Christian Virtue is ascribed both to the Holy Spirit and to the Word of God in that Prayer of St. Paul for the Colossians that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good work c. that is by the means of a fuller understanding of the Will of God Col. 1.9 10. And the co-operation of both these Causes for the producing of the same Effect is yet more plainly expressed in those words of our Saviour's Prayer for his Disciples Sanctifie them through thy TRVTH thy WORD is TRVTH where nothing can be more plain than this that the holiness of Believers is ascribed to the Operation of Truth upon their mindes viz. that Truth which is revealed in the Gospel Seing then that the Gospel is not onely in it self a proper means of converting the Unbeliever and the Disobedient of confirming and improving the sincere Convert but as you see the Graces of the Holy Spirit are those effects also which the Scriptures frequently ascribe to the weightiness of those Reasons and Considerations that are offered to our understandings by the Word of God We must be careful not to define the manner whereby the Holy Spirit worketh in the mindes of men to produce these Graces so as to deny them to be the Genuine and proper effects of divine Truths which is done by assigning such a manner of Operation to the Holy Spirit as must needs be inconsistent with ascribing Conversion to the Operation of Truth Wherefore it is too boldly done of Dr. Owen and his Party to affirm that Conversion is an effect of such an Operation of the Holy Spirit upon the minde as makes it impossible for a man not to be converted and withal that Conversion is impossible without such an irresistible Operation For 1. If a man must necessarily resist the whole strength of God's Word till Conversion be wrought in him by an irresistible action of the Spirit as these men teach then 't is plainly absurd to make Conversion to be an effect of God's Word For upon this Hypothesis it contributes no more to a man's conversion than the hurling of a Pebble does to the throwing down of a mighty Wall that is falling by the fury of the Cannon If as the Doctor saith the Will cannot make use of that Grace for conversion which it can refuse if also it can resist all kinde of Perswasions Reasons Arguments and Motives as he himself supposes and by consequence that Operation of the Spirit whereby Conversion is caused be irresistible What can be more evident than that Conversion must upon these terms be onely and wholly the effect of an irresistible power and not at all of Reasons and Motives To say that the Operations of the Spirit produce their effects irresistibly because they are joyned with the Word is to ascribe an irresistible Operation to the Word as well as to the Spirit or rather to make the irresistibleness to arise from the concurrence of both those Causes Now besides that upon this Hypothesis all men to whom the Gospel is made known would be converted seeing we have proved the ministration of the Gospel to be accompanied with the Operations of the Spirit in all that hear it Besides this I say these men do not place the irresistible force by which Conversion as they say is wrought in the concurrence of the Word and the Spirit but in the sole Operation of the Spirit Now that Conversion should at the same time be an effect of God's Word which as they say a man cannot but resist till he is converted and of such an Operation of the Spirit too as is altogether irresistible is to me as unintelligible as Transubstantiation For if it were onely said that 't is possible for a man to resist the Operations of Truth and withal granted that Conversion must as well be an effect of the truth of God's Word as of the Holy Spirit 's Operating in our mindes it would plainly follow that his Operations were resistible The reason is because where an Effect depends upon the concurrence of two Causes he that hath it always in his power to resist the force of one is at any time able to frustrate the other and consequently to hinder the effect Now they themselves grant and it is plain by daily experience that the Word of God may be resisted and heard in vain as it was even when preached in the demonstration of the Spirit and Power Wherefore when the Operations of the Spirit conspire with the power of the Word to convert a sinner if he can be obstinate against the latter he may also quench the former and then they are not irresistible Furthermore it may be said if Conversion be wrought irresistibly by the sole Operation of the Spirit then the Word which may be resisted is unnecessary But if the Word cannot but be resisted till the effect is wrought by another power that is invincible viz. that of the Spirit then 't is plain that the effect is owing onely to that power which is to render the whole Ministry of the Gospel utterly vain and useless and to contradict all those passages of Scripture which attribute our Conversion to the force of divine Truth But 2. It is further evident from the manner of their explaining this irresistible Operation that they exclude all the influence of God's Word from being a means of Conversion Dr. Owen tells us that the Holy Ghost is the immediate Author and cause of Regeneration and he is often putting us in minde that we are converted by an immediate Physical Operation of the Spirit which he endeavours to prove for many Pages together Now a Physical Operation he opposeth to Moral and thereby excludeth from it all use of any Reasons Arguments and Motives whatsoever as he doth industriously more than once Now what is more plain than that to ascribe Conversion to such an Operation as this is wholly to exclude the Word of God from being any way subordinate to that Grace whereby we are converted For although the Doctor tells us sometimes that he grants a Moral Operation of the Spirit and that he onely denies the concurrence of that with the Word to be the total cause of Conversion yet by his leave he does not make it so much as a partial cause For if this Physical Operation onely is that Grace which can remove all obstacles and overcome all oppositions and infallibly produce the effect intended as he speaks if this Operation doth not consist in the use of any motive whatsoever contained in the Word of God Finally if this Operation be the immediate cause of Conversion if nothing intervenes between this Operation and the Effect it is then plain I conceive that the Word of God is wholly excluded from being a means of Conversion for neither is the use of any
them he also glorified vers 29 30. i. e. And it is not onely true that God will convert these sufferings which now befall us into a means of our inestimable advantage but we are to consider also that those whom God fore-knew or fore-approved for his Children were fore-appointed to sufferings that in this respect also we might be like our elder Brother Christ Jesus who hath shewn us this way of coming to the joy that is set before us wherefore we are not to wonder if we be called to actual sufferings now upon our undergoing of which with faith and patience God will justifie and own us for sincere persons and reward us eternally What shall we say then to these things If God be for us who can be against us vers 31. c. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written For thy sake are we killed c. vers 35. Nay in all these things which through the divine disposition tend to our good we are more than Conquerours vers 37. c. This is the second argument used by the Apostle viz. the profitableness of afflictions themselves to them that love God which is fully express'd vers 28. and vehemently urged to the end of the Chapter But the Apostle makes way for this argument by what he saith vers 26 27. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought c. For it is plain by those words likewise also that he was now offering to them a further consideration having just before concluded that motive to patience from the Deliverance and Glory which they hoped for And that which he proceeds to shew is the mistake of thinking that it were at least better for the present to be exempted from these sufferings since in matters of this nature we know not what to pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us that we may have what is best and then if sufferings befall us we know they are most profitable for us and consequently that all things work together for good c. Now by this time I think it is very plain that the supposition upon which the Fathers went restraining the ignorance of what we are to pray for to the matter of present afflictions is not onely coherent with the designe of the Apostle in this place but that the context does indeed require it I shall onely adde that the words themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do properly signifie the Spirit relieveth us under our afflictions for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated infirmity is very frequently used in the New Testament to signifie Misery and Distress To conclude therefore if with Origen St. Ambrose and Dr. Hammond you suppose the intercession of the Spirit to be understood in the proper sence the Text may be thus paraphrased The Gospel of Christ affords us this relief against impatience under afflictions that whereas we know not whether Afflictions or Deliverance and Ease be best for us at present and consequently as to these respects know not what to pray for in particular the Spirit of Christ himself intercedes for us with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unuttered groanings i. e. earnestly and powerfully for by an inexpressible desire we commonly understand one that is vehement And God who searcheth our Hearts and understands that we do sometimes desire such things as tend not to our advantage knoweth also what the Spirit intercedes for and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he requests in our behalf better things for us than we do for our selves for we are ever ready to desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as seem best to man but he asks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what God knows to be best for us But if with St. Austin and the rest we understand by the intercession of the Spirit his making us to intercede for our selves as we may without swerving in the least from the main scope of the Text or excluding the former sence then the words admit of this Paraphrase Whereas when we pray for deliverance from affliction we know not whether it be best for us to have our desire granted the Holy Spirit inclines us to an entire submission of our selves to the divine Will and together with our most earnest prayers of that kinde there is all along mingled that secret and more vehement desire of what God seeth best for us which is a grace of the Holy Spirit whereby the forwardness of our Appetites after the ease and comforts of this world is corrected and governed Now though this earnest request be not uttered the particular matter of it being not yet known since we are ignorant what will be most profitable for us yet he that searcheth the Heart understands it perfectly and knows that we vehemently desire not so much that deliverance or worldly advantage which is the matter of our uttered groans and Prayers as that good which the Spirit moveth us to pray for and which we cannot particularly utter that namely which God seeth best for us This indeed is a desire of the Heart which proceeds from a divine cause and God is so pleased with it that he will not fail to grant it so that if afflictions continue we know they shall work together for good c. And thus the Holy Spirit relieveth us under our infirmities and distresses by bringing all our worldly appetites under submission to the pleasure of divine Wisdom and Goodness And thus much for the interpretation of this Text which I have been the more careful in considering because it is perpetually produced to justifie the pretences of those men that ascribe their extemporary inventions and contrivances in Prayer to the suggestion of the Spirit of God and make it little less than Blasphemy for any man to contradict them I have by good Authorities and by the scope of the place and by the importance of the words themselves clearly shewn that it belongs to another very distinct matter and is consequently incapable of being made use of for their purpose And now whether he that useth pious Forms of prayer be not capable of that relief from the Spirit which is here mentioned ◠leave it to every sober Reader to judge but will not so far question his understanding or presume upon his patience as to help him any further to do it Thus have I at last considered those places of Scripture which are commonly alledged in favour of those three pretended gifts of the Spirit which I shewed before were not contained under the general promise of the Holy Spirit Luke 11.13 Amongst many other reasons inducing me to this work I shall mention but these two 1. To vindicate the Holy Spirit from those dishonours that are daily done to him either while wicked and unrighteous men attribute their confidence that they are personally
