A DISCOURSE Concerning The OPERATIONS OF The HOLY SPIRIT TOGETHER WITH A Confutation of some part of Dr. OWEN'S Book Upon that Subject Imprimatur May 4th 1677. Guil. Jane R.P.D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã sacris domest LONDON Printed by J. C. for Hen. Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1678. THE PREFACE AMongst other things which are usually aimed at in a Preface one is to invite the Reader to the Book The Author of this Book does not think it worthy of every man's perusal into whose hands it may chance to come and therefore does not commend it to All. It was written principally for their sake who have been made to believe that the Ministers of the Church of England have departed from the Scriptures in their Doctrine concerning the Operations and Grace of the Holy Spirit which is one of those prejudices that have been instill'd into the dissenting party by their Leaders to confirm them in their Separation The Author thinks he has made it plain that they do not onely accuse us very wrongfully but that they themselves are guilty of that Crime which they lay to our charge And he hopes their Followers cannot think it an unreasonable request that they would impartially consider what is said on both sides and judge accordingly But if he should be mistaken in that he has this satisfaction however that he has done his Part by giving them a fair occasion so to do If some of them should be inclined by the weightiness of the subject to read the Discourse and yet be tempted on the other hand to throw it aside merely because it pretends to be a Confutation of some of Dr. Owen's Principles Dr. Owen himself will help to cure them of so unreasonable a prejudice For he has told you long since in a Book of his called The duty of Pastors and People distinguished that you are not to take any Doctrine of Religion on the credit of his Authority Alas says he you are in a miserable condition if you have all this while relied upon the Authority of men in Heavenly things He that builds his Faith upon Preachers though they preach nothing but truth and he pretend to believe it hath indeed no Faith at all but a wavering opinion built upon a rotten Foundation Now you know the Authority of the Doctor is no more than the Authority of a Man and therefore you have his own word for it that to build your Faith upon his Authority is to build it upon a rotten Foundation Whether you have so done all this while I cannot say but if you have he tells you that you are in a miserable condition And if you have not you will easily be perswaded to take this opportunity now offered to you of examining his Doctrine by the Word of God to which the Author does appeal as heartily as the Doctor himself can do I confess I am not altogether of his minde in the fore-mentioned passage for it seems to imply that all men are in a state of Damnation who rely upon the honesty and wisdom of their Spiritual Guides in matters of Faith But I doubt there are some persons incapable of inquiring much further and I hope some of these do so firmly believe the truth upon the testimony of God's Ministers as to live according to it which if they do God forbid that I should say they are in a damnable condition But you see in what strict terms the Doctor admonishes every one of you not to rely upon the Authority of men but to examine their Doctrines by the Word of God Possibly he means no more than that this is a duty to be discharged by all Christians according to the measure of those Means Abilities and Opportunities which God has been pleased to give them and this surely is a great truth But then I desire you to consider that every one of you are more concerned to look to it that you omit not this duty than many other Christians are and that for this reason because you have withdrawn your selves from the communion of the Lawful Guides of this Church to follow those that take upon them to lead you without any known Authority by which they do so For if you follow these your Leaders into errour it will be no excuse for you to say they led you into errour because you set them up to your selves against the will of your rightful Superiours both in Church and State Whereas if the Christians of our Communion should be led into some great mistake as I am perswaded they are not by relying upon the Authority and Wisdom of their Pastors though it would not totally excuse them yet it would be some mitigation of their fault that they were misled by those Guides and Ministers which God had set over them The Doctor himself tells you in that Book that the people are bound to hear those who possess the place of teaching in the Church And that if the Law accounts onely such Assemblies to be Conventicles where the Assemblers contemn and despise the service of God in publick he had not spoken one word in favour of them You do not wonder I suppose at these passages for you know this Book was written by him above thirty years since when he was a Presbyterian as he there solemnly declares himself to be and engaged by the Interest of his Party to contend for some Church-decency and Order as he there does after his manner Indeed since that time he turned Independant But however you have no reason to conclude from thence that he has changed his minde in that other point also of the peoples being bound to examine by the Word of God the Doctrines of those Teachers whom they are bound to hear or that he believes that all that is said in Conventicles or written by those Assemblers that despise the service of God in publick may be taken upon trust No though he has chang'd his party he may still be of this minde that unless Ministers as he tells you will answer for all those souls they shall mislead and excuse them before God at the day of Tryal they ought not to debar them from trying their Doctrine Now this they cannot do for if the blinde lead the blinde both shall fall into the pit of destruction Now unless he excepts himself from a possibility of misleading you thus far I would not desire a fairer Adversary and if you think he ought not to except himself I cannot wish more equal Judges than your selves Sure I am the Doctor must either explain himself further or he must not debar you from trying his Doctrine and enquiring whether he himself be not a blinde Guide whom you may follow into the Pit of destruction For what he saith in general may be applied to him in particular that if he should mislead you he cannot excuse you before God at the day of Tryal Now the truth is although he
does not say in plain terms that he is infallible yet in that Book which I have taken the pains to consider he lays claim as you will see to such an Illumination of minde by the Holy Spirit as differs very little from that kinde of Inspiration which the Apostles had But this will not hinder you from trying the Doctor 's Spirit and way of Teaching if you consider what he very well observed in the fore-mentioned Book viz. that the Bereans were highly extoll'd for searching whether the Doctrine concerning our Saviour preached by St. Paul were so or no For he must not desire to be believed more hastily than St. Paul did who we are sure spake by an infallible Spirit The more highly any man pretends to the divine Spirit the better Testimonies he had need to produce for the truth of his pretence No wise man will lightly take up that belief of another which if he once gives way to he must believe him in all things else The brighter those Illuminations are which any Teacher boasts of the less reason you have to take his bare word for it and if he be not willing that you should examine his Doctrines he gives you great cause of suspition that they will not abide the Tryal Besides the Doctor takes notice that what was praised in the Bereans is commended in the Scripture Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God because many false spirits are gone out into the world 1 Joh. 4.1 Prophets then as he goes on must be tried before they be trusted now the reason of this holds still there are many false Teachers abroad in the world wherefore try every one try his spirit his spiritual gift of Teaching and that by the Word of God I will onely adde that the reason holds more strongly now for if false Teachers pretended to an infallible Spirit even whilst the Apostles were alive to contradict them and discover them much more likely are they to do so now when they think they may do it more securely and therefore we had need to use the more diligence in trying those Teachers that pretend loftily by that Word of God which the Apostles have left us in their Writings Now if the Doctor would have you to shut your own Eyes and then trust to that New saving Light by which he pretends to explain Gospel-Truths this were enough to make you suspect that the Light that is in him is Darkness Or if he meant to except himself from being tried when he bad you try the Spirits for that reason he is least of all to be excepted I have obeyed the Apostles advice and tried him as you may see in the following Book which I was willing to make publick because those Reasons which satisfie me that he is very much out of the way in discoursing upon spiritual things after this manner may possibly seem as clear to you as they do to my self If there be any Sophistry in them or carnal Reasoning or perverting of Holy Writ 't is more than I know and I shall thank the Doctor for making the discovery which I think he is bound to do if he can not onely for your sake but for mine too For so far as I understand my self I am not less desirous to retract any errour of my own than I am to convince you of his And therefore if he be as willing as I am I shall in all probability hear further from him In the mean time I desire you to believe neither of us but to try us both If the Doctor 's friends should be troubled to find him charg'd with Nonsence in the following Book the Author has this to say for himself that he knew no other name so fit as Nonsence to call Nonsence by And he believes that he has not onely said but prov'd also that the Doctor is guilty of Nonsence where he has charged him with it He hopes also that they will not be offended with him for taking occasion sometimes to rebuke this man for those rude Words and unjust Reproaches which he has poured forth for whole Pages together upon his Adversaries of the Church of England For if it be possible he should be taught at last to manage controversies in Religion in a more Christian manner than he has done hitherto And now the Author will onely say in behalf of himself that his designe in this Book was to clear the Truth of that Question which he has undertaken to every ordinary understanding and thereby to promote the power of Godliness And the best thing he can say of the Book it self is that it hath been thought by men of far better judgement than he can pretend to not to be altogether improper for that end And if they are not mistaken may the All-wise and good God prosper the designe of it with his Blessing The CONTENTS Of the Introduction SECT I. THat the promise of the Holy Spirit is according to the Scriptures a great motive to diligence in Religion Page 1. That according to Dr. Owen's principles it seems to be none at all p. 3. The Author's designe p. 4. SECT II. The advantage which the Doctor makes by pretending that onely the Regenerate understand spiritual things spiritually p. 5. while he proves himself to be regenerate by his spiritual understanding of spiritual things p. 6. This Artifice of his discovered in some instances p. 7. That he allows onely himself and his party to be competent Judges of his Doctrine concerning the Operations of the Holy Spirit p. 11. SECT III. His interpretation of 1 Cor. 2.14 explained p. 15. SECT IV. That his meaning of the natural man is groundless p. 20. Of his not receiving the things of the Spirit absurd p. 21. And of their being foolishness to him blasphemous p. 25. The odde account he gives of the reasonableness of the Gospel in his Preface p. 27. Other reflections upon his sence of the fore-mentioned Text p. 30. That the Doctor 's pretended Gospel-mysteries need his interpretation of that Text but the real mysteries of the Gospel need it not p. 31. The pernicious consequence of his interpretation p. 32. SECT V. Another sence of the Text offered according to St. Chrysostome whose Authority the Doctor pretends in favour of his own p. 33. The scope of the Apostle in that and the former Chapter largely shewn p. 34. From whence it plainly appears what he meant by the natural man p. 40. The Scriptural notion of the state of nature p. 42. What is meant by the things of the Spirit of God and their being spiritually discerned p. 43. and by the spiritual man p. 45. The incoherence of the Doctor 's sence with the Context p. 46. Dr. Hammond's Paraphrase upon the Text vindicated from the exceptions of Dr. Owen p. 47. And shewn to agree with those passages of St. Chrysostome which Dr. Owen himself produceth p. 51. That the following Book is not to be
consideration is a clear compliance with the Wisdom of God and a mark of Regeneration I take this to be a competent instance of the Doctor 's proving himself to be regenerated by his spiritual understanding of things but how he came to understand them so spiritually you heard before viz. by an Almighty Power which induced a new saving Light into his minde for I suppose he has not a way by himself of arriving at this Felicity This now is very plain That if you spiritually understand the necessity of Holiness you must not understand it to be necessary to Justification But if you ask the Doctor why you cannot understand it as he doth his Answer is Because you are not enlightned and regenerated by the irresistible Work for where this work is not that spiritual thing cannot be so understood and where it is 't is impossible but it should be so understood Now then if you ask how the Doctor proves himself to be a regenerate man he proves it clearly by his understanding the necessity of Holiness in that spiritual manner wherein he understands it And at this rate I think a man may prove any thing Thus the Doctor tells us how the purifying vertue of the blood of Christ is applied to us by Faith but in so mystical a manner that he is forced to confess it himself and therefore says he when you understand these things you will not think it so strange that God should appoint this way of believing onely as the means to interest us in the purifying vertue of the Blood of Christ. For the truth is before he had done with that point he had made it so unintelligible that he had nothing to keep up his Readers in heart withal but by promising them that when they understood those things they would not think them strange i. e. when that new saving Light is once darted into their mindes by which the Doctor discerns spiritual Mysteries In the mean time he cautions them against those that pretend the believing he speaks of to be no more than a work of the fancy in these words Despise their ignorance for they know not what they say when men come to the real practice of this Duty the practise of believing that the Blood of Christ without any more ado will cleanse them from their Sins they will finde what it is to discard all other ways and pretences of cleansing viz. a sincere reformation of Heart and Life what it is to give unto God against all difficulties and oppositions i. e. though it be never so absurd to imagine this makes for the Glory of God the glory of his Attributes in finding out this way for us Again after he had given such a description of Gospel-holiness as any one would be asham'd to own that pretends to an intelligible Religion he hopes to make up all with saying The thing it self as hath been declared is deep and mysterious not to be understood without the aid of spiritual Light in our mindes So that if you do not understand what the Doctor says