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
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
elected to the testimony of the Spirit or while men impatient of contradiction ascribe their absurd interpretations of the Scripture to the Revelation of the Spirit or while men low and weak in their national apprehensions of things impute the vanity which they frequently utter in their Prayers to the impulse and suggestion of the Spirit 2. To take off the minds of Christians from the expectation of such gifts from the Spirit as are nowhere promised that they may more zealously pursue after those Graces which are indeed promised and without which they cannot be saved And thus much for that part of my undertaking which concerned those Effects for the producing of which the Holy Spirit is promised CHAP. VI. Concerning those to whom the Holy Spirit is promised and given SECT 1. TO speak clearly to this matter we are in the first place to observe that the Operations of the Holy Spirit are either 1. Such as prevent our belief of the Gospel and our very first desires to know the will of God and to live according to it this is that Grace which depends not upon our believing being the cause of those dispositions which I have shewn to be preparatory and antecedently necessary to Faith it self 2. Such as follow after to cherish and improve such good beginnings in us and to endue us with all qualifications necessary to eternal Life Now the promises of this Grace are conditional such is that promise in St. Luke 11.13 and the condition is plainly exprest God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him who are already convinced of the Truth and desire to do the Will of God and pray for divine assistance Such also is that promise in 2 Cor. 6. that God will dwell in us which depends upon our being the sincere Disciples of Christ and cleansing our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit These are the principal promises of Grace made to us in the Gospel and it is evident we have no right to the former but on condition of our believing in Christ and owning our selves to be his Disciples nor to the latter if we do not obey the Gospel And from hence we may learn where the true difference lies between common and special Grace which is a distinction I doubt oftner used than understood That special Grace implies an higher degree of favour towards them upon whom it is bestowed than is signified by common Grace is obvious to every man's understanding Now there are indeed divers promises of such Grace to be met with in the Gospel and which will be in force to the end of the world but they are all of them conditional and made with respect to some Qualification without which they do not belong to us Wherefore special Grace is that which is suspended upon the performance of some condition and consequently that Grace to which such a condition is not required beforehand is common But since there are several degrees of Grace proportionable to the several Qualifications of men For instance since more Grace is promised to Believers than to Unbelievers and yet more to sincere Christians than to mere Professors The distinction is to be understood in this Latitude that the same degree of Grace which is special in one respect may be common in another for that Grace whereof Faith is the condition is common in respect of that which obedience qualifies a Believer to receive as it is special with regard to that which does not require the condition of Faith and which an Unbeliever is capable of Wherefore the distinction is not accurate enough to be nice withal for if it be strictly held to there are several instances of divine Grace that will not fall under it because then onely the first Operations of the Spirit upon our mindes preventing all good inclinations in them will be common Grace and those onely which crown our obedience with perseverance special But admitting the former Latitude the distinction will reach every Operation of the Holy Spirit upon our mindes and the difference between that Grace which is common and that which is special may be so placed as that we may understand one another when we use the distinction And then I offer it to be considered whether it be not most agreeable to the Scriptures to place the difference between them in this that common Grace is that whereby we are led to the faith of Christ and the profession of Christianity and so includes all those goods desires that are excited and all those good dispositions that are produced in the mindes of men before they believe and special Grace that which is given to Believers onely for the strengthning of their Faith the increasing of their good desires and the enabling of them to live according to the Gospel For although there are degrees of that Grace to which Faith is pre-required and of that which is antecedent to Faith our Saviour's rule To him that hath shall be given holding equally in both cases yet it is observable that the promise of the Holy Spirit in St. Luke and all the particular promises of that nature in the Gospel are given onely to Believers and that we have no right to them but upon the performance of some condition required in the New Covenant Now since there are peculiar promises of the Holy Spirit which belong onely to them that believe it seems agreeable to the Scriptures to suppose Faith to be the first condition of special Grace and consequently that Grace to be common which requires not the performance of any condition undertaken by us when we are admitted into the Covenant It is in this sence that I shall understand the distinction because otherwise I think it will often prove a Distinction without Difference since in the strict meaning of the words the same Grace may be both common and special Thus also we may understand the difference between preventing and co-operating Grace and between preparing and perfecting Grace For these distinctions express the same thing in other respects that is meant by common and special Grace For that Grace which we call common because it is given without that condition which is necessary to qualifie us for greater Grace is also said to be preventing Grace with respect to God who is the first cause of all that is good in us and likewise preparing Grace with regard to some further improvement that we are thereby made capable of attaining And then co-operating and perfecting Grace are but other words expressing the same thing that is meant by special Grace with a like difference of respects So that these distinctions are to be understood with the same Latitude and used with the same caution that the former is If I am mistaken in this they are more subtile and intricate than I was aware of But the accurate use of these distinctions is not that which I contend for it is sufficient for me if I can make my meaning to be
understand our being strongly and deeply affected with divine Truths for where the Word of God dwells richly there the Spirit of God dwells too Nay I may adde further that there is no need of being curious to mark what respect was principally aimed at by the Apostle in the use of these Phrases throughout Rom. 8. and likewise Gal. 5. and other places and that because the Apostle does not seem to be curious in the use of them himself Nor was it necessary for him so to be in order to the making good of that conclusion against the Jews which he aimed at viz. that Justification was not to be had by the works of the Law but by the faith of Christ i. e. by being a true Disciple of Christ in mortifying the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts. But on the other hand his using of those Phrases of being led by and walking after the Spirit indifferently for living according to the Gospel and being governed by the motions of the Holy Spirit was very suitable to his designe of shewing that Justification was no other way to be obtained but by being a true Christian For since mortifying of the deeds of the body and being subject to the Law of God in that degree which Christianity now required were necessary to Justification the Jew who rejected the Gospel of Christ must needs be under Condemnation because the Holy Spirit whose guidance and incitations were necessary to the subduing of sin was given for that purpose to none that rejected Christianity Wherefore as long as the Jew would not submit to the Law of the Spirit of Life i. e. to the Gospel to the profession whereof the special promise of the Spirit was made he must needs be subject to the Law of Sin and of Death Of sin because he refused the necessary means of subduing the lusts of the Flesh viz. the Faith of the Gospel which was to refuse the Incitations and Grace of the Spirit Of Death because if we live after the Flesh we shall die This Observation I thought might not prove altogether unuseful to well-meaning persons that have not hit on it before for a man may well be in danger of mistaking the Apostle's designe in this and other places where the fore-mentioned Phrases are promiscuously used if he expects that every one of them should have a peculiar mystery belonging to it and a sence quite different from all the rest But that which I chiefly intended was to observe that the promiscuous use of those Phrases in the holy Scripture is extreamly agreeable to that familiar way wherein the Holy Spirit moveth the mindes of men For if we are so moved by him that we are not sensible of any operation in our mindes but that of divine Truth as it is represented to us by ordinary means and thereupon embraced by our Understandings then we cannot better express our being led and guided by the Spirit than by saying that we obey the Gospel And thus you see a further reason of the promiscuous and indifferent use of the above-mentioned Phrases and that taken from the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations as the former was from the end and designe of them I shall conclude this point with inferring from what hath been said concerning it that we resist the Holy Spirit of God many times when we think of nothing less and we do not think of it because we do not feel that supernatural impression which is made upon us and cannot discern it from the free and natural Operations of our minds And thus we quench the motions of the Spirit very often when we imagine that we onely quarrel with our own Thoughts or reject the good counsels of a Friend or the exhortations of a Minister or the rebukes of our own Conscience Now if we could hear or apprehend the Holy Spirit disswading us from any wickedness as sensibly as when a good man speaks to us we should not dare surely to entertain one thought more of going forward A temptation could no more prevail against us if we were thus admonish'd than if God should speak to us from Heaven with an audible voice in these words O do not that wicked thing which I hate But God doth not use this method upon us because we are here to live by Faith because he will prove us whether we believe his Word or not Therefore if it be plain from the holy Scriptures that when we are sinning against the clear Convictions of our duty when we are baffling any good Exhortations and Counsels and our own hopes of Heaven or our fears of Hell or the force of any seasonable good thought tending to Repentance we do then as really contradict the perswasions of the blessed Spirit as if we heard his Voice sounding in our Ears shall we not be as much afraid to do the former as we should be to do the latter