to all that shall hear that it will be possible for them to believe Which is so clear a consequence that the very mention of it would have been sufficient had not some men gotten a custom of imputing the want of Faith and indeed of all other Christian vertues to a defect on God's part as if he had not given them Grace enough to believe and repent c. The meaning of which Phrase and the like if it be this that the Grace of God hath not put it into their power to believe is so highly dishonourable to the divine Goodness that I have thought fit to shew wherein it is so and thereby to prove the untruth of it Finally this implicite promise of that Grace which is necessary to put them that hear the Gospel into the way of obtaining Salvation by it is not properly a part of the New Covenant such as the promises made to Believers and good men are because there is no condition annexed to it Thus that promise of God that he would send his Son into the world to be the Mediator between God and Man could be no part of that Covenant whereof Christ is the Mediator and which he was to seal with his Blood But it was an absolute promise of an act of Grace that was antecedent to the Covenant it self and which depended not upon any condition required by it The promise of a Saviour was indeed part of the Gospel or of the revelation of God's Will to Mankinde in order to our recovery and salvation but it cannot be affirmed to be a part of the Covenant between God and Man with any more propriety than it can be said that God's entring into Covenant with Man is an Article of the Covenant In like manner that Grace by which we are first put into a capacity of believing and consequently of obeying the Gospel after it is revealed is supposed in the Gospel otherwise the conditions of the Covenant were impossible which is to take away the very foundation of a Covenant of Grace such as that is whereof our Lord Jesus is the Mediator But although the promise of this Grace is implied in the Gospel yet 't is not properly any part of the Covenant because 't is a promise without condition SECT 4. 4. From what hath been already proved it may be inferred That the promises of special Grace are made to us all under possible conditions For since a Believer may by his prayers obtain that special Grace of God which is needful for sincere obedience since an obedient Christian may obtain that further Grace which is needful for perseverance seeing also that Grace which is necessary to a good beginning i. e. to excite good desires in us and to bring us to Faith is given absolutely to all that live under the means of Grace It follows plainly that the promises of special Grace are made to all such under possible conditions Wherefore we may conclude that God will give his Holy Spirit to all that live under the ministration of the Gospel that they may learn and believe and pray for his further Grace that to all who are thus qualified he will give his Spirit that they may overcome the World and obey the Gospel And that to all such sincere Christians he will give his Spirit that they may perfect holiness in the fear of God and persevere to the end which is a plain and satisfactory Answer to the second Question CHAP. VII Concerning the Manner and Measure of the Holy Spirit 's Operations SECT 1. THis Question may easily be multiplied into a great many more according as men are led by their curiosity That which has been still most debated under this Head is this How far or in what measure the Operations of the Holy Spirit upon our mindes conduce to those effects which are designed to be produced by them Now concerning this and all other Questions of this kinde I observe that the Scriptures are very silent in comparison to that clear and full account which they have given us of the former God having thought it sufficient for our encouragement in the search of Truth and the study of Godliness and Virtue to let us know assuredly that he will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him for necessary and profitable purposes without satisfying our curiosity about the manner of his Operations and the measure of their power Wherefore in treating upon this Subject a man should not venture to affirm many things or to conclude very particularly much less to obtrude his Opinions upon other men For in matters that are not knowable but onely by Revelation and concerning which there is but little revealed he that is most ready to affirm boldly and particularly is still most likely to miscarry and that if there were no other reason for it because it argues an immodest temper to define peremptorily in things which God hath reserved from our knowledge and this to be sure is none of those Qualifications which he hath promised to reward with the discovery of truth But yet I observe that some men have been as dogmatical and particular in determining the manner and measure of the Holy Spirit 's Operations as if their Conclusions were as clearly grounded upon Revelation as the plainest truth in the Gospel and have thrust them upon the world with more fierceness and zeal than would have become a much better Cause For an instance hereof we may take Dr. Owen's Book where he does not onely assert for himself and his Brethren that the efficiency as he calls it of the Holy Spirit on the mindes of men is irresistible and that Grace is always prevalent or effectual and cannot be resisted as to that end whereunto of God it is designed and much more to the same purpose but falls upon his Adversaries in this point with such insolent language and immodest reproaches that they could hardly deserve to be worse used by him if they had affirmed divine Grace was not necessary to Regeneration as resolutely as they maintain the contrary This is the Doctrine which he pretends to stand up for against the New Pelagians and a crew of Socinianized Arminians they are his own words as if to deny the personality of the Holy Ghost and the assistances of divine Grace and to contradict his opinion that the Holy Spirit does irresistibly produce the effects of Grace upon the mindes of men were the same thing But this you will less wonder at when you consider that he makes nothing to compare those that oppose his opinion to Cain and Ishmael For he saith The Enmity of Cain against Abel was but a branch of this proud inclination The instance of Ishmael in the Scripture is a representative of all such as under an outward profession of the true Religion do scoff at those who being as Isaac Children of the Promise do profess and evidence an interest in the internal power of it which they are
unquainted withal And by this he shews that the practice of despising his opinions concerning Grace has not been taken up of late Now I will not say how old the practice has been of making every quarrel a man is concerned in equal to the Cause of those godly men whose sufferings are mentioned in the Scripture but 't is well enough known that 't is at least as old as that Faction which our Author hath espoused and whether this be not one branch of a proud inclination let sober men judge It has been often observed of these men how dear They and their Opinions are to themselves and the Doctor has here given you a good ordinary instance of it For if he had not been bewitch'd with self-conceit he had never made this absurd parallel for what had Abel or Isaac to do with his Cause If he had onely called us the seed of Cain and Ishmael without saying why who would have thought the reason had been our questioning whether men are snatch'd into a state of Grace by an irresistible power And yet this is his great quarrel against us concerning the manner of Conversion which here he pretends to explain I know he does more than insinuate and that more than once that we disown the very assistances of the Holy Spirit as I shall convince you in a fitter place but this you are to look upon as an effect of his rage which makes him foam out Calumnies against us without any discretion for he knows well enough that his Adversaries are not guilty of it as I shall shew you too from his own words and then I shall desire him to consider whether the Father of Lyes be not the Representative of such shameless Writers as he is an example of As to what he saith that such a work of God upon men as he contends for is exposed to derision if upon that account he compares his Adversaries to scoffing Ishmael I think he does them great wrong For let him if he can name any of his opinion in this matter who has debated the point with any appearance of Modesty and Sobriety and was answered with the least shew of Contempt But as for those of whom Dr. Owen is one that instead of answering the Arguments of their Adversaries complain that they are laughed at and do themselves fall upon them with the foulest reproaches as upon the Enemies of Christ it may be sometimes good to take down their haughty spirits and to render their arrogance contemptible lest others be encouraged to hope that any Cause may be carried by vapouring In my opinion it is a difficult undertaking to define in particular what is the manner and measure of the Holy Spirit 's Operations because I think the Scriptures have not particularly acquainted us what it is Let others who have better considered the thing enjoy the liberty of thinking otherwise and for my own part I shall with all thankfulness submit to further instruction But as for Dr. Owen I hope to make it appear that the Scriptures do not favour his determination of the Question which I shall the rather endeavour because I conceive this opinion that the Spirit worketh upon our mindes in an irresistible manner especially as he hath advanced it to be of dangerous consequence to the Souls of men In the mean time I shall lay down some Propositions the truth of which will I think be easily granted by all sober Christians from whence we may in general conclude what is the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations and the measure of their power not that I think even this were needful if our Author and those of his way had not fallen into a dangerous Mistake by venturing too far For that which has been already said seems to me to afford a sufficient foundation of Godliness and Comfort if all be not subverted again by their opinion of the Manner wherein we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit Now I think it will appear that those general Propositions wherein they agree with us concerning the Manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations on our mindes are inconsistent with their particular definition of it And the first of them is this That 1. Faith and Repentance or Conversion to God together with Perseverance in Holiness are truely and properly the effects of God's Word revealed to us in the Doctrines of the Gospel Wherefore such is the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operation in producing these Qualifications in our mindes that it hinders them not from being the Genuine effects of the Revelation of the Gospel but they ought still to be ascribed to that force and efficacy of those divine Truths which are contained in it whereby the Gospel is in it self a fit and proper means of working the Grace of God in the mindâ— of men Now it is very plain that the proper and natural power of the Gospel to produce these effects consists in the evidence of its Truth in the authority and excellency of its Laws and in the weightiness of its Promises and Threatnings and other motives to obedience Wherefore if Conversion be the proper effect of God's Word it follows that the Holy Spirit does 1. Onely co-operate to the producing of that effect and 2. In that manner as it may truely be affirmed to be an effect of those considerations which are propounded to us in the Gospel The truth of the Supposition is manifest from divers places of Scripture As for Faith St. Paul plainly tells us it comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10.17 Thus upon the conversion of many Unbelievers it is said that the Word of God grew mightily and prevailed Acts 19.20 i. e. the testimonies which God gave to the truth of the Gospel convinced many that were in all appearance most likely to oppose it Hence St. Paul tells the Corinthians that in Christ Jesus he had begotten them through the Gospel i. e. by the preaching of the Gospel he had first brought them over to the faith of Christ. Furthermore our obedience is by St. Peter ascribed to the power of God's Word where he saith that we have great and precious promises given to us that by These we might be partakers of the divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1.4 To the same purpose the Word of God is said to work effectually in those that believed 1 Thess. 