the reason is plain because you have not the Spirit and at this rate any man may write Nonsense safely enough and put it off for a Gospel-mystery when he has done For the thing may be understood though you do not understand it for it may be understood by the aid of spiritual Light And if you understand it not 't is because you rely upon carnal Reason and have not the Light of the Spirit For thus the Doctor tells us The reason why men have other notions of holiness than he has is their ignorance and hatred of the onely true real principle of Evangelical holiness which we have described for what the world knoweth not in these things it always hateth and they cannot discern it clearly or in its own light and evidence for it must be spiritually discerned This the Natural man cannot do 1 Cor. 2.14 and in that false light of corrupted reason wherein they discern and judge it they esteem it foolishness and fancy So that 't is to no purpose what the Natural man a man that useth the best means he can to finde out the meaning of the Scriptures says in these matters till that new Light be created in his minde by the help whereof this Author as it should seem talks of sublime Mysteries which we use to call Nonsense and yet are blamed for it though he confesses 't is impossible that we should do otherwise Now the Doctor is as safe as may be if he can thus make his Reader believe that to understand the Doctrines of the Gospel spiritually is to understand them according to his apprehensions of them and that to contradict him is an infallible signe of one that wants the special illumination of the Holy Ghost For upon these terms whoever goes about to write against him must do it at the peril of being reckoned an unregenerate man and then the Doctor is secure for we have often seen as it is said by him that such a man because he wants special illumination cannot understand the Mysteries of the Gospel spiritually and then he cannot discourse of them spiritually and then I think he may as well hold his tongue for any good he is likely to do with his carnal Reason And this is that prejudice which I am in danger of lying under with the Doctor 's party while I treat concerning the assistance of the Holy Spirit for he uses the same artifice to support his notions in this matter Thus he tells us A Command they suppose leaves no room for a Promise at least such a Promise as wherein God should take upon himself to work in us what the Command requires of us and a Promise they think takes off all the influencing authority of the Command If Holiness be our duty there is no room for Grace in this matter and if it be an effect of Grace there is no place for Duty But all these arguings are a fruit of the wisdom of the flesh Now as I shall shew hereafter in these words he belies those whom he writes against for they suppose no such matter as he talks of But the Doctor as we shall see doth in other places mean by Grace an irresistible force upon the mindes of men though he conceals it here dishonestly to slander his Adversaries Now that such a Grace is inconsistent with the commands of God in Scripture may be so evidently argued that he hath nothing to say against it but to call such arguing a fruit of the wisdom of the flesh which is his perpetual refuge But to be short he expresly tells us The whole work of the Spirit is rationally to be accounted for by and unto them who believe the Scriptures that I like very well and have received the spirit of Truth but there we are all spoil'd again for we know what he means by having received the spirit of Truth viz. being
think may take Sanctuary in that Ignorance which will I hope make some abatement for the mistakes of the people but as for the rest they would do well to consider those dreadful words of our Lord Luke 17.1 2. It is impossible but that offences will come but wo unto him through whom they come It were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones SECT 5. I should come next to consider that Argument of the Doctor which lies particularly against the supposal of Regeneration to be a Metaphorical expression of reformation of Life according to the Scriptures which he takes to be his Adversaries notion of Regeneration But it is fit their notion should be better understood than as 't is lamely represented by him Wherefore my next business shall be to state what I conceive to be the true meaning of Regeneration which being done I promise the Doctor not to forget his Objection against it The meaning of being Regenerate or born again will be fully known if we know what it signifies as a State and what as an Effect I shall first consider what is the meaning of being Regenerate as that phrase implies the state or condition of that man who is said to be Regenerate and then I shall offer those reasons which make it evident that that meaning is fit to be expressed by this Metaphor 1. As Regeneration denotes a State I affirm that to be regenerate or born again signifies in its utmost meaning to become a sincere Proselyte or Disciple of our Lord Jesus I shall first briefly shew what I mean by a sincere Disciple of Christ. Secondly I shall prove that to be the meaning of a regenerate state To be a sincere Disciple of Jesus consists in these two things 1. In being baptized as our Saviour requires 2. In making good the profession of Baptism which is to believe in Christ and to obey his Commands This is clearly answerable to that rule which our Blessed Saviour gave to his Apostles according to which they were to make men his Disciples Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost i. e. admitting them by Baptism into the Church and thereby engaging them to believe and to profess their Faith in the Father Son and Holy Ghost and of that Doctrine to which they have born record Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you i. e. and by the same Baptism engaging them to obey all my Commands That therefore which makes us sincere Disciples is thus to believe and obey as we are by Baptism engaged to do Now because to obey the Commands of Christ whatever we lose or suffer by it is the clearest proof we can give to our selves or others that we own him in good earnest to be our Lord and Master and that we do heartily believe him to be the Son of God therefore we finde that our Saviour speaks of this obedience to him as if it were the onely thing in which our being his true Disciples did consist Thus John 15.8 Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit that ye be fruitful in Piety and good works so shall ye be my Disciples The same thing is affirmed of obedience to one but that a very remarkable Precept of our Saviour John 13.34 A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if you have love one to another i. e. such love as Christ had to us Now we are not to think that this last saying of our Saviour concerning that one instance of obedience to him or that the former concerning obedience in general do exclude either the one obedience to the rest of his Laws or the other believing him to be the Son of God from being necessary to make us his true Disciples But that by such an high act of Vertue as to love the Brethren as Christ loved us it may strongly be concluded that we will not stick at any thing he requires of us and that our yielding a sincere obedience to all his Commands does clearly suppose that we believe him to be the Son of God and all his promises to be true Hence our Saviour does not admit that we can be his Disciples if we do not entirely submit our selves to him If any man come to me and hate not his Father c. and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple i. e. unless he loves God and Truth and Goodness so much more than all his worldly Interests even his Life it self that he may be said to hate these things when his love to them is compared with his love to Christ he cannot be a Disciple of Christ He cannot be so if he be not willing to part with all earthly things in obedience to Christ. The meaning is he cannot be a sincere Disciple he cannot answer the profession of Baptism while it is thus with him Thus are we taught to interpret those words by our Saviour himself in another place If ye continue in my word to do according to it whatever betides you for so doing in this world then are ye my Disciples indeed St. John 8.31 So that the best notion we can frame of a true Disciple of Christ and that to which we are guided by Christ himself is this that he is one who doth so firmly believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that all his promises are true as to love God above all things and yield an hearty obedience to all the Commands of Christ. Now Secondly I am to prove that the state of Regeneration means no more than to become such a Disciple of Christ as I have described and my first Argument is this 1. It is acknowledged that unless we be Regenerate we cannot see the Kingdom of God and withal that if we be Regenerate we have thereby all that is necessary to qualifie us for his Kingdom It is I think likewise acknowledged that it is equally necessary and sufficient for that end that we be the sincere Disciples of Christ. Let these things be granted and I am much mistaken if it does not follow that to be Regenerate and to be a sincere Disciple of Christ are the same thing If the latter be not readily granted it is clearly proved from all those Scriptures which suppose Faith and Obedience to be necessary and sufficient qualifications for eternal Happiness such as these He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Christ is the Author of salvation to them that obey him He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Blessed are the pure in
and all Mankinde But I cannot go about to convince another of that truth which I know onely by immediate Inspiration unless I could adde the demonstration of power by doing Miracles to confirm my Doctrine or had a minde to make my self as ridiculous as those Champions of the Roman Fraternity make themselves who say their Church is Infallible in the Conclusion though she may be mistaken in the Premises which is as much as to say that they are sure their Church is always in the right though sometimes 't is more than they can prove This may be said for coming to the knowledge of a difficult place by study the using of which way is principally the duty of spiritual Guides Now the advantage thereof being this that they may easily communicate their knowledge to others there will be still less reason for private Christians who want leisure or ability to use the former means to expect that God will teach them the true sence by Inspiration since he may lead them to it by his Ministers And for this way it may be said further that it is agreeable to the constitution of the Church in which God hath established an Order of men whose peculiar Office it is to feed the flock of Christ Acts 20.28 and that by taking care to instruct them out of the Word of God not onely in necessary truths but in such as are profitable too so far as they are qualified to understand and improve by them For some are to be fed with milk onely and not with meat being not able to bear it 1 Cor. 3.2 which words to my understanding imply that God's Ministers are to consider and judge of the capacities of their people and to instruct them in the meaning of those Scriptures which contain the most proper truths for them to understand And consequently that these are bound to attend to the Ministry of their spiritual Guides whom God hath set over them and who are to judge what kinde of meat they are able to bear what difficulties are fit to be propounded and explained to them and what truths are profitable for them to be instructed in besides those that are indispensibly necessary to be known This is the Order which God hath appointed in his Church for their edification who are least able to improve their knowledge in the Scriptures by their own reading and studying of them without further assistance Therefore they must not expect knowledge by immediate Revelations but by attending to their instructions whom God hath appointed to watch for the good of their Souls The conclusion of all which is this that neither God's Ministers nor any of their Flock neither the learned nor the unlearned can ground any just pretence to the gift of Interpreting Scripture by immediate Revelation upon this promise in St. Luke that God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him SECT 2. It cannot be concluded from this promise that an absolute assurance that we shall be saved is obtainable by us while we are upon the trial of our Faith and Obedience My reason is because this assurance is neither needful as a condition of Salvation nor as a motive to our duty nor as a means of comfort in the performance of it Not as a condition of Salvation for no such condition is required buton the contrary we are exhorted to work out our Salvation with fear and trembling and how that and the like exhortations can consist with supposing this Assurance to be a condition of being saved I do not so well understand Besides the friends of the contrary perswasion do not as far as I can discern pretend to this Assurance by the Spirit otherwise than by having also the evidences of their regenerate estate cleared up to their understandings Wherefore a man must be actually in a state of salvation before he can be assured that he shall be saved but now if assurance be a necessary condition of being saved then till we are assured we are not in a state of Salvation So that if ever we be saved upon these terms we must either be assured before we are assured or be in a state of salvation before we are in a state of salvation Which inconvenience those Divines who at first placed the notion of justifying faith in this Assurance were so sensible of that they generally substituted that new notion of relying and rowling upon Christ in the room of the other And therefore I had not revived this Objection against it but that I finde Dr. Owen taxing the want of this assurance by the Name of Vnbelief which will cast us under spiritual sloth and slumber for he opposeth this Unbelief to an assurance of our personal election and the confidence we have from thence that we shall not utterly and finally miscarry He doth not indeed say in plain terms that we are not true Believers till we are thus assured but his words imply as much though they look as if he was loth to speak it out and therefore I shall trouble you no further with this matter 2. It is not needful as a motive to our duty for then the Scriptures do not contain sufficient inducements to obedience since the promises of eternal Life there are all conditional and by consequence all the assurance we can have of our reward from thence is but conditional Besides a greater assurance than that cannot be necessary to move us to well-doing in point of Gratitude for we have infinite reason to love God and be thankful to him because we may escape the wrath to come upon the conditions of the Gospel nor in point of self-love for what consideration regarding this matter can make us more careful of our duty than that our eternal welfare depends upon it So that an absolute assurance of the event would be rather unprofitable for this purpose because it would take off the force of a most considerable motive wherewith the Scripture perswades us so frequently to Diligence and Watchfulness and that is the motive of Fear Our Saviour's exhortation would no longer be of use to us Fear him which hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Luke 12.5 nor any of the like nature He told his disciples What I say unto you I say unto all Watch which implies that whilst we are in this world we are in a state of temptation and danger Now as long as we are under such circumstances Assurance would on the other hand be rather unprofitable since it would supplant the usefulness and efficacy of so profitable a consideration as that of God's angry Justice against Impenitent sinners and back-sliding Christians But Dr. Owen saith Men do but bewray their Ignorance whilst they contend that the Assurance we speak of doth any way impeach or doth not effectually promote the industry of Believers in all duties of Obedience And to convince their ignorance he produceth this admirable instance Suppose a man that is
