latter words and with Fire are added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the expression is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Holy Ghost who is a Spiritual Divine Eternal Fire So God absolutely is said to be a consuming Fire Heb. 12. 29. Deut. 4. 24. And as in these words He shall Baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire there is a Prospect unto what came to pass afterwards when the Apostles received the Holy Ghost with a visible Pledg of fiery Tongues So there seems to be a Retrospect by way of Allusion unto what is recorded Isa. 6. 6 7. For a living or fiery Coal from the Altar where the Fire represented the Holy Ghost or his Work and Grace having touched the Lips of his Prophet his sin was taken away both as to the guilt and filth of it And this is the Work of the Holy Ghost who not onely sanctifieth us but by ingenerating Faith in us and the application of the Promise unto us is the Cause and Means of our Justification also 1 Cor. 6. 11. Tit. 3. 4 5 6 7. whereby our sins on both accounts are taken away So also his Efficacy in other places is compared unto Fire and Burning Isa. 4. 4 5. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the Daughters of Sion and shall have purged the Blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of Judgment and the Spirit of Burning He is compared both to Fire and Water with respect unto the same cleansing vertue in both So also Mal. 3. 2. Hence as this is expressed by the Holy Ghost and Fire in two Evangelists Matth. 3. 11. Luke 3. 16. So in the other two there is mention onely of the Holy Ghost Mark 8. John 1. 33. the same thing being intended I have added these things a little to clear the manner of this Divine Appearance which also belongs unto the Oeconomy of the Spirit Sect. 18 Now I say that this Appearance of the Holy Ghost in a bodily shape wherein he was represented by that which is a Substance and hath a Subsistence of his own doth manifest that he himself is a Substance and hath a Subsistence of his own For if he be no such thing but a meer influential Effect of the Power of God we are not taught right Apprehensions of him but mere mistakes by this Appearance For of such an accident there can be no substantial Figure or Resemblance made but what is monstrous It is excepted by our Adversaries Crell de Natur. Spirit Sanct. that a Dove is no Person because not endued with an Understanding which is essentially required unto the constitution of a Person And therefore they say no Argument can thence be taken for the Personality of the Holy Ghost But it is enough that he was represented by a subsisting Substance which if they will grant him to be we shall quickly evince that he is endued with a Divine Understanding and so is compleatly a Person And whereas they farther Object That if the Holy Ghost in the Appearance intended to manifest himself to be a Divine Person he would have appeared as a Man who is a Person for so God or an Angel in his Name appeared under the Old Testament it is of no more importance than the preceeding Exception The Holy Ghost did manifest himself as it seemed good unto him and some Reasons for the instructive Use of the shape of a fiery Dove we have before declared Neither did God of old appear only in an humane shape He did so sometimes in a burning fiery Bush Exod. 3. 2 4. Sometimes in a Pillâ—r of Fire or a Cloud Exod. 14. 24. Moreover the Appearances of God as I have elsewhere demonstrated under the Old Testament were all of them of the second Person and he assumed an Humane Shape as a preludium unto and a signification of his future personal Assumption of our Nature No such thing being intended by the Holy Ghost he might represent himself under what shape he pleased Yea the Representation of himself under an humane shape had been dangerous and unsafe for us For it would have taken off the Use of those instructive Appearances under the Old Testament teaching the Incarnation of the Son of God and also that sole Reason of such Appearances being removed namely that they had all respect unto the Incarnation of the Second Person as they would have been by the like appearance of the Third there would have been danger of giving a false Idea of the Deity unto the Minds of Men. For some might from thence have conceived that God had a bodily shape like unto us when none could ever be so fond as to imagine him to be like a Dove And these with the like Testimonies in general are given unto the Divine Personality of the Holy Spirit I shall next consider those Personal Properties which are particularly and distinctly ascribed unto him Sect. 19 First Understanding or Wisdom which is the first inseparable Property of an Intelligent Subsistence is so ascribed unto him in the Acts and Effects of it 1 Cor. 2. 10. The Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God What Spirit it is that is intended is declared expresly v. 12. For we have not received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of the World are not acted by the Evil Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that Spirit which is of God a signal Description of the Holy Ghost So he is called his Spirit vers 10. God hath revealed these things unto us by his Spirit Now to search is an Act of Understanding And the Spirit is said to search because he knoweth v. 11. No man knoweth the things of a Man save the Spirit of a Man which is intimate unto all its own Thoughts and Counsels So the Things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God and by him are they revealed unto us for by him we know the things that are freely given us of God v. 12. These things cannot be spoken of any but a Person endued with Understanding And he thus searcheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deep things of God that is the Mysteries of his Will Counsel and Grace and is therefore a Divine Person that hath an Infinite Understanding As it is said of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa. 40. 28. There is no End Measure or Investigation of his Understanding Psal. 147. 5. There is no number of his Understanding it is endless boundless infinite It is excepted Schilicting de Trinitat p. 605. that the Spirit is not here taken for the Spirit himself nor doth the Apostle express what the Spirit himself doth but what by the Assistance of the Holy Ghost men are enabled to do By that Believers are helped to search into the deep Counsels of God But as this Exception is directly against the words of the Text so the context will by no means admit of it For the Apostle giveth an account how the Wisdom Counsels and
the sole Cause and Author of all the Good that in this World we are or can be made Partakers of For 1. there is no good communicated unto us from God but it is bestowed on us or wrought in us by the Holy Ghost No Gift no Grace no Mercy no Priviledg no Consolation do we receive possess or use but it is wrought in us collated on us or manifested unto us by him alone Nor 2. is there any good in us towards God any Faith Love Duty Obedience but what is effectually wrought in us by Him by him alone For in us that is in our flesh and by Nature we are but flesh there dwelleth no good thing All these things are from him and by him as shall God assisting be made to appear by Instances of all sorts in our ensuing Discourse And these Considerations I thought meet to premise unto our Entrance into that Work which now lyeth before us Sect. 8 The great Work whereby God designed to glorifie himself ultimately in this World was that of the New Creation or of the Recovery and Restauration of all things by Jesus Christ Heb. 1. 1 2 3. Ephes. 1. 10. And as this is in general confessed by all Christians so I have elsewhere insisted on the Demonstration of it 2. That which God ordereth and designeth as the principal means for the manifestation of his Glory must contain the most perfect and absolute Revelation and Declaration of Himself his Nature his Being his Existence and Excellencies For from their discovery and manifestation with the Duties which as known they require from rational Creatures doth the Glory of God arise and no otherwise 3. This therefore was to be done in this great Work and it was done accordingly Hence is the Lord Christ in his Work of Mediation said to be the Image of the Invisible God Col. 1. 15. The brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person Heb. 1. 3. in whose Face the Knowledg of the Glory of God shineth forth unto us 2 Cor. 4. 6. Because in and by him in his Work of the New Creation all the glorious Properties of the Nature of God are manifested and displayed incomparably above what they were in the Creation of all things in the beginning I say therefore in the Contrivance Projection Production carrying on disposal and accomplishment of this great Work God hath made the most eminent and glorious Discovery of himself unto Angels and Men Ephes. 3. 8 9 10. 1 Pet. 1. 10 11 12. That we may Know Love Trust Honour and Obey him in all things as God and according to his Will 4. In particular in this New Creation he hath revealed himself in an especial manner as Three in One. There was no one more glorious Mystery brought to Light in and by Jesus Christ than that of the Holy Trinity or the Subsistence of the Three Persons in the Unity of the same Divine Nature And this was done not so much in express Propositions or verbal Testimonies unto that purpose which yet is done also as by the Declaration of the mutual Divine Internal Acts of the Persons towards one another and the distinct immediate Divine external Actings of each Person in the Work which they did and do perform For God revealeth not himself unto us meerly Doctrinally and Dogmatically but by the Declaration of what he doth for us in us towards us in the accomplishment of the Counsel of his Will see Ephes. 1. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. And this Revelation is made unto us not that our minds might be possessed with the Notions of it but that we may know aright how to place our Trust in Him how to Obey him and Live unto him how to obtain and exercise Communion with him until we come to the enjoyment of him Sect. 9 We may make Application of these things unto and exemplifie them yet farther in the Work under Consideration Three things in general are in it proposed unto our Faith 1. The Supream Purpose Design Contrivance and Disposal of it 2. The Purchasing and Procuring Cause and Means of the Effects of that Design with its Accomplishment in it Self and with respect unto God 3. The Application of the Supream Design and actual Accomplishment of it to make it effectual unto us The first of these is absolutely in the Scripture assigned unto the Father and that Uniformely and every where His Will His Counsel His Love His Grace His Authority His Purpose His Design are constantly proposed as the Foundation of the whole Work as those which were to be pursued effected accomplished see Isa 42. 1 2 3. Psal. 40. 6 7 8. John 3. 16. Isa. 53. 10 11 12. Ephes. 1. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. and other places innumerable And on this Account because the Son undertook to effect what-ever the Father had so designed and purposed there were many Acts of the Will of the Father towards the Son in sending giving appointing of Him in preparing him a Body in Comforting and Supporting Him in rewarding and giving a People unto Him which belong unto the Father on the account of the Authority Love and Wisdom that were in them their actual Operation belonging particularly unto another Person And in these things is the Person of the Father in the Divine Being proposed unto us to be known and adored Secondly The Son condescendeth consenteth and engageth to do and accomplish in his own Person the whole Work which in the Authority Counsel and Wisdom of the Father was appointed for him Phil. 2. 5 6 7 8. And in these Divine Operations is the Person of the Son revealed unto us to be honoured even as we honour the Father Thirdly The Holy Ghost doth immediately Work and Effect what-ever was to be done in reference unto the Person of the Son or the Sons of Men for the Perfecting and Accomplishment of the Father's Counsel and the Son's Work in an especial Application of both unto their especial Effects and Ends. Hereby is he made known unto us and hereby our Faith concerning him and in him is directed And thus in this great Work of the New Creation by Jesus Christ doth God cause all his Glory to pass before us that we may both know him and worship him in a due manner And what is the peculiar Work of the Holy Ghost herein we shall now declare Work of the Holy Spirit with respect unto the Head of the New Creation the Humane Nature of Christ. CHAP. III. 1. The especial Works of the Holy Spirit in the New Creation 2. His Work on the Humane Nature of Christ. 3. How this Work could be considering the Union of the Humane Nature unto and in the Person of the Son of God 4. Assumption of the Humane Nature into Union the only Act of the Person of the Son towards it 5. Personal Union the only necessary Consequent of this Assumption 6. All other Actings of the Person of the Son in and on
to convert themselves no more than Arguments can prevail with a blind Man to see or with a dead Man to rise from the Grave or with a lame Man to walk steadily Wherefore the whole Description before given from the Scripture of the state of lapsed Nature must be disproved and removed out of the way before his Grace can be thought sufficient to be for the Regeneration and Conversion of Men in that Estate But some proceed on other Principles Men they say have by Nature certain Notions and Principles concerning God and the Obedience due unto him which are demonstrable by the Light of Reason and certain Abilities of Mind to make use of them unto their proper End But they grant at least some of them do that however these Principles may be improved and acted by those Abilities yet they are not sufficient or will not eventually be effectual to bring Men unto the Life of God or to enable them so to believe in him love him and obey him as that they may come at length unto the enjoyment of him at least they will not do this safely and easily but through much danger and confusion wherefore * God out of his Goodness and Love to Mankind hath made a further Revelation of himself by Jesus Christ in the Gospel with the especial way whereby his Anger against Sin is averted and Peace made for Sinners which Men had before only a confused Apprehension and Hope about How the things received proposed and prescribed in the Gospel are so good so rational so every way suited unto the Principles of our Beings the Nature of our intellectual Constitutions or the Reason of Men and those fortified with such rational and powerful Motives in the Promises and Threatnings of it representing unto us on the one hand the chiefest Good which our Nature is capable of and on the other the highest evil to be avoided that we are obnoxious unto that they can be refused or rejected by none but out of a bruitish love of Sin or the efficacy of depraved Habits contracted by a vitious course of living And herein consists the Grace of God towards Men especially as the Holy Ghost is pleased to make use of these things in the Dispensation of the Gospel by the Ministry of the Church For when the Reason of Men is by these means excited so far as to cast off Prejudice and enabled thereby to make a right Judgment of what is proposed unto it it prevails with them to convert to God to change their Lives and yield Obedience according to the Rule of the Gospel that they may be saved And no doubt this were a notable Systeme of Christian Doctrine especially as it is by some Rhetorically blended or Theatrically represented in feigned Stories and Apologues were it not defective in one or two things For first it is exclusive of a supposition of the fall of Man at least as unto the Depravation of our Nature which ensued thereon and Secondly of all real Effective Grace dispensed by Jesus Christ which render it a Phantastick Dream alien from the Design and Doctrine of the Gospel But it is a fond thing to discourse with Men about either Regeneration or Conversion unto God by whom these things are denyed Sect. 27 Such a Work of the Holy Spirit we must therefore enquire after as wherey the Mind is effectually renewed the Heart changed the Affections sanctified all actually and effectually or no Deliverance will be wrought obtained or ensue out of the Estate described For notwithstanding the utmost improvement of our Minds and Reasons that can be imagined and the most eminent proposal of the Truths of the Gospel accompanied with the most powerful enforcements of Duty and Obedience that the Nature of the things themselves will afford yet the Mind of Man in the state of Nature without a supernatural Elevation by Grace is not able so to apprehend them as that its Apprehension should be Spiritual Saving or Proper unto the Things apprehended And notwithstanding the Perception which the Mind may attain unto in the Truth of Gospel-Proposals and the Conviction it may have of the necessity of Obedience yet is not the Will able to apply it self unto any Spiritual Act thereof without an Ability wrought immediately in it by the Power of the Spirit of God or rather unless the Spirit of God by his Grace do effect the Act of willing in it Wherefore not to multiply Arguments we conclude That the most effectual use of outward means alone is not all the Grace that is necessary unto nor all that is actually put forth in the Regeneration of the Souls of Men. Sect. 28 Having thus evidenced wherein the Work of the Holy Spirit in the Regeneration of the Souls of Men doth not consist namely in a supposed congruous Perswasion of their Minds where it is alone 1. I shall proceed to shew wherein it doth consist and what is the true Nature of it And to this purpose I say 1. What-ever efficacy that Moral Operation which accompanies or is the Effect of the Preaching of the Word as blessed and used by the Holy Spirit is of or may be supposed to be of or is possible that it should be of in and towards them that are unregenerate we do willingly ascribe unto it We grant that in the Work of Regeneration the Holy Spirit towards those that are Adult doth make use of the Word both the Law and the Gospel and the Ministry of the Church in the Dispensation of it as the ordinary means thereof yea this is ordinarily the whole external means that is made use of in this Work and an efficacy proper unto it it is accompanied withal Whereas therefore some content that there is no more needful to the Conversion of Sinners but the Preaching of the Word unto them who are congruously disposed to receive it and that the whole of the Grace of God consists in the effectual Application of it unto the Minds and Affections of Men whereby they are enabled to comply with it and turn unto God by Faith and Repentance they do not ascribe a greater Power unto the Word than we do by whom this Administration of it is denied to be the total Cause of Conversion For we assign the same Power to the Word as they do and more also onely we affirm that there is an Effect to be wrought in this Work which all this Power if alone is insufficient for But in its own kind is it sufficient and effectual so far as that the effect of Regeneration or Conversion unto God is ascribed thereunto This we have declared before Sect. 29 2. There is not onely a Moral but a Physical immediate Operation of the Spirit by his Power and Grace or his powerful Grace upon the Minds or souls of Men in their Regeneration This is that which we must cleave to or all the Glory of God's Grace is lost and the Grace administred by Christ neglected
of Christ in the State of the Dead 146 10 Death Natural what it is 240 5 Death Natural and Spiritual wherein they differ and wherein they agree 243 13 Death of Christ applyed by the Spirit for the Mortification of Sin 492 33 Spiritual Death Two-fold 239 2 Decayes in Grace to be found in many 353 Deceits practical about Holiness 420 Dedication unto God in what sence it is Sanctification 324 7 Deep Things of God what and how searched by the Spirit 56 19 Defilement of Sin wherein it doth consist 374 4 Degrees of Prophecy fancied by the Jewes rejected 105 11 Degrees in Holiness and growth in Grace whereon they do depend 167 10 Deliverances means of Conviction 294 13 Delight an Effect of Love 514 27 Delight in Sinners as sinning the highest degree of Shamelesness 397 398 How the Spirit of God departed from Saul 37 11 How the Holy Spirit departeth from Men. 91 19 Natural Depravation discovers the Nature of the Grace of Conversion 279 48 Depravation of the Mind how removed 282 52 Depravation of the Mind by Sin what it is and wherein it doth consist 209 13 Description of Sanctification 338 2 Spiritual Desertions and the Nature of them by some Derided 92 19 Design of the Gospel what it is 330 13 Design to be like unto God the Life of Holiness 503 11 Desires of Heaven of what sort they ought to be 512 21 Despisers of God who are so 538 11 Destruction of Sin in the Root and Principle our great Duty 405 Determination of the Will as a free Principle by Grace proved 284 55 Diabolical Pride in Scoffing at the Humiliation of Sinners 405 Difference between receiving Doctrines Notionally and Things really 219 28 Difference about Free-will stated and debated 434 34 Difference between a Spiritual Life and a Life of Moral Vertue 408 17. 414 6 Difference in Religion before the Entrance of Sin and afterwards 461 81 Differences between the life of Adam in Innocency and the life of Grace in Christ. 241 9 Differences about Regeneration none in it 178 12 Different Operations and Effects of one and the same Spirit 38 12 Different degrees of Graces 340 4 Difficulties of Faith 401 13 Difficulties in Duties from sundry Causes 438 39 Difficulty and Necessity of the Work of Mortification 480 13 Dignity of Professors wherein it consists 511 20 Diligence required in the Exercise of Grace 354 Discerning of Spirits an extraordinary Gift at the first 18 22 Discovery of Graces of Holiness springing from Election 443 46 Discovery of a false Foundation of Duties 364 Dispensation of the Spirit not consined unto the first times of the Church 25 28 Dispensation of the Spirit in general declared 79 80 1 2 3. Take away the Dispensation of the Spirit and the whole Church is ruined 157 Disposition of the Soul unto Acts and Duties of Holiness from an inward Principle 423 16 No Disposition unto spiritual Life in a State of spiritual Death 250 29 A Gracious Disposition expressed by Fear Love and Delight 427 17 Depraved Disposition in the Mind by Nature 215 20 Dispositions unto Regeneration of what sort 191 1 Natural Dispositions of some more sedate than of others 568 4 Disquisitions after God by the Light of Nature and their success 230 48 Distinct Operations ascribed unto the distinct Persons in the Trinity 45 4 Manifestation of the Distinction of Persons in the Divine Nature a great End in the Work of the New Creation 155 2 Distresses upon Conviction of Sin 302 27 Distribution of spiritual Gifts 6 5 Distributions of Grace used by the Ancients 255 6 Disturbance on Divine Revelations whence it proceeds 103 9 Diversity of Gifts an Occasion of Differences in the Churches 7 7 Knowledge of Divine things in their Operations and Effects 20 24 Divine voluntary Actings constantly ascribed unto the Holy Spirit in the Scripture 49 10 Divine Persons succeeded not to each other in their Operations 70 3 Divine Nature in Christ acted not as his Soul 137 2 No true Apprehension of Divine Goodness but in Christ. 229 36 Division of the Holy Spirit in what sence spoken of 93 20 Doctrine of the Spirit of God the second great Principle of the Spirit 8 9 Doctrine of the Spirit the Life of all saving Truth 33 8 Doctrine of the Trinity despised by many 45 4 Doctrine of Regeneration variously described 196 10 Doctrine of some men about Regeneration 261 19 Doctrine of Obedience taught by Christ and what is considerable therein 558 10 Doctrines concerning the Operations of the Spirit of God preached with Efficacy 26 31 Things or Doctrines of the Gospel reduced to two Heads 223 36 The Dove under which shape the Holy Ghost appeared of what sort it was 52 53 15 16 Dreams a Means of Divine Revelation 107 13 Christ how Driven by the Spirit 142 Duty not the Measure of Power 379 Things wrought in a way of Grace prescribed in a way of Duty 379 No Duty of Obedience but an Holy Heart is enclined unto it 425 19 Duty and End to be considered in every Act of Obedience 441 43 Dutyes of Persons intrusted with spiritual Priviledges 7 1 Dutyes required in order to Conversion 192 3 Dutyes of Morality in the Gospel superstitious not the Foundation 235 58 Dutyes of Vnbelievers how Sins 248 25 Good Dutyes how vitiated yet accepted 248 26 The same Dutyes how accepted and rejected with respect unto divers Persons ibid. Dutyes not accepted on the Account of Persons 249 26 Dutyes of Faith Repentance and Obedience on what Grounds to be pressed on men 249 28 Good Dutyes of Vnregenerate men how to be esteemed 250 251 30 Dutyes of themselves will denominate no man Holy 362 Dutyes of Morality and Piety to be encouraged 420 Special Dutyes of those who have received a Principle of Holiness 422 Dutyes Internal and External distinguished 463 2 Dutyes of Believers and Vnbelievers differ in their Substance 471 16 Dutyes required in order unto the Mortication of Sin 487 23 Dutyes how to be performed that Sin may be mortified 489 27 Dutyes of Holiness more clearly revealed by Christ than any other way 557 9 How the Spirit dwelleth in Believers notwithstanding the Remainders of Sin 484 20 E. Earth in the first Creation what it contained 72 8 Education and Convictions in some measure compose Natures Disorders 568 6 Effects of Conviction where to be placed in the Soul 199 15 Effects of natural Vanity and how they are to be opposed 214 19 Effects of Conviction 301 26 Effects of the Priestly Acts of Christ of two sorts 555 3 Especial Effects of Divine Love 514 25 Every work of the Spirit Effectual 198 14 Effectual Work of Grace and our own earnest Endeavours consistent 345 7 Efficacy given to all Ordinances by the Holy Spirit 23 26 No Efficacy in second Causes independently on the first 77 15 Efficacy of Faith whence it ariseth 401 13 Efficacy of the Death of Christ for the destruction of Sin wherein it
and to make them his Temple thereby then is the Holy Spirit God for he it is who according to that Promise thus dwelleth in them So Deut. 32. 12. speaking of the People in the Wilderness he saith The Lord alone did lead him And yet speaking of the same People at the same time it is said That the Spirit of the Lord did lead them and caused them to rest Isa. 63. 14. The Spirit of the Lord therefore is Jehovah or Jehovah alone did not lead them That also which is called in the same People their sinning against God and provoking the most High in the Wilderness Psalm 78. 17 18. is termed their rebelling against and vexing the Holy Spirit Isa. 63. 10 11. And many other Instances of an alike Nature have been pleaded and vindicated by others Sect. 32 Add hereunto in the last place that Divine Properties are assigned unto him As Eternity Heb. 9. 14. He is the Eternal Spirit Immensity Psalm 139. 7. Whither shall I flee from thy Spirit Omnipotency Micah 2. 8. The Spirit of the Lord is not straitned compared with Isa. 40. 28. The Power of the Spirit of God Rom. 15. 19. Prescience Acts 1. 16. This Scripture must be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the Mouth of David spake before concerning Judas Omniscience 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. The Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God Sovereign Authority over the Church Acts 13. 3. Acts 20. 28. The Divine Works also which are assigned unto him are usually and to good purpose pleaded in the vindication of the same Truth But these in the progress of our Discourse I shall have occasion distinctly to consider and inquire into and therefore shall not in this place insist upon them What hath been proposed cleared and confirmed may suffice as unto our present purpose that we may know who He is concerning whom his Works and Grace we do design to Treat Sect. 33 I have but one thing more to add concerning the Being and Personality of the Holy Spirit And this is that in the Order of Subsistence He is the Third Person in the Holy Trinity So it is expressed in the solemn Numeration of them where their Order gives great direction unto Gospel-Worship and Obedience Matth. 28. 18. Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost This Order I confess in their Numeration because of the Equality of the Persons in the same Nature is sometimes varied So Rev. 1. 4 5. Grace be unto you and Peace from him which is and which was and which is to come and from the seven Spirits which are before his Throne and from Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit under the name of the seven Spirits before the Throne of God because of his various and perfect Operations in and towards the Church is reckoned up in order before the Son Jesus Christ. And so in Paul's euctical conclusion unto his Epistles the Son is placed before the Father 2 Cor. 13. 14. The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all And some think that the Holy Ghost is mentioned in the first place Col. 2. 2. The acknowledgment of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. In this expression of them therefore we may use our liberty they being all one God over all blessed for ever But in their true and natural Order of Subsistence and consequently of Operation the Holy Spirit is the Third Person For as to his Personal Subsistence he proceedeth from the Father and the Son being equally the Spirit of them both as hath been declared This constitutes the natural Order between the Persons which is unalterable On this depends the Order of his Operation for his working is a consequent of the Order of his Subsistence Thus the Father is said to send him and so is the Son also John 14. 16 26. Chap. 16. 7. And he is thus said to be sent by the Father and the Son because he is the Spirit of the Father and Son proceeding from both and is the next cause in the Application of the Trinity unto External Works But as he is thus sent so his own Will is equally in and unto the Work for which he is sent As the Father is said to send the Son and yet it was also his own Love and Grace to come unto us and to save us And this ariseth from hence that in the whole Oeconomy of the Trinity as to the Works that outwardly are of God especially the Works of Grace the order of the Subsistence of the Persons in the same Nature is represented unto us and they have the same dependance on each other in their Operations as they have in their Subsistence The Father is the Fountain of all as in Being and Existence so in Operation The Son is of the Father begotten of him and therefore as unto his Work is sent by him But his own Will is in and unto what he is sent about The Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father and the Son and therefore is sent and given by them as to all the Works which he immediately effecteth but yet his own Will is the direct Principle of all that he doth He divideth unto every one according to his own Will And thus much may suffice to be spoken about the Being of the Holy Spirit and the order of his Subsistence in the Blessed Trinity Peculiar Works of the HOLY SPIRIT in the First or Old Creation CHAP. IV. 1. Things to be observed in Divine Operations The Works of God how ascribed absolutely unto God and how distinctly to each Person 2. The Reason hereof 3. Perfecting Acts in Divine Works ascribed unto the Holy Spirit and why 4 5. Peculiar Works of the Spirit with respect unto the Old Creation 6. The Parts of the Old Creation Heaven and its Host. What the Host of Heaven The Host of the Earth 7. The Host of Heaven compleated by the Spirit 8. And of the Earth 9. His moving on the Old Creation Psal. 104. 30. 10. The Creation of Man the Work of the Spirit therein 11 12 13 14 15. The Work of the Spirit in the preservation of all things when created Natural and Moral 16. Farther Instances thereof in and out of the Church 17. Work of the Spirit of God in the Old Creation why sparingly delivered Sect. 1 INtending to treat of the Operations of the Holy Ghost or those which are peculiar unto him some things must be premised concerning the Operation of the Godhead in general and the manner thereof And they are such as are needful to guide us in many Passages of the Scripture and to direct us aright in the Things in particular which now lie before us I say then 1. that all Divine Operations are usually ascribed unto God absolutely So it is said God made all things and so of all other Works whether in Nature or in
down Rain Job 36. 27. until it water the Ridges of the Earth abundantly setling the Furrows thereof and making it soft with Showers as Psal. 65. 10. which with the things following in that place v. 11 12 13. are spoken Allegorically of this pouring out of the Spirit of God from above Hence God is said to do this richly Tit. 3. 6. The renewing of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he hath poured on us richly that is on all Believers who are converted unto God For the Apostle discourseth not of the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost which were then given forth in a plentiful manner but of that Grace of the Holy Ghost whereby all that believe are regenerated renewed and converted unto God For so were men converted of old by a rich participation of the Holy Ghost and so they must be still whatever some pretend or die in their sins And by the same word is the bounty of God in other things expressed The living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy 1 Tim. 6. 17. 2. This pouring out hath respect unto the Gifts and Graces of the Spirit and not unto his Person For where he is given he is given absolutely and as to himself not more or less but his Gifts and Graces may be more plentifully and abundantly given at one time than at another to some Persons than to others Wherefore this Expression is metonymical that being spoken of the Cause which is proper to the Effect the Spirit being said to be poured forth because his Graces are so 3. Respect is had herein unto some especial Works of the Spirit Such are the Purifying or Sanctifying and the Comforting or Refreshing them on whom He is poured With respect unto the first to these Effects he is compared both unto Fire and Water For both Fire and Water have purifying Qualities in them though towards different Objects and working in a different manner So by Fire are Metals purified and purged from their Dross and Mixtures and by Water are all other unclean and defiled things cleansed and purified Hence the Lord Jesus Christ in his Work by his Spirit is at once compared unto a Refiners Fire and to Fullers Sope Mal. 3. 2 3. because of the purging purifying Qualities that are in Fire and Water And the Holy Ghost is expresly called a Spirit of Burning Isa. 4. 4. For by him are the Vessels of the House of God that are of Gold and Silver refined and purged as those that are but of Wood and Stone are consumed And when it is said of our Lord Jesus that he should baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Luke 3. 16. it is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same thing doubly expressed and therefore mention is made only of the Holy Ghost John 1. 33. But the Holy Ghost was in his Dispensation to purifie and cleanse them as Fire doth Gold and Silver And on the same account is he compared to Water Ezek. 36. 35. I will sprinkle clean Water upon you and you shall be clean which is expounded v. 26. by a New Spirit will I put within you which God calls his Spirit Jer. 32. 39. So our Saviour calls him Rivers of Water Joh. 7. 38 39. see Isa. 44. 3. And it is with regard unto his purifying cleansing and sanctifying our Natures that he is thus called With respect therefore in an especial manner hereunto is he said to be poured out So our Apostle expresly declares Tit. 3. 4 5 6. Again it respects his comforting and refreshing them on whom he is poured Hence is he said to be poured down from above as Rain that descends on the Earth Isa. 44. 3. I will pour Water upon him that is thirsty and Floods upon the dry ground that is I will pour my Spirit on thy Seed and my Blessing upon thy Off-spring and they shall spring up as among the Grass as Willows by the Water-Courses v. 4. see Chap. 35. 6 7. He comes upon the dry parched barren ground of the hearts of men with his refreshing fructifying Vertue and Blessing causing them to spring and bring forth Fruits in Holiness and Righteousness to God Heb. 6. 7. And in respect unto his Communication of his Spirit is the Lord Christ said to come down like Rain upon the mown Grass as Showers that water the Earth Psal. 72. 6. The good Lord give us alwayes of these Waters and refreshing Showers And these are the wayes in general whereby the Dispensation of the Spirit from God for what End or Purpose soever it be is expressed Sect. 14 We come nextly to consider what is ascribed unto the Spirit Himself in a way of complyance with these Acts of God whereby he is given and administred Now these are such Things or Actions as manifest him to be a Voluntary Agent and that not only as to what he acts or doth in men but also as to the manner of his coming forth from God and his Application of himself unto his Work And these we must consider as they are declared unto us in the Scripture The first and most general Expression hereof is that he proceedeth from the Father and being the Spirit of the Son he proceedeth from him also in like manner John 15. 25. The Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me There is 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Procession of the Holy Ghost The 〈…〉 Natural or Personal This expresseth his Eternal Relation to the Persons of the Father and the Son He is of them by an eternal Emanation or Procession The manner hereof unto us in this Life is incomprehensible Therefore it is rejected by some who will believe no more than they can put their hands into the sides of And yet are they forced in things under their Eyes to admit of many things which they cannot perfectly comprehend But we live by Faith and not by Sight This is enough unto us that we admit nothing in this great Mystery but what is revealed and nothing is revealed unto us that is inconsistent with the Being and Subsistence of God For this Procession or Emanation includes no Separation or Division in or of the Divine Nature but only expresseth a distinction in Subsistence by a Property peculiar to the Holy Spirit But this is not that which at present I intend The consideration of it belongeth unto the Doctrine of the Trinity in general and hath been handled elsewhere Secondly There is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Procession of the Spirit which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or dispensatory This is the Egress of the Spirit in his Application of Himself unto his Work A voluntary Act it is of his Will and not a necessary Property of his Person And he is said thus to proceed from the Father because he goeth forth or proceedeth in the pursuit of the Counsels and Purposes of the Father and as sent by him to put them into