2.13 i. e. by the force of those promises mentioned by St. Peter and other weighty considerations moving to holiness Finally our Regeneration is expresly ascribed to the Word of God for we are said to be born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 and our Spiritual improvement is attributed not long after to the same cause As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 Thus the increase of
understand our being strongly and deeply affected with divine Truths for where the Word of God dwells richly there the Spirit of God dwells too Nay I may adde further that there is no need of being curious to mark what respect was principally aimed at by the Apostle in the use of these Phrases throughout Rom. 8. and likewise Gal. 5. and other places and that because the Apostle does not seem to be curious in the use of them himself Nor was it necessary for him so to be in order to the making good of that conclusion against the Jews which he aimed at viz. that Justification was not to be had by the works of the Law but by the faith of Christ i. e. by being a true Disciple of Christ in mortifying the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts. But on the other hand his using of those Phrases of being led by and walking after the Spirit indifferently for living according to the Gospel and being governed by the motions of the Holy Spirit was very suitable to his designe of shewing that Justification was no other way to be obtained but by being a true Christian For since mortifying of the deeds of the body and being subject to the Law of God in that degree which Christianity now required were necessary to Justification the Jew who rejected the Gospel of Christ must needs be under Condemnation because the Holy Spirit whose guidance and incitations were necessary to the subduing of sin was given for that purpose to none that rejected Christianity Wherefore as long as the Jew would not submit to the Law of the Spirit of Life i. e. to the Gospel to the profession whereof the special promise of the Spirit was made he must needs be subject to the Law of Sin and of Death Of sin because he refused the necessary means of subduing the lusts of the Flesh viz. the Faith of the Gospel which was to refuse the Incitations and Grace of the Spirit Of Death because if we live after the Flesh we shall die This Observation I thought might not prove altogether unuseful to well-meaning persons that have not hit on it before for a man may well be in danger of mistaking the Apostle's designe in this and other places where the fore-mentioned Phrases are promiscuously used if he expects that every one of them should have a peculiar mystery belonging to it and a sence quite different from all the rest But that which I chiefly intended was to observe that the promiscuous use of those Phrases in the holy Scripture is extreamly agreeable to that familiar way wherein the Holy Spirit moveth the mindes of men For if we are so moved by him that we are not sensible of any operation in our mindes but that of divine Truth as it is represented to us by ordinary means and thereupon embraced by our Understandings then we cannot better express our being led and guided by the Spirit than by saying that we obey the Gospel And thus you see a further reason of the promiscuous and indifferent use of the above-mentioned Phrases and that taken from the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations as the former was from the end and designe of them I shall conclude this point with inferring from what hath been said concerning it that we resist the Holy Spirit of God many times when we think of nothing less and we do not think of it because we do not feel that supernatural impression which is made upon us and cannot discern it from the free and natural Operations of our minds And thus we quench the motions of the Spirit very often when we imagine that we onely quarrel with our own Thoughts or reject the good counsels of a Friend or the exhortations of a Minister or the rebukes of our own Conscience Now if we could hear or apprehend the Holy Spirit disswading us from any wickedness as sensibly as when a good man speaks to us we should not dare surely to entertain one thought more of going forward A temptation could no more prevail against us if we were thus admonish'd than if God should speak to us from Heaven with an audible voice in these words O do not that wicked thing which I hate But God doth not use this method upon us because we are here to live by Faith because he will prove us whether we believe his Word or not Therefore if it be plain from the holy Scriptures that when we are sinning against the clear Convictions of our duty when we are baffling any good Exhortations and Counsels and our own hopes of Heaven or our fears of Hell or the force of any seasonable good thought tending to Repentance we do then as really contradict the perswasions of the blessed Spirit as if we heard his Voice sounding in our Ears shall we not be as much afraid to do the former as we should be to do the latter For it will not be admitted in our excuse that we did not think of rebelling against the Holy Spirit for our not thinking of it is another fault since we have reason to believe that every sin we commit against the checks of Conscience has that aggravation and why should we think that one fault will excuse another Wherefore if we cannot but acknowledge that the doing of despight to the Spirit of Grace must needs adde an heavy weight to every sin which we commit presumptuously and to every neglect of improving an inclination to Repentance methinks we should tremble to do the one or to delay the other Finally the consideration of this matter if we have any due reverence of God will not fail of making all good counsels profitable to us of giving strength to all our own good purposes and making us careful to improve by all reasons that are proper to convince us by all Examples that are fit to instruct us and by all opportunities of serious reflection upon our selves For the Operations of the Holy Spirit do conspire with such familiar methods as these are to produce his Graces in us SECT 6. From all these things it follows in the last place that the Operations of the Holy Spirit in our minds are Assistances or Helps as they are generally called by Christians of all perswasions not excepting our Author and the Friends of his way But I say also they are properly so called because the Operations of the Spirit are no more than Assistances and that because his Graces are truely and properly the effects of other Causes viz. of the ministration of the Gospel of the external means of Grace and of our own endeavours with all which the Operations of the Holy Spirit conspire for the producing of those effects in us The Spirit is indeed the principal cause of these effects and therefore they are called his Graces and ascribed to him as if we did nothing our selves to gain them according to that saying of the Apostle I laboured abundantly yet not I but the grace of God which
was with me 1 Cor. 15.10 But because they are our own free acts therefore He is not the onely cause of them The Holy Spirit doth not regenerate us in that manner as to do all himself and leave nothing for us to do in order to our regeneration but we are as much concerned to use all proper means of Regeneration as if the whole matter depended upon our single endeavours as I shewed Sect. 4. and that which I say of Regeneration is equally true of every particular Grace of the Holy Ghost It is this Supposition viz. that the Operations of the Spirit are Aids and Helps to our natural Faculties which makes the ascribing of all Christian Virtues to his Grace consistent with leaving the use of our Reason and those duties which depend thereupon necessary to the attainment of them Which our Author understood so well that in his Preface where he complains so tragically of the Reproaches that are cast upon those that dare take upon them to defend the work of the Spirit he pretends to plead for nothing else but the Aids and Assistances of the Spirit very well knowing that they do not impugn the use of reason in Religion as his Phrase is and withal that this Objection is produced by his Adversaries against nothing but his opinion of the irresistible manner of the Spirit 's Operations which very wisely he says not one word of through his whole Preface The onely inconvenience saith he wherewith our Doctrine is pressed is the pretended difficulty in reconciling the nature and necessity of our Duty with the efficacy of the Grace of the Spirit and I have been so far from waving the consideration of it as that I have embraced every opportunity to examine it in all particular instances wherein it may be urged with most appearance of probability And it is I hope at length made to appear that not onely the necessity of our duty is consistent with the efficacy of God's Grace but also that as on the one hand we can perform no duty to God as we ought without its AID and ASSISTANCE nor have any encouragement to attempt a course of obedience without a just expectation thereof So on the other that the work of Grace it self is no way effectual but in our compliance with it in a way of duty onely with the leave of some persons or whether they will or no we give the Preeminence in all unto Grace and not unto our selves And now who would not believe that there are some amongst us who do not give the Pre-eminence in all unto Grace nay and think that if we cannot perform our duty as we ought without the Aid and Assistance of the Spirit that the nature of Duty and the use of Reason in it is destroyed and withal that this man has spent a Folio of railing upon us because we denied the Aids of Grace and the internal Operations of the Holy Ghost Why any man saith he should be discouraged from the exercise of that industry which God requires of him by the consideration of the AID and ASSISTANCE which he hath promised unto him I cannot understand No truely nor I neither nor any man that has common sense For is it possible that a man should be discouraged from industry because he is promised that help without which his industry would not prevail But what is the reason that we hear nothing at all now but of Aids and Assistances when the Operations of the Spirit are mentioned Did the Doctor 's Adversaries ever urge any Objections against them Was the inconvenience wherewith his Doctrine of irresistible Grace is pressed ever charged by them upon the Aids of the Spirit When and where did any of them with or without whose leave he was resolved to write his