Diligence in using the external means of Grace His Operations in us make us capable of recovering our selves by degrees and all the while there is no sensible difference between them and the natural Operations of our mindes and yet we are sure that we have his Assistance and Help in all the good we do and without it can do nothing at all to saving purposes To affirm more particularly what is the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations in us I dare not unless I had warrant which I think I have not from the holy Scripture so to do And if this be all which the Scripture lets us know concerning it we have good reason to think that no more is needful to be known by us SECT 7. Thus I have throgh the blessing of God finished the First Part of my Undertaking and given you a plain account of that which I believe to be the true sence of the Holy Scriptures concerning those Operations of the Holy Spirit which are promised in the Gospel to all Ages of the Church I do not know that I have swerved in the least from the sence of the antient Church in any thing I have said upon this subject and I am the more perswaded that I have not done so being very confident that I have not at all departed from the Doctrine of the Church of England in this matter the judgement whereof I am prepared to leave to my Superiors I had observed that some late Writers especially have represented the Grace of the Holy Ghost under such notions as are either intricate and unintelligible or inconsistent with the great ends of Religion and of fatal consequence to the Souls of men Those of them that cannot be understood serving onely to the multiplying of idle Questions and frivolous Disputes and those that are ministring either to unreasonable Presumption or incurable Despair Therefore when the Streams were so muddy and impure I thought it was the best way to go to that Fountain of Truth the holy Word of God and to guide all my thoughts of this matter by what I could discern there And truely I found that although the Doctrine of Grace as it has been tampered withal by men that serve a Cause and as it has been debased by humane mixtures and inventions is at best a subject of unprofitable talk yet as it is represented in the holy Scriptures it is clear and plain to the understanding and likewise a most powerful motive to Godliness How nearly I have kept to the sence of Holy Writ I must leave you to judge As for the Reader who is yet in any thing otherwise perswaded than I am if he has used diligence and sincerity in examining as I know my self to have done in considering all I have written where we do not agree I hope God will pardon the errour on which side soever it lies I think it cannot be denied that I have in some measure expressed my meaning plainly easily naturally which a man needs not be ashamed to do who believes that he speaks the truth I have neither pretended to explain things that are not intelligible nor made any thing difficult to understand by affecting obscurity of expression As for the profitableness of this Discourse it cannot be better judged of than by that which should be the end of all Writings of this nature viz. the promoting of true Godliness And certainly if the true Doctrine of the Operations of the Holy Spirit be that which I have here offered to your consideration it does apparently render all wicked men inexcusable that live under the Gospel and makes highly for the encouragement of Religion This will appear by surveying the three General Heads of this Discourse for by so doing it may easily be shewn that there is nothing wanting to make the promise of the Holy Spirit as it has been explained the most powerful motive to the study of godliness and virtue that it can be supposed to be For 1. There is nothing wanting in respect of the end of this promise and of those effects for the producing of which in us the Operations of the Holy Spirit are promised For they are all Christian virtues whatsoever all sorts of qualifications that are needful to our eternal happiness And therefore we need not doubt to strive against that sin which does most easily beset us nor sit down in despair of obtaining that Grace or Virtue which is most contrary to our corrupt affections and customs for if God will give the Holy Spirit for all needful purposes he will bestow a more plentiful measure of his Grace for the subduing of that sin and the gaining of that virtue because here his assistance is most needful and he that hath promised his Spirit to answer all our needs will not deny us when we ask him to supply the greatest of all 2. There is nothing wanting in the promise of the Holy Spirit to make it such a motive in respect of those to whom the promise is made because it is made to every one that believes the Gospel to every one I say under a possible condition so that none of us can have any reason to fear that we are shut out of the Promise for I have shewn you it lies open to all and we cannot lose the benefit of it but by excluding our selves Besides the condition of obtaining special Grace from God being that of importunate asking we are hereby moved to earnest and frequent Prayers which you know is one branch of pious endeavour And then the condition of more plentiful Communications of the divine Spirit being a careful improvement of those measures of Grace which we have now obtained this also is a plain and powerful motive to every Christian that has proceeded more or less in the way of Salvation to be as fruitful as he can in every good work and to follow after holiness looking diligently lest he fail of the Grace of God 3. There is nothing wanting in this promise to make it a strong motive to the study of godliness if we consider the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations in us which as you have heard will not be effectual without our own Consideration and Care and Watchfulness because God hath promised his Spirit to assist our Endeavours but not to make us good men without them and our recovery still depends as much upon our diligence in the event as if it depended upon nothing else Wherefore in all respects the promise of the Holy Spirit as it is expressed in the Scriptures is a most prevalent motive to the study of Piety and Virtue And since it was my designe from the first to recover it to this use out of the hands of those men that had made it good for nothing I could not conclude better than with shewing you plainly wherein the force of this Promise lies to make us all careful to Work out our own Salvation O God forasmuch as without thee we are
they must be discerned that 't is impossible to discern them without that new light And now that I have taken this pains to bring the Doctor out of the clouds I challenge him to show that this Paraphrase is not the just sum of his talk concerning the Text before us now although the naked representation of this Paraphrase were enough to expose it yet because this is the Text which these men perpetually rely upon when they set themselves to cant down the use of reason in Religion I shall briefly let the Doctor see that his notions of it are either groundless or absurd and inconsistent with themselves and incoherent with the Context SECT IV. 1. WHereas he makes the natural man to be one in whom spiritual Light is not created by the Almightiness of God 't is altogether groundless for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not of it self signifie one who wants that light nor doth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denote any Almighty Act whereby a man comes to be spiritually enlightned Nor can the Doctor shew from the circumstances of the place any reason for this his notion for those words neither can he know them do not infer that a man cannot know them without such an irresistible light as he supposes nor is there the least mention of any such thing in the whole Context He tells us indeed that St. Paul plentifully shews elsewhere that this Light must be created in us by Almightiness and he instanceth in 2 Cor. 4.6 I shall in due place prove that St. Paul shews no such thing in that Text But admit he did yet it does not presently follow that St. Paul does in this place mean by the Natural man one in whom this Light is not created for 't is certain he does not speak one word of it throughout the whole Chapter Wherefore the Doctor ought at least to have proved by comparing both these Texts that he designed the same thing in them which he has not once attempted and yet this arbitrary supposal is the foundation of his whole Comment upon this place 2. His granting that the Natural man may assent to the truths of the Gospel and his denying that he can discern their agreeableness to the Divine Perfections and their fitness to promote the ends of the Gospel is palpably absurd For how is it possible that a man who exercises his rational faculties about divine things which he grants the natural man may do should believe the Revelations of the Gospel to be divine and yet see no consistency in them with the Divine Attributes and no suitableness in them to the ends of Gods Glory and Mans Good The Doctor whatever he says about those improvements of the natural mans minde which he allows to him seems rather to take him for a natural fool than a rational man A great part of that evidence upon which we believe the Doctrine of Christ is that it is a Doctrine worthy of God and a means conducible to the recovery of man and if the literal sense of the Christian Doctrines themselves is not more evident to a man that can consider than that they are so why may not a considering man who believes the Doctrines believe this of them Or how can he believe the former without believing the latter I know not which way the Doctor can hope to escape but by pretending it is possible for a man to assent to a Doctrine or Proposition the true reason whereof he doth not discern For example that a man may assent to the Creed upon the Authority of his Spiritual Guide and not discern the true reasons of those Propositions which are contain'd in it But this will not serve him For the natural man is by him granted to be one who may have an improved Reason and may exercise it in the consideration of divine things and of such a man viz. who is thus improved and considering I say 't is absurd to affirm that he may assent to the revelations of the Gospel and cannot discern that they are agreeable to the Divine Attributes c. The reason is because this is to suppose him as dull and ignorant as he was allowed to be knowing and rational before Since 't is plain that they are agreeable to the Divine Attributes c. As for those who believe the Christian Doctrine upon that meanest motive of the Authority of their Teachers though for want of considering they do not discern its agreeableness to the divine Perfections yet they do believe it it being not only unreasonable but impossible for a man to assent to any Proposition as a divine Revelation which at the same time he believes to be inconsistent with the Perfections of God But men that can tolerably well use their Understandings in Divine things as the natural man may do to abate the Philosophical Improvements which the Doctor is willing to cast into the bargain may not only believe but discern this Agreeableness and it is nonsence to suppose they have exercised their Rational Faculties as they might have done in this matter and withal to affirm that they assent to the truths of the Gospel but cannot discern that they are consistent with the Divine Perfections To put this out of question I will instance in these Propositions of the Gospel That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life This a natural man according to the Doctor may assent unto But I demand This Proposition being revealed is it not very discernible that God's giving his Son for Mankinde is very agreeable with his Goodness And that his purpose of saving Mankinde by the Sacrifice of his Sons death is agreeable with his hatred of Sin and his Justice And that the demonstration of his Justice and Mercy this way is agreeable to his Wisdom 2. That no unrighteous person shall enter into the Kingdom of God This also the Natural Man may assent to But I demand Is it not very discernible that this Doctrine is agreeable with the Holiness and Righteousness of God Is it not discernably agreeable with his Wisdome and Soveraignty And then why may not the wise and knowing man that believes these Doctrines to be divine Revelations discern them to be agreeable with the divine Perfections Take the same Doctrines again and I demand concerning them Are they not manifestly suitable to promote the ends of the Gospel These ends the Doctor saies are the Glory of God and our deliverance from a state of Sin and Misery As for the Glory of God they plainly tend to the promoting thereof because they manifest the Divine Wisdom Goodness and Holiness and the Perfections of God which was observed before As for our deliverance from Sin Is not that Doctrine plainly suited to that end which assureth us there is room for Repentance since God hath given his only Son c. and which acquainteth us