their Beginnings and Engagements and turn wholly unto Sin and Folly From such Persons the Holy Ghost utterly departs all their Gifts dry up and wither their Light goeth out and they have Darkness in stead of a Vision The Case of such is deplorable for it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them 2 Pet. 2. 21. And some of these add despight and contempt of that whole Work of the Spirit of God whereof themselves were made Partakers unto their Apostasie And the condition of such profligate Sinners is for the most part irrecoverable Heb. 6. 4 5 6. Chap. 10. v. 26 27 28 29 30. From some He withdraweth and departeth partially only and that mostly but for a season And this Departure respects the Grace Light and Consolation which he administers unto Believers as to the degrees of them and the Sense of them in their own Souls On whom He is bestowed to work these things in a saving way from them he never utterly or totally departs This our Blessed Saviour plainly promiseth and asserteth John 4. 14. Whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the Water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of Water springing up into Everlasting Life That this Well of Living Water is his Sanctifying Spirit himself declares John 7. 37 38. He who hath received him shall never have a thirst of total Want and Indigence any more Besides He is given unto this end by vertue of the Covenant of Grace And the Promise is express therein that he shall never depart from them to whom he is given Isa. 59. 21. Jer. 31. 33. Chap. 32. 39 40. Ezek. 11. 19 20 But now as to the degrees and sensible Effects of these Operations He may depart and wiâ—hdraw from Believers for a Season Hence they may be left unto many Spiritual Decays and much weakeness the things of Grace that remain in them being as it were ready to die Revel 3. 2. and they may apprehend themselves deserted and forsaken of God So did Sion Isa. 40. 27. Chap. 49. 15. For therein doth God hide himself Isa. 44. 15. or forsake his People for a moment Chap. 54. 7. He hides himself and his wrath Chap. 57. 17. These are the things which David so often and so bitterly complaineth of and which with so much earnestness he contendeth and wrestleth with God to be delivered from These are those spiritual Desertions which some of late have laden with reproach contempt and scorn All the apprehensions and complaints of the People of God about them they would represent as nothing but the idle Imaginations of distempered Brains or the Effects of some disorder in their Blood and Animal Spirits I could indeed easily allow that Men should despise and laugh at what is declared as the Experience of Professors at present Their prejudice against their Persons will not allow them to entertain any thoughts of them but what are suited unto Folly and Hypocrisie But at this I acknowledg I stand amazed that whereas these things are so plainly so fully and frequently declared in the Scriptures both as to the actings of God and his Holy Spirit in them and as to the sense of those concerned about them whereas the whole of God's dealings and Believers application of themselves to him in this Matter are so graphically exemplified in sundry of the Holy Saints of old as Joh David Heman and others and great and plentiful Provision is made in the Scripture for the Direction Recovery Healing and Consolation of Souls in such a condition yet men professing themselves to be Christians and to believe the Word of God at least not to be a Fable should dare to cast such opprobrious Reproaches on the Wayes and and Works of God The end of these Attempts can be no other but to decry all real entercourse between God and the Souls of Men leaving only an outside form or shape of Religion not one jot better than Atheism Neither is it only what concerns Spiritual Desertions whose Nature Causes and Remedies are professedly and at large handled by all the Casuistical Divines even of the Roman Church but the whole Work of the Spirit of God upon the Hearts of Men with all the Effects produduced in them with respect unto Sin and Grace that some men by their odious and scurrilous Expressions endeavour to expose to contempt and scorn S. P. p. 339 340 341 342. Whatever trouble befals the minds of men upon the account of a sense of the guilt of Sin whatever Darkness and Disconsolation they may undergo through the displeasure of God and his withdrawing of the wonted influences of his Grace Love and Favour towards them whatever Peace Comfort or Joy they may be made Partakers of by a sense of the Love of God shed abroad in their Hearts by the Holy Ghost it is all ascribed in most opprobrious Language unto Melancholy reeks and vapours whereof a certain and mechanical account may be given by them who understand the Anatomy of the Brain To such an height of Profane Atheism is the daring Pride and Ignorance of some in our dayes arrived Sect. 20 There remaineth yet one general Adjunct of the Dispensation and Work of the Holy Ghost which gives a further Description of the manner of it which I have left unto a single Consideration This is that which is mentioend Heb. 2. 4. God witnessing unto them with Signs and Wonders with divers Miracles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Gifts say we of the Holy Ghost But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are Distributions or Partitions And hence advantage is taken by some to argue against his very Being So Crellius contends that the Holy Ghost here is taken passively or that the Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Genitivus Materiae Wherefore he supposes that it followeth that the Holy Ghost himself may be divided into Parts so that one may have one Part and Parcel of him and another may have another Part. How inconsistent this is with the Truth of his Being and Personality is apparent But yet neither can he give any tolerable account of the Division and Partition of that Power of God which he calls the Holy Ghost unless he will make the Holy Spirit to be a Quality in us and not in the Divine Nature as Justin Martyr affirms Plato to have done and so to be divided And the Interpretation he useth of the words is wrested perverse and foolish For the Contexture of them requires that the Holy Ghost be here taken actively as the Author of the Distribution mentioned He gives out of his Gifts and Powers unto Men in many Parts not all to One not all at once not all in one way but some to one some to another some at one time some at another and that in great variety The Apostle therefore in this place
And this instructs us in the Way and Manner of that Communion which we have with God by the Gospel For herein the Life Power and Freedom of our Evangelical State doth consist and an acquaintance herewith gives us our Translation out of Darkness into the marvelous Light of God 1. The Person of the Father in his Wisdom Will and Love is the Original of all Grace and Glory But nothing hereof is communicated immediately unto us from him It is the Son whom he loves and hath given all things into his hand He hath made way for the Communication of these things unto us unto the Glory of God And he doth it immediately by the Spirit as hath been declared Hereby are all our Returns unto God to be regulated The Father who is the Original of all Grace and Glory is ultimately intended by us in our Faith Thankfulness and Obedience yet not so but that the Son and Spirit are considered as one God with him But we cannot address our selves with any of them immediately unto him There is no going to the Father saith Christ but by me John 14. 6. Through him we believe in God 1 Pet. 1. 21. But yet neither can we do so unless we are enabled thereunto by the Spirit the Author in us of Faith Prayer Praise Obedience and what-ever our Souls tend unto God by As the descending of God towards us in Love and Grace issues or ends in the Work of the Spirit in us and on us so all our ascending towards him begins therein And as the first Instance of the proceeding of Grace and Love towards us from the Father is in and by the Son so the first step that we take towards God even the Father is in and by the Son And these things ought to be explicitly attended unto by us if we intend our Faith and Love and Duties of Obedience should be Evangelical Take an Instance of the Prayer of Wicked Men under their Convictions or their Fears Troubles and Dangers and the Prayers of Believers The former is meerly Vox Naturae Clamantis ad Dominum Naturae an out-cry that distressed Nature makes to the God of it and as such alone it considers him But the other is Vox Spiritus Adoptionis clamantis per Christum Abba Pater It is the Voice of the Spirit of Adoption addressing it self in the Hearts of Believers unto God as a Father And a due attendance unto this Order of things gives Life and Spirit unto all that we have to do with God Wo to Professors of the Gospel who shall be seduced to believe that all they have to do with God consists in their attendance unto Moral Vertue It is fit for them so to do who being weary of Christianity have a mind to turn Pagans But our Fellowship is in the way described with the Father and his Son Christ Jesus It is therefore of the highest importance unto us to enquire into and secure unto our selves the promised workings of the Holy Spirit For by them alone are the Love of the Father and the Fruits of the Mediation of the Son communicated unto us without which we have no interest in them And by them alone are we enabled to make any acceptable Returns of Obedience unto God It is sottish Ignorance and Infidelity to suppose that under the Gospel there is no communication between God and us but what is on his part in Laws Commands and Promises and on ours by Obedience performed in our own Strength and upon our Convictions unto them The exclude hence the real internal Operations of the Holy Ghost is to destroy the Gospel And as we shall see farther afterwards this is the true Ground and Reason why there is a sin against the Holy Spirit that is irremissible for the coming unto us to make Application of the Love of the Father and Grace of the Son unto our Souls in the contempt of him there is a contempt of the whole actings of God towards us in a way of Grace for which there can be no Remedy Sect. 7 Fifthly Whereas the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Grace and the immediate Efficient Cause of all Grace and Gracious Effects in Men where-ever there is mention made of them or any fruits of them it is to be looked on as a part of his Work though he be not expresly named or it be not particularly attributed unto him I know not well or do not well understand what some Men begin to talk about Moral Vertue Some thing they seem to aim at if they would once leave the old Pelagian ambiguous Expressions and learn to speak clearly and intelligibly that is in their own Power and so consequently of all other Men. At least it is so with an ordinary blessing upon their own endeavours which things we must afterwards enquire into But for Grace I think all Men will grant that as to our participation of it it is of the Holy Spirit and of him alone Now Grace is taken two wayes in the Scripture 1. For the gracious free Love and Favour of God towards us And 2. for gracious free effectual Operations in us and upon us In both senses the Holy Spirit is the Author of it as unto us In the first as to its manifestation and Application in the latter as to the Operation it self For although he be not the principal Cause nor procurer of Grace in the first sense which is the free Act of the Father yet the Knowledg Sense Comfort and all the Fruits of it are by him alone communicated unto us as we shall see afterwards And the latter is his proper and peculiar Work This therefore must be taken for granted that where-ever any gracious actings of God in or towards Men are mentioned it is the Holy Spirit who is peculiarly and principally intended Sect. 8 Sixthly It must be duly considered with reference unto the whole Work of the Holy Spirit that in what-ever he doth he Acts Works and Distributes according to his own Will This our Apostle expresly affirmeth And sundry things of great moment do depend hereon in our walking before God As 1. That the Will and Pleasure of the Holy Spirit is in all the Goodness Grace Love and Power that he either communicates unto us or worketh in us He is not as a meer Instrument or Servant disposing of the things wherein he hath no Concern or over which he hath no Power But in all things he worketh towards us according to his own Will We are therefore in what we receive from him and by him no less to acknowledg his Love Kindness and Sovereign Grace than we do to those of the Father and the Son 2. That he doth not work as a natural Agent ad ultimum virium to the utmost of his Power as though in all he did he came and did what he could He moderates all his Operations by his Will and Wisdom And therefore whereas some are said to resist the Holy Spirit Acts
this Matter all their dayes For they fear the Lord and obey the Voice of his Servant Christ Jesus and yet walk in Darkness and have no Light Isa. 50. 10. They are Children of Light Luk. 16. 8. John 12. 36. Ephes. 5. 8. 1 Thess. 5. 5. and yet walk in darkness and have no Light which Expressions have been well used and improved by some and by others of late derided and blasphemed Sect. 12 And there is great variety in the carrying on of this Work towards Perfection in the Growth of the New Creature or the Increase of Grace implanted in our Natures by it For some through the supplies of the Spirit make a great and speedy progress towards Perfection others thrive slowly and bring forth little Fruit the Causes and Occasions whereof are not here to be enumerated But notwithstanding all Differences in previous Dispositions in the Application of outward Means in the manner of it ordinary or extraordinary in the Consequenâ—s of much or less Fruit the Work it self in its own Nature is of the same kind one and the same The Elect of God were not regenerate one way by one kind of Operation of the Holy Spirit under the Old Testament and those under the New Testament another They who were miraculously Converted as Paul or who upon their Conversion had miraculous Gifts bestowed on them as had multitudes of the Primitive Christians were no otherwise regenerate nor by any other internal Efficiency of the Holy Spirit then every one is at this day who is really made Partaker of this Grace and Priviledg Neither were those Miraculous Operations of the Holy Spirit which were visible unto others any part of the Work of Regeneration nor did they belong necessarily unto it For many were the Subjects of them and received miraculous Gifts by them who were never Regenerate and many were Regenerate who were never Partakers of them And it is a Fruit of the highest Ignorance and Unacquaintedness imaginable with these things to affirm that in the Work of Regeneration the Holy Spirit wrought of old miraculously in and by outwardly visible Operations but now only in an humane and rational way leading our Understanding by the Rules of Reason unless the more external Mode and Sign of his Operation be intended For all ever were and ever shall be Regenerate by the same kind of Operation and the same Effect of the Holy Spirit on the Faculties of their Souls Which will be farther manifest if we consider 1. That the Condition of all Men as Unregenerate is absolutely the same One is not by Nature more unregenerate than another All Men since the Fall and the corruption of our Nature by sin are in the same State and Condition towards God They are all alike alienated from him and all alike under his Curse Psal. 51. 5. John 3. 5 36. Rom. 3. 19. Chap. 5. 15 16 17 18. Ephes. 2. 3. Tit. 3 3. 4. There are Degrees of Wickedness in them that are Unregenerate but there is no difference as to State and Condition between them all are Unregenerate alike As amongst those who are Regenerate there are different Degrees of Holiness and Righteousness one it may be far exceeding another yet there is between them no difference of State and Condition they are all equally Regenerate Yea some may be in a greater forwardness and preparation for the Work it self and thereby in a greater nearness to the State of it than others but the State it self is incapable of such Degrees Now it must be the same Work for the Kind and Nature of it which relieves and translates Men out of the same State and Condition That which gives the formal Reason of the change of their State of their Translation from Death to Life is and must be the same in all If you can fix on any Man from the Foundation of the World who was not equally born in sin and by Nature dead in Trespasses and Sins with all other Men the Man Christ Jesus only excepted I would grant that he might have another kind of Regeneration than others have but that I know he would stand in need of none at all Sect. 14 2. The State whereinto Men are brought by Regeneration is the same Nor is it in its Essence or Nature capable of Degrees so that one should be more Regenerate than another Every one that is born of God is equally so though one may be more beautiful than another as having the Image of his Heavenly Father more evidently impressed on him though not more truly Men may be more or less Holy more or less Sanctified but they cannot be more or less Regenerate All Children that are born into the World are equally born though some quickly outstrip others in the Perfections and Accomplishments of Nature And all born of God are equally so though some speedily out-go others in the Accomplishments and Perfections of Grace There was then never but one kind of Regeneration in this World the Essential Form of it being specifically the same in all 3. That the Efficient Cause of this Work the Grace and Power whereby it is wrought with the internal manner of the Communication of that Grace are the same shall be afterwards declared To this Standard then all must come Men may bear themselves high and despise this whole Work of the Spirit of God or set up an Imagination of their own in the room thereof but whether they will or no they must be tryed by it and no less depends on their interest in it than their Admission into the Kingdom of God And let them pretend what they please the true Reason why any despise the New Birth is because they hate a New Life He that cannot endure to live to God will as little endure to hear of being born of God But we shall by the Scripture enquire what we are taught concerning iâ— and declare both what it is not of things which falsly pretend thereunto and then what it is indeed Sect. 15 First Regeneration doth not consist in a participation of the Ordinance of Baptism and a profession of the Doctrine of Repentance This is all that some will allow unto it to the utter rejection and overthrow of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the dispute in this Matter is not whether the Ordinances of the Gospel as Baptism do really communicate internal Grace unto them that are as to their outward manner of their Administration duly made Partakers of them whether ex opere operato as the Papists speak or as a â—aederal means of the Conveyance and Communication of that Grace which they betoken and are the Pledges of but whether the outward susception of the Ordinance joyned with a profession of Repentance in them that are adult be not the whole of what is called Regeneration The vanity of this presumptuous folly destructive of all the Grace of the Gospel invented to countenance Men in their Sins and to hide from them the
to the act of believing is contracted by their own fault both as it ariseth from the Original Depravation of Nature and as it is increased by corrupt Prejudices and contracted Habits of Sin wherefore they justly perished of whom yet it is said That they could not believe John 12. 39. 3. There is none by whom the Gospel is refused but they put forth an Act of the Will in its Rejection which all Men are free unto and able for I would have gathered you but you would not Mat. 23. 37. You will not come to me that you may have life Sect. 38 But the Scripture positively affirms of some to whom the Gospel was Preached that they could not believe John 12. 39. And of all natural Men that they cannot perceive the Things of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. neither is it given unto all to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God but some only Matth. 11. 25. And those to whom it is not so given have not the Power intended Besides Faith is not of all have not Faith 2 Thess. 3. 2. But it is peculiar to the Elect of God Tit. 1. 1. Acts 13. 48. And these Elect are but some of those that are called Mat. 20. 16. Sect. 39 Yet further to clear this it may be observed that this first Act of Willing may be considered two wayes 1. As it wrought in the Will subjectively and so it is formally only in that Faculty And in this sense the Will is meerly passive and only the Subject moved or acted And in this respect the Act of God's Grace in the Will is an Act of the Will But 2. it may be considered as it is efficiently also in the Will as being acted it acts it self So it is from the Will as its Principle and is a Vital Act thereof which gives it the Nature of Obedience Thus the Will in its own Nature is mobilis fit and meet to be wrought upon by the Grace of the Spirit to Faith and Obedience with respect unto the Creating Act of Grace working Faith in us it is mota moved and acted thereby And in respect of its own elicit Act as it so acted and moved it is movens the next efficient cause thereof Sect. 40 These things being premised for the clearing of the Nature of the Operation of the Spirit in the first Communication of Grace unto us and the Wills complyance therewithal we return unto our Arguments or Testimonies given unto the actual collation of Faith upon us by the Spirit and Grace of God which must needs be effectual and irresistible for the contrary implies a contradiction namely that God should work what is not wrought Phil. 1. 29. To you it is given on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake To believe on Christ expresseth Saving-Faith it self This is given unto us And how is it given us Even by the Power of God working in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure Chap. 1. 13. Our Faith is our coming to Christ. And no Man saith he can come unto me except it be given him of my Father Joh. 6. 65. All Power in our selves for this end is utterly taken away no Man can come unto me How-ever we may suppose Men to be prepared or disposed what-ever Arguments may be proposed unto them and in what season soever to render things congruous and agreeable unto their Inclinations yet no Man of himself can believe can come to Christ unless Faith it self be given unto him that is be wrought in him by the Grace of the Father Col. 2. 11. So it is again asserted and that both negatively and positively Ephes. 2. 8. By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Our own Ability be it what it will how-ever assisted and excited and God's Gift are contra-distinguished If it be our selves it is not the Gift of God if it be the Gift of God it is not of our selves And the manner how God bestows this Gift upon us is declared v. 10. For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Good Works or Gospel-Obedience are the things designed These must proceed from Faith or they are not acceptable with God Heb. 11. 6. And the way whereby this is wrought in us or a Principle of Obedience is by a Creating Act of God we are his Workmanship created in Jesus Christ. In like manner God is said to give us Repentance 2 Tim. 2. 25. Acts 11. 18. This is the whole of what we plead God in our Conversion by the exceeding greatness of his Power as he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the Dead actually worketh Faith and Repentance in us gives them unto us bestows them on us so that they are meer Effects of his Grace in us And his working in us infallibly produceth the Effect intended because it is actual Faith that he works and not only a Power to believe which we may either put forth and make use of or suffer to be fruitless according to the pleasure of our own Wills Sect. 41 Secondly As God giveth and worketh in us Faith and Repentance so the way whereby he doth it or the manner how he is said to effect them in us make it evident that he doth it by a Power infallibly efficacious and which the Will of Man doth never resist For this way is such as that he thereby takes away all Repugnancy all Resistance all Opposition every thing that lyeth in the way of the Effect intended Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thine Seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and all thy Soul that thou mayest live A denyal of the Work here intended is expressed Chap. 29. 4. The Lord hath not given you an Heart to perceive and Eyes to see and Ears to hear unto this day What it is to have the Heart circumcised the Apostle declares Col. 2. 11. It is the putting off of the Body of the Sins of the Flesh by the Circumcision of Christ that is our Conversion to God It is the giving an Heart to perceive and Eyes to see and Ears to hear that is Spiritual Light and Obedience by the removal of all Obstacles and Hindrances This is the immediate Work of the Spirit of God himself No Man ever circumcised his own heart No Man can say he began to do it by the Power of his own Will and then God only helped him by his Grace As the Act of outward Circumcision on the body of a Child was the Act of another and not of the Child who was onely passive therein but the Effect was in the Body of the Child only so is it in this Spiritual Circumcision It is the Act of God whereof our Hearts are the Subject And whereas it is the Blindness Obstinacy and Stubbornness in Sin that is in us
it will it cannot refuse to be comforted And hereby doth he shed abroad the Love of God in our Hearts Rom. 5. 5. whereby all Graces are cherished and encreased Thirdly He doth it by working immediately an Actual Encrease of these graces in us I have shewed that these are capable of improvement and of an Addition of Degrees unto them Now they are Originally the immediate Work and product of the Spirit of God in us as hath been abundantly evinced And as he first works and creates them so he encreaseth them Hereby they that are feeble become as David Zech. 12. 8. That is those whose Graces were weak whose Faith was infirm and whose Love was languid shall by the supplyes of the Spirit and the encrease given by him unto them become strong and vigorous To this purpose are Promises multiplyed in the Scripture which in our constant Supplications we principally respect This is that which the School-men after Austin call Gratiam corroborantem that is the working of the Holy Spirit in the encreasing and strengthening of Grace received See Ephes. 3. 16 17. Col. 1 10 11. Isa. 40. 29. And this is the principal Cause and Means of the gradual Encrease of Holiness in us or the carrying of the Work of Sanctification Psal. 138. 8. Sect. 5 2 There are Graces whose Exercise is more Occasional and not alwayes actually necessary as unto the Life of God That is it is not necessary that they be alwayes in actual Exercise as Faith and Love are to be With respect unto these Holiness is encreased by the Addition of one to another untill we are brought on several Occasions to the Practice and Exercise of them all For the Addition of the new Exercise of any Grace belongs unto the gradual carrying on of the Work of Sanctification And hereunto all things that befall us in this World all our Circumstances are laid in a subserviency by the Wisdom of God All our Relations all our Afflictions all our Temptations all our Mercies all our Enjoyments all Occurrences are suited to a continual adding of the Exercise of one Grace to another wherein Holiness is encreased And if we make not use of them to that purpose we miss of all the Benefit and Advantage we might have of them and disappoint what lyes in us the Design of Divine Love and Wisdom in them This is given us in Charge 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7. Besides all this giving all diligence adde to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly-kindness and to Brotherly-kindness Charity The end why this Injunction is given us is that we may escape the Corruption that is in the World through Lust v. 3. that is have all our Corruptions throughly subdued and our Souls throughly sanctified To this end are the Promises given us and a Divine spiritual Nature is bestowed upon us But will that suffice or is there no more required of us unto that End Yes saith the Apostle this great Work will not be effected unless you use your utmost Diligence and Endeavour to adde the Exercise of all the Graces of the Spirit One to Another as Occasion shall require There is a Method in this Concatenation of Graces from first to last and an especial Reason for each particular or why the Apostle requires that such a Grace should be added unto such a one in the Order laid down which at present I shall not enquire into But in general he intends that every Grace is to be exercised according to its proper season and especial Occasion Hereby also is the Work of Sanctification gradually carryed on and Holiness encreased And this Addition of one Grace unto another with the Progress of Holiness thereby is also from the Holy Ghost And three wayes there are whereby he accomplisheth his Work herein 1 By Ordering things so towards us and bringing of us into such Conditions as wherein the Exercise of these Graces shall be required and necessary All the Afflictions of Tryals which he bringeth the Church into have no other End or Design So the Apostle James expresseth it Chap. 1. 2 3 4. My Brethren count it all Joy when ye fall into divers Temptations knowing this that the triall of your Faith worketh Patience But let Patience have its perfect Work that you may be perfect and entire wanting Nothing These Temptations are Trials upon Afflictions Troubles Persecutions and the like But take them in any other sense it is the same unto our purpose These are all guided unto us by Christ and his Spirit for it is he who rebukes and chastens us But what is his End therein It is that Faith may be exercised and Patience employed and one Grace added unto another that they may carry us on towards Perfection So he bringeth us into that Condition as wherein we shall assuredly miscarry if we adde not the Exercise of one Grace unto another 2 In this state of things he effectually minds us of our Duty and what Graces ought to be put upon their Exercise We may dispute whether it be better to Act Faith or to Despond to adde Patience under the Continuance of our Tryals or to trust unto our selves and irregularly to seek after Deliverance or divert unto other satisfactions Then doth he cause us to hear a Word behind us saying this is the way walk in it when we turn to the right hand and when we turn to the left Isa. 30. 21. When we are at a loss and know not what to doe and are ready it may be to consult with flesh and blood and to divert to irregular courses he speaks effectually to us saying No that is not your way but this is it namely to Act Faith Patience Submission to God adding one Grace to another binding our Hearts thereby to our Duty 3 He actually excites and sets all needfull Graces at work in the Way and Manner before spoken unto This then is to be fixed that all this Encrease of Holiness is immediately the Work of the Holy Ghost who therein gradually carryes on his Design of sanctifying us throughout in our whole Spirit Souls and Bodies There is in our Regeneration and Habitual Grace received a Nature bestowed on us capable of Growth and Encrease and that is all if it be left unto its self it will not thrive it will decay and dye The actual supplyes of the Spirit are the waterings that are the immediate Cause of its encrease It wholly depends on continual Influences from God He cherisheth and improves the work he hath begun with new and fresh supplyes of Grace every moment Isa. 27. 3. I the Lord water it every moment And it is the Spirit which is this Water as the Scripture every where declares God the Father takes on him the Care in this matter he watcheth over his Vineyard to keep it The Lord Christ is the Head Fountain and Treasure of all
