the Humane Nature voluntary 7. The Holy Spirit the immediate efficient cause of all Divine Operations 8. He is the Spirit of the Son or of the Father 9. How all the Works of the Trinity are individed 10. The Body of Christ formed in the Womb by the Holy Ghost but of the Substance of the Blessed Virgin why this was necessary 11. Christ not hence the Son of the Holy Ghost according to the Humane Nature 12. Difference between the Assumption of the Humane Nature by the Son and the Creation of it by the Holy Ghost 13. The Conception of Christ how ascribed to the Holy Ghost and how to the Blessed Virgin Reasons of the Espousal of the Blessed Virgin to Joseph before the Conception of Christ. 14. The actual Purity and Holiness of the Soul and Body of Christ from his Miraculous Conception Sect. 1 THe Dispensation and Work of the Holy Ghost in this New Creation respect first the Head of the Church the Lord Jesus Christ in his Humane Nature as it was to be and was united unto the Person of the Son of God Secondly It concerns the Members of that Mystical Body in all that belongs unto them as such And under these two Heads we shall consider them Sect. 2 First Therefore we are to enquire what are the Operations of the Holy Ghost in reference unto Jesus Christ the Head of the Church And these were of two sorts 1. Such as whereof the Person of Christ in his Humane Nature was the immediate Object 2. Such as he performs towards others on his behalf that is with direct respect unto his Person and Office Sect. 3 But yet before we enter upon the first sort of his Works which we shall begin withal an Objection of seeming weight and Difficulty must be removed out of our way which I shall the rather do because our answer unto it will make the whole matter treated of the more plain and familiar unto us It may therefore be and it is Objected That whereas the Humane Nature of Christ is assigned as the immediate Object of these Operations of the Holy Ghost and that Nature was immediately inseparably and undividedly united unto the Person of the Son of God there doth not seem to be any need nor indeed room for any such Operations of the Spirit For could not the Son of God himself in his own Person perform all things requisite both for the forming supporting sanctifying and preserving of his own Nature without the especial Assistance of the Holy Ghost Nor is it easy to be understood how an immediate Work of the Holy Ghost should be interposed in the same Person between the one Nature and the other And this seeming Difficulty is vehemently pressed by the Socinians who think to intangle our whole Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity and Incarnation of the Son of God thereby But express Testimonies of Scripture with the clear and evident Analogie of Faith will carry us easily and safely through this seeming Difficulty To which End we may Observe That Sect. 4 1. The only singular immediate Act of the Person of the Son on the Humane Nature was the Assumption of it into Subsistence with Himself Herein the Father and the Spirit had no Interest nor concurrence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by Approbation and Consent as Damascen speaks For the Father did not assume the Humane Nature he was not Incarnate neither did the Holy Spirit do so But this was the Peculiar Act and Work of the Son See Joh. 1. 14. Rom. 1. 4. Gal. 4. 4. Phil. 2. 6 7. Heb. 2. 14. 17 which Places with many others to the same Purpose I have elsewhere expounded and vindicated from the Exceptions of the Socinians Sect. 5 2. That the only Necessary Consequent of this Assumption of the Humane Nature or the Incarnation of the Son of God is the Personal Union of Christ or the inseparable Subsistence of the assumed Nature in the Person of the Son This was necessary and indissoluble so that it was not impeached nor shaken in the least by the temporary dissolution of that Nature by the separation of the Soul and Body For the Union of the Soul and Body in Christ did not constitute him a Person that the Dissolution of them should destroy his Personality But he was a Person by the Uniting of both unto the Son of God Sect. 6 3. That all other Actings of God in the Person of the Son towards the Humane Nature were Voluntary and did not necessarily ensue on the Union mentioned For there was no Transfusion of the Properties of one Nature into the other nor real Physical Communication of Divine Essential Excellencies unto the Humanity Those who seem to contend for any such thing resolve all at last into a true Assignation by way of Predication as necessary on the Union mentioned but contend not for a real transfusion of the Properties of one Nature into the other But these Communications were Voluntary Hence were those temporary Dissations when under his great trial the Humane Nature complained of its desertion and Dereliction by the Divine Matth. 27. 46. For this forsaking was not as to Personal Union or necessary Subsistence and supportment but as to Voluntary Communications of Light and Consolation Hence himself declares that the Humane Nature was not the Residential Subject of Omnisciency For so he speaks Mark 13. 32. But of that Day and that hour knoweth no Man no nor the Angels which are in Heaven neither the Son but the Father For the Exposition given by some of the Antients that the Lord Christ speaks not this absolutely but only that he knew it not to declare it unto them is unworthy of him For no more did the Father so know it seeing he hath not declared it But this was the Opinion only of some of them the more advised were otherwise minded He speaks of himself with respect unto his Humane Nature only And thereunto all Communications were Voluntary So after his Ascention God gave him that Revelation that he made to the Apostle Revel 1. 1. The Humane Nature therefore however inconceivably advanced is not the Subject of Infinite Essentially Divine Properties And the Actings of the Son of God towards it consequential unto its Assumption and that indissoluble subsistence in its Union which ensued thereon are Voluntary Sect. 7 4. The Holy Ghost as we have proved before is the immediate Peculiar Efficient Cause of all External Divine Operations for God Worketh by his Spirit or in him immediately applies the Power and Efficacy of the Divine Excellencies unto their Operation Whence the same Work is equally the Work of each Person Sect. 8 5. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son no less than the Spirit of the Father He proceedeth from the Son as from the Father He is the Spirit of the Son Gal. 4. 6. And hence is He the immediate Operator of all Divine Acts of the Son himself even on his own Humane Nature
that special kind of Life which is given by the especial quickning Principle of a rational Soul Sect. 5 Hence it is evident wherein Death natural doth consist And three things may be considered in it 1 The Separation of the Soul from the Body Hereby the Act of infusing the living Soul ceaseth unto all its Ends. For as a Principle of Life unto the whole it operates only by Vertue of its Union with the subject to be quickned by it 2 A Cessation of all Vital Actings in the quickned Subject For that Union from whence they should proceed is dissolved 3 As a Consequent of these there is in the Body an Impotency for and an Ineptitude unto all Vital Operations Not only do all Operations of Life actually cease but the Body is no more able to effect them There remains in it indeed Potentia obedientialis a passive power to receive Life again if communicated unto it by an external efficient Cause So the body of Lazarus being dead had a receptive Power of a living Soul But an active Power to dispose it self unto Life or Vital Actions it hath not Sect. 6 From these things we may be a just Analogie collect wherein Life and Death Spiritual do consist And to that End some things must be previously observed As 1 That Adam in the state of Innocency besides his Natural life whereby he was a Living Soul had likewise a Supernatural Life with respect unto its end whereby he lived unto God This is called the Life of God Ephes. 4. 18. which Men now in the state of nature are alienated from The Life which God requires and which hath God for its Object and End And this Life was in him Supernatural for although it was concreated in and with the rational Soul as a perfection due unto it in the state wherein and with respect unto the End for which it was made yet it did not naturally flow from the Principles of the rational Soul nor were the Principles Faculties or Abilities of it inseparable from those of the Soul it self being only accidental Perfections of them inlaid in them by especial Grace This Life was necessary unto him with respect unto the state wherein and the End for which he was made He was made to live unto the living God and that in a peculiar manner to live unto his glory in this World by the discharge of the rational and moral Obedience required of him and to live afterward in his Glory and the eternal Enjoyment of him as his Cheifest Good and Highest Reward That whereby he was enabled hereunto was that Life of God which we are alienated from in the state of Nature 2. In this Life as in Life in General three things are to be considered 1 Its Principle 2 Its Operation 3 Its Vertue or Habit Act and Power Sect. 7 1. There was a Quickning Principle belonging unto it For every Life is an Act of a Quïckning Principle This in Adam was the Image of God or an habitual Conformity unto God his Mind and Will wherein the Holiness and Righteousness of God himself was represented Gen. 1. 26 27. In this Image he was created or it was concreated with him as a Perfection due to his Nature in the Condition wherein he was made This gave him an habitual disposition unto all duties of that Obedience that was required of him It was the Rectitude of all the faculties of his Soul with respect unto his Supernatural End Eccles. 7. 20. 2 There belonged unto it continual Actings from or by Vertue of and suitable unto this Principle All the Acts of Adam's Life should have been subordinate unto his great moral End In all that he did he should have lived unto God according unto the Law of that Covenant wherein he walked before him And an Acting in all things suitable unto the Light in his Mind unto the Righteousness and Holiness in his Will and Affection that Uprightness or Integrity or Order that was in his Soul was his Living unto God Sect. 8 3 He had here-withal Power or Ability to continue the Principle of Life in suitable Acts of it with respect unto the whole Obedience required of him that is he had a sufficiency of Ability for the Performance of any Duty or of all that the Covenant required And in these three did the Supernatural Life of Adam in Innocency consist And it is that which the Life whereunto we are restored by Christ doth answer It answers unto it I say and supplies its absence with respect unto the End of living unto God according unto the New Covenant that we are taken into For neither would the Life of Adam be sufficient for us to live unto God according to the terms of the New Covenant nor is the Life of Grace we now enjoy suited to the Covenant wherein Adam stood before God Wherefore some Differences there are between them the Principal whereof may be reduced into two Heads Sect. 9 1. That Principle of this Life was wholly and intirely in Man himself It was the Effect of another Cause of that which was without him namely the Good Will and Power of God but it was left to grow on no other Root but what was in Man himself It was wholly implanted in his Nature and therein did its Springs lye Actual Excitations by Influence of Power from God it should have had For no Principle of Operation can subsist in an Independence of God nor apply it self unto Operation without his Concurence But in the Life whereunto we are renewed by Jesus Christ the Fountain and Principle of it is not in our selves but in him as One common Head unto all that are made Partakers of him He is our Life Col. 1. 3. and our Life as to the Spring and Fountain of it is hid with him in God For he quickneth us by his Spirit Rom. 8. 10. And our Spiritual Life as in us consists in the Vital Actings of this Spirit of his in Us for without him we can do nothing John 15. 3. By Vertue hereof we walk in newness of Life Rom. 6. 4. We live therefore hereby yet not so much we as Christ liveth in us Gal. 2. 20. Sect. 10 2. There is a Difference between these Lives with respect unto the Object of their Vital Acts. For the Life which we now lead by the faith of the Son of God hath sundry Objects of its Actings which the other had not For whereas all the Actings of our Faith and Love that is all our Obedience doth respect the Revelation that God makes of himself and his Will unto us there are now New Revelations of God in Christ and consequently new Duties of Obedience required of us as will afterwards appear And other such differences there are between them The Life which we had in Adam and that which we are renewed unto in Christ Jesus are so far of the same Nature and kind as our Apostle manifests in sundry Places Ephes. 4. 23 24.
Col. 3. 10. as that they serve to the same End and Purpose Sect. 11 There being therefore this two-fold Spiritual Life or Ability of Living unto God that which we had in Adam and that which we have in Christ we must enquire with reference unto which of these it is that Unregenerate Men are said to be Spiritually dead or dead in Trespasses and Sins Now this in the first Place hath respect unto the Life we had in Adam For the Deprivation of that Life was in the Sanction of the Law Thou shalt die the Death This Spiritual Death is comprized therein and that in the Privation of that Spiritual Life or Life unto God which Unregenerate Men never had neither de facto nor de jure in any state or condition Wherefore with respect hereunto they are dead only negatively they have it not but with respect unto the Life we had in Adam they are dead privatively they have lost that Power of Living unto God which they had Sect. 12 From what hath been discoursed we may discover the Nature of this Spiritual Death under the Power whereof all Unregenerate Persons do abide For there are three things in it 1 A Privation of a Principle of Spiritual Life enabling us to live unto God 2 A Negation of all Spiritual Vital Acts that is of all Acts and Duties of holy Obedience acceptable unto God and tending to the Enjoyment of him 3 A total Defect and want of Power for any such Acts whatever All these are in that Death which is a Privation of Life such as this is First there is in it a Privation of a Principle of Spiritual Life namely of that which we had before the Entrance of sin or a Power of living unto God according to the Covenant of Works and a Negation of that which we have by Christ or a Power of Living unto God according to the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace Those therefore who are thus dead have no Principle or First Power of Living unto God or the Performance of any Duty to be accepted with him in order to the Enjoyment of him according to either Covenant It is with them as to all the Acts and Ends of Life Spiritual as it is with the Body as to the Acts and Ends of Life Natural when the Soul is departed from it Why else are they said to be dead Sect. 13 It is objected that there is a wide difference between Death Natural and Spiritual In Death Natural the soul it self is utterly removed and taken from the Body but in Death Spiritual it continues A man is still notwithstanding this Spiritual Death endowed with an Understanding Will and Affections And by these are Men enabled to perform their Duty unto God and yield the Obedience required of them Answ. 1 In Life Spiritual the Soul is unto the Principle of it as the Body is unto the Soul in Life Natural For in Life Natural the Soul is the quickning Principle and the Body is the Principle quickned When the Soul departs it leaves the Body with all its own Natural Properties but utterly deprived of them which it had by Vertue of its Union with the Soul So in Life Spiritual the Soul is not in and by its Essential Properties the quickning Principle of it but it is the Principle that is quickned And when the quickning Principle of Spiritual Life departs it leaves the Soul with all its Natural Properties entire as to their Essence though morally corrupted But of all the Power and Abilities which it had by Virtue of its Union with a quickning Principle of Spiritual Life it is deprived And to deny such a quickning Principle of Spiritual Life superadded unto us by the Grace of Christ distinct and separate from the Natural Faculties of the Soul is upon the matter to renounce the whole Gospel It is all one as to deny that Adam was created in the Image of God which he lost and that we are renewed unto the Image of God by Jesus Christ. Hence 2ly Whatever the Soul acts in Spiritual things by its Understanding Will and Affections as deprived of or not quickned by this Principle of Spiritual Life it doth it Naturally not Spiritually as shall be instantly made to appear There is therefore in the first Place a Disability or Impotency unto all Spiritual things to be performed in a Spiritual manner in all Persons not born again by the Spirit because they are Spiritually dead Whatever they can do or however Men may call what they do unless they are endowed with a quickning Principle of Grace they can perform no Act Spiritually vital no Act of Life whereby we live to God or that is absolutely accepted with him Hence it is said the Carnal Mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can it be Rom. 8. 7. so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God v. 8. Men may cavil whilst they please about this carnal Mind and contend that it is only the sensitive part of the Soul or the Affections as corrupted by Prejudices and depraved habits of Vice Two things are plain in the Text. First that this Carnal Mind is in all mankind whoever they be who are not partakers of the Spirit of God and his Quickning Power Secondly that where it is there is a Disability of doing any thing that should please God which is the Sum of what we contend for and which Men may with as little a disparagement of their Modesty deny as reject the Authority of the Apostle So our Saviour as to one Instance tells us that no Man can come unto him unless the Father draw him Joh. 6. 4. 4. And so is it figuratively expressed where all Men being by Nature compared unto evil Trees it is affirmed of them that they cannot bring forth Good fruit unless their Nature be changed Mat. 7. 18. Chap. 12. 33. And this Disability as to Good is also compared by the Prophet unto such Effects as lye under a Natural Impossibility of Accomplishment Jerem. 13. 24. We contend not about Expressions This is that which the Scripture abundantly instructeth us in There is no Power in Men by Nature whereby they are of themselves upon the mere proposal of their Duty in Spiritual Obedience and Exhortations from the Word of God unto the Performance of it accompanied with all the Motives which are meet and suited to prevail with them thereunto to perceive know will or do any thing in such a Way or Manner as that it should be accepted with God with respect unto our Spiritual Life unto him according to his Will and future Enjoyment of him without the Efficacious Infusion into them or Creation in them of a new gracious Principle or Habit enabling them thereunto and that this is accordingly wrought in all that believe by the Holy Ghost we shall afterwards declare But it will be Objected and hath against this Doctrine been ever so since the days
