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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	mystical_a	person_n	union_n	3,769	5	10.8414	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53734	Two discourses concerning the Holy Spirit, and His work the one, Of the Spirit as a comforter, the other, As He is the author of spiritual gifts ... / by ... John Owen.	Owen, John, 1616-1683.; Mather, Nathanael, 1631-1697.; Owen, John, 1616-1683. Discourse of spiritual gifts.	1693 (1693)	Wing O818; ESTC R2819	174,342	306

in its proper Order If men be not first sanctified by him they can never be comforted by him And they will themselves prefer in their Troubles any natural or rational Reliefs before the best and highest of his Consolations For however they may be proposed unto them however they may be instructed in the Nature Wayes and Means of them yet they belong not unto them and why should they value that which is not theirs The World cannot receive him He worketh on the World for Conviction Joh. 16. 8. and on the Elect for Conversion Joh. 3. 8. But none can receive him as a Comforter but Believers Therefore is this whole Work of the Holy Spirit little taken notice of by the most and despised by many Yet is it never the less glorious in it self being fully declared in the Scripture nor the less usefull to the Church being testified unto by the Experience of them that truely believe THAT which remaineth for the full Declaration of this Office and Work of the Holy Ghost is the Consideration of those Acts of his which belong properly thereunto and of those Priviledges whereof Believers are made Partakers thereby And whereas many blessed Mysteries of Evangelical Truth are contained herein they would require much Time and Diligence in their Explanation But as to the most of them according unto the Measure of Light and Experience which I have attained I have prevented my self the handling of them in this place For I have spoken already unto most of them in two other Discourses the one concerning the Perseverance of True Believers and the other of our Communion with God and of the Holy Spirit in particular As therefore I shall be sparing in the Repetition of what is already in them proposed unto publick View so it is not much that I shall add thereunto Yet what is necessary unto our present Design must not be wholly omitted especially seeing I find that further Light and Evidence may be added unto our former Endeavours in this kind CHAP. IV. Inhabitation of the Spirit the first thing promised THE first thing which the Comforter is promised for unto Believers is that he should dwell in them which is their great Fundamental Priviledge and whereon all other do depend This therefore must in the first place be enquired into THE Inhabitation of the Spirit in Believers is among those things which we ought as to the Nature or Being of it firmly to believe but as to the Manner of it cannot fully conceive Nor can this be the least Impeachment of it's Truth unto any who assent unto the Gospel wherein we have sundry things proposed as Objects of our Faith which our Reason cannot comprehend We shall therefore assert no more in this matter but what the Scripture directly and expresly goeth before us in And where we have the express Letter of the Scripture for our Warrant we are eternally safe whilst we affix no Sence thereunto that is absolutely repugnant unto Reason or contrary unto more plain Testimonies in other places Wherefore to make plain what we intend herein the ensuing Observations must be premised FIRST This Personal Inhabitation of the Holy Spirit in Believers is distinct and different from his Essential Omnipresence whereby he is in all things Omnipresence is Essential Inhabitation is Personal Omnipresence is a necessary Property of his Nature and so not of him as a distinct Person in the Trinity but as God essentially one and the same in Being and Substance with the Father and the Son To be every where to fill all things to be present with them or indistant from them always equally existing in the Power of an Infinite Being is an inseparable Property of the Divine Nature as such But this Inhabitation is Personal or what belongs unto him distinctly as the Holy Ghost Besides it is voluntary and that which might not have been whence it is the Subject of a Free Promise of God and wholly depends on a Free Act of the Will of the Holy Spirit himself SECONDLY It is not a Presence by Vertue of a Metonymical Denomination or an Expression of the Cause for the Effect that is intended The meaning of this Promise The Spirit shall dwell in you is not He shall work graciously in you for this he can without any especial Presence Being essentially every where he can work where and how he pleaseth without any especial Presence But it is the Spirit himself that is promised and his Presence in an especial manner and an especial manner of that Presence he shall be in you and dwell in you as we shall see The only Enquiry in this matter is whether the Holy Spirit himself be promised unto Believers or only his Grace which we shall immediately enquire into THIRDLY The dwelling of the Person of the Holy Spirit in the Persons of Believers of what Nature soever it be doth not effect a Personal Union between them That which we call a Personal Union is the Union of Divers Natures in the same Person and there can be but one Person by Vertue of this Union Such is the