23. Sect. 2 But before we proced to a further Confirmation of this Assertion an Objection of some importance is to be removed out of our way For on this Supposition that the Spirit of Sanctification is given only unto Believers it may be enquired How men come so to be For if we have not the Spirit untill after we do Believe then is Faith it self of our selves And this is that which some plead for namely that the Gift of the Holy Ghost unto all Ends and Purposes for which he is promised is consequential unto Faith with the Profession and Obedience thereof being as it were its Reward See Crell de Sp. S. cap. 5. To this purpose it is pleaded that the Apostle Peter encourageth men unto Faith and Repentance with the Promise that thereon they should receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 2. 38. And so is that also of our Saviour John 14. 17. that the World that is Unbelievers cannot receive the Spirit of Truth so that our Faith and Obedience is required as a necessary Qualification unto the receiving of the Holy Ghost and if they are so absolutely then are they of our selves and not wrought in us by the Grace of God which is express Pelagianisme Ans. I could dwell long on this Enquiry concerning the especial Subject of the Holy Spirit seeing the right understanding of many places of Scripture doth depend thereon But because I have much work yet before me I will reduce what I have to offer on this Head into as narrow a Compass as possibly I may In Answer therefore to this Objection I say 1. That the Holy Spirit is said to be promised and received with respect unto the Ends which he is promised for and the Effects which he worketh when he is received For although he be himself but one the one and self-same Spirit and he Himself is promised given forth and received as we have declared yet he hath many and divers Operations And as his Operations are divers or several sorts and kinds so our receiving of him as to the Manner of it is divers also and suited unto the Ends of his Communications unto us Thus in some sence he is promised unto and received by Believers in another he is promised and received to make men so or to make them believe In the first way there may be some Activity of Faith in a way of Duty whereas in the latter we are passive and receive him only in a way of Grace Sect. 3 2. The chief and principal Ends for which the Holy Spirit is promised and received may be reduced to these Four Heads 1 Regeneration 2 Sanctification 3 Consolation 4 Edification There are indeed very many distinct Operations and Distributions of the Spirit as I have in part already discovered and shall yet further go over them in particular Instances But they may be reduced unto these general Heads or at least they will suffice to exemplifie the different Manner and Ends of the receiving of the Spirit And this is the plain Order and Method of these things as the Scripture both plainly and plentifully testifies 1 He is promised and received as to the Work of Regeneration unto the Elect 2 as to the Work of Sanctification unto the Regenerate 3 as to the Work of Consolation unto the Sanctified and 4 as unto Gifts for Edification unto Professors according to his Soveraign Will and Pleasure 1 He is promised unto the Elect and received by them as to his Work of Regeneration That this is his Work in us wholly and entirely I have proved before at large Hereunto the Qualifications of Faith and Obedience are no way required as previously necessary in us In order of Nature our receiving of the Spirit is antecedent to the very Seed and Principle of Faith in us as the Cause is to the Effect seeing it is wrought in us by him alone and the Promises concerning the Communications of the Spirit unto this End have been before explained and vindicated Hereby doth Holy Ghost prepare an Habitation for himself and make way for all the following Work which he hath to do in us and towards us unto the Glory of God and the perfecting of our Salvation or the making of us meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1. 12. 2 He is promised and received as a Spirit of Sanctification unto and by them that are Regenerate That is unto Believers and onely unto them This will be fully confirmed immediately And this puts an Issue to the principall difficulty of the foregoing objection It is no way inconsistent that Faith should be required previously unto the receiving of the Spirit as a Spirit of Sanctification though it be not so as he is the Author of Regeneration The same Spirit first worketh Faith in us and then preserveth it when it is wrought Only to clear the Manner of it we may observe 1. That Sanctification may be considered two wayes 1 As to the Original and essential Work of it which consists in the preservation of the Principle of spiritual Life and Holiness communicated unto us in our Regeneration 2 As to those renewed Actual Operations whereby it is carried on and is gradually progressive as hath been declared 2. Faith also or believing may be considered in this matter two wayes 1 As to its Original Communication Infusion or Creation in the Soul for it is the gift or work of God In this respect that is as to the Seed Principle and Habit of it it is wrought in us as all other Grace is in Regeneration 2 As to its actings in us or as unto Actual Believing or the Exercise of Faith and the Fruits of it in a constant Profession and Holy Obedience Sanctification in the first sence respects Faith also in the first That is the Preservation of the Seed Principle Grace Habit of Faith in us belongs unto the Sanctifying Work of the Holy Spirit And so Believers only are sanctified And in the latter sence it respects Faith in the latter also That is the progress of the Work of Sanctification in us is accompanyed with the Actings and Exercise of Faith But both wayes Faith is a necessary Qualification in and unto them that are sanctified Believers therefore are the Adequate Subject of the Work of Sanctification which is all that at present is under our Consideration 3 The Spirit is also promised as a Comforter or as a Spirit of Consolation In this sence or for this End and Work he is not promised unto them that are Regenerate meerly as such For many may be Regenerate who are not capable of Consolation nor do need it as Infants who may be and are many of them sanctified from the Womb. Nor is he so promised unto them that are Believers absolutely who have the Grace or Habit of Faith wrought in them for so many have who are not yet exercised nor brought into that Condition wherein Spiritual Consolations are either proper or
us much to blame that we do not more abound in the use of this Means unto the End mentioned Did we abide more constantly in the beholding or Contemplation of the Person of Christ of the Glory and Beauty of his Holiness as the Pattern and great Example proposed unto us we should be more transformed into his Image and Likeness But it is so fallen out that many who are called Christians delight to be talking of and do much admire the vertuous Sayings and Actions of the Heathen and are ready to make them the Object of their Imitation whilest they have no thoughts of the Grace that was in our Lord Jesus Christ nor do endeavour after Conformity thereunto And the Reason is because the Vertue which they seek after and desire is of the same Kind with that which was in the Heathen and not of that Grace and Holiness which was in Christ Jesus And thence also it is that some who not out of Love unto it but to decry other important Mysteries of the Gospel thereby do place all Christianity in the Imitation of Christ do yet indeed in their practice despise those Qualities and Dutyes wherein he principally manifested the Glory of his Grace His Meekness Patience Self-denyal Quietness in bearing Reproaches Contempt of the World Zeal for the Glory of God Compassion to the Souls of men Condescentions to the Weaknesses of all they regard not But there is no greater Evidence that whatever we seem to have of any thing that is good in us is no part of Evangelical Holiness than that it doth not render us conformable to Christ. Sect. 60 And we should alwayes consider how we ought to act Faith on Christ with respect unto this End Let none be guilty practically of what some are falsely charged withall as to Doctrine Let none divide in the Work of Faith and Exercise themselves but in the one half of it To Believe in Christ for Redemption for Justification for Sanctification is but one half of the Duty of Faith It respects Christ only as he died and suffered for us as he made Attonement for our sins Peace with God and Reconciliation for us as his Righteousness is imputed unto us unto Justification Unto these Ends indeed is he firstly and principally proposed unto us in the Gospel and with respect unto them are we exhorted to receive him and to believe in him But this is not all that is required of us Christ in the Gospel is proposed unto us as our Pattern and Example of Holiness And as it is a cursed Imagination that this was the whole End of his Life and Death namely to exemplifie and confirm the Doctrine of Holiness which he taught so to neglect his so being our Example in considering him by Faith to that End and labouring after Conformity to him is evil and pernitious Wherefore let us be much in the Contemplation of what he was what he did how in all Instances of Duties and Trials he carried himself untill an Image or Idea of his perfect Holiness is implanted in our Minds and we are made like unto him thereby Sect. 61 4 ly That which principally differenceth Evangelical Holiness with respect unto the Lord Christ from all other Natural or Moral Habits or Duties and whereby he is made Sanctification unto us is that from him his Person as our Head the Principle of spiritual Life and Holiness in Believers is derived and by vertue of their Vnion with him real Supplyes of spiritual Strength and Grace whereby their Holiness is preserved maintained and encreased are constantly communicated unto them On the stating and proof hereof the whole difference about Grace and Morality doth depend and will issue For if that which men call Morality be so derived from the Lord Christ by vertue of our Union with him it is Evangelical Grace if it be not it is either nothing or somewhat of another Nature and Kind for Grace it is not nor Holiness neither And all that I have to prove herein is that the Lord Jesus Christ is an Head of Influence the Spring or Fountain of spiritual Life unto his Church wherein I know my self to have the Consent of the Church of God in all Ages And I shall confine the proof of my Assertion unto the ensuing Positions with their Confirmation Sect. 62 First Whatever Grace God promiseth unto any bestoweth on them or worketh in them it is all so bestowed and wrought in by and through Jesus Christ as the Mediatour or middle Person between God and them This the very Notion and Nature of his Office of Mediator and his Interposition therein between God and us doth require To affirm that any good thing any Grace any Vertue is given unto or bestowed on us or wrought in us by God and not immediately through Christ or that we Believe in God yield Obedience unto him or Praise with Glory not directly by Christ is utterly to overthrow his Mediation Moses indeed is called a Mediator between God and the People Gal. 3. 19. as he was an Internuntius a Messenger to declare the Mind of God to them and to return their Answers unto God but to limit the Mediatory Work of Christ unto such an Interposition only is to leave him but one Office that of a Prophet and to destroy the principal Uses and Effects of his Mediation towards the Church In like manner because Moses is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour or Redeemer Acts 7. 35. metaphorically with respect unto his Use and Employment in that mighty Work of the Deliverance of the People out of Aegypt some will not allow that the Lord Christ is a Redeemer in any other sence subverting the whole Gospel with the Faith and Souls of men But in particular what there is of this nature in the Mediation of Christ in his being the middle Person between God and us may be declared in the ensuing Assertions Sect. 63 1 God himself is the absolute infinite Fountain the supream efficient Cause of all Grace and Holiness For He alone is originally and essentially Holy as he only is Good and so the first Cause of Holiness and Goodness to others Hence he is called the God of all Grace 1 Pet. 5. 10. The Author Possessour and Bestower of it He hath Life in himself and quickeneth whom he pleaseth Joh. 5. 26. With him is the Fountain of Life Psal. 36. 9. as hath been declared before This I suppose needs no further Confirmation with them who really acknowledge any such thing as Grace and Holiness These things if any are among those perfect Gifts which are from above coming down from the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning Jam. 1. 17. Sect. 64 2 God from his own fullness communicates unto his Creatures either by the way of Nature or by the way of Grace In our first Creation God implanted his Image on us in Uprightness and Holiness in and by the making or Creation
Righteousness or Obedience antecedent unto Vnion with Christ is no especial Effect of his Spirit Wherefore in this case we must purifie our selves without any Application of the Blood of Christ unto our Souls and we must sanctifie our selves without any Especial Work of the Spirit of God on our Nature Let them that can satisfie themselves with these things for my part I have no esteem or valuation of that Holiness as Holiness which is not the immediate Effect of the Spirit of Sanctification in us 2. It is granted that Ordinarily the Lord Christ by the Dispensation of his Word by Light and Convictions thence ensuing doth prepare the Souls of men in some measure for the Inhabitation of his Spirit The Way and Manner hereof hath been fully before declared 3. It is denyed that on this Supposition the Lord Christ doth unite impure or ungodly Sinners unto himself so as that they should be so united and continue impure and ungodly For in the same instant whereby any one is united unto Christ and by the same Act whereby he is so united he is really and habitually purified and sanctified For where the Spirit of God is there is Liberty and Purity and Holiness All Acts and Duties of Holiness are in order of Nature consequential hereunto but the Person is quickened purified and sanctified in its Vnion Whereas therefore the Spirit of Christ communicated from him for our Vnion with him is the Cause and Author of all Grace and Evangelical Holiness in us it is evident that we receive it directly from Christ himself which gives it the Difference from all other Habits and Acts pleaded for Sect. 68 2 The second Work of the Spirit is to communicate all Grace unto us from Christ by vertue of that Vnion I shall take it for granted untill all that hath been before discoursed about the Work of the Holy Spirit in our Regeneration and Sanctification be disproved that he is the Author of all Grace and Holiness and when that is disproved we may part with our Bibles also as Books which do openly and palpably mislead us And what he so works in us he doth it in pursuit of his first Communication unto us whereby we are united unto Christ even for the Edification Preservation and further Sanctification of the Mystical Body making every Member of it meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And in those Supplyes of Grace which he so gives acted by us in all Duties of Obedience consists all the Holiness which I desire any acquaintance withall or a participation of Sect. 69 3 There is a mystical spiritual Body whereof Christ is the Head and his Church are the Members of it There is therefore an Union between them in things spiritual like unto that which is between the head and members of the Body of a Man in things natural And this the Scripture because of the Weight and Importance of it with its singular Use unto the Faith of Believers doth frequently express God hath given him to be the head over all things to the Church which is his Body the Fulness of him that filleth all in all Ephes. 1. 22 23. For as the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that Body being many are one Body so also is Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. Christ is the Head from whom the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every Joynt supplyeth according to the ehe effectual working of every part maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying of it self in Love Ephes. 4. 15 16. And the same Apostle speaks again to the same purpose Col. 2. 19. Not holding the Head from which the Body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Now it hath been alwayes granted by all them who acknowledge the Divine Person of the Son of God or the Union of the Humane Nature unto the Divine in his Person that the Lord Jesus is the Head of his Church in the double sence of that word For he is the Political Head of it in a way of Rule and Government and he is the Really Spiritual Head as unto Vital Influences of Grace unto all his Members The Romanists indeed cast some disturbance on the former by interposing another immediate Ruling Governing Head between him and the Catholick Church yet do they not deny but that the Lord Christ in his own Person is yet the absolute supream King Head and Ruler of the Church And the latter the Socinians cannot grant for denying his Divine Person it is impossible to conceive how the Humane Nature subsisting alone by it self should be such an immense Fountain of Grace as from whence there should be an Emanation of it into all the Members of the mystical Body But by all other Christians this hath hitherto been acknowledged and therefore there is nothing belongs unto Gospel Grace or Holiness but what is Originally derived from the Person of Christ as he is the Head of the Church And this is most evidently expressed in the places before alleadged For 1 Cor. 12. 12. it is plainly affirmed that it is between Christ and the Church as it is between the Head and the Members of the same natural Body Now not only the whole Body hath guidance and direction in the disposal of it self from the Head but every Member in particular hath influences of Life actually and Strength from thence without which it can neither act nor move nor discharge its place or Duty in the Body So also is Christ saith the Apostle not only hath the whole mystical Body of the Church Guidance and Direction from him in his Laws Rules Doctrine and Precepts but spiritual Life and Motion also And so hath every Member thereof They all receive from him Grace for Holiness and Obedience without which they would be but withered and dead Members in the Body But he hath told us that because he liveth we shall live also Joh. 14. 19. For the Father having given him to have Life in himself Joh. 5. 26. whereon he quickeneth with spiritual Life whom he will v. 23. from that Fountain of spiritual Life which is in him supplyes of the same Life are given unto the Church and therefore because he liveth we live also that is a spiritual Life here without which we shall never live Eternally hereafter And Ephes. 4. 16. the Relation of Believers unto Christ being stated exactly to answer the Relation and Union of the Members of the Body unto the Head it is expressely affirmed that as in the Natural Body there are Supplyes of Nourishment and natural Spirits communicated from the Head unto the Members by the subserviency of all the parts of the Body designed unto that purpose to the Growth and Encrease of the whole in every part so from Christ the Head of the Church which he is in his Divine Person as God and Man there is a Supply of
Nature and Operations of the Holy Spirit of God Hence will it be undeniable manifest what a stranger this pretended Light is unto the true Spirit of Christ how far it is from being of any real Use to the Souls of Men yea how it is set up in opposition unto Him and his Work by whom and by which alone we become accepted with God and are brought unto the enjoyment of him Sect. 24 Fourthly There are moreover many hurtful and noxious Opinions concerning the Holy Ghost gone abroad in the World and entertained by many to the Subversion of the Faith which they have professed Such are those whereby his Deity and Personality are denyed About these there have been many contests in the World some endeavouring with Diligence and subtilty to promote the perverse Opinions mentioned others contending according to their Duty for the Faith once delivered unto the Saints But these Disputations are for the most Part so managed that although the Truth be in some of them strenuously vindicated yet the minds of Believers generally are but little edified by them For the most are unacquainted with the ways and Terms of arguing which are suited to convince or stop the mouths of gain-sayers rather than to direct the Faith of others Besides our Knowledge of things is more by their operations and proper Effects than from their own Nature and formal Reason Especially is it so in Divine Things and particularly with respect unto God himself In his own Glorious Being he dwelleth in Light whereunto no Creature can approach In the Revelation that he hath made of himself by the Effects of his Will in his Word and Works are we to seek after him By them are the otherwise invisible things of God made known his Attributes declared and we come to a better Acquaintance with him than any we can attain by our most diligent speculations about his Nature it self immediately So is it with the Holy Ghost and his Personality He is in the Scripture proposed unto us to be known by his Properties and Works Adjuncts and Operations by our Duty towards him and our Offences against him The due consideration of these things is that which will lead us into that assured knowledg of his Being and Subsistence which is necessary for the guidance of our Faith and Obedience which is the end of all these Enquiries Col. 2. 2. Wherefore although I shall by the way explain confirm and vindicate the Testimonies that are given in the Scripture or some of them unto his Deity and Personality yet the principal means that I shall insist on for the establishing of our Faith in him is the due and just Exposition and Declaration of the Administrations and Operations that are ascribed unto him in the Scriptures which also will give great Light into the whole Mystery and Oeconomy of God in the work of our salvation by Jesus Christ. Sect. 25 Fifthly The Principal Cause and Occasion of our present Undertaking is the open and horrible opposition that is made unto the Spirit of God and his Work in the World There is no concernment of his that is not by many derided exploded and blasphemed The very name of the Spirit is grown to be a reproach nor do some think they can more despightfully expose any to scorn than by ascribing to them a Concern in the Spirit of God This indeed is a thing which I have often wondred at and do continue still so to doe For whereas in the Gospel every thing that is Good Holy Praise worthy in any Man is expresly assigned to the Spirit as the immediate Efficient Cause and Operator of it and whereas the Condition of Men without him not made Partakers of Him is described to be reprobate or rejected of God and forreign unto any Interest in Christ yet many pretending unto the Belief and Profession of the Gospel are so far from owning or desiring a Participation of this Spirit in their own Persons as that they deride and contemn them who dare plead or avow any concern in him or his Works Only I must grant that herein they have had some that have gone before them namely the old scoffing Heathens For so doth Lucian in his Philopatris speak in imitation of a Christian by way of scorn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speak out now receiving Power or Ability of speaking from the Spirit or by the Spirit Certainly an attendance to the old Caution Si non caste tamen Caute had been needful for some in this Matter Could they not bring their own hearts unto a due Reverence of the Spirit of God and an endeavour after a Participation of his Fruits and Effects yet the things that are spoken concerning him and his Work in the whole New Testament and also in Places almost innumerable in the Old might have put a check to their publick Contemptuous Reproaches and scornful Mockings whilst they own those writings to be of God But such was his Entertainment in the World upon his first Effusion Acts 2. 13. Many Pretences I know will be pleaded to give Countenance unto this Abomination For First They will say it is not the Spirit of God himself and his works but the Pretence of others unto him and them which they so reproach and scorn I fear this Plea or Excuse will prove too short and narrow to make a Covering unto their Profaneness It is dangerous venturing with Rudeness and Petulancy upon holy things and then framing of Excuses But in Reproaches of the Lord Christ and his Spirit Men will not want their Pretences Joh. 10. 32. And the things of the Spirit of God which they thus Reproach scorn in any are either such as are truely and really ascribed unto him and wrought by him in the Disciples of Jesus Christ or they are not If they are such as indeed are no Effects of the Spirit of Grace such as he is not promised for nor attested to work in them that do believe as vain Enthusiasmes extatical Raptures and Revelations certainly it more became Christians Men professing or at least pretending a Reverence unto God his Spirit and his Word to manifest and convince those of whom they treat that such things are not Fruits of the Spirit but Imaginatiocs of their own then to deride them under the name of the Spirit or his Gifts Operations Do Men consider with whom and what they make bold in these things But if they be things that are real Effects of the Spirit of Christ in them that believe or such as are undeniably assigned unto him in the Scripture which they despise what remains to give countenance unto this daring Prophaneness Yea but they say Secondly It is not the real true Operations of the Spirit themselves but the false Pretensions of others unto them which they traduce and expose But will this warrant the Course which it is manifest they steer in Matter and Manner The same Persons pretend to believe in Christ and the
what I have to offer concerning these things consists upon the Matter solely in the Explication of those places of Scripture wherein they are revealed We must therefore consider 1. what we are taught on the part of God the Father with respect unto the Holy Spirit and his Work and 2. what relates immediately unto himself Sect. 2 First God's disposal of the Spirit unto his Work is five wayes expressed in the Scripture For he is said 1. to give or bestow Him 2. to send Him 3. to administer him 4. to pour him out 5. to put him on us And his own Application of Himself unto his Work is likewise five wayes expressed For he is said 1. to proceed 2. to Come or come upon 3. to fall on Men 4. to rest and 5. to depart These things containing the general Manner of his Administration and Dispensation must be first spoken unto Sect. 3 First He is said to be GIVEN of God that is of God the Father who is said to GIVE him in an especial manner Luk. 11. 13. Your Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Joh. 3. 34. He hath Given his Spirit unto us 1. Joh. 3. 24. Joh. 14. 16. The Father shall Give you another Comforter which is the Holy Ghost v. 26. And in answer unto this Act of God those on whom he is bestowed are said to Receive him Joh. 7. 39. This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should Receive 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have received the Spirit which is of God 2. Cor. 11. 4. if you have received another Spirit which you had not Reoeived Where the Receiving of the Spirit is made a matter Common unto all Beleivers So Gal. 3. 2. Acts. 8. 15 19. Joh. 14. 17. Chap. 20. 22. For these two Giving and Receiving are related the one supposing the other And this Expression of the Dispensation of the Holy Ghost is irreconcileable unto the Opinion before rejected Namely that he is nothing but a transient Accident or an Occasional Emanation of the Power of God For how or in what sense can an Act of the Power of God be Given by him or be Received by us It can indeed in no sense be either the Object of God's Giving or of our Receiving especially as this is explained in those other Expressions of the same thing before laid down and afterwards considered It must be somewhat that hath a Subsistence of its own that is thus Given and Received So the Lord Christ is frequently said to be Given of God and Received by us It is true we may be said in another sense to receive the Grace of God Which is the Exception of the Socinians unto this Consideration and the constant practice they use to evade plain Testimonies of the Scripture For if they can find any Words in them used elsewhere in another sense they suppose it sufficient to contradict their plain Design and proper meaning in an other place Thus we are exhorted not to receive the Grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6. 1. I Answer the Grace of God may be considered two Ways 1. Objectively for the Revelation or Doctrine of Grace as Tit. 2. 11 12. So we are said to Receive it when we believe and profess it in opposition unto them by whom it is opposed and rejected And this is the same with our Receiving the Word preached so often mentioned in the Scripture Acts 2. 41. James 1. 21 which is by Faith to give it Entertainment in our Hearts which is the meaning of the Word in this Place 2 Cor. 6. 1. Having taken the Profession of the Doctrine of Grace that is of the Gospel upon us we ought to express its Power in Holiness and suitable Obedience without which it will be of no use or Benefit unto us And the Grace of God is sometimes 2. take Subjectively for the Grace which God is pleased to Communicate unto us or gracious Qualities that he Works in our Souls by his Spirit In this sense also we are sometimes said to receive it 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou which thou didst not receive Where the Apostle speaketh both of the Gifts and Graces of the Spirit And the Reason hereof is because in the Communication of internal Grace unto us we contribute nothing to the Procurement of it but are merely capable recipient Subjects And this Grace is a Quality or Spiritual Habit permanent and abideing in the Soul But in neither of these senses can we be said to receive the Spirit of God nor God to Give him if he be only the Power of God making an Impression on our Minds and Spirits no more than a Man can be said to receive the Sun-beams which cause Heat in him by their Natural Efficacy falling on him Much less can the Giving and Receiving of the Spirit be so interpreted considering what is said of his being sent and his own Coming with the like Declarations of God's Dispensation of him whereof afterwards Sect. 14 Now this Giving of the Spirit as it is the Act of Him by whom he is Given denotes Authority Freedom and Bounty and on the Part of them that receive him Priviledge and Advantage 1. Authority He that gives any thing hath Authority to dispose of it None can give but of his own and that which in some sense he hath in his Power Now the Father is said to give the Spirit and that upon our Request as Luk. 11. 13. This I acknowledg wants not some Difficulty in its Explication For if the Holy Ghost be God himself as hath been declared how can he be said to be given by the Father as it were in a way of Authority But keeping our selves to the sacred Rule of Truth we may solve this Difficulty without Curiosity or Danger Wherefore 1. the Order of the Subsistence of the three Persons in the Divine Nature is regarded herein For the Father as hath been shewed is the Fountain and Original of the Trinity the Son being of him and the Spirit of them both Hence he is to be considered as the principal Author and Cause of all those works which are immediately wrought by either of them For of whom the Son and Spirit have their Essence as to their Personality from him have they Life and Power of Operation Joh. 5. 19 26. Therefore when the Holy Spirit comes unto any the Father is said to Give him for he is the Spirit of the Father And this Authority of the Father doth immediately respect the Work it self and not the Person Working But the Person is said to be given for the Works sake 2. The Oeconomy of the Blessed Trinity in the Work of our Redemption and Salvation is respected in this Order of things The Fountain hereof lies in the Love Wisdom Grace and Counsel of the Father Whatever is done in the pursuit hereof is originally the Gift of the Father because it is
declares That the Holy Spirit gave out various Gifts unto the first Preachers of the Gospel for the confirmation of their Doctrine according to the Promise of our Saviour John 15. 26 27. Of these he mentions in particular First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Signs That is Miraculous Works wrought to signifie the Presence of God by his Power with them that wrought them so giving out his Approbation of the Doctrine which they taught Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prodigies or Wonders Works beyond the Power of Nature or energie of Natural Causes wrought to fill Men with Wonder and Admiration manifesting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and surprizing Men with a sense of the Presence of God Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mighty Works of several sorts such as opening of the Eyes of the Blind raising the Dead and the like These being mentioned there is added in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gifts of the Holy Ghost For these and other like things did the Holy Ghost work and effect to the end mentioned And these Distributions are from him as the Signs and Wonders were that is Effects of his Power only there is added an intimation how they are all wrought by him which is by giving them a power for their Operation variously dividing them amongst those on whom they were bestowed and that as it is added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according unto his own Will And this place is so directly and fully expounded 1 Cor. 12. 7 8 9 10 11. that there is no room of exception left unto the most obstinate And that place having been opened before in the entrance of this Discourse I shall not here call it over again These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore are his Gifts which as Parts and Parcels of his Work he giveth out in great variety To the same purpose are his Operations described Isa. 11. 2 3. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and of Might the Spirit of Knowledg and of the Fear of the Lord. He is first called the Spirit of the Lord to express his Being and Nature and then he is termed the Spirit of Wisdom and of Counsel c. That is He who is the Author of Wisdom and Counsel and the rest of the Graces mentioned who divides and distributes them according to his own Will That variety of Gifts and Graces wherewith Believers are endowed and adorned are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Distributions of the Holy Spirit Hence the principal respect that we have unto him immediately in our Worship of him under the New Testament is as he is the Author of these various Gifts and Graces So John saluting the Churches of Asia prayeth for Grace for them from God the Father and the seven Spirits that are before his Throne Rev. 1. 4. That is the Holy Spirit of God considered in his care of the Church and his yielding supplies unto it as the Author of that Perfection of Gifts and Graces which are and are to be bestowed upon it So doth the number of Seven denote And therefore whereas our Lord Jesus Christ as the Foundation of his Church was anointed with all the Gifts and Graces of the Spirit in their Perfection it is said that upon that one Stone should be seven Eyes Zech. 3. 9. all the Gifts of the Seven Spirits of God or of that Holy Spirit which is the Author of them all Sect. 21 All therefore that is pleaded for the Division of the Holy Ghost from this place is built on the Supposition that we have before rejected namely that he is not a Divine Person but an Arbitrary Emanation of Divine Power and yet neither so can the division of the Holy Ghost pleaded for be with any tolerable sense maintained Crellius sayes indeed that all Divine Inspirations may be considered as one Whole as many Waters make up one Sea In this respect the Holy Ghost is One that is one Universal made up of many Species this is totum logicum And so He may be divided into his Subordinate Species But what Ground or Colour is there for any such Notions in the Scripture Where is it said that all the Gifts of the Holy Ghost do constitute or make up one Holy Ghost Or the Holy Ghost is one in general because many Effects are ascribed unto him Or that the several Gifts of the Spirit are so many distinct kinds of it The contrary unto all these is expresly taught namely that the One Holy Spirit worketh all these things as he pleaseth so that they are all of them external Acts of his Will and Power And it is to as little purpose pleaded by the same Author that he is divided as a Natural Whole into its Parts because there is mention of a Measure and Portion of him So God is said not to give him to Jesus Christ by Measure John 3. 34. And to every one of us is given Grace according to the Measure of the Gift of Christ as though one Measure of him were granted unto One and another Measure to another But this Measure is plainly of his Gifts and Graces These were bestowed on the Lord Christ in all their fulness without any limitation either as to Kinds or Degrees They were poured into him according unto the utmost extent and capacity of Humane Nature and that under an inconceivable advancement by its Union unto the Son of God Others receive his Gifts and Graces in limited proportion both as to their Kinds and Degrees To turn into a Division of the Spirit himself is the greatest madness And casting aside Prejudices there is no difficulty in the understanding of that saying of God to Moses Numb 11. 17. I will take of the Spirit that is on thee and put it on the Elders For it is evidently of the Gifts of the Spirit enabling Men for Rule and Government that God speaketh and not of the Spirit himself Without any diminution of that Spirit in him that is of the Gifts that He had received God gave unto them as lighting their Candle by his And so also the double Portion of the Spirit of Elijah which Elisha requested for himself was only a large and peculiar measure of Prophetical Light above what other Prophets which he left behind him had received 2 Kin. 2. 9. He asked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 os duorum or duplex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Expression is first used Deut. 21. 17. where the double Portion of the First-Born is intended So that probably it was such a Portion among the other Prophets as the First-Born had among the Brethren of the same Family which he desired and so it came to pass whence also he had the Rule and Government of them BOOK II. Peculiar Operations OF THE HOLY SPIRIT UNDER THE Old Testament Preparatory for The NEW CHAP. I. 1. The Work of the