there is no possibility of our entering into the c. if we are unrighteous As for the deliverance from misery Are not those Doctrines discernibly suited to that end that are suited to deliver us from sin And are not all these things so plain that 't is impossible for a man who hath an improved minde and considers them as an understanding man may not to discern them much more if he hath considered the Propositions themselves so as to assent to the truth of them What Agreeableness and Suitableness is it which this Doctor means Is he able to explain it by such like instances as I have used If he be he shall see that we are able to discern it if he be not he cants like a Quaker and pretends to know things which he is not able to make sense of when he comes to speak them But may a Natural man understand and assent to the truth of the propositions of the Gospel Yes saith the Doctor he may For instance he may assent unto this That Jesus Christ was crucified But now it is another Proposition of the Gospel that to preach Christ crucified is to Speak the Wisdom of God vers 7. It is also another that The preaching of the cross to them that are saved is the power of God Chap. 1. vers 18. Now if he may understand and assent to these Propositions he may believe the conformity of the Doctrine concerning Christ crucified to the Divine Attributes and its efficacy to bring men to Repentance and Salvation which the Doctor saies he cannot and thereby revokes his concession That the Doctrines of the Gospel are Propositions whose sense and importance any rational man may understand and assent to their truth and so be said to receive them Again if the Doctor will take my word for it I assure him that I do assent unto the Doctrines of the Gospel Vnder an apprehension of their conformity to the Wisdom and Holiness of God and of their suitableness to the great ends for which they are proposed as the means of accomplishing If a natural man can do this then the Doctor is something mistaken to say that he cannot if he cannot then I am no natural man according to his own Principles and may I hope pretend to argue with him about Spiritual things 3. He saith That Spiritual things being foolishness unto the natural man is a reason why he cannot receive them taken from the nature of the things themselves with respect unto the minde Now the nature of the things themselves is perpetually the same but the Mindes of men may apprehend them otherwise than they are in their own nature as when they apprehend them to be foolishness which is the reason why they do not receive them and this reason is not at all taken from the nature of the things themselves but from the Mindes mistaking the nature of these things as he in effect confesseth when he saith that in themselves they are the Wisdom of God But that which he means as we may see by his instance of the Philosophers of old is this That the more wise and knowing any man is the more unready he is to embrace the Mysteries of the Gospel He saith expresly Any thing in Nature and Morality of any worth is embraced soonest by them that are wisest and know most but here things fell out quite otherwise Well suppose they did yet the reason why the Philosophers rejected the Gospel was not because they were wise and knowing men but because they would not admit of Revelation as such nor yield that to be divinely revealed which was above the reach of mere natural reason and this was their great Pride and Folly So the Pharisees rejected our Saviour not because they were Learned and Knowing men but because their Lusts and Interests prejudiced them against his Doctrine as he frequently told them So that neither those nor these opposed the Gospel because it was unsuitable to the rational principles of their mindes as the Doctor would have us believe but because it was unsuitable to their unreasonable prejudices and interests which sure were none of those Principles The Writings of Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus and divers others may satisfie us that the Gospel was early received by Learned Men and Philosophers what wise men they are that reject it we may learn from the Doctor The principal Mysteries of the Gospel saith he are by many looked upon and rejected as foolish because false and untrue though indeed they have no reason to think them false but because they suppose them foolish Now are not these excellent Philosophers that reject a Doctrine as foolish because 't is false and then have no other reason to think it false but because they suppose it foolish Is not their rejecting the Gospel an admirable instance whereby to demonstrate that the Doctrines thereof are foolishness in the nature of the things themselves with respect unto the minds of them that are wisest and know most If that which the Doctor here saies be true then if it be necessary for a man to be a Christian 't is a very dangerous thing for him to improve his minde by the exercise of his reason since foolish and credulous persons are the most likely to give any entertainment to it which was the very charge of Celsus and Julian against Christianity and if they could have made good this charge they and the Doctor here had done very well to expose it to scorn and contempt as they and he have done by representing it to be such a Religion as the more a man exercises his reason about it the further he is from believing it For this is that which the Doctor means by saying that the Mysteries of the Gospel are foolishness in the nature of the things themselves with respect unto the minde viz. that they are in their own nature such things that the more wise and knowing a man is the more likely he is to despise and scorn them which whether it be not Blasphemy I now leave the Reader to judge Here I cannot but remember what the Doctor premised in his Preface to the Readers concerning the reasonableness of Christian Religion It is not saith he that I know of denied by any that Christian Religion is highly reasonable I suppose he means by any Christian. But now as he addes presently the Question is not what it is in it self but what it is with relation to our Reason and then he tells us largely 't is reasonable to Reason enlightned but foolishness i. e. unreasonable to the natural man whose Reason is unenlightned by the irresistible work Say you so Doctor How comes it then about That it is not denied by any that Christian Religion is highly reasonable Can they not deny it to be highly reasonable and yet must they necessarily esteem it foolish and unreasonable He saith also 'T is in vain to dispute with any about the reasonableness of
the Minde unprofitable to man and dishonourable to God but then withal I cannot finde them any where in the Scripture and therefore whatever he fancies of a possibility to believe that to be divinely revealed which is not believed to be consistent with the divine Attributes c. I do not so much as believe them nor do I see any likelihood that I ever shall unless some irresistible Power makes another thing of me than I finde my self to be at present And if this will content the Doctor I have no quarrel with him But then if he pretends that the real Doctrines of our Saviour's Gospel viz. That the Son of God was crucified for us and that we must be saved by Faith in him and that God will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him c. are as unintelligible and the usefulness of them as indiscernible as that of his new-fashion'd Principles I must beg his pardon if I cannot believe that neither but reckon on the contrary that the Doctor hath cast an horrible reproach upon the Christian Religion while he makes it impossible for a man that bends his Minde to consider the Doctrines thereof never so attentively and useth his reason never so modestly in the examination of them to assent to them as Doctrines worthy of God and profitable to man If that be true then this pernicious Consequence is unavoidable That it is to no purpose for a man to use any means to satisfie himself concerning the Truth of the Gospel and if it be yet pretended to him that he ought to be a right Believer he hath no way but to sit down in a lazy expectation of that Light which the Doctor saies must be created in his Minde by an Almighty Act of God before he can know and believe the Mysteries of the Gospel as they are and as they ought to be known This is the consequence of the Doctor 's interpretation of St. Paul's Text and let any man but himself judge whether it doth not infinitely disparage the whole Gospel of our Saviour and whether it do's not offer great wrong to the Souls of men by betraying them either into a contempt of Christianity or at least into a sluggish neglect of all that Consideration whereby they come to understand and believe it upon its proper grounds And this is the reason why I have been so punctual in finding out and so long in confuting his Notions of this Text which if they had not been altogether as pernicious as they are false I should have left them to perish in their own Nonsense SECT V. THe incoherence of his Interpretation with the scope of St. Paul in that and the former Chapter must be judged of by observing what St. Paul's design is in them which I now come to enquire into and thereby to lay a foundation for the true Interpretation of the Text. To allay those Contentions that were amongst the Corinthians about their Teachers whom they should follow Chap. 1. vers 11. St. Paul reminds them how he had preached the Gospel among them and by what arguments they had been won to receive it not with wisdom of words vers 17. and again not with enticing words of mans wisdom Chap. 2. vers 4. but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power i. e. not with Rhetorical Orations or Philosophical Discourses such as the wise men among the Gentiles made use of to put off their Opinions to the people withal he did not go about to perswade them in this manner but as it was fit to prove the truth of a divine Revelation which the Gospel was pretended to be he proved it to them by a divine Demonstration of the truth thereof viz. that of Supernatural Gifts bestowed now upon Believers of antient Prophesies of apparent Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles and such Testimonies of Gods owning the Gospel to be a Revelation from him as these are The consequence whereof was that their Faith did not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God i. e. that their Faith was not grounded upon the Eloquence or the subtle reasonings of men but upon the plain Testimony of God declared by Miracles c. And this was clearly a good consideration to take them off from contending about the persons of their Teachers who never went about to make Proselytes to themselves as vers 13. by the oftentation of Learning and Eloquence but to win them to the Christian Faith by the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power But hereupon the Apostle takes occasion to shew 1. The offence which they who were most in vogue for wisdom took at the Gospel and the way of preaching it and the prevalency of that way notwithstanding above all other methods to make men wise and good and this is the scope of chap. 1. from vers 18. to the end 2. To vindicate this way of preaching the Gospel against their pretences who rejected the Revelations of the Gospel which is the designe of chap. 2. That the former is the designe of the Apostles discourse in the first Chapter is plain from what he saith vers 18. and so forward For the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness And who these were we learn from vers 20. Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe c. i. e. Let those men who are offended at the Preaching of Christ crucified come and compare the Religion they teach and the Reasons they bring for it and the Good they do by it with our Doctrine and the Testimonies we confirm it withal and the Advantages which it brings to them that believe it For it pleased God by the foolishness as they are pleased to call it of preaching to save them that believe vers 21. And the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness c. vers 25. i. e. Let it be consider'd and you will see a clear manifestation of Divine Wisdom and Power in the Death and Resurrection of Christ to the convincing of men that his Doctrine is true and the bringing of them to Salvation by it vers 24. You will see also what an infinite disparegement this wise contrivance of God will do to all the methods of human wisdom when they are compared with it For God hath chosen the foolish things of this world those waies of instructing and saving Mankinde which are so far above all the inventions and above the expectations of the wisest men that they now generally reckon them to be foolish to confound the wise to put down all that wisdom of theirs which they so much glory in and thereby to shew that God is infinitely wiser than men v. 27. That no flesh should glory in his presence vers 29. But the particular reasons why so few of those persons whose wisdome was in this manner baffled did embrace the Gospel of Christ for not many wise men after the flesh are called vers 26.
of Revelation and the truth of revealed Doctrines by testimonies of Revelation and consequently the Natural man is one who rejects revealed Doctrines Though as I intimated before he may be so called that is fain to rely upon his meer natural Reason for want of Revelation because it was never proposed to him For whether a man never had it or rejects it being offered he is equally forced to trust to natural Reason in his enquiry after divine Truths And therefore if the Doctor by the state of Nature which he makes such a clutter about all over his Book means the state of the Natural man here spoken of the Scriptural notion thereof though we do not finde this very phrase The state of Nature in the Scripture is this viz. the state of an heathen man who either wants or rejects divine Revelation And thus it is fitly opposed to a state of Grace as that signifies being a Believer or a member of the Christian Church And both are distinguish'd from the state of Judaism or being under the Law For the Jews did not reject all divine Revelation believing that which came by Moses and so were not in a meer state of Nature as the Heathens were But as many of the Jews as would not receive the Gospel were under the Law but not under Grace as the Apostle speaks Rom. 3. i. e. they were not in a state of Grace not as the phrase is taken now adays but as it signifies no other thing than the receiving of the Christian Faith which those Jews who received not were under the Law those Heathens who received not were in a state of nature or the natural men which the Apostle here speaks of 2. By the things of God which the natural man rejects the Apostle means those Doctrines of Christianity the truth whereof is not discoverable by natural Reason which neither eye hath seen c. vers 9. the hidden wisdom of God v. 7. but are knowable only by Revelation God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit vers 10. being they concern the purposes of God that depended upon his Soveraign Will and Pleasure even so the things of God c. vers 11 12. and therefore are to be proved only by divine Testimonies and Arguments by the demonstration c. vers 4. in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth c. vers 13. 3. Because they are foolishness unto him signifies because they are not proved by wisdom which the Greeks seek after by Philosophical Demonstrations from Natural Principles chap. 1. vers 22. 4. By being spiritually discerned is meant their being known and understood and judged of by the Revelation and Testimony of the Spirit and that external to those who are not immediately inspir'd as the Apostles were which is clear from St. Paul's former discourse for he proposes this way whereby to judge of the truth of the Gospel viz. the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power he also proposeth this way whereby to judge of the sense of the Doctrines thereof viz. by comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual that is one divine Revelation with another Now this had been utterly vain if those to whom that evidence and this help was proposed could not possibly know spiritual things without such an internal and immediate Revelation of them as the Apostles had themselves The Doctrines of the Gospel are revealed to the world not immediately by the Spirit but by the Apostles who had the Spirit of Christ and have left us the Doctrines of Christ in their holy Writings They proved that the Spirit of God had revealed those Doctrines by the demonstration of the Spirit they proved the Sense of them by comparing one divine Revelation with another And this way of Conviction St. Paul clearly opposeth to Philosophical Demonstrations which it had been ridiculous to do if he had not meant an external means of conviction by it i. e. a means by which one man may convince another which the Doctors irresistible Light cannot with any face be pretended to be wherefore to be spiritually discerned doth according to the clear scope of the Apostle signifie to be discerned and understood by the external revelations and testimonies of the Spirit As things that are naturally discerned are things discernable by Sense or meer natural Reason so things that are spiritually discerned are those which be discernible only by the revelation of the Spirit i. e. by the testimony of the Spirit in the Miracles of Christ his Apostles as to the truth of them and by comparing one divine Revelation with another as to the meaning of them So that the Apostle's Argument is this A Natural man cannot understand those things which are to be known by revelation from the Spirit because they are spiritually discerned i. e. because there is no way of knowing these things but by Revelation and Testimony of the Spirit which he rejects Now he whose Faith is grounded upon this Revelation the Apostle calls a Spiritual man v. 15. in opposition to the Natural man and he saith concerning him that he judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man i. e. either according to St. Chrysostome's excellent Note He judgeth both the Doctrines that may be known by meer natural Reason and those which cannot be known but by Revelation For he hath the Principles of Natural Reason equally with the Natural Man and moreover he hath further knowledge by Revelation which the other hath not Or He judgeth all things of that nature whereof the Apostle was speaking viz. Gospel-Mysteries He is able to prove the truth of these things by proving that they are divinely revealed and thereby to confute their pretences who reject them because they cannot be known by meer natural Reason but no man can confute him whose knowledge of these things is grounded upon sufficient evidence that they are divinely revealed For who hath known the minde of the Lord Who can pretend to know the minde of God better than God himself doth and yet those must do so who contradict what is proved by the demonstration of the Spirit and therefore this is the certain foundation of our knowledge which must stand when all the Wisdom of the wise men shall perish that we have the minde of Christ that we are instructed by Christ himself who came from God Thus have I largely shewn the designe of the Apostle in these two Chapters and that sense of the Text in hand which makes the Apostles Discourse clearly consistent And now I leave it to the unprejudiced Reader to judge whether the Doctor 's interpretation of it which I have already shewn to be absurd in it self be not also utterly impertinent to the Apostles main designe for supposing the natural man to be one in whom spiritual Light is not created by an almighty work of God upon his minde how strangely must the Apostle have wandered from his purpose which was to shew that revealed Truths