For it will not be admitted in our excuse that we did not think of rebelling against the Holy Spirit for our not thinking of it is another fault since we have reason to believe that every sin we commit against the checks of Conscience has that aggravation and why should we think that one fault will excuse another Wherefore if we cannot but acknowledge that the doing of despight to the Spirit of Grace must needs adde an heavy weight to every sin which we commit presumptuously and to every neglect of improving an inclination to Repentance methinks we should tremble to do the one or to delay the other Finally the consideration of this matter if we have any due reverence of God will not fail of making all good counsels profitable to us of giving strength to all our own good purposes and making us careful to improve by all reasons that are proper to convince us by all Examples that are fit to instruct us and by all opportunities of serious reflection upon our selves For the Operations of the Holy Spirit do conspire with such familiar methods as these are to produce his Graces in us SECT 6. From all these things it follows in the last place that the Operations of the Holy Spirit in our minds are Assistances or Helps as they are generally called by Christians of all perswasions not excepting our Author and the Friends of his way But I say also they are properly so called because the Operations of the Spirit are no more than Assistances and that because his Graces are truely and properly the effects of other Causes viz. of the ministration of the Gospel of the external means of Grace and of our own endeavours with all which the Operations of the Holy Spirit conspire for the producing of those effects in us The Spirit is indeed the principal cause of these effects and therefore they are called his Graces and ascribed to him as if we did nothing our selves to gain them according to that saying of the Apostle I laboured abundantly yet not I but the grace of God which
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
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
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
Miracles Prophecies c. The true difference between Dr. H. and Dr. O. in this matter is not whether the manner or the means of receiving spiritual things be signified by the word spiritually but whether it is designed to express those means which Dr. H. affirms viz. external Testimonies of divine Revelation or those which Dr. O. contends for viz. the internal and irresistible operations of the Spirit upon a mans minde But 2. I have shewn by the clear scope of the Apostle that the outward means are here to be understood This I see is our Author 's great trouble that Dr. H. supposes the true cause why the Natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit is because he will onely be led by his natural Reason and will not attend to Revelation and the outward means whereby revealed Doctrines may be proved whereas J. Owen's meaning is that he cannot receive them because the New Light is not yet created in his minde by an almighty act of the Spirit The truth of Dr. Hammond's sence and the absurdity of Dr. Owen's I have already shewn and shall onely adde this to help our Authors understanding viz. That the proposal of the external evidences of a divine Revelation made equally to those who rejected the Gospel with them who received it is no argument that they who rejected it could not receive it because their mindes were not enlightned by an omnipotent act of the Spirit For another reason may be given why they could not viz. the Apostles reason because they sought after mans Wisdom and would not admit of that for truth which was not proved by Philosophical discourse By the Authorities he brings to confirm his own exposition and to confront Dr. Hammond's we may guess how pertinent the rest are that his Book is stuffed withal He produceth that saying of St. Chrysostome A natural man is he who lives by the flesh and hath not his minde yet enlightned by the Spirit but only hath that connatural humane understanding which the Creator of all things hath endued the mindes of men withal This Exposition which he calls better than Dr. Hammond's is clearly to the same purpose with it for here is not a word about that irresistible Light which J. O. contends for and to be led only by the Light of humane Reason which are Dr. Hammond's words is perfectly the same with having only the connatural humane understanding c. The following passage of Chrysostome which he quotes is to the same effect I shall only adde that citation out of the same Writer which he brings in at the beginning of his Exposition The natural man is one that ascribes all to the reasonings of his own minde and doth not think that he stands in need of aid from above which is madness for God hath given the Soul that it should learn and receive what he bestows or what is from him and not suppose that it is sufficient to it self Eyes are beautiful and profitable but if they would see without light this beauty and power will not profit but hurt them and the Minde if it would see without the Spirit of God it doth but entangle it self This is clearly against him For that which God is here said to bestow is not that irresistible Light the Doctor speaks of but the Light of Revelation which I have been discoursing of i. e. revealed truths which St. Chrysostome saith the Soul is to learn but to learn that Light he talks of is nonsence St. Chrysostome is so far from supposing that it is impossible for a man to receive what Revelations God bestows unless the Almighty Power of God necessitateth him to do it that he saies God hath given the Soul that it might receive them when they are bestowed And he reckons it madness for a man to think he needs no divine Revelations and consequently to reject them when they are offered with sufficient evidence Now the only reason according to J. O. why he rejects them is because the Almighty work hath not been yet upon his minde If St. Chrysostome had thought so too he had been a mad man himself for accusing them of Madness that fail'd of doing what no Power less than almighty could enable them to do which is in effect to accuse them of Madness because they were not Almighty themselves St. Chrysostome's Similitude is very pertinent For as Light is to bodily Eyes so is Revelation to the Minde in respect of revealed Truths which are such as none but the Spirit of God could discover And therefore whoever refuseth to attend to his revelation of them must needs be ignorant of them and will finde himself entangled in many difficulties which he might have understood by hearkning to Revelation This Similitude St. Chrysostome useth elsewhere to the same purpose for he saith As no man with his naked eyes can learn the appearances in the heavens so the Soul alone cannot learn the things of the Spirit i. e. they are not to be learned by meer Natural Reason without the aid of Revelation I now leave the Reader to judge with what conscience this man could pretend the Authority of St. Chrysostome to countenance his own Exposition of this Text of St. Paul and this is all I shall say to the Doctor 's Authorities which any one may see are as convincing as his Reasons And now at length I desire him to take notice that it will be to no purpose for him to reject what I have to say concerning spiritual things contrary to his notions of them under pretence that I am a natural man for I thank God I am a Christian and so long as I have the Scriptures by me I enjoy the means of understanding what Revelations God hath made known to us by his Son For they contain those Doctrines which were proved by the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power These Doctrines are so far from being foolishness to me or rejected by me because they are not knowable by meer natural Reason that I should be guilty of inexcusable madness if I should not surrender up my belief unto them Though I could not possibly finde them out nor have known them unless they had been revealed yet being revealed I discern the great Wisdom and Goodness of God towards us in them still acknowledging that I know but in part and that there is a depth of Wisdom in the Mysteries of the Gospel which my understanding cannot reach But the truth of these Revelations I learn principally from the testimonies given to them and the sence of them not excluding other subordinate helps by comparing one Divine Revelation with another and the Doctor hath no other means to qualifie him for the discerning of these things aright but that new light which he pretends to but which the Apostle speaks never a word of and let him make his best advantage of it But if the Doctor be resolved to Cant on still in his own defence and
shewing what we are taught in the Scriptures concerning these things I hope the Reader who hath not so well considered them may gain a profitable knowledge of this part of Christian Doctrine And that is a profitable knowledge of it which will incite him to the study of Godliness and Virtue For this promise is made to encourage men to be good and the principal end which I aim at in this undertaking is to make it appear what great reason they have to endeavour earnestly after true goodness since God hath promised to give his Holy Spirit CHAP. II. Concerning those effects for the producing of which the Holy Spirit is given to Believers SECT I. DOctor O. saith well that when we treat of the Operations of the Holy Spirit we are exercised in such a Subject as wherein we have no rule nor guide nor any thing to give us assistance but pure Revelation For I suppose he means by these words that all our knowledge concerning this matter depends upon Revelation For the promise of the Spirit is a branch of the New Covenant which depended upon the pleasure of God therefore our knowledge of this part of the Covenant must be grounded upon the Scriptures which contain the revelation of it And by God's assistance I shall endeavour to govern my self by that rule while I am debating those Questions I have propounded concerning the Operations of the Holy Spirit The first whereof is this What those effects are for the producing of which the Holy Spirit is given to men And this I the rather begin withal because the end of his Operations being well understood we shall be the better able to judge of the meaning of those Texts which tell us who they are to whom the Spirit is promised and what is the manner of his Operations What the effects themselves are for which the Spirit is given may be known 1. In great part from that promise of the Holy Spirit which our Saviour made to his Disciples Luke 11.13 2. They may be fully known from those other places of Scripture which mention the several Graces of the Holy Spirit I begin with the promise in St. Luke whereby we may understand for what purposes the Holy Spirit is promised to those that believe in Christ. The Text is this How much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him These words deserve our attention the more because they are the first wherein we finde our Saviour mentioning the Gift of the Holy Spirit to his Disciples and therefore let us consider their connexion with the precedent part of the Chapter to come by that means to their true meaning and hereby also we shall plainly see what those effects are for the producing of which the Holy Spirit is promised to us in this place We finde vers 1. that one of his disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray whereupon he taught them that Form of Prayer Our Father c. Having thus answered their desire he takes this occasion to require them to pray fervently and importunately urging his Command with this Argument that if they did so they should certainly be heard and their requests should be granted for thus he speaks to them vers 9. I say unto you Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you for every one that asketh receiveth c. This argument is enforced by two similitudes whereof the former makes way for the latter to proceed with more strength towards the proving of this thing that God will hear our earnest Prayers The first is that of a man that goes to his friend at midnight to beg three Loaves for the entertainment of another friend of his vers 5 6. Now it is here observed that the request was very troublesome and unseasonable vers 7. Trouble me not the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed and withal the trouble was so great that the bare friendship that was between them would not have prevailed vers 8. He will not rise and give him because he is his friend Yet on the other side 't is observed that two considerations prevailed with him viz. that of the necessity and that of the importunity of his friend Yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth Now from hence our Saviour concludes vers 9. that if we ask we shall have i. e. God will give us whatsoever things we ask of him importunately if those things are needful for us And this with great reason for 1. God is our best Friend and greatest Benefactor 2. We are never unseasonable to him and the giving of what we ask is never uneasie to himself Wherefore if a man will grant to his friend what he is importunate with him for if it be needful for him though he cannot do it without trouble and uneasiness to himself much more will God who loveth us more than a man can do his friend bestow such things upon us as are needful if we earnestly desire him since he can without any trouble to himself grant our requests In the next Similitude the Argument is improved If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father will he give him a stone or if he ask a fish will he for a fish give him a serpent Or if he shall ask an egg will he offer him a scorpion vers 11 12. Now here 1. The Son asks of the Father where on the one hand the natural affection is greater between a Father and his Son and on the other the dependance greater in the Son upon his Father than in one Friend upon another 2. The Son requests food necessary to sustain himself not for the entertainment of another as in the former Similitude wherefore seeing here is greater love on his part that is asked greater dependance and necessity on his that asks our Saviour concludes he will prevail so that the Father instead of giving that which is necessary will not give that which is unprofitable as a Stone instead of Bread much less will he instead of that which is profitable give that which is hurtful as a Serpent for a Fish and a Scorpion for an Egg. From hence our Saviour argues If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him The Argument proceeds à minori and the force of it lies in this That earthly Parents who may be tenacious towards others and envy what they enjoy for in that sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken Is thine eye evil because mine is good will not yet be so towards their Children when they ask such things as they need much less will God who is in this Similitude affirmed to be our Father as in the former he is supposed to be our Friend and who
be whether there be not more Metaphors than he allows not as he pretends here whether there be any Metaphors at all But since he will have it so he must not say hereafter that he intended only to prove all the expressions of the Gospel were not Metaphorical since his Argument concludes that they are all proper if it concludes any thing That most of them are proper we grant and 't is well that it stands not in need of being proved by him for his untoward way of proving would tempt a man to suspect the plainest truth he meddles withal if he had not better reasons of his own For Secondly What consequence is there in this Arguing If there be a secret mysterious work of the Spirit upon the Souls of men intended in the Scriptures then are all the expressions of the Gospel concerning it plain and proper otherwise the Scripture is obscure For 1. None of the expressions of it might have been proper and yet some of them plain and then the Scripture would not have been obscure in that thing for a Figurative expression may be plain enough to be understood by a man of common sense Sure our Author will grant that saying of our Saviour This is my body to be figurative and I hope he will not deny it to be plain because it is figurative So that his Argument by which he concludes all the expressions of the Scripture concerning this mysterious work to be proper doth not prove that any one is so 2. If some of the expressions be both plain and proper and others figurative some whereof are more and some less plain as the truth is and if those which are not so plain may be understood by the help of plainer then may this secret mysterious work be sufficiently understood by the expressions of it in the Scripture and consequently the Scripture far from being the obscurest Book in the world because all the expressions of it are not to be taken properly and literally But it seems our Author hath an opinion by himself that no Writer in the world ever used the liberty of Metaphorical expressions Thirdly his way of proving that there is such a mysterious work is a mere begging of the Question This we shall see by considering what he must mean by a secret mysterious work viz. such a work of the Spirit as is properly exprest by Regenerating Creating Quickning and Drawing the Soul of a man and this I grant to be a very mysterious work if these be all proper expressions of it Now he proves there is such a work by this Argument That otherwise the Scriptures are obscure Why so Because they are obscure if these be not proper expressions of the work of the Spirit so that he proves there is a mysterious work i. e. a work properly expressed by Regeneration Creation c. by this Argument that these are proper expressions of such a work which is to prove a thing by it self And he proves also that these are proper expressions because there is such a mysterious work that is a work properly expressed by them which is to beg the Question So that if you will grant the Doctor that they are proper expressions he can then prove there is a a work properly expressed by them or if you will grant there is such a work he can prove those to be proper expressions And now I understand the Doctor when he saies The Difficulties which seem to be in these things arise from their mysterious Nature and not from any obscurity in the Declaration of them and I am fully of his minde for if any one tells me that a Body may be greater than it self and lesser than it self and that Transubstantiation may be true Doctrine or that a man may be properly Regenerated Created Quickned Drawn and Awakened all at once I grant he does not obscurely declare his minde to me and that I finde no difficulty to understand the meaning of his words But the onely difficulty which seems to be in these things ariseth from the mysterious nature or rather the nonsence of the things themselves contained under these plain expressions for the more plain any nonsence is the more easily it is understood to be so This I think is a sufficient answer to that slender proof which the Doctor brings for the judgement of his party concerning the propriety of these Scripture-expressions but it will not be amiss to consider how he represents the judgement of those others whom he speaks of For he saith SECT 4. Others think the words and expressions of it to be mystical and figurative but the things intended to be ordinary and obvious to the natural Reason of every man So that if the Doctor may be believed there are some who think the effects of the Holy Spirit upon our Hearts are not expressed by any proper words at all in the Scriptures but as he saith they turn all Scripture-expressions of spiritual things into Metaphors If any such senceless people there be they are I should think most likely to be found among those that separate from the Church of England for many of their Preachers if we may judge of their Sermons by their Books do so train them up to Metaphorical talking that some of them may possibly believe the Scripture affords little or nothing else But as for those who think the things intended by these expressions suppose the assistances of the Divine Spirit are ordinary and obvious to the natural Reason of every man I never heard there were any such before if by obvious the Doctor means discoverable by mere natural Reason for the knowledge of these things is by all granted to depend on divine Revelation But being revealed I would fain know what reason we are to understand them withal besides our natural Reason But if by ordinary and obvious he means plain and intelligible by an ordinary capacity I am one of those who think the things of the Gospel whereof we are speaking to be ordinary and obvious and that they are not the less but the more excellent for being so our Author must grant unless he will revoke his Argument that the expressions of these things are not Metaphorical taken from hence that otherwise the Gospel is dark and unintelligible So that we are both agreed in words at least that Perspicuity and Intelligibleness is an excellent thing But the truth is he and his Party have a notion of Intelligibleness and Perspicuity by themselves as any one would guess by their Writings For Example the Doctor here tells us that if the Gospel intends nothing but moral Duties and their observance in its Doctrine of Regeneration then it is dark and unintelligible Now this is very strange for â—f as it is confessed on all hands moral Duties are easily intelligible and if the Scripture intends 〈◊〉 more by the Doctrine of Regeneration than the performance of moral Duties then is the Scripture very intelligible in the point of