provoked to abolish the Scripture it self But the Sum and Substance of the Prophetical Work under the Old Testament with the Light Design and Ministry of the Prophets themselves are declared in those Words The Work was to give Testimony unto the Truth of God in the first Promise concerning the Coming of the Blessing Seed This was God's Method First He gave Himself immediately that Promise which was the Foundation of the Church Gen. 3. 15. Then by Revelation unto the Prophets he confirmed that Promise after all which the Lord Christ was sent to make them all good unto the Church Rom. 15. 8. Herewithal they received fresh Revelations concerning his Person and his Sufferings with the Glory that was to ensue thereon and the Grace which was to come thereby unto the Church Whilst they were thus employed and acted by the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of Christ they diligently endeavoured to come to an Acquaintance with the Things themselves in their Nature and Efficacy which were revealed unto them yet so as considering that not Themselves but some Succeeding Generations should enjoy them in their actual Exhibition And whilst they were intent on these things they searched also as far as intimation was given thereof by the Spirit after the Time wherein all these things should be accomplished both when it should be and what Manner of time it should be or what would be the State and Condition of the People of God in those Days This was the Principal End of the Gift of Prophecy and this the principal Work and Employment of the Prophets The first Promise was given by God in the Person of the Son as I have proved elsewhere Gen. 3. 15. But the whole Explication Confirmation and Declaration of it was carryed on by the Gift of Prophecy Sect. 6 The Communication of this Gift began betimes in the World and continued without any known interruption in the Possession of some one or more in the Church at all times during its Preparatory or subservivient Estate After the finishing of the Canon of the Old Testament it ceased in the Judaical Church until it had a revival in John the Baptist who was therefore Greater than any Prophet that went before because he made the nearest Approach unto and the clearest Discovery of the Lord Jesus Christ the End of all Prophecys Thus God spake by the mouth of his Holy Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 1. 70. that were from the Beginning of the World Adam himself had many things revealed unto him without which he could not have Worshipped God aright in that state and condition whereinto he was come For although his Natural Light was sufficient to direct Him unto all Religious Services required by the Law of Creation yet was it not so unto all Duties of that state whereinto he was brought by the giving of the Promise after the entrance of Sin So was he guided unto the Observance of such Ordinances of Worship as were needful for Him and accepted with God as were Sacrifices The Prophecy of Enoch in not only remembred but called over and recorded Jude 14. 15. And it s a matter neither curious nor difficult to demonstrate that all the Patriarchs of Old before the Flood were guided by a Prophetical Spirit in the Imposition of Names on those Children who were to succeed them in the sacred Line Concerning Abraham God expresly saith Himself that he was a Prophet Gen. 20. 7. that is One who used to receive Divine Revelations Sect. 7 Now this Gift of Prophecy was always the immediate Effect of the Operation of the Holy Spirit So it is both affirmed in general and in all the Particular Instances of it In the first way we have the Illustrious Testimony of the Apostle Peter 2 Epist. Chap. 1. v. 20 21. Knowing this first that no Prophecy of Scripture is of any Private Interpretation for the Prophecy came not in Old Time by the Will of Man but Holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost This is a Principle among Beleivers this they grant and allow in the first Place as that which they resolve their Faith into Namely that the sure word of Prophecy which they in all Things take heed unto v. 19. was not a fruit of any Mens private conceptions nor was Subject to the Wills of Men so as to attain it or exercise it by their own Ability But it was given by Inspiration from God 2 Tim. 3. 16 For the Holy Ghost by acting moving guiding the Minds of Holy Men inabled them thereunto This was the sole Fountain and Cause of all true Divine Prophecy thatever was given or granted to the Use of the Church And in particular the Coming of the Spirit of God upon the Prophets enabling them unto their Work is frequently mentioned Micah declares in his own Instance how it was with them all Chap. 3. 8. But truly I am full of Power by the Spirit of the Lord and of Judgment and of Might to declare unto Jacob his Transgression and to Israel his Sin It was from the Spirit of God alone that he had all his Ability for the discharge of that Prophetical Office whereunto he was called And when God would endow Seventy Elders with a Gift of Prophecy he tells Moses that he would take of the Spirit that was upon him and give unto them for that Purpose that is he would communicate of the same Spirit unto them as was in Him And where it is said at any time that God spake by the Prophets or that the Word of God Came to them of God spake to them it is always intended that this was the immediate Work of the Holy Ghost So says David of Himself The Spirit of the Lord spake by Me or in me and his word was in my Tongue 2 Sam. 23. 2. Hence our Apostle repeating his words ascribes them directly to the Holy Ghost Heb. 3. 7. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith to day if you will hear his voice and Chap. 4. 7. Saying in David So the Words which are ascribed unto the Lord of Hosts Isa. 6. 9. are asserted to be the Words of the Holy Ghost Acts 28. 25. He spake to them or in them by his holy Inspirations and he spake by them in his effectual infallible guidance of them to utter declare and write what they received from Him without Mistake or Variation Sect. 8 And this Prophesy as to its Exercise is considered two ways First precisely for the Prediction or foretelling things to Come as the Greek word and the Latine traduced from thence do signify So Prophecy is a Divine Prediction of future things proceeding from Divine Revelation But the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Prophet and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prophesy is not confined unto any such signification although Predictions from supernatural Revelation are constantly expressed by it But in general â—he word signifies no
the Humane Nature voluntary 7. The Holy Spirit the immediate efficient cause of all Divine Operations 8. He is the Spirit of the Son or of the Father 9. How all the Works of the Trinity are individed 10. The Body of Christ formed in the Womb by the Holy Ghost but of the Substance of the Blessed Virgin why this was necessary 11. Christ not hence the Son of the Holy Ghost according to the Humane Nature 12. Difference between the Assumption of the Humane Nature by the Son and the Creation of it by the Holy Ghost 13. The Conception of Christ how ascribed to the Holy Ghost and how to the Blessed Virgin Reasons of the Espousal of the Blessed Virgin to Joseph before the Conception of Christ. 14. The actual Purity and Holiness of the Soul and Body of Christ from his Miraculous Conception Sect. 1 THe Dispensation and Work of the Holy Ghost in this New Creation respect first the Head of the Church the Lord Jesus Christ in his Humane Nature as it was to be and was united unto the Person of the Son of God Secondly It concerns the Members of that Mystical Body in all that belongs unto them as such And under these two Heads we shall consider them Sect. 2 First Therefore we are to enquire what are the Operations of the Holy Ghost in reference unto Jesus Christ the Head of the Church And these were of two sorts 1. Such as whereof the Person of Christ in his Humane Nature was the immediate Object 2. Such as he performs towards others on his behalf that is with direct respect unto his Person and Office Sect. 3 But yet before we enter upon the first sort of his Works which we shall begin withal an Objection of seeming weight and Difficulty must be removed out of our way which I shall the rather do because our answer unto it will make the whole matter treated of the more plain and familiar unto us It may therefore be and it is Objected That whereas the Humane Nature of Christ is assigned as the immediate Object of these Operations of the Holy Ghost and that Nature was immediately inseparably and undividedly united unto the Person of the Son of God there doth not seem to be any need nor indeed room for any such Operations of the Spirit For could not the Son of God himself in his own Person perform all things requisite both for the forming supporting sanctifying and preserving of his own Nature without the especial Assistance of the Holy Ghost Nor is it easy to be understood how an immediate Work of the Holy Ghost should be interposed in the same Person between the one Nature and the other And this seeming Difficulty is vehemently pressed by the Socinians who think to intangle our whole Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity and Incarnation of the Son of God thereby But express Testimonies of Scripture with the clear and evident Analogie of Faith will carry us easily and safely through this seeming Difficulty To which End we may Observe That Sect. 4 1. The only singular immediate Act of the Person of the Son on the Humane Nature was the Assumption of it into Subsistence with Himself Herein the Father and the Spirit had no Interest nor concurrence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by Approbation and Consent as Damascen speaks For the Father did not assume the Humane Nature he was not Incarnate neither did the Holy Spirit do so But this was the Peculiar Act and Work of the Son See Joh. 1. 14. Rom. 1. 4. Gal. 4. 4. Phil. 2. 6 7. Heb. 2. 14. 17 which Places with many others to the same Purpose I have elsewhere expounded and vindicated from the Exceptions of the Socinians Sect. 5 2. That the only Necessary Consequent of this Assumption of the Humane Nature or the Incarnation of the Son of God is the Personal Union of Christ or the inseparable Subsistence of the assumed Nature in the Person of the Son This was necessary and indissoluble so that it was not impeached nor shaken in the least by the temporary dissolution of that Nature by the separation of the Soul and Body For the Union of the Soul and Body in Christ did not constitute him a Person that the Dissolution of them should destroy his Personality But he was a Person by the Uniting of both unto the Son of God Sect. 6 3. That all other Actings of God in the Person of the Son towards the Humane Nature were Voluntary and did not necessarily ensue on the Union mentioned For there was no Transfusion of the Properties of one Nature into the other nor real Physical Communication of Divine Essential Excellencies unto the Humanity Those who seem to contend for any such thing resolve all at last into a true Assignation by way of Predication as necessary on the Union mentioned but contend not for a real transfusion of the Properties of one Nature into the other But these Communications were Voluntary Hence were those temporary Dissations when under his great trial the Humane Nature complained of its desertion and Dereliction by the Divine Matth. 27. 46. For this forsaking was not as to Personal Union or necessary Subsistence and supportment but as to Voluntary Communications of Light and Consolation Hence himself declares that the Humane Nature was not the Residential Subject of Omnisciency For so he speaks Mark 13. 32. But of that Day and that hour knoweth no Man no nor the Angels which are in Heaven neither the Son but the Father For the Exposition given by some of the Antients that the Lord Christ speaks not this absolutely but only that he knew it not to declare it unto them is unworthy of him For no more did the Father so know it seeing he hath not declared it But this was the Opinion only of some of them the more advised were otherwise minded He speaks of himself with respect unto his Humane Nature only And thereunto all Communications were Voluntary So after his Ascention God gave him that Revelation that he made to the Apostle Revel 1. 1. The Humane Nature therefore however inconceivably advanced is not the Subject of Infinite Essentially Divine Properties And the Actings of the Son of God towards it consequential unto its Assumption and that indissoluble subsistence in its Union which ensued thereon are Voluntary Sect. 7 4. The Holy Ghost as we have proved before is the immediate Peculiar Efficient Cause of all External Divine Operations for God Worketh by his Spirit or in him immediately applies the Power and Efficacy of the Divine Excellencies unto their Operation Whence the same Work is equally the Work of each Person Sect. 8 5. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son no less than the Spirit of the Father He proceedeth from the Son as from the Father He is the Spirit of the Son Gal. 4. 6. And hence is He the immediate Operator of all Divine Acts of the Son himself even on his own Humane Nature
or Representations of him are infused into the Minds of Men. The Papists would learn and teach him by Images the Work of Mens Hands and Teachers of Lies For besides that they are forbidden by God himself to be used unto any such purposes and therefore cursed with barrenness and uselesness as to any end of Faith or Holiness they are in themselves suited only to ingenerate low and carnal Thoughts in depraved superstitious Minds For as the Worshippers of such Images know not what is the proper Cause nor the proper Object of that Reverence and those Affections they find in themselves when they approach unto them and adore before them So the Apprehensions which they can have hereby tend but to the knowing after the flesh which the Apostle looked on as no part of his Duty 2 Cor. 5. 16. But the Glory of the Humane Nature as united unto the Person of the Son of God and ingaged in the discharge of his Office of Mediator consists alone in these eminent peculiar ineffable Communications of the Spirit of God unto him and his powerful Operations in him This is represented unto us in the Glass of the Gospel which we beholding by Faith are changed into the same Image by the same Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 18. Sect. 15 Our Lord Christ himself did foretel us that there would be great enquiries after him and that great Deceits would be immixed therewithal If saith he they shall say unto you He is in the Wilderness go not forth behold he is in the Secret Chambers believe it not Matth. 24. 26. It is not a Wilderness low persecuted unglorious and invisible Condition as to outward Profession that our Saviour here intendeth For himself foretold that his Church should be driven into the Wilderness and nourished there and that for a long season Rev. 12. 6. And where his Church is there is Christ for his Promise is to be with them and among them unto the end of the World Matth. 28. 20. Nor by Secret Chambers doth he intend those private places of meeting for security which all his Disciples for some hundreds of years were compelled unto and did make use of after his Apostles who met sometimes in an upper Room sometimes in the Night for fear of the Jews And such it is notorious were all the Meetings of the Primitive Christians But our Saviour here foretels the false wayes that some would pretend he is taught by and found in For first some would say he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Desart or Wilderness and if Men would go forth thither there they would see him and find him And there is nothing intended hereby but the ancient Superstitious Monks who under a pretence of Religion retired themselves into Desarts and Solitary Places For there they pretended great Intercourse with Christ great Visions and Appearances of him being variously deluded and imposed on by Satan and their own Imaginations It is ridiculous on the one hand and deplorable on the other to consider the woful Follies Delusions and Superstitions this sort of Men fell into Yet was in those dayes nothing more common than to say That Christ was in the Desart conversing with the Monks and Anchorites Go not forth unto them saith our Lord Christ for in so doing you will be deceived And again saith he If they say unto them he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Secret Chambers believe it not There is or I am much deceived a deep and mysterious Instruction in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies those secret places in an House where Bread and Wine and Cates of all sorts are laid up and stored This is the proper signification and use of the word What pretence then could there be for any to say that Christ was in such a place Why there insued so great a pretence hereof and so horrible a superstition thereon that it was of Divine Wisdom to foresee it and of Divine Goodness to forewarn us of it For it is nothing but the Popish Figment of Transubstantiation that is intended Christ must be in the secret Places where their Wafer and Wine was deposited that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concerning this saith our Saviour believe them not All Crafts and Frauds and bloody Violences will be used to compel you to believe a Christ in the Pix and Repository but if you would not be seduced believe them not Such are the false wayes whereby some have pretended to teach Christ and to learn him which have led them from him into hurtful Snares and Perdition The consideration that we have insisted on will guide us if attended unto a Spiritual and Saving Knowledg of him and we are to learn thus to know him Sect. 16 First That we may love him with a pure unmixed Love It is true it is the Person of Christ as God and Man that is the Proper and Ultimate Object of our Love towards him But a clear distinct Consideration of his Natures and their Excellencies is effectual to stir up and draw forth our Love towards him So the Spouse in the Canticles rendring a Reason of her intense Affections towards him sayes That he is White and Ruddy the chiefest of ten thousand that is perfect in the Beauty of the Graces of the Holy Spirit which rendred him exceeding amiable So also Psal. 45. 2. Would you therefore propose Christ unto your Affections so as that your Love unto him may be sincere and without corruption as it is required to be Ephes. 6. 24. that you may not lavish away the Actings of your Souls upon a false Object and think you love Christ when you love only the Imaginations of your own Breasts consider his Humane Nature as it was rendred beautiful and lovely by the Work of the Spirit of God upon it before described Do you love him because he was and is so full of Grace so full of Holiness because in him there was an All-fulness of the Graces of the Spirit of God Consider aright what hath been delivered concerning him and if you can and do on the account thereof delight in him and love him your Love is Genuine and Spiritual But if your Love be meerly out of an apprehension of his being now Glorious in Heaven and there able to do you Good or Evil it differs not much from that of the Papists whose Love is much regulated in its Actings by the good or bad painting of the Images whereby they represent him You are often pressed to direct your Love unto the Person of Christ and it is that which is your principal Duty in this World But this you cannot do without a distinct Notion and Knowledg of him There are therefore three things in general that you are to consider to this purpose 1. The Blessed Union of his two Natures in the same Person Herein he is singular God having taken that especial State on him which in no other thing or way had any Consideration This therefore is
Church They praying by his especial Guidance and Assistance say Come or Preachers say unto others Come and the Bride or the Body of the Church acted by the same Spirit joyn with them in this great Request and Supplication and thereunto all Believers are invited in the following words and let him that heareth say Come Sect. 10 All these things were necessary to be premised in general as giving some insight into the Nature of the Operations of the Holy Spirit in us and towards us And hereby we have made our Way plain to the consideration of his especial Works in the Calling Building and Carrying on the Church unto Perfection Now all his Works of this kind may be reduced unto three Heads 1. Of Sanctifying Grace 2. Of Especial Gifts 3. Of peculiar Evangelical Priviledges Only we must observe that these things are not so distinguished as to be negatively contradistinct to each other for the same thing under several Considerations may be all these a Grace a Gift and a Priviledg All that I intend is to reduce the Operations of the Holy Spirit unto these Heads casting each of them under that which it is most eminent in and as which it is most directly proposed unto us And I shall begin with his Work of Grace BOOK III. VVORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE New Creation BY REGENERATION CHAP. I. 1. The New Creation Compleated 2. Regeneration the especial Work of the Holy Spirit 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. Wrought under the Old Testament but clearly revealed in the New And 10 11 12. is of the same kind in all that are Regenerate 13 14. The Causes and Way of it being the same in all 15 16. It consisteth not in Baptism alone Nor 17 18. in a Moral Reformation of Life But 19 20. a New Creature is Formed in it whose 21 22. Nature is declared and 23. farther explained 24. Denial of the Original Depravation of Nature the Cause of many Noxious Opinions 25 26. Regeneration consisteth not in Enthusiaslick Raptures their Nature and Danger 27. The whole Doctrine necessary dâ—spised corrupted vindicated Sect. 1 WE have formerly declared the Work of the Holy Spirit in Preparing and Forming the Natural Body of Christ. This was the beginning of the New Creation the Foundation of the Gospel-State and Church But this was not the whole of the Work he had to do As he had provided and prepared the Natural Body of Christ so he was to prepare his Mystical Body also And hereby the Work of the New Creation was to be compleated and perfected And as it was with respect unto him and his Work in the Old Creation so was it also in the New All things in their first production had Darkness and Death upon them For the Earth was Void and without Form and Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep Gen. 1. 2. Neither was there any thing that had either Life in it or Principle of Life or any Disposition thereunto In this condition he moved on the prepared Matter preserving and cherishing of it and communicating unto all things a Principle of Life whereby they were animated as we have declared It was no otherwise in the New Creation There was a Spiritual Darkness and Death came by sin on all Mankind Neither was there in any Man living the least Principle of Spiritual Life or any Disposition thereunto In this State of things the Holy Spirit undertaketh to create a New World New Heavens and a New Earth wherein Righteousness should dwell And this in the first place was by his Effectual Communication of a New Principle of Spiritual Life unto the Souls of God's Elect who were the Matter designed of God for this Work to be wrought upon This he doth in their Regeneration as we shall now manifest Sect. 2 1. Regeneration in Scripture is every-where assigned to be the proper and peculiar Work of the Holy Spirit John 3. 3 4 5 6. Jesus answered and said unto Nicodemus Verily verily I say unto thee Except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Nicodemus saith unto him How can a Man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his Mothers Womb and be born Jesus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except a Man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit It was an ancient knowing Teacher of the Church of the Jews a Master in Israel whom our Blessed Saviour here discourseth withal and instructs For on the consideration of his Miracles he concluded that God was with him and came to enquire of him about the Kingdom of God Our Saviour knowing how all our Faith and Obedience to God and all our Acceptance with him depended on our Regeneration or being born again acquaints him with the necessity of it wherewith he is at first surprized Wherefore he proceeds to instruct him in the Nature of the Work whose necessity he had declared And this he describes both by the Cause and the Effect of it For the Cause of it he tells him it is wrought by Water and the Spirit By the Spirit as the Principal Efficient Cause and by Water as the Pledg Sign and Token of it in the initial Seal of the Covenant the Doctrine whereof was then preached amongst them by John the Baptist or the same thing is intended in a redoubâ—ed Expression the Spirit being signified by the Water also under which Notion he is often promised Sect. 3 Hereof then or of this Work the Holy Spirit is the Principal Efficient Cause whence he in whom it is wrought is said to be born of the Spirit v. 8. so is every one that is born of the Spirit And this is the same with what is delivered Chap. 1. v. 13. Who are born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God The Natural and Carnal Means of Blood Flesh and the Will of Man are rejected wholly in this Matter and the whole Efficiency of the New Birth is ascribed unto God alone His Work answers what-ever Contribution there is unto Natural Generation from the Will and Nature of Man For these things are here compared and from its Analogie unto Natural Generation is this Work of the pirit called Regeneration so in this place is the Allusion and Opposition between these things expressed by our Saviour That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit v. 6. And herein also we have a farther Description of this Work of the Holy Spirit by its Effect or the Product of it It is Spirit a new Spiritual Being Creature Nature Life as shall be declared And because there is in it a Communication of a new Spiritual Life it is called a Vivification or quickning with respect unto the State wherein all Men
are before this Work is wrought in them and on them Ephes. 2. 1 5. which is the Work of the Spirit alone for it is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing John 6. 63. see Rom. 8. 9 10. Titus 3. 4 5 6. where the same Truth is declared and asserted But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards Man appeared not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit which he shed on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Sect. 4 What we have frequently mentioned occurreth here expresly namely the whole Blessed Trinity and each Person therein acting distinctly in the Work of our Salvation The Spring or Fountain of the whole lyeth in the Kindness and Love of God even the Father Thereunto it is every-where ascribed in the Scripture see John 3. 16. Ephes. 1. 4 5 6. What-ever is done in the Accomplishment of this Work it is so in the pursuit of his Will Purpose and Counsel and is an Effect of his Love and Grace The procuring Cause of the Application of the Love and Kindness of God unto us is Jesus Christ our Saviour in the whole Work of his Mediation v. 6. and the immediate efficient Cause in the Communication of the Love and Kindness of the Father through the Mediation of the Son unto us is the Holy Spirit And this he doth in the Renovation of our Natures by the washing of Regeneration wherein we are purged from our sins and sanctified unto God Sect. 5 More Testimonies unto this purpose need not be insisted on This Truth of the Holy Spirit being the Author of our Regeneration which the Ancients esteemed a Cogent Argument to prove his Deity even from the the Greatness and Dignity of the Work is in words at least so far as I know granted by all who pretend to sobriety in Christianity That by some others it hath been derided and exploded is the occasion of this Vindication of it It must not be expected that I should here handle the whole Doctrine of Regeneration practically as it may be educed by Inferences from the Scripture according to the Analogie of Faith and the Experiences of them that believe It hath been done already by others My present aim is only to confirm the Fundamental Principles of Truth concerning those Operations of the Holy Spirit which at this day are opposed with violence and virulence And what I shall offer on the present Subject may be reduced unto the ensuing Heads Sect. 6 1. Although the Work of Regeneration by the Holy Spirit was wrought under the Old Testament even from the Foundation of the World and the Doctrine of it was recorded in the Scriptures yet the Revelation of it was but obscure in comparison of that Light and Evidence which it is brought forth into by the Gospel This is evident from the Discourse which our Blessed Saviour had with Nicodemus on this Subject For when he acquainted him clearly with the Doctrine of it he was surprized and fell into that enquiry which argued some amazement How can these things be But yet the Reply of our Saviour manifests That he might have attained a better acquaintance with it out of the Scripture than he had done Art thou saith he a Master in Israel and knowest not these things Dost thou take upon thee to Teach others what is their State and Condition and what is their Duty towards God and art ignorant thy self of so Great and Fundamental a Doctrine which thou mightest have learned from the Scripture For if he might not so have done there would have been no just cause of the Reproof given him by our Saviour For it was neither Crime nor Negligence in him to be ignorant of what God had not revealed This Doctrine therefore namely That every one who will enter into the Kingdom of God must be born again of the Holy Spirit was contained in the Writings of the Old Testament It was so in the Promises That God would circumcise the Hearts of his People that he would take away their Heart of Stone and give them a Heart of Flesh with his Law written in it and other wayes as shall be afterwards proved Sect. 7 But yet we see that it was so obscurely declared that the principal Masters and Teachers of the People knew little or nothing of it Some indeed would have this Regeneration if they knew what they would have or as to what may be gathered of their minds out of their great swelling words of vanity to be nothing but Reformation of Life according to the Rules of the Scripture But Nicodemus knew the necessity of Reformation of Life well enough if he had ever read either Moses or the Prophets And to suppose that our Lord Jesus Christ proposed unto him the thing which he knew perfectly well only under a new Name or Notion which he had never heard of before So to take an advantage of charging him with being ignorant of what indeed he full well knew and understood is a blasphemous Imagination How they can free themselves from the Guilt hereof who look on Regeneration as no more but a Metaphorical Expression of Amendment of Life I know not And if it be so if there be no more in it but as they love to speak becoming a new Moral Man a thing which all the World Jews and Gentiles understood our Lord Jesus was so far from bringing it forth into more Light and giving it more perspicuity by what he teacheth concerning Regeneration the Nature Manner Causes and Effects of it that he cast it thereby into more darkness and obscurity than ever it was delivered in either by Jewish Masters or Gentile Philosophy For although the Gospel do really teach all Duties of Morality with more exactness and clearness and press unto the Observance of them on motives incomparably more cogent than any thing that otherwise ever befel the Mind of Man to think or apprehend yet if it must be supposed to intend nothing else in its Doctrine of the New Birth or Regeneration but those Moral Duties and their Observance it is dark and unintelligible I say if there be not a secret mysterious Work of the Spirit of God in and upon the Souls of Men intended in the Writings of the New Testament but only a Reformation of Life and the Improvement of Mens Natural Abilities in the Exercise of Moral Virtue through the Application of outward means unto their Minds and Understandings conducting and perswading thereunto they must be granted to be obscure beyond those of any other Writers whatsoever as some have not feared already to publish unto the World concerning the Epistles of Paul But so long as we can obtain an acknowledgment from Men that they are true and in any sense the Word of God we doubt not but to evince that the things intended in them are clearly and
of God and are by him made instrumental for the effecting of this New Birth and Life So the Apostle Paul stiles himself the Father of them who were Converted to God or Regenerate through the Word of his Ministry 1 Cor. 4. 15. Though you have ten thousand Instructers in Christ yet have you not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel He was used in the Ministry of the Word for their Regeneration and therefore was their Spiritual Father and he only though the Work was afterwards carried on by others And if Men are Fathers in the Gospel to no more than are Converted unto God by their Personal Ministry it will be no Advantage unto any one day to have assumed that Title when it hath had no Foundation in that Work as to its effectual success So speaking of Onesimus who was Converted by him in Prison he calls him his Son whom he had begotten in his Bonds Philem. 10. and this he declared to have been prescribed unto him as the Principal End of his Ministry in the Commission he had for Preaching the Gospel Acts 26. 17 18. Christ said unto him I send thee unto the Gentiles to open their Eyes to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God which is a Description of the Work under Consideration And this is the principal End of our Ministry also Now certainly it is the Duty of Ministers to understand the Work about which they are employed as far as they are able that they may not Work in the Dark and Fight Uncertainly as Men beating the Air What the Scripture hath revealed concerning it as to its Nature and the manner of its Operation as to its Causes Effects Fruits Evidences they ought diligently to enquire into To be spiritually skilled herein is one of the principal Furnishments of any for the Work of the Ministry without which they will never be able to divide the Word aright nor shew themselves Workmen that need not be ashamed Yet is it scarcely imaginable with what rage and perversity of Spirit with what scornful Expressions this whole Work is traduced and exposed to contempt Those who have laboured herein are said to prescribe long and tedious trains of Conversion to set down nice and subtile Processes of Regeneration to fill Peoples Heads with innumerable Swarms of Superstitious Fears and Scruples about the due Degrees of Godly Sorrow and the certain Symptoms of a through-Humiliation p. 306 307. Could any mistake be charged on particular Persons in these things or the prescribing of Rules about Conversion to God and Regeneration that are not warranted by the Word of Truth it were not amiss to reflect upon them and refute them But the intention of these Expressions is evident and the reproach in them is cast upon the Work of God it self And I must profess that I believe the Degeneracy from the Truth and Power of Christian Religion the Ignorance of the principal Doctrines of the Gospel and that scorn which is cast in these and the like Expressions on the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ by such as not only profess themselves to be Ministers but of an higher Degree than ordinary will be sadly ominous unto the whole State of the Reformed Church amongst us if not timely repressed and corrected But what at present I affirm in this Matter is That it is a Duty indispensibly incumbent on all Ministers of the Gospel to acquaint themselves throughly with the Nature of this Work that they may be able to comply with the Will of God and Grace of the Spirit in the Effecting and Accomplishment of it upon the Souls of them unto whom they dispense the Word Neither without some competent knowledg hereof can they discharge any one part of their Duty and Office in a right manner If all that hear them are born dead in Trespasses and Sins if they are appointed of God to be the Instruments of their Regeneration It is a madness which must one day be accounted for to neglect a sedulous enquiry into the Nature of this Work and the means whereby it is wrought And the ignorance hereof or negligence herein with the want of an Experience of the Power of this Work in their own Souls is one great cause of that lifeless and unprofitable Ministry which is among us Sect. 27 Secondly It is likewise the Duty of all to whom the Word is Preached to enquire also into it It is unto such to whom the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith prove your own selves know you not your own Selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be Reprobates It is the Concernment of all individual Christians or Professors of Christian Religion to try and examine themselves what Work of the Spirit of God there hath been upon their hearts and none will deter them from it but those who have a design to hoodwink them to Perdition And 1. the Doctrine of it is revealed and taught us For secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our Children for ever that we may do all the Words of the Law Deut. 29. 29. And we speak not of curious Enquiries into or after hidden things or the secret veiled Actions of the Holy Spirit but only of an upright endeavour to search into and comprehend the Doctrine concerning this Work to this very end that we might understand it 2. It is of such Importance unto all our Duties and all our Comforts to have a due Apprehension of the Nature of this Work and of our own Concernment therein that an enquiry into the one and the other cannot be neglected without the greatest folly and madness Whereunto we may add 3. the danger that there is of Mens being deceived in this Matter which is the Hinge whereon their Eternal State and Condition doth absolutely turn and depend And certain it is that very many in the World do deceive themselves herein For they evidently live under one of these pernicious Mistakes namely That 1. either Men may go to Heaven or enter into the Kingdom of God and not be born again contrary to that of our Saviour John 3. 6. or that Men may be born again and yet live in sin contrary to 1 John 3. 9. Works of the HOLY SPIRIT Preparatory unto Regeneration CHAP. II. 1. Sundry things Preparatory to the Work of Conversion 2. Material and Formal Dispositions with their Difference 3 4. Things in the power of our Natural Abilities required of us in a way of Duty 5. Internal Spiritual Effects wrought in the Souls of Men by the Word 6 7. Illumination Conviction of Sin Consequents thereof 8. These Things variously taught 9. Power of the Word and Energie of the Spirit distinct 10. Subject of this Work Mind Affections and Conscience 11 12 13. Nature of this whole Work and Difference from Saving