now seeth in secret will one day reward openly And the more we abound in these things the more will God be glorified in the Recompence of Reward But this is not all nor that which I intend It abides 2 for ever and passeth over into Glory in its Principle or Nature The Love wherewith we now adhere to God and by which we act the Obedience of Faith towards the Saints faileth not it ends not when Glory comes on but is a part of it 1 Cor. 13. 8. It is true some Gifts shall be done away as useless in a state of Perfection and Glory as the Apostle there discourseth and some Graces shall cease as to some especial Acts and peculiar Exercise as Faith and Hope so far as they respect things unseen and future But all those Graces whereby Holiness is constituted and wherein it doth consist for the substance of them as they contain the Image of God as by them we are united and do adhere unto God in Christ shall in their present nature improved into perfection abide for ever In our knowledge of them therefore have we our principal insight into our Eternal Condition in Glory And this is as a firm foundation of Consolation so a part of our chiefest Joy in this World Is it not a matter of unspeakable Joy and Refreshment that these poor Bodyes we carry about us after they have been made a prey unto death dust worms and corruption shall be raised and restored to Life and Immortality freed from pains sickness weakness weariness and vested with those Qualities in conformity to Christs glorious Body which yet we understand not It is so also that these Souls which now animate and rule in us shall be delivered from all their Darkness Ignorance Vanity Instability and Alienation from things Spiritual and Heavenly But this is not all These poor low Graces which no live and are acting in us shall be continued preserved purified and perfected but in their nature be the same as now they are as our Souls and Bodies shall be That Love whereby we now adhere to God as our chiefest Good that Faith whereby we are united to Christ our everlasting Head that Delight in any of the Wayes or Ordinances of God wherein he is enjoyed according as he hath promised his presence in them that Love and Good-will which we have for all those in whom is the Spirit and on whom is the Image of Christ with the entire Principle of spiritual Life and Holiness which is now begun in any of us shall be all purified enhanced perfected and pass into Glory That very Holiness which we here attain those Inclinations and Dispositions those Frames of Mind those Powers and Abilities in Obedience and Adherence unto God which here contend with the weight of their own weakness and imperfections with the Opposition that is continually made against them by the Body of Death that is utterly to be abolished shall be gloriously perfected into immutable Habits unchangeably acting our Souls in the enjoyment of God And this also manifesteth of how much concernment it is unto us to be acquainted with the Doctrine of it and of how much more to be really interested in it Yea Sect. 12 5 There is Spiritual and Heavenly Glory in it in this World From hence is the Church the Kings Daughter said to be all Glorious within Psal. 45. 13. Her inward adorning with the Graces of the Spirit making her beautifull in Holiness is called Glory and is so so also the progress and increase of Believers herein is called by our Apostle their being changed from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. from one degree of glorious Grace unto another As this next unto the Comeliness of the Righteousness of Christ put upon us by the free Grace of God is our only beauty in his sight so it is such as hath a real Spiritual Glory in it It is the First-fruits of Heaven and as the Apostle argueth concerning the Jews that if the first-fruits were holy then is the whole lump holy so may we on the other side if the whole weight as he calls it and fulness of our future Enjoyments be Glory then are the First-fruits in their Measure so also There is in this Holiness as we shall see further afterwards a Ray of Eternal Light a Principle of Eternal Life and the entire nature of that Love whereby we shall eternally adhere unto God The Divine Nature the new immortal Creature the Life of God the Life of Christ are all comprized in it It represents unto God the Glory of his own Image renewed in us and unto the Lord Christ the fruits of his Spirit and Effect of his Mediation wherein he sees of the travail of his Soul and is satisfied There is therefore no-nothing more to be abhorred than those carnal low and unworthy thoughts which some men vent of this glorious Work of the Holy Spirit who would have it wholly to consist in a Legal Righteousness or Moral Vertue Sect. 13 6 This is that which God indispensibly requireth of us The full prosecution of this Consideration we must put off unto our Arguments for the Necessity of it which will ensue in their proper place At present I shall shew that not only God requireth Holiness indispensibly in all Believers but also that this is All which he requireth of them or expecteth from them For it comprizeth the whole Duty of man And this surely rendreth it needfull for us both to know what it is and diligently to apply our selves unto the obtaining an assured participation of it For what Servant who hath any sense of his Relation and Duty if he be satisfied that his Master requireth but one thing of him will not endeavour an Acquaintance with it and the Performance of it Some indeed say that their Holiness such as it is is the Chief or only Design of the Gospel If they intend that it is the first principal Design of God in and by the Gospel and that not only as to the Preceptive part of it but also as unto its Doctrinal and Promissory parts whence it is principally and emphatically denominated it is a fond Imagination Gods great and first design in and by the Gospel is eternally to Glorifie himself his Wisdom Goodness Love Grace Righteousness and Holiness by Jesus Christ Eph. 1. 5 6. And in order to this his great and supreme end he hath designed the Gospel and designs by the Gospel which gives the Gospel its Design 1 To reveal that Love and Grace of his unto lost sinners with the way of its Communication through the Mediation of his Son Incarnate as the only means whereby he will be glorified and whereby they may be saved Acts 26. 18. 2 To prevail with men in and by the Dispensation of its Truth and Encouragement of its Promises to renounce their sins and all other Expectations of Relief or Satisfaction and to betake themselves by Faith unto that way of Life and
a total indigence of Supplyes of Grace but it is a Well of Water springing up into everlasting Life Joh. 4. 14. It springs up and that as alwayes without intermission because it is living water from which Vital Acts are inseparable so permanently without ceasing it springs up into Everlasting Life and faileth not untill those in whom it is are safely lodged in the Enjoyment of it This is expressly promised in the Covenant I will put my Fear in their Hearts and they shall not depart from me Jer. 32. 40. They shall never doe so in whom is this Fear which is permanent and Endless It is true that it is our Duty with all Care and Diligence in the use of all Means to preserve cherish and improve both the Principle it self and its actings in these Holy Dispositions We are to shew all Diligence unto the full Assurance of Hope unto the End Heb. 6. 11. And in the use of Means and the Exercise of Grace is it that it is infallibly kept and preserved Isa. 40. 31. And it is also true that sometimes in some Persons upon the fierce interpositions of Temptations with the violent and deceitfull working of Lusts the Principle it self may seem for a Season to be utterly stifled and this Property of it to be destroyed as it seems to have been with David under his sad Fall and decay Yet such is the Nature of it that it is immortal everlasting and which shall never absolutely dye such is the Relation of it unto the Covenant-Faithfulness of God and Mediation of Christ as that it shall never utterly cease or be extinguished It abideth disposing and enclining the Heart unto all Dutyes of Holy Obedience unto the grave Yea ordinarily and where its genuine Work and Tendency is not interrupted by cursed Negligence or Love of the World it thrives and growes continually unto the End Hence some are not only Fruitfull but Fat and flourishing in their Old Age and as the outward man decayeth so in them the inward man is dayly renewed in Strength and Power But as unto all other Principles of Obedience whatever as it is in their own nature to decay and wither all their actings growing insensibly weaker and less efficacious so for the most part either the increase of Carnal Wisdom or the Love of the World or some powerfull Temptations at one time or other put an utter end unto them and they are of no use at all Hence there is not a more secure Generation of sinners in the World than those who have been acted by the Power of Conviction unto a course of Obedience in the performance of many Duties And those of them who fall not openly to Profaneness or Lasciviousness or Neglect of all Duties of Religion do continue in their Course from what they have been habituated unto finding it complyant with their present Circumstances and Conditions in the World as also having been preserved from such Wayes and Practices as are inconsistent with their present course by the power of their former Convictions But the Power of these Principles of Conviction Education Impressions from Afflictions Dangers Fears all in one dye before men and if their eyes were open they might see the End of them In this manner therefore doth the New Divine Nature that is in Believers dispose and encline them impartially evenly and permanently unto all Acts and Duties of Holy Obedience Sect. 24 One thing yet remains to be cleared that there may be no mistake in this matter And this is that in those who are thus constantly enclined and disposed unto all the Acts of an Heavenly spiritual Life there are yet remaining contrary Dispositions and Inclinations also There are yet in them Inclinations and Dispositions to sin proceeding from the Remainders of a contrary habitual Principle This the Scripture calls the Flesh Lust the sin that dwelleth in us the Body of Death being what yet remaineth in Believers of that vitious corrupted Depravation of our Nature which came upon us by the loss of the Image of God disposing the whole Soul unto all that is evil This yet continueth in them enclining them unto Evil and all that is so according to the Power and Efficacy that is remaining unto it in various Degrees Sundry things are here observable as 1 This is that which is singular in this Life of God There are in the same Mind Will and Affections namely of a Person Regenerate contrary Habits and inclinations continually opposing one another and acting adversly about the same Objects and Ends. And this is not from any Jarrings or Disorder between the distinct Faculties of the Soul it self as in Natural men there are adverse Actings between their Wills and Affections on the one hand bent unto sin and the Light of their Minds and Consciences on the other prohibiting the committing of sin and condemning its Commission which Disorder is discernible in the Light of Nature and is sufficiently canvased by the Old Philosophers But these contrary Habits Inclinations and Actings are in the same Faculties 2 As this cannot be apprehended but by vertue of a previous Conviction and acknowledgement both of the total Corruption of our Nature by the Fall and the Initial Renovation of it by Jesus Christ wherein these contrary Habits and Dispositions do consist so it cannot be denyed without an open Rejecting of the Gospel and Contradiction to the Experience of all that do Believe or know any thing of what it is to live to God We intend no more but what the Apostle so plainly asserts Gal. 5. 17. The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh that is in the Mind Will and Affections of Believers and these are contrary the one unto the other they are contrary Principles attended with contrary Inclinations and Actings so that ye cannot do the things that ye would 3 There cannot be contrary Habits meerly Natural or Moral in the same Subject with respect unto the same Object at the same time at least they cannot be so in any high Degree so as to encline and act contrary one to another with Urgency or Efficacy For violent Inclinations unto sin and a Conscience fiercely condemning for sin whereby sinners are sometimes torn and even distracted are not contrary Habits in the same Subject Only Conscience brings in from without the Judgment of God against what the Will and Affections are bent upon Sect. 25 But it is as was said otherwise in the contrary Principles or Habits of spirit and flesh of Grace and Sin with their adverse inclinations and actings Only they cannot be in the highest Degree at the same time nor be equally prevalent or predominant in the same instances That is Sin and Grace cannot bear rule in the same Heart at the same time so as that it should be equally under the conduct of them both Nor can they have in the same Soul contrary Inclinations equally efficacious for then would they absolutely obstruct all sorts
means is dispossessed of a Sence of the Soveraign Authority of God in his Commands nor can any thing secure such a Soul from being pierced and entred into by various Temptations This therefore are we to carry about with us where-ever we goe and whatever we doe to keep our Souls and Consciences under the power of it in all Opportunities of Duties and on all Occasions of Sin Had men alwayes in their Wayes Trades Shops Affairs Families Studyes Closets this written on their Hearts they would have Holiness to the Lord on their Breasts and Foreheads also Sect. 13 2. The Apostle tells us that as God in his Commands is a Soveraign Law-giver so he is able to kill and keep alive That is his Commanding Authority is accompanyed with such a Power as that whereby he is able absolutely and Eternally to Reward the Obedient and to return unto the Disobedient a meet Recompense of Punishment For although I would not exclude other Considerations yet I think this of Eternal Rewards and Punishments to be principally here intended But 1 supposing it to have Respect unto things Temporal also it carryes along with it the greater Enforcement God commands us to be holy Things are in that State and Condition in the World as that if we endeavour to answer his Will in a due Manner designing to perfect Holiness in the fâ—ar of the Lord we shall meet with much Opposition many Difficulties and at length perhaps it may cost us our Lives multitudes have made Profession of it at no cheaper Rate But let us not mistake in this matter He who commands us to be Holy is the only Soveraign Lord of Life and Death that hath alone the Disposal of them both and consequently of all things that are subservient and conducing unto the one or other It is he alone who can kill in a way of Punishment and he alone can keep alive in a way of Mercifull Preservation This Power of our Law-giver the holy Companions of Daniel committed themselves unto and preserved themselves by the Consideration of when with the Terror of Death they were commanded to forsake the Way of Holiness Dan. 3. 17 18. And with respect unto it our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that he who would save his Life namely by a sinfull Neglect of the Command shall lose it This therefore is also to be considered the Power of him who commands us to be Holy is such as that he is able to carry us through all Difficulties and Dangers which we may incurre upon the Account of our being so Now whereas the Fear of Man is one principal Cause or Means of our failing in Holiness and Obedience either by sudden Surprizals or violent Temptations and the next hereunto is the Consideration of other things esteemed Good or Evil in this World the Faith and Sence hereof will bear us up above them deliver us from them and carry us through them Sect. 14 Be of good Courage all ye that trust in the Lord you may you ought without Fear or Dauntedness of spirit to engage into the Pursuit of universal Holiness He who hath commanded it who hath required if of you will bear you out in it nothing that is truely evil or finally disadvantageous shall befall you on that Account For let the World rage whilest it pleaseth and threaten to fill all things with Blood and Confusion to God the Lord belong the Issues from Death he alone can kill and make alive There is therefore no small Enforcement unto Holiness from the Consideration of the Command with respect unto the Power of the Commander relating unto things in this World But 2 I suppose it is a Power of Eternal Rewards and Punishments that is principally here intended The Killing here is that mentioned by our Saviour and opposed to all Temporal Evil and Death it self Matth. 10. 28. Fear not them who can kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him who is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell And this keeping alive is a Deliverance from the Wrath to come in Everlasting Life And this is that which gives an unavoidable Efficacy to the Command Every Command of a Superiour doth tacitly include a Reward and Punishment to be intended For a Declaration is made of what is pleasing and what is displeasing unto him that gives the Command and therein is there a virtual Promise and Threatning But unto all Solemn Laws Rewards and Punishments are expressely annexed Sect. 15 But there are two Reasons why for for the most part they do but little influence the Minds of Men who are inclined unto their Transgression 1 The first is that the Rewards and Punishments declared are such as men think they do justly preferre their own satisfaction in the Transgression of the Lawes before them It is so will all Good men with respect unto Lawes made contrary to the Lawes of God and Wise men also may do so with respect unto useless Lawes with trifling Penalties and Evil men will do so with respect unto the highest Temporal Punishments when they are greedily set on the satisfaction of their Lusts. Hence I say it is in the first place that the Minds of men are so little influenced with those Rewards and Punishments that are annexed unto Humane Lawes And 2 dly a secret Apprehension that the Commanders or Makers of the Lawes neither will nor are able to execute those Penalties in the case of their Transgression evacuates all the Force of them Much they ascribe to their Negligence that they will not take Care to see the Sanction of their Lawes executed more to their Ignorance that they shall not be able to find out their Transgressions and somewhat in sundry Cases to their Power that they cannot Punish nor Reward though they would And for these Reasons are the Minds of men little influenced by Humane Lawes beyond their own honest Inclinations and Interest But things are quite otherwise with respect unto the Law and Commands of God that we should be Holy The Rewards and Punishments called by the Apostle Killing and Keeping alive being Eternal in the highest Capacities of Blessedness or Misery cannot be Ballanced by any Consideration of this present World without the highest Folly and Villany unto our selves Nor can there be any Reserve on the Account of Mutability Indifferency Ignorance Impotency or any other Pretence that they shall not be Executed Wherefore the Commands of God which we are in the Consideration of are accompanyed with Promises and Threatnings of Eternal Blessedness on the one hand or of Misery on the other And these will certainly befall us according as we shall be found Holy or Vnholy All the Properties of the Nature of God are immutably engaged in this matter and hence ensues an indispensible Necessity of our being Holy God commands that we should be so but what if we are not so Why as sure as God is Holy and Powerfull we shall Eternally