Regeneration For that which is the meaning and intendment of the Scripture therein which the practice of moral Virtue is at present supposed to be is very plain and intelligible therefore I say the Gospel in this matter must be so too in the judgement of all men but those who have been so long used to nonsence that they reckon nothing intelligible but what they do not understand and nothing unintelligible but what they do Possibly the Doctor will grant that upon this Supposition the Gospel is intelligible to those who do understand this to be the meaning of Regeneration but he will pretend that it is unintelligible how these expressions of being regenerate and created c. should be Metaphorical expressions of being good and virtuous Christians Some such thing he intimates within a few Lines after in these words Others judge that under a grandeur of words and Hyperbolical expressions things of a meaner and lower sence are intended and to be understood So that our Author seems unable to understand how such grand and lofty Phrases as being Regenerated Created and Quickened from death should come to signifie such a creeping attainment as that of being truely good and virtuous Alas to love the Lord our God with all our hearts and our Neighbour as our selves to follow the example of our Blessed Saviour and to obey the commands of the Gospel uprightly and universally these are but things of a meaner and lower sence and 't is unintelligible how they should be intended by the grandeur of such Hyperbolical expressions as Regeneration and the new Creation are Tell us then I pray what be those things of a nobler and loftier sence than those which must be understood by these grand expressions Forsooth we are to understand the proper and literal significations of these expressions viz. that men are properly created born again and raised from the dead when they are qualified for the Kingdom of Heaven These indeed are lofty things but so unfit are they to be understood by those expressions that they cannot be understood at all and that we are not so to understand those Phrases our Author hath implicitely confessed but two lines before where he saith that all things are so expressed in the Scriptures with a condescention to our capacity so as that there is still an inexpressible grandeur in many of them beyond our comprehension Now if the mystery of that work of the Spirit upon our Hearts whereby we are fitted for Heaven be so expressed by these Phrases then let him mark what follows viz. 1. That we are not required to understand these Phrases in their proper meaning for as I have shewn it is impossible they should be so understood with the least congruity therefore if the Scripture in any measure condescends to our capacity in using those expressions the literal sence of them is not intended 2. When the Scripture is said to condescend to our capacity it is always by the use of Metaphors thus God is said to have Hands and Eyes and this with condescention to our capacity but sure you will not say that we are to understand these expressions properly but that by the Hands of God we are to understand his power and by his Eyes his knowledge Now if the Scripture condescends to our capacity in representing the mentioned effects of God's Spirit by Regeneration Creation c. then by the same reason these are Metaphorical expressions too by the using of which for the expressing of those effects the Scripture condescends to our capacity Lastly he saith that there is still in these things an inexpressible grandeur beyond our comprehension If the grandeur of these things be expressed by a grandeur of words proper to the things the grandeur of these things is not inexpressible as he saith it is The proper meaning also of being born and raised from the dead he clearly comprehends I suppose how happens it then that the things properly meant by these words are beyond his comprehension That it is beyond his comprehension or any mans else that the same person should in the proper sence be Born Created and Raised from the dead all at once I do not question since it is sufficiently incomprehensible that contradictions may be true But then they are the contradictions implied in the proper acceptation of these Phrases in our present case which make the things incomprehensible for set the contradictions aside and you cannot deny the proper meaning of those words to be beyond your comprehension i. e. you could as well comprehend what it is for the same man to be properly Born Created Quickned Awakened by the same numerical act as what it is for the same man to be first Created then Born then Quickned and the like So that if our Author had marked the true reason why he might lawfully affirm the thing supposed to be properly express'd by these phrases to be beyond his comprehension he would have confessed it to be the contradictions implied in the supposition that those phrases do properly express it Had he therefore considered his own words he had presently seen that his sublime nonsence is none of those loftier things that are to be understood by Regeneration I have been the longer in confuting this pretence of these men that these Scripture-phrases are properly to be understood because it is the foundation of those wilde Doctrines concerning Grace and the Operations of the Holy Spirit and the manner of Conversion and the nature of Holiness which they have introduced into Divinity Were it not for their amusing the people with such discourses about Regeneration and the New Creature as if they were literally to be understood it were as unlikely for them to perswade the meanest of their Hearers that no man can be converted till it is impossible for him to hinder it that conversion is wrought in a moment that before that moment comes the very best actions of men are sins as it would be that the Romanists should cheat so many ignorant souls into the belief of Transubstantiation had they not a weak pretence for that Doctrine from the sound of those words This is my Body which they contend are literally and not figuratively to be understood The people of both these parties are to be pitied since they equally surrender up their understandings to their Guides and receive their interpretations of Scripture without examining them And then out of reverence to the Scriptures themselves which say This is my Body and that we are Born again and Created and Quickened c. they come to believe nonsence i. e. that these expressions are to be understood in their proper sence as their Masters teach them But how they themselves can be excused since I fear they cannot but be aware of the dishonour that is done to the Scriptures and the mischief which may happen to the Souls of men by such an absurd use of Scripture-metaphors as that I cannot understand Some of them I
heart for they shall see God Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. No unrighteous person shall enter into the kingdom of heaven The righteous shall go into life eternal And who is righteous He that doth righteousness is righteous Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them I will c. Matth. 7.24 Thus coming to Christ is sometimes affirmed to be the condition of having life by him and then by coming to Christ nothing can be meant but being his true Disciple which in allusion to the Jewish Proselytism is called coming to him I am the bread of life saith our Saviour he that cometh to me i. e. is my Disciple shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Now is there any thing plainer in the Book of God than that to be a sincere Disciple of Christ i. e. to believe in him so as to love him and obey his Commands is that state or condition of a man whereby he is and onely is qualified for the Kingdom of Heaven And if that be true it follows by undeniable consequence that Regeneration and all those other Metaphors which express the state of a man qualified for eternal happiness do signifie nothing else but his being such a Disciple of Christ as to believe in him to love him and obey him For if Regeneration signifies any other state then first to believe in Christ and to obey his Gospel is not a sufficient Qualification for pardon of sin and eternal happiness contrary to all those clear Texts now mentioned for besides this that other state supposed to be meant by Regeneration would be necessary And then secondly which is equally contrary to the Scripture Faith and Obedience would not be so much as necessary to qualifie us for Salvation since that other state supposed to be meant by Regeneration would be sufficient without them 2. The state of a regenerate man is by St. John explained to be that of being such a Disciple of Christ as we have described Thus he tells us 1 John 5.4 5. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God Here we have the full character of a true Disciple of Christ viz. one who so believes that Jesus is the Son of God that his Faith prevails against all worldly temptations the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the pride of Life and who therefore keeps the Commandments of God not reckoning them to be grievous For this is the reason given by St. John why he that loves God keeps his Commandments because he that is born of God overcometh the world Thus also vers 1. Whoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God This is the state of Regeneration to believe that Jesus is the Christ with such a faith as implies obedience which is afterwards expresly added in those terms of keeping Gods Commandments and overcoming the world Again Chap. 2.29 If ye know that he is righteous ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of him And in the next Chapter vers 9. we finde that every one that is born of him doth righteousness Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God i. e. such is the state and temper of his Minde such is the disposition of his Will and Affections that he doth not sin but his Life is agreeable to the Laws of God for his seed remaineth in him for the Word of God that divine Seed so called Matth. 13.19 1 Pet. 1. hath wrought its due and proper effects upon his soul by its precepts and motives for where this seed is received into a good and honest heart it will grow into good fruits and be an effectual principle of obedience and a holy life Wherefore the Apostle addes and he cannot sin i. e. it is not onely true of him that he abstains from sin but it is contrary to the genius and the sense of his soul to sin It is not the consideration of worldly Interests it is not the want of Temptation and opportunity that keeps him at any time from offending God so much as the sense of his duty to God his love of Virtue and the conformity of his Minde to the Laws of God which so long as they continue are principles which will carry a man through the whole circle of holiness and vertue Thus we use to say of a meek-spirited man that he cannot be furious and of an honest man that he cannot deceive and of a generous man that he cannot do a base or unworthy action By which words we do not mean that it is absolutely but morally impossible that he should it being directly contrary to the frame and the temper of his minde so to do And such is the state of him who is born of God and it is well expressed in those words of Joseph How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God He cannot sin i. e. the reason why he doth not sin is because it is abominable to him so to do and repugnant to the bent and inclination of his nature which being Holy and Divine will therefore produce a correspondent i. e. a godly and vertuous Life So apparently false is that Doctrine that although a man who hath been once regenerated fall into foul and abominable offences yet the Seed of God and the Root of the Matter and true Grace remains in him still For the Apostle saith He that is born of God sinneth not because the seed of God remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God How should this be a reason why he cannot sin viz. that the Seed of God remains in him that he is born of God if he may be guilty of notorious and wilful sins and yet that Seed remain and he be regenerate still Thus have I proved out of the holy Scripture that by a state of Regeneration the Scripture means no more than being a sincere Disciple and Follower of our Lord Jesus SECT 6. I must now tell Dr. Owen that he hath not done fairly to represent the opinion of his Adversaries concerning the state of Regeneration as if they believed it consisted onely in a Reformation of Life excluding a real change in the Soul And this is the best artifice he hath wherewith to delude his Reader into an ill opinion of them viz. to state their opinions falsly and then to fasten odious names upon them as he doth frequently in his Book Thus he tells us We meaning himself and his followers say and believe that Regeneration doth consist in Spirituali Renovatione Naturae a Spiritual Renovation of our Nature Our modern Socinians that it doth so in Morali