common means of it For he will both glorifie his Word thereby and give out Pledges of 〈◊〉 Approbation of our Obedience unto his Commands and Institutions Sect. 5 Secondly There are certain internal Spiritual 〈…〉 in and upon the Souls of Men whereof the Word 〈…〉 the immediate instrumental Cause which ordinarily do precâ—de the Work of Regeneration or real Conversion unto God And they are reduceâ—◠〈◊〉 to three Heads 1. Illumination 2. Conviction 3. Refâ—â—â—â— The first of these respects the Mind only the second the Minâ—â—â—â—â—â—science and Affections and the third the Life and Conversation Sect. 6 The first is Illumination of whose Nature and Causes we must afterwards treat distinctly At present I shall only consider it as it is ordinarily previous unto Regeneration and materially disposing the Mind thereunto Now all the Light which by any means we attain unto or Knowledg that we have in or about Spiritual Things things of supernatural Revelation come under this Denomination of Illumination And hereof there are three Degrees 1. That which ariseth meerly from an industrious Application of the Rational Faculties of our Souls to know perceive and understand the Doctrines of Truth as revealed unto us For hereby much knowledg of Divine Truth may be obtained which others through their negligence sloth and pride are unacquainted with And this knowledg I refer unto Illumination that is a Light superadded to the innate conceptions of Mens Minds and beyond what of themselves they can extend unto because it is concerning such things as the heart of Man could never of it self conceive but the very knowledg of them is communicated by their Revelation 1 Cor. 2. 9 11. And the reason why so very few do exercise themselves to the attaining of this Knowledg according to their Abilities is because of the Enmity which is in the Carnal Minds of all Men by Nature unto the things themselves that are revealed And within the compass of this Degree I comprize all knowledg of Spiritual Things that is merely Natural 2. There is an Illumination which is an especial Effect of the Holy Ghost by the Word on the Minds of Men. With respect hereunto some who fall totally from God and perish Eternally are said to have been once enlightned Heb. 6. 4. This Light variously affects the Mind and makes a great Addition unto what is purely natural or attainable by the meer exercise of our Natural Abilities Sect. 7 For 1. it adds Perspicuity unto it making the things discerned in it more clear and perspicuous to the Mind Hence Men endowed with it are said to know the Way of Righteousness 2 Pet. 2. 21. clearly and distinctly to apprehend the Doctrine of the Gospel as the way of Righteousness They know it not only or meerly as true but as a way of Righteousness namely the way of God's Righteousness which is therein revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1. 17. and the way of Righteousness for sinners in the sight of God Rom. 10. 3 4. 2. It adds a greater Assent unto the Truth of the things revealed than meer natural Reason can rise up unto Hence those thus Illuminated are frequently said to believe their Faith being only the naked Assent of their Minds unto the Truth revealed to them So it is said of Simon the Magician Acts 8. 12. and of sundry of the Jews John 2. 23 24. Chap. 12. 42. 3. It adds unto them some kind of evanid Joy These receive the Word with Joy and yet have no Root in themselves Luke 18. 13. They rejoyce in the Light of it at least for a Season Joh. 5. 35. Persons that are thus enlightned will be variously affected with the Word so as they are not whose Natural Faculties are not Spiritually Excited 4. It adds oft-times Gifts also wherof this Spiritual Light is as it were the common Matter which in Exercise is formed and fashioned in great variety I say this kind of Spiritual Light the Effect of this Ilumination is the Subject Matter and contains in it the Substance of all Spiritual Gifts One sort of Gift it is when put forth and exercised in one way or one kind of Duty and another as in another And where it is improved into Gifts which principally it is by Exercise there it wonderfully affects the Mind and raiseth its Apprehensions in and of Spiritual Things Now concerning this Degree of Illumination I say 1. That it is not Regeneration nor doth it consist therein nor doth necessarily or infallibly ensue upon it A third Degree is required thereunto which we shall afterwards explain Many therefore may be thus enlightned and yet never be converted 2. That in order of Nature it is previous unto a full and real Conversion to God and is materially preparatory and dispositive thereunto For Saving Grace enters into the Soul by Light As it is therefore a Gift of God so it is the Duty of all Men to labour after a participation of it however by many it be abused Sect. 8 Secondly Conviction of Sin is another Effect of the Preaching of the Word antecedaneous unto real Conversion to God This in general the Apostle describes 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. If ye prophesie and one cometh in who believeth not he is convinced of all and thus are the Secrets of his Heart made manifest and so falling down on his Face he will Worship God And sundry things are included herein or do accompany it As 1. a disquieting sense of the guilt of Sin with respect unto the Law of God with his Threatnings and future Judgments Things that before were slighted and made a mock of do now become the Soul's Burthen and constant Disquietment Fools make a mock of Sin they traverse their ways and snuff up the Wind like the wild Ass but in their Month when Conviction hath burthened them you may find them And hereby are the Minds of Men variously affected with fears and anguish in various degrees according as Impressions are made upon them by the Word And these Degrees are not prescribed as necessary Duties unto Persons under their Conversions but only described as they usually fall out to the relief and direction of such as are concerned in them As a Man going to give Directions unto another how to guide his Course in a Voyage at Sea he tells him That in such a place he will meet with Rocks and Shelves Storms and cross Winds so that if he Steer not very heedfully he will be in danger to miscarry and to be cast away He doth not prescribe it unto him as his Duty to go among such Rocks and into such Storms but only directs him how to guide himself in them where he doth meet with them as assuredly he will if he miss not his proper Course 2. Sorrow or Grief for Sin committed because past and irrecoverable which is the formal Reason of this condemning Sorrow This the Scripture calls sorrow of the World 2 Cor. 7. 10. Divines usually legal sorrow as that
thereunto So that to say there is no Disposition unto Spiritual Life in any Unregenerate Person is to make them all equal which is contrary to Experience Answ. 1. There is no doubt but that Unregenerate Men may perform many external Duties which are good in themselves and lie in the order of the outward Disposal of the means of Conversion Nor is it questioned but they may have real Designs Desires and Endeavours after that which is presented unto them as their chiefest Good But so far as these Desires or Actings are meerly Natural there is no Disposition in them unto Spiritual Life or that which is Spiritually Good So far as they are Supernatural they are not of themselves For 2. Although there are no preparatory Inclinations in Men yet there are preparatory Works upon them Those who have not the Word yet may have Convictions of Good and Evil from the Authority of God in their Consciences Rom. 2. 14 15. And the Law in the Dispensation of it may work Men unto many Duties of Obedience much more may the Gospel so do But what-ever Effects are hereby produced they are wrought by the Power of God exerted in the Dispensation of the Word They are not educed out of the natural Faculties of the Minds of Men but are Effects of the Power of God in them and upon them For we know that in the flesh there dwelleth no good thing And all Unregenerate Men are no more for that which is born of the flesh is flesh 3. The Actings thus effected and produced in Men Unregenerate are neither Fruits of nor Dispositions unto Spiritual Life Men that are spiritually dead may have Designs and Desires to free themselves from dying Eternally but such a desire to be saved is no saving Disposition unto Life The Nature Causes and Means of Regeneration CHAP. V. 1. Description of the State of Nature necessary unto a right understanding of the Work of the Spirit in Regeneration 2. No possibility of Salvation unto Persons living and dying in a state of Sin 3. Deliverance from it by Regeneration only 4. The Holy Ghost the peculiar Author of this Work 5. Differences about the Manner and Nature of it 6. Way of the Ancients in explaining the Doctrine of Grace the present Method proposed 7. Conversion not wrought by Moral Swasion only 8 9 10. The Nature and Efficacy of Moral Swasion wherein they consist 11. Illumination preparatory unto Conversion 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. The Nature of Grace morally effective only opened not sufficient of Conversion 19 20. The first Argument disproving the working of Grace in Conversion to be by Moral Swasion only 21 22. The Second 23 24. The Third 25. The Fourth 26 27 28. Wherein the Work of the Spirit in Regeneration positively doth consist the use and end of outward means 29. Real internal efficiency of the Spirit in this Work 30 31 32 33 34 35. Grace victorious and irresistible the Nature of it explained 36. Proved 37 38 39 40. The manner of God's working by Grace on our Wills further explained Testimonies concerning the Actual Collation of Faith by the Power of God 41 42 43 44. Victorious efficacy of internal Grace proved by sundry Testimonies of Scripture 45 46 47 48 49. From the nature of the Work wrought by it in Vivification and Regeneration 50 51 52 53 54. Regeneration considered with respect unto the distinct Faculties of the Soul The Mind 55. The Will 56 57. The Affections Sect. 1 UNto The Description we are to give of the Work of Regeneration the precedent account of the Subject of it or the State and Condition of them that are to be Regenerated was necessarily to be premised For upon the knowledg thereof doth a due Apprehension of the Nature of that Work depend And the occasion of all the Mistakes and Errors that have been about it eiâ—her of old or of late hath been a misunderstanding of the true state of Men in their lapsed condition or of Nature as depraved Yea and those by whom this whole Work is derided do now countenance themselves therein by their Ignorance of that state which they will not learn either from the Scripture or Experience For Natura sic apparet vitiata ut hoc majoris vitii sit non videre as Austin speaks It is an Evidence of the Corruption of Nature that it disenables the Minds of Men to discern their own Corruption We have previously discharged this work so far as it is necessary unto our present purpose Many other things might be added in the Explication of it were that our direct Design Particularly having confined my self to treat only concerning the Depravation of the Mind and Will I have not insisted on that of the Affections which yet is effectual to retain unregenerate Men under the Power of sin though it be far enough from Truth that the whole Corruption of Nature consists therein as some weakly and Athologically have Imagined Much less have I treated concerning that encrease and heightning of the Depravation of Nature which is attracted by a Custom of sinning as unto all the perverse Ends of it Yet this also the Scripture much insists upon as that which naturally and necessarily ensues in all in whom it is not prevented by the effectual transforming Grace of the Spirit of God And it is that which seals up the Impossibility of their turning themselves to God Jerom. 13. 23. Rom. 3. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19. But that the whole Difficulty of Conversion should arise from Mens contracting an Habit or Custom of sinning is false and openly contradictory to the Scripture These things are Personal Evils and befal Individuals through their own default in various Degrees And we see that amongst Men under the same use of means some are converted unto God who have been deeply immersed in an habitual course of open sins whilst others kept from them by the Influence of their Education upon their Inclinations and Affections remain uncoverted So was it of old between the Publicans and Harlots on the one hand and the Pharisees on the other But my design was only to mention that which is common unto all Or wherein all Men Universally are equally concerned who are partakers of the same Humane Nature in its lapsed Condition And what we have herein declared from the Scriptures will guide us in our Enquiry after the work of the Holy Spirit of Grace in our Deliverance from it Sect. 2 It is evident and needs no further confirmation that persons Living and Dying in this Estate cannot be saved This hitherto hath been allowed by all that are called Christians nor are we to be moved that some who call themselves so do begin to laugh at the disease and Despise the Remedy of our Nature Among those who lay any serious and real claim unto Christianity there is nothing more certain nor more acknowledged than that there is no Deliverance from a state of misery for those who
are not delivered from a state of sin And he who denies the necessary perishing of all that live and dye in the state of Corrupted Nature denies all the use of the Incarnation and Mediation of the Son of God For if we may be saved without the Renovation of our Natures there was no need nor use of the New Creation of all things by Jesus Christ which principally consists therein And if Men may be saved under all the Evils that came upon us by the fail then did Christ dye in vain Besides it is frequently expressed that Men in that state are Enemies to God alienated from him Children of Wrath under the Curse and if such may be saved so may Devils also In brief it is not consistent with the Nature of God his Holiness Righteousness or Truth with the Law or Gospel nor possible in the nature of the thing it self that such persons should enter into or be made possessors of Glory and Rest with God A Deliverance therefore out of and from this Condition is indispensibly necessary to make us meet for the inheritance of the Saints in Light Sect. 3 This Deliverance must be and is by Regeneration The Determinaof our Saviour is positive both in this and the necessity of it before asserted Joh. 3. 3. Except a Man be born again or from above he cannot see the Kingdom of God Whatever sense the Kingdom of God is taken in either for that of Grace here or of Glory hereafter it is all the same as unto our present purpose There is no Interest in it to be obtained no Participation of the Benefits of it unless a man be born again unless he be Regenerate And this Determination of our Saviour as it is absolute and decretory so it is applicable unto and equally comprizeth every Individual of mankind And the Work intended by their Regeneration or in being born again which is the Spiritual Conversion and Quickning of the Souls of Men is everywhere ascribed unto them that shall be saved And although Men may have through their ignorance and prejudices false Apprehensions about Regeneration and the Nature of it or wherein it doth consist yet so far as I know all Christians are agreed that it is the way and means of our Deliverance from the state of Sin or Corrupted Nature or rather our Deliverance it self For this both express Testimonies of Scripture and the Nature of the thing it self put beyond Contradiction Tit. 3. 3 4 5. And those by whom it is exposed unto scorn who esteem it a ridiculous thing for any one to enquire whether he be Regenerate or no will one day understand the necessity of it although it may be not before it is too late to obtain any Advantage thereby Sect. 4 The Holy Ghost is the immediate Author and Cause of this work of Regeneration And herein again as I suppose we have in general the Consent of all Nothing is more in words acknowledged than that all the Elect of God are sanctified by the Holy Ghost And this Regeneration is the Head Fountain or Beginning of our Sanctification virtually comprizing the whole in it self as will afterwards appear However that it is a part thereof is not to be denied Besides as I suppose it is equally confessed to be an Effect or Work of Grace the Actual Dispensation whereof is solely in the hand of the Holy Spirit This I say is in words acknowledged by all although I know not how some can reconcile this Profession unto other notions and sentiments which they declare concerning it For setting aside what Men do herein themselves and what others do towards them in the Ministry of the Word and I cannot see what remains as they express their loose Imaginations to be ascribed unto the Spirit of God But at present we shall make use of this general concession that Regeneration is the Work of the Holy Ghost or an Effect of his Grace Not that we have any need so to do but that we may avoid contesting about those things wherein Men may shrowd their false Opinions under general ambiguous Expressions which was the constant practice of Pelagius and those who followed him of Old But the Scripture is express in Testimonies to our purpose What our Saviour calls being born again John 3. 3. He calls being born of the Spirit ver 5. 6. because he is the sole principal efficient Cause of this new birth For it is the Spirit that quickneth Joh. 6. v. 63. Rom. 8. 11. And God saveth us according to his mercy by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. whereas therefore we are said to be born of God or to be begotten again of his own will John 1. 13. Jam. 1. 18. 1 John 3. 9. it is with respect unto the especial and peculiar Operation of the Holy Spirit Sect. 5 These things are thus far confessed even by the Pelagians themselves both those of old and those at present at least in general nor hath any as yet been so hardy as to deny Regeneration to be the Work of the holy Spirit in us unless we must except those deluded Souls who deny both him and his Work Our sole Enquiry therefore must be after the manner and nature of this work for the nature of it depends on the manner of the working of the Spirit of God herein This I acknowledg was variously contended about of old and the truth concerning it hath scarce escaped an open Opposition in any Age of the Church And at present this is the great Ball of Contention between the Jesuites and the Jansenists the latter keeping close to the Doctrine of the principal Ancient Writers of the Church the former under new Notions Expressions and Distinctions endeavouring the Reinforcement of Pelagianism whereunto some of the Elder School-Men led the way of whom our Bradwardine so long ago complained But never was it with so much Impotence and Ignorance traduced and reviled as it is by some among our selves For a sort of Men we have who by stories of wandring Jews Rhetorical Declamations pert Cavillings and proud Revilings of those who dissent from them think to scorn and banish Truth out of the World though they never yet durst attempt to deal openly and plainly with any one Argument that is pleaded in its defence and confirmation Sect. 6 The Ancient Writers of the Church who looked into these things with most diligence and laboured in them with most success as Austin Hilary Prosper and Fulgentius do represent the whole Work of the Spirit of God towards the Souls of Men under certain Heads or Distinctions of Grace And herein were they followed by many of the more sober School-Men and others of late without number Frequent mention we find in them of Grace as preparing preventing Working Co-working and Confirming Under these Heads do they handle the whole Work of our Regeneration or Conversion unto God And although there may be some Alteration in
it or not that is of the whole Effect on them or product in them of this Grace communicated in the way described For notwithstanding any thing wrought in us or upon us thereby the Will is still left various flexible and undetermined It is true that notwithstanding the Grace thus Administred the Will hath Power to refuse it and to abide in Sin But that there is no more Grace wrought in us but what may be so refused or that the Will can make use of that Grace for Conversion which it can refuse is false Sect. 20 For 1. this ascribes the whole Glory of our Regeneration and Conversion unto our selves and not to the Grace of God For that Act of our Wills on this Supposition whereby we convert unto God is meerly an Act of our own and not of the Grace of God This is evident for if the Act it self were of Grace then would it not be in the Power of the Will to hinder it 2. This would leave it absolutely uncertain notwithstanding the purpose of God and the purchase of Christ whether ever any one in the World should be Converted unto God or no. For when the whole Work of Grace is over it is absolutely in the Power of the Will of Man whether it shall be effectual or no and so absolutely uncertain which is contrary to the Covenant Promise and Oath of God unto and with Jesus Christ. 3. It is contrary to express Testimonies of Scripture innumerable wherein actual Conversion unto God is ascribed unto his Grace as the immediate Effect thereof This will further appear afterwards God worketh in us to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. The Act therefore it self of willing in our Conversion is of God's Operation and although we will our selves yet it is he who causeth us to Will by working in us to will and to do And if the Act of our Will in Believing and Obedience in our Conversion to God be not the effect of his Grace in us he doth not work in us both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Sect. 21 Secondly This Moral Perswasion how-ever advanced or improved and supposed to be effectual yet it confers no new real supernatural strength unto the Soul For whereas it worketh yea the Spirit or Grace of God therein and thereby by Reasons Motives Arguments and Objective Considerations and no otherwise it is able only to excite and draw out the strength which we have delivering the Mind and Affections from Prejudices and other Moral Impediments Real Aid and internal Spiritual Strength neither is nor can be conferred thereby And he who will acknowledg that there is any such internal spiritual strength communicated unto us must also acknowledg that there is another Work of the Spirit of God in us and upon us than can be effected by these Perswasions But thus it is in this case as some suppose The Mind of Man is affected with much Ignorance and usually under the Power of many Prejudices which by the corrupt course of things in the World possess it from its first actings in the state of Infancy The Will and the Affections likewise are vitiated with depraved Habits which by the same means are contracted But when the Gospel is proposed and preached unto them the Things contained in it the Duties it requires the Promises it gives are so rational or so suited unto the Principles of our Reason and the subject Matter of them is so good desirable and beautiful unto an intellectual Appetite that being well conveyed unto the Mind they are able to discard all the Prejudices and Disadvantages of a corrupt course under which it hath suffered and prevail with the Soul to desist from sin that is a course of sinning and to become a new Man in all vertuous Conversation And that this is in the Liberty and Power of the Will is irrefragably proved by that Sophism of Biel out of Scotus and Occam which contains the substance of what they plead in this Cause Yea thus to do is so suitable unto the rational Principles of a well-disposed Mind that to do otherwise is the greatest folly and madness in the World Especially will this Work of Conversion be unquestionably wrought if the Application of these means of it be so disposed in the Providence of God as that they may be seasonable with respect unto the Frame and Condition of the Mind whereinto they are applyed And as sundry things are necessary to render the means of Grace thus seasonable and congruous unto the present Frame Temper and Disposition of the Mind so in such a Congruity much of its Efficacy doth consist And this as it is said is the Work of the Holy Ghost and an Effect of the Grace of God For if the Spirit of God did not by the Word prevent excite stir up and provoke the Minds of Men did he not help and assist them when endeavouring to turn to God in the removal of Prejudices and all sorts of Moral Impediments Men would continue and abide as it were dead in Trespasses and Sins at least their endeavours after Deliverance would be weak and fruitless Sect. 22 This is all the Grace all the Work of the Spirit of God in our Regeneration and Conversion which some will acknowledg so far as I can learn from their Writings and Discourses But that there is more required thereunto I have before declared As also it hath been manifested what is the true and proper use and efficacy of these means in this Work But to place the whole of it herein is that which Pelagius contended for of old Yea he granted a greater Use and Efficacy of Grace than I can find to be allowed in the present confused Discourses of some on this Subject Wherefore it is somewhat preposterous to endeavour an imposition of such rotten Errors upon the Minds of Men and that by crude Assertions without any pretence of proof as is the way of many And that the sole Foundation of all their Harangues namely the suitableness of Gospel Principles and Promises unto our Wisdom and Reason antecedently unto any saving Work of the Spirit on our Minds is directly contradictory to the Doctrine of our Apostle shall afterwards be declared But it may be it will be said That it is not so much what is Pelagian and what is not as what is Truth and what is not that is to be enquired after And it is granted that this is and ought to be our first and principal Enquiry But it is not unuseful to know in whose steps they tread who at this day oppose the doctrine of the Effectual Grace of Christ and what Judgment the Ancient Church made of their Principles and Opinions Sect. 23 It is pretended yet further That Grace in the Dispensation of the Word doth work really and efficiently especially by illumination internal excitations of the Mind and Affections and if thereon the Will do put forth its
1. The Opposition is not ad idem The Enmity and Opposition that is acted by the Will against Grace is against it as objectively proposed unto it So do Men resist the Holy Ghost that is in the external Dispensation of Grace by the Word And if that be alone they may alwayes resist it the Enmity that is in them will prevail against it Ye alwayes resist the Holy Ghost The Will therefore is not forced by any Power put forth in Grace in that way wherein it is capable of making opposition unto it but the prevalency of Grace is of it as it is internal working really and physically which is not the Object of the Wills opposition for it is not proposed unto it as that which it may accept or refuse but worketh effectually in it Sect. 35 2. The Will in the first Act of Conversion as even sundry of the Schoolmen acknowledg acts not but as it is acted moves not but as it is moved and therefore is passive therein in the sense immediately to be explained And if this be not so it cannot be avoided but that the Act of our turning unto God is a meer natural Act and not spiritual or gracious For it is an Act of the Will not enabled thereunto antecedently by Grace Wherefore it must be granted and it shall be proved that in Order of Nature the Acting of Grace in the Will in our Conversion is antecedent unto its own acting though in the same instant of time wherein the Will is moved it moves and when it is acted it acts it self and preserves its own Liberty in its exercise There is therefore herein an inward almighty secret Act of the Power of the Holy Ghost producing or effecting in us the Will of Conversion unto God so acting our Wills as that they also act themselves and that freely So Austin cont Duas Epistol Pelag. lib. 1. cap. 19. Trahitur homo miris modis ut velit ab illo qui novit intus in ipsis cordibus hominum operari non ut homines quod fieri non possit nolentes credant sed ut volentes ex nolâ—ntibus fiant The Holy Spirit who in his Power and Operation is more intimate as it were unto the Principles of our Souls than they are to themselves doth with the Preservation and in the Exercise of the liberty of our Wills effectually work our Regeneration and Conversion unto God This is the substance of what we plead for in this Cause and which declares the Nature of this Work of Regeneration as it is an inward Spiritual Work I shall therefore confirm the Truth proposed with evident Testimonies of Scripture and Reasons contained in them or educed from them Sect. 36 1. The Work of Conversion it self and in especial the Act of believing or Faith it self is expresly said to be of God to be wrought in us by him to be given unto us from him The Scripture says not that God gives us Ability or Power to believe onely namely such a Power a we may make use of if we will or do otherwise but Faith Repentance and Conversion themselves are said to be the Work and Effect of God Indeed there is nothing mentioned in the Scripture concerning the communicating of Power remote or next unto the Mind of Man to enable him to believe antecedently unto actual believing A remote Power if it may be so called in the Capacities of the Faculties of the Soul the Reason of the Mind and Liberty of the Will we have given an account concerning But for that which some call a next Power or an ability to believe in order of Nature Antecedent unto Believing it self wrought in us by the Grace of God the Scripture is silent The Apostle Paul saith of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things or prevail in all things through Christ who enableth me where a Power or Ability seems to be spoken of antecedent unto Acting But this is not a Power for the first Act of Faith but a Power in them that believe Such a Power I acknowledg which is acted in the Co-operation of the Spirit and Grace of Christ with the Grace which Believers have received unto the performance of all Acts of Holy Obedience whereof I must treat elsewhere Believers have a stock of Habitual Grace which may be called Indwelling Grace in the same sense wherein Original Corruption is called Indwelling-Sin And this Grace as it is necessary unto every Act of Spiritual Obedience so of it self without the renewed Co-working of the Spirit of Christ it is not able nor sufficient to produce any Spiritual Act. This working of Christ upon and with the Grace we have received is called enabling of us But with Persons Unregenerate and as to the first Act of Faith it is not so Sect. 37 But it will be Objected That every thing which is actually accomplished was in potentia before There must therefore be in us a Power to believe before we do so actually Answ. The Act of God working Faith in us is a Creating Act. For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus Ephes. 2. 10. And he that is in Christ Jesus is a New Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. Now the effects of Creating Acts are not in Potentia any-where but in the Active Power of God so was the World it self before its actual existence This is termed Potentia Logica which is no more but a Negation of any contradiction to Existence not Potentia Physica which includes a disposition unto actual existence Notwithstanding therefore all these Preparatory Works of the Spirit of God which we allow in this Matter there is not by them wrought in the Minds and Wills of Men such a next Power as they call it as should enable them to believe without further Actual Grace working Faith it self Wherefore with respect to believing the first Act of God is to work in us to will Phil. 1. 13. He worketh in us to will Now to will to believe is to believe This God works in us by that Grace which Austin and the School-men call Gratia Operans because it worketh in us without us the Will being meerly moved and passive therein That there is a Power or Faculty of believing given unto all Men unto whom the Gospel is preached or who are called by the outward Dispentation of it some do pretend And that because those unto whom the Word is so Prâ—acâ—ed if they do not actually believe shall perish eternally as is positively declared in the Gospel Mark 16. 16. But this they could not justly do if they had not received a Power or Faculty of Believing Answ. 1. Those who believe not upon the Proposal of Christ in the Gospel are left without remedy in the guilt of those other Sins for which they must perish eternally If you believe not saith Christ that I am he you shall die in your sins John 8. 12. 2. The Impotency that is in Men as
