to have a new heart and to be created anew can properly be affirmed of those that are qualified to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven If not we are next to consider what figurative sence it is in which these expressions are to be understood By determining which according to the Scriptures we shall come to the right notion of Regeneration
be whether there be not more Metaphors than he allows not as he pretends here whether there be any Metaphors at all But since he will have it so he must not say hereafter that he intended only to prove all the expressions of the Gospel were not Metaphorical since his Argument concludes that they are all proper if it concludes any thing That most of them are proper we grant and 't is well that it stands not in need of being proved by him for his untoward way of proving would tempt a man to suspect the plainest truth he meddles withal if he had not better reasons of his own For Secondly What consequence is there in this Arguing If there be a secret mysterious work of the Spirit upon the Souls of men intended in the Scriptures then are all the expressions of the Gospel concerning it plain and proper otherwise the Scripture is obscure For 1. None of the expressions of it might have been proper and yet some of them plain and then the Scripture would not have been obscure in that thing for a Figurative expression may be plain enough to be understood by a man of common sense Sure our Author will grant that saying of our Saviour This is my body to be figurative and I hope he will not deny it to be plain because it is figurative So that his Argument by which he concludes all the expressions of the Scripture concerning this mysterious work to be proper doth not prove that any one is so 2. If some of the expressions be both plain and proper and others figurative some whereof are more and some less plain as the truth is and if those which are not so plain may be understood by the help of plainer then may this secret mysterious work be sufficiently understood by the expressions of it in the Scripture and consequently the Scripture far from being the obscurest Book in the world because all the expressions of it are not to be taken properly and literally But it seems our Author hath an opinion by himself that no Writer in the world ever used the liberty of Metaphorical expressions Thirdly his way of proving that there is such a mysterious work is a mere begging of the Question This we shall see by considering what he must mean by a secret mysterious work viz. such a work of the Spirit as is properly exprest by Regenerating Creating Quickning and Drawing the Soul of a man and this I grant to be a very mysterious work if these be all proper expressions of it Now he proves there is such a work by this Argument That otherwise the Scriptures are obscure Why so Because they are obscure if these be not proper expressions of the work of the Spirit so that he proves there is a mysterious work i. e. a work properly expressed by Regeneration Creation c. by this Argument that these are proper expressions of such a work which is to prove a thing by it self And he proves also that these are proper expressions because there is such a mysterious work that is a work properly expressed by them which is to beg the Question So that if you will grant the Doctor that they are proper expressions he can then prove there is a a work properly expressed by them or if you will grant there is such a work he can prove those to be proper expressions And now I understand the Doctor when he saies The Difficulties which seem to be in these things arise from their mysterious Nature and not from any obscurity in the Declaration of them and I am fully of his minde for if any one tells me that a Body may be greater than it self and lesser than it self and that Transubstantiation may be true Doctrine or that a man may be properly Regenerated Created Quickned Drawn and Awakened all at once I grant he does not obscurely declare his minde to me and that I finde no difficulty to understand the meaning of his words But the onely difficulty which seems to be in these things ariseth from the mysterious nature or rather the nonsence of the things themselves contained under these plain expressions for the more plain any nonsence is the more easily it is understood to be so This I think is a sufficient answer to that slender proof which the Doctor brings for the judgement of his party concerning the propriety of these Scripture-expressions but it will not be amiss to consider how he represents the judgement of those others whom he speaks of For he saith SECT 4. Others think the words and expressions of it to be mystical and figurative but the things intended to be ordinary and obvious to the natural Reason of every man So that if the Doctor may be believed there are some who think the effects of the Holy Spirit upon our Hearts are not expressed by any proper words at all in the Scriptures but as he saith they turn all Scripture-expressions of spiritual things into Metaphors If any such senceless people there be they are I should think most likely to be found among those that separate from the Church of England for many of their Preachers if we may judge of their Sermons by their Books do so train them up to Metaphorical talking that some of them may possibly believe the Scripture affords little or nothing else But as for those who think the things intended by these expressions suppose the assistances of the Divine Spirit are ordinary and obvious to the natural Reason of every man I never heard there were any such before if by obvious the Doctor means discoverable by mere natural Reason for the knowledge of these things is by all granted to depend on divine Revelation But being revealed I would fain know what reason we are to understand them withal besides our natural Reason But if by ordinary and obvious he means plain and intelligible by an ordinary capacity I am one of those who think the things of the Gospel whereof we are speaking to be ordinary and obvious and that they are not the less but the more excellent for being so our Author must grant unless he will revoke his Argument that the expressions of these things are not Metaphorical taken from hence that otherwise the Gospel is dark and unintelligible So that we are both agreed in words at least that Perspicuity and Intelligibleness is an excellent thing But the truth is he and his Party have a notion of Intelligibleness and Perspicuity by themselves as any one would guess by their Writings For Example the Doctor here tells us that if the Gospel intends nothing but moral Duties and their observance in its Doctrine of Regeneration then it is dark and unintelligible Now this is very strange for â—f as it is confessed on all hands moral Duties are easily intelligible and if the Scripture intends 〈◊〉 more by the Doctrine of Regeneration than the performance of moral Duties then is the Scripture very intelligible in the point of