For that Spirit who appeared before the Lord and offered himself to be a lying spirit in the Mouths of Ahab's Prophets was no other but he who appeared before God Job 1. who is called Satan These in the New Testament are called unclean Spirits Matth. 10. 1. And the Observation of the Ancients that Satan is not called a Spirit absolutely but with an Addition or Mark of Distinction holds only in the New Testament And because Evil Spirits are wont to torment the Minds and Bodies of Men therefore evil Thoughts disorders of Mind wicked Purposes disquieting and vexing the Soul arising from or much furthered by Melancholy Distempers are called it may be sometimes an Evil Spirit The Case of Saul shall be afterwards considered Sect. 8 In such variety are these words used and applyed in the Scripture because of some very general Notions wherein the things intended do agree For the most part there is no great difficulty in discovering the especial meaning of them or what it is they signifie in the several places where they occur Their Design and Circumstances as to the Subject Matter treated of determine the signification And notwithstanding the ambiguous Use of these words in the Old and New Testament there are two things clear and evident unto our purpose First That there is in the Holy Scriptures a full distinct Revelation or Declaration of the Spirit or the Spirit of God as one singular and every way distinct from every thing else that is occasionally or constantly signified or denoted by that Word Spirit And this not only a multitude of particular places gives testimony unto but also the whole course of the Scripture supposeth as that without an acknowledgment whereof nothing else contained in it can be understood or is of any use at all For we shall find this Doctrine to be the very Life and Soul which quickens the whole from first to last Take away the Work and powerful Efficacy of the Holy Spirit from the administration of it and it will prove but a dead Letter of no saving advantage to the Souls of Men and take away the Doctrine concerning him from the writing of it and the whole will be unintelligible and useless Secondly That what-ever is affirmed of this Holy Spirit the Spirit of God it all relates either to his Person or his Operations And these Operations of his being various are sometimes by a Metonymy called Spirit whereof afterwards I shall not therefore need to prove that there is an Holy Spirit distinct from all other Spirits whatever and from every thing else that on several Occasions is signified by that Name For this is acknowledged by all that acknowledg the Scriptures yea it is so by Jews and Mahometans as well as all sorts of Christians And indeed all those false apprehensions concerning him which have at this day any countenance given unto them may be referred unto two Heads 1. That of the Modern Jews who affirm the Holy Ghost to be the influential fluential Power of God which conceit is entertained and diligently promoted by the Socinians 2. That of the Mahumetans who make him an eminent Angel and sometimes say it is Gabriel which being traduced from the Maâ—edonians of old hath found some Defenders and Promoters in our dayes Sect. 9 This then being the Name of him concerning whom we treat some things concerning it and the use of it as peculiarly applyed unto him are to be premised For sometimes he is called â—he Spirit absolutely sometimes the Holy Spirit or as we speak the Holy Ghost sometimes the Spirit of God the Good Spirit of God the Spirit of Truth and Holiness sometimes the Spirit of Christ or of the Son The first absolutely used denotes his Person the Additions express his Properties and Relation unto the other Persons In the Name Spirit two things are included First his Nature or Essence namely that he is a pure spiritual or immaterial Substance For neither the Hebrews nor the Greeks can express such a Being in its Subsistence but by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit Nor is this Name firstly given unto the Holy Spirit in allusion unto the Wind in its Subtilty Agility and Efficacy For these things have respect only unto his Operations wherein from some general Appearances his Works and Effects are likened unto the Wind and its Effects Joh. 3. 8. But it is his Substance or Being which is first intended in this Name So it is said of God Joh. 4. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is a Spirit that is he is of a pure spiritual immaterial Nature not confined unto any place and so not regarding one more than another in his Worship as is the design of the place to evince It will therefore be said that on this account the Name of Spirit is not peculiar unto the third Person seeing it contains the Description of that Nature which is the same in them all For whereas it is said God is a Spirit it is not spoken of this or that Person but of the Nature of God abstractedly I grant that so it is and therefore the name Spirit is not in the first place characteristical of the Third Person in the Trinity but denotes that Nature whereof each Person is partaker But moreover as it is peculiarly and constantly ascribed unto Him it declares his especial Manner and Order of Existence So that where-ever there is mention of the Holy Spirit his Relation unto the Father and Son is included therein for he is the Spirit of God And herein there is an allusion to somewhat created Not as I said to the Wind in general unto whose Agility and Invisibility he is compared in his Operations but unto the Breath of man For as the vital breath of a man hath a continual Emanation from him and yet is never separated utterly from his Person or forsaketh him so doth the Spirit of the Father and the Son proceed from them by a continual Divine Emanation still abiding one with them For all these Allusions are weak and imperfect wherein substantial things are compared with Accidental Infinite things with Finite and those that are Eternal with those that are Temporary Hence their disagreement is infinitely more than their Agreement yet such Allusions doth our weakness need instruction from and by Thus he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 33. 6. The Spirit or Breath of the Mouth of the Lord or of his Nostrils as Psal. 18. 15. wherein there is an eminent Allusion unto the Breath of a Man Of the manner of this proceeding and emanation of the Spirit from the Father and the Son so far as it is revealed and as we are capable of an useful Apprehension of it I have treated elsewhere And from hence or the Subsistence of the Holy Spirit in an eternal Emanation from the Father and Son as the Breath of God did our Saviour signifie his Communication of
three one on the neck of another and the work is done the Sense intended is quite changed and lost Allow this Liberty or bold Licentiousness and you may overthrow the Being of God himself and the Mediation of Christ as to you Testimony given unto them in the Scripture But the words are plain He dâ—videth to every one as he will And for the confirmation of his Deity though that be out of question on the supposition of his Personality I shall only add from this place that he who hath the sovereign disposal of all Spiritual Gifts having only his own Will which is infinitely Wise and Holy for his Rule He is over all God blessed for ever Sect. 22 Thirdly Another Property of a living Person is Power A Power whereby any one is able to act according to the guidance of his Understanding and the determinations of his Will declares him to be a Person It is not the meer ascription of Power absolutely or ability unto any thing that I intend For they may signifie no more but the Efficacy wherewith such things are attended in their proper places as Instruments of the Effects whereunto they are applyed In this sense Power is ascribed to the Word of God when it is said to be able to save our Souls Jam. 1. 21. And Acts 20. 32. The Word of God's Grace is said to be able to build us up and to give us an Inheritance among them that are sanctified if that place intend the Word written or preached whereinto I have made enquiry elsewhere For these things are clearly interpreted in other places The Word is said to be able yea to be the Power of God unto Salvation Rom. 1. 16. because God is pleased to use it and make it effectual by his Grace unto that End But where Power Divine Power is absolutely ascribed unto any one and that declared to be put forth and exercised by the Understanding and according to the Will of him to whom it is so ascribed it doth undeniably prove him to be a Divine Person For when we say the Holy Ghost is so we intend no more but that he is one who by his own Divine Understanding puts forth his own Divine Power So is it in this Case Job 32. 4. The Spirit of God hath made me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life Creation is an Act of Divine Power the highest we are capable to receive any Notion of And it is also an Effect of the Wisdom and Will of him that createth as being a voluntary act and designed unto a certain end All these therefore are here ascribed to the Spirit of God It is excepted Schlicting p. 613 615. that by the Spirit of God here mentioned no more is intended but our own vital Spirits whereby we are quickned called the Spirit of God because he gave it But this is too much confidence The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There were two distinct Divine Operations in and about the Creation of Man The first was the forming of his Body out of the Dust of the Earth This is expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He made he formed and secondly the infusion of a living or quickning Soul into him called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Breath of Life Both these are here distinctly mentioned the first ascribed to the Spirit of God the other to his Breath that is the same Spirit considered in a peculiar way of operation in the Infusion of the rational Soul Such is the sense of those figurative and oenigmatical words God breathed into Man the Breath of Life that is by his Spirit he effected a Principle of Life in him as we shall see afterwards Isa. 11. 2. As he is called a Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding so is he also of Might or Power and although it may be granted that the things there mentioned are rather Effects of his Operations than Adjuncts of his Nature yet he who effecteth Wisdom and Power in others must first have them himself To this purpose also is that demand Mich. 2. 7. Is the Spirit of the Lord straitned or shortned that is in his Power that he cannot Work and Operate in the Prophets and his Church as in former dayes And the same Prophet Chap. 3. vers 8. affirms That he is full of Power and of Judgment and of Might by the Spirit of the Lord. These things were wrought in him by his Power as the Apostle speaks to the same purpose Ephes. 3. 16. Those by whom this Truth is opposed do lay out all their strength and skill in Exceptions I may say Cavils against some of these particular Testimonies and some Expression in them But as to the whole Argument taken from the consideration of the Design and Scope of the Scripture in them all they have nothing to except Sect. 24 To compleat this Argument I shall add the Consideration of those Works and Operations of all sorts which are ascribed to the Spirit of God which we shall find to be such as are not capable of an assignation unto him with the least congruity of Speech or design of speaking intelligibly unless he be a distinct singular Subsistent or Person endued with Divine Power and Understanding And here what we desired formerly might be observed must be again repeated It is not from a single Instance of every one of the Works which we shall mention that we draw and confirm our Argument for some of them singly considered may perhaps sometimes be metaphorically ascribed unto other Causes which doth not prove that therefore they are Persons also which contains the force of all the Exceptions of our Adversaries against these Testimonies But as some of them at least never are nor can be assigned unto any but a Divine Person So we take our Argument from their joint consideration or the uniform constant Assignation of them all unto him in the Scriptures which renders it irrefragable For the things themselves I shall not insist upon them because their particular Nature must be afterwards unfolded Sect. 25 First He is said to teach us Luk. 12. 12. The Holy Ghost shall teach you what you ought to say John 14. 26. The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to remembrance 1 John 2. 27. He is the Unction which teacheth us all things how and whence he is so called shall be afterwards declared He is the great Teacher of the Church unto whom the accomplishment of that great Promise is committed and they shall be all taught of God John 6. 45. It is said with the Church of God when Her Teachers are removed into a Corner and Her Eyes see them not But better lose all other Teachers and that utterly than to lose this great Teacher only For although he is pleased to make use of them He can teach effectually and savingly without
God can be intended in this Place But it is the Spirit of God himself and his Work that is expressed Sect. 9 This therefore was the Work of the Holy Spirit of God in reference unto the Earth and the Host thereof The whole matter being Created out of which all Living Creatures were to be educed and of which they were to be made he takes upon him the Cherishing and Preservation of it that as it had its Subsistence by the Power of the Word of God it might be carried on towards that Form Order Beauty and Perfection that it was designed unto To this purpose he Communicated unto it a Quickning and prolifick Vertue inlaying it with the Seeds of animal Life unto all kinds of things Hence upon the Command of God it brought forth all sorts of Creatures in Abundance according to the Seeds and Principles of Life which were communicated unto the Rude inform Chaos by the cherishing Motion of the Holy Spirit Without him all was a dead-Sea a confused deep with Darkness upon it able to bring forth nothing nor more prepared to bring forth any one thing than another But by the Moving of the Spirit of God upon it the Principles of all those Kinds Sorts and Forms of things which in an unconceivable variety make up its Host and Ornament were communicated unto it And this is a better account of the Original of all things in their several kinds than any is given by ancient or Modern Philosophers And hence was the Old Tradition of all things being formed of Water which the Apstle alludes unto 2 Pet. 3. 5. The whole is declared by Cyprian whose words I have therefore transcribed at large And as at the first Creation so in the Course of Providence this Work of Cherishing and Nourishing the Cretures is assigned in an especial manner unto the Spirit Psal. 104. 30. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are Created and thou renewest the Face of the Earth The Making or Creation of things here intended is not the first great Work of the Creation of all but the daily Production of Creatures in and according to their Kind For in the verse foregoing the Psalmist treats of the decay of all sorts of Creatures in the World by a Providential cutting off and finishing of their Lives v. 29. Thou hidest thy Face they are troubled thou takest away their breath they dye and return unto their Dust. That under this continual decay and dying of all sorts of Creatures the World doth not come to Emptiness and Desolation the only Reason is because the Spirit of God whose Office and Work it is to uphold and preserve all things continually produceth by his Power a new supply of Creatures in the room of them that fall off like Leaves from the Trees and return to their Dust every day And whereas the Earth it self the common Nurse of them all seems in the Revolution of every year to be at an end of its Use and Work having Death brought upon the Face of it and oft-times entring deep into its Bowels the Spirit of God by its influential Concurrence renews it again causing every thing afresh to bring forth Fruit according unto its Kind whereby its Face receiveth a new Beauty and Adorning And this is the Substance of what the Scripture expresly asserts concerning the Work of the Spirit of God towards the inanimate part of the Creation His actings in reference unto Man and that Obedience which he owed to God according to the Law and Covenant of his Creation is nextly to be considered Sect. 10 Man in his Creation falleth under a two-fold Notion For he may be considered either meerly naturally as to the essentially constitutive parts of his Being or morally also with reference unto his Principles of Obedience the Law given unto him and the End proposed as his Reward And these things are distinctly proposed unto our contemplation in the Scripture The first is expressed Gen. 2. 7. And the Lord God formed Man of the Dust of the Ground and breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and Man became a Living Soul 1. There is the Matter whereof he was formed 2. The Quickning Principle added thereunto And 3. the Effect of their Conjunction and Union For the Matter he was made of it is said he was formed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dust of the Ground or dust gathered together on an heap from and upon the Ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 8. 26. So is God the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the universal framer of All represented as an Artificer who first prepares his Matter and then forms it as it seemeth good unto him And this is mentioned for two ends First To set forth the Excellency Power and Wisdom of God who out of such vile contemptible Matter as an heap of Dust swept as it were together on the Ground could and did make so excellent curious and glorious a Fabrick as is the Body of Man or as was the Body of Adam before the Fall Secondly To mind Man of his Original that he might be kept humble and in a meet dependance on the Wisdom and Bounty of his Creator for thence it was and not from the Original Matter whereof he was made that he became so excellent Hereof Abraham makes his solemn Acknowledgment before the Lord Gen. 18. 27. Behold I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but Dust and Ashes He ashes himself with the Remembrance of his Original And this as it were God reproacheth Adam withal upon his Sin and Transgression Gen. 3. 19. Thou shalt return unto the Ground for out of it wast thou taken For Dust thou art and unto Dust thou shalt return He lets him know that he had now by sin lost that Immortality which he was made in a condition to have enjoyed and that his Body according to his Nature and Constitution should return again into its first Principles or the Dust of the Earth Into this formed Dust Secondly God breathed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Breath of Life Divine aurae particulam a vital immortal Spirit This God breathed into him as giving him something of himself somewhat immediately of his own not made out of any praecreated Matter This is the Rational Soul or Intelligent Spirit Thus Man became a middle Creature between the Angels above and the sensitive Animals below His Body was formed as the Beasts from the Matter made the first Day and digested into dry Land on the third Day His Soul was an immediate Production of and Emanation from the Divine Power as the Angels were So when in the Works of the New Creation our Blessed Saviour bestowed the Holy Ghost on his Disciples he breathed on them as a sign that he gave them something of his own This Coelestial Spirit this Heavenly Breath was unto Man a quickning Principle For thirdly the Effect hereof is that Man became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a living Soul His Body was