their condition But when God is pleased to carry on his Work of Light and Grace in them they can call to mind and understand how it was with them in their former Darkness Then will they acknowledg that in Truth they never had serious steady thoughts of God but only such as were occasional and transient Wheresore God begins here with them and thereby to subduct them from under the absolute Power of the vanity of their Minds By one means or other he fixeth in them steady thoughts concerning himself and their relation unto him And there are several wayes which he proceedeth in for the effecting hereof As Sect. 13 1. By some sudden amazing Judgments whereby he revealeth his Wrath from Heaven against the ungodliness of Men Rom. 1. 18. So Waldo was affected when his Companion was stricken dead as he walked with him in the Fields which proved the occasion of his Conversion unto God So the Psalmist describes the Affections and Thoughts of Men when they are surprized with a Storm at Sea Psal. 107. 25 26 27 28. An instance whereof we have in the Mariners of Jona's Ship Chap. 1. 5 6 7. And that Pharaoh who despised one day saying Who is the Lord that I should regard him Being the next day terrified with Thunder and Lightning cries out Intreat the Lord for me that it may be so no more Exod. 9. 28. And such like Impressions from Divine Power most Men at one time or other have experience of 2. By Personal Afflictions Job 33. 19 20. Psal. 78. 34 35. Hos. 5. 15. Affliction naturally speaks Anger and Anger respects Sin It bespeaks it self to be God's Messenger to call Sin to remembrance 1 Kings 17. 8. Gen. 42. 21 22. The time of Affliction is a time of Consideration Eccles. 7. 14. And if Men be not obdurate and hardned almost unto practical Atheism by a course of sinning they cannot but bethink themselves who sends Affliction and for what End it is sent Hence great thoughts of the Holiness of God and of his hatred of Sin with some sense of Mens own Guilt and especial Crimes will arise And these Effects many times prove preparatory and materially dispositive unto Conversion And not what these things are in themselves able to operate is to be considered but what they are designed unto and made effectual for by the Holy Ghost 3. By remarkable Deliverances and Mercies So it was with Naaman the Syrian 2 Kings 2. 15 16 17. Sudden changes from great Dangers and Distresses by unexpected Reliefs deeply affect the Minds of Men convincing them of the Power Presence and Goodness of God And this produceth a sense and acknowledgment of their own unworthiness of what they have received Hence also some temporary Effects of submission to the Divine Will and Gratitude do proceed 4. An observation of the Conversation of others hath affected many to seek into the Causes and Ends of it And this inclines them unto imitation 1 Pet. 3. 1 2. 5. The Word in the Reading or Preaching of it is the principal means hereof This the Holy Spirit employeth and maketh use of in his entrance into this Work 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. For those Convictions befal not Men from the Word universally or promiscuously but as the Holy Spirit willeth and designeth It is by the Law that Men have the knowledg of Sin Rom. 7. 7. Yet we see by experience that the Doctrine of the Law is despised by the most that hear it Wherefore it hath not in it self a force or vertue alwayes to work conviction of Sin in them unto whom it is outwardly proposed Only towards some the Spirit of God is pleased to put forth an especial Energie in the Dispensation thereof Sect. 14 By these and the like means doth God oft-times put the wildness of Corrupted Nature unto a stand and stirs up the Faculties of the Soul by an effectual though not saving Impression upon them seriously to consider of its self and its Relation unto Him and his Will And hereby are Men oft-times incited and ingaged unto many Duties of Religion as Prayer for the Pardon of Sin with Resolutions of Amendment and although these things in some are subordinated unto a further and more effectual Work of the Spirit of God upon them yet with many they prove evanid and fading their Goodness in them being as a Morning Cloud or as the early Dew which passeth away Hos. 6. 4. And the Reasons whence it is that Men cast off these Warnings of God and pursue not their own Intentions under them nor answer what they lead unto are obvious For Sect. 15 1. The Darkness of their Minds being yet uncured they are not able to discern the true Nature of these Divine Intimations and Instructions but after a while regard them not or reject them as the Occasions of needless Scruples and Fears 2. Presumption of their present Condition that it is as good as it need be or as is convenient in their present Circumstances and Occasions makes them neglect the improvement of their Warnings 3. Profane Societies and Relations such as it may be scoff at and deride all tremblings at Divine Warnings with ignorant Ministers that undertake to Teach what they have not learned are great means of hardning Men in their Sins and of forfeiting the benefit of these Divine Intimations 4. They will as to all Efficacy and the Motions they bring on the Affections of Men decay and expire of themselves if they are not diligently improved Wherefore in many they perish through meer sloth and negligence 5. Satan applies all his Engines to the defeatment of these beginnings of any Good in the Souls of Men. 6. That which effectually and utterly overthrows this Work which causeth them to cast off these Heavenly Warnings is meer love of Lusts and Pleasures or the unconquered adherence of a corrupted Heart unto sensual and sinful Objects that offer present satisfaction unto its Carnal Desires By this means is this Work of the Spirit of God in the Hearts and Minds of many utterly defeated to the increase of their Guilt an addition to their natural hardness and the ruine of their Souls But in some of them he is graciously pleased to renew his Work and by more effectual means to carry it on to Perfection as shall be afterwards declared Sect. 16 Now there is scarce any of these Instances of the care and watchfulness of God over the Souls of Men whom he designs either to convince or convert for the Ends of his own Glory but the Holy Person whom we have proposed as an Example gives an account of them in and towards himself declaring in like manner how by the wayes and means mentioned they were frustrate and came to nothing Such were the Warnings which he acknowledged that God gave him by the Perswasions and Exhortations of his Mother lib. 2. cap. 3. Such were those which he had in Sicknesses of his own and in the death of his dear
Friend and Companion lib. 4. cap. 5 6 7. And in all the several Warnings he had from God he chargeth the Want and Guilt of their non-improvement on his natural blindness his Mind being not illuminated and the corruption of his Nature not yet cured with the efficacy of evil Society and the course of the World in the places where he lived But it would be tedious to transcribe the particular Accounts that he gives of these things though all of them singularly Worthy of Consideration For I must say that in my Judgment there is none among the Ancient or Modern Divines unto this day who either in the Declarations of their own Experiences or their Directions unto others have equalled much less out-gone him in an accurate search and observation of all the secret Actings of the Spirit of God on the Minds and Souls of Men both towards and in their Recovery or Conversion And in order hereunto scarce any one not Divinely Inspired hath so traced the way of the Serpent of the effectual working of Original Sin in and on the Hearts of Men with the efficacy communicated thereunto by various Temptations and Occasions of Life in this World The wayes also whereby the deceitfulness of Sin in complyance with objective Temptations doth seek to elude and frustrate the Work of God's Grace when it begins to attempt the strong holds of Sin in the Heart were exceedingly discovered unto him Neither hath any Man more lively and expresly laid open the Power of effectual and victorious Grace with the manner of its Operation and Prevalency And all these things by the guidance of the Good Spirit of God and attendance unto the Word did he exemplifie from his own Experience in the whole Work of God towards him Only it must be acknowledged that he declareth these things in such a way and manner as also with such Expressions as many in our dayes would cry out on as fulsome and fanatical Sect. 17 Secondly In the way of calling Men unto the saving Knowledg of God the Holy Spirit convinceth them of Sin or he brings them under the Power of a Work of Conviction It is not my Design nor here in my way to handle the Nature of the Work of Conviction the Means Causes and Effects of it Besides it hath been done at large by others It is sufficient unto my purpose 1. To shew the Nature of it in general 2. The Causes of it 3. The Wayes whereby Men lose their Convictions and so become more and more hardned in sin 4. How the Holy Spirit doth carry on the Work in some unto compleat Conversion unto God Sect. 18 1. For the Nature of it in general it consists in a fixing the vain Mind of a Sinner upon a due consideration of Sin its Nature Tendency and End with his own concernment therein and a fixing of a due sense of sin upon the secure Mind of the Sinner with suitable Affections unto its Apprehensions The Warnings before insisted on whereby God excites Men to some steady notices of him and themselves are like Calls given unto a Man in a profound sleep whereat being startled he lifts up himself for a little space but oppressed with the Power of his deep slumber quickly layes him down again as Austin expresseth it But this Work of Conviction abides with Men and they are no way able speedily to disintangle themselves from it Sect. 19 Now the Mind of Man which is the Subject of this Work of Conviction hath two things distinctly to be considered in it 1. The Understanding which is the active noetical or contemplative Power and Faculty of it 1. The Affections wherein its passive and sensitive Power doth consist With respect hereunto there are two parts of the Work of Conviction 1 The Fixing of the Mind the Rational contemplative Power of it upon a due Consideration of Sin 2 The fixing of a due sense of Sin on the practical passive sensible part of the Mind that is the Conscience and Affections as was said before Sect. 20 1. It is a great work to fix the vain Mind of an Unregenerate Sinner on a due Consideration of sin its nature and tendency The Darkness of their own mind inexpressible Vanity wherein I place the principal effect of our Apostacy from God do disenable hinder and divert them from such Apprehensions Hence God so often complains of the foolishness of the people that they would not consider that they would not be wise to consider their latter end We find by Experience this folly and vanity in many unto an Astonishment No reasons Arguments Entreaties by all that is naturally dear to them no Necessities can prevail with them to fix their minds on a due consideration of sin Moreover Satan now employs all his Engines to beat off the Efficacy and Power of this Work And when his Temptations and Delusions are mixed with Men's natural Darkness and Vanity the Mind seems to be impregnably fortified against the power of Conviction For although it be real Conversion unto God that overthrows the Kingdom of Satan in us yet this Work of Conviction raiseth such a Combustion in it that he cannot but fear it will be its End And this strong Man armed would if possible keep his Goods and House in peace Hence all sorts of persons have daily Experience in their Children Servants Relations how difficult yea how impossible it is to fix their Minds on a due Consideration of sin until it be wrought in them by the exceeding Greatness of the power of the Spirit of God Wherefore herein consists the first part of this Work of Conviction it fixeth the mind on a due Consideration of sin So it is expressed Psal. 51. 3. my sin is ever before me God reproves Men and sets their sins in order before their eyes Psal. 50. 21. Hence they are necessitated as it were always to behold them and that which way soever they turn themselves Fain they would cast them behind their backs or cast out thoughts of them but the Arrows of God stick in them and they cannot take off their Minds from their consideration And whereas there are three things in sin 1 The Original of it and its native inherience in us as Psal. 51. 5. 2 The state of it or the Obnoxiousness of Men to the Wrath of God on the Account thereof Ephes. 2. 1 2 3. 3 The particular sins of Mens Lives in the first part of the Work of Conviction the Minds of Men are variously exercised with respect unto them according as the Spirit of God is pleased to engage and fix them 2. As the Mind is hereby fixed on the Consideration of sin so a sense of sin must also be fixed on the Mind that is the Conscience and Affections A bare Contemplation of the Concernments of sin is of little use in this matter The Scripture principally evidenceth this work of Conviction or placeth it in this Effect of a sense of sin in Trouble Sorrow
Disquietment of Mind fear of Ruine and the like see Acts 2. 37. Acts 24. 25. But this I must not enlarge upon Sect. 21 This therefore is the second thing which we observe in God's gracious Actings towards the Recovery of the Souls of Men from their Apostacy and from under the Power of sin The principal efficient Cause of this Work is the Holy Ghost the preaching of the Word especially of the Law being the Instrument which he maketh use of therein The Knowledg of sin is by the Law both the Nature Guilt and Curse belonging to it Rom. 7. 7. There is â—herefore no Conviction of sin but what consists in an Emanation of Light and Knowledg from the Doctâ—ine of the Law with an Evidence of its Power and a sense of its Curse Other Means as Afflictions Dangers Sicknesses Fears Disappointments may be made use of to excite stir up and put an edge upon the Minds and Affections of Men yet it is by one means or other from the Law of God that such a discovery is made of sin unto them and such a sense of it wrought upon them as belongs unto this work of Conviction But it is the Spirit of God alone that is the principal efficient Cause of it or he works these effects on the Minds of Men. God takes it upon himself as his own work to reprove Men and set their sins in order before their eyes Psal. 50 21. And that this same Work is done immediately by the Spirit is expresly declared John 16. 8. He alone it is who makes all means effectual unto this End and Purpose Without his especial and immediate Actings on us to this End we may hear the Law preached all the Days of our Lives and not be once affected with it Sect. 22 And it may by the way be worth our Observation to consider how God designing the Calling or Conversion of the Souls of Men doth in this holy wise Providence over-rule all their outward Concernments so as that they shall be disposed into such Circumstances as conduce to to the end aymed at Either by their own Inclinations and Choice or by the Intervention of Accidents crossing their Inclinations and frustrateing their Designes he will lead them into such Societies Acquaintances Relations Places means as he hath ordained to be useful unto them for the great ends of their Conviction and Conversion So in particular Austin aboundeth in his Contemplation on the Holy Wise Providence of God in carrying of him from Carthage to Rome and from thence to Milan where he heard Ambrose preach every Lords-day which proved at length the Means of his through-Conversion to God And in that whole Course by his discourse upon it he discovers Excellently as on the one hand the variety of his own Projections and Designes his Aymes and Ends which oft-times were perverse and froward so on the other the constant guidance of divine Providence working powerfully through all Occurrences towards the blessed End designed for him And I no way doubt but that God exercised him unto those distinct Experiences of Sin and Grace in his own Heart and Wayes because he had designed him to be the great Champion of the Doctrine of his Grace against all its enemyes and that not only in his own Age wherein it met with a fierce Opposition but also in all succeeding ages by his Excellent Labours preserved for the use of the Church see Confess lib. 5. cap. 7. 8 9 c. Tu spes mea in terra viventium ad mutandum terrarum locum pro salute animae mea Carthagini stimulos quibus inde avellerer admovebas Romae illecebras quibus attraberer proponebas mihi per homines qui diligebant vitam mortuam hinc insana facientes inde vana pollicentes ad corrigendos gressus meos utebaris occulte illorum mea perversitate cap. 8. Thou who art my hope in the Land of the Living that I might remove from one Country to another for the Salvation of my Soul didst both apply goads unto me at Carthage whereby I might be driven from thence and proposedst Allurements unto me at Rome whereby I might be drawn thither and this thou didst by Men who loved the Dead Life in sin here doing things outragious there promising things desirable to vain Minds whilst thou to correct and reform my ways didst secretly make use of their frowardness and mine Sect. 23 3. It must be granted that many on whom this work hath been wrought producing great Resolutions of Amendment and much Reformation of Life do lose all the Power and Efficacy of it with all the impressions it had made on their Affections And some of these wax worse and more profligate in sinning than ever they were before For having broken down the Damm of their restraints they pour out their lusts like a Flood and are more senseless than ever of those Checks and Fears with which before they were bridled and awed 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. 22. So the person lately mentioned declares that after many Convictions which he had digested and neglected he was grown so obdurate and sensless that falling into a feaver wherein he thought he should die and go immediately unto Hell he had not that endeavour after Deliverance and Mercy as he had many years before on lesser dangers And this perverse Effect is variously brought about Sect. 24 1. It is with most an immediate product of the power of their own Lust. Especially is it so with them who together with their Convictions receive no Gifts of the Holy Ghost For as we observed their Lusts being only checked and controuled not subdued they get new strength by their Restraint and rebel with success against Conviction Such as these fall away from what they have attained suddenly Math. 13. 5. 21. One day they seem to lye in Hell by the Terror of their Convictions and the next to be hasting towards it by their sins and pollutions see Luke 11. 24 25 26. Hos. 4. 6. cap. 6. 4. 2. This Apostacy is promoted and hastned by others As 1. such as undertaking to be Spiritual Guides and Instructers of Men in their way towards Rest who being unskilful in the Word of Righteousness do heal their wounds slightly or turn them out of the way Seducers also it may be interpose their crafty deceits whereby they lye in wait to deceive and so turn Men off from those Good ways of God whereinto they would otherwise enter So it fell out with Austin who beginning somewhat to enquire after God fell into the society and heresy of the Manichees which frustrated all the Convictions which by any means he had received 2. Such as directly and that perhaps with importunity and violence will endeavour to draw Men back into the wayes of the World and the pursuit of their lusts Pro. 1. 11 12 13 14. So the same Person declares with what earnestness and restless importunities some of his Companions endeavoured to draw
which he gives unto his Wisdom Love and Grace with the excellency and certainty of the way of Salvation of Sinners by Jesus Christ which is to make God a Layar 1 Joh. 5. 10. Joh. 3. 32 33. 2. A Contempt of Love and Grace with the way and means of their communication to lost Sinners by the Blood of the Son of God which is the highest provocation that can be offered unto the Divine Majesty 4. In the Declaration of the Gospel the Lord Christ is in an especial manner proposed as crucified and lifted up for the especial Object of our Faith John 3. 14 15. Gal. 3. 1. And this Proposition of Christ hath included in it an Invitation unto all Convinced Sinners to come unto him for Life and Salvation Isa. 45. 2. Chap. 65. 1. 5. The Lord Christ being proposed unto Sinners in the Gospel and their acceptance or receiving of him being urged on them it is withal declared for what end he is so proposed And this is in general to save them from their Sins Mat. 1. 21. or the Wrath to come whereof they are afraid 1 Thess. 1. 10. For in the Evangelical Proposition of him there is included 1. That there is a Way yet remaining for Sinners whereby they may escape the Curse of the Law and the Wrath of God which they have deserved Psal. 130. 4. Job 33. 24. Acts 4. 12. 2. That the Foundation of these Wayes lies in an Atonement made by Jesus Christ unto the Justice of God and Satisfaction to his Law for Sin Rom. 3. 25. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Gal. 3. 13. 3. That God is well-pleased with this Atonement and his Will is that we should accept of it and acquiesce in it 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. Isa. 53. 11 12. Rom. 5. 10 11. 6. It is proposed and promised that through and upon their believing that is on Christ as proposed in the Gospel for the only way of Redemption and Salvation Convinced Sinners shall be pardoned justified and acquitted before God discharged of the Law against them through the imputation unto them of what the Lord Christ hath done for them and suffered in their stead Rom. 8. 3. 10. 3 4. 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Ephes. 2. 8 9 10. 7. To prevail with and win over the Souls of Men unto a consent to receive Christ on the Terms wherein he is proposed that is to believe in him and trust unto him to what he is hath done and suffered and continueth to do for pardon of Sin Life and Salvation the Gospel is filled with Arguments Invitation Incouragements Exhortations Promises all of them designed to explain and declare the Love Grace Faithfulness and good-Will of God herein In the due management and improvement of these parts of the Gospel consists the principal Wisdom and Skill of the Ministers of the New Testament 8. Among these various Ways or Means of the Declaration of himself and his Will God frequently causeth some especial Word Promise or Passage to fix it self on the Mind of a Sinner as we saw it in the Instance before insisted on Hereby the Soul is first excited to exert and act the Faith wherewith it is endued by the effectual working of the Spirit of God before described And by this means are Men directed unto Rest Peace and Consolation in that variety of Degrees wherein God is pleased to communicate them 9. This Acting of Faith on Christ through the Promise of the Gospel for Pardon Righteousness and Salvation is inseparably accompanied with and that Faith is the Root and infallible cause of an universal Ingagement of Heart unto all Holy Obedience to God in Christ with a Relinquishment of all known Sin necessarily producing a through-Change and Reformation of Life and Fruitfulness in Obedience For as upon a discovery of the Love of God in Christ the Promises whereby it is exhibited unto us being mixed with Faith the Soul of a poor Sinner will be filled with Godly Sorrow and Shame for its former Sins and will be deeply humbled for them so all the Faculties of it being now renewed and inwardly changed it can no more refrain from the Love of Holiness and from an Ingagement into a watchful course of Universal Obedience unto God by such free Actings as are proper unto it than one that is new born can refrain from all Acts of Life Natural In Motion desire of Food and the like Vain and foolish therefore are the Reproaches of some who in an high course of a Worldly Life and Profane do charge others with Preaching a Justification by Faith alone in Christ Jesus unto a neglect of Holiness Righteousness and Obedience of God which such Scoffers and fierce Despisers of all that are good do so earnestly plead for Those whom they openly reflect upon do unanimously teach That the Faith which doth not purifie the Heart and reform the Life which is not fruitful in good Works which is not an effectual Cause and Means of Repentance and newness of Life is not genuine nor pleadable unto Justification but empty dead and that which if trusted unto will eternally deceive the Souls of Men. They do all of them press the indispensible necessity of Universal Holiness Godliness Righteousness or Obedience to all the Commands of God on surer Principles with more cogent Arguments in a more clear compliance with the Will Grace and Love of God in Christ than any they pretend unto who ignorantly and falsly traduce them as those who regard them not And as they urge an Obediential Holiness which is not defective in any Duty either towards God or Man which they either plead for or pretend unto so it contains that in it which is more Sublime Spiritual and Heavenly than what they are either acquainted with or do regard which in its proper place shall be made more fully to appear Sect. 38 10. Those who were thus converted unto God in the Primitive Times of the Church were upon their Confession or Profession hereof admitted into Church-Society and a Participation of all the Mysteries thereof And this being the common way whereby any were added unto the Fellowship of the Faithfull it was an effectual Means of intense Love without dissimulation among them all on the account of their joynt Interest in the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I shall shut up this Discourse with one Instance hereof given us by Austin in the Conversion and Admission into Church-Society of Victorinus a Platonical Philosopher as he received the Story from Simplicianus by whom he was Baptized Ut ventum est ad horam profitendae fidei quae verbis certis retentisque memoriter de loco eminentiore in conspectu populi fidelis Romae reddi solet ab eis qui accessuri sunt ad gratiam tuam oblatum esse dicebat Victorino a Presbyteris ut secretius redderet sicut non nullis qui verecundia trepidaturi videbantur offerri mos erat illum autem maluisse salutem suam in
to undertake it for him and to acquaint him with it Psal. 139. 23 24. 2. There may be some perplexing Temptations befall the Mind of a Believer or some Corruption take advantage to break loose for a season it may be for a long season which may much gall the Soul with its suggestions and so trouble disturb and unquiet it as that it shall not be able to make a right Judgment of its Grace and Progress in Holiness A Ship may be so tossed in a storm at Sea as that the most skilfull Mariners may not be able to discern whether they make any way in their intended Course and Voyage whilest they are carryed on with Success and speed In such cases Grace in its Exercise is principally engaged in an Opposition unto its Enemy which it hath to conflict withall and so its thriving other wayes is not discernible If it should be enquired how we may discern when Grace is exercised and thrives in Opposition unto Corruptions and Temptations I say that as great Winds and Storms do sometimes contribute to the Fruit-bearing of Trees and Plants so do Corruptions and Temptations unto the Fruitfulness of Grace and Holiness The wind comes with violence on the Tree ruffles its boughs it may be breaks some of them beats off its Budds looseneth and shaketh its Roots and threatens to cast the whole to the ground But by this means the Earth is opened and loosed about it and the Tree gets its Roots deeper into the Earth whereby it receives more and fresh nourishment which renders it fruitfull though it bring not forth Fruit visibly it may be not till a good while after In the Assaults of Temptations and Corruptions the Soul is wofully ruffled and disordered its Leaves of Profession are much blasted and its beginnings of Fruit-bearing much broken and retarded but in the mean-time it secretly and invisibly casts out its roots of Humility Self-abasement Mourning in hidden and continual labouring of Faith and Love after that Grace whereby Holiness doth really increase and way is made for future visible Fruitfulness For 3. God who in Infinite Wisdom manageth the New Creature or whole Life of Grace by his Spirit doth so turn the streams of it and so renew and change the especial kinds of its Operations as that we cannot easily trace his paths therein and may therefore be often at a loss about it as not knowing well what He is doing with us For Instance it may be the Work of Grace and Holiness hath greatly put forth and evidenced it self in the Affections which are renewed by it Hence Persons have great Experience of Readiness unto Delight and Chearfulness in Holy Duties especially those of Immediate Entercourse with God For Affections are quick and vigorous for the most part in the Youth of Profession And the Operations of them being sensible unto them in whom they are and their Fruits visible they make Persons seem alwayes fresh and green in the wayes of Holiness But it may be after a while it seems good to the Soveraign Disposer of this Affair to turn as it were the streams of Grace and Holiness into another Channel He sees that the Exercise of Humility Godly Sorrow Fear diligent Conflicting with Temptations that it may be strike at the very root of Faith and Love are more needfull for them He will therefore so order his Dispensations towards them by Afflictions Temptations Occasions of Life in the world as that they shall have new work to doe and all the Grace they have be turned into a new Exercise Hereon it may be they find not that sensible vigour in their Spiritual Affections nor that Delight in Spiritual Duties which they have done formerly This makes them sometimes ready to conclude that Grace is decayed in them that the Springs of Holiness are drying up and they know neither where nor what they are But yet it may be the real Work of Sanctification is still thriving and effectually carryed on in them 3 ly It is acknowledged that there may be that there are in many great Decayes in Grace and Holiness that the work of Sanctification goeth back in them and that it may be universally and for a long season Many Actings of Grace are lost in such Persons and the things that remain are ready to dye This the Scripture abundantly testifieth unto and giveth us instances of How often doth God charge his People with Back-sliding Barrenness Decayes in Faith and Love And the Experience of the Dayes wherein we live sufficiently confirm the Truth of it Are there not open and visible Decayes in many as to the whole Spirit all the Dutyes and Fruits of Holiness Cannot the best among us contribute somewhat to the Evidence hereof from our own Experience What shall we say then is there no sincere Holiness where such Decayes are found God forbid But we must enquire the Reasons whence this comes to pass seeing this is contrary to the gradual Progress of Holiness in them that are sanctified which we have Asserted And I answer two things unto it 1. That these Decayes are Occasional and Preternatural as to the true Nature and Constitution of the New Creature and a disturbance of the Ordinary Work of Grace They are Diseases in our spiritual State which it is not to be measured by Are you dead and cold in Duties backward in Good Works careless of your Hearts and Thoughts addicted to the World These things belong not to the State of Sanctification but are Enemies unto it Sicknesses and Diseases in the Spiritual Constitution of the Persons in whom they are 2. Although our Sanctification and Growth in Holiness be a Work of the Holy Spirit as the Efficient Cause thereof yet is it our own Work also in a way of Duty He hath prescribed unto us what shall be our part what he expects from us and requireth of us that the Work may be regularly carryed on unto Perfection as was before declared And there are two sorts of things which if we attend not unto in a due Manner the orderly progress of it will be obstructed and retarded For 1 The Power and Growth of any Lust or Corruption and a complyance from them with Temptations which is inseparable from the prevalency of any sin in us lyes directly against this Progress If we allow or approve of any such thing in us if we indulge unto any actings of sin especially when known and grown frequent in any one kind when we neglect the use of the best Means for the constant Mortification of sin which every enlightened Soul understands to be necessary thereunto there is and will be encreased an universal decay in Holiness and not only in that particular Corruption which is so spared and indulged A Disease in any one of the Vitals or principal parts of the Body weakens not only the part wherein it is but the whole Body it self and vitiates the whole Constitution by a sympathy of parts And any particular Lust
indulged unto vitiates the whole Spiritual Health and weakens the Soul in all Duties of Obedience 2 There are some things required of us to this End that Holiness may thrive and be carryed on in us Such are the constant use of all Ordinances and Means appointed unto that End a due Observance of Commanded Duties in their Season with a Readiness for the Exercise of every especial Grace in its proper circumstances Now if we neglect these things if we walk at all peradventures with God attending neither to Means nor Dutyes nor the Exercise of Grace as we should we are not to wonder if we find our selves Decaying yea ready to dye Doth any man wonder to see a person formerly of a sound Constitution grown weak and sickly if he openly neglect all Means of health and contract all sorts of Diseases by his Intemperance Is it strange that a Nation should be sick and faint at heart that Grey-hairs should be sprinkled upon it that it should be poor and decaying whilest Consuming Lusts with a strange Neglect of all envigorating Means do prevail in it No more is it that a Professing people should decay in Holy Obedience whilest they abide in the Neglects expressed Having vindicated this Assertion I shall yet adde a little further Improvement of it And 1. If the Work of Holiness be such a Progressive thriving Work in its own nature if the Design of the Holy Ghost in the use of Means be to carry it on in us and encrease it more and more unto a perfect Measure then is our Diligence still to be continued to the same End and Purpose For hereon depends our growth and thriving It is required of us that we give all Diligence unto the Encrease of Grace 2 Pet. 1. and that we abound therein 2 Cor. 8. 7. abounding in all Diligence and not only so but that we shew the same Diligence unto the End Heb. 6. 11. Whetever Diligence you have used in the attaining or improving of Holiness abide in it unto the End or we cast our selves under Decayes and endanger our Souls If we slack or give over as to our Duty the Work of Sanctification will not be carryed on in a way of Grace And this is required of us this is expected from us that our whole Lives be spent in a Course of diligent Complyance with the Progressive Work of Grace in us There are three Grounds on which men doe or may neglect this Duty whereon the Life of their Obedience and all their Comforts do depend 1 A Presumption or Groundless Perswasion that they are already perfect This some pretend unto in a proud and foolish Conceit destructive of the whole Nature and Duty of Evangelical Holiness or Obedience For this on our parts consists in our willing Complyance with the Work of Grace gradually carryed on unto the measure appointed unto us If this be already attained there is an End of all Evangelical Obedience and men return again to the Law unto their Ruine See Phil. 3. 12 13 14. It is an excellent Description of the Nature of our Obedience which the Apostle gives us in that place All Absolute Perfection in this Life is rejected as unattainable The End proposed is Blessedness and Glory with the Eternal Enjoyment of God and the Way whereby we press towards it which comprizeth the whole of our Obedience is by continual uninterrupted following after pressing reaching out a constant Progress in and by our utmost Diligence 2 A foolish Supposition that being interested in a state of Grace we need not now be so solicitous about exact Holiness and Obedience in all things as we were formerly whilest our minds hung in suspense about our Condition But so much as any one hath this Apprehension or Perswasion prevailing in him or influencing of him so much hath he cause deeply to question whether he have yet any thing of Grace or Holiness or no. For this Perswasion is not of him who hath called us There is not a more effectual Engine in the hand of Sathan either to keep us off from Holiness or to stifle it when it is attained nor can any thoughts arise in the Hearts of men more opposite to the nature of Grace For which cause the Apostle rejects it with Detestation Rom. 6. 1 2. 3 Weariness and Despondencies arising from Oppositions Some find so much difficulty in and Opposition to the Work of Holiness and its Progress from the Power of Corruptions Temptations and the Occasions of Life in this World that they are ready to faint and give over this Diligence in Dutyes and Contending against Sin But the Scripture doth so abound with Encouragements unto this sort of Persons as we need not to insist thereon CHAP. III. Believers the only Object of Sanctification and Subject of Gospel Holiness 1 Believers the only Subject of the Work of Sanctification 2 How men come to believe if Believers alone receive the Spirit of Sanctification 3 The principal Ends for which the Spirit is promised with their Order in their Accomplishment 4 Rules to be observed in praying for the Spirit of God and his Operations therein 5 That Believers only are Sanctified or Holy proved and confirmed 6 Mistakes about Holiness both Notional and Practical discovered 7 The Proper Subject of Holiness in Believers Sect. 1 THat which we are next to enquire into is the personal Subject of this Work of Sanctification or who and of what sort those Persons are that are made Holy Now these are All and Only Believers All who unseignedly believe in God through Jesus Christ are sanctified and no other Unto them is Evangelical Holiness confined It is for them and them only that our Saviour prayes for this Mercy Grace or Priviledge Joh. 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy Truth And concerning them he affirms for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they also may be sanctified through the Truth v. 19. And whereas in the Verses foregoing he had immediate Respect unto his Apostles and present Disciples that we may know that neither his Prayer nor this Grace are confined or limited unto them he addes Neither pray I for these alone that is in this Manner and for these Ends but for them also which shall believe on me through their World v. 20. It was therefore the Prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ that all Believers should be sanctified and so also was it his Promise John 7. 38 39. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall slow rivers of living water But this he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive And it is with respect principally unto this Work of Sanctification that he is compared unto flowing and living Water as hath been declared before It is for Believers the Church that was in God the Father and in Jesus Christ that is by Faith 1 Thess. 1. 1. that our Apostle prayes that the God of Peace would sanctifie them throughout chap. 5.