could onely be known by God's revealing them to us and the truth of such Revelation by Miracles Prophecies and such Arguments as he opposed to those natural Demonstrations and ways of proving things which the Philosophers used And how justly might they have derided the Apostle for finding fault with them because they rejected revealed Religion for it s not being knowable by mere natural Reason if after so long a flourish about an higher and better way of demonstrating those divine Truths he spake of than from natural Principles he had concluded that no man could understand their truth and sense as they ought to be understood till God made him to understand them by an irresistible work upon his minde which is the Doctor 's sense of those words that they are spiritually discerned I put it also to the Reader to judge whether this following Paraphrase upon these words which the Doctor carps at be as he calls it a wresting of the Scripture at pleasure But such things as these matters of Divine Revelation they that are led onely by the Light of humane Reason the learned Philosophers c. do absolutely despise and so hearken not after the doctrine of the Gospel for it seems folly to them Chap. 1. vers 28. nor can they by any study of their own come to the knowledge of them for they are onely to be had by understanding the Prophecies of Scripture and other such means which depend on divine Revelation the Voice from Heaven descent of the Holy Ghost Miracles c. This is the Paraphrase of the Reverend Dr. Hammond and it fully expresseth that sense which by the Context I have proved to belong to the Text. Our Author brings it in at last to examine it by his own comment which since I have disproved I might spare my self any further trouble in defending the sense of that Paraphrase But let us see what he hath to say against it 1. He saies that the Apostle by the natural man intends not onely the learned Philosophers but every one of what sort and condition soever who hath not received the Spirit of Christ. To see what a man will say when he is set to wrangle Dr. Owen himself more than once gives his meaning of the natural man in such expressions as these One which hath the use and exercise of all his rational faculties the things of the Gospel were foolishness to the learned Philosophers of old and the wise knowing and rational made the longest opposition to them And he says himself in the very next exception The Apostle gives an account why so few wise and learned men receive the Gospel But if Dr. Owen's offence be taken that they onely are intended by Dr. Hammond this offence is unreasonably taken for the Doctor intends as his words are very plain all those of whatsoever sort they be that are led onely by the light of humane Reason i. e. who either want or reject Revelation 2. He dislikes the paraphrasing of he receiveth not by he absolutely despiseth the things of the Spirit and yet this is sometimes his own Paraphrase as where he gives the reason why the natural man doth not receive them he says the Apostle tells them the Gospel is the foolishness of God and that to cast a contempt upon the wisdom of men by whom it is despised And in divers other places he useth the same liberty But his chief exception against this part of the Paraphrase is because it doth not express the reason given by the Apostle why the natural man doth not receive c. and that reason is his disability to receive them i. e. because it doth not express that which the Apostle could not possibly intend for he that barely says that any one believes or receives not such a Doctrine will not unless he be a Fool pretend that by saying so he gives a reason why he doth not But Dr. Hammond gives a reason why the natural man receiveth not the things of God where St. Paul gives a reason who saith he doth not receive them because they are foolishness unto him and he cannot because they are spiritually discerned His fifth Objection is to the same purpose with this for he saith the proper meaning of receiveth not is given in the ensuing reason and explanation of it he cannot know them which is nonsense for not to know a Doctrine is one thing and not to be able to know it is another and therefore the latter cannot be the proper meaning of the former nor do I understand how the meaning of a Proposition can be said to be given by the reason of it for I always thought that the meaning of a Sentence must first be understood before the reason or truth of that meaning can be known It were much to be wished that though Dr. Owen takes no care to speak truth he would yet make some conscience of speaking sence 3. He says The Apostle treats not of what men could finde out by any study of their own but of what they could not do they could not receive the spiritual mysteries of the Gospel Which exception I am amazed at because neither Dr. Hammond speaks of what they could finde out but of what they could not finde out by any study of their own but says J.O. they could not do it when the Gospel was proposed declared and preached to them and so the Doctor supposes too and any man in his wits must suppose it likewise for how else could they have called the Gospel foolishness if it had never been known to them 4. The Gospel was preached to them by the testimonies of Prophecies Miracles and the like in the same way and manner as it was to those that believed What then why you may go look for he has onely left us to guess at the designe of this exception But at the end of his fifth exception he says concerning the things of the Gospel being spiritually discerned To wrest this unto the outward means of revelation which is directly designed to express the internal manner of the mindes reception of things revealed is to wrest the Scripture at pleasure I answer 1. If the word spiritually is designed to express not the means but the manner of receiving Gospel-mysteries then Dr. H. does wrest the Scripture by making it to signifie the outward means of discerning them viz. Miracles Prophecies c. But then withal Dr. Owen wrests the Scripture too by making it to signifie the inward means of discerning them viz. the irresistible Light by which he discerns them for inward means of doing a thing are opposed to the manner of doing it equally with outward means And if Dr. Owen saith that the internal manner of the mindes reception is expressed by his saying that they are discerned by irresistible Light I ask him why I may not say too that the internal manner of the mindes reception of them is expressed by Dr. Hammond's affirming that they are discerned by
is good to all his creatures who envieth no man's happiness who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth none much less I say will he deny us his Holy Spirit if we ask him From hence it is evident that the scope of our Sayiour in this Discourse is to perswade his Disciples to pray fervently for such things as are indeed needful for them and that by this Argument that God will grant such requests as these are It is also evident that our Saviour concludes with this Argument in these words God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Wherefore I conceive we have gained one note of those spiritual Effects which the Holy Spirit is promised to work in our mindes viz. that they are such as are indeed needful For it is plain that in both Similitudes the things that were asked either by the Friend or the Childe were really such as they stood in need of the one for his friend the other for himself and that this was one reason why they prevailed Now from hence our Saviour infers that God will much more give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him i. e. for such purposes as are needful otherwise the Argument will not hold For we cannot infer from this consideration that we are ready to bestow upon our Children what they need therefore our heavenly Father will give us the Holy Spirit for such ends as are needless If the demands of Children be not within the limits of Reason and Modesty if they ask not to supply their real needs but to gratifie their wanton appetites it is consistent with the goodness of a Parent to deny such desires as those and to rebuke the folly of them too And if we should ask those gifts of the Holy Ghost which are not needful for us this would be more than we are encouraged to do by the promise of Christ and the compassion of our Heavenly Father may very well consist with the refusal of such Requests as these SECT 2. But this general Rule that we are to pray for such effects of the Holy Spirit as are needful for us would be insufficient to direct us what to pray for in particular if we did not also understand what effects are needful Now to satisfie you in this matter I might presently produce those places of Scripture where the several effects of the Holy Spirit upon the mindes of Believers are mentioned which work belongs properly to the second way propounded for the resolution of the present Question But before I come to that I shall try how far we may conclude from our Saviour's promise thus This is a needful Grace therefore we are to pray for it and then I shall in due place proceed to the second Head under which those Texts are to be considered from whence we may conclude in this manner This Grace we are to pray for therefore it is needful These methods of arguing will indeed bring us to the same conclusion concerning what those effects are for which the Holy Spirit is promised in St. Luke But by so doing they will afford mutual light to each other and infer the conclusion with more strength which I hope will not be judged unprofitable in a matter of so great weight for every Christian to be well satisfied about I begin with arguing from our needs to those Graces of the Holy Spirit which we are to pray for Now because it is some good or advantage of ours that is regarded in this promise of the Holy Spirit and in respect whereof his Graces are supposed to be needful we must in the first place set that end before us by which we are to measure what effects are needful to be wrought in us by the Holy Spirit and then consider what are indeed needful to that end for so far as we understand this we shall know what Graces to pray for since we are to pray for those that are needful and the needfulness of any thing must be judged of according to that end in respect whereof it is said to be needful 1. As for the end it self if we consider that this promise of the Holy Spirit is part of the New Covenant there can be no reason to doubt but the ultimate end of this promise with regard to our Good is our eternal Salvation and Glory For that which is the last end of the whole Covenant is the last end of every part of it Now the state which Christ came to bring us to at last is that of seeing God as he is and living for ever in the enjoyment of his Love For which reason St. John tells us This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life 1 Joh. 2.25 not as if the Gospel had no other promises but because the rest are subordinate to this and consequently that of the Holy Spirit must needs be so Wherefore in that promise of his Operations to produce all needful effects in our mindes those are supposed to be such which are needful for our Eternal Salvation Now 2. We must consider what effects are needful to be wrought in us for that end The needfulness of any means to an end consists either in this that the end cannot be attained without them at all or not so well without them That which is needful in the former sense is absolutely necessary that which is needful in the latter is onely profitable Let us therefore first consider what effects are absolutely necessary to be wrought in us in order to our eternal Salvation what these are we are plainly told in the Scripture and they may be comprised under these Heads 1. Faith in Jesus or believing him to be the Son of God and so one upon whose Authority we may safely rely as to whatever Revelations he hath made of God's Will the necessity of which Faith our Saviour hath told us in those words If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins Though indeed the Holy Spirit cannot be said to be promised in this place of St. Luke for the producing of Faith in this notion it being apparently supposed that whatever is here promised is promised to the Disciples of Jesus who do already believe him to be the Christ. 2. So much knowledge of the Christian Doctrine which is Faith in another notion as is necessary to instruct us in and encourage us to that Repentance and Holiness which the Gospel requires in order to Salvation When we believe in Christ our next care must be to know what his will is and to possess our mindes with those principles of Obedience without which it is impossible to please God For if it be necessary to salvation to do the Will of Christ it is equally necessary to understand his Revelations his Laws and Promises in that measure which is necessary to the doing of his Will and therefore a Believer is encouraged by this promise of our Saviour to ask the Holy Spirit that he may