Hypostatical Union in the Person of the Son of God It was our Nature he assumed and not the Person of any And it was impossible he should so assume any more but in one Individual Instance For if he could have assumed another Individual Being of our Nature then it must differ personally from that which he did assume For there is nothing that differs one Man from another but a distinct Personal Subsistence of each And it implies the highest Contradiction that the Son of God could be Hypostatically united unto more than one For if they are more than one they must be more Persons than one And many Persons cannot be Hypostatically united for that is to be one Person and no more There may be a manifold Union Mystical and Moral or divers of many Persons but a Personal Union there cannot be of any thing but of distinct Natures And as the Son of God could not assume many Persons so supposing that Humane Nature which he did unite to himself to have been a Person that is to have had a distinct Subsistence of it's own Antecedent unto it's Union and there could have been no Personal Union between it and the Son of God For the Son of God was a distinct Person and if the Humane Nature had been so too there would have been two Persons still and so no Personal Union Nor can it be said that although the Humane Nature of Christ was a Person in it self yet it ceased so to be upon its Union with the Divine and so two Persons were conjoyned and compounded into one For if ever Humane Nature have in any Instance a personal Subsistence of it's own it cannot be separated from it without the Destruction and Annihilation of the Individual For to suppose otherwise is to make it to continue what it was and not what it was for it is what it is distinct

his Office so to do CHAP. II. General Adjuncts or Properties of the Office of a Comforter as exercised by the Holy Spirit TO evidence yet further the Nature of this Office and Work we may consider and enquire into the general Adjuncts of it as exercised by the Holy Spirit And they are Four FIRST Infinite Condescention This is among those Mysteries of the Divine Dispensation which we may admire but cannot comprehend And it is the Property of Faith alone to act and live upon incomprehensible Objects What Reason cannot comprehend it will neglect as that which it hath no concernment in nor can have Benefit by Faith is most satisfied and cherished with what is infinite and inconceivable as resting absolutely in Divine Revelation Such is this Condescention of the Holy Ghost He is by Nature over all God blessed for ever And it is a Condescention in the Divine Excellency to concern it self in a particular manner in any Creature whatever God humbleth himself to behold the things that are done in Heaven and in Earth Psal. 113. 5 6. How much more doth he do so in submitting himself unto the Discharge of an Office in the behalf of poor Worms here below THIS I confess is most astonishing and attended with the most incomprehensible Rays of Divine Wisdom and Goodness in the Condescention of the Son For he carried the Term of it unto the lowest and most abject Condition that a rational intelligent Nature is capable of So is it represented by the Apostle Phil. 2. 6 7 8. For he not only took our Nature into Personal Union with himself but became in it in his outward Condition as a Servant yea as a Worm and no Man a Reproach of Men and despised of the People and became subject to Death the Ignominious shameful Death of the Cross. Hence this Dispensation of God was filled up with Infinite Wisdom Goodness and Grace How this Exinanition of the Son of God was compensated with the Glory that did ensue we shall rejoyce in the Contemplation of unto all Eternity And then shall the Character of all Divine Excellencies be more gloriously conspicuous on this Condescention of the Son of God than ever they were on the Works of the whole Creation when this Goodly Fabrick of Heaven and Earth was brought by Divine Power and Wisdom through Darkness and Confusion out of nothing THE Condescention of the Holy Spirit unto his Work and Office is not indeed of the same kind as to the Terminus ad quem or the Object of it He assumes not our Nature he exposeth not himself unto the Injuries of an outward State and Condition But yet it is such as is more to be the Object of our Faith in Adoration than of our Reason in Disquisition Consider the thing in it self how one Person in the Holy Trinity subsisting in the Unity of the same Divine Nature should undertake to execute the Love and Grace of the other Persons and in their Names What do we understand of it This Holy Oeconomy in the distinct and subordinate Actings of the Divine Persons in these external Works is known only unto is understood only by themselves Our Wisdom it is to acquiesce in express Divine Revelation Nor have they scarcely more dangerously erred by whom these things are denyed than those have done who by a proud and conceited Subtilty of Mind pretend unto a Conception of them which they express in Words and Terms as they say precise and accurate indeed foolish and curious whether of other Men's coyning or their own finding out Faith keeps the Soul at an Holy Distance from these infinite Depths of the Divine Wisdom where it profits more by Reverence and Holy Fear than any can do by their utmost Attempt to draw nigh unto that inaccessable Light wherein these Glories of the Divine Nature do dwell BUT we may more