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
not consist in a moral reformation of Life and Conversation let us suppose such a reformation to be extended to all known instances Suppose a man be changed from Sensuality unto Temperance from Rapine to Righteousness from Pride and the dominion of irregular Passions unto Humility and Moderation with all instances of the like nature which we can imagine or are prescribed in the rules of the strictest Moralists Suppose this change be laboured exact and accurate and so of great use in the world Suppose also that a man hath been brought and perswaded unto it through the preaching of the Gospel so escaping the pollutions that are in the world through Lust even by the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ or the directions of his Doctrine delivered in the Gospel yet I say ALL this and ALL this added unto Baptism accompanied with a profession of Faith and Repentance is NOT REGENERATION nor do they comprise it in them Is not ALL this Regeneration Not a change from sin in all known instances not a change to Virtue in all instances which we can imagine or are prescribed by the strictest Moralists not excepting our Saviour himself not to escape the pollutions that are in the world through Lust and to be perswaded hereunto through the faith of the Gospel What do these men make of Regeneration Where is that reverence which they pretend to have for the Word of God which they do thus openly and notoriously contradict Was it not true which I said that our difference with these men is this that we affirm Regeneration to consist in the faith and obedience of the Gospel and they deny it But let us hear Gods Word once more concerning this matter St. John saith He that believeth that Jesus is the Christ so believes it as to overcome the world is born of God Now does not this man contradict St. John when he saith Though a man hath escaped the pollutions that are in the world through Lust even by the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ he is yet not born of God St. John saith We know that every one that doth righteousness is born of God But quite contrary saith our Author Let a man be changed from Sensuality to Temperance from Rapine to Righteousness with all instances of the like nature which we can imagine he may yet not be born of God Doctor I challenge you here before your own Party and the world of contradicting the plain and express words of God and that in a matter of the highest moment to us wherein the eternal salvation of mens Souls is most nearly concerned which is enough to provoke the indignation of all good men against you Let us again suppose a man in that state which our Author hath well described but unchristianly reprobated and then I demand what lacketh he yet besides perseverance in that state Not to tarry for the Doctor 's Answer I shall prove from the words of our Blessed Saviour that he lacketh nothing else A certain Ruler asked our Saviour What shall I do to inherit eternal life Luke 18.18 And Jesus said unto him Thou knowest the Commandments Do no commit adultery c. And he said All these have I kept from my youth Jesus answered Yet lackest thou one thing sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me The Ruler then wanted nothing but a willing minde to part with his Estate when God required it and to become a follower of Jesus for had he done this we have our Saviour's word for it he should have had treasure in Heaven which none but the Renegerate shall have But our Authors moral man wants none of those Qualifications which this Ruler either had or wanted that were necessary in order to his inheriting eternal life he wants none of them which the other had being changed from Sin to Virtue in all instances he wants none of them which he lacked for he is a follower of Christ baptized professing Faith and Repentance and he is changed from Covetousness too which is one known instance of sin to a readiness of yielding up his Estate when God will have him do it which we may easily imagine to be an instance of Virtue Therefore the Doctor reprobates him whom Christ chuseth he condemneth him whom God justifieth It is the great discouragement which this Doctrine gives to true goodness and the dishonour which this Writer doth to the Gospel by pretending himself a Christian which makes it needful to prove these plain things against him SECT 7. Let him not think that he hath made himself whole by adding these words at last Whatsoever there may be of actual Righteousness in these things they do not express an inherent habitual Righteousness For this will not serve his turn since 1. Here he does no more than give a reason the best he has why he contradicts the Apostle who saith He that doth righteousness is born of God by saying that he is not born of God But then 2. His reason here is as false as his Doctrine and as contrary to Scripture Our Saviour saith An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruits but he hath the face to say that it can for he saith that a man who is not inherently and habitually righteous may bring forth all these good fruits even all instances of reformation of Life which can be imagined St. Paul likewise saith that the carnal minde is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be And that you may not think that subjection to the Law of God which consists in universal amendment of Life not here to be meant observe that in the same Chapter Rom. 8. he saith There is no condemnation to them that walk after the Spirit and if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live So that if the carnal minde can be so far subject to the Law of God as that the carnal man may walk after the Spirit and mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit then it is possible for a carnal man so continuing to be saved which again contradicts the Apostle who saith that to be carnally minded is death But now our Author's Doctrine is this that the carnal man while he is such viz. one who wants inherent habitual Righteousness who is not regenerate may be subject to the Law of God and may mortifie the deeds of the body for he saith all that actual righteousness which he had before described and which does unavoidably imply mortifying the deeds of the body and walking uprightly according to the Gospel does not express an inherent habitual righteousness which is the same with being spiritually minded And does not he contradict the holy Apostle by so saying I know not what he can possibly say to save himself