from this charge of contradicting the Apostle but that his meaning is not that the carnal man can mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit and that he can walk after the Spirit i. e. that he reforms himself thus universally as he is supposed to do by the Spirit but onely that he may be such a reformed man that he may mortifie the deeds of the body that he may walk according to the rules of the Gospel and yet all this proceeds from the Old Nature and this work belongs but to the old Creation And this I finde indeed to be his sence for he tells us Whatever is in the Soul of Power Disposition or Ability or Inclination unto God or for any moral action by nature i. e. before regenerating Grace comes it belongs unto the old Creation it is no new Creature Now by comparing these words with his 17 Section we may now discern that by the inherent habitual righteousness which the moral man wants as he saith he does not mean an internal disposition and inclination to Virtue correspondent to that righteousness which he practiseth in his life for he supposeth that in the state of Nature or Vnregeneracy such a disposition and inclination such a power and ability he may have But he means by it a principle of spiritual life and holiness infused by the Holy Spirit as he explains himself afterward So that this is the defence he must make for himself out of his Book when I charge him with contradicting St. Paul viz. that he onely saith the carnal man may mortifie the deeds of the body may be universally righteous and obedient in his life but this is no more than a natural work all this while all his actual righteousness and his internal disposition to it belongs unto the old Creation it is no new Creature whereas the spiritually-minded man of whom St. Paul saith that he walks after the Gospel walks after the Spirit too and when he mortifies the deeds of the body does mortifie them by the Spirit This pretence so derogatory from the grace of the Holy Spirit contradicts the Scripture which saith He that doth righteousness is born of God I shall now onely observe that our Author whatever he pretends to the contrary is discovered to be a rank Pelagian I speak it with great seriousness for the thing is plain and he cannot with any modesty now deny it He makes it possible for a man to mortifie the deeds of the body without the Spirit and to walk after the Gospel though he be not led by the Spirit to keep the commands of God by the mere abilities of Nature to be universally righteous in his life and to be disposed and inclined thereunto in his Soul without an infusion as his phrase is of a new principle of spiritual life and holiness And he plainly supposeth that all that righteousness which the Gospel requires viz. an universal performance of God's commands proceeding from the belief of the Gospel may belong unto the old Creation and be no new Creature nor the work of the Spirit Now Pelagius his great Heresie was this That a man by his natural Faculties might do that which God required without any further help from God than that of declaring his will For setting that aside he thought our willing and doing needed no divine assistance as St. Austin reports him and that God gave us the power of choice in vain if we cannot do his will unless he always helpeth us as St. Hierom saith concerning him It is the same which the Doctor saith while he makes all the righteousness and disposition thereunto which we have been considering even that of the faith and obedience of the Gospel to be the effect of nature and to belong unto the old Creation so that a man may believe the Gospel and keep the Commandments of God without the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit If the Doctor saith that however in all the Regenerate he ascribes that righteousness to the Holy Spirit and his Grace this will not bring him off For Pelagius himself was brought to confess though not the same thing yet what would serve his turn as well as this can the Doctor 's For at length he said Therefore is the Grace of God given that what we are able to do by Nature we may more easily do by Grace But the Doctrine of the Catholick Church was that Grace is necessary to our doing the Will of God and if that be true it does equally conclude both him and Pelagius to be the same Hereticks though he saith doing the Will of God is sometimes the effect of the gracious Aids of the Spirit and Pelagius said doing it more easily was always so Our Author I confess speaks divers things in this Book which destroy this Pelagian Doctrine for he is sometimes in the humour of a Manichee which is an Heresie of the other extream and will not allow that a man can do any good action whatsoever without an irresistible determination of his Will thereunto as in due place I shall put him in minde again How he came by the knack of believing such inconsistent things if he believes them I know not but he makes great use of his Talent that way as I shall have further occasion to shew him hereafter But whether he believes these Contradictions or not as long as he asserts Pelagian Doctrines he is to be judged from his own words and to go for a Pelagian I grant that the sence of what a man saith in one part of a Book is to be judged of by what he saith in another but that always is upon supposition that his words are capable of that sence which is that way endeavoured to be put upon them But our Author 's arguing in Sect. 17. compared with Sect. 20. is in my judgement so notoriously for the Pelagian Heresie that if Pelagius himself were here we could not discern the least difference between them in the point of man's natural ability to keep the Commandments of God Indeed he gives the Pelagians ill words enough in many places of his Book and he would perswade his Reader that his Adversaries are a kinde of Pelagian Hereticks but for ought I see he is more angry at the name of Pelagius than at his errour or he hopes that he may unsuspectedly broach the opinions of Pelagius while he falls foul upon other men as if they were his followers And truely this insincerity he might happily learn from Pelagius himself who was wont to say and unsay to contradict his own Concessions one while and his Assertions another when he was to save himself now against the Catholicks and then against his own Party as St. Augustin tells us which being considered I leave it to others to judge whether our Author is not to be esteemed a Pelagian though he elsewhere affirms things inconsistent with Pelagianism I believe he has but one way to come off and
from being addicted to sensuality and worldliness they are come to love God with all their Hearts and to be strongly inclined to Holiness and Virtue This likewise produceth a suitable change in their lives which now are led not according to the lusts of the Flesh and the examples of evil Men but the Laws of God and the Example of Christ. And thus we come to the true use of all our Faculties as an Infant after it is born falls into those natural motions which are hindred by its imprisonment in the Womb. Now when our mindes are thus purified from sin when the Spirit that was in Christ is in us and our bodies and souls are become the Instruments of Righteousness there follows a Relative change in our state as considerable as the other For then are we the Sons of God Heirs with Christ Brethren to God's Children in heaven and on earth we are of kin to the Family of God we enjoy his Favour and Blessing and have an actual right to that promise which he hath promised even eternal life Lay all these things together and nothing will be more evident to you than this that so great a change of our state is implied in our being the true Disciples of Christ that we are as it were other men by being so and so may fitly be said to be Born again when we become such persons But that Intrinsick alteration which seems to afford the clearest Similitude regards that sense of good and evil which is proper to a true Christian. We know that all living Creatures have such a sense of things hurtful and destructive to them that they are thereby generally prompted to avoid them 'T is thus I say in the natural life that we readily apprehend what is contrary to it and therefore we do not run into the Fire nor venture down Precipices because these things are contrary and destructive to our Natures And this is a very fit Emblem of the state of a true Christian for by reason of that divine temper of Soul which is wrought in him by the Holy Spirit he hath such a like sense of good and evil with regard to his Minde and Conscience as all living Creatures have with respect to their Natures He therefore that is in Christ i. e. who is a true Christian is said to be Born again and to become a new Creature for he hath a new sense of things which he had not before he hath other apprehensions of sin than sensual and worldly men have he looks not upon any immorality as a harmless thing but apprehends all kindes of wickedness to be what they are pernicious and detestable which is the reason as I have already intimated of what St. John saith He that is born of God sinneth not In like manner that which in the Relative change seems to be most visibly intended by this Metaphor is our being qualified to enter into the Kingdom of God which is the Inheritance of the Saints or the true Disciples of Christ for by becoming his Disciples we are as it were born to this Inheritance we are the Sons of God and if Sons then Heirs as the Apostle tells us Now if faith in Christ and obedience to his Laws make men so much better and more excellent persons than they were before and qualifie them also for an everlasting reward then here is another visible reason for the choice of this Metaphor to express the state of a good Christian by viz. the great advantages they gain by it we have as it were a new being given unto us when we truely believe in Jesus and conform our selves to his Doctrine and Example we are so much altered for the better as if we had never lived till then and we have infinitely more reason to think of this alteration in our state than to remember the day of our Birth with joy and gladness Hence we finde that the Scripture does not onely represent the advantages we gain by the Gospel of our Saviour under Metaphors taken from things most grateful to our natural Appetites as Liberty Life and Light but withal it assures us that the good implied in those things does in a more eminent manner belong to the true Disciples of Christ than to any body else as when our Saviour saith Joh. 8.36 If the Son shall make you free then are you free indeed Now what this freedom is we are told vers 32. The truth shall make you free and vers 34. He that committeth sin is the servant of sin So that this freedom consisteth in the knowledge of the Truth and in obedience to the Laws of God which is that very state that the Scripture elsewhere calls Light and Life and being Born again and created in Christ Jesus Lastly Since it is by the Operations of the Holy Spirit in us that we become true believers and good men it is visible that our being then said to be born of God does fitly express the concurrence of that Divine power whereby this change is effected in us There are other Metaphors whereby the Scripture expresseth the same thing but none of them seem to be so full of signification as this although the use and meaning of all of them is easily discernible Those expressions of Creating and Drawing seem principally to respect that divine Grace by which we are enabled to overcome the world and to live to God Converting or Turning peculiarly notes that alteration that is hereby made in our state Taking away the Heart of stone expresseth the same thing but chiefly with regard to what we were before as giving the Heart of flesh also doth with respect to what we become afterward Making a new Heart and a new Spirit signifies that change which is wrought in the Dispositions of the Minde as causing us to walk in God's Statutes notes the reformation that is made in the life Purifying Cleansing and Purging are Metaphors that express the excellency of this change and how much our Natures are bettered by it But Quickning and making Free and turning from darkness to light do express all the advantages which we gain by the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel whether they be Inherent or Relative And this may serve to shew in what divers respects these Metaphors conspire to express the same thing But you may observe that the Metaphor of Regeneration or the new Birth contains all those Similitudes to the state of a true Christian which are severally discernible in the rest And this probably is the reason why it is more frequently used in the Scriptures than the rest are as that is the reason I suppose why it hath obtained amongst Christian writers to treat of the conditions of eternal Life more frequently under the name of Regeneration than under any other phrase whereby they are Metaphorically exprest And possibly this common use of the word may have been an occasion to some unwary Christians of imagining that it is to be understood in
the proper sence But I do not see how so learned a man as Dr. Owen can excuse himself from dishonesty for making this construction of it which must appear ridiculous to any considering man However I hope the Reader will acknowledge that I have given a plain and reasonable account of the use of these Metaphors by shewing wherein the Similitude lies between the proper and figurative significations of them And hereby I may have helped our Author to conceive it a very possible thing that the Scriptures mean nothing more by those grand and Hyperbolical expressions as he calls them of being Regenerate c. then becoming a sincere Disciple of Christ which is his Adversaries notion of a Regenerate man Thus also I have shewn how far we may argue from these Scripture metaphors If any man can go further and finde out more Similitudes between the Metaphors and that which is meant by them I shall not be his Adversary provided he keeps himself within the bounds of Sense and Reason But to argue from the proper signification of any one or all these Metaphors to conclude something parallel in the state of a Believer to every thing which can properly be affirmed of them is to run upon such wilde and absurd consequences as any wise man would be asham'd to own and any good man would be afraid to fasten upon the Scriptures How our Author argues from them we shall see hereafter In the mean time we have proceeded thus far as to state the true notion of Regeneration SECT 10. Though I have as I conceive sufficiently proved that to be born again is to become a true Disciple of Christ yet for further confirmation and because it may be of some use to the ordinary Reader I shall make it plain that this notion is agreeable to the scope and designe of our Saviour's discourse to Nicodemus Joh. 3. which is the most famous place in the whole New Testament where this phrase is used It is one of the best ways of interpreting any difficult passage in Divine or Humane Authors to observe the designe of that whole discourse to which it belongs and then to fix such a meaning upon that passage as is apparently suitable to the scope of the Author if the words will bear that meaning That the Phrase of being Regenerate will bear that sence which I have assigned to it I have shewn and that it is the true sence thereof I have proved by clear Arguments from other Scriptures wherefore if I shew also that this sence of the Phrase is consonant to the plain scope of our Saviour in that discourse where he made the first mention of it that we read of nothing can be further desired to demonstrate that this indeed is the true meaning thereof The designe of our Saviour's discourse may easily be gathered from the plain passages of it and then it will appear to be this 1. To shew that faith in Christ and obedience to him were the means by which God had appointed to bring men to eternal Happiness 2. To shew the unreasonableness of the Jews who would not believe in him The former we finde vers 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life i. e. this is the way by which God hath determined to save Mankinde viz. by faith in his Son who was to be lifted up upon the Cross as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness a rude Salvage place and so fit to be the figure of that corrupt state of the World in which Christ came to die for us that whosoever believed in him should not perish but c. vers 14 15. Now this was so great a demonstration of God's Love to man thus to give his onely begotten Son that no man could hope to escape the anger of God who should refuse the benefit of this Sacrifice For though indeed God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved vers 17. yet he that believeth not is condemned already vers 18. is in a state to which condemnation belongs and that a more severe one for refusing so gratious an opportunity of Salvation as was now offered 2. Our Saviour shews the unreasonableness of those men that believed not and that by noting 1. The Evidence of that Truth which they disbelieved 2. The true cause of their unbelief The former he admonished Nicodemus of in these words Verily verily I say unto thee We speak that we do know and testifie that we have seen and ye receive not our testimony vers 11. i. e. Ye believe not my Doctrine concerning that onely way by which you must come to see the Kingdom of God although it be evidently true for this is that very Message which I bring you from God this is that Counsel and Decree of God which I come from him to testifie unto you that there is no other way but that Now this you acknowledge that I am a Teacher come from God for no man can do those Miracles that I do except God be with him v. 2. how strangely incredulous therefore are you that yet you will not believe me delivering that Doctrine which by these Testimonies of my coming from God I confirm For I prove that I have seen and known what I testifie I prove the truth of what I say by those Arguments that convince you that I am a Teacher come from God Hence we may probably gather the meaning of those words And no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of Man which is in heaven vers 13. to be this No man hath known the secret purposes of God concerning the way of saving Mankinde viz. by the death of his Son No man hath thus ascended into Heaven but he that is come from Heaven whom God hath sent to reveal this to you even he who now speaketh to you who am in Heaven who know the purposes and intentions of my Father concerning the way of Salvation This I take to be a more probable interpretation of this difficult place than that which supposeth our Saviour to speak here of his local ascension into Heaven afterward because 1. The words themselves seem not well able to bear the notion of a future ascension 2. As Grotius hath well shewn the phrase of ascending into Heaven is in other places of Scripture to be taken in the former sence viz. of gaining knowledge from God as in Prov. 30.3 4. And 3. if thus it is understood in this place then what our Saviour saith here hath a clear connexion with vers 11. where he rebuketh the Jews for not believing his Revelations taxing them of unreasonableness for it since he delivered nothing but what he had seen and known from God and also with the precedent verse where by the heavenly things our Saviour