steddily consider this Condescention with respect unto its Object the Holy Spirit thereby becomes a Comforter unto us poor miserable Worms of the Earth And what Heart can conceive the Glory of this Grace What Tongue can express it Especially will its Eminency appear if we consider the Ways and Means whereby he doth so comfort us and the Opposition from us which he meets withal therein whereof we must treat afterwards SECONDLY Unspeakable Love accompanieth the Susception and Discharge of this Office and that working by Tenderness and Compassion The Holy Spirit is said to be the Divine Eternal mutual Love of the Father and the Son And although I know that much Wariness is to be used in the Declaration of those Mysteries nor are Expressions concerning them to be ventured on not warranted by the Letter of the Scripture yet I judge that this Notion doth excellently express if not the distinct manner of Subsistence yet the mutual internal Operation of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity For we have no Term for nor Notion of that inessable Complacence and eternal Rest which is therein beyond this of Love Hence it is said that God is Love 1 John 4. 8 16. It doth not seem to be an essential Property of the Nature of God only that the Apostle doth intend For it is proposed unto us as a Motive unto mutual Love among our selves And this consists not simply in the Habit or Affection of Love but in the Actings of it in all its Fruits and Duties For so is God Love as that the Internal Actings of the Holy Persons which are in and by the Spirit are all the ineffable Actings of Love wherein the Nature of the Holy Spirit is expressed unto us The Apostle prays for the Presence of the Spirit with the Corinthians under the Name of the God of Love and Peace 2 Epist. 13. 11. And the Communication of the whole Love of God unto us is committed unto the Spirit for the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Rom. 5. And hence the same Apostle distinctly mentioneth the Love of the Spirit conjoyning it with all the Effects of the Mediation of Christ Rom. 15. 30. I beseech you Brethren for the Lord Jesus Christ his sake and for the Love of the Spirit I do so on the Account of the respect you have unto Christ and all that he hath done for you which is a Motive irresistible unto Believers I do it also for the Love of the Spirit all that Love which he acts and communicates unto you Wherefore in all the Actings of the Holy Ghost towards us and especially in this of his Susception of an Office in the behalf of the Church which is the Foundation of them all his Love is principally to be considered and that he chuseth this way of acting and working towards us to express his peculiar personal Character as he is the Eternal Love of the Father and the Son And among all his Actings towards us which are all Acts of Love this is most conspicuous in those wherein he is a

from all other Individuals by Vertue of it's Personality Wherefore upon this Inhabitation of the Spirit wherein soever it doth consist there is no Personal Union ensuing between him and Believers nor is it possible that any such thing should be For he and they are distinct Persons and must eternally abide so whilst their Natures are distinct It is only the Assumption of our Nature into Union with the Son of God antecedent unto any individual Personal Subsistence of it's own that can constitute such an Union FOURTHLY The Union and Relation that ensues on this Inhabitation of the Spirit is not immediate between him and Believers but between them and Jesus Christ. For he is sent to dwell in them by Christ in his Name as his Spirit to supply his Room in Love and Grace towards them making use of his things in all his Effects and Operations unto his Glory Hence I say is the Union of Believers with Christ by the Spirit and not with the Spirit himself For this Holy Spirit dwelling in the Humane Nature of Christ manifesting and acting himself in all Fulness therein as hath been declared being sent by him to dwell in like manner and act in a limited Measure in all Believers there is a mystical Union thence arising between them whereof the Spirit is the Bond and Vital Principle ON these Considerations I say it is the Person of the Holy Ghost that is promised unto Believers and not only the Effects of his Grace and Power and his Person it is that always dwelleth in them And as this on the one hand is an Argument of his Infinite Condescention in complying with this Part of his Office and Work to be sent by the Father and Son to dwell in Believers so it is an evident Demonstration of his Eternal Deity that the one and self-same Person should at the same time inhabit so many Thousands of distinct Persons as are or were at any time of Believers in the World which is Fondness to imagine concerning any one that is not absolutely infinite And therefore that which some oppose as unmeet for him and beneath his Glory namely this his Inhabitation in the Saints of God is a most illustrious and incontroulable Demonstration of his Eternal Glory For none but he who is absolutely immense in his Nature and Omnipresence can be so present with and indistant from all Believers in the World and none but he whose Person by Vertue of his Nature is infinite can personally equally inhabit in them all An Infinite Nature and Person is required hereunto And in the Consideration of the Incomprehensibility thereof are we to acquiesce as to the Manner of his Inhabitation which we cannot conceive 1. THERE are very many Promises in the Old Testament that God would thus give the Holy Spirit in and by Vertue of the New Covenant as Ezek. 36. 