trusted and his Soveraign Dominion owned by a spirit of obedience and submission to it which are incomparably more effectual acknowledgments of the Divine perfections than whole Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices For this as our Saviour speaks is to worship God in spirit and in truth Such a Temple as this God is so delighted in that in comparison therewith he disregarded the Temple at Hierusalem with all the external services that belonged to it For that God dwelleth in pious mindes was not unknown to the Jews Where is the house that ye build unto me and where is the place of my rest To him will I look saith the Lord even to him that is poor and of a contrite heart and trembleth at my word Isa. 66.2 3. Thus saith the high and holy One that inhabiteth eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the spirit of the contrite ones Isa. 57.15 Let us now lay these things together and the conclusion will be that God's dwelling in men implies a plentiful communication of Divine grace to confirm and strengthen them in all goodness which was what I took upon me to shew under this head For since this expression of God's dwelling in men denotes the presence of a peculiar grace and favour to those in whom he is said to dwell which is not afforded to others Since the dwelling of the Holy Ghost in Believers is to enable them to mortifie the deeds of the body and to prevail finally against all their spiritual Enemies Since also it is true that God dwelleth in good and righteous but not in impure and unholy persons it follows in the first place that after we are regenerated it is still by the grace of God and the Operations of his Holy Spirit that we are enabled to proceed in vertue and godliness and to persevere therein to the end for God dwelleth in us that we may mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit Secondly it follows also that there is a more abundant measure of Divine Grace communicated to holy persons than to those who are not so For God's dwelling implies the presence of more than ordinary Grace And thus our Saviour also hath plainly told us To him that hath shall be given and he shall have abundantly Finally this Doctrine is very well consistent with that of attributing the beginnings of Christian Faith and goodness in us to the Operations of the Holy Spirit For although the Spirit of God dwells onely in good men yet it is by his Operations that any are made so at first and as the Apostle speaks we are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit Eph. 2.22 But his dwelling in us afterward signifies as we have shewn the more abundant grace we are made partakers of And thus although the blessings which all the World enjoyed while the Tabernacle and Temple stood flowed to Mankinde from the Divine bounty and goodness yet God was said to dwell onely among the Israelites because he had a more especial care of that people than of any other Nation in the World My designe in this Chapter was to shew that the beginnings and progress of that state whereby we are qualified for Heaven are in the Scriptures ascribed to the Operations of the Holy Spirit and that all Christian Vertues are the gifts and graces of God I might now prove by as convincing testimonies that perseverance in the Faith and obedience of the Gospel is the effect of a Divine Operation in us But this truth is so evidently consequent from what the Scripture asserts concerning God's dwelling in good men which I have largely enough discoursed of that I reckon it needless to produce any further testimonies to confirm it Thus have I discharged what I promised in the close of the last Chapter which was to prove that those Christian Vertues in which the state of Regeneration consists together with our improvement and perseverance in them are particularly ascribed in the Scriptures to the Operations of the Holy Spirit And from what hath been thus proved these things follow 1. That he who is endued with these Virtues hath the Spirit of God for they are the effects of his grace And to say that a man may be endued with them and yet be void of Grace is to contradict the Scriptures which ascribe them in whomsoever they are to the Operations of the Holy Spirit 2. And by consequence it is an idle supposition that God will be displeased with us though we be never so careful to do his Commands and to increase in Christian Virtues if all this while we have not the Spirit of God for the former cannot be without the latter 3. Wherefore also it is a vain thing to make our believing and obeying the Gospel on the one side and our having true Grace and the Spirit of God on the other distinct marks of a Regenerate state For if Faith and Obedience are the fruits of the Holy Spirit within us if they are Grace as that signifies the performance of our duty and the effects of Grace as that signifies Divine Assistance then having the Grace of God and the Spirit of God is not a mark of Regeneration distinct from believing and obeying the Gospel because this is Grace it self in the former and is it self the onely mark of Grace in the latter sence of the word i. e. of our having the Spirit of God And now I have not discoursed upon this subject out of the least suspition that there are any in this Church who deny the Qualifications of a true Disciple of Jesus to be the graces of the Holy Spirit For excepting Dr. Owen and some of his party and as those who are acquainted with them say the Quakers I do not know of any in England who may justly be suspected to use one of the Doctor 's phrases of being gone over into the Tents of the Pelagians Nor was it merely to vindicate the Ministers of this Church whose judgement in this matter I am acquainted with something better than our Author seems to be from the imputation of Pelagianism which with so much clamour and railing he hath charged them withal But principally to give those who believe what the Scripture thus plainly declares occasion to consider it again and to lay it to heart since there can hardly be a more effectual encouragement to Piety and Virtue than this that God will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him for all blessings needful for their eternal welfare And nothing will render the wilful sinner more inexcusable and more severely punishable than this that whilst he goes on in his wicked life he does despight unto the Spirit of Grace CHAP. V. Concerning pretended Gifts of the Spirit SECT I. HItherto I have shewn of what kinde those Effects are for which the Holy Spirit
was in general promised by our Saviour Luke 11.13 and proved also that they are in the Scriptures severally ascribed to his Operations Now upon the whole matter we cannot but conclude that in respect of the end of this divine Grace God hath made us a very large and bountiful promise thereof and given thereby such an abundant demonstration of his good-will towards us that indeed he desireth not the death of a sinner but had rather he should turn and live as we ought to acknowledge with our utmost Thanks and Praises But after all this it will be pretended by some men that if we say the Operations of the Holy Spirit are limited to those effects we have been speaking of we confine the Promise within too narrow a compass and do in effect deny several divine Graces and works of the Holy Spirit upon the Hearts of God's people such as darting the true sence of Scripture into their mindes suggesting words and matter to them when they pray Extempore and giving them absolute assurance that they shall be saved at last Hence it is that if we take the liberty of dissenting from their sence of a place of Scripture the next thing we hear is that we want the Illumination of the Spirit and all that we can say is at once turned off for carnal reasoning If we dare not pretend to any other than a conditional assurance of our Salvation we are those that have not the testimonies of the Spirit And if we make use of pious forms of Prayer and other exercises of Devotion we do not pray by the Spirit Therefore I think my self obliged to enquire upon what grounds they pretend to these spiritual Gifts But before I do so I shall premise by way of Caution these following things 1. That those dispositions which qualifie us for a profitable understanding of the Scriptures such as Teachableness Humility Attention and Industry are the graces of the Holy Spirit and consequently that our success in endeavouring after the knowledge of divine Truths depends upon his blessing and grace 2. That it is our duty to labour after a right understanding of our spiritual estate and that this knowledge of it is a grace of the Holy Spirit 3. That those affections which make our Prayers acceptable to God such as love to God trust in him hatred of sin zeal and fervency and the like are likewise the effects of divine Grace All these things I heartily acknowledge and they are no other things than what may be concluded easily from the foregoing discourse concerning the graces of the Holy Spirit But that which I have some reason to question is this Whether we can conclude that the Spirit will convey a right understanding of the Scripture into any mans minde by an immediate revelation of the meaning of it or that he will give to some men an absolute assurance of their salvation while they live here upon their trial or that he suggests to them by Inspiration what they say in their extemporary Prayers For whatever he may do in this kinde I do not finde that he hath promised any where so to do And I think we are not to promise to our selves that divine Grace which God hath no where promised to us And that he hath not promised these things I shall shew 1. By comparing the contrary pretence with that promise of our Saviour concerning the Holy Spirit in Luke 11.13 2. By considering what ground there is for it from other places of Scripture 1. By comparing the pretence with Luke 11.13 and here I shall shew that whatever countenance it may have from other Scriptures it can have none from this which as I have already proved contains a promise of such gifts as are needful to our eternal happiness 1. As to that of coming to the sence of Scripture by inherent Revelation I say that such a Revelation is not needful for us to make us wise unto salvation because those places of Scripture which are necessary to be understood by us need no infallible Interpreter for all Truths necessary to be known are plainly delivered in the Scriptures and there is no need of a new Revelation to acquaint us with the meaning of those Texts the sence whereof is plain and obvious There are indeed many passages hard to be understood in the Scriptures but there is no necessity of an Infallible guide or of New revelation to come to the sence of them unless they were themselves necessary to be understood If you say that because all Scripture is profitable the revelation of the true meaning of those Texts at least which have the greatest difficulties belonging to them must be profitable also I answer 1. It does not follow in every particular that because such a thing is profitable therefore if I ask God will give it which you know was proved in the explication of St. Luke's Text Chap. 2. Sect. 2. Wherefore if I pray