or intellectual Operation whatsoever and whether the power of his Physical Operation be not such a power Again if Conversion be the immediate effect of this Physical Operation is it not plain that the Minde is merely a passive Instrument in its Conversion And yet further if till the effect be irresistibly wrought by this Physical work the Minde is unperswadable by any Reason and Argument does it not follow that Violence and Compulsion is in the highest manner offered to the Will that is for I know not what he should mean else by it that Conversion is not an act of the Will but that a man is converted without his Will and that it is not his act but God's onely Can our Author tell me what it is to work upon a rational intellectual Being in a way sutable to its nature but to work upon it in an intellectual way i. e. by convincing by perswading by prevailing by the power of Truth But that irresistible power which he makes to be the immediate cause of Conversion worketh not this way at all but is contradistinguish'd to all use of reason whatsoever and produceth its effect by natural necessity So that you may as well say that a Clock strikes and the Clapper makes the Bell sound in an intellectual manner as that such a power converts in a way suitable to the rational faculties of Mankinde If the immediate Operation of the Spirit by which a man is converted be Physical as our Author will have it and carries no force of reason with it the Soul is then moved just as if it were a senseless Machine which obeys indeed if you will so call it the necessary Laws of Motion but I think is not suited to be wrought upon and be affected according to the nature and the natural Operations of a reasonable Creature as such If the Soul were a mere Engine our Author 's Physical Operation would suit it well enough and then Perswasion would be as improper a means to make it do any thing suitable to its nature as his Physical Power is to produce a free consent immediately and irresistibly in an intellectual Agent The work of the Spirit which he contends for if you will take his word carries no more repugnance to our Faculties than a prevalent perswasion doth This is one of his bold sayings but he was wise enough not to say a word of the Physical Operation in all that Paragraph to which it belongs for then the slowest Reader might have marked the Contradiction since every body knows that a perswasion be it never so prevalent carries no repugnancy at all to our Faculties because perswasion is the proper way of working upon a free Agent But now I appeal to him whether any Operation can carry a more direct repugnance to them than that Physical Omnipotent Operation he speaks of And therefore if he will stand to this saying of his he must confess if he does like an honest man that he was out in affirming Conversion to be the immediate effect of such an Operation I know indeed he talks much of the Perswasion or moral Operation of the Spirit but as I shall let him see further in another place it is onely to reproach it with insufficiency to convert the Sinner And it is plain from his Hypothesis that he does not make Conversion to be the effect of perswasion at all For 't is impossible it should if 1. It be an immediate effect of the Physical Operation and 2. If no perswasion will serve the turn till that comes like a Hurricane and carries all before it that is till all opposition is born down without the assistance of Perswasion For this man makes every unregenerate soul as inflexible by the perswasions and gentle breathings of the Holy Spirit as the very Rocks are by a whispering Wind. Now if Perswasion can do nothing then it is the Torrent of irresistible Power that must do all or else a man can never be converted And if this be the way of Conversion a man may become a Convert when he thinks of nothing less as well as when his thoughts are busied about it nay 't is all one whether he be sleeping or waking whether he dreams of it or of something else The habitual Villain stands as fair for Conversion as a man of the most ingenuous Nature And he may be converted as easily at the point of Death as if he were to begin his Race again and were not hardned by a custom in sinning All which is contrary to the common sense of Mankinde and the constant experience of Humane Nature One would have thought that if the perswading Incitations and Motions of the Holy Spirit himself be long resisted by a Sinner he is growing past all the methods of divine Grace But while he is thus immoveable by the most convincing Arguments and most powerful perswasions little does the proud soul think that there is a Physical Operation still behinde and the moment may come when his stubborn Will shall be brought down in spight of all resistance But our Author knows 't is so and withal that no man is converted but in this manner viz. by an irresistible Operation which moves the Soul no otherwise than as if it were a stock or a stone because it is incurable by any method that is suited to the Nature of Man But after all we must not pass by our Author's attempt of reconciling Conversion by this Physical work of the Spirit with its being an act of our own choice for saith he since this Grace doth irresistibly prevail against all this opposition and is without the mediation of any reason effectual and victorious over it 〈◊〉 will be enquired and well it may how this can any otherwise be done but by a kinde of violence and compulsion He shews that no violence is offered to the Will upon these terms by two Answers whereof the first is this viz. That the enmity and opposition that is acted by the Will against Grace is against it as objectively proposed to it So do men resist the Holy Ghost that is in the external dispensation of Grace by the Word And if that be alone they may always resist it which you are not to wonder at because the enmity that is in them will prevail against it Ye always resist the Holy Ghost The meaning of all which is this that a Sinner may resist the force of all reason and perswasion whatever and that indeed his Will is invincible by it Now thus he proceeds The Will therefore is not forced by any power put forth in Grace in that way wherein it is capable of making opposition unto it but the prevalency of Grace is of it as it is internal working really and physically which is not the object of the Wills opposition for it is not proposed unto it as that which it may accept or refuse but worketh effectually in it That is to say the Will is not forced by