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
in believing his Gospel so as to yield a sincere obedience to his Laws This is that Regeneration which is necessary to Adult persons as Nicodemus was and as you may remember is one of those needful effects for the producing of which in our mindes God will give the Holy Spirit to us if we ask him Thus have I shewn what those Qualifications are for the effecting of which the Holy Spirit is promised in St. Luke 11.13 Now though I have not pretended to prove from this place that God will give the Holy Spirit to work faith and the beginnings of a good minde and good desires in us and there was good reason for it since the Spirit is here promised to Believers and such as desire to do the will of God yet I intended not to exclude them from being the effects of the Holy Spirit and I shall immediately prove that they are for I now proceed to shew what those several Graces are which the Scriptures particularly ascribe to the Operations of the Holy Spirit which was the second way propounded for the resolving of the first Question and will not onely confirm what has been offered for that end from St. Luke but fully satisfie the Question we are upon CHAP. IV. Concerning the several Graces of the Holy Spirit SECT I. IN the first place Faith it self as that signifies a firm perswasion of the truth of our Saviour's Doctrine is an effect in our Mindes which the Scripture frequently ascribes to the Operations of the Holy Spirit This is the first Grace of the Holy Spirit which I mention because an hearty belief of the Gospel is the foundation of all other Christian Virtues And I shall now shew that the Spirit of God is given to prepare our mindes as they ought to be prepared that we may become the true Disciples of Christ. To speak clearly to this matter we are to consider 1. That the Revelations of the Doctrines of the Gospel and sufficient testimonies that they are divinely revealed are presupposed to our obligation of believing them and 2. That teachableness and due attention is necessarily required to Faith or actual believing of those Doctrines Now that which I shall take upon me to prove is this That the Teachableness of Minde which is necessary to actual Believing is from the Holy Spirit And I onely say that Faith in this sence is an effect of his Operations upon the Mindes of men But I do not say that the Holy Spirit doth now reveal the Doctrines of the Gospel to men by immediate Inspiration or that he convinceth them of their truth by any immediate or any new testimony whatsoever that they may believe Not the First because we have them in the Scriptures As to the Doctrines of the Gospel themselves we may say with the Apostle God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.10 But not to us as he did to the Apostles to them by Inspiration to us by their Writings whereby we may be fully instructed in all necessary Truth Not the Second because the Doctrines of the Gospel have been sufficiently confirmed already even by the demonstration of the Spirit and Power in the Miracles and Resurrection of Christ and the supernatural Gifts which the Apostles and the primitive Believers had And there is not any one promise in the Scripture that I can finde that God will give unto us any further testimony of the Holy Ghost to the truth of the Gospel after that which was given to it by the Holy Ghost at first Wherefore we have no Warrant to look for any private Illumination and Conviction by the Holy Spirit to assure us of the truth of that Doctrine which hath been abundantly confirmed to our hands by so many divine Testimonies already It is the same light and the same evidence by which we discern the truth of the Gospel that those to whom Christ and his Apostles preached discerned it by i. e. the Testimonies by which they proved their Doctrines onely with this difference that they saw and heard them we know them by the tradition of the Scriptures Our Saviour saith Light is come into the world but men c. i. e. The Will of God was plainly revealed by him and he was clearly proved to be the Son of God by the testimony of his Works c. and yet many would not believe him Now this is that Light which still continues in the world viz. the Revelations of the Gospel and the Testimonies by which they were confirmed for we have them in the Scriptures which are delivered to us that we might believe the same Doctrines which Christ and his Apostles preached to the world and upon the same evidence whereby men were at first convinced of their truth Therefore I do not say that the Holy Spirit worketh Faith in us by illuminating our mindes with any new Revelation of the Christian Doctrine or any new Testimony of the truth thereof for this is more than needs to be done and I conceive more than any body can prove But he doth it by disposing our mindes to attention and teachableness or to that temper which whosoever is of will believe truths that are proposed to him with sufficient evidence It is true indeed that there is no more required to an understanding man's assent to a true propoâ—tion in Philosophy than to explain the meaning and represent the reasons of it to him intelligibly and clearly This ordinarily is sufficient in that case But there is more assistance required towards the belief of the Gospel though propounded with sufficient evidence of divine Revelation For there is this difference between the truths of Religion and conclusions in natural Philosophy and other Sciences that our sensual Appetites and worldly Interests are thwarted by those but not by these and therefore we are not so apt to rise up in contradiction to the latter as we are to the former though they may be both proved with equal evidence Religion is to govern our lives and bindeth us to deny the pleasures and advantages of sin under the penalty of God's high displeasure And no wonder if the Lusts of men influence their Judgements and blass their Understandings against the belief of those Doctrines which are so irreconcilable to a wicked life These are the things which do not onely so often spoil the virtue and efficacy of Faith where it is but do also cause uncertainty and unbelief where Faith is not but where in all reason it ought to be For they make men unwilling to believe and this unwillingness doth on the one hand hinder their attention to the force of those Arguments which prove the Gospel to be indeed the Word of God and inclines them on the other hand to lean to the weakest Objections that can be offered against it This was just the case of the great men amongst the Jews as is plain from that one instance in John 9. amongst many For when our Saviour had
hope and expectation These words I confess are capable of a double construction viz. that the expectation of Glory either without holiness previous to that expectation or without holiness previous to the obtaining of that Glory is a cursed hope If he means the latter he supposeth it possible for a Christian to expect Salvation and Glory though he is neither holy at present nor presumes that he shall be so hereafter and this is a cursed hope indeed but I believe it will be hard to meet with it any where either amongst Christians who deny the Doctrine of personal Election for they are perswaded that holiness is the condition of obtaining eternal Life or amongst Christians that grant it for they are perswaded as the Doctor can bear them witness that God will take care to make the Elect who shall onely be saved holy before he brings them to Glory There being therefore no great danger of any Christian's entertaining this cursed hope that he shall be brought to blessedness without being made holy antecedently thereunto as our Author's expression is one would think his zeal were meant against a wicked man's hoping to be saved i. e. who wants that ground for his hope which the Gospel affords to them who have sincerely forsaken their sinful courses Now if this be his meaning it is a very good meaning and I think he can hardly say too much to awaken those men who go on in their ungodly practices and still flatter themselves with the hope of Salvation But then from his words I infer 1. Such mens expectation of Glory cannot be built upon this foundation that God hath absolutely elected some persons to eternal Life for the Doctor saith it cannot be built upon any other foundation than this that God will rescind his eternal Decrees to comply with them in their sins and these are plainly two distinct things 2. That therefore there are no persons who are thus absolutely elected for if there were then a wicked man might hope that he is one of them and to nourish this hope he need not suppose that God will change his purposes to comply with him in his sins but that God will take care to convert him from his sins in compliance with his own purposes And then 3. It follows plainly that God hath decreed to save no man but upon condition of his being holy and therefore 4. There is not the least ground for any man to hope that he may be regenerated because he may be elected since Holiness or Regeneration it self is the condition of any man's being elected to eternal Life And this is to the full as much as I said concerning the desperateness of putting our Regeneration upon the venture of our Election And whether it be not the consequence of the Doctor 's words according to the most charitable construction of them I leave the Reader to judge between us But that he may not complain that I mis-represent his opinion concerning that which he calls the Decree of Election I shall here give you his own account of it from the second Chapter of his fifth Book where he discloseth his judgement of it very solemnly His designe in that Chapter is to prove that eternal Election is a cause of and motive unto holiness as the Title thereof acquaints us and therefore I acknowledge he took a very proper way to begin with explaining what he understands by eternal Election But I can by no means think he hath done fairly to make Election to be one thing when he industriously explains his notion of it and another thing when he proceeds to use it for the proving of something else To make it plain to him that he is guilty of this fault I will first shew what he understands by the Decree of Election where he pretends to prove that it is a motive to Holiness To this end he saith First the Soveraign Grace and Love of God herein is a powerful motive thereunto Now the Grace which he means is this That God should first chuse us unto Life and Salvation by Jesus Christ decreeing immutably to save us out of the perishing multitude of Mankinde from whom we neither then did in his eye or consideration nor by any thing in our selves ever would differ in the least which is as much as to say that Election is a peremptory Decree of God that this and that man shall be saved without considering them under any qualification which the Gospel saith is necessary to eternal Life so that his judgment in this place is that God hath absolutely elected all that shall be saved which he plainly affirmed not long before by saying that every thing else will fail but what is an especial fruit and effect of this Decree of Election But that he might be sure to be understood he propounds the common Objection against this Doctrine viz. that on supposition thereof a chosen one may happen to argue in this manner If God hath thus chosen me I may then live in sin as I please all will be well and safe in the latter end which is all I need care for i. e. Election to eternal Life being supposed to be absolute it follows that a man may live in sin all his days and it shall not go the worse with him hereafter Which inference seems to be plain and strong and I think our Author confesseth it so to be by not once attempting to shew the contrary But instead thereof he tells us This is the language of a Devil and not of a man and he that shall act practically according to this inference is such a Monster of Impiety and presumptuous Ingratitude as Hell it self cannot parallel in many instances May be so but I hope a man may doctrinally make this inference without being as ill-natured as the Devil and that our Author will not call us Devils for urging him with an Objection that he is not able to answer For when all is done if Believers should argue in this sort and live accordingly he has no way that I can see to convince them that they shall fare the worse for it But thus he goes on I shall use some boldness in this matter and to do him right he is every jot as good as his word for presently he sets himself to call them stupid impious and ungrateful Monsters and to bestow such language upon them as might make him liable to be questioned by his Brethren whether he has not taken too much boldness with the Elect if he had not made his peace with them in particular by saying that he never knew any man who was duely perswaded of his election in whom it tended to ingenerate loosness of Life But I suppose he is not acquainted with them all and if there be any of them that make this hellish inference doctrinally and practically too any man may see that his foul words do not confute the consequence of their arguing although they