Book pretend that the Supposition of the Aids of Grace was liable to the inconvenience he promiseth to remove Or rather what can this man say to palliate so foul an Imposture Let others as he goes on do what they please I shall endeavour to comply with the Apostles advice upon the enforcement which he gives unto it Work out your own salvation c. for it is God which worketh c. By all means Sir endeavour it but do not endeavour to perswade the World that the reason why you persecute us with bitter words is because we are not like to be pleased with you for taking the Apostles reason to follow his advice Or if you continue to insinuate this belief of us and to make folks think that the principal cause and occasion of your present undertaking was the open and horrible Opposition that is made unto the Spirit of God and his work in the World since as you go on there is no concernment of his that is not by many derided exploded and blasphemed and that your Adversaries of the Church of England whom you are so angry with for saying that you make a Buz and a Noise and trouble the mindes of men with unintelligible notions are such Scoffers that if any one shall plead the necessity of the Assistance of the Spirit for the due performance of Duties he shall hardly escape from being notably derided by them I say if you go on in this manner surely you must forget all the while that there is a day coming when you must appear before the Tribunal of the Great God to give an account of your Writings But as for our selves to use your own words I shall not trouble my self about an accusation which is laden with as many Convictions of Forgery as there are persons against whom you level these your uncharitable and malicious suggestions Let any indifferent man read your Preface where you pretend to give a Summary Account of your Book and say if the principal designe of it were not to possess your Readers with an opinion that it is our blaspheming the Doctrine of the Aids of the Holy Spirit which enkindled your zeal against us and that you have bestirred your self in the Book principally to make it good against all our opposition that we cannot do the Will of God without them But now if you light upon a Reader so unfortunate to your self as will take the pains to compare you and your self together your Preface with the greatest part of your Book he will soon finde that your Preface was but the Copy of your Countenance and not of your Heart For when you come to give us your opinion concerning the Operations of Grace in good earnest it plainly appears that 't is you that deny them to be Assistances and Helps and that your true quarrel against us is because we say they are Assistances not the onely Causes of Regeneration For you labour as I shall shew you further in the second Part with abundance of words and with all your might to prove that mere Assistance how great soever is utterly insufficient to the conversion of a Sinner and that Conversion is impossible to
does not say in plain terms that he is infallible yet in that Book which I have taken the pains to consider he lays claim as you will see to such an Illumination of minde by the Holy Spirit as differs very little from that kinde of Inspiration which the Apostles had But this will not hinder you from trying the Doctor 's Spirit and way of Teaching if you consider what he very well observed in the fore-mentioned Book viz. that the Bereans were highly extoll'd for searching whether the Doctrine concerning our Saviour preached by St. Paul were so or no For he must not desire to be believed more hastily than St. Paul did who we are sure spake by an infallible Spirit The more highly any man pretends to the divine Spirit the better Testimonies he had need to produce for the truth of his pretence No wise man will lightly take up that belief of another which if he once gives way to he must believe him in all things else The brighter those Illuminations are which any Teacher boasts of the less reason you have to take his bare word for it and if he be not willing that you should examine his Doctrines he gives you great cause of suspition that they will not abide the Tryal Besides the Doctor takes notice that what was praised in the Bereans is commended in the Scripture Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God because many false spirits are gone out into the world 1 Joh. 4.1 Prophets then as he goes on must be tried before they be trusted now the reason of this holds still there are many false Teachers abroad in the world wherefore try every one try his spirit his spiritual gift of Teaching and that by the Word of God I will onely adde that the reason holds more strongly now for if false Teachers pretended to an infallible Spirit even whilst the Apostles were alive to contradict them and discover them much more likely are they to do so now when they think they may do it more securely and therefore we had need to use the more diligence in trying those Teachers that pretend loftily by that Word of God which the Apostles have left us in their Writings Now if the Doctor would have you to shut your own Eyes and then trust to that New saving Light by which he pretends to explain Gospel-Truths this were enough to make you suspect that the Light that is in him is Darkness Or if he meant to except himself from being tried when he bad you try the Spirits for that reason he is least of all to be excepted I have obeyed the Apostles advice and tried him as you may see in the following Book which I was willing to make publick because those Reasons which satisfie me that he is very much out of the way in discoursing upon spiritual things after this manner may possibly seem as clear to you as they do to my self If there be any Sophistry in them or carnal Reasoning or perverting of Holy Writ 't is more than I know and I shall thank the Doctor for making the discovery which I think he is bound to do if he can not onely for your sake but for mine too For so far as I understand my self I am not less desirous to retract any errour of my own than I am to convince you of his And therefore if he be as willing as I am I shall in all probability hear further from him In the mean time I desire you to believe neither of us but to try us both If the Doctor 's friends should be troubled to find him charg'd with Nonsence in the following Book the Author has this to say for himself that he knew no other name so fit as Nonsence to call Nonsence by And he believes that he has not onely said but prov'd also that the Doctor is guilty of Nonsence where he has charged him with it He hopes also that they will not be offended with him for taking occasion sometimes to rebuke this man for those rude Words and unjust Reproaches which he has poured forth for whole Pages together upon his Adversaries of the Church of England For if it be possible he should be taught at last to manage controversies in Religion in a more Christian manner than he has done hitherto And now the Author will onely say in behalf of himself that his designe in this Book was to clear the Truth of that Question which he has undertaken to every ordinary understanding and thereby to promote the power of Godliness And the best thing he can say of the Book it self is that it hath been thought by men of far better judgement than he can pretend to not to be altogether improper for that end And if they are not mistaken may the All-wise and good God prosper the designe of it with his Blessing The CONTENTS Of the Introduction SECT I. THat the promise of the Holy Spirit is according to the Scriptures a great motive to diligence in Religion Page 1. That according to Dr. Owen's principles it seems to be none at all p. 3. The Author's designe p. 4. SECT II. The advantage which the Doctor makes by pretending that onely the Regenerate understand spiritual things spiritually p. 5. while he proves himself to be regenerate by his spiritual understanding of spiritual things p. 6. This Artifice of his discovered in some instances p. 7. That he allows onely himself and his party to be competent Judges of his Doctrine concerning the Operations of the Holy Spirit p. 11. SECT III. His interpretation of 1 Cor. 2.14 explained p. 15. SECT IV. That his meaning of the natural man is groundless p. 20. Of his not receiving the things of the Spirit absurd p. 21. And of their being foolishness to him blasphemous p. 25. The odde account he gives of the reasonableness of the Gospel in his Preface p. 27. Other reflections upon his sence of the fore-mentioned Text p. 30. That the Doctor 's pretended Gospel-mysteries need his interpretation of that Text but the real mysteries of the Gospel need it not p. 31. The pernicious consequence of his interpretation p. 32. SECT V. Another sence of the Text offered according to St. Chrysostome whose Authority the Doctor pretends in favour of his own p. 33. The scope of the Apostle in that and the former Chapter largely shewn p. 34. From whence it plainly appears what he meant by the natural man p. 40. The Scriptural notion of the state of nature p. 42. What is meant by the things of the Spirit of God and their being spiritually discerned p. 43. and by the spiritual man p. 45. The incoherence of the Doctor 's sence with the Context p. 46. Dr. Hammond's Paraphrase upon the Text vindicated from the exceptions of Dr. Owen p. 47. And shewn to agree with those passages of St. Chrysostome which Dr. Owen himself produceth p. 51. That the following Book is not to be
Miracles Prophecies c. The true difference between Dr. H. and Dr. O. in this matter is not whether the manner or the means of receiving spiritual things be signified by the word spiritually but whether it is designed to express those means which Dr. H. affirms viz. external Testimonies of divine Revelation or those which Dr. O. contends for viz. the internal and irresistible operations of the Spirit upon a mans minde But 2. I have shewn by the clear scope of the Apostle that the outward means are here to be understood This I see is our Author 's great trouble that Dr. H. supposes the true cause why the Natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit is because he will onely be led by his natural Reason and will not attend to Revelation and the outward means whereby revealed Doctrines may be proved whereas J. Owen's meaning is that he cannot receive them because the New Light is not yet created in his minde by an almighty act of the Spirit The truth of Dr. Hammond's sence and the absurdity of Dr. Owen's I have already shewn and shall onely adde this to help our Authors understanding viz. That the proposal of the external evidences of a divine Revelation made equally to those who rejected the Gospel with them who received it is no argument that they who rejected it could not receive it because their mindes were not enlightned by an omnipotent act of the Spirit For another reason may be given why they could not viz. the Apostles reason because they sought after mans Wisdom and would not admit of that for truth which was not proved by Philosophical discourse By the Authorities he brings to confirm his own exposition and to confront Dr. Hammond's we may guess how pertinent the rest are that his Book is stuffed withal He produceth that saying of St. Chrysostome A natural man is he who lives by the flesh and hath not his minde yet enlightned by the Spirit but only hath that connatural humane understanding which the Creator of all things hath endued the mindes of men withal This Exposition which he calls better than Dr. Hammond's is clearly to the same purpose with it for here is not a word about that irresistible Light which J. O. contends for and to be led only by the Light of humane Reason which are Dr. Hammond's words is perfectly the same with having only the connatural humane understanding c. The following passage of Chrysostome which he quotes is to the same effect I shall only adde that citation out of the same Writer which he brings in at the beginning of his Exposition The natural man is one that ascribes all to the reasonings of his own minde and doth not think that he stands in need of aid from above which is madness