Ends and Effects for which he is promised And these are those which are before expressed with all those particular Instances which may be reduced unto them We might therefore hence give Direction in some Enquiries which indeed deserve a larger Discussion if our present Design would admit of it one only I shall instance in May a Person who is yet Vnregenerate pray for the Spirit of Regeneration to effect that Work in him For whereas as such he is promised onely unto the Elect such a Person not knowing his Election seems to have no foundation to make such a Request upon Ans. 1. Election is no Qualification on our part which we may consider or plead in our Supplications but only the secret Purpose on the part of God of what himself will doe and is known unto us only by its Effects 2 Persons convinced of sin and a state of sin may and ought to pray that God by the Effectual Communications of his Spirit unto them would deliver them from that Condition This is one way whereby we flee from the wrath to come 3 The especial Object of their Supplications herein is Sovereign Grace Goodness and Mercy as declared in and by Jesus Christ. Such Persons cannot indeed plead any especial Promise as made unto them But they may plead for the Grace and Mercy declared in the Promises as indefinitely proposed unto sinners It may be they can proceed no further in their Expectations but unto that of the Prophet who knoweth if God will come and give a Blessing Joel 2. 14. yet is this a sufficient ground and encouragement to keep them waiting at the Throne of Grace So Paul after he had received his Vision from Heaven continued in great distress of mind praying until he received the Holy Ghost Acts 9. 11 17. 4 Persons under such Convictions have really sometimes the seeds of Regeneration communicated unto them and then as they ought so they will continue in their Supplications for the Encrease and Manifestation of it It is evident that by these Observations the foregoing Objection is utterly removed out of the way and there is no disadvantage ariseth unto the Doctrine of the Free and Effectual Grace of God by confining this Work of Sanctification and Holiness unto Believers only None are sanctified none are made Holy but those who truely and savingly Believe in God through Jesus Christ which I shall now further confirm Sect. 5 1 Without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. The Faith discoursed of by the Apostle is that whereby the Fathers received the Promises walked with God and obtained the Inheritance the Faith of Abraham that is true saying justifying Faith This Faith constitutes all them in whom it is true Believers and without it it is impossible to please God Now Holiness wherever it is pleaseth God and therefore without Faith it is impossible we should have any interest in it This is the Will of God even our Sanctification 1 Thess. 4. 3. and walking therein we please God v. 7. All that pleaseth God in us is our Holiness or some part of it and it principally consists in an Opposition unto all that displeaseth him That which he commands pleaseth him and that which he forbids displeaseth him and our Holiness consists in a Complyance with the one and an Opposition unto the other Wherefore that any others but Believers should have any thing which really belongs unto this Holiness the Apostle declares it to be impossible Some would except against this sense of the words from the ensuing Reason which the Apostle gives of his Assertion which contains the nature of the Faith intended For he that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him For this is that they say which the Light of Nature directs unto and therefore there is no other Faith necessarily required that a man may please God but only that which is included in the right use and exercise of Natural Reason But this Exception will no way evade the Force of this Testimony For the Apostle discourseth concerning such a Coming unto God and such a Belief in him as is guided directed and ingenerated in us by the Promises which it rests upon and is resolved into Now these Promises all and every one of them include Jesus Christ with a respect unto him and his Grace And therefore the Faith intended is that which is in God through Christ as revealed and exhibited in the Promises and this Coming unto God is a Fruit and Effect thereof 2 Our Lord Jesus Christ affirms that men are sanctified by the Faith that is in him Acts 26. 18. That they may receive Forgiveness of sins and an Inheritance among them that are sanctified by the Faith that is in me If there were any other way or means whereby men might be sanctified or made Holy he would not have confined it unto the Faith that is in him At least there is no other way to attain that Holiness which may bring them unto the Heavenly Inheritance or make them meet for it Col. 1. 11. which alone we enquire after And indeed there can be no greater Contempt cast on the Lord Jesus and on the Duty of Believing in him whereunto he makes this one of his principal Motives than to Imagine that without Faith in him any one can be made Holy 3. Faith is the Instrumental Cause of our Sanctification so that where it is not no Holiness can be wrought in us God purifyeth our hearts by Faith Acts 15. 9. and not otherwise And where the Heart is not purifyed there is no Holiness All the Dutyes in the world will not denominate him Holy whose Heart is not purified nor will any such Dutyes be holy themselves seeing unto the unclean all things are unclean All the Obedience that is accepted with God is the Obedience of Faith Rom. 1. 7. thence it springs and therewith is it animated So is it expressed 1 Pet. 1. 21 22. You who by Christ do believe in God and have purifyed your Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit It is from Faith in God through Jesus Christ acting it self in Obedience unto the Gospel that we purifie or cleanse our Souls which is our Sanctification See Col. 2. 12 13 14. Chap. 3. 7 8 9 10 11. 4 All Grace is Originally entrusted in and with Jesus Christ. The Image of God being lost in Adam whatever was prepared or is used for the Renovation of it in our Natures and Persons wherein Gospel Holiness doth consist was to be treasured up in him as the second Adam by whom many are to be made alive who dyed in the first It pleased the Father that in him all Fulness should dwell as the Fullness of the Godhead in and for his own Divine Personal Subsistence so the Fulness of all Grace for Supplyes unto us that of his Fulness we might receive Grace for Grace He is made the Head
deceive not themselves with a partial work in Conviction only or Change of the Affections also in stead of this Evangelical Sanctification It is often and truely spoken unto how men may have their Minds enlightened their Affections wrought upon and their Lives much changed and yet come short of reall Holiness The best tryal of this Work is by its Vniversality with respect unto its Subject If any thing remain unsanctified in us sin may there set up its Throne and maintain its Sovereignty But where this Work is true and reall however weak and imperfect it may be as unto its Degrees yet it possesseth the whole Person and leaveth not the least hold unto sin wherein it doth not continually combat and conflict with it There is saving Light in the Mind and Life in the Will and Love in the Affections and Grace in the Conscience suited to its Nature there is nothing in us whereunto the Power of Holiness doth not reach according to its measure Men may therefore if they please deceive themselves by taking up with some Notions in their Minds some Devotions in their Affections or some good and vertuous Deeds in their Conversations but Holiness doth not consist therein And Lastly men may hence see how vainly they excuse themselves in their Sins their Passions Intemperances and the like disorders of Mind from their Constitutions and Inclinations for true Sanctification reacheth unto the Body also It is true Grace doth not so change the natural Constitution as to make him that was sickly healthy and strong nor so as to make him who was Melancholy to be Sanguine or the like it altereth not the course of the Blood the animal spirits with the Impressions they make on our Minds But consider these things Morally and as the whole Person is a Principle of Spiritual and Moral Operations and so it doth work that Change and Alteration on the whole Person as to cure Morally sinfull distempers as of Passion Elation of Mind and Intemperancies which men were before more than ordinarily inclined unto by their Tempers and Constitutions Yea from the Efficacy of it upon our whole Persons in the curing of such habitual inordinate and sinfull distempers lyes the principal discovery of its Truth and Reality Let no men therefore pretend that Grace and Holiness do not change mens Constitutions thereby to excuse and palliate their disorderly Passions before men and to keep themselves from being humbled for them before God For although it do not so naturally and physically yet it doth so Morally so that the Constitution it self shall be no more such a fomes and Incentive unto disorderly Passions as it hath been If Grace hath not cured that Passion Pride Causeless Anger Inveterate Wrath Intemperance which mens Constitutions peculiarly incline unto I know not for my part what it hath done nor what a number of outward Dutyes do signifie The Spirit and Grace of Christ causeth the Wolf to dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard to lye down with the Kid Isa. 11. 6. It will change the most wild and savage Natures into Meekness Gentleness and Kindness Examples whereof have been multiplyed in the World CHAP. IV. The Defilement of Sin wherein it consists with its Purification 1 Purification the first proper Notion of Sanctification 2 Institution of Baptisme confirming the same Apprehension 3 A Spiritual Defilement and Pollution in Sin 4 The Nature of that Defilement or wherein it doth consist 5 Depravations of Nature and Acts with respect unto Gods Holiness How and Why called Filth and Pollution 6 Two-fold Pravity and Defilement of Sin Its Aggravations We cannot purge it of our selves nor could it be done by the Law nor by any Wayes invented by men for that End Sect. 1 THese things being premised we proceed to the Consideration of Sanctification it self in a further Explication of the Description before given And the first thing we ascribe unto the Spirit of God herein which constitutes the first part of it is the Purifying and cleansing of our Natures from the Pollution of Sin Purification is the first proper Notion of internal real Sanctification And although in order of Time it do not precede the other Acts and parts of this Work yet in order of Nature it is first proposed and apprehended To be unclean absolutely and to be Holy are universally opposed Not to be purged from sin is an Expression of an unholy Person as to be cleansed is of him that is holy And this Purification or the effecting of this Work of Cleansing is ascribed unto all the Causes and Means of Sanctification As 1 unto the Spirit who is the principal Efficient of the whole Not that Sanctification consists wholly herein but firstly and necessarily it is required thereunto Prov. 30. 12. Ezek. 36. 25. I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you That this sprinkling of clean Water upon us is the Communication of the Spirit unto us for the End designed I have before evinced It hath also been declared wherefore he is called Water or compared thereunto And the next Verse shews expressly that it is the Spirit of God which is intended I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes And that which he is thus in the first place promised for is the Cleansing of us from the Pollution of sin which in order of Nature is preposed unto his enabling us to walk in Gods Statutes or to yield holy Obedience unto him To the same purpose among many others is that Promise Isa. 4. 4. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the Daughters of Zion and shall have purged the blood of Hierusalem by the Spirit of Judgment and the Spirit of Burning Upon what ground the Spirit is compared to Fire and thence here called a Spirit of Burning hath been also declared In brief Fire and Water were the Means whereby all things were purified and cleansed Typically in the Law Numb 31. 23. And the Holy Spirit being the principal Efficient Cause of all spiritual cleansing is compared to them both by which his Work was signified and called by their names See Mal. 3. 2 3. And Judgment is frequently taken for Holiness The Spirit of Judgment therefore and the Spirit of Burning is the Spirit of Sanctification and Purification And he is here promised for the Sanctification of the Elect of God And how shall he effect this Work He shall do it in the first place by washing away their filth and purging away their blood that is all their spiritual sinfull Defilements 2 The Application of the Death and Blood of Christ unto our Souls for our Sanctification by the Holy Ghost is said to be for our cleansing and purging Ephes. 5. 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word He gave
as great an Encouragement unto Unholiness and a continuance in Sin for those who believe it and at the same time love the Pleasures of sin which are the Generality of their Church as ever was or can be found out or made use of For to come with a plain down-right Disswasure from Holiness and Encouragement unto Sin is a Design that would absolutely defeat it self nor is capable of making Impressions on them who retain the Notion of a Difference between Good and Evil. But this Side-wind that at once pretends to relieve men from the Filth of sin and keeps them from the only Wayes and Means whereby it may be cleansed insensibly leads them into a quiet pursuit of their Lusts under an Expectation of Relief when all is past and done Wherefore setting aside such vain Imaginations we may enquire into the true Causes and Wayes of our Purification from the Uncleanness of sin described wherein the First part of our Sanctification and the Foundation of our Holiness doth consist CHAP. V. The Filth of Sin purged by the Spirit and Blood of Christ. 1 Purification of the Filth of sin the first part of Sanctification how it is effected 2 The Work of the Spirit therein 3 Efficacy of the Blood of Christ to that Purpose 4 The Blood of his Sacrifice intended 5 How that Blood cleanseth Sin Application unto it and Application of it by the Spirit 6 Wherein that Application consists 7 8 9. Faith the Instrumental Cause of our Purification with the use of Afflictions to the same purpose Necessity of a Due Consideration of the Pollution of Sin 10 Considerations of the Pollution and Purification of Sin practically improved 11 Various Directions for a due Application unto the Blood of Christ for Cleansing 12 Sundry Degrees of Shamelesness in Sinning 13 Directions for the Cleansing of Sin continued 14 Thankefulness for the Cleansing of Sin 15 With other Vses of the same Consideration 16 Union with Christ how consistent with the Remainders of Sin 17 From all that Differences between Evangelical Holiness and the Old Nature asserted Sect. 1 THE purging of the Souls of them that Believe from the Defilements of Sin is in the Scripture assigned unto several Causes of different Kinds For the Holy Spirit the Blood of Christ Faith and Afflictions are all said to cleanse us from our sins but in several Wayes and with distinct Kinds of Efficacy The Holy Spirit is said to doe it as the principal Efficient Cause The Blood of Christ as the Meritorious procuring Cause Faith and Affliction as the Instrumental Causes the one Direct and Internal the other External and Occasional Sect. 2 1 That we are purged and purified from sin by the Spirit of God communicated unto us hath been before in General confirmed by many Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures And we may gather also from what hath been spoken wherein this Work of his doth consist For whereas the Spring and Fountain of all the Pollution of Sin lyes in the Depravation of the Faculties of our Natures which ensued on the Loss of the Image of God he renews them again by his Grace Tit. 3. 5. Our want of due answering unto the Holiness of God as represented in the Law and exemplified in our Hearts Originally is a principal Part and universal Cause of our whole Pollution and Defilement by sin For when our Eyes are opened to discern it this is that which in the first place filleth us with shame and self-Abhorrency and that which makes us so unacceptable yea so loathsome to God Who is there who considereth aright the Vanity Darkness and Ignorance of his Mind the Perversness and Stubbornness of his Will with the Disorder Irregularity and Distemper of his Affections with respect unto things Spiritual and Heavenly who is not ashamed of who doth not abhorr himself This is that which hath given our Nature its Leprosie and defiled it throughout And I shall crave leave to say that he who hath no Experience of Spiritual shame and self-Abhorrency upon the Account of this Inconformity of his Nature and the Faculties of his Soul unto the Holiness of God is a great stranger unto this whole Work of Sanctification Who is there that can recount the Unsteadiness of his Mind in Holy Meditation his Low and unbecoming Conceptions of Gods Excellencies his Proneness to foolish Imaginations and Vanities that Profit not his Aversation to Spirituality in Duty and fixedness in Communion with God his Proneness to things Sensual and Evil all arising from the spiritual Irregularity of of our Natural Facultyes but if ever he had any due Apprehensions of Divine Purity and Holiness that is not sensible of his own Vileness and Baseness and is not oft-times deeply affected with shame thereon Now this whole Evil Frame is cured by the effectual working of the Holy Ghost in the rectfying and Renovation of our Natures He giveth a New Understanding a New Heart New Affections renewing the whole Soul into the Image of God Ephes. 4. 23 24. Col. 3. 10. The way whereby he doth this hath been before so fully declared in our opening of the Doctrine of Regeneration that it need not be here repeated Indeed our Original Cleansing is therein where mention is made of the Washing of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. Therein is the Image of God restored unto our Souls But we consider the same Work now as it is the Cause of our Holyness Look then how far our Minds our Hearts our Affections are renewed by the Holy Ghost so far are we cleansed from our spiritual habitual Pollution Would we be cleansed from our Sins that which is so frequently promised that we shall be and so frequently prescribed as our Duty to be and without which we neither have nor can have any thing of true Holiness in us we must labour after and endeavour to grow in this Renovation of our Natures by the Holy Ghost The more we have of saving Light in our Minds of Heavenly Love in our Wills and Affections of a constant Readiness unto Obedience in our Hearts the more Pure are we the more cleansed from the Pollution of sin The Old Principle of Corrupted Nature is unclean and defiling shamefull and loathsome The New Creature the Principle of Grace implanted in the whole Soul by the Holy Ghost is Pure and purifying Clean and Holy 2 ly The Holy Ghost doth Purifie and Cleanse us by strengthening our Souls by his Grace unto all Holy Duties and against all Actual sins It is by Actual Sins that our Natural and Habitual Pollution is encreased Hereby some make themselves base and vile as Hell But this also is prevented by the Gracious Actings of the Spirit Having given us a Principle of Purity and Holyness he so acts it in Dutyes of Obedience and in Opposition unto Sin as that he preserves the Soul free from Defilements or Pure and Holy according to the Tenor of the New Covenant that is in such Measure and to such a
it is proposed unto us For God sets him forth as to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood as offered Rom. 3. 25. so to be our Sanctification through Faith in his Blood as sprinkled And the Establishing of this especial Faith in our Souls is that which the Apostle aims at in his excellent Reasoning Heb. 9. 13 14. And his Conclusion unto that Purpose is so evident that he encourageth us thereon to draw nigh in the full Assurance of Faith Heb. 10. 22. 3 Faith worketh herein by Fervent Prayer as it doth in its whole Address unto God with Respect unto his Promises because for all these things God will be sought unto by the House of Israel By this Means the Soul brings it self nigh unto its own Mercy And this we are directed unto Heb. 4. 15 16. 4 An Acquiescency in the Truth and Faithfulness of God for Cleansing by the Blood of Christ whence we are freed from discouraging perplexing shame and have Boldness in the Presence of God 4. The Holy Ghost actually Communicates the cleansing Purifying Vertue of the Blood of Christ unto our Souls and Consciences whereby we are freed from shame and have Boldness towards God For the whole work of the Application of the Benefits of the Mediation of Christ unto Believers is his properly And these are the things which Believers aim at and intend in all their servent Supplications for the Purifying and Cleansing of their Souls by the sprinkling and washing of the Blood of Christ the Faith and Perswasion whereof give them Peace and Holy Boldness in the presence of God without which they can have nothing but shame and Confusion of Face in a sence of their own Pollutions Sect. 7 How the Blood of Christ was the Meritorious Cause of our Purification as it was offered in that thereby he procured for us Eternal Redemption with all that was conducing or needfull thereunto and how thereby he Expiated our sins belongs not unto this place to declare Nor shall I insist upon the more mysterious Way of Communicating cleansing Vertue unto us from the Blood of Christ by Vertue of our Vnion with him What hath been spoken may suffice to give a little insight into that Influence which the Blood of Christ hath into this first part of our Sanctification and Holiness And as for those who affirm that it no otherwise cleanseth us from our sins but only because we Believing his Doctrine confirmed by his Death and Resurrection do amend our Lives turning from Sin unto Righteousness and Holiness they renounce the Mystery of the Gospel and all the proper Efficacy of the Blood of Christ. Sect. 8 3 Faith is the Instrumental Cause of our Purification Purifying their Hearts by Faith Acts 15. 9. The two unfailing Evidences of sincere Faith are that within it purifyeth the Heart and without it worketh by Love These are the Touch-stone whereon Faith may yea ought to be tryed We purifie our Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 20. That is by Believing which is our Original Obedience unto the Truth And hereby are our Souls purified Unbelievers and Unclean are the same Tit. 1. 15. For they have nothing in them whereby they might be Instrumentally cleansed And we are Purified by Faith Because 1 Faith it self is the principal Grace whereby our Nature is restored unto the Image of God and so freed from our Original Defilement Col. 3. 10. Joh. 17. 3. 2 It is by Faith on our part whereby we receive the Purifying Vertue and Influences of the Blood of Christ whereof we have before Discoursed Faith is the Grace whereby we constantly adhere and cleave unto Christ. Deut. 4. 4. Josh. 23. 8. Acts 11. 10. And if the Woman who touched his Garment in Faith obtained Vertue from him to heal her Issue of Blood shall not those who cleave unto him continually derive Vertue from him for the healing of their spiritual Defilements 3 It is by the Working of Faith principally whereby those Lusts and Corruptions which are Defiling are mortified subdued and gradually wrought out of our Minds All actual Defilements spring from the Remainders of defiling Lusts and their depraved Workings in us Heb. 12. 15. Jam. 1. 14. How Faith worketh to the correcting and subduing of them by deriving supplyes of the Spirit and Grace to that End from Jesus Christ as being the Means of our abiding in him whereon alone those supplyes do depend Joh. 15. 3 4 5. as also by the Acting of all other Graces which are contrary to the Polluting Lusts of the Flesh and destructive of them is usually declared and we must not too far enlarge on these things 4 Faith takes in all the Motives which are proposed unto us to stir us up unto our utmost Endeavours and Diligence in the use of all Means and Wayes for the preventing of the Defilements of sin and for the Cleansing our Minds and Consciences from the Relicts of Dead Works And these Motives which are great and many may be reduced unto Two Heads 1 A Participation of the Excellent Promises of God at the Present the Consideration hereof brings a singular Enforcement on the Souls of Believers to endeavour after universal Purity and Holiness 2 Cor. 7. 1. And 2 the future Enjoyment of God in Glory whereunto we cannot attain without being purifyed from sin 1 Joh. 3. 1. Now these Motives which are the Springs of our Duty in this Matter are received and made Efficacious by Faith only Sect. 9 4 Purging from sin is likewise in the Scripture ascribed unto Afflictions of all sorts Hence they are called Gods Furnace and his Fining-Pot Isa. 31. 9. Chap. 48. 10. whereby he taketh away the Dross and Filth of the Vessels of his House They are called Fire that trieth the Wayes and Works of Men consuming their Hay and Stubble and purifying their Gold and Silver 1 Cor. 3. 13. And this they do through an Efficacy unto the Ends communicated unto them in the design and by the Spirit of God For by and in the Cross of Christ they were cut off from the Curse of the First Covenant whereunto all Evil and Trouble did belong and implanted into the Covenant of Grace The Tree of the Cross being cast into the Waters of Affliction hath rendred them Wholsom and Medicinal And as the Lord Christ being the Head of the Covenant all the Afflictions and Persecutions that befall his Members are Originally his Isa. 63. 9. Acts 9. 5. Col. 1. 24. so they all tend to work us unto a Conformity unto him in Purity and Holiness And they work towards this Blessed End of purifying the Soul several wayes For 1 They have in them some Tokens of Gods Displeasure against sin which those who are Exercised by them are led by the Consideration of unto a fresh View of the Vileness of it For although Afflictions are an Effect of Love yet it is of Love mixed with Care to obviate and prevent Distempers Whatever
a base and defiled Extraction have to boast of in themselves It is usual I confess for Vile men of the most Contemptible Beginnings when they are greatly exalted in the World to out-goe others in Pride and Elation of Mind as they are behind them in the Advantages of Birth and Education But this is esteemed a vile thing amongst men and it is but one Potsheard of the Earth boasting it self against another But when Believers shall consider what was their vile and polluted Estate with respect unto God when first he had regard unto them it will cause them to walk humbly in a deep sence of it or I am sure it ought so to doe God calls his People to self-Abasement not only from what they are but from what they were and whence they came So he ordained that Confession to be made by him that offered the First-fruits of his Fields and Possessions A Syrian ready to perish was my Father or a Syrian that is Laban was ready to destroy my Father a poor helpless man that went from one Countrey to another for Bread How is it of Soveraign Mercy that I am now in this State and Condition of Plenty and Peace Deut. 16. 4 5. And in particular God wonderfully binds upon them the sence of that defiled Natural Extraction whereof we speak Ezek. 16. 3 4 5. And when David upon his great Sin and his Repentance took in all humbling self-abasing Considerations here he fixeth the Head of them Psal. 51. 5. Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in Sin did my Mother conceive me His Original natural defilement was that which in the First place influenced him into self-Abasement So our Apostle frequently calls the Saints to a Remembrance of their former Condition before they were purged Ephes. 2 11 12 13. 1 Cor. 6. 8 9. and therewith are the Minds of all true Believers greatly affected and greatly humbled When they consider what was their Natural State and Condition universally leprous and polluted with what Remainders of it do still abide it casts them on the Earth and causeth them to lay their mouths in the Dust. Hence proceed their great and deep Humiliations of themselves and Confessions of their own Vileness in their Prayers and Supplications Considering the Holiness of God with whom they have to doe unto whom they do approach they are no way able to express what low Thoughts and Apprehensions they have of themselves Even God himself doth teach them to use figurative Expressions whereby to declare their own Vileness by Nature which abound in the Scripture It is true all Declarations hereof in Prayer and Confession of Sin are derided and scorned by some who seem to understand nothing of these things yea to Glory that they do not Whatever is spoken to express as they are able to the deep sence any have of their Natural Defilement with the Remainder of it their shame and self-Abasement with respect unto the Holiness of God is reputed either as false and Hypocritical or that it containeth such things as for which men ought to be hanged such prodigious Impudence in proclaiming a sencelesness of the Holiness of God and of the Vileness of Sin have we lived to see and hear of But when we have to deal with God who puts no trust in his Servants and chargeth his Angels with Folly what shall we say What Lowliness becomes then who dwell in Houses of Clay whose Foundation is in the Dust and who are crushed before the Moth 2 That Initial Deliverance which Believers have from their Original Pollution of Sin is a Matter and Cause of everlasting Thankfulness When our Lord Jesus Christ cleansed the Ten Lepers he manifests how much it was their Duty to return unto him with their thankfull Acknowledgement though Nine of them failed therein Luke 17. 17. And when of Old any one was cleansed from a carnal Defilement there was an Offering enjoyned him to testifie his Gratitude And indeed the Consideration hereof is that which in an eminent manner influenceth the Minds of Believers in all their Gratefull Ascriptions of Glory Honour and Praise to Jesus Christ. To him say they who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood to him be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Revel 1. 5 6. And there are three Things which concurr to this Duty 1 A due Valuation of the Causes and Means of our Purification namely the sprinkling of the Blood of Christ in the Sanctification of the Spirit As these alone have effected this great Work so they alone were able so to doe Had we not been washed in the Blood of Christ we must have lived and dyed in our Pollutions and have lain under them to Eternity For the Fire of Hell will never purge the Defilements of sin much less will the fictitious Fire of Purgatory cleanse any from them How ought we then to prize value and admire both the Vertue or Efficacy of the Blood of Christ and the Love from whence it was given for us and is applyed unto us And because this Valuation and Admiration are Acts of Faith the very Work it self also of cleansing our Souls is carryed on by them For by the Exercise of Faith do we continually derive Vertue from Christ to this purpose as the Woman did by touching of his Garment for the stopping of her Issue of Blood 2 Inward Joy and Satisfaction in our Freedom from that shame which deprived us of all Boldness and Confidence in God This Internal Joy belongs unto the Duty of Thankfulness For therein is God glorified when we are graciously sensible of the Effects of his Love and Kindness towards us Every Grace then glorifies God and expresseth our Thankfulness for his Love when a Soul finds it self really affected with a sence of its being washed from all its loathsome Defilements in the Blood of Christ and being thereby freed from discouraging oppressing shame to have Filial Boldness in the presence of God 3 Acknowledgment in a way of Actual Prayse Sect. 15 Again We have declared not only that there is in our Natural Frame and Spiritual Constitution a Discrepancy to the Holiness of God and consequently an universal Defilement but that there is from its Pravity and Disorder a Pollution attending every actual Sin whether internal of the Heart and Mind only or external in Sin perpetrated averse to Holiness and contrary to the carrying on of the Work of Sanctification in us And sundry things Believers whose Concernment alone this is may learn from hence also As 1 How they ought to Watch against Sin and all the Motions of it though never so secret They all of them defile the Conscience And it is an Evidence of a Gracious Soul to be watchfull against sin on this Account Convictions will make men wary where they are prevalent by continual Representations of the Danger and Punishment of sin And these are an allowable Motive to Believers themselves to abstain from it in all
thereof Such a Spiritual Heavenly Supernatural Life so denominated from its Nature Causes Acts and Ends we must be partakers of in this World if ever we mind to attain Eternal Life in another Sect. 7 And herein we shall take what View we are able of the Nature Glory and Beauty of Holiness and do confess it is but little of them which I can comprehend It is a matter indeed often spoken unto but the Essence and true Nature of it are much hidden from the Eyes of all living men The sence of what the Scripture proposeth what I believe and what I desire an Experience of that I shall endeavour to declare But as we are not in this Life perfect in the Duties of Holiness no more are we in the Knowledge of its Nature First therefore I say it is a gracious supernatural Habit or a Principle of spiritual Life And with respect hereunto I shall briefly do these three things 1. Shew what I mean by such an Habit. 2. Prove that there is such an Habit required unto Holiness yea that the Nature of Holiness consists therein 3. Declare in general the Properties of it Sect. 8 1. Our First Enquiry is after the Essence and form of Holiness that from which any one is truely and really made and denominated Holy or what is the formal Reason of that Holiness which our Nature is partaker of in this World This must be something peculiar something excellent and sacred as that which constitutes the great and only Difference that is between Mankind on their own part in the sight of God with respect unto Eternity Every one that hath this Holiness pleaseth God is accepted with him and shall come to the Enjoyment of him And every one that hath it not is rejected of him here and hereafter And this Holiness in the first place doth not consist in any single Acts of Obedience unto God though good in their own Nature and acceptable unto him For such Acts may be performed yea many of them by unholy persons with Examples whereof the Scripture aboundeth Cain's Sacrifice and Ahab's Repentance were signal single Acts of Obedience materially yet no Acts of Holiness formally nor did either make or denominate them Holy And our Apostle tells us that men may give all their Goods to the Poor and their Bodies to be burned and yet be nothing 1 Cor. 13. yet in single Acts who can go further Such Fruits may spring from Seed that hath no Root Single Acts may evidence Holiness as Abraham's Obedience in sacrificing his Son but they constitute none Holy nor will a series a Course a Multiplication of Acts and Duties of Obedience either constitute or denominate any one so Isa. 1. 11 12 13 14 15. All the Duties a series and Multiplication whereof are there rejected for want of Holiness were good in themselves and appointed of God Nor doth it consist in an Habitual Disposition of Mind unto any outward Duties of Piety Devotion or Obedience however obtained or acquired Such Habits there are both Intellectual and Morall Intellectual Habits are Arts and Sciences When men by Custom Usuage and frequent Acts in the Exercise of any Science Art or Mystery do get a ready Facility in and unto all the Parts and Duties of it they have an Intellectual Habit therein It is so in things Morall as to Vertues and Vices There are some seeds and sparks of Moral Vertues remaining in the Ruines of depraved Nature as of Justice Temperance Fortitude and the like Hence God calls on profligate Sinners to remember and shew themselves Men or not to act contrary to the Principles and Light of Nature which are inseparable from us as we are Men Isa. 46. 8. These Principles may be so excited in the Exercise of Natural Light and improved by Education Instruction and Example untill persons by an assiduous diligent performance of the Acts and Duties of them may attain such a Readiness unto them and Facility in them as is not by any outward Means easily changed or diverted and this is a Moral Habit in like manner in the Duties of Piety and Religion in Acts of outward Obedience unto God men by the same Means may so accustom themselves unto them as to have an habitual Disposition unto their Exercise I doubt not but that it is so unto an high Degree with many superstitious Persons But in all these things the Acts do still precede the Habits of the same nature and kind which are produced by them and not otherwise But this Holiness is such an Habit or Principle as is antecedent unto all Acts of the same kind as we shall prove There never was by any nor ever can be any Act or Duty of true Holiness performed where there was not in Order of Nature antecedently an Habit of Holiness in the Persons by whom they are performed Many Acts and Duties for the substance of them good and approveable may be performed without it but no one that hath the proper Form and Nature of Holiness can be so And the Reason is because every Act of true Holiness must have something supernatural in it from an internal renewed Principle of Grace and that which hath not so be it otherwise what it will is no Act or Duty of true Holiness Sect. 9 And I call this Principle of Holiness an HABIT not as though it were absolutely of the same kind with acquired Habits and would in all things answer to our Conceptions and Descriptions of them But we only call it so because in its Effects and Manner of Operation it agreeth in sundry things with acquired intellectual or moral Habits But it hath much more Conformity unto a natural unchangeable Instict than unto any acquired Habit. Wherefore God chargeth it on men that in their Obedience unto him they did not answer that instinct which is in other Creatures towards their Lords and Benefactors Isa. 1. 3. and which they cordially observe Jerem. 8. 7. But herein God teacheth us more than the Beasts of the Earth and maketh us wiser than the Fowls of Heaven Job 35. 11. This therefore is that which I intend A Vertue a Power a Principle of Spiritual Life and Grace wrought created infused into our Souls and in-laid in all the Faculties of them constantly abiding and unchangeably residing in them which is antecedent unto and the next Cause of all Acts of true Holiness whatever And this is that as was said wherein the nature of Holiness doth consist and from which in those that are Adult the actual Discharge of all Duties and Works of Holiness is inseparable This abideth alwayes in and with all that are sanctified whence they are alwayes Holy and not only so when they are actually exercised in the Duties of Holiness Hereby are they prepared disposed and enabled unto all Duties of Obedience as we shall shew immediately and by the Influence hereof into their Acts and Duties do they become Holy and no otherwise Sect. 10 For the further
testifieth unto but withall I must adde that as to the proper Nature or Essence of it no Mind can apprehend it no Tongue can express it none can perfectly understand its glory some few things may be added to illustrate it Sect. 13 1 This is that whereby we have Vnion with Jesus Christ the Head of the Church Originally and efficiently the Holy Spirit dwelling in him and us is the Cause of this Union But formally this new Principle of Grace is so It is that whereby we become members of his bones and of his flesh Ephes. 5. 30. As Eve was of Adam she was one with him because she had the same Nature with him and that derived from him which the Apsotle alludeth unto so are we of him partakers of the same Divine Nature with him Thus he that is Joyned unto the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. that is of one and the same spiritual Nature with him Heb. 2. 11 14. How excellent is this Grace which gives us our Interest in and Continuity unto the Body of Christ and to his Person as our Head It is the same Grace in the kind thereof which is in the holy Nature of Christ and renders us one with him 2 Our Likeness and Conformity unto God consists herein For it is the Reparation of his Image in us Ephes. 4. 23 24. Col. 3. 10. Something I hope I apprehend concerning this Image of God in Believers and of their Likeness unto him how great a Priviledge it is what honour safety and security depend thereon what Duties are required of us on the Account thereof But perfectly to conceive or express the Nature and Glory of it we cannot attain unto but should learn to adore the Grace whence it doth proceed and is bestowed on us to admire the Love of Christ and the Efficacy of his Mediation whereby it is renewed in us but the thing it self is ineffable 3 It is our Life our spiritual Life whereby we live to God Life is the Foundation and summe of all Excellencies Without this we are dead in Trespasses and sins and how we are quickened by the holy Ghost hath been declared But this is the internal Principle of Life whence all Vital Acts in the Life of God do proceed And whereas we know not well what is the true Form and Essence of Life Natural only we find it discern it and judge of it by its Effects much less do we know the Form and Essence of Life Spiritual which is far more Excellent and Glorious This is that Life which is hid with Christ in God Coloss. 3. 3. In which words the Apostle draws a Veil over it as knowing that we are unable steadfastly to beholds its Glory and Beauty Sect. 14 But before I proceed unto a further Description of this Principle of Holiness in its Effects as before laid down it may not be amiss practically to call over these general Considerations of its Nature and our own Concernment in this Truth which is no empty Notion will be therein declared And First We may learn hence not to satisfie our selves or not to rest in any Acts or Duties of Obedience in any good Works how good and usefull soever in themselves nor howsoever multiplyed by us unless there be a Vital Principle of Holiness in our Hearts A few honest Actions a few usefull Dutyes do satisfie some persons that they are as holy as they should be or as they need to be And some mens Religion hath consisted in the multiplying of outward Duties that they might be meritorious for themselves and others But God expressely rejecteth not only such Duties but the greatest multitude of them and their most frequent Reiteration if the heart be not antecedently purified and sanctified if it be not possessed with the Principle of Grace and Holiness insisted on Isa. 1. 11 12 13 14 15 16. Such Acts and Duties may be the Effects of other Causes the Fruits of other Principles Meer Legal Convictions will produce them and put men upon a Course of them Fears Afflictions Terrors of Conscience Dictates of Reason improved by Education and confirmed by Custom will direct yea compell men unto their Observance But all is lost men do but labour in the Fire about them if the Soul be not prepared with this spiritual Principle of habitual Holiness wrought in it immediately by the Holy Ghost Yet we must here observe these two things 1 That so far as these Duties be they of Morality or Religion of Piety or Divine Worship are good in themselves they ought to be approved and men encouraged in them There are sundry wayes whereby the best Duties may be abused and misapplyed as when men rest in them as if they were meritorious or the matter of their Justification before God For this as is known is an effectual Means to divert the Souls of sinners from Faith in Christ for Life and Salvation Rom. 9. 31 32. Chap. 10. 3 4. And there are Reasons and Causes that render them unacceptable before God with respect unto the Persons by whom they are performed as when they are not done in Faith for which Cain's Sacrifice was rejected and when the Heart is not previously sanctified and prepared with a spiritual Principle of Obedience But yet on neither of these grounds or pretences can we or ought we to condemn or undervalue the Duties themselves which are good in their own nature nor take off men from the performance of them yea it were greatly to be desired that we could see more of the Fruits of Moral Vertues and Duties of Religious Piety among unsanctified Persons than we doe The World is not in a Condition to spare the good Acts of bad men But this we may doe and as we are called we ought to doe When men are engaged in a course of Duties and good Works on Principles that will not abide and endure the triall or for Ends that will spoyl and corrupt all they doe we may tell them as our Saviour did the Young man who gave that great Account of his Diligence in all Legal Duties one thing is yet wanting unto you you want Faith or you want Christ or you want a spiritual Principle of Evangelical Holiness without which all you do will be lost and come to no account at the last Day The due Assertion of Grace never was nor never can be an Obstruction unto any Duty of Obedience Indeed when any will give up themselves unto such Works or Actings under the Name of Duties and Obedience unto God which although they may make a specious shew and appearance in the World yet are evil in themselves or such as God requireth not of men we may speak against them deny them and take men off from them So Persecution hath been looked on as a good Work men supposing they did God good service when they slew the Disciples of Christ and men giving their Goods unto pious Uses as they were called indeed impious Abuses
to have others pray for their Souls and expiate their sins when they were gone out of this World These and the like other innumerable pretended Duties may be judged condemned exploded without the least fear of deterring men from Obedience 2 That wherever there is this Principle of Holiness in the Heart in those that are Adult there will be the Fruits and Effects of it in the Life in all Duties of Righteousness Godliness and Holiness For the main Work and End of this Principle is to enable us to comply with that Grace of God which teacheth us to deny all Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and to live Soberly and Righteously and Godly in this present World Tit. 2. 11 12. That which we press for is the great Direction of our Saviour make the Tree good and the Fruit will be so also And there can be no more vile and sordid Hypocrisie than for any to pretend unto inward habitual Sanctification whilest their Lives are barren in the Fruits of Righteousness and Duties of Obedience Wherever this Root is there it will assuredly bear Fruit. Secondly It will appear from hence whence it is that men propose and steer such various Courses with respect unto Holiness All men who profess themselves to be Christians are agreed in words at least that Holiness is absolutely necessary unto them that would be saved by Jesus Christ. To deny it is all one as openly to renounce the Gospel But when they should come to the practice of it some take one false Way some another and some Actually despise and reject it Now all this ariseth from Ignorance of the true Nature of Evangelical Holiness on the one hand and Love of Sin on the other There is nothing wherein we are spiritually and eternally concerned that is more frequently insisted on than is the true Nature of Sanctification and Holiness But the thing it self as hath been declared is deep and mysterious not to be understood without the Aid of spiritual Light in our Minds Hence some would have Moral Vertue to be Holiness which as they suppose they can understand by their own Reason and practise in their own Strength and I heartily wish that we could see more of the Fruits of it from them But real Moral Vertue will hardly be abased into an Opposition unto Grace the Pretence of it will be so easily and is so every day Some on the other hand place all Holiness in superstitious Devotions in the strict Observance of Religious Duties which Men and not God have appointed And there is no end of their Multiplication of them nor measure of the Strictness of some in them The Reason why men give up themselves unto such soul-deceiving Imaginations is their Ignorance and hatred of that only true real Principle of Evangelical Holiness which we have discoursed For what the World knoweth not in these things it alwayes hateth And they cannot discern it clearly or in its own Light and Evidence for it must be spiritually discerned This the Natural man cannot doe 1 Cor. 2. 14. And in that false Light of Corrupted Reason wherein they discern and judge it they esteem it foolishness or Fancy There is not a more Foolish and Fanatical thing in the World with many than that internal habitual Holiness which we are in the Consideration of And hence are they lead to despise and to hate it But here the Love of Sin secretly takeâ— place and influenceth their Minds This universal Change of theâ—â—oul in all its Principles of Operation into the Image and Likeness of God tending to the Extirpation of all sins and vitious Habits is that which men fear and abhorre This makes them take up with Morality and superstitious Devotion any thing that will pacifie a Natural Conscience and please themselves or others with a Reputation of Religion It is therefore highly incumbent on all that would not wilfully deceive their own Souls unto their Eternal Ruine to enquire diligently into the true Nature of Evangelical Holiness and above all to take care that they miss it not in the Foundation in the true Root and Principle of it wherein a mistake will be pernitious Thirdly It is moreover evident from hence that it is a greater matter to be truely and really holy than most Persons are aware of We may learn eminently how great and Excellent a Work this of Sanctification and Holiness is from the Causes of it How emphatically doth our Apostle ascribe it unto God even the Father 1 Thess. 5. 23. Even the God of Peace himself sanctifie you It is so great a Work as that it cannot be wrought by any but the God of Peace himself What is the immediate Work of the Spirit therein what the Influence of the Mediation and Blood of Christ into it hath been already in part declared and we have yet much more to adde in our Account of it And these things do sufficiently manifest how Great how Excellent and Glorious a Work it is For it doth not become Divine and Infinite Wisdom to engage the immediate Power and Efficacy of such glorious Causes and Means for the producing of any ordinary or common Effect It must be somewhat as of great Importance unto the Glory of God so of an Eminent Nature in it self And that little Entrance which we have made into an Enquity after its Nature manifests how Great and Excellent it is Let us not therefore deceive our selves with the Shadowes and Appearances of things in a few Duties of Piety or Righteousness no nor yet with many of them if we find not this great Work at least begun in us It is sad to see what trifling there is in these things amongst men None indeed are contented to be without a Religion and very few are willing to admit it in its Power Fourthly Have we received this Principle of Holiness and of spiritual Life by the gracious Operation of the Holy Ghost there are among many others three Dutyes incumbent on us whereof we ought to be as carefull as of our Souls And the First is Carefully and diligently by all Means to cherish and preserve it in our hearts This Sacred Depositum of the New Creature of the Divine Nature is entrusted with us to take care of to cherish and improve If we willingly or through our neglect suffer it to be wounded by Temptations weakened by Corruptions or not exercised in all known Duties of Obedience our Guilt is great and our Trouble will not be small And then Secondly It is equally incumbent on us to evidence and manifest it by its Fruits in the Mortification of corrupt Lusts and Affections in all Duties of Holiness Righteousness Charity and Piety in the World For that God may be glorified hereby is one of the Ends why he indues our Natures with it And without these visible Fruits we expose our entire Profession of Holiness to reproach And in like manner is it required that we be thankefull for what we have received Sect.