onely that God may prosper my industry in endeavouring to understand such a difficult place it does not follow from the promise in St. Luke that God will grant my request in that particular For he may give me something as good or better instead of it As I may get advantage by understanding that place so I may also get advantage by finding that after all I do not understand it which may through the grace of God be improved by me into an occasion of more Humility Modesty and Charity which if St. Paul may be believed is better than Knowledge as my trying to understand did before excite me to Prayer and Industry But much less does it follow that God will grant my request if I pray yet more particularly that the meaning of the difficult place may be revealed to me by immediate Inspiration For 2. Though that be profitable yet 't is profitable also to come to the knowledge of it by study and the industrious use of means common to learned men if I am a Teacher of others or by the help of a spiritual Guide if I am merely a Learner And if I come either of these ways to the understanding of a difficult Text God hath not been less good to me for not communicating it to me by immediate revelation Especially if it be considered 3. That if God giveth me the understanding of a difficult place by blessing my industry in Reading Hearing Conferring with others Meditating and Comparing place with place this will in all probability be more useful to others not to say to my self than if he gave it to me by immediate Illumination because the knowledge which is gained the former way may be more easily imparted to another than that which might be obtained by the latter For I can lead another into my knowledge of Scripture which comes by the way of industry and study by shewing him the reason that convinced me and discovering the method of my coming to it Now Reason you know is a thing common to you and me
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
Saviour thought it was needful for us and therefore we have good reason to believe that God will not be angry with us because we are afraid to provoke his angry Justice nor disregard our care to do his will ever the more because we are moved thereunto by Fear since it is an argument that he himself perswades us withal especially since the Scripture makes those divine benefits which challenge our utmost gratitude and that goodness of God towards us which is so powerful an argument to make us love him with all our hearts a reason also why we should fear him For if we may believe the Psalmist we are to fear God because there is forgiveness with him Psal. 130.4 i. e. because the abuse of his Mercy will yet more provoke his Displeasure and bring a more dreadful punishment upon us Lastly since the Scripture tells us that we are not onely to begin but to perfect holiness in the fear of God and that too in consideration of those promises whereby we are encouraged to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 all this makes me wonder at your presumption in saying that by the want of your absolute Assurance Duties are discouraged spiritual Endeavours and Diligence are impaired Delight in God weakened and Love cooled when the Scripture is so plainly against you And for your saying that we bewray our Ignorance while we make the fear of God's threatnings lest they fall upon us needful to quicken our industry in all duties of obedience might we not requite you by saying more justly that you do but bewray your confidence in making your self wiser than Christ who thought we stood in need of this argument and would have it take impression in our mindes as I have already shewn you It is you say very sad that any man should so far proclaim his inexperience and unacquaintedness with the nature of Gospel-grace the Genius of the New Creature c. as to be able thus to argue viz. that the â—â—â—â—rance you speak of tends to carelesness c. But it is more sad that men under a pretence of greater acquaintance with Gospel-grace should take upon them to undermine the usefulness of so excellent a Grace of the Gospel as the fear of God's threatnings Now as to that experience you have of the nature of Gospel-grace and of the New Creature and which makes you so confident I have a good while considered what it should be and cannot finde a more probable sence of your words than this That you finde your selves made new Creatures and put on to good works by an irresistible grace which is the darling opinion you contend so fiercely for in your Book And if that be your meaning and your meaning be true then I confess there is no need of the Argument of Fear to constrain such as you And I will adde also neither can there be any need of any motive whatsoever to make you as good as you say and as we hope some of you are 3. Neither is this Assurance needful to encourage and comfort us while we are performing our duty nor must the want of it needs cast us into Perplexities Discouragement and Despondency as the Doctor will have it For the Scripture supposeth that the conditional promises of the Gospel are a sufficient ground of comfort while we are careful to keep the Commandments of God and if we are not Comfort is a thing that belongs not to us St. John saith We declare the Gospel unto you that you may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be FVLL If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth 1 John 1.3 4 6. Now that joy which is full is encouragement enough to our duty and yields sufficient comfort in the performance of it but if we may believe the Apostle this fulness of Joy may be grounded upon the conditional terms of the Gospel viz. that if we do not walk in darkness we have fellowship with God if we obey the Gospel God will love us and if we persevere therein he will save us eternally wherefore it may be had without absolute assurance that we shall be saved The Gospel will afford us no other comfort than that which depends upon the performance of our duty and seeing it hath given us abundant encouragement by the promises of God's Grace to be diligent in our duty it hath also abundantly provided for our comfort But 't is a most unreasonable thing to pretend that we cannot begin to serve God with any comfort till we have a comfortable assurance as the Doctor very truly calls it that we are personally elected and that it is absolutely impossible for us to miscarry for this is a comfort proper onely for them that have finished their course and are now ready to receive the Crown of Righteousness Suppose a good man should employ his Servant in a business of some difficulty promising him sufficient means to go through with it and for his reward a considerable inheritance in his Family If after he has taken the charge and before he has well begun it he should come to his Master and fall down at his Feet intreating him to settle that Inheri-upon him beforehand and to give him an absolute Estate in it promising upon his ingenuity that he would not be the less careful of his work but think himself rather the more obliged to perform it to the utmost of his power sure his Master would tell him that he desired an unreasonable thing since he had never found him worse than his word and there was some reason to suspect that his impatience was a signe of no honest intention in him but that for his own part he would give him no better assurance of his reward than upon condition lest afterward he must get somebody else to do his work Now if for all this the loitering Servant should lie groveling upon the ground wringing his Hands and beating his Breast protesting that he cannot go about his work nor so much as think of it with any joy till he hath full assurance that fair Estate he is so enamoured withal shall be his whether he doth his service required of him or whether he doth it not that nothing will comfort him and keep up his Heart from sinking within him but such a comfortable Assurance that he is all over lame and stiff and cannot stir a foot nor move a hand in his Master's service as long as he hath any the least fear of missing that Reward By this time we may suppose the good man to have a better opinion of his Servant than to think him a Knave but he would certainly conclude that he was not very wise The Parallel is so easie that I need not make it Indeed if a man be
extemporary praying and to pass for one that hath a double measure of the Spirit with them who are apt to ascribe all Heat and Eloquence in matters of Religion to a divine Principle I do not speak this to undervalue any man's abilities in this kinde but onely to shew that they may be set too high As for them that do so they may undeceive themselves by observing the very Prayers of those persons whose gifts this way are most remarkable for although these men are sometimes pleased to decry the use of Forms as not savouring of the Spirit yet it is plain enough that their own Prayers as spiritual as they look may be as purely Humane as the Prayers of a Book are by them judged to be For it is evident that they tie up themselves to those usual Topicks of Prayer and Heads of Devotion according to which Book-prayers as they call them are framed They usually begin with the Invocation of God by the acknowledgement of his Attributes and then they run through the common places of Confession Petition and Thanksgiving which are the subjects that furnish set Forms of Prayer They confess the same Sins they beg the same Graces they praise God for the same Blessings in all their Prayers Now this is that which I suppose none of them will deny and then I think they must confess that their Prayers as to the matter of them are as formal as those of the Liturgy But further as the matter of their Prayers is confined to certain Heads so for the most part they use the same expressions onely with this condition that they are laid in with such good store of them that they need not use them all at once but may keep some against another time And thus indeed they do not tie up themselves to a form of Words because they have as many Forms to use as may be made by the shifting and transposing of those Phrases which they have in stock and so many Forms they have more or fewer according as that stock increases more or less And thus as we pray out of our Books so do they out of their Memories and the difference between their way and ours for I speak now of those that do not use to talk idly and extravagantly in their extemporary Prayers is this that ours hath the advantage of Safety and theirs of Popularity and Ostentation But I am not able to divine what that is in Extemporary praying as that is distinguish'd from using a set Form which must needs be ascribed to the immediate suggestion of the Spirit The matter of such Prayers is certainly the most considerable and the knowledge of that we see may come another way which seem'd to be the minde too of the late Assembly who although they threw aside the Book of Common-prayers to make way for Extemporary Performances yet thought fit to give the Minister a Directory for the Matter without leaving him to be guided in that by the suggestion of the Holy Ghost which made some men think they might e'ne as well have prescribed a set Form unless they intended to leave the meaner office of supplying him with words to the Holy Spirit But the words and phrases as I have shewn you may come from a more familiar Principle And then there is nothing left but that shifting and changing of places with them which makes the great