for God hath given the Soul that it should learn and receive what he bestows or what is from him and not suppose that it is sufficient to it self Eyes are beautiful and profitable but if they would see without light this beauty and power will not profit but hurt them and the Minde if it would see without the Spirit of God it doth but entangle it self This is clearly against him For that which God is here said to bestow is not that irresistible Light the Doctor speaks of but the Light of Revelation which I have been discoursing of i. e. revealed truths which St. Chrysostome saith the Soul is to learn but to learn that Light he talks of is nonsence St. Chrysostome is so far from supposing that it is impossible for a man to receive what Revelations God bestows unless the Almighty Power of God necessitateth him to do it that he saies God hath given the Soul that it might receive them when they are bestowed And he reckons it madness for a man to think he needs no divine Revelations and consequently to reject them when they are offered with sufficient evidence Now the only reason according to J. O. why he rejects them is because the Almighty work hath not been yet upon his minde If St. Chrysostome had thought so too he had been a mad man himself for accusing them of Madness that fail'd of doing what no Power less than almighty could enable them to do which is in effect to accuse them of Madness because they were not Almighty themselves St. Chrysostome's Similitude is very pertinent For as Light is to bodily Eyes so is Revelation to the Minde in respect of revealed Truths which are such as none but the Spirit of God could discover And therefore whoever refuseth to attend to his revelation of them must needs be ignorant of them and will finde himself entangled in many difficulties which he might have understood by hearkning to Revelation This Similitude St. Chrysostome useth elsewhere to the same purpose for he saith As no man with his naked eyes can learn the appearances in the heavens so the Soul alone cannot learn the things of the Spirit i. e. they are not to be learned by meer Natural Reason without the aid of Revelation I now leave the Reader to judge with what conscience this man could pretend the Authority of St. Chrysostome to countenance his own Exposition of this Text of St. Paul and this is all I shall say to the Doctor 's Authorities which any one may see are as convincing as his Reasons And now at length I desire him to take notice that it will be to no purpose for him to reject what I have to say concerning spiritual things contrary to his notions of them under pretence that I am a natural man for I thank God I am a Christian and so long as I have the Scriptures by me I enjoy the means of understanding what Revelations God hath made known to us by his Son For they contain those Doctrines which were proved by the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power These Doctrines are so far from being foolishness to me or rejected by me because they are not knowable by meer natural Reason that I should be guilty of inexcusable madness if I should not surrender up my belief unto them Though I could not possibly finde them out nor have known them unless they had been revealed yet being revealed I discern the great Wisdom and Goodness of God towards us in them still acknowledging that I know but in part and that there is a depth of Wisdom in the Mysteries of the Gospel which my understanding cannot reach But the truth of these Revelations I learn principally from the testimonies given to them and the sence of them not excluding other subordinate helps by comparing one Divine Revelation with another and the Doctor hath no other means to qualifie him for the discerning of these things aright but that new light which he pretends to but which the Apostle speaks never a word of and let him make his best advantage of it But if the Doctor be resolved to Cant on still in his own defence and
that they might be Witnesses c. and the promise of the Holy Ghost which Christ received from the Father Acts 2.23 peculiarly concerned the miraculous Gifts which were bestowed after Christs Ascension and this as I conceive the Doctor acknowledgeth by saying that Christ shed forth what they saw and heard in the miraculous operations and effects of it Now saith he In this promise viz. Acts 1. vers 4 8. the Lord Christ founded the Church it self and by it he builded it up And this is the Hinge whereon the whole weight of it doth turn and depend unto this day It is indeed certain that the faith of the Church is at this day founded upon the extraordinary testimonies that were given to the Gospel by the Spirit in the first ages of the Church But that which follows is absolutely false Take away this promise suppose it to cease as unto a continual Accomplishment and there will be an absolute end of the Church of Christ in this world For as he elsewhere confesses himself Miracles are ceased and yet there is a Church He proceeds thus No Dispensation of the Spirit no Church he that would utterly separate the Spirit from the Word had as good burn his Bible Be not so hasty for although this happens to be a truth yet 't is more than you have proved The Operations of the Spirit may now be utterly separated from the Word for all Acts 1.4 And although you very truely tell us that the bare Letter of the New Testament cannot ingenerate Faith and Obedience in the hearts of men yet for any thing you have here said it may For those Texts upon which you ground your confidence speak onely of the miraculous Gifts whereby the Gospel was confirmed Now these being recorded in the New Testament together with that Doctrine which was proved by them may be as able to assure men of the truth of the Gospel and make them obedient to the Law of Christ as they were when they were seen and heard and that of themselves too for any thing you have shewn to the contrary from Acts 1. though the contrary may well be shewn from other Scriptures Now I cannot see to what end these men when they are speaking of the Promise of the Spirit which will in all ages be accomplished should fly so often as they do to those Texts which mention those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit that were bestowed in the first unless it be to make their followers believe that the true Ministers of the Gospel are inspired as the Apostles were and that they preach in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power as the Apostles did Which because we do not pretend to it is left to them who do so to be sole owners of the Priviledge Just as the Papists support their pretence to Miracles and Infallibility by drawing the promises peculiarly made to the Apostles and first Believers into consequence for the Church of Rome in every age And I fear by the like device our Author hath laid his Plot to unchurch us quite and clean who conform to the Laws For saith he Let men cast themselves into what order they please institute what forms of Government and religious Worship they please let them do it by an attendance according to the best of their Vnderstandings unto the Letter of the Scripture i. e. let their Government and Worship be as neer the rule of the Scripture as they can possibly frame it yet if the work of the Spirit of God be disowned or disclaimed by them if they disown those extravagant pretences to the Spirit which you set up to magnifie your selves withal If there be not in them and upon them such a work of his as is promised by our Lord Jesus Christ there is no Church-state amongst them nor as such is it to be owned and esteemed And is this that you have been driving at all this while you have now found out a new colour for your Schism and it seems the separation from the Church of England must go forward upon this pretence that the work of the Spirit promised by our Lord Jesus Christ is not in us and upon us which in many places of your Book also you spare not to say we reproach and disavow But I beseech you dare you say that you have that work of the Spirit in you and upon you which is signified by the fore-mentioned Texts If you say so we shall presently desire you to convince us of it by Miracles and such signes as the Apostles did If you dare not say it then it seems that work of the Spirit is no more in you and upon you than 't is in us and then I hope we are not unchurched for not pretending to it nor fit to be accounted Reprobates because we are not Liars I acknowledge that promise of our Saviour mentioned by you in your next Section Matth. 28.20 I am with you always even unto the end of the world proves the constant presence of Christ in his Church by his Spirit but then Sir it doth not prove nor I think are you able to prove that the fore-mentioned promise made to the Apostles is the same promise with that which is here made Now as to that work of the Spirit which will indeed continue through all ages of the Church God forbid that we should disown and disclaim it But we disown the proving it from such places of Scripture as you lay the great stress of your proof upon lest we should seem to pretend to those influences of the Holy Spirit which were poured forth upon the Church at her first appearance in the world to confirm the Christian Faith by signes and wonders and not being able to make good our pretence be laughed at for our pains It would not avail us to say that we pretend not to those measures of the Spirit those extraordinary Gifts which the Apostles and first Believers had for it would be unanswerably returned upon us that these Texts cannot be proved to speak of any but these and thus we should disparage a good cause by arguing no better for it Therefore Doctor if the whole work of the Spirit in and towards the Church it self be openly derided as you complain you may I doubt in great part thank your self and such as you who by imprudent Discourses upon this subject have given profane persons occasion to make a question whether now-a-days there be any work at all of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of men I shall now endeavour to shew that there is and that by laying together what the Holy Scriptures say concerning it All which I suppose may be reduced to these three heads 1. What those effects are for the producing of which in the mindes of men God will give the Holy Spirit in all ages of the Church 2. To whom this promise of the Holy Spirit is made 3. What is the manner and measure of his Operations By