such abundant Testimony unto as to render it unquestionable For we have received the Spirit of God that we may know the things that are freely given us of God By vertue of what we have received we know or discern Spiritual things 1 Cor. 2. 12. So we know the mind of Christ v. 15. This is the substance of that double Testimony 1 Joh. 2. 20 27. This abiding Vnction is no other but that habitual inherent Grace which we plead for and by it as it is an holy Light in our Mind we know all things The Understanding that is given us to know him that is True 1 John 5. 20. Only it is their Duty continually to endeavour the improvement and enlargement of the Light they have in the daily Exercise of the spiritual Power they have received and in the use of Means Heb. 5. ult Sect. 33 2 This Power in the Will consists in its Liberty Freedom and Ability to consent unto choose and embrace spiritual Things Believers have Free-will unto that which is spiritually Good For they are freed from that Bondage and slavery unto sin which they were under in the state of Nature Whatever some dispute concerning the Nature of Free-will that it consists in an Indifferency unto Good or Evil one thing or another with a Power of applying it self unto all its Operations whatever their Objects be as the Scripture knoweth nothing of it so it is that which we cannot have and if we could it would be no advantage at all unto us yea we had much better be without it Have it indeed we cannot for a supposition of it includes a Rejection of all our Dependance on God making all the springs of our Actions to be absolutely and formally in our selves Neither considering the Prejudices Temptations and Corruptions that we are possessed and exercised with would such a flexibility of Will be of any Use or Advantage unto us but would rather certainly give us up to the Power of Sin and Sathan All that the Scripture knows about Free-will is that in the state of Nature antecedent unto the Converting sanctifying Work of the Spirit all men whatever are in bondage unto sin and that in all the Faculties of their Souls They are sold under sin are not subject unto the Law of God nor can be can neither think nor will nor doe nor desire nor love any thing that is spiritually Good according to the Mind of God But as unto what is Evil perverse unclean that they are free and open unto ready for prone and inclined and every way able to doe On the other side in those who are renewed by the Holy Ghost and sanctified it acknowledgeth and teacheth a freedom of Will not in an Indifferency and Flexibility unto Good and Evil but in a Power and Ability to like love choose and cleave unto God and his Will in all things The Will is now freed from its Bondage unto sin and being enlarged by Light and Love willeth and chooseth freely the things of God having received spiritual Power and Ability so to doe It is the Truth that is Faith in the Gospel the Doctrine of the Truth which is the Means of this Freedom The Truth that makes you free Joh. 8. 32. And it is the Son of God by his Spirit who is the principal Efficient cause of it For if the Son make us free then are we free indeed v. 36. and otherwise we are not whatever we pretend And this freedom unto spiritual Good we have not of our selves in the state of Nature for if we have then are we free indeed and there would be no need that the Son should make us free Sect. 34 The Difference therefore about Free-will is reduced unto these Heads 1. Whether there be a Power in Man indifferently to Determine himself his Choice and all his Actings to this or that Good or Evil one thing or another independently on the Will Power and Providence of God and his Disposal of all future Events This indeed we deny as that which is inconsistent with the Prescience Authority Decrees and Dominion of God and as that which would prove certainly ruinous and destructive to our selves 2. Whether there be in men unregenerate not renewed by the Holy Ghost a Freedom Power and Ability unto that which is spiritually good or to Believe and Obey according to the Mind and Will of God This also we deny as that which is contrary to innumerable Testimonies of Scripture and absolutely destructive of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. Whether the Freedom of Will that is in Believers do consist in an indifferency and freedom from any Determination only with a power equally ready for Good or Evil according as the Will shall determine it self or whether it consist in a Gracious Freedom and Ability to choose will and doe that which is spiritually Good in Opposition to the Bondage and slavery unto sin wherein we were before detained This last is that Liberty and Power of the Will which we assert with the Scripture in persons that are sanctified And a Liberty this is every way consistent with all the Operations of God as the Sovereign first Cause of all things every way complyant with and an Effect of the special Grace of God and the Operations of the Holy Ghost a Liberty whereby our Obedience and Salvation are secured in Answer to the Promises of the Covenant And who that understands himself would change this reall usefull gracious free-will given by Jesus Christ the Son of God when he makes us free and an Effect of Gods writing his Law in our Hearts to cause us to walk in his Statutes that Property of the new Heart whereby it is able to consent unto choose and embrace freely the things of God for that fictitious imaginary freedom yea for it if it were reall of an Indifferency unto all things and an Equal Power unto every thing whether it be Good or Evil. I say then that by the Habit of Grace and Holiness infused into us by the Spirit of Sanctification the Will is freed enlarged and enabled to answer the Commands of God for Obedience according to the Tenor of the New Covenant This is that freedom this is that Power of the Will which the Scripture reveals and regards and which by all the Promises and Precepts of it we are obliged to use and exercise and no other Sect. 35 3 The Affections which naturally are the principal servants and instruments of Sin are hereby engaged unto God Deut. 30. 6. And from what hath been thus far discoursed the sence of our former Assertion is evident as also the Nature of the Principle of Holiness insisted on The Holy Ghost in our Sanctification doth work effect and create in us a new holy spiritual vital Principle of Grace residing in all the Faculties of our Souls according as their especial Nature is capable thereof after the manner of a permanent and prevalent Habit which he cherisheth preserveth encreaseth
us by the gracious Inhabitation of his Spirit in us 1 Cor. 6. 19. Eph. 4. 30. according unto the Degree of participation allotted unto us This in the substance of it is contained in this Testimony There was and is in Jesus Christ a Fulness and Perfection of all Grace in us of our selves or by any thing that we have by Nature or natural Generation by Blood or the Flesh or the Will of Man v. 13. there is none at all Whatever we have is received and derived unto us from the Fullness of Christ which is an inexhaustible Fountain thereof by Reason of his Personal Vnion Sect. 72 To the same purpose is he said to be our Life and our Life to be hid with him in God Col. 3. 3. Life is the Principle of all Power and Operation And the Life here intended is that whereby we live to God the Life of Grace and Holiness For the Actings of it consist in the setting of our Affections on heavenly things and mortifying our Members that are on the Earth This Life Christ is He is not so Formally for if he were then it would not be our Life but his only He is therefore so Efficiently as that he is the immediate Cause and Author of it and that as he is now with God in Glory Hence it is said that we live that is this Life of God yet so as that we live not of our selves but Christ liveth in us Gal. 1. 20. And he doth no otherwise live in us but by the Communication of vital Principles and a Power for vital Acts that is Grace and Holiness from himself unto us If he be our Life we have nothing that belongs thereunto that is nothing of Grace of Holiness but what is derived unto us from him Sect. 73 To conclude we have all Grace and Holiness from Christ or we have it of our selves The old Pelagian Fiction that we have them from Christ because we have them by yielding Obedience unto his Doctrine makes our selves the only Spring and Author of them and on that Account very justly condemned by the Church of old not only as false but as blasphemous Whatever therefore is not thus derived thus conveyed unto us belongs not unto our Sanctification or Holiness nor is of the same Nature or Kind with it Whatever Ability of Mind or Will may be supposed in us what Application soever of Means may be made for the exciting and exercise of that Ability whatever Effects in Vertues Dutyes all Offices of Humanity and Honesty or Religious Observances may be produced thereby from them and wrought by us if it be not all derived from Christ as the Head and Principle of spiritual Life unto us it is a thing of another nature than Evangelical Holiness Sect. 74 Thirdly The immediate efficient Cause of all Gospel Holiness is the Spirit of God This we have sufficiently proved already And although many Cavils have been raised against the Manner of his Operation herein yet none have been yet so hardy as openly to deny that this is indeed his Work For so to doe is upon the matter expressly to renounce the Gospel Wherefore we have in our foregoing Discourses at large vindicated the manner of his Operations herein and proved that he doth not educe Grace by Moral Applications unto the natural Faculties of our Minds but that he creates Grace in us by an immediate Efficiency of Almighty Power And what is so wrought and produced differeth Essentially from any Natural or Moral Habits of our Minds however acquired or improved Sect. 75 Fourthly This Evangelical Holiness is a Fruit and Effect of the Covenant of Grace The Promises of the Covenant unto this purpose we have before on other Occasions insisted on In them doth God declare That he will cleanse and purifie our Natures that he will write his Law in our Hearts put his Fear in our inward parts and cause us to walk in his Statutes in which things our Holiness doth consist Whoever therefore hath any thing of it he doth receive it in the Accomplishment of these Promises of the Covenant For there are not two wayes whereby men may become Holy one by the Sanctification of the Spirit according to the Promise of the Covenant and the other by their own Endeavours without it though indeed Cassianus with some of the Semi-Pelagians dreamed somewhat to that purpose Wherefore that which is thus a Fruit and Effect of the Promise of the Covenant hath an especial Nature of its own distinct from whatever hath not that Relation unto the same Covenant No man can ever be made partaker of any the least Degree of that Grace or Holiness which is promised in the Covenant unless it be by vertue and as a Fruit of that Covenant For if they might do so then were the Covenant of God of none Effect for what it seems to promise in a peculiar Manner may on this Supposition be attained without it which renders it an empty Name Sect. 76 Fifthly Herein consists the Image of God whereunto we are to be renewed This I have proved before and shall afterward have Occasion to insist upon Nothing less than the intire Renovation of the Image of God in our Souls will constitute us Evangelically Holy No series of Obediential Actings no Observance of Religious Duties no Attendance unto Actions amongst men as Morally vertuous and usefull how exact soever they may be or how constant soever we may be unto them will ever render us lovely or holy in the sight of God unless they all proceed from the Renovation of the Image of God in us or that Habitual Principle of spiritual Life and Power which renders us conformable unto him Sect. 77 From what hath been thus briefly discoursed we may take a Prospect of that horrible mixture of Ignorance and Impudence wherewith some contend that the Practice of Moral Vertue is all the Holiness which is required of us in the Gospel neither understanding what they say nor whereof they do affirm But yet this they do with so great a Confidence as to despise and scoffe at any thing else which is pleaded to belong thereunto But this Pretence notwithstanding all the swelling words of vanity wherewith it is set off and vended will easily be discovered to be weak and frivolous For Sect. 78 1 The Name or Expression it self is foreign to the Scripture not once used by the Holy Ghost to denote that Obedience which God requireth of us in and according to the Covenant of Grace Nor is there any sence of it agreed upon by them who so magisterially impose it on others Yea there are many express Contests about the signification of these words and what it is that is intended by them which those who contend about them are not ignorant of and yet have they not endeavoured to reduce the sence they intend unto any Expression used concerning the same matter in the Gospel but all men must needs submit unto it that at
and prompt them unto not to endeavour after that universal Holiness which alone will be accepted with him is a deplorable Folly Such men seem to Worship an Idol all their dayes For he that doth not endeavour to be like unto God doth contrarily think wickedly that God is like unto himself It is true our Interest in God is not built upon our Holiness but it is as true that we have none without it Were this Principle once well fixed in the Minds of men that without Holiness no man shall see God and that enforced from the Consideration of the Nature of God himself it could not but influence them unto a greater Diligence about it than the most seem to be engaged in Sect. 15 There is indeed amongst us a great Plea for Morality or for Moral Vertue I wish it be more out of Love to Vertue its self and a Conviction of its Vsefulness than out of a Design to cast Contempt on the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel as it is declared by the faithfull Dispensers of it However we are bound to believe the Best of all men Where we see those who so plead for Moral Vertues to be in their own Persons and in their Lives modest sober humble patient self-denying charitable usefull towards all we are obliged to believe that their Pleas for Moral Vertue proceed from a Love and Liking of it But where men are proud furious worldly revengefull profane intemperate covetous ambitious I cannot so well understand their Declamations about Vertue Only I would for the present enquire What it is that they intend by their Morality Is it the Renovation of the Image of God in us by Grace is it our Conformity from thence unto him in his Holiness is it our being Holy in all Manner of Holiness because God is holy is it the acting of our Souls in all Duties of Obedience from a Principle of Faith and Love according to the Will of God whereby we have Communion with him here and are lead towards the Enjoyment of him If these are the things which they intend what is the matter with them why are they so afraid of the Words and Expressions of the Scripture Why will they not speak of the things of God in Words that the Holy Ghost teacheth Men never dislike the Words of God but when they dislike the Things of God Is it because these Expressions are not intelligible People do not know what they mean but this of Moral Vertue they understand well enough We appeal to the Experience of all that truely fear God in the World unto the contrary There is none of them but the Scripture Expressions of the Causes Nature Work and Effects of Holiness do convey a clear experimental Apprehension of them unto their Minds Whereas by their Moral Vertue neither themselves nor any else do know what they intend since they do or must reject the common received Notion of it for Honesty amongst men If therefore they intend that Holiness hereby which is required of us in the Scripture and that particularly on the Account of the Holiness of that God whom we serve they fall into an high Contempt of the Wisdom of God in despising of those Notices and Expressions of it which being used by the Holy Ghost are suited unto the spiritual Light and Understanding of Believers substituting their own arbitrary doubtfull uncertain Sentiments and Words in their Room and place But if it be something else which they intend as indeed evidently it is nor doth any man understand more in the Design than Sobriety and Vsefulness in the World things singularly good in their proper place then it is no otherwise to be looked on but as a Design of Sathan to undermine the true Holiness of the Gospel and to substitute a deceitfull and deceiving Cloud or Shadow in the Room of it Sect. 16 And moreover what we have already Discoursed doth abundantly evince the folly and falshood of those clamorous Accusations wherein the most important Truths of the Gospel are charged as inconsistent with and as repugnant unto Holiness The Doctrine say the Socinians of the Satisfaction of Christ ruines all Care and Endeavours after an Holy Life For when men do believe that Christ hath satisfied the Justice of God for their Sins they will be enclined to be careless about them yea to live in them But as this Supposition doth transform Believers into Monsters of Ingratitude and Folly so it is built on no other Foundation than this that if Christ take away the Guilt of Sin there is no Reason in the Nature of these things nor mentioned in the Scripture why we should need to be holy and keep our selves from the Power Filth and Dominion of Sin or any way Glorifie God in this World which is an Inference weak false and ridiculous The Papists and others with them lay the same Charge on the Doctrine of Justification through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us And it is wonderfull to consider with what virulent Railing this Charge is managed by the Papists so with what scorn and scoffing with what Stories and Tales some amongst our selves endeavour to expose this sacred Truth to Contempt as though all those by whom it is Believed must consequently be Negligent of Holiness and good Works Now although I deny not but that such men may find a great Strength of Connexion between these things in their own Minds seeing there is a Principle in the corrupt Heart of man to turn the Grace of God into Lasciviousness yet as shall in due time be proved this sacred Truth is both Doctrinally and Practically the great constraining Principle unto Holiness and Fruitfulness in Obedience For the present I shall return no other Answer unto those Objections but that the Objectors are wholly mistaken in our Thoughts and Apprehensions concerning that God whom we serve God in Christ whom we Worship hath so revealed his own Holiness unto us and what is necessary for us on the Account thereof as that we know it to be a foolish wicked and blasphemous thing for any one to think to please him to be accepted with him to come to the Enjoyment of him without that Holiness which he requireth and from his own Nature cannot but require That the Grace or Mercy or Love of this God who is our God should encourage those who indeed know him unto Sin or countenance them in a Neglect of Holy Obedience to him is a monstrous Imagination There are as I shall shew afterwards other invincible Reasons for it and Motives unto it But the owning of this one Consideration alone by them who Believe the Grace of the Gospel is sufficient to secure them from the Reproach of this Objection Sect. 17 Moreover from what hath been discoursed we may all Charge our selves with Blame for our Sloth and Negligence in this Matter It is to be feared that we have none of us endeavoured as we ought to
Christ in the Wombe 137 1 Humane Nature of Christ guided and supported by the Spirit in his Ministry 141 7 Humble walking with God Motives unto it 404 Humility promoted by thoughts of Sovereign Grace 526 16 I. Idolatry in Opposition to the Oneness of the Divine Nature and Monarchy the first Apostasie 24 27 Cure of Idolatry by the Captivity 25 27 Jesus Anathema how uttered by the Instigation of the Devil 3 2 Jesus confessed to be the Lord by unclean Spirits and how 4 2 Ignorance taken for simple Nescience how it may be ascribed to the Humane Nature of Christ. 138 3 Ignorance of the true Nature of Holiness and its Effects 421 Illumination previous to Conversion the Nature of it 193 6 Illumination how distinguished from meer Natural Knowledge 194 7 Image of God wherein it consisted 76 14 Image of God defaced by Sin 366 Image of God in us wherein it consisted 376 5 Imitation of Christ highly Necessary 449 59 Imperfect Obedience not taken into the Room of perfect Obedience by the New Covenant 413 4 Importance of the Doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit 10 10 Importance of the Doctrine of Sanctification 324 6 Imposition of Names by a Prophetical Spirit 100 6 Impotency of the Mind to receive spiritual things 210 13 Impotency of the Mind by Nature 218 27 Impotency of the Mind of Man by Nature Two-fold 224 39 Impotency from Spiritual Death the Nature of it 243 14 Natural Impotency and Enmity how taken away 278 46 Inclinations unto holy Actings predominant in a Gracious Soul 430 27 Inclinations of Sin alwayes to be watched against 479 11 Inconformity unto Gods Holiness the Nature of it 374 Reasons of Inconformity unto God 508 17 Incumbrances from Sloath in spiritual Duties 435 36 Individed Operations of the Divine Nature 69 2 Indulgence of any Sin hinders the progress of Holiness in general 354 Indwelling Sin three wayes to be considered 476 6 Infusion of a Principle of Divine Life in Regeneration 411 2 Inhabitation of the Spirit the Foundation of the Mortification of Sin 483 18 Inherent Righteousness what it is and wherein it consists 182 19 Actual Inherent Righteousness required unto Holiness 463 1 Ability of Adam in the State of Innocency 280 50 Inspiration the Original of Prophecye 101 7 Inspiration what it is and wherein it consists 102 8 Adjuncts of Divine Inspiration 103 9 Institutions of the Law could not purge the Defilements of sin 379 Instruction of the Mind the first End of preaching the Word 258 11 Intellectual Faculties of the Mind strengthened by the Holy Spirit 119 26 Intellectual Faculties impaired by Sin 206 5 Intellectual and Moral Habits short of Holiness 336 14 Intellectual Habits the Nature of them 415 8 Intension of Mind in attendance to the Outward Means of Conversion how Necessary and in our own power 192 3 Intercession of Christ how a Cause of our Holiness 444 5 Intercession of Christ its Influence unto Holiness 556 5 Interest of Faith and Obedience in Principles of Truth 43 1 Internal Actings of the blessed Trinity where one Person is the Object of the Love of another natural and necessary to the Being of God 45 5 Internal Acts of the Holy Trinity how undivided 131 9 Irregularity of our Natures the Cause of Shame 383 Judgement of Spirits the Duty of all Believers 18 22 Justification not for Obedience to Gospel Precepts 536 537 7 8 c. K. Killing of Sin what it is and whence it is so called 478 9 Kindness required towards Believers in an especial Manner 516 30 Kingly Power of Christ and its Influence unto our Holiness 562 18 Knowledge of Divine things in their Operations and Effects 20 24 L. Law written in the Heart what it is 278 47 The Law to be considered as it expresseth first the Authority of God and then his Holiness 374 Law and Rule of the Acceptance of New Obedience what it is 413 4 Power of the Law with respect unto Duties 534 4 Reasons why mens Minds are little influenced by Humane Laws 540 15 The Law expounded and vindicated by Christ. 556 6 Legacy left by our Lord Jesus Christ unto his sorrowfull Disciples 9 10 Legal Purifications Types of real Sanctification 371 2 Legal Institutions for Purification their Vse and End 399 Arguments from Legal Commands no Motives to Holiness 534 3 Letter of the Scripture profiteth not the Jewes whilest they have not the Spirit 24 26 Spiritual Leprosie by Nature 393 10 Liberty and Ability in the renewed Will. 433 33 The Life of God from which we are alienated by Nature wherein it consists 215 21 Life natural what it is and wherein it consists 239 3 c. Life spiritual what it is 240 6 Life unto God of Adam in Innocency ibid. Spiritual Life of Adam in Innocency 241 7 Christ how he is our Life 247 23 Spiritual Life wherein it consists 419 13 Life unto God consists principally in Duties internal 464 3 The Light within examined 19 23 Things against the Light of Nature not really enjoyned the Prophets 109 15 Saving Light attainable by the Gospel onely 208 9 Saving Light how communicated to the Mind 283 54 Light and Ability in the renewed Mind 432 31 Some things clear in the Light of Nature 560 13 Literal sence of Doctrines of Truth may be understood 219 28 Three things required to render man meet to live to God 76 14 No Local Motion in the sending of the Spirit 84 8 Local Mutations in Vision or Divine Revelations the Nature of them 109 16 The Spirit of the Lord is Jehova 65 31 Love abused by Superstition vain 125 6 Love the first Grace acted by Christ in the offering of himself 144 Spiritual Love how implanted on the Soul 284 56 Love to Man the Spring of Christs holy Obedience 449 58 Love derives Vertue from the Death of Christ and how 495 37 Love effectual to make us like unto God 513 25 Especial Effects of Divine Love 514 25 26 27. Eternal Love a powerfull Motive unto Holiness 525 14 Love towards all Saints promoted by thoughts of Eternal Love 517 18 Electing Love a Motive unto Holiness 529 20 Lustrations and Purgations whence in use among the Heathen 376 4 Lusts of the Mind from Darkness 231 51 Particular Lusts not the entire Objects of Mortification 481 14 M. Macedonian Heresie concerning the Holy Spirit 46 7 Man a middle Creature between Angels above and sensitive Animals below 75 10 Man the perfection of the Inferiour Creaation 75 12 The New Man what it is 184 21. 367 Outward Manner and Wayes of Divine Revelations 106 11 Manner of the secret growth of Grace 347 8 The Manner and Way how the Blood of Christ doth cleanse us from Sin 387 5 Manner of the Operation of the Spirit in the Mortification of Sin 484 21 Manner of teaching by the greatest Moralist compared with that of Christ. 561 16 Not the Matter only but the Words of Divine Revelations given by Inspiration
the spirit of our Minds Ephes. 4. 23. that we put on the New man that is renewed in knowledge Col. 3. 10. with other Expressions of the like nature It is therefore our Entire Nature that is the Subject of Evangelical Holiness For to manifest in particulars 1 Hence it is called the New Man Ephes. 4. 24. Put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and Holiness As the Principle of Sin and corrupted Nature in us is called the Old Man for no other Reason but that it possesseth all the Active Powers of the whole Man so that he neither doth nor can do any thing but what is influenced thereby so this Principle of Holiness in us the Renovation of our Natures is called the New Man because it possesseth the whole Person with respect unto its proper Operations and Ends. And it extends it self as large as the Old Man or the Depravation of our Natures which takes in the whole Person Soul and Body with all their Faculties and Powers 2 The Heart in the Scripture is taken for the whole Soul and all the Faculties of it as they are one Common Principle of all Morall Operations as I have proved before Whatever therefore is wrought in and upon the Heart under this Consideration is wrought upon the whole Soul Now this is not only said to be affected with this Work of Sanctification or to have Holiness wrought in it but the principal Description that is given us of this Work consists in this that therein and thereby a New Heart is given unto us or created in us as it is expressed in the Promise of the Covenant This therefore can be nothing but the possessing of all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls with a New Principle of Holiness and Obedience unto God 3 There is especial mention made of the effecting of this Work on our Souls and Bodies with their Powers and Faculties distinctly This I have already proved in the Declaration of the Work of our Regeneration or Conversion to God which is only preserved cherished improved and carryed on to its proper End in our Sanctification The Nature also of that spiritual Light which is communicated unto our Minds of Life unto our Wills of Love unto our Affections hath been declared Therefore doth it follow thence unavoidably that the whole Person is the Subject of this Work and that Holiness hath its residence in the whole Soul entirely 4 We need goe no further for the proof hereof than unto that Prayer of the Apostle for the Thessalonians which we insisted on at the beginning of this Discourse 1 Thess. 5. 23. The God of Peace himself sanctifie you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughout that is in your whole Natures or Persons in all that you are and doe that you may not in this or that part but be every whit clean and Holy throughout And to make this the more evident that we may know what it is which he prayes may be sanctified and thereby preserved blameless to the coming of Christ he distributes our whole Natures into the two Essential parts of Soul and Body And in the former he considereth two things 1 the Spirit 2 the Soul peculiarly so called And this distinction frequently occurrs in the Scripture wherein that by the Spirit the Mind or Intellectual Faculty is understood and by the Soul the Affections is generally acknowledged and may evidently be proved These therefore the Apostle prayes may be sanctified and preserved Holy throughout and entirely and that by the Infusion of an Habit of Holiness into them with its Preservation and Improvement whereof more afterwards But this is not all Our Bodyes are an Essential part of our Natures and by their union with our Souls are we constituted individual Persons Now we are the Principles of all our Operations as we are Persons Every Moral Act we do is the Act of the whole Person The Body therefore is concerned in the Good and Evil of it It became a subject of the Depravation of our Nature by Concomitancy and Participation and is considered as one entire Principle with the Soul of communicating Original Defilement from Parents unto Children Besides it is now subject in that Corruption of its Constitution which it is fallen under as a punishment of sin unto many disorderly Motions that are Incentives and Provocations unto sin Hence sin is said to reign in our mortal Bodyes and our Members to be servants unto unrighteousness Rom. 6. 12. 19. Moreover by its Participation in the Defilement and Punishment of sin the Body is disposed and made obnoxious unto Corruption and Destruction For Death entred by Sin and no otherwise On all these Accounts therefore it is necessary on the other hand that the Body should be interested in this Work and Priviledge of Sanctification and Holiness And so it is 1 By Participation For it is our Persons that are sanctified and made Holy sanctifie them throughout and although our Souls are the first proper Subject of the infused Habit or Principle of Holiness yet our Bodyes as essential parts of our Natures are Partakers thereof 2 By a peculiar Influence of the Grace of God upon them also as far as they have any influence into Moral Operations For the Apostle tells us that our Bodyes are Members of Christ 1 Cor. 3. 15. and so consequently have influences of Grace from him as our Head 3 In the Work of Sanctification the Holy Ghost comes and dwells in us And hereon our Bodyes are the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us 1 Cor. 3. 19. And the Temple of God is Holy although I confess this rather belongs unto the Holiness of peculiar Dedication unto God whereof we shall treat afterwards And hereby 1 are the Parts and Members of the Body made Instruments and Servants of Righteousness unto Holiness Rom. 6. 19. do become meet and fit for to be used in the Acts and Dutyes of Holiness as being made clean and sanctified unto God 2 Hereby are they disposed and prepared unto a blessed Resurrection at the Last Day which shall be wrought by the Spirit of Christ which dwelt in them and sanctified them in this Life Rom. 8. 10 11. Phil. 3. 20 21. 2 Cor. 4. 14 16 17. Our whole Persons therefore and in them our whole Natures are the Subject of this Work and true Holiness invests the whole of it Now whether this universal Investiture of our Nature in all the Faculties and Powers of it by a new Principle of Holiness and Obedience unto God whereby it is renewed unto his Image do belong unto that Morall Vertue which some so plead for as to substitute it in the Room of Gospel-Holiness they may do well to consider who are the Patrons of that Cause For if it doth not then doth not it self belong unto that Holiness which the Gospel teacheth requireth promiseth and communicates whatever else it be And moreover it is practically worthy consideration that men