show of variety But this is so unworthy to be ascribed to a divine principle that I may conclude extemporary Prayers allowing them to be never so useful and profitable need not to be dictated by Inspiration and therefore no such Inspiration was promised by our Saviour when be promised the Gift of the Holy Spirit to all his Disciples Thus have I shewn that neither of these three things come under the promise in St. Luke 11.13 For they are not Gifts of that kinde which are there promised to them that ask the Spirit And I adde it may be strongly presumed that they are promised nowhere else since they do not fall under this general promise of the Spirit which comprehends all the rest But because there are some men so vehemently perswaded that the Holy Spirit is given for these purposes that they reckon it little better than Blasphemy to gainsay it I shall proceed to those places of Scripture upon which such mighty confidence is grounded to see whether they afford any reason for it SECT 4. And first as to those testimonies which are alledged out of the Bible in favour of interpreting or understanding Scripture by the immediate revelation of the Spirit I refer the Reader wholly to Dr. Hammond's Postscript concerning New Light and divine Illumination annexed to his Paraphrase c. upon the New Testament where they are all considered and shewn to infer no such thing as is desired to be concluded from them But if after all any man should say that he knows by the Light of the Spirit that Interpretation which Dr. Hammond hath given of those Texts to be nothing better than carnal Reasoning and come over with Dr. Owen's talk of the Natural Man and the impossibility of understanding the spiritual sence of Gospel-truths without the Almighty Illumination of the Spirit I confess it will prove a matter of as great difficulty to reply to such a pretender as it is to finde out a way to convince a Quaker For what success can any man promise himself by replying to a confident Enthusiast who perpetually appeals from the most evident reasons the plainest testimonies of Scripture and the most rational inferences from them to the testimony of the Spirit However this I will venture to say that if it were granted impossible to understand these Texts without that New Light which the Papists call an Infallible Spirit and Dr. Owen and his party an Almighty work of the Holy Ghost for in effect they are both the same thing then it must be granted withal that these Texts are impertinently produced to convince us who do not pretend to this Infallible Spirit that there are a sort of men upon whom God bestows that priviledge For that theirs is the true sence cannot be proved to us but by rational means i. e. either by arguing from the original words or the Context or parallel places or the like or else by some clear divine testimony proper to convince us that they in particular are inspired such as real and undoubted Miracles This latter way is pretended to onely by the Papists and though the frauds they have been deprehended in sufficiently shew those amongst them that have raised the noise of their Miracles to be Impostors yet it is to be acknowledged that they pretend to offer a rational means of Conviction that their Church interprets the Scripture by an infallible Spirit which the men I am at present speaking of do not offer in the least As for the former way of convincing us by rational evidence from the Text it self it is that which we are
as profitable for it often happens that these present advantages c. tend to the harm of the soul. And therefore that is to be minded by us which we are taught in the Lord's Prayer Thy Will be done As to that clause who searcheth the Hearts he saith it shews that God regardeth the minde more than the words wherewith we pray As to the unutterable groans he saith How can that which the Spirit of God speaketh to God be uttered by us when sometimes that which our own spirit feels and understands cannot be expressed by us in words Now I believe we shall not readily meet with a place of Scripture containing any matter of difficulty in the interpretation whereof the Fathers do more unanimously conspire than they do in their sence of this I could easily have added more Authorities to the same purpose if I had pleased but I hope these will be sufficient to satisfie any sober person that that interpretation of this Text which I prefer before Dr. Owen's is not fit to be call'd presently the reasoning of the carnal and unregenerate man for I shall offer no other than what is agreeable to the sence of these Christian Writers who may with the help of a little charity I think pass for regenerate men The sum of what they say towards the interpretation of the Text is this 1. That we ought in the general to pray for what is best for us 2. That in some cases we know not what is best and they are those which concern our present state in this world with regard to afflictions on the one side and ease and prosperity on the other And thus St. Austin prevents that Objection of the Christians knowing the Lords Prayer by restraining the ignorance of what we are to pray for to the matter of temporal afflictions 3. That our infirmities here mentioned consist in this ignorance together with our proness to desire Health Riches and Ease c. and the natural aversation we have to Pain and Trouble when as yet God may see that the former will be hurtful the latter profitable for us 4. By the Spirit 's making intercession for us they all understand his exciting us to pray for our selves excepting St. Ambrose who supposeth the Spirit to intercede properly for us that God would bestow better things on us than we sometimes ask for our selves and Origen seems to understand both 5. That the Spirit 's helping our infirmities is his inciting of us to pray for heavenly things and not for earthly as St. Hierom saith which is to pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the pleasure of God not as if it were unlawful to pray at all for any temporal blessings but that we are to be content if we be denied because those things viz. deliverance from Afflictions c. which we think would profit may hurt us as he observes And therefore all our desires of this kinde are to be limited by that Petition which our Lord hath taught us Thy Will be done as Origen notes In short by the scope of what they all say this seems to be their meaning that the Spirit helpeth our infirmities by increasing our desires after heavenly things by making us more indifferent about earthly matters and content with afflictions if God seeth them good for us seeing his Grace is sufficient for us as he told St. Paul when he so earnestly desired to be delivered from the Messenger of Satan which is the Instance they all use 6. By the unutterable groans some of them understand that inexpressible fervency of minde enkindled in good men by the Spirit of God wherewith they desire heavenly things and which where-ever it is will certainly abate our desires of worldly advantages and make us less weary of afflictions Others of them suppose the proper intercessions of the Spirit to be understood by them And St. Austin in particular supposeth that by the unutterable groans is meant the desire of that state and condition in this world which is best for us For saith he how should that which is desired be uttered when it is yet unknown i. e. when under an affliction we pray for what God seeth best for us not knowing whether that may prove to be the continuance or removal of it Thus you see how they agree in the main about this matter the interpretation of Origen himself who could not learn it from any of the rest falling in with theirs and yet he was apt to finde as many mysteries in the Bible as another man but he leaves them that could light upon a more sublime sence of these words to enjoy their opinion by themselves Now it is very plain that the supposition upon which they go in interpreting the Text this way is this that our not knowing what to pray for belongs to the case of present afflictions which for ought we know may be more profitable for us than to be exempted or rescued from them And now I come to shew that this Supposition and the Interpretation built upon it is agreeable to the designe of the Apostle in that part of the Chapter wherewith this Text hath a plain coherence which was the second thing propounded In the 17 verse St. Paul begins to comfort the Christians under their afflictions shewing them that they who suffered with Christ should be also glorified together This consideration affords two arguments of Patience which he distinctly notes The former being the transcendent greatness of that Glory which they hoped for The latter the profitableness of their present sufferings to prepare them for that Glory 1. The nature of the Glory it self For I reckon saith he that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us v. 18. From which Verse to the 24th he proceeds to shew that as in God's good time the Heathens would be rescued from their Idolatries to be made partakers of this Glory so the Christians should be rescued from their sufferings also under which they now groaned Wherefore at present he would have them take comfort in the hope of that deliverance and Glory which was yet to come For saith he we are saved by hope c. v. 24. But if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it v. 25. 2. He perswadeth them to patience yet further by the profitableness of their present sufferings We know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to purpose vers 28. that is who with full purpose and resolution adhere to the profession whereunto they are called notwithstanding all these sufferings For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified
do so yes without question he may and if he please he may let it alone too Our Author having told us that the spirit of Regeneration was promised onely to the Elect and then falling upon that point of praying for the spirit of Regeneration tells us that he might give directions in some enquiries which indeed deserve a larger discussion if his present designe would admit of it but he would instance onely in one i. e. May a person who is unregenerate and knows not his election c. But now there is another enquiry that deserves a larger discussion than this viz. Whether the Prayers of an unregenerate man can avail any thing towards the obtaining of the Spirit of Regeneration whether he knows his election or whether he knows it not But there was good reason why this enquiry was not to be meddled withal namely because our Author 's present designe would not admit of it which was to serve an Hypothesis that would not bear the enquiry That he was well enough aware of it we may see by the last Answer he brings to that one gentle Question he took in hand May an unregenerate man pray for the spirit of Regeneration Doubtless he may for persons saith he under such convictions as put them upon praying for Regeneration have really sometimes the seeds of Regeneration communicated unto them and then as they ought so they will continue in their supplications for the increase and manifestation of it Now if the Doctor had not been asham'd of his meaning he might have express'd it plainly and undisguisedly in this manner All may and ought to pray for Regeneration for some i. e. the Elect happen to be regenerated while they keep on praying and then they will be sure to pray on still that they may know it This is the most