that is to renounce the Doctrine here by him maintained viz. That a man may do Righteousness without the renovation of the Spirit or without being born of God and then he must say with the Apostle that He that doth righteousness is born of God which is one of those Arguments whereby I have proved that a state of Regeneration is a state of inherent personal Righteousness and which together with the rest I have produced does prove that to be Regenerate as it signifies the state of a man is no other thing than to be a sincere Disciple of Christ to believe and obey the Gospel of our Blessed Saviour which was the first thing to be shewn SECT 8. 2. If we consider Regeneration as an effect we are to enquire into the causes and means of that state which we have described Regeneration to be These our Saviour affirms to be Water and the Spirit vers 5. viz. when he repeated his Doctrine to Nicodemus Concerning which Grotius well notes Exponit jam qualem nativitatem intelligat nè Nicodemus diutius Allegoricae locutionis ignorantiâ fallatur Our Saviour now explains what Birth he understood that Nicodemus might no longer be deceived by his ignorance that Christ spake figuratively For after it was told him that this Birth was effected by Water and the Spirit he could not dream that our Saviour meant being born again in the literal and proper sence as he conceived at first when it was onely told him Except a man be born again be cannot c. Now whether one cause of the state of Regeneration or more be expressed in these words by Water and the Spirit is not generally agreed upon there being some whereof Grotius himself is one who conceive that by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those words signifie the sanctifying or cleansing Spirit of God Non loquitur de Baptismo saith Grotius but withal he saith Sed locutiones sunt alludentes ad Baptismum our Saviour alludes to Baptism as he supposeth him to allude to the Eucharist in those words Except ye eat the Flesh and drink the Blood c. But by the leave of so great a man I think the other opinion more generally received and in particular maintained by Dr. Hammond viz. that by Water Baptism is here meant to be to say no more far more probable than the supposition of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that for these two reasons 1. Because Baptism was that ceremony of Proselytism among the Jews which our Saviour borrowed from them To be born of Water was no new Name or Notion as Dr. Owen pretends for the Jews called their Proselytes Recens nati as Grotius himself observes new Born men and as such counted them to have quitted their Relation to their former Country Parents and Kindred and since the Jewish Proselyte was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a baptized person and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or immersion in Water was one of the indispensible ceremonies of his Proselytism or Regeneration we may well conceive that by being born of Water our Saviour meant becoming a Proselyte to his Church by Baptism as by Baptism the Jews admitted Proselytes to theirs for otherwise it would not have been so strange that Nicodemus a Master of Israel should not understand what our Saviour meant by being born of Water 2. St. Paul does expresly call Baptism the laver of Regeneration which what it signifies but a means whereby we are regenerated or become the Disciples of Christ I cannot understand and then that is the very same with being born of Water Now where there is not onely no necessity to finde a figure in Scripture-phrases but the proper sence also contains a truth very pertinent to the Subject spoken of in all reason there the proper sence and consequently here of the word Water ought to be followed And then being born of Water signifies our being admitted into the Church as the Disciples of Christ and engaged to be so for the future by Baptism To be born of the Spirit is to be made the sincere Disciples of Christ and true to the profession of Baptism by the Operations of the Holy Spirit and what the Scripture teacheth us concerning them is the main designe of this Treatise to shew therefore I shall say no more of them in this place but onely adde that we are not to understand the Spirit of God to be the immediate cause of our Regeneration or becoming good Christians but we are to suppose those other Causes viz. those means which the Scripture ascribes our Regeneration unto to be included under the Spirit who is indeed the principal cause of this effect without whose operations those means cannot be effectual to their end And these are the Doctrines of the Gospel For St. Peter tells us 1 Pet. 1.23 That we are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever But this shall be more fully considered when I come to speak of the manner of those Operations of the Holy Spirit whereby we are born again And thus have I given you an account of the true meaning of being Born again both as it signifies a State and as an Effect and the sum of all is this That our Saviour doth require us to become his sincere Followers and Disciples if we hope to see the Kingdom of God SECT 9. I come now to shew the Reasons why our becoming the sincere Disciples of Jesus is exprest by being born again And I shall likewise shew how fitly the same thing is exprest by the other Metaphors that are used in the Scripture for that purpose and this because our Author seems unable to conceive how so mean a thing as to believe and obey the Gospel of Christ should be intended by such grand and Hyperbolical expressions as those of the new Birth the new Creature c. I shall first observe the similitude between our becoming true Christians and being Born First the greatness of that alteration which is made in a man's state by his becoming a sincere Disciple of Jesus is one good reason why the state of such a Disciple is exprest by this Metaphor for it expresseth a very great change Thus Mr. Baxter tells us very well that Regeneration is a Metaphorical term taken from our natural Generation because there is so great a change that a man is as it were another man If we consider how great this change is we shall finde it so to be There is first of all an Intrinsick change peculiar to the state of adult Christians their understandings being informed with the knowledge of those truths concerning God and themselves and a Life to come which they are most of all concerned to know which is the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Hereby also is produced a proportionable change in their Wills and Affections which the belief of the Gospel hath wrought such effects upon that
speaks of we agree that those Doctrines which were to be known by his Revelation are meant But this by the by it is however clear that our Saviour challengeth the Jews of unreasonable incredulity for disbelieving what was sufficiently testified and proved to them 2. Christ assigneth the true cause of their unbelief This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil vers 19. i. e. The truth of that Doctrine which I bring is so bright and clear that the cause why men believe it not is not because they want Reason and Argument to induce them thereunto or supposing that our Saviour means himself by Light it is so evident that I am the Son God that if you do not perceive it 't is not for want of means of Conviction but because your deeds are evil because my Doctrine is so contrary to your Lusts and Vices that you are not willing it shoud be true and so you do not attend to the evidence of its truth and therefore greater shall be your Condemnation Every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved But he that doth the truth that is sincerely disposed to do whatever is the will of God cometh to the light that his deeds may be manifest is not unwilling to have his actions proved that they are wrought of God whether they be according to the Will of God or not I think it is thus sufficiently plain that the scope of our Saviour in this his discourse to Nicodemus is to shew the necessity of coming to him or believing in him i. e. of being his Disciple in order to everlasting Salvation and to convince those of unreasonable obstinacy and incredulity who would not be his Disciples It is therefore plain that supposing the true Disciple of Christ is to be understood by the Regenerate man then the beginning of our Saviour's discourse concerning the necessity of Regeneration is consonant to his plain designe which was to shew why we must be his Disciples and how inexcusable we are if we be not But that the connexion of the whole may be clearly seen I shall here subjoyn a Paraphrase of that part of it which concerns Regeneration proceeding upon our notion of it It is probable as Grotius observes that after Nicodemus had acknowledged our Saviour to be sent from God he asked him what Qualifications a man must have to see the Kingdom of God which in his preaching he had made so much mention of To which question our Saviour's answer was Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God as if he had said No man can enter into the Kingdom of God except he become my Disciple which you seem unwilling to be because you come secretly to me for fear of the Jews but I tell you it is not sufficient for you to acknowledge to me that I am a Teacher sent from God but withal you must become one of my Disciples and own your self so to be though you forfeit thereby the honour you have in the Jewish State for you must forsake all to follow me Nicodemus not understanding this to be our Saviour's meaning replies as if it was required that a man should be born again in the literal and proper sence How can a man be born when he is old as I am can he c. Jesus answered Verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God q. d. It is not such a Birth that I mean but that of Water and the Spirit you must be born of Water you must by Baptism become a professed Disciple of mine whom you acknowledge to be a Teacher sent from God and this is not all you must be born of the Spirit too it is equally necessary that by the Operations of the Holy Spirit the promise whereof is part of my Doctrine you become obedient in Heart and Life to those Laws which I deliver which are so holy and divine that they are hated by them whose deeds are evil who will not be perswaded to leave their sins vers 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit That which is born in the literal sence as when an Infant is born of his Mother is discernible to your eyes and the change made thereby is evident to your grosser Senses it is not this change which I mean but I say you must be born of the Spirit and it is a spiritual change that I mean thereby viz. that of the Dispositions of mens Hearts and the manner of their Lives which change together with those Operations of the Spirit whereby it is produced are not discernible the same way in which the natural Birth is vers 7 8. Marvel not that I said unto thee Ye must be Born again The Wind bloweth where it lifteth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is every one that is born of Spirit By this it should seem that which was most troublesom to Nicodemus to understand was this viz. How a man could be born of the Spirit and that the difficulty which he stuck at in this matter was the Imperceptibleness of that Operation of the Spirit whereby this change was produced for how should a man know when he is born of the Spirit This being supposed our Saviour's answer to him removes the doubt for it shews 1. That the Operations of the Spirit though they are not perceptible to the Senses yet they may be otherways known to this purpose he useth a familiar similitude to explain himself by viz. that of the Wind which blowes hither and thither but is not discernible to the eye and though we see it not yet we are sure there is such a thing because we hear it Now as every Body is to be judged of by its proper Sense so is every thing to be judged of by its proper faculty and as we do not deny the existence of some Bodies because they are not evident to one sense if they are evident to another so we are not to deny the existence of some things because they are not evident to our Senses if they be evident to our Mindes as the Operations of the Holy Spirit upon our mindes may be 2. Our Saviour's answer shews that we may know an effect the immediate cause whereof we do not know and that by the same Similitude of the Wind the natural cause whereof the generality of men who are yet sure there is such a thing are ignorant of Now in like manner we may perceive or feel an effect in our mindes viz. that change which the Spirit makes there though we do not perceive and in that sence do not know the Operations of the Spirit themselves which are the causes