plain that no body can do any thing to procure that Grace which is at first necessary to put him into the way of well-doing The latter Proposition is clear thus No man shall be condemned to eternal punishment much less to such punishment in a more intolerable degree for not believing what was always impossible for him to believe and that without his own fault But every man to whom the Gospel is preached shall be condemned to eternal punishment if he believes it not and to a sorer punishment for not believing it therefore it is not always thus impossible for any man to whom the Gospel is preached to believe The second Proposition is clear from the fore-mentioned passages of Scripture as the first is from the unchangeable perfections of the Divine Nature For to say that God requires impossible things of any man and so takes advantage against him to cast him into fiercer flames where he must burn for ever is to blaspheme all the Attributes of God but those which make him great and powerful it is to rob him of all his Goodness in the glory of which he hath expressed so much delight For not to say that this fastens the reproach of Insincerity and foul Dissimulation upon the Redeemer of Mankinde it is to charge the Creator of Men and Angels with Tyranny and the Judge of the whole world with Injustice God is pleased to expostulate with men because of their disobedience from that relation wherein they stand to him as his Children and Servants If I be a father where is mine honour and if I be a master where is my fear saith the Lord Mal. 1.6 Now can we think that he has given any man cause to retort that Expostulation in this manner If thou art a Father where are thy Bowels If thou art a Master where is thy Justice for kindness belongs as necessarily to the Character of a good Father and justice to that of a good Master as Obedience and Fear can to that of a good Childe or Servant And we are not to forget that God hath appealed to the common principles of Reason imprest upon the mindes of men in justification of the equity and mercy of his proceedings towards them the latter in Isa. 1.18 Come now let us reason together saith the Lord c. The former in Ezekel 18.25 Is not my way equal are not your ways unequal But to inflict a more grievous punishment and that eternal for not performing an impossible condition is in its own nature cruel and unjust and therefore cannot stand with the goodness of a Father nor with the justice of a Master nor with God's pleading with obstinate evil men from these relations and the appeal he makes to their own mindes for the righteousness of his dealings with them which upon these terms it is impossible for them to acknowledge unless they lay aside the brightest principles of their Reason If some things be so evil that they can never be good then some things there are which can never be ascribed to God without Blasphemy Now if the inflicting of eternal Torments upon men for what they could never help be not one of those things I desire any man to tell me what is Besides is it Blasphemy to say that God can lie But he hath told us that he taketh no pleasure in the death of him that dieth but had rather he should turn and live And what shadow of truth can there be in that saying if he first prescribes impossible terms of forgiveness and then damns the sinner with more severity for not performing them I shall have occasion to debate this matter with Dr. Owen in another place but in the mean time let him please to contrive some undeniable instance of barbarous injustice which without question he can easily do and when he has given us his Idea of it I will undertake to reconcile the fastening it upon God with the honour of his Attributes as easily as he can secure the glory of the divine Goodness while he makes God to oblige men to impossibilities under pain of eternal Damnation But if there be no difference between right and wrong if we know nothing so good or so evil but it may cease to be so then the divine Perfections may cease too and for ought we know the Nature of God is mutable and so farewel to the Notion of God himself and the certainty of any thing in Religion And if this be not the last result of that Doctrine which makes believing and consequently obeying the Gospel impossible from the very first to them that will be damned for not doing so I leave indifferent men to consider The Conclusion is that believing is possible to all that hear Now the possibility thereof must consist either in this that of our selves we are able to dispose our mindes to that love of the Truth to that teachableness and attention which will cause actual believing assoon as the Gospel is plainly and evidently made known or else in this that by the help of divine Grace we may be thus disposed and consequently come to the knowledge of Christ. The former is the Semipelagian Doctrine which I have shewn to be contrary to the Scripture Chap. 4. Sect. 1. therefore the latter remains to be true viz. that through the Operations of the Holy Spirit it is possible for all that hear the Gospel to believe and by force of the former Argument it follows that common Grace or that which makes it possible for a man to begin well and by believing to perform the first condition of the Gospel is given to all that hear it I do not indeed finde any such express promise in the Gospel that God will give every man that hears the Gospel Grace to believe it as there is that he will give the Holy Spirit to Believers and good men And this may be said why there is no such promise made expresly viz. because it would have been of little or no use either to those that believe already because they need not that Grace which is proper to beget Faith at first but onely that which is proper to confirm and increase it or to those who do not believe for of whatsoever use such a promise could be to any man it must suppose the belief of it which he would want who does not yet believe the Gospel to be a divine Revelation But though there be no promise of common Grace expresly made to all that hear the Gospel yet there is an implicite promise thereof contained partly under that obligation which the Gospel lays upon all that hear it to believe and partly under those passages in Scripture which suppose Faith to be an effect of the Holy Spirit 's Operations in us For no man can be justly obliged to impossible terms of forgiveness under pain of a more grievous punishment therefore if Faith be an effect of the Holy Spirit God will give his Spirit in such measure
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
and demonstrations viz. Jonas his tarrying three days in the whale c. 'T is true that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not alwaies so signifie for in St. Jude vers 19. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are sensual men men addicted to their Lusts not those that reject Revelation because they are there supposed to be Professors and so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not those who are opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Cor. 2. who were taught by the Revelation of the Spirit but to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned chap. 3. who were meek peaceable Christians They therefore in St. Jude were such as did not walk after the Spirit wanted those Christian virtues of Love Meekness Peaceableness which are the fruits of the Spirit It is not unusual for the holy Writers to use the same word under different significations and then the sense they intend by such a word is to be determined by the Context Now that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Jude signifies the sensual man who though a Christian was yet wanting in Christian temper and practice is not more clear from the Context there than that here it signifies one that is no Christian at all or one that rejects the Revelations of the Gospel is clear from the whole scope of the Apostle in this Chapter Here it will not be unfit once for all to observe a like variety in the signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle Chap. 2 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the second Chapter is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore signifies one that admits of Revelation and is thereby acquainted with the Will of God And concerning him it is that the Apostle saith vers 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not fit to do because he rejected the only proper way whereby the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were to be known But in the third Chapt. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as when the Apostle saith vers 1. I could not speak unto you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently those who had received the Revelations of the Gospel but by reason of their unchristian temper being given to strife and debate could not be said to be grown Christians but were only babes in Christ very imperfect Christians Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in opposition to them signifies not only one who hath received and believed the Revelations of the Gospel but whose minde also is throughly conformed to the Christian Doctrine and so is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 2. Vers. 26. where the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. amongst those improved Christians who were by their good temper qualified to receive higher knowledge concerning the Mysteries of the Gospel which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned Chap. 3. were not able to bear Thus St. Chrys. tells us that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were those who did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hom. 8. who were of the lowest rank among the Spiritual and this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of their evil lusts and of these he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their carnality permitted them not to hear higher Doctrines Moreover he saith Ye cannot bear them is put for Ye will not for saith he if it were a natural impossibility 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man would pardon them perhaps but since their inability is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their own choice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are bereav'd of all excuse And it was from their own choice because it proceeded from their lusts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For an impure life is an hinderance to sublime knowledge c. and as he excellently saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He ought to purifie himself from all lust who intends to pursue after truth and to purge himself in particular from the lusts of Strife and Contention and Unpeaceableness since as St. Chrysostome well observes The Apostle could have told them they were carnal because of their fornications c. but he chuseth to tell them they were so because of their Schisms and Contentions the lust whereof makes men as unmeet to labour after the knowledge of Truth as any other impure affection whatsoever which J. O. and his Brethren as spiritual as they seem to themselves would do well to consider a little better than I fear they do †It should have been remembred before that although the Apostle had said before that the Wisdom of God which he had Preached was hidden till God reveal'd it by Christ and his Apostles yet this Wisdom had been foretold by the Prophets and their Prophecies were Revelations of it How then was it hidden It was hidden in comparison to that revelation of it which was made when those Prophesies were accomplish'd The Prophesies of the Old Testament contained the Wisdom of God so as to cover it but now when these Prophesies were fulfill'd then the meaning of them was made plain The completion gave light to the Prophecy when the Prophecy was made good by the completion And when those Prophesies were clearly fulfilled and the wisdom hid in them was now manifested it was a very convincing method which the Apostles took to compare one divine Revelation with another that of the Old Testament with that of the New in order to the demonstrating of their true meaning by their agreeableness to one another Thus St. Chrysostome clearly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 7. The future things of the Gospel were by such resemblances and descriptions as it were shadowed 〈◊〉 that when they came to pass they might be believed This is exactly according to St. Chrysost. Note upon the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 7. Because they are spiritually discerned i. e. because the Doctrines preached by the Apostles must necessarily be received by Faith and because they cannot be assented to from meer reasonings or because they cannot be proved by Philosophical discourses if they be assented to at all it must be upon the account of Divine Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 7. We know both our own things and all those of unbelievers but they know not ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 7. We know those things that are in the minde of Christ viz. whatever it was his Will we should know and which he hath revealed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 7. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 6. 1 Cor. And neither do we now perswade by Syllogisms but we prove what we say from the divine Scriptures and the Miracles wrought at first And the Apostles perswaded not only by Signs but discoursing also i. e. they reasoned and argued from those Miracles they wrought whereby it appears that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which St. Chrysost. so often rejects are not simply all Reasonings and Syllogisms but such only as admit not of Revelation as the ground of them these being altogether improper when revealed Doctrines are inquired into 1 Joh. 4.13 P. 87. Ibid. P. 80. P. 85. P. 86. P. 15. Chap. 4. B. 1. Ibid. Ch. 1. B. 2. P. 116 117. Ch. 34. B. 2. P. 10. P. 166. 1 Cor. 12.11 P. 157. P. 158. P. 158. P. 118. P. 184. Sect. 21. Pag. 183. Pag. 173. Ibid. P. 175. P. 183. P. 175. P. 183. P. 181. Pag. 183. Pag. 181. P. 181. P. 183. August Lib. de Gratia Christi c. 41. Hierom. Ep. ad Ctesiph De pecc Orig. c. 17 18 c. Vid. Dr. Hammond in loc resol of 6 Queries Treat of Conv. p. 8. Pag. 177. The opinion of Grotius that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the similitudes of the Natural Birth and the Wind which our Saviour used and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divine things spoken without this condescention by the use of Metaphors c. wants not its probability Nor that of Dr. Hammond who supposes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be things ordinary in the Jewish Law which notion seems to be countenanced by vers 31. But then by Believing they are both forced to mean Understanding whereas this notion does not onely equally if not better agree with the Context but may without using that liberty be applied to the Words P. 174. P. 529. P. 530. P. 529. P. 349. Vid. Knowl of Jesus Christ p. 389. P. 385. P. 349. P. 349 385. Chrys. in Rom. 8. Hom. 14. August Ep. ad Probam 121. c. 14. Ad Probam c. 15. De Anim. c. Orig. Lib. 4. Hierom in locum Ambrose Com. in Râ—m Theod. in Rom. Orig. in Ep. ad Rom. Lib. 7. Between v. 19. and v. 24 there are some difficult passages viz. the creature being subject to vanity and the groaning of the creation c. which are made very clear and plain in Dr. Hammond 's Annotations where that which I have here supposed to be the general meaning of the whole Period is particularly explained and therefore because I am unwilling to entertain the Reader with the solution of difficulties somewhat remote from my main designe I refer him thither See Dr. Ham. An. P. 182. P. 86. P. 358. P. 357. P. 361. P. 361. P. 358. P. 172. P. 521. P. 580. P. 525. P. 522. P. 525. P. 526. P. 522. P. 523 524. P. 520. P. 526. P. 521. P. 524. P. 205. P. 270. P. 287. P. 287. P. 262. P. 261. P. 254. P. 269 c. P. 261. P. 268. P. 270. P. 268. P. 268. P. 270 271. P. 271. P. 470. * If I forget not he acknowledges it somewhere in express terms P. 272. Pres. J. O. P. 21. P. 266. P. 470. P. 166. P. 167.
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