that can be made of his final Answer and it comes to no more than this that the Prayers of unregenerate men will do them no hurt but for any thing I can see he has not yet satisfied us that they will do them any good which I should have thanked him to have shewn me according to his principles if his present designe would have admitted it But what if the Scriptures teach that the promises of regenerating Grace are made onely to those who are absolutely elected to Glory I answer If that can once be shewn I have done or if it can be made to appear but probable by the Scriptures I shall begin to suspect all my reasoning against it to be as carnal as the Doctor can believe it For I heartily believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God and all my Reasonings shall submit to this one Proposition Whatever God hath said that is true Now the Doctor having repeated the first Proposition of the forementioned Scheme viz. that the Spirit of Regeneration is promised onely unto the Elect tells us that the promises concerning the communications of the Spirit unto this end have been before explained and vindicated These words I confess surprized me for they suppose that he had elsewhere produced some promises in the Scripture inconditionally made to some certain persons that they should be regenerated or at least some Texts to prove that the promises of regenerating Grace were meant onely to some men whom God from all eternity had absolutely chosen to Glory Now one would have thought there had been a former Chapter with this Title The Elect are the onely Object of regenerating Grace But there is no such thing however I have looked backward and forward to finde where he had explained and vindicated these promises he speaks of but after a long search I was satisfied that my Memory had not failed me in this particular and that I looked for what was not to be found unless it be in the first Chapter of the third Book where he dogmatically tells us that the Souls of God's Elect were the matter designed of God for the work of the New Creation to be wrought upon without offering one syllable of proof to make it good Now to flip over the great difficulty when one comes at it by pretending that it is satisfied elsewhere without referring to the particular place is the Artifice either of a bad writer or one that serves a bad Cause and a man may fairly put it in practice that writes so largely as the Doctor does for 't is hard if some of his Readers are not so courteous as to distrust their own Memories after they have gone above half way through so great a Book as his rather than to question his honesty But for his sake I shall be very sure of an Author before I trust general References again Now till I see those promises produced that I have look'd for in vain viz. that God will regenerate these Elect I shall not onely conclude that God will enable us to forsake our sins and to keep his Commandments if we believe the Gospel and implore the assistance of the Holy Spirit but also that without these qualifications we have not the least ground to expect that special Grace which is proper for that end that is to make us regenerate or holy persons If it should be said that for ought we know there are some persons whom God hath absolutely decreed to save and whom therefore he will take care to regenerate that they may be fit for salvation which is the Doctor 's notion of Election as is plain from his Scheme here in this place and from the second Chapter of his fifth Book though he hath disguised it there with many intricate sayings as his manner is I answer without assuming the boldness to pronounce concerning God's secret Decrees that it is a monstrous vanity for any man that may become a regenerate person and obtain eternal Life by a method determined by that Will of God which he knows to trust that he shall be regenerated and saved by force of a supposed Will in God which he knows not If the Scripture had told us there were some persons absolutely elected to Glory hereafter it had been a very dangerous thing for any man to neglect the care of becoming a regenerate person trusting to his particular election for the certainty of his Regeneration unless withal the Bible had given us the names of these special Favourites of Heaven and he had found his own amongst them But if the Scripture had mentioned no such thing at all it is little better than madness to venture our Regeneration upon so great an uncertainty And thus much I think may be gathered from Dr. Owen where he saith The expectation and hope of any man for Life and Immortality and Glory without previous holiness can be built on no other foundation but this that God will rescind his eternal Decrees and change his purposes that is cease to be God merely to comply with them in their sins And who knows not what will be the end of such a cursed
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
motive included in the nature of this Operation nor does the Spirit use any motive when he thus operates for as these men say this Physical Operation is the immediate cause of Conversion And now let any man tell me in what capacity the Word of God can stand to be a means of Grace In the mean time our Author if you will believe him pays a great regard to the Scriptures which he does not onely render thus useless in general but many plain testimonies whereof he contradicts in particular and for instance that passage in our Saviour's Prayer Sanctifie them through thy truth thy Word is truth I desire him at his leisure to consider whether the Grace which our Saviour praied for in his Disciples behalf were an immediate Physical Operation if not whether we are now sanctified by another sort of Operation than that which Christ praied for Now to say in express terms that the Word of God is of no use in the conversion of a Sinner would sound so horridly in any sober Christians Ears that the Doctor himself has not ventured upon it but on the contrary he is often perswading his Reader that he attributes as much to the efficacy of the Word as any of them all For he tells us Whereas some contend that the whole of the Grace of God consists in the effectual application of it unto the mindes and affections of men whereby they are enabled to comply with it and turn unto God by Faith and Repentance they do not ascribe a greater power unto the Word than we do by whom this administration of it is denied to be the Total Cause of Conversion For we assigne the same power to the Word as they do and MORE also onely we affirm that there is an effect to be wrought in this Work which all this Power if alone is insufficient for After a few such sayings as these a man need not be ashamed to say any thing For 1. They who contend that the administration of the Word by the Spirit applying it to the minde is insufficient to cause Conversion and that there is another action of the Spirit wherein no use is made of the Word at all necessary to Conversion do not attribute so much power to the Word as they do who say the former is sufficient 2. Much less do they so if withal they pretend that this other Operation is the immediate cause of Conversion whereby the Word is excluded from intervening as a Means 3. And yet much less if they say this Operation produces the effect irresistibly and till this irresistible act hath taken place the Word is utterly ineffectual 4. Least of all can it be pretended that they assigne more power to the Word than their Adversaries do I wonder at this man's confidence to venture such open falshoods abroad as these are It had been enough in conscience for a modest man to say that those of our Author's opinion ascribe as much power to the Word as we do but to say they assigne more to it is too much in all reason to go for a mere mistake And therefore one may well think he saw clearly enough that he defer'd not so much to the Word as we and that because he affirmed the contrary he resolved to put on a Face for something and say withal that he ascribed more For truely he may e'ne say that as well as the other for this passage of his is but the next Page before he asserts and endeavours to prove for a great while together that till the Soul is changed by his Physical Operation the Word of God hath no more power to make a due impression on it no though the motives thereof be urged by the internal perswasion of the Spirit than you have to stir a Rock by speaking to it or to raise a dead Body from the Grave by a Syllogiâ—â—â— And yet this is the maâ— that just before would make you believe how he yields as much nay more efficacy to the Word than we who say that Mankinde is not so incapable of being converted by the Word but that when it is blessed and used as he well enough expresseth it by the Holy Spirit it is sufficient to convert a man without any such Physical Operation as they talk of But you see this man makes it to be no more than a Dead Letter even when it is quickened by the Spirit too and after all his Flourishes resolves Conversion into an irresistible Operation in which there is no use of the Word at all And this is enough to shew you what an irreverent opinion he has of it whatever he pretends to the contrary And so much for the first Proposition SECT 2. 2. The manner wherein the Holy Spirit acts upon the mindes of men is suitable to the ratioâ—nal nature of Mankinde Which is a truth so fully express'd and liberally granted by Dr. Owen that I shall need to say the less of it For he saith The power which the Holy Ghost puts forth in our Regeneration is such in its acting or exercise as 〈◊〉 Mindes Wills and Affections are suted to be wrought upon and to be affected by it according to their Natures and natural Operations Again he doth not act in them otherwise than they themselves are meet to be acted according to their own Nature Power and Ability He draws us with the Cords of a man And then he tells us the work it self is expressed by perswading and alluring and that it carries no more repugnancy to our Faculties than a prevalent perswasion doth Again that our mindes are not merely passive Instruments as formerly in Prophetical inspirations moved above their own natural Capacity and Activity as to the manner of Operation But he works on the Mindes of men in and by their own natural actings through an immediate influence and impression of his Power Lastly that he offers no violence or compulsion to the Will this he saith that Faculty is not naturally capable to give admission unto if it be compelled it is destroyed These are very fair concessions and â—â—less you have given over wondering at our Author's way of writing you would hardly believe they should drop from his Pen. But they are his own words I assure you though Light and Darkness may be assoon reconciled as they can be to that Opinion concerning the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations which he so eagerly contends for For if a Physical Operation immediately and irresistibly producing Faith and Holiness be utterly unsuitable and repugnant to the natural faculties and operations of the minde in which those effects are wrought then is it most evident that those Concessions are inconsistent with the Hypothesis of Conversion by that Physical Work Now let him tell me whether the minde of man is according to its Nature and natural Operations suited to be wrought upon by such a Power as makes not the least use of the Understanding of the least Thought
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