of that change And as that original or cause of that change is not perceived by us as we know not whence the Wind cometh so the end of it is not perceived by us neither for that is eternal Life which yet we do not see as we know not whither the Wind goeth but onely believe 3. Our Saviour's Similitude likewise shews that a thing may be discoverable onely by its effects as the Wind is by the noise it maketh and other effects thereof so likewise the Operations of the Holy Spirit upon our mindes though they are not in themselves perceivable by us yet in their effects they are for if Christian Virtue and Piety cannot be attained or preserved without the Operations of the Holy Spirit then where there is this change in a mans state there we are sure have been and still are the Operations of the Spirit and though he doth not feel the cause it self yet he discovers it in its effects Dr. Owen indeed tells us that the Work it self is discoverable in its Causes and brings this very Text to prove his saying which proves the contrary 'T is true we know that the Spirit of God is the cause of this change but how not by the Work it self but by the Revelation of Christ who withal hath informed us that we have no other way to discern the Operations of the Spirit in us but by their effects i. e. those alterations that are thereby produced in our Hearts and Lives Thus then we may understand our Saviour's words Let not this startle you that the Operations of the Holy Spirit whereby you must be changed and as it were born again are not discernible and sensible for though you cannot feel them yet you may understand them by the effects and alterations in you that are caused by them Now whereas Nicodemus answered How can these things be I suppose the reason of his Hesitation was either 1. That he did not understand this to be our Saviour's meaning or 2. That he thought as Dr. Owen does that to be born again was too Hyperbolical an expression of that which he now perceived our Saviour meant by it I cannot positively say which it was But suppose whether you will our Saviour's Reply to him rebuked his Ignorance either way Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things vers 10. q. d. Art thou one of the Great Council a learned Jew and yet ignorant of these matters Do you not perceive that I speak to you of the necessity of becoming my Disciple in such language as any man who is vers'd in your Customs and in the Writings of the Prophets may easily understand Is not being born again that very phrase whereby you express the making of a Proselyte Is not washing one of the Ceremonies whereby a Proselyte is made amongst you and therefore when I tell you a man must be born of Water what should you think I mean but that he must become my Disciple by Baptism I have also told you that he must be born of the Spirit too and can you be ignorant that those Prophecies which speak of the days of the Messias do mention the Operations of the Holy Spirit upon the Hearts of men which shall then be liberally bestowed upon the Subjects of his Kingdom to make them good and holy persons viz. that God will circumcise the Hearts of his people that he will take away their Heart of stone and give them an Heart of flesh with his Law written in it that they may be the true Disciples of the Messias that Prophet to whom you are to hearken in all things I say unto thee We speak that we do know and testifie that we have seen and ye receive not our testimony vers 11. Now I am that Prophet but how credible soever that testimony is which is given hereof ye regard it not If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things vers 12. This last is a place of some difficulty for although by heavenly things are meant Doctrines which were to be known by the Revelation of Christ yet by those earthly things which our Saviour had told Nicodemus already we must not understand truths merely natural for that Jesus was the Messias that it was necessary for the Jews to become his Disciples by Baptism and to be born of the Spirit which none but his Disciples could be these were heavenly Doctrines too in this sence that they were knowable onely by Revelation Wherefore I conceive that by heavenly things here may probably be meant such revealed Doctrines as were most contrary to the worldly and sensual expectations of the Jews who had long cherished in themselves the notion of a Messias who should fight their Battels for them as their other Saviours and Deliverers had done and rescue them from the Roman Power Now these Doctrines were that Christ should be delivered into the hands of the Romans and be Crucified for the sins of the World that those who believed in him should not perish but have everlasting Life Divers Considerations make it probable that these are the heavenly things meant by our Saviour in this place for 1. After he had made way for it by telling Nicodemus that he onely ascended up into Heaven i. e. knew the secret purposes of God concerning the way of Salvation he falls upon the mention of that Death which he was to undergo for the sins of the World And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in c. 2. The Cross of Christ was that which made the Jews most of all offended that his Disciples should still pretend him to be the Christ. It was to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks Foolishness and therefore it is probable this was the thing which the Jews would hardly believe viz. that God would save Mankinde by the death of his Son 3. When St. Peter rebuked our Saviour foretelling his own Passion he said unto Peter Get thee behinde me Satan for thou savourest not the things that be of God or heavenly things i. e. the wisdom of God's way to save the World but the things that be of man thou speakest according to the imaginations of the Jews who perswade themselves that the Kingdom of the Messias will be of this World Lay all these things together and it will appear probable that by those heavenly things which our Saviour intimated would be more difficulty believed by the Jews than those which he had already mentioned to Nicodemus are meant his Sufferings and Death by which Believers should be saved and which he discoursed to Nicodemus of presently after And then by the earthly things on the other hand we are to understand those truths which were indeed divinely revealed but were not so contrary to the worldly expectations of the Jews as the other viz. that Jesus was the Christ and that all men were to be his Disciples which
but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 This is the substance of what I can finde in the Scripture concerning this matter and I suppose it is sufficiently shewn that faith or a firm perswasion that Jesus is the Son of God and that his Doctrine is the Word of God is an effect of a divine Operation upon our mindes and that the first preparations within us towards Regeneration are from the Holy Spirit And consequently that the Semipelagian opinion introduced by the Massilienses upon occasion of the Pelagian controversie viz. that there is no necessity of preventing Grace though Grace be necessary to make our Faith fruitful of good works but that Faith and the first inclinations of the Will to that which is good are merely from our selves is contrary to the Scriptures SECT 2. Now when we are once perswaded that Jesus is the Son of God that which still remains to be done by us is to overcome the world and keep the Commandments of God Indeed if we believe in Jesus we have entertained into our mindes such forcible and prevailing considerations as will not easily suffer us to disobey him in any thing and they have so much power to lead our Affections after them and to govern our practices that I always thought the Semipelagians might with more appearance of reason have questioned the Doctrine of the Church concerning those divine Operations by which the Faith of a Believer is crowned with all other Christian Virtues than concerning those which are preparatory to Faith it self for of the two he is a more unreasonable man who believing God's Word is yet so mad as to go on still in his sins than he who believes it not and since the Lusts of men make them so unwilling to attend to those truths which are against them we might think it were an easier matter to keep the Faith of Christ from entring into their Hearts than to resist the power of it when it is once admitted But now as the evidence of those Reasons by which the Gospel is proved to be a divine Revelation is far from excluding all need of a divine Influence upon our mindes to create a firm Faith in us So neither does the power of those motives which are contained in our Faith render the concurrence of the Holy Spirit needless to move our Wills to that which is good and upon good principles but still our sufficiency is of God without whose Grace the temptations of the World and the lusts of our corrupt Nature which make us unwilling to entertain the truth would always suppress the force and vertue of it afterwards Thus our Saviour told his Disciples Without me ye can do nothing John 15.5 but he did not suppose that they were incapable of doing any thing with him too but that they had power to bring forth fruit unto God and that it was from him Now that this power imparted to them was not merely the effect of the Revelation of his Doctrine to them is plain from hence that they already believed the Revelations he had made Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you vers 3. and yet he tells them that without him they can do nothing which must needs imply some grace distinct from the bare revelation of the Gospel by which they had already bore some fruit and were capable of bringing forth more vers 2 3. But that all those dispositions and vertues wherein our obedience to the Gospel doth consist are as well the graces of the Holy Spirit as the effects of our Faith is clearly and fully affirmed in those words of the Apostle Phil. 2.13 It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do which being again spoken to Believers manifestly suppose a divine Operation distinct from the Revelation of the Gospel which enabled them to will and to do i. e. to perform that obedience from their very souls which would qualifie them for eternal happiness For this is the motive by which the Apostle encourageth them to work out their Salvation vers 12. by universal obedience as hitherto they had done Now because the motive extends to engage us to every part of our duty therefore God worketh in us that we may be every way so disposed in minde and will and obedient in life as to become meet for the Kingdom of Heaven Wherefore the fear and love of God and godly Sorrow and true Repentance and the hope of eternal Life together with all Christian Virtues such as Righteousness Mercy Patience Love Peace Joy Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance are the Graces of the Spirit Wherefore Lastly our doing that which God requires and with that fear and love of him which he requires too are the effects of his Operations in us If any thing were yet wanting to satisfie us fully in this matter our being taught to pray that we may not enter into temptation and to pray always that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil would leave no room for doubting whether of our selves we need or by promise have this great encouragement to the study of Godliness and Virtue or not For these directions were unprofitable if we either needed no strength from the divine Spirit against our Temptations or if it were not to be gained by our Prayers Much less would those Prayers of St. Paul for other Christians which we so often meet withal have signified any thing to their advantage or encouragement if there were not a divine Grace obtainable by them for the producing of those effects which he so much desired to see in their conversation And these effects were no other than all kindes of Christian Virtue and Goodness as we may learn by the following places Wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of Faith with power 2 Thess. 1.11 i. e. that God would make their Faith fruitful of all good works acceptable to him that the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified in them as he speaks in the following verse Again we do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good work Col. 1.9 10. Thus in another place For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the Inner man Now that which the Apostle prays for in these and many like places is plainly this That those Christians to whom he wrote might attain all those Qualifications which the Gospel requires in Believers And from hence it follows that God hath not left the success of the Gospel to