27. Isa. 59. 21. Prov. 1. 23. And in every place God calls this promised Spirit and as promised His Spirit my Spirit which precisely denotes the Person of the Spirit himself It is generally apprehended I confess that in these Promises the Holy Spirit is intended only as unto his gracious Effects and Operations but not as to any Personal Inhabitation And I should not much contend upon these Promises only although in some of them his Person as promised be expresly distinguished from all his gracious Effects But the Exposition which is given of them in their Accomplishment under the New Testament will not allow us so to judge of them For 2. WE are directed to pray for the Holy Spirit and assured that God will give him unto them that ask him of him in a due manner Heb. 11. 13. If these Words must be expounded metonymically and not properly it must be because either 1 They agree not in the Letter with other Testimonies of Scripture Or 2 Contain some Sence absurd and unreasonable Or 3 That which is contrary unto the Experience of them that believe The first cannot be said for other Testimonies innumerable concur with it Nor the Second as we shall shew And for the Third it is that whose contrary we prove What is it that Believers intend in that Request I suppose I may say that there is no one Petition wherein they are more intense and earnest nor which they more frequently insist upon As David prayed that God would not take his Holy Spirit from him Psal. 51. So do they that God would bestow him on them For this they do and ought to do even after they have received him His Continuance with them his evidencing and manifestation of himself in and to them are the design of their continued Supplications for him Is it meerly external Operations of the Spirit in Grace that they desire herein Do they not always pray for his ineffable Presence and Inhabitation Will any Thoughts of Grace or Mercy relieve or satisfie them if once they apprehend that the Holy Spirit is not in them or doth not dwell with them Although they are not able to form any Conceptions in their Minds of the manner of his Presence and Residence in them yet is it that which they pray for and without the Apprehension whereof by Faith they can have neither Peace nor Consolation The Promise hereof being confined unto Believers those that are truly and really so as we shewed before it is their Experience whereby its Accomplishment is to be judged and not the Presumption of such by whom both the Spirit himself and his whole Work is despised 3. AND this Inhabitation is that which principally our Lord Jesus Christ directeth his Disciples to expect in the Promise of him He dwelleth with you and shall be in you John 14. 17. He doth so who is the Comforter the Spirit of Truth Or as it is emphatically expressed Chap. 16. 13. He the Spirit of Truth He is promised unto and he inhabits them that do believe So it is expresly affirmed towards all that are Partakers of this Promise Rom. 8. 9. Ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be the Spirit of God dwells in you Ver. 11. The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwelleth in you The Holy Spirit dwelleth in us 1 Tim. 3. 14. He that is in us is greater than he that is in the World 1 John 4. 4. And many other express Testimonies there are unto the same purpose And whereas the Subject of these Promises and Propositions is the Holy Ghost himself the Person of the Holy Ghost and that so expressed as not to leave any Pretence for any thing else and not his Person to be intended And whereas nothing is ascribed unto him that is unreasonable inconvenient unto him in the Discharge of his Office or inconsistent with any of his Divine Perfections but rather what is every way suitable unto his Work and evidently demonstrative of his Divine Nature and Subsistence It is both irrational and unsuitable unto the Oeconomy of Divine

and Corruption Wherefore whatever First-Fruits we may enjoy yet can we not enter into the actual Possession of the whole Inheritance untill not only our Souls are delivered from all Sins and Temptations but our Bodies also are rescued out of the Dust of the Grave This is the full Redemption of the Purchased Possession whence it is signally called the Redemption of the Body Rom. 8. 23. THUS as the Lord Christ himself was made Heir of all things by that Communication of the Spirit unto him whereby he was anointed unto his Office so the participation of the same Spirit from him and by him makes us Coheirs with him and so he is an Earnest given us of God of the future Inheritance It belongs not unto my present purpose to declare the Nature of that Inheritance whereof the Holy Spirit is the Earnest In brief it is the highest Participation with Christ in that Glory and Honour that our Natures are capable of AND in like manner we are said to receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 23. That is the Spirit himself as the First Fruits of our Spiritual and Eternal Redemption God had appointed that the First Fruits which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Offering unto himself Hereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answereth and is taken generally for that which is first in any kind Rom. 16. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 20. Jam. 1. 18. Rev. 14. 4. And the First Fruits of the Spirit must be either what he first worketh in us or all his Fruits in us with respect unto the full Harvest that is to come or the Spirit himself as the Beginning and Pledge of Future Glory And the latter of these is intended in this place For the Apostle discourseth about the Liberty of the whole Creation from that slate of Bondage whereunto all things were subjected by Sin With respect hereunto he saith that Believers themselves having not as yet obtained a full Deliverance as he had expressed it Chap. 7. 24. do groan after it's perfect Accomplishment But yet saith he we have the Beginning of it the First Fruits of it in the Communication of the Spirit unto us For where the Spirit of God is there is Liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. For although we are not capable of the full and perfect Estate of the Liberty provided for the Children of God whilst we are in this World conflicting with the Remainders of Sin pressed and exercised with Temptations our Bodies also being subject unto Death and Corruption yet where the Spirit of God is where we have that First Fruit of the Fulness of our Redemption there is Liberty in the real Beginning of it and assured Consolation because it shall be consummated in the appointed Season THESE are some of the Spiritual Benefits and Priviledges which Believers enjoy by a Participation of the Holy Ghost as the promised Comforter of the Church These things he is unto them and as unto all other things belonging unto their Consolation he works them in them which we must in the next place enquire into Only something we may take notice of from what we have already insisted on As 1 That all Evangelical Priviledges whereof Believers are made Partakers in this World do center in the Person of the Holy Spirit He is the great Promise that Christ hath made unto his Disciples the great Legacy which he hath bequeathed unto them The Grant made unto him by the Father when he had done all his Will and fulfilled all Righteousness and exalted the Glory of his Holiness Wisdom and Grace was this of the Holy Spirit to be communicated by him unto the Church This he received of the Father as the Complement of his Reward wherein he saw of the Travail of his Soul and was satisfied This Spirit he now gives unto Believers and no Tongue can express the Benefits which they receive thereby Therein are they anointed and sealed therein do they receive the Earnest and First Fruits of Immortality and Glory In a Word therein are they taken into a Participation with Christ himself in all his Honour and Glory Hereby is their Condition rendred honourable safe comfortable and the whole Inheritance is unchangeably secured unto them In this one Priviledge therefore of receiving the Spirit are all others enwrapped For 2 No one way or thing or Similitude can express or represent the greatness of this Priviledge It is Anointing it is Seallng it is an Earnest and First Fruit every thing whereby the Love of God and the blessed Security of our Condition may be expressed or intimated unto us For what greater Pledge can we have of the Love and Favour of God What greater Dignity can we be made Partakers of What greater Assurance of a future blessed Condition than that God hath given us of his Holy Spirit And 3 Hence also is it manifest how abundantly willing he is that the Heirs of Promise should receive strong Consolation in all their Distresses when they fly for Refuge unto the Hope that is set before them The End of the First Part. A DISCOURSE OF Spiritual Gifts BEING The SECOND PART OF THE Work of the Holy Spirit IN WHICH These Particulars are distinctly handled in the following Chapters Chap. I. Spiritual Gifts their Names and Significations Chap. II. Differences between Spiritual Gifts and Saving Graces Chap. III. Of Gifts and Offices Extraordinary and First of Offices Chap. IV. Of Extraordinary Spiritual Gifts Chap. V. Of the Original Duration Use and End of Extraordinary Spiritual Gifts Chap. VI. Of Ordinary Gifts of the Spirit the Grant Institution Use Benefit and End of the Ministry Chap. VII Of Spiritual Gifts enabling the Ministry to the Exercise and Discharge of their Trust and Office Chap. VIII Of the Gifts of the Spirit with respect unto Doctrine Rule and Worship How attained and improved By the late Reverend JOHN OWEN D. D. London Printed for William Marshall at the Bible in Newgate Street 1693. OF Spiritual Gifts PART II. CHAP. I. Spiritual Gifts their Names and Significations § 1. THE Second part of the Dispensation of the Spirit in order unto the perfecting of the New Creation or the Edification of the Church consists in his communication of Spiritual Gifts unto the Members of it according as their places and stations therein do require By his Work of Saving Grace which in other Discourses we have given a large account of he makes all the Elect Living Stones and by his communication of Spiritual Gifts he fashions and builds those Stones into a Temple for the Living God to dwell in He spiritually unites them into one Mystical Body under the Lord Christ as an Head of Influence by Faith and Love and he unites them into an Organical Body under the Lord Christ as an Head of Rule by Gifts and Spiritual Abilities Their Nature is made one and the same by Grace their Use is various by Gifts Every one is a