hereby animated and capable of all Vital Acts. Hence he could move eat see hear c. for the natural Effects of this Breath of Life are only intended in this Expression Thus the first Man Adam was made a Living Soul 1 Cor. 15. 45. This was the Creation of Man as unto the essentially constituting Principles of his Nature Sect. 11 With respect unto his Moral Condition and Principle of Obedience unto God it is expressed Gen. 1. 26 27. And God said Let us make Man in our own Image after our likeness and let them have dominion so God created Man in his own Image in the Image of God created he him He made him upright Eccles. 7. 29. perfect in his Condition every way compleat fit disposed and able to and for the Obedience required of him Without Weakness Distemper Disease contrariety of Principles Inclinations or Reasonings An universal Rectitude of Nature consisting in Light Power and Order in his Understanding Mind and Affections was the principal part of this Image of God wherein he was created And this appears as from the Nature of the thing it self so from the Description which the Apostle giveth us of the Renovation of that Image in us by the Grace of Christ Ephes. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. And under both these Considerations we may weigh the especial Operations of the Spirit of God Sect. 12 First As to the Essential Principles of the Nature of Man it is not for nothing that God expresseth his Communication of a Spirit of Life by his breathing into him God breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life The Spirit of God and the Breath of God are the same onely the one Expression is proper the other metaphorical wherefore this breathing is the especial acting of the Spirit of God The Creation of the Humane Soul a Vital Immortal Principle and Being is the immeate Work of the Spirit of God Job 33. 4. The Spirit of God hath made me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life Here indeed the Creation and Production of both the essential parts of Humane Nature Body and Soul are ascribed unto the same Author For the Spirit of God and the Breath of God are the same but several Effects being mentioned causeth a repetition of the same Cause under several names This Spirit of God first made Man or formed his Body of the Dust and then gave him that Breath of Life whereby he became a living Soul So then under this first Consideration the Creation of Man is assigned unto the Holy Spirit for Man was the Perfection of the Inferior Creation and in order unto the Glory of God by him were all other things Created Here therefore are his Operations distinctly declared to whom the perfecting and compleating of all Divine Works is peculiarly committed Sect. 14 Secondly We may consider the moral State and Condition of Man with the Furniture of his Mind and Soul in reference unto his Obedience to God and his enjoyment of him This was the principal part of that Image of God wherein he was created Three things were required to render Man idoneous or fit unto that Life to God for which he was made First An ability to discern the Mind and Will of God with respect unto all the Duty and Obedience that God required of him as also so far to know the Nature and Properties of God as to believe him the only proper Object of all Acts and Duties of Religious Obedience and an all-sufficient Satisfaction and Reward in this World and to Eternity Secondly A free uncontrolled unintangled disposition to every Duty of the Law of his Creation in order unto living unto God Thirdly An ability of Mind and Will with a readiness of complyance in his Affections for a due regular performance of all Duties and abstinence from all Sin These things belonged unto the integrity of his Nature with the uprightness of the State and Condition wherein he was made And all these things were the peculiar Effects of the immediate Operation of the Holy Ghost For although this Rectitude of his Nature be distinguishable and separable from the Faculties of the Soul of Man yet in his first Creation they were not actually distinguished from them nor superadded or infused into them when Created but were concreated with them that is his Soul was made meet and able to live to God as his Sovereign Lord Chiefest Good and Last End And so they were all from the Holy Ghost from whom the Soul was as hath been declared Yea suppose these Abilities to be superadded unto Man's Natural Faculties as Gifts supernatural which yet is not so they must be acknowledged in a peculiar manner to be from the Holy Spirit For in the Restauration of these Abilities unto our minds in our Renovation unto the Image of God in the Gospel it is plainly asserted that the Holy Ghost is the immediate Operator of them And he doth thereby restore his own Work and not take the Work of another out of his Hand For in the New Creation the Father in the way of Authority designs it and brings all things unto an head in Christ Ephes. 1. 10. which retrived his original peculiar Work and the Son gave unto all things a new consistency which belonged unto him from the beginning Col. 1. 16. So also the Holy Spirit renews in us the Image of God the original implantation whereof was his peculiar Work And thus Adam may be said to have had the Spirit of God in his Innocency He had him in these peculiar Effects of his Power and Goodness and he had him according to the Tenor of that Covenant whereby it was possible that he should utterly lose him as accordingly it came to pass He had him not by especial Inhabitation for the whole World was then the Temple of God In the Covenant of Grace founded in the Person and on the Mediation of Christ it is otherwise On whomsoever the Spirit of God is bestowed for the Renovation of the Image of God in him he abides with him for ever But in all Men from first to last all Goodness Righteousness and Truth are the Fruits of the Spirit Ephes. 5. 9. Sect. 15 The Works of God being thus finished and the whole frame of Nature set upon its Wheels it is not deserted by the Spirit of God For as the preservation continuance and acting of all things in the Universe according to their especial Nature and mutual Application of one unto another are all from the powerful and efficacious Influences of Divine Providence so there are particular Operations of the Holy Spirit â—â—nd about all things whether meerly Natural and Animal or also Rational and Moral An Instance in each kind may suffice For the first as we have shewed the Propagation of the succeeding Generations of Creatures and the annual Renovation of the Face of the Earth are ascribed unto him Psal. 104. 30. For as we would own the due and just Powers
all who enjoyed Divine Revelation even under the Old Testament though to us it be manifested with more Light and convincing Evidence The Incarnation of the Son of God was promised and expected from the first entrance of Sin and received its actual Accomplishment in the fulness of Time during the continuance of the Mosaical Paedagogie But this Dispensation of the Holy Ghost whereof we now proceed to treat is so peculiar unto the New Testament that the Evangelist speaking of it sayes The Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified Joh. 7. 39. And they who were instructed in the Doctrine of John the Bapist only knew not whether there were any Holy Ghost Acts 19. 2. Both which saying concerned his Dispensation under the New Testament for his eternal Being and Existence they were not ignorant of nor did he then first begin to be as we have fully manifested in our foregoing Discourse To stir us up therefore unto diligence in this Enquiry unto what was in general laid down before I shall add some Considerations evidencing the Greatness and Necessity of this Duty and then proceed to the Matter it self that we have proposed to handle and explain Sect. 2 1. The plentiful Effusion of the Spirit is that which was principally prophesied of and foretold as the great Priviledg and Pre-eminence of the Gospel-Church State This was that good Wine which was kept until the last This all Prophets bear witness unto see Isa. 35. 7. Chap. 44. 3. Joel 2. 28. Ezek. 11. 19. Chap. 36. 27. with other places innumerable The great Promise of the Old Testament was that concerning the coming of Christ in the Flesh. But he was so to come as to put an end unto that whole Church-State wherein his coming was expected To prove this was the principal Design of the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews But this Promise of the Spirit whose accomplishment was reserved for the Times of the Gospel was to be the Foundation of another Church-State and the means of its Continuance If therefore we have any interest in the Gospel it self or desire to have if we have either Part or Lot in this Matter or desire to be made Partakers of the Benefits which attend thereon which are no less than our Acceptation with God here and our Salvation hereafter it is our Duty to Search the Scriptures and enquire diligently into these things And let no Man deceive us with vain words as though the things spoken concerning the Spirit of God and his Work towards them that do believe are fanatical and unintelligible by rational Men for because of this contempt of him the Wrath of God will come on the Children of Disobedience And if the World in Wisdom and their Reason know him not nor can receive him yet they who believe do know him for he dwelleth with them and shall be in them John 14. 17. And the present practice of the World in despising and sleighting the Spirit of God and his Work gives Light and Evidence unto those words of our Saviour that the World cannot receive him And it cannot do so because it neither seeth him nor knoweth him or hath no Experience of his Work in them or of his Power and Grace Accordingly doth it is it come to pass Wherefore not to avow the Spirit of God in his Work is to be ashamed of the Gospel and of the Promise of Christ as if it were a thing not to be owned in the World Sect. 3 2. The Ministry of the Gospel whereby we are begotten again that we should be a kind of first Fruits of his Creatures unto God is from his promised Presence with it and Work in it called the Ministry of the Spirit even of the Spirit that giveth Life 2 Cor. 3. 6. And it is so in opposition to the ministration of the Law wherein yet there were a multitude of Ordinances of Worship and Glorious Ceremonies And he who knows no more of the Ministry of the Gospel but what consists in an attendance unto the Letter of Institutions and the manner of their performance knows nothing of it Nor yet is there any extraordinary Afflatus or Inspiration now intended or attended unto as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we pretend But there is that present of the Spirit of God with the Ministry of the Gospel in his Authority Assistance Communication of Gifts and Abilities Guidance and Direction as without which it will be useless and unprofitable in and unto all that take the Work thereof upon them This will be more fully declared afterwards For Sect. 4 3. The Promise and Gift of the Spirit under the Gospel is not made nor granted unto any peculiar sort of Persons only but unto all Believers as their Conditions and Occasions do require They are not therefore the especial Interest of a few but the common concern of all Christians The Papists grant that this Promise is continued but they would confine it to their Pope or their Councils things no where mentioned in the Scripture nor the Object of any one Gospel-Promise whatever It is all Believers in their Places and Stations Churches in their Order and Ministers in their Office unto whom the Promise of him is made and towards whom it is accomplished as shall be shown Others also grant the continuance of this Gift but understand no more by it but an ordnary blessing upon Mens rational endeavours common and exposed unto all alike This is no less than to overthrow his whole Work to take his Sovereignty out of his Hand and to deprive the Church of all especial Interest in the Promise of Christ concerning him In this enquiry therefore we look after what at present belongs unto our selves if so be we are Disciples of Christ and do expect the fulfilling of his Promises For whatever Men may pretend unto this day if they have not the Spirit of Christ they are none of his Rom. 8. 9. For our Lord Jesus Christ hath promised him as a Comforter to abide with his Disciples for ever Joh. 14. And by him it is that he is present with them and among them to the end of the World Mat. 28. 20. Chap. 18. 20. That we speak noâ— as yet of his sanctifying Work whereby we are enabled to believe and are made Partakers of that Holiness without which no Man shall see God Wherefore without him all Religion is but a Body without a Soul a Carcase without an animating Spirit It is true in the continuation of his Work he ceaseth from putting forth those extraordinary Effects of his Power which were needful for the laying the Foundation of the Church in the World But the whole Work of his Grace according to the Promise of the Covenant is no less truly and really carried on at this day in and towards all the Elect of God than it was on the day of Pentecost and onwards and so is his communication of Gifts necessary for
Whatever the Son of God wrought in by or upon the Humane Nature he did it by the Holy Ghost who is his Spirit as he is the Spirit of the Father Sect. 9 6. To clear the whole matter it must be yet further observed that the immediate actings of the Holy Ghost are not spoken of him absolutely nor ascribed unto him exclusively as unto the other Persons and their Concurrence in them It is a saying generally admitted that Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa There is no such Division in the external Operations of God that any one of them should be the Act of one Person without the Concurrence of the others And the Reason of it is because the Nature of God which is the Principle of all Divine Operations is one and the same individed in them all Whereas therefore they are the Effects of Divine Power and that Power is essentially the same in each Person the Works themselves belong equally unto them As if it were possible that Three Men might see by the same Eye the Act of seeing would be but One and it would be equally the Act of all Three But the Things we insist on are ascribed eminently unto the Holy Ghost on the account of the Order of his Subsistence in the Holy Trinity as he is the Spirit of the Father and the Son whence in every Divine Act the Authority of the Father the Love and Wisdom of the Son with the immediate Efficacy and Power of the Holy Ghost are to be considered Yea and there is such a distinction in their Operations that one Divine Act may produce a peculiar Respect and Relation unto one Person and not unto another as the Assumption of the Humane Nature did to the Son for he only was incarnate And such are the especial Actings of the Holy Ghost towards the Head of the Church our Lord Jesus Christ in this Work of the New Creation as we shall demonstrate in sundry Instances Sect. 10 First The framing forming and miraculous Conception of the Body of Christ in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin was the peculiar and especial Work of the Holy Ghost This Work I acknowledg in respect of Designation and the Authoritative Disposal of things is ascribed unto the Father For so the Lord Christ speaketh unto him A Body hast thou prepared me Heb. 10. 6. But this Preparation doth not signifie the actual forming and making ready of that Body but the Eternal Designation of it It was prepared in the Counsel and Love of the Father As to voluntary Assumption it is ascribed to the Son himself Heb. 2. 14. Forasmuch as the Children were Partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself pertook of the same he took unto him a Body and Soul entire Humane Nature as the Children or all Believers have the same Synecdochically expressed by Flesh and Blood v. 16. He took on him the Seed of Abraham But the immediate Divine Efficiency in this Matter was the Peculiar Work of the Holy Ghost Matth. 1. 18. When his Mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together she was found to be with Child of the Holy Ghost v. 20. That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost Luk. 1. 35. The Angel answered and said unto her The Holy Ghost shall come upon Thee and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow Thee therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of Thee shall be called the Son of God 1. The Person working is the Holy Ghost He is the wonderful Operator in this Glorious Work and therein the Power of the most High was exerted For the Power of the most High is neither explicatory of the former expression the Holy Ghost as though he were only the Power of the most High nor is it the adjoyning of a Distinct Agent or Cause unto him as though the Holy Ghost and the Power of the most High were different Agents in this Matter Only the manner of his effecting this wonderful Matter concerning which the Blessed Virgin had made that enquiry v. 34. How can this be seeing I know not a Man is expressed The Holy Ghost saith the Angel acting the Power of the most High or in the Infinite Power of God shall accomplish it 2. For his access unto his Work it is expressed by his coming upon her The importance of this Expression and what is signified thereby hath been declared before And it is often used to declare his Actings with reference unto the Production of Miraculous Works Acts 1. 8. Ye shall receive Power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you He will so come upon you as to put forth the Power of the most High in you and by you in Gifts and Operations miraculous For he is said to come with respect unto his beginning of any marvelous Operation where before he did not work to the like purpose 3. The Act of the Holy Ghost in this Matter was a Creating Act not indeed like the first Creating Act which produced the Matter and Substance of all things out of nothing causing that to be which was not before neither in Matter nor Form nor passive Disposition but like those subsequent Acts of Creation whereby out of Matter before made and prepared things were made that which before they were not and which of themselves they had no active Disposition unto nor concurrence in So Man was created or formed of the Dust of the Earth and Woman of a Rib taken from Man There was a previous Matter unto their Creation but such as gave no assistance nor had any active Disposition to the Production of that particular kind of Creature whereinto they were formed by the Creating Power of God Such was this Act of the Holy Ghost in forming the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. For although it was effected by an Act of Infinite Creating Power yet it was formed or made of the Substance of the Blessed Virgin That it should be so was absolutely necessary 1. For the accomplishment of the Promises made unto Abraham and David that the Messiah should be of their Seed and proceed from their Loyns 2. So was it also on the account of the first Original Promise That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents Head For the Word was to be made Flesh John 1. 14. to be made of a Woman Gal. 4. 4. or made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh Rom. 1. 4. and take upon him the Seed of Abraham Heb. 2. 16. 3. To confirm the Truth hereof is his Genealogie according to the Flesh given us by two of the Evangelists which were neither to the purpose nor true if he were not made of the Substance or Flesh of the Blessed Virgin 4. Besides all our Cognation and Alliance unto him whence he was meet to be our Saviour suffering in the same Nature wherein we have sinned do depend hereon Heb. 2. 14. For if he had not been made like us in
all things sin only excepted if he had not been Partaker of our Nature there had been no Foundation for the imputing that unto us which he did suffered and wrought Rom. 8. 3. And hence these things are accounted unto us and cannot be so unto Angels whose Nature he did not take upon him Heb. 2. 16. This therefore was the Work of the Holy Ghost in reference unto the Humane Nature of Christ in the Womb of his Mother By his Omnipotent Power he formed it of the Substance of the Body of the Holy Virgin that is as unto his Body And hence sundry things do ensue Sect. 11 1. That the Lord Christ could not on this account no not with respect unto his Humane Nature only be said to be the Son of the Holy Ghost although he supplyed the Place and Vertue of a Natural Father in Generation For the Relation of Filiation dependeth only on and ariseth from a Perfect Generation and not on every Effect of an Efficient cause When one Fire is kindled by another we do not say that it is the Son of that other unless it be very improperly Much less when a Man builds an House do we say that it is his Son There was therefore no other Relation between the Person of the Holy Ghost and the Humane Nature of Christ but that of a Creator and a Creature And the Lord Christ is and is called the Son of God with respect only unto the Father and his eternal ineffable Generation communicating Being and Subsistence unto Him as the Fountain and Original of the Trinity Filiation therefore is a Personal Adjunct and belongs unto Christ as he was a Divine Person and not with respect unto his Humane Nature But that Nature being assumed whole Christ was the Son of God Sect. 12 2. That this Act of the Holy Ghost in forming of the Body of Christ differs from the Act of the Son in assuming the Humane Nature into Personal Union with Himself For this Act of the Son was not a Creating Act producing a Being out of Nothing or making any thing by the same Power to be what in its own Nature it was not But it was an ineffable Act of Love and Wisdom taking the Nature so formed by the Holy Ghost so prepared for him to be his own in the instant of its Formation and thereby preventing the singular and individual Subsistence of that Nature in and by it self So then as the creating Act of the Holy Ghost in forming the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Womb doth not denominate him to be his Father no not according to the Humane Nature but he is the Son of God upon the account of his Eternal Generation only So it doth not denote an Assumption of that Nature into Union with himself nor was he incarnate He made the Humane Nature of Christ Body and Soul with in and unto a Subsistence in the Second Person of the Trinity not his own Sect. 13 3. It hence also followes that the Conception of Christ in the Womb being the Effect of a Creating Act was not accomplished successively and in process of time but was perfected in an Instant For although the Creating Acts of Infinite Power where the Works effected have distinct Parts may have a Process or Duration of Time allotted unto them as the World was Created in six Dayes yet every part of it that was the Object of an especial Creating Act was instantaneously produced So was the forming of the Body of Christ with the infusion of a Rational Soul to quicken it though it increased afterwards in the Womb unto the Birth And as it is probable that this Conception was immediate upon the Angelical Salutation so it was necessary that nothing of the Humane Nature of Christ should exist of it self antecedently unto its Union with the Son of God For in the very instant of its Formation and therein was the Word made Flesh John 1. 14. And the Son of God was made of a Woman Gal. 4. 4. So that the whole Essence of his Nature was created in the same Instant Thus far the Scriptures go before and herein it is necessary to assert the forming of the Body and Soul of Christ by the Holy Spirit The curious enquiries of some of the Schoolmen and others are to be left unto themselves or rather to be condemned in them For what was farther in this Miraculous Operation of the Holy Ghost it seems purposely to be hid from us in that Expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Power of the most High shall overshadow thee Under the Secret Glorious Covert hereof we may learn to adore that Holy Work here which we hope to rejoyce in and bless God for unto Eternity And I suppose also that there is in the Word an allusion unto the Expression of the Original Acting of the Holy Spirit towards the newly produced Mass of the Old Creation whereof we spake before Then it is said of Him that He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were hovering and moving over it for the Formation and Production of all things living For both the Words include in them an allusion unto a Covering like that of a Fowl over its Eggs communicating by its cognate warmth and heat a principle of Life unto their Seminal Virtue Sect. 14 It remaineth only that we consider how the same Work of the Conception of Christ is assigned unto the Holy Ghost and to the Blessed Virgin For of Her it is said expresly in Prophesie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isa. 7. 14. A Virgin shall Conceive the same Word that is used to express the Conception of any other Woman Gen. 4. 1. Hence She is termed by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Dei genetrix which last at least I wish had been forborn Compare it with the Scripture and there will appear an unwarrantable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it So Luk. 1. 31. The words of the Angel to Her are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt Conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son where Her Conception of Him is distinguished from her bringing of him forth And yet in the Ancient Creed commonly called the Apostles and generally received by all Christians as a Summary of Religion it is said he was Conceived by the Holy Spirit and only Born of the Virgin Mary An. The same Work is assigned to both as Causes of a different kind unto the Holy Spirit as the active efficient Cause who by his Almighty Power produced the Effect And the Disputes managed by some of the Ancients about de Spiritu Sancto and ex Spiritu Sancto were altogether needless For it is his Creating Efficiency that is intended And his Conceiving is ascribed unto the Holy Virgin as the passive material Cause for his Body was formed of her Substance as was before declared And this Conception of Christ was after her Solemn Espousals unto Joseph and that for sundry Reasons For 1. under the
Covering of her Marriage to him she was to receive a Protection of her Spotless Innocency And besides 2. God provided one that should take care of her and her Child in his infancy And hereby 3. also was our Blessed Saviour freed from the imputation of an illegitimate Birth until by his own Miraculous Operations he should give Testimony unto his Miraculous Conception concerning which before his Mother could not have been believed 4. That he might have one on whose account his Genealogie might be recorded to manifest the accomplishment of the Promise unto Abraham David For the Line of a Genealogie was not legally continued by the Mother only Hence Matthew gives us his Genealogie by Joseph to whom his Mother was legally espoused And although Luke give us the true Natural Line of his Descent by the Progenitors of the Blessed Virgin yet he nameth her not only mentioning her Espousals he begins with Heli who was her Father Chap. 3. 23. And this is the first thing ascribed peculiarly to the Holy Spirit with respect unto the Head of the Church Christ Jesus Sect. 14 From this Miraculous Creation of the Body of Christ by the immediate Power of the Holy Ghost did it became a meet Habitation for his Holy Soul every way ready and complying with all actings of Grace and Vertue We have not only the Depravation of our Natures in General but the obliquity of our particular Constitutions to conflict withal Hence it is that one is disposed to Passion Wrath and Anger another to Vanity and Lightness a third of Sensuality and fleshly Pleasures and so others to Sloth and Idleness And although this Disposition so far as it is the Result of our especial Constitutions and Complexion is not sin in it self yet it dwells at the next Door unto it and as it is excited by the Moral Pravity of our Natures a continual occasion of it But the Body of Christ being formed pure and exact by the Holy Ghost there was no Disposition or Tendency in his Constitution to the least Deviation from perfect Holiness in any kind The exquisite Harmony of his natural temperature made Love Meekness Gentleness Patience Benignity and Goodness Natural and Cognate unto him as having an incapacity of such Motions as should be subservient unto or complaint with any thing different from them Hence 2dly also although he took on him those Infirmities which belong unto our Humane Nature as such and are inseparable from it until it be glorified yet he took none of our particular Infirmities which cleave unto our Persons occasioned either by the Vice of our Constitutions or irregularity in the use of our Bodies Those natural Passions of our Minds which are capable of being the means of affliction and trouble as Grief Sorrow and the like he took upon him as also those Infirmities of Nature which are troublesome to the Body as Hunger Thirst Weariness and Pain Yea the purity of his Holy Constitution made him more highly sensible of these things than any of the Children of Men. But as to our Bodily Diseases and Distempers which personally adhere unto us upon the Disorder and Vice of our Constitutions he was absolutely free from Work of the HOLY SPIRIT in and on the Humane Nature of Christ. CHAP. IV. 1. The actual Sanctification of the Humane Nature of Christ by the Holy Ghost On what Ground spotless and free from sin Positively endowed with all Grace 2. Original Holiness and Sanctification in Christ how carried on by the Spirit Exercise of Grace in Christ by the rational Faculties of his Soul Their Improvement 3. Wisdom and Knowledg how increased objectively in the Humane Nature of Christ. 4. The Anointing of Christ by the Holy Spirit with Power and Gifts 5. Collated eminently on him at his Baptism John 3. 34. explained and vindicated 6. Miraculous Works wrought in Christ by the Holy Ghost 7. Christ guided conducted and supported by the Spirit in his whole Work Mark 1. 11. opened 8. How the Lord Christ offered himself unto God through the Eternal Spirit 9. His Sanctification thereunto 10. Graces acting eminently therein Love Zeal Submission Faith and Truth all exercised therein 11 12. The Work of the Spirit of God towards Christ whilst he was in the state of the Dead in his Resurrection and Glorification 13. The Office of the Spirit to bear Witness unto Christ and its Discharge 14. The true Way and Means of coming unto the Knowledg of Christ with the necessity thereof 15. Danger of Mistakes herein 16. What it is to Love Christ as we ought Sect. 1 SEcondly The Humane Nature of Christ being thus formed in the Womb by a Creating Act of the Holy Spirit was in the instant of its Conception sanctified and filled with Grace according to the measure of its Receptivity Being not begotten by Natural Generation it derived no taint of Original Sin or Corruption from Adam that being the only Way and Means of its Propagation And being not in the Loyns of Adam morally before the Fall the Promise of his Incarnation being not given until afterwards the Sin of Adam could on no account be imputed unto him All Sin was charged on him as our Mediator and Surety of the Covenant but on his own account he was obnoxious to no charge of Sin Original or Actual His Nature therefore as miraculously created in the manner described was absolutely innocent spotless and free from sin as was Adam in the day wherein he was Created But this was not all It was by the Holy Spirit positively endowed with all Grace And hereof it was afterwards only capable of farther degrees as to actual Exercise but not of any new kind of Grace And this Work of Sanctification or the Original Infusion of all Grace into the Humane Nature of Christ was the immediate Work of the Holy Spirit which was necessary unto him For let the Natural Faculties of the Soul the Mind Will and Affections be created pure innocent undefiled as they cannot be otherwise immediately created of God yet this is not enough to enable any rational Creature to live to God much less was it all that was in Jesus Christ. There is moreover required hereunto supernatural Endowments of Grace superadded unto the Natural Faculties of our Souls If we live unto God there must be a principle of Spiritual Life in us as well of Life Natural This was the Image of God in Adam and was wrought in Christ by the Holy Spirit Isa. 11. 1 2 3. And there shall come forth a Rod out of the Stem of Jesse and a Branch shall grow out of his Roots And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and Might the Spirit of Knowledg and of the Fear of the Lord and shall make him of quick Understanding in the Fear of the Lord. It is granted that the following Work of the Spirit in and upon the Lord Christ in the
especial part of this his Offering up himself That this was wrought in him by the Holy or Eternal Spirit was before declared And it is frequently expressed as that which had an especial Influence into the Efficacy and Merit of his Sacrifice Psal. 2. 8. He humbled himself and became Obedient unto Death the Death of the Cross. And when he offered up Prayers and Supplications though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered Heb. 5. 8. That is he experienced Obedience in Suffering It is true that the Lord Christ in the whole course of his Life yeelded Obedience unto God as he was made of a Woman made under the Law Gal. 4. 4. But now he came to the great Tryal of it with respect unto the especial command of the Father to lay down his Life and to make his Soul an Offering for sin Isa. 53. 10. This was the highest Act of Obedience unto God that ever was or ever shall be to all Eternity And therefore doth God so express his satisfaction therein and acceptance of it Isa. 53. 11 12. Phil. 2. 9 10. This was wrought in him this he was wrought unto by the Holy Spirit and therefore by him offered himself unto God 4. There belongs also hereunto that Faith and Trust in God which with fervent Prayers Cries Supplications he now acted on God and his Promises both with respect unto himself and to the Covenant which he was sealing with his Blood This our Apostle represents as an especial Work of his testified unto in the Old Testament Heb. 2. 13. I will put my trust in him And this 1. respected himself namely that he should be supported assisted and carried through the Work he had undertaken unto a blessed Issue Herein I confess he was horribly assaulted until he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Psal. 22. 1. But yet after and through all his dreadful Tryal his Faith and Trust in God were Victorious This he expressed in the Depth and Extremity of his Tryals Psal. 22. 9 10 11. and made such an open Profession of it that his Enemies when they supposed him lost and defeated reproached him with it v. 8. Matth. 27. 43. To this purpose be declared himself at large Isa. 50. 7 8 9. So his Faith and Trust in God as to his own supportment and deliverance with the accomplishment of all the Promises that were made unto him upon his ingagement into the Work of Mediation were victorious 2. They respected the Covenant and all the Benefits that the Church of the Elect was to be made Partaker of thereby The Blood that he now shed was the Blood of the Covenant and it was shed for his Church namely that the Blessings of the Covenant might be communicated unto them Gal. 3. 13 14. With respect hereunto did he also exercise Faith in God as appears fully in his Prayer which he made when he entred on his Oblation John 17. Now concerning these Instances we may observe three Things to our present purpose 1. These and the like gracious Actings of the Soul of Christ were the Wayes and Means whereby in his Death and Bloodshedding which was violent and by force inflicted on him as to the outward Instruments and was penal as to the Sentence of the Law he voluntarily and freely offered up himself a Sacrifice unto God for to make Atonement And these were the things which from the dignity of his Person became Efficacious and Victorious Without these his Death and Bloodshedding had been no Oblation 2. These were the things which rendred his Offering of himself to be a Sacrifice of a sweet smâ—lling Savour unto God Ephes. 5. 2. God was so absolutely delighted and pleased with these high and glorious Acts of Grace and Obedience in Jesus Christ that he smelt as it were a Savour of Rest towards Mankind or those for whom he offered himself so that he would be angry with them no more curse them no more As it is said of the Type of it in the Sacrifice of Noah Gen. 8. 20 21. God was more pleased with the Obedience of Christ than he was displeased with the Sin and Disobedience of Adam Rom. 5. 17 18 19. It was not then the outward suffering of a violent and bloody Death which was inflicted on him by the most horrible wickedness that ever Humane Nature brake forth into that God was atoned Acts 2. 23. Nor yet was it meerly his enduring the Penalty of the Law that was the means of our Deliverance But the voluntary giving up of himself to be a Sacrifice in these Holy Acts of Obedience was that upon which in an especial manner God was reconciled unto us All these things being wrought in the Humane Nature by the Holy Ghost who in the time of his Offering acted all his Graces unto the utmost He is said thereon to offer himself unto God through the Eternal Spirit by whom as our High Priest he was Consecrated Spirited and Acted thereunto Sect. 10 Eighthly There was a peculiar Work of the Holy Spirit towards the Lord Christ whilst he was in the State of the Dead For here our precedeing Rule must be remembred namely that notwithstanding the Union of the Humane Nature of Christ with the Divine in the Person of the Son yet the Communications of God unto it beyond Subsistence were voluntary Thus in his Death the Union of his Natures in his Person was not in the least impeached but yet for his Soul or Spirit he recommends that in an especial manner into the Hands of God his Father Psal. 31. 5. Luke 23. 46. Father into thy Hands I commend my Spirit for the Father had ingaged himself in an Eternal Covenant to take care of him to preserve and protect him even in Death and to shew him again the Way and Path of Life Psal. 16. 11. Notwithstanding then the Union of his Person his Soul in its separate State was in an especial manner under the care protection and power of the Father preserved in his Love until the Hour came wherein he shewed him again the Path of Life His Holy Body in the Grave continued under the especial care of the Spirit of God and hereby was accomplished that great Promise That his Soul should not be left in Hell nor the Holy One see Corruption Psal. 16. 10. Acts 2. 31. It is the Body of Christ which is here called the Holy One as it was made an holy Thing by the Conception of it in the Womb by the Power of the Holy Ghost And it is here spoken of in contradistinction unto his Soul and opposed by Peter unto the Body of David which when it died saw Corruption Acts 2. 29. This Pure and Holy Substance was preserved in its Integrity by the overshadowing Power of the Holy Spirit without any of those Accidents of change which attend the dead Bodies of others I deny not but there was use made of the Ministry of
Angels about the dead Body of Christ whilst it was in the Grave even those which were seen sitting afterwards in the place where he lay John 20. 12. by these was it preserved from all outward Force and Violation But this also was under the peculiar care of the Spirit of God who how he worketh by Angels hath been before declared Sect. 11 Ninthly There was a peculiar Work of the Holy Spirit in his Resurrection this being the compleating Act in laying the Foundation of the Church whereby Christ entred into his Rest the great Testimony given unto the finishing of the Work of Redemption with the satisfaction of God therein and his acceptation of the Person of the Redeemer It is on various accounts assigned distinctly to each Person in the Trinity And this not only as all the external Works of God are individed each Person being equally concerned in their Operation but also upon the account of their especial respect unto and interest in the Work of Redemption in the manner before declared Unto the Father it is ascribed on the account of his Authority and the declaration therein of Christ's perfect accomplishment of the Work committed unto him Acts 2. 24. Him hath God raised up having loosed the Pains of Death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it it is the Father who is spoken of And he is said as in other places to raise Christ from the Dead but this he doth with respect unto his loosing the Pains of Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which with a little alteration of one Vowel signifie the Sorrows of Death or the Cords of Death For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the Sorrow of Death and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the Cords of Death see Psal. 18. 4. Psal. 116. 3. And these Sorrows of Death here intended were the Cords of it that is the Power it had to bind the Lord Christ for a season under it For the Pains of Death that is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tormenting Pains ended in his death it self But the Consequents of them are here reckoned unto them or the continuance under the Power of Death according unto the Sentence of the Law These God loosed when the Law being fully satisfied the Sentence of it was taken off and the Lord Christ was acquitted from its whole Charge This was the Act of God the Father as the Supream Rector and Judg of all Hence he is said to raise him from the Dead as the Judg by his Order delivereth an acquitted Prisoner or one who hath answered the Law The same Work he also takes unto himself John 10. 17 18. I lay down my Life that I may take it again no Man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again For although Men by violence took away his Life when with wicked hands they crucified and slew him Acts 2. 23. Chap. 3. 15 Yet because they had neither Authority nor Ability so to do without his own consent he saith No Man could or did take away his Life that is against his Will by Power over him as the lives of other Men are taken away for this neither Angels nor Men could do So also although the Father is said to raise him from the Dead by taking off the Sentence of the Law which he had answered yet he himself also took his Life again by an Act of the Love Care and Power of his Divine Nature his living again being an Act of his Person although the Humane Nature only died But the peculiar efficiency in the reuniting of his most Holy Soul and Body was an Effect of the Power of the Holy Spirit 1 Pet. 3. 18. He was put to death in the Flesh but quickned in the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was restored to Life by the Spirit and this was that Spirit whereby he preached unto them that were disobedient in the dayes of Noah v. 19 20. or that Spirit of Christ which was in the Prophets from the Foundation of the World 1 Pet. 1. 11 12. by which he preached in Noah unto that disobedient Generation 2 Pet. 2. 5. whereby the Spirit of God strove for a season with those Inhabitants of the Old World Gen. 6. 3. that is the Holy Spirit of God To the same purpose we are instructed by our Apostle Rom. 8. 11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the Dead shall also quicken your Mortal Bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in you God shall quicken our Mortal Bodies also by the same Spirit whereby he raised Christ from the Dead For so the Relation of the one Work to the other requires the words to be understood And he asserts again the same expresly Ephes. 1. 17 18 19 20. he prayes that God would give his Holy Spirit unto them as a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation v. 17. The Effects thereof in them and upon them are described v. 18. and this he desires that they may so be made Partakers of that by the Work of the Spirit of God in themselves renewing and quickning of them they might have an experience of that exceeding greatness of his Power which he put forth in the Lord Christ when he raised him from the Dead And the Evidence or Testimony given unto his being the Son of God by his Resurrection from the Dead is said to be according to the Spirit of Holiness or the Holy Spirit Rom. 1. 4. He was positively declared to be the Son of God by his Resurrection from the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit This also is the intendment of that Expression 1 Tim. 3. 16. Justified in the Spirit God was manifest in the Flesh by his Incarnation and Passion therein and justified in the Spirit by a Declaration of his acquitment from the Sentence of Death and all the Evils which he underwent with the Reproaches wherewith he was contemptuously used by his Quickning and Resurrection from the Dead through the mighty and effectual working of the Spirit of God Sect. 12 Tenthly It was the Holy Spirit that glorified the Humane Nature and made it every way meet for its Eternal Residence at the Right Hand of God and a Pattern of the Glorification of the Bodies of them that believe on him He who first made his Nature Holy now made it Glorious And as we are made conformable unto him in our Souls here his Image being renewed in us by the Spirit so he is in his Body now glorified by the Effectual Operation of the same Spirit the Exemplar and Pattern of that Glory which in our Mortal Bodies we shall receive by the same Spirit For when he appears we shall be like him 1 John 3. 2. seeing he will change our vile Bodies that they
Conversion farther declared Sect. 1 FIrst In reference unto the Work of Regeneration it self positively considered we may observe that ordinarily there are certain previous and preparatory Works or workings in and upon the Souls of Men that are antecedent and dispositive unto it But yet Regeneration doth not consist in them nor can it be educed out of them This is for the substance of it the Position of the Divines of the Church of England at the Synod of Dort two whereof died Bishops and others of them were dignified in the Hierarchy I mention it that those by whom these things are despised may a little consider whose Ashes they trample on and scorn Lawful doubtless it is for any Man on just grounds to dissent from their Judgments and Determinations but to do it with an imputation of folly with derision contempt scorn and scoffing at what they believed and taught becometh only a Generation of new Divines amongst us But to return I speak in this Position only of them that are Adult and not Converted until they have made use of the Means of Grace in and by their own Reasons and Understandings And the Dispositions I intend are only materially so not such as contain Grace of the same Nature as is Regeneration it self A material Disposition is that which disposeth and some way maketh a Subject fit for the Reception of that which shall be communicated added or infused into it as its Form So Wood by dryness and a due composure is made fit and ready to admit of firing or continual Fire A formal Disposition is where one Degree of the same kind disposeth the Subject unto farther Degrees of it As the Morning Light which is of the same kind disposeth the Air to the reception of the full Light of the Sun The former we allow here not the latter Thus in Natural Generation there are sundry Dispositions of the Matter before the Form is introduced So the Body of Adam was formed before the rational Soul was breathed into it and Ezekiel's Bones came together with a noise and shaking before the Breath of Life entred into them Sect. 2 I shall in this place give only a summary account of this Preparatory Work because in the close of these Discourses I shall handle it practically and more at large Wherefore what I have here to offer concerning it shall be reduced unto the ensuing Observations Sect. 3 1. There are some things required of us in a way of Duty in order unto our Regeneration which are so in the power of our own natural Abilities as that nothing but corrupt prejudices and stubbornness in sinning doth keep or hinder Men from the performance of them And these we may reduce unto two Heads 1. An outward Attendance unto the Dispensation of the Word of God with those other external means of Grace which accompany it or are appointed therein Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10. 17. that is it is Hearing the Word of God which is the ordinary means of ingenerating Faith in the Souls of Men. This is required of all to whom the Gospel doth come and this they are able of themselves to do as well as any other Natural or Civil Action And where Men do it not where they despise the Word at a distance yea where they do it not with diligence and choice it is meerly from supine negligence of Spiritual Things carnal security and contempt of God which they must answer for 2. A diligent Intension of Mind in attendance on the Means of Grace to understand and receive the things revealed and declared as the Mind and Will of God For this end hath God given Men their Reasons and Understandings that they may use and exercise them about their Duty towards him according to the Revelation of his Mind and Will To this purpose he calls upon them to remember that they are Men and to turn unto him And there is nothing herein but what is in the Liberty and Power of the rational Faculties of our Souls assisted with those common Aids which God affords unto all Men in general And great Advantages both may be and are daily attained hereby Persons I say who diligently apply their Rational Abilities in and about Spiritual Things as externally revealed in the Word and the Preaching of it do usually attain great Advantages by it and excel their Equals in other things as Paul did when he was brought up at the Feet of Gamaliel Would Men be but as intent and diligent in their endeavours after knowledg in Spiritual Things as revealed in a way suited unto our Capacities and Understandings as they are to get skill in Crafts Sciences and other Mysteries of Life it would be much otherwise with many than it is A neglect herein also is the Fruit of Sensuality Spiritual Sloth love of Sin and contempt of God all which are the voluntary Frames and Actings of the Minds of Men. Sect. 4 These things are required of us in order unto our Regeneration and it is in the power of our own Wills to comply with them and we may observe concerning them That 1. the omission of them the neglect of Men in them is the principal occasion and cause of the eternal ruine of the Souls of the generality of them to whom or amongst whom the Gospel is preached This is the condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men loved Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are evil John 3. 19. The generality of Men know full well that they do in this Matter no more what they are able than what they should All pleadable pretences of inability and weakness are far â—â—om them They cannot but know here and they shall be forced to 〈◊〉 hereafter that it was meerly from their own cursed sloth with lovâ— of the World and Sin that they were diverted from a diligent Attendance on the Means of Conversion and the sedulous exercise of their Minds about them Complaints hereof against themselves will make up a great part of their last dreadful cry 2. In the most diligent use of outward means Men are not able of themselves to attain unto Regeneration or compleat Conversion to God without an especial effectual internal Work of the Holy Spirit of Grace on their whole Souls This containing the substance of what is principally proposed unto confirmation in the ensuing Discourses needs not here be insisted on 3. Ordinarily God in the effectual Dispensation of his Grace meeteth with them who attend with Diligence on the outward Administration of the means of it He doth so I say ordinarily in comparison of them who are Despisers and Neglecters of them Sometimes indeed he goeth as it were out of the way to meet with and bring home unto himself a persecuting Saul taking of him in and taking him off from a course of open Sin and Rebellion But ordinarily he dispenseth his peculiar especial Grace among them who attend unto the
Preheminence in their Minds they consider afterwards the peculiar Doctrines of the Gospel with one or other of these Effects For 1. some in a manner wholly despise them reproaching those by whom they are singularly professed What is contained in them is of no importance in their Judgment compared with the more necessary Duties of Morality which they pretend to embrace and to acquit themselves of the trouble of a search into them reject them as unintelligible or unnecessary Or 2. they will by forced Interpretations enervating the Spirit and perverting the Mystery of them square and fit them to their own low and Carnal Apprehensions They would reduce the Gospel and all the Mysteries of it to their own Light as some to Reason as others to Philosophy as the rest And let them who comply not with their weak and carnal Notions of things expect all the contemptuous Reproaches which the proud pretenders unto Science and Wisdom of old cast upon the Apostles and first Preachers of the Gospel Hereby advancing Morality above the Mystery and Grace of the Gospel they at once reject the Gospel and destroy Morality also for taking it off from its proper Foundation it falls into the Dirt whereof the Conversation of the Men of this Perswasion is no small Evidence Sect. 59 From this Prejudice it is that the Spiritual Things of the Gospel are by many despised and contemned So God spake of Ephraim Hos. 8. 12. I have written to him the great things of the Law but they were counted as a strange thing The things intended were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great manifold various things of the Law That which the Law was then unto that People that is the Gospel now unto us The Torah was the intire Means of God's communicating his Mind and Will unto them as his whole Counsel is revealed unto us by the Gospel These things he wrote unto them or made them in themselves and their Revelation plain and perspicuous But when all was done they were esteemed by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is also the Gospel a thing forreign and alien unto the Minds of Men which they intend not to concern themselves in They will heed the things that are cognate unto the Principles of their Nature things morally Good or Evil but for the hidden Wisdom of God in the Mystery of the Gospel it is esteemed by them as a strange thing And innumerable other Prejudices of the same Nature doth this Darkness fill the Minds of Men withal whereby they are powerfully and as unto any Light or Strength of their own invincibly kept off from receiving of Spiritual Things in a spiritual manner Sect. 60 Again the Power and Efficacy of this Darkness in and upon the Souls of Unregenerate Men will be farther evidenced by the Consideration of its especial Subject or the Nature and Use of that Faculty which is affected with it This is the Mind or Understanding Light and Knowledg are intellectual Vertues or Perfections of the Mind and that in every kind what-ever whether in things Natural Moral or Spiritual The Darkness whereof we treat is the Privation of Spiritual Light or the want of it And therefore are they opposed unto one another You were Darkness but are Light in the Lord Ephes. 5. 8. It is therefore the Mind or Understanding which is affected with this Darkness which is vitiated and depraved by it Now the Mind may be considered two ways 1. As it is Theoretical or Contemplative discerning and judging of things proposed unto it So it is its office to find out consider discern and apprehend the truth of Things In the Case before us it is the duty of the Mind to apprehend understand and receive the Truths of the Gospel as they are proposed unto it in the manner of and unto the end of their proposal This as we have manifested by reason of its Depravation it neither doth nor is able to do John 1. 5. 2 Cor. 2. 14. 2. It may be considered as it is practical as to the Power it hath to direct the whole Soul and determine the Will unto actual Operation according to its Light I shall not enquire at present whether the Will as to the specification of its Acts do necessarily follow the determination of the Mind or practical Understanding I am at no more but that it is the directive Faculty of the Soul as unto all Moral and Spiritual Operations Hence it follows Sect. 61 1. That nothing in the Soul not the Will and Affections can will desire or cleave unto any good but what is presented unto them by the Mind and as it is presented That Good what-ever it be which the Mind cannot discover the Will cannot chuse nor the Affections cleave unto All their actings about and concerning them are not such as answer their Duty This our Saviour directs us to the consideration of Mat. 6. 22 23. The Light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thine Eye be single the whole Body shall be full of Light But if thine Eye be evil the whole Body shall be full of Darkness if therefore the Light that is in thee be Darkness how great is that Darkness As the Eye is naturally the Light of the Body or the means thereof so is the Mind unto the Soul And if Darkness be in the Eye not only the Eye but the whole Body is in Darkness because in the Eye alone is the Light of the whole so if the Mind be under Darkness the whole Soul is so also because it hath no Light but by the Mind And hence both is Illumination sometimes taken for the whole Work of Conversion unto God and the Spiritual Actings of the Mind by the Renovation of the Holy Ghost are constantly proposed as those which precede any gracious Actings in the Will Heart and Life as we shall shew afterwards 2. As the Soul can no way by any other of its Faculties receive embrace or adhere unto that Good in a saving manner which the Mind doth not savingly apprehend so where the Mind is practically deceived or any way captivated under the Power of Prejudices the Will and the Affections can no way free themselves from entertaining that evil which the Mind hath perversly assented unto Thus where the Mind is reprobate or void of a sound Judgment so as to call God Evil and Evil Good the Heart Affections and Conversation will be conformable thereunto Rom. 1. 28 29. And in the Scripture the deceit of the Mind is commonly laid down as the Principle of all Sin what-ever 1 Tim. 2. 14. Heb. 3. 12 13. 2 Cor. 11. 3. Sect. 62 And this is a brief Delineation of the state of the Mind of Man whilst unregenerate with respect unto Spiritual Things And from what hath been spoken we do conclude that the Mind in the state of Nature is so depraved vitiated and corrupted that it is not able upon the proposal of Spiritual Things unto it in the Dispensation
and Preaching of the Gospel to understand receive and embrace them in a spiritual and saving manner so as to have the sactifying Power of them thereby brought into and fixed in the Soul without an internal especial immediate supernatural effectual enlightning Act of the Holy Ghost which what it is and wherein it doth consist shall be declared Life and Death Natural and Spiritual Compared CHAP. IV. 1. Of Death in Sin All Unregenerate Men Spiritually Dead 2. Spiritual Death two-fold Moral 3. Metaphorical 4. Life Natural what it is and wherein it consists 5. Death Natural with its necessary Consequents 6 7 8. The Supernatural Life of Adam in Innocency in its Principle Acts and Power 9 10. Differences between it and our Spiritual Life in Christ. 11 12. Death Spiritual a Privation of the Life we had in Adam a Negation of the Life of Christ. 13. Privation of a Principle of all Life to God Spiritual Impotency therein 14. Differences between Death Natural and Spiritual 15 16 17. The Use of Precepts Promises and Threatnings 18 19 20 21. No Man perisheth meerly for want of Power 22 23 24. No Vital Acts in an estate of Death the Way of the Communication of Spiritual Life 25 26 27 28. Of what Nature are the best Works of Persons Unregenerate 29. No Disposition unto Spiritual Life under the Power of Spiritual Death Sect. 1 ANother Description that the Scripture gives of Unregenerate Men as to their State and Condition is That they are Spiritually Dead And hence in like manner it follows that there is a necessity of an internal powerful effectual Work of the Holy Ghost on the Souls of Men to deliver them out of this State and Condition by Regeneration And this principally respects their Wills and Affections as the Darkness and Blindness before described doth their Minds and Understandings There is a Spiritual Life whereby Men live unto God This they being Strangers unto and Alienate from are spiritually dead And this the Scripture declares concerning all Unregenerate Persons partly in direct words and partly in other Assertions of the same importance Of the first sort the Testimonies are many and express Ephes. 2. 1. You were dead in Trespasses and Sins v. 5. When you were dead in sins Col. 2. 13. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh 2 Cor. 5. 14. If one died for all then were all dead Rom. 5. 15. Through the offence of one many are dead v. 12. Death passed on all Men for that all have sinned And the same is asserted in the second Way where the Recovery and Restauration of Men by the Grace of Christ is called their Quickning or the bestowing of a New Life upon them For this supposeth that they were dead or destitute of that Life which in this Revivification is communicated unto them For that alone can be said to be quickened which was dead before See Ephes. 2. 5. Joh. 5. 21. Joh. 6. 63. Sect. 2 This Death that Unregenerate Persons are under is two-fold 1. Legal with reference unto the sentence of the Law The Sanction of the Law was that upon Sin Man should dye In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death Gen. 2. 17. Upon this sentence Adam and all his Posterity became dead in Law morally dead or obnoxious unto death penally and adjudged unto it This Death is intended in some of the Places before mentioned as Rom. 5. 12. and it may be also 2 Cor. 5. 14. For as Christ dyed so were all dead He dyed penally under the sentence of the Law and all were obnoxious unto death or dead on that Account But this is not the Death which I intend neither are we delivered from it by Regeneration but by Justification Rom. 8. 1. Sect. 3 2. There is in them a Spiritual Death called so Metaphorically from the Analogie and Proportion that it bears unto death Natural Of great Importance it is to know the true nature hereof and how by Reason thereof Unregenerate Men are utterly disabled from doing any thing that is spiritually Good until they are quickened by the Almighty Power and irresistible Efficacy of the Holy Ghost Wherefore to declare this aright we must consider the nature of Life and Death natural in Allusion whereunto the Spiritual estate of Unregenerate Men is thus described Life in general or the Life of a Living Creature is Actus Vivificantis in Vivificatum per unionem utriusque The Act of a quickning Principle on a Subject to be quickened by Virtue of their Union And three things are to be considered in it 1 The Principle of Life it self And this in man is the Rational living Soul called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 7. God breathed into his nostrils the breath of Life and Man became a living Soul Having formed the Body of man of the Dust of the Earth he designed him a Principle of Life Superior unto that of bruit Creatures which is but the Exurgency and Spirit of their Temperature and Composition though peculiarly educed by the formative Vertue and Power of the Holy Ghost as hath been before declared He creates for him therefore a separate distinct animating soul and infuseth it into the matter prepared for its Reception And as he did thus in the Beginning of the Creation of the Species or Kind of humane Race in its first Individuals so he continueth to do the same in the ordinary course of the Works of his Providence for the continuation of it For having ordained the Preparation of the Body by Generation he immediately infuseth into it the Living Soul the Breath of Life 2 There is the Actus primus or the quickning act of this Principle on the Principle quickned in and by Vertue of Union Hereby the whole man becomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Living Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a person quickned by a Vital Principle and enabled for all naturally Vital Actions 3. There are the Acts of this Life it self And they are of two sorts 1 Such as flow from Life as Life 2 Such as proceed from it as such a Life from the Principle of a Rational Soul Those of the first sort are natural and necessary as are all the Actings and Energies of the Senses of the locomotive Faculty as also what belongs unto the receiving and improving of Nutriment These are Acts of Life whence the Psalmist proves Idols to be dead things from the want of them so far are they from having a Divine Life as that they have no Life at all Psal. 115. 4 5 6 7. These are Acts of Life as Life inseparable from it and their End is to preserve the Union of the whole between the quickning and quickned Principles 2 There are such Acts of Life as proceed from the especial nature of this quickning Principle Such are all the elicit and imperate Acts of our Understandings and Wills all Actions that are voluntary rational and peculiarly humane These proceed from
them But 3ly it must be granted that the same Duty for the substance of it in general and performed according to the same Rule as to the outward manner of it may be accepted in or from one and rejected in or from another So was it with the Sacrifices of Cain and Abel And not only so but the same rejected Duty may have Degrees of evil for which it is rejected and be more sinful in and unto one than unto another But we must observe that the difference doth not relate meerly unto the different States of the Persons by whom such are performed as because one is in the state of Grace whose Duties are accepted and another in the state of Nature whose Duties are rejected as their Persons are For although the Acceptation of our Persons be a necessary condition for the Acceptation of our Duties as God first had respect unto Abel and then unto his Offerings yet there is alwayes a real specifical diference between the Duties themselves whereof one is accepted and the other rejected although it may be unto us it be every way imperceptible As in the Offerings of Cain and Abel that of Abel was offered in Faith the defect whereof in the other caused it to be refused Suppose Duties therefore to be every way the same as to the Principles Rule and Ends or what-ever is necessary to render them good in their kind and they would be all equally accepted with God by whomsoever they are performed for he is no accepter of Persons But this cannot be but where those that perform them are partakers of the same Grace It is therefore the Wills of Men only that vitiate their Duties which are required of them as good and if so they may justly be required of them The defect is not immediately in their State but in their Wills and their Perversity Sect. 27 4ly The Will of God is the Rule of all Mens Obedience This they are all bound to attend unto and if what they do through their own defect prove eventually sin unto them yet the Commandment is just and holy and the observance of it justly prescribed unto them The Law is the moral cause of the performance of the Duties it requires but not of the sinful manner of their performance And God hath not lost his right of commanding Men because they by their sin have lost their Power to fulfil his Commands And if they equity of the Command doth arise from the proportioning of strength that Men have to answer it He that by contracting the highest moral Disability that depraved habits of Mind can introduce or a course of sinning produce in him is freed from owning obedience unto any of God's Commands seeing all confess that such an habit of sin may be contracted as will deprive them in whom it is of all Power of Obedience Wherefore Sect. 28 4. Preachers of the Gospel and others have sufficient warrant to press upon all Men the Duties of Faith Repentance and Obedience although they know that in themselves they have not a sufficiency of Ability for their due performance For 1. it is the Will and Command of God that so they should do and that is the Rule of all our Duties They are not to consider what Man can do or will do but what God requires To make a judgment of Mens Ability and to accommodate the Commands of God unto them accordingly is not committed unto any of the Sons of Men. 2. They have a double End in pressing on Men the observance of Duties with a supposition of the State of Impotency described 1. To prevent them from such courses of sin as would harden them and so render their Conversion more difficult if not desperate 2. To exercise a means appointed of God for their Conversion or the Communication of Saving-Grace unto them Such are God's Commands and such are the Duties required in them In and by them God doth use to communicate of his Grace unto the Souls of Men not with respect unto them as their Duties but as they are wayes appointed and sanctified by him unto such ends And hence it follows that even such Duties as are vitiated in their performance yet are of advantage unto them by whom they are performed For 1. by attendance unto them they are preserved from many sins 2. In an especial manner from the great sin of despising God which ends commonly in that which is unpardonable 3. They are hereby made useful unto others and many ends of God's Glory in the World 4. They are kept in God's Way wherein they may gradually be brought over unto a real Conversion unto him Sect. 29 Thirdly In this State of Spiritual Death there is not in them who are under the Power of it any Disposition active and inclining unto Life Spiritual There is not so in a dead Carcass unto Life Natural It is a Subject meet for an External Power to introduce a Living Principle into so the dead Body of Lazarus was quickned and animated again by the introduction of his Soul But in it self it had not the least active Disposition nor Inclination thereunto And no otherwise is it with a Soul dead in Trespasses and Sins There is in it Potentia Obedientialis a Power rendring it meet to receive the Communications of Grace and Spiritual Life But a Disposition thereunto of its own it hath not There is in it a remote Power in the nature of its Faculties meet to be wrought upon by the Spirit and Grace of God But an immediate Power disposing and enabling it unto Spiritual Acts it hath not And the reason is because Natural Corruption cleaves unto it as an invincible unmoveable Habit constantly inducing unto evil wherewith the least Disposition unto Spiritual Good is not inconsistent There is in the Soul in the Scripture-Language which some call Canting the Body of the Sins of the Flesh 2 Col. 11. which unless it be taken away by Spiritual Circumcision through the vertue of the Death of Christ it will lie dead in to Eternity There is therefore in us that which may be quickned and saved And this is all we have to boast of by Nature Though Man by Sin be made like the Beasts that perish being bruitish and foolish in his Mind and Affections yet he is not so absolutely he retains that living Soul those intellectual Faculties which were the Subject of Original Righteousness and are meet to receive again the Renovation of the Image of God by Jesus Christ. Sect. 30 But this also seems obnoxious to an Objection from the Instances that are given in the Scripture and whereof we have experience concerning sundry good Duties performed by Men Unregenerate and that in a tendency unto living unto God which argues a Disposition to Spiritual Good So Balaam desired to die the Death of the Righteous and Herod heard John Baptist gladly doing many things willingly And great Endeavours after Conversion unto God we find in many who never attain
dead in Sin And herein is seated that peculiar obstinacy whence it is that no Unregenerate Person doth or can answer his own Conviction or walk up unto his Light in Obedience For the Will may be considered two wayes 1. As a rational vital Faculty of our Souls 2. As a free Principle freedom being of its Essence or Nature This therefore in our Conversion to God is renewed by the Holy Ghost and that by an effectual implantation in it of a Principle of Spiritual Life and Holiness in the room of that Original Righteousness which it lost by the Fall That he doth so is proved by all the Testimonies before insisted on 1. This is its Renovation as it is a rational vital Faculty and of this Vivification see before 2. As it 's a free Principle it is determined unto its Acts in this case by the powerful Operation of the Holy Ghost without the least impeachment of its Liberty or Freedom as hath been declared And that this is so might be fully evinced as by others so by the ensuing Arguments For 1. if the Holy Ghost doth not work immediately and effectually upon the Will producing the creating in it a Principle of Faith and Obedience infallibly determining it in its free Acts then is all the Glory of our Conversion to be ascribed unto our selves and we make our selves therein by the obediential actings of our own free-will to differ from others who do not so comply with the Grace of God which is denyed by the Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 7. Neither can any purpose of God concerning the Conversion of any one Soul be certain and determinate seeing after he hath done all that is to be done or can be done towards it the Will remaining undetermined may not be converted contrary to those Testimonies of our Saviour Rom. 8. 28. Mat. 11. 25 26. John 6. 37. Neither can there be an Original Infallibility in the Promises of God made to Jesus Christ concerning the multitudes that should believe in him seeing it is possible no one may so do if it depends on the undetermined Liberty of their Wills whether they will or no. And then also must Salvation of necessity be of him that willeth and of him that runneth and not of God that shews mercy on whom he will have mercy contrary to the Apostle Rom. 9. 15 16. And the whole Efficacy of the Grace of God is made thereby to depend on the Wills of Men which is not consistent with our being the Workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Ephes. 2. 10. Nor on this Supposition do Men know what they pray for when they pray for their own or other Mens Conversion to God as hath been before declared There is therefore necessary such a Work of the Holy Spirit upon our Wills as may cure and take away the Depravation of them before described sreeing us from the state of Spiritual Death causing us to live unto God determing them in and unto the Acts of Faith and Obedience And this he doth whilst and as he makes us new Creatures quickens us who are dead in Trespasses and Sins gives us a new Heart and puts a new Spirit within us writes his Law in our Hearts that we may do the Mind of God and walk in his wayes worketh in us to will and to do making them who were unwilling and obstinate to become willing and obedient and that freely and of choice Sect. 56 In like manner a prevailing Love is implanted upon the Affections by the Spirit of Grace causing the Soul with Delight and Complacency to cleave to God and his Wayes This removes and takes away the Enmity before described with the Effects of it Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thine Heart and the Heart of thy Seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul that thou mayest live This Circumcision of the Heart consists in the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh as the Apostle speaks Col. 2. 11. He Crucifies the Flesh with the Lusts and Affections thereof Some Men are inclined to think that all the Depravation of our Nature consists in that of the sensitive part of the Soul or our Affections The vanity and folly of which Opinion hath been before discovered Yet it is not denied but that the Affections are signally depraved so that by them principally the Mind and Will do act those Lusts that are peculiarly seated in them or by them do act according to their perverse and corrupt Inclinations Gal. 5. 24. Jam. 1. 14 15. Wherefore in the Circumcision of our Hearts wherein the Flesh with the Lusts Affections and Deeds thereof are crucified by the Spirit he takes from them their Enmity Carnal Prejudices and Dâ—praved Inclinations really though not absolutely and perfectly and instead of them he fills us with Holy Spiritual Love Joy Fear and Delight not changing the being of our Affections but sanctifying and guiding them by the Principle of Saving-Light and Knowledg before described and uniting them unto their proper Object in a due manner From what hath been spoken in this third Argument it is evident that the Holy Spirit designing the Regeneration or Conversion of the Souls of Men worketh therein effectually powerfully and irresistibly which was proposed unto confirmation Sect. 57 From the whole it appears that our Regeneration is a Work of the Spirit of God and that not any Act of our own which is only so is intended thereby I say it is not so our own as by outward Helps and Assistance to be educed out of the Principles of our Natures And herein is the Scripture express for mentioning this Work directly with respect unto its Cause and the manner of its Operation in the effecting of it it assigns it positively unto God or his Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 3. God according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again James 1. 18. Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth John 3. 5 6 8. Born of the Spirit 1 John 3. 9. Born of God And on the other hand it excludes the Will of Man from any active interest herein I mean as to the first beginning of it 1 Pet. 1. 23. Born again not of Corruptible Seed but of Incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever John 1. 13. Which were born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God see Matth. 16. 17. Titus 3. 5. Ephes. 2. 9 10. It is therefore incumbent on them who plead for the Active Interest of the Will of Man in Regeneration to produce some Testimonies of Scriptures where it is assigned unto it as the effect unto its proper Cause Where is it said that a Man is Born again or Begotten a-new by himself And if it be granted as it must be so unless violence be offered not only to the Scripture but to
conspectu sanctae multitudinis profiteri non enim erat salus quam docebat in Rheterica tamen eam publice professus erat Quanto minus vereri debuit Mansuetam gregem tuam pronuncians verbum tuum qui non verebatur in verbis suis turbas insanorum Itaque ubi ascendit ut redderet omnes sibimet invicem ut eum noverant instrepurent nomen ejus strepitu congratulationis Quis autem ibi eum non noverat Et sonuit presso sonitu per ora cunctorum Victorinus Victorinus cito sonuerunt exultatione quia videbant eum cito siluerunt intentione ut audirent eum pronunciat ille fidem veracem praeclara fiducia volebant eum omnes rapere intro in cor suum rapiebant amando gaudeno Hae rapientium manus erant Lib. 8. Cap. 2. Not a few things concerning the Order Discipline and fervent Love of the Primitive Christians in their Church-Societies are intimated and represented in these words which I shall not here reflect upon Sect. 39 And this is the second Great Work of the Spirit of God in the New Creation This is a summary Description of his Forming and Creating the Members of that Mystical Body whose Head is Christ Jesus The latter part of our Discourse concerning the external manner of Regeneration or Conversion unto God with the gradual Preparation for it and Accomplishment of it in the Souls of Men is that Subject which many Practical Divines of this Nation have in their Preaching and Writings much insisted on and improved to the great Profit and Edification of the Church of God But this whole Doctrine with all the Declarations and Applications of it is now by some among our selves derided and exposed to Scorn although it be known to have been the constant Doctrine of the most Learned Prelates of the Church of England And as the Doctrine is exploded so all experience of the Work it self in the Souls of Men is decried as Fanatical and Enthusiastical To obviate the Pride and Wantonness of this filthy Spirit I have in the summary Representation of the Work it self now given confirmed the several Instances of it with the Experience of the Great and Holy Man so often named For whereas some of those by whom this Doctrine and Work are despised are puffed up with a conceit of their Excellency in the Theatrical Scoptical Faculty of these Days unto a contempt of all by whom they are contradicted in the most importune of their Dictates yet if they should swell themselves until they break like the Frog in the Fable they would never prevail with their fondest Admirers to admit them into a competition with the immortal Wit Grace and Learning of that Eminent Champion of the Truth and Light of the Age wherein he lived BOOK IV. The Nature of Sanctification and Gospel Holiness explained CHAP. I. 1 Regeneration the Way whereby the Spirit forms living Members for the Mystical Body of Christ. 2 Carryed on by Sanctification 2 Thess. 5. 23. opened 3 God the only Author of our Sanctification and Holiness 4 And that as the God of Peace 5 Sanctification described 6 A diligent enquiry into the nature whereof with that of Holiness proved necessary 7 Sanctification two-fold 1. By External Dedication 2. By Internal Purification 8 Holiness peculiar to the Gospel and its Truth 9 Not discernible to the eye of Carnal Reason 10 Hardly understood by Believers themselves 11 It passeth over into Eternity 12 Hath in it a present Glory 13 Is all that God requireth of us and in what sense 14 Promised unto us 15 How we are to improve the Command for Holiness Sect. 1 IN the Regeneration or Conversion of Gods Elect the Nature and Manner whereof we have before described consists the second part of the Work of the Holy Spirit in order unto the compleating and perfecting of the New Creation As in the former he prepared a Natural Body for the Son of God wherein he was to obey and suffer according to his Will so by this latter he prepares him a Mystical Body or members spiritually living by uniting them unto Him who is their Head and their Life Col. 3. 4. For as the Body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one Body being many are one Body so also is Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. Nor doth he leave this work in that Beginning of it whereof we have treated but unto him also it belongs to continue it to preserve it and to carry it on to perfection And this he doth in our Sanctification whose Nature and Effects we are in the next place to enquire into Sect. 2 Our Apostle in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians Chap. 5. having closely compiled a great number of weighty particular Evangelical Duties and annexed sundry Motives and Enforcements unto them closeth all his holy Prescriptions with a fervent Prayer for them v. 23. And the very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and let your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blamelesse to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Or as I had rather read the words And God himself even the God of peace sanctifie you throughout that your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless The Reason hereof is because all the Graces and Duties which he had enjoyned them did belong unto their Sanctification which though their own Duty was not absolutely in their own Power but was a Work of God in them and upon them Therefore that they might be able thereunto and might actually comply with his Commands he prayes that God would thus sanctifie them throughout That this shall be accomplished in them and for them he gives them assurance from the Faithfulness and consequently Power and Unchangeableness which are included therein of him who had undertaken to effect it v. 24. Faithfull is he that calleth you who will also do it Now whereas this Assurance did not arise nor was taken from any thing that was peculiar unto them but merely from the consideration of the Faithfulness of God himself it is equal with respect unto all that are effectually called They shall all infallibly be sanctified throughout and preserved blameless to the Coming of Jesus Christ. This therefore being the great priviledge of Believers and their eternal safety absolutely depending thereon it requires our utmost Diligence to search into the Nature and Necessity of it which may be done from this and the like places of Scripture Sect. 3 And in this place 1 The Author of our Sanctification who only is so is asserted to be God He is the Eternal Spring and only Fountain of all Holiness there is nothing of it in any Creature but what is directly and immediately from him There was not in our first Creation He made us in his own image And to suppose that we can now sanctifie or make our selves holy is proudly to renounce and cast off our principal Dependance upon him We may as
Salvation which is therein declared unto them 2 Cor. 5. 18 19 20 21. Col. 1. 25 26 27 28. 3 To be the means and Instrument of conveying over unto them and giving them a Title unto and a Right in that Grace and Mercy that Life and Righteousness which is revealed and tendred unto them thereby Mark 16. 16. 4 To be the way and means of communicating the Spirit of Christ with Grace and Strength unto the Elect enabling of them to believe and receive the Attonement Gal. 3. 2. 5 Hereby to give them Vnion with Christ as their Spiritual and Mystical Head us also to fix their Hearts and Souls in their choycest Actings in their Faith Trust Confidence and Love immediately on the Son of God as Incarnate and their Mediator Joh. 14. 1. Wherefore the first and principal End of the Gospel towards us is to invite and encourage lost sinners unto the Faith and Approbation of the Way of Grace Life and Salvation by Jesus Christ without a Complyance wherewith in the first place the Gospel hath no more to do with sinners but leaves them to Justice the Law and themselves But now upon a supposition of these things and of our giving Glory to God by Faith in them the whole that God requireth of us in the Gospel in a way of Duty is that we should be Holy and abide in the use of those means whereby Holiness may be attained and improved in us For if he requires any other thing of us it must be on one of these four Accounts 1. To make Attonement for our sins or 2. To be our Righteousness before him or 3. To merit Life and Salvation by or 4. To supererogate in the behalf of others No other end can be thought of besides what are the true ends of Holiness whereon God should require any thing of us And all the false Religion that is in the world leans on a supposition that God doth require somewhat of us with respect unto these ends But 1 He requires nothing of us which we had all the Reason in the world to expect that he would to make Attonement or satisfaction for our sins that might compensate the injuries we had done him by our Apostasie and Rebellion For whereas we had multiplyed sins against him lived in an Enmity and Opposition to him and had contracted insupportable and immeasurable Debts upon our own Souls Terms of peace being now proposed who could think but that the first thing required of us would be that we should make some kind of satisfaction to Divine Justice for all our enormous and heynous provocations Yea who is there that indeed doth naturally think otherwise so he apprehended who was contriving a way in his own mind how he might come to an Agreement with God Micah 6. 6 7. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God shall I come before him with Burnt-Offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with Thousands of Rams or with ten Thousands of Rivers of Oyl Shall I give my first-born for my Transgression the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul This or something of this nature seems to be but a very reasonable Enquiry for a Guilty self-condemned sinner when first he entertains thoughts of an Agreement with the Holy sin-avenging God And this was the foundation of all that cruel and expensive Superstition that the World was in bondage unto for so many Ages Mankind generally thought that the principal thing which was required of them in Religion was to attone and pacifie the wrath of the Divine Power and to make a Compensation for what had been done against him Hence were their Sacrifices of Hecatombs of Beasts of Mankind of their Children and of themselves as I have elsewhere declared And the same principle is still deep rooted in the minds of convinced sinners and many an Abby Monastery Colledge and Almes-house hath it founded For in the fruits of this Superstition the Priests which set it on work alwayes shared deeply But quite otherwise in the Gospel there is declared and tendred unto sinners an absolute free pardon of all their sins without any satisfaction or Compensation made or to be made on their part that is by themselves namely on the Account of the Attonement made for them by Jesus Christ. And all Attempts or Endeavours after Works or Duties of Obedience in any respect satisfactory to God for sin or meritorious of pardon do subvert and overthrow the whole Gospel See 2 Cor. 5. 18 19 20 21. Wherefore in Answer to the Enquiry before mentioned the Reply in the Prophet is that God looks for none of these things and that all such Contrivances were wholly vain He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God v. 8. which last Expression comprizeth the whole of our Covenant-Obedience Gen. 17. 1. as the two former are eminent Instances of it in particular 2 He requireth nothing of us in a way of Righteousness for our Justification for the future that this also he would have done we might have justly expected For a Righteousness we must have or we cannot be accepted with him And here also many are at a loss and resolve that it is a thing fond and inconvenient to think of peace with God without some Righteousness of their own on the Account whereof they may be Justified before him and rather than they will forgoe that apprehension they will let goe all other thoughts of Peace and Acceptance Being ignorant of the Righteousness of God they go about to establish their own Righteousness and do not submit themselves unto the Righteousness of God nor will they acquiesâ—e in it that Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth as Rom. 10. 3 4. But so it is that God requireth not this of us in the Gospel for we are Justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3. 24. And we do therefore conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the works of the Law v. 28. so Rom. 8. 3 4. Neither is there any mention in the whole Gospel of God's requiring a Righteousness in us upon the Account whereof we should be justified before him or in his sight For the Justification by works mentioned in James consists in the evidencing and Declaration of our Faith by them 3 God requireth not any thing of us whereby we should purchase or Merit for our selves Life and Salvation For we are saved by Grace through Faith not of works lest any man should boast Ephes. 2. 8 9. God doth save us neither by nor for the works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his own Mercy Titus 3. 5. so that although on the one side the wages of sin is Death there being a proportion in
with them at the great Day Would we prevent all these fatal evils would we engage in a reall thriving everlasting Holiness let our first business be to secure a Relation unto Jesus Christ without which nothing of it will ever be attained To close this discourse I shall only from it obviate a putid Calumny cast by the Papists Quakers and others of the same Confederacy against the Grace of God upon the Doctrine of the free Justification of a sinner through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. For with a shameless Impudence they clamour on all by whom it is asserted as those who maintain Salvation to be attained through a meer External Imputation of Righteousness whilest those so saved are unclean and unholy as the Quaker or negligent of the Dutyes of Righteousness and Obedience as the Papists and others slanderously report For the frontless impudence of this Calumny is sufficiently evident from hence that as we assert Sanctification and Holiness to be peculiar only unto Believing justified Persons that is that Faith and Holiness are inseparable habitually or actually or in both regards so in like manner that all such Persons are infallibly sanctified and made Holy Sect. 7 All Believers and only Believers being sanctified and made Holy What it is that is sanctified in them or what is the proper Seat and Subject of this Work is in the next place to be declared For it is not a meer External Denomination as things were called Holy under the Old Testament nor any transient Act nor any series or Course of Actions that we plead about but that which hath as a reall Being and Existence so a constant abiding or Residence in us Hence he that is Holy is alwayes so whether he be in the Actual Exercise of the Dutyes of Holiness or no though an Omission of any of them in their proper season is contrary unto and an impeachment of Holiness as to its Degrees Now this subject of Sanctification is the Entire Nature or whole Person of a Believer It is not any one Faculty of the Soul or Affection of the Mind or Part of the Body that is sanctified but the whole Soul and Body or the entire Nature of every Believing Person And hereby is the Work of Sanctification really distinguished from any other meer common Work which may represent it or pretend unto it For all such Works are partiall either they are in the Mind only by Light and Notions of Truth or on the Affections only in Zeal and Devotion or on the Mind and Conscience in the Convictions of Sin and Duty but further they proceed not But true Holiness consists in the Renovation of our whole Persons which must be demonstrated 1 That our entire Nature was Originally created in the Image of God I have proved before and it is by all acknowledged Our whole Souls in the Rectitude of all their Faculties and Powers in order unto the Life of God and his Enjoyment did bear this Image Nor was it confined unto the Soul only The Body also not as to its shape figure or natural use but as an Essential part of our Natures was interested in the Image of God by a Participation of Original Righteousness Hence the whole Person was a meet Principle for the Communication of this Image of God unto others by the means of Natural Propagation which is an act of the entire Person For a Person created and abiding in the Image of God begetting another in his own Image and Likeness had by vertue of the Covenant of Creation begotten him in the Image of God also that is had communicated unto him a Nature upright and pure 2 By the Entrance of sin this Image of God so far as it was our Righteousness and Holiness before him was utterly defaced and Lost. This also I have sufficiently evidenced before It did not depart from any one Power Part or Faculty of our Souls but from our whole Nature Accordingly the Scripture describes 1 the Depravation of our Natures distinctly in all the Powers of it In particular the Corruption that ensued on our Minds Wills and Affections upon the loss of the Image of God I have before declared and vindicated And 2 in reference unto the first Actings of all these Faculties in things Moral and Spiritual the Scripture addes that all the Thoughts and Imaginations of our Hearts are evil and that continually Gen. 6. 5. All the Original first Actings of the Powers of our Souls in or about things Rational and Morall are alwayes evil For an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit That which is lame and distorted can act nothing that is straight and regular Hence 3 All the Outward Actions of Persons in this State and Condition are evil unfruitfull works of Darkness And not only so but the Scripture 4 in the Description of the Effects of this Depravation of our Nature calls in the Body and the members of it unto a partnership in all this Obliquity and Sin The members of the Body are Servants unto Vncleanness and Iniquity Rom. 6. 19. And the engagement of them in all the Course and Actings of Depraved Nature is particularly declared by our Apostle out of the Psalmist Rom. 3. 12 13 14 15. They are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one Their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues they have used deceit the poyson of Asps is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood in all wayes of evil This being the State of our whole Nature in its Depravation our Sanctification wherein alone its Reparation in this Life doth consist must equally respect