be effected but by a Physical Irresistible Operation which whether it can be called an Assistance I leave you to judge after you have considered these words which are your own The most effectual perswasions of the Holy Spirit for of them you were speaking cannot prevail with men in the state of Nature to convert themselves any more than Arguments can prevail with a blinde man to see or with a dead man to rise from the Grave and you must not forget that you make as irresistible an Operation necessary to Conversion as we suppose to be necessary for the raising of a dead Body Now you know 't is to no purpose to perswade a dead man to stir and by your Argument 't is to as little to perswade a man dead in Trespasses and Sins to Repent But would it not be also a most absurd thing to say that God assists a dead body to be alive again Whoever is said to assist another to do any thing is not supposed to do it all himself much less by an irresistible Power but the person that is assisted is supposed to contribute his own endeavour towards the thing Now a dead Body can do nothing towards its own Resurrection and therefore is incapable of being assisted to rise and if God raiseth it to life he must do all himself And do you not therefore make a Sinner incapable of being converted by the assistance of the Holy Spirit If you do not see this Consequence pray will you acknowledge your own plain words where you give us your sence of that saying of the Apostle ascribing the honour of all he did to the Grace of God Not I but the grace of God which was in me 1 Cor. 15.10 For thus you argue from thence Suppose now that God by his Grace doth no more but AID ASSIST and EXCITE the Will in its actings that he doth not effectually work all the Gracious actings of our Souls in all our duties that is that he doth not do all himself the Proposition would hold on the other hand not Grace but I seeing the principal relation of the effect is unto the next and immediate Cause and thence hath its denomination These are your own words wherein you do not onely deny Regeneration but which is much stranger even the Good which regenerate men do to be the effect of divine Assistance and you deny this in such plain terms that you allow them not to be the next cause of the good they do as if S. Paul had meant that in truth he had not laboured at all though he plainly said I laboured abundantly And thus you plainly make Believing Repenting and Labouring not to be so much as our own acts but purely the acts of God so that we do not believe and obey but according to you God does all this for us not so much as making us to believe and obey as 't is impossible he should without making us the next and immediate cause of our doing so Can you read these words of yours without blushing if you remember your crafty Preface where you were all for the Aids and Assistances of the Spirit and put your self into such a combustion to defend them as if Pelagius were risen from the dead You knew well enough that we do believe God doth AID and ASSIST us by his Grace and that no body but your self and such as you denies Conversion and Perseverance to be the effects of divine Assistance onely you strained a point with your Conscience and cast the Odium of so detestable a Doctrine upon us in your Preface to make all the reviling Speeches you bestow on us in your Book go down the better with your Readers But this Artifice of yours is not confined to the Preface but used also in divers places of your Book I shall give you but one instance of it at present In the fifth Chapter of the second Book you pretend to reconcile the usefulness of the Commands Threatnings Promises and Exhortations of the Scripture with the promised Aids of the Spirit and ascribing all that is good in us to the Grace of God For this you say is the principal difficulty wherewith some men seek to entangle and perplex the Grace of God Who you mean by some men your Followers and we understand well enough but you know your Adversaries do not so much as believe that there is any difficulty at all in reconciling the assistances of Grace with the usefulness of Motives and then they cannot seek to entangle the Grace of God with this difficulty Now this is your way very often when you talk of the Objections that are made against supposing the Grace by which we are converted to be irresistible you make it your business to shew that these Objections do not lie against saying that the Operations of the Spirit are Aids and Assistances as here in this place you say If there be any opposition between the Commands of Duty and the Promises of Grace it is either because the nature of man is not meet to be commanded or because it needs not to be assisted and then you say very well that what the Holy Spirit doth in us he doth by us and our duty is to apply our selves unto his commands according to the conviction of our mindes and his work it is to enable us to perform them Very good All this we heartily believe but now the Doctrine we seek to entangle by the fore-mentioned difficulty is that men cannot be converted but by such an almighty Operation as that which made us out of nothing and will hereafter raise our dead bodies to Life And now I cannot understand why you should so often attempt to disentangle the Doctrine of the Aids of Grace from the former Objection which does not lie against it but because you have a minde to perswade the world that some men say we can keep the Commands of God without the help of his Grace Indeed in one place you apply the Objection as it ought to be viz. against your own Doctrine and I intend to let you see shortly that you have not taken it off but this is an argument that you had no other meaning in applying it wrong and so changing the state of the Question between us but to make the most odious representation of us you could devise And now I take may leave of you for a while wishing that you may hereafter write with the clearness of a Doctor the good temper of a Gentleman and the sincerity of a Christian and then we shall be very forward to give you that respect which is due to your abilities To sum up all that hath been said in this Chapter the Holy Spirit of God doth in that manner work his Graces in us that they are still the genuine effects of the Evidence and the motives of the Gospel of the natural use of our Faculties of Understanding and Will and of our own Care and
motive included in the nature of this Operation nor does the Spirit use any motive when he thus operates for as these men say this Physical Operation is the immediate cause of Conversion And now let any man tell me in what capacity the Word of God can stand to be a means of Grace In the mean time our Author if you will believe him pays a great regard to the Scriptures which he does not onely render thus useless in general but many plain testimonies whereof he contradicts in particular and for instance that passage in our Saviour's Prayer Sanctifie them through thy truth thy Word is truth I desire him at his leisure to consider whether the Grace which our Saviour praied for in his Disciples behalf were an immediate Physical Operation if not whether we are now sanctified by another sort of Operation than that which Christ praied for Now to say in express terms that the Word of God is of no use in the conversion of a Sinner would sound so horridly in any sober Christians Ears that the Doctor himself has not ventured upon it but on the contrary he is often perswading his Reader that he attributes as much to the efficacy of the Word as any of them all For he tells us Whereas some contend that the whole of the Grace of God consists in the effectual application of it unto the mindes 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 assigne 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 After a few such sayings as these a man need not be ashamed to say any thing For 1. They who contend that the administration of the Word by the Spirit applying it to the minde is insufficient to cause Conversion and that there is another action of the Spirit wherein no use is made of the Word at all necessary to Conversion do not attribute so much power to the Word as they do who say the former is sufficient 2. Much less do they so if withal they pretend that this other Operation is the immediate cause of Conversion whereby the Word is excluded from intervening as a Means 3. And yet much less if they say this Operation produces the effect irresistibly and till this irresistible act hath taken place the Word is utterly ineffectual 4. Least of all can it be pretended that they assigne more power to the Word than their Adversaries do I wonder at this man's confidence to venture such open falshoods abroad as these are It had been enough in conscience for a modest man to say that those of our Author's opinion ascribe as much power to the Word as we do but to say they assigne more to it is too much in all reason to go for a mere mistake And therefore one may well think he saw clearly enough that he defer'd not so much to the Word as we and that because he affirmed the contrary he resolved to put on a Face for something and say withal that he ascribed more For truely he may e'ne say that as well as the other for this passage of his is but the next Page before he asserts and endeavours to prove for a great while together that till the Soul is changed by his Physical Operation the Word of God hath no more power to make a due impression on it no though the motives thereof be urged by the internal perswasion of the Spirit than you have to stir a Rock by speaking to it or to raise a dead Body from the Grave by a Syllogiâ—â—â— And yet this is the maâ— that just before would make you believe how he yields as much nay more efficacy to the Word than we who say that Mankinde is not so incapable of being converted by the Word but that when it is blessed and used as he well enough expresseth it by the Holy Spirit it is sufficient to convert a man without any such Physical Operation as they talk of But you see this man makes it to be no more than a Dead Letter even when it is quickened by the Spirit too and after all his Flourishes resolves Conversion into an irresistible Operation in which there is no use of the Word at all And this is enough to shew you what an irreverent opinion he has of it whatever he pretends to the contrary And so much for the first Proposition SECT 2. 2. The manner wherein the Holy Spirit acts upon the mindes of men is suitable to the ratioâ—nal nature of Mankinde Which is a truth so fully express'd and liberally granted by Dr. Owen that I shall need to say the less of it For he saith The power which the Holy Ghost puts forth in our Regeneration is such in its acting or exercise as 〈◊〉 Mindes Wills and Affections are suted to be wrought upon and to be affected by it according to their Natures and natural Operations Again he doth not act in them otherwise than they themselves are meet to be acted according to their own Nature Power and Ability He draws us with the Cords of a man And then he tells us the work it self is expressed by perswading and alluring and that it carries no more repugnancy to our Faculties than a prevalent perswasion doth Again that our mindes are not merely passive Instruments as formerly in Prophetical inspirations moved above their own natural Capacity and Activity as to the manner of Operation But he works on the Mindes of men in and by their own natural actings through an immediate influence and impression of his Power Lastly that he offers no violence or compulsion to the Will this he saith that Faculty is not naturally capable to give admission unto if it be compelled it is destroyed These are very fair concessions and â—â—less you have given over wondering at our Author's way of writing you would hardly believe they should drop from his Pen. But they are his own words I assure you though Light and Darkness may be assoon reconciled as they can be to that Opinion concerning the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations which he so eagerly contends for For if a Physical Operation immediately and irresistibly producing Faith and Holiness be utterly unsuitable and repugnant to the natural faculties and operations of the minde in which those effects are wrought then is it most evident that those Concessions are inconsistent with the Hypothesis of Conversion by that Physical Work Now let him tell me whether the minde of man is according to its Nature and natural Operations suited to be wrought upon by such a Power as makes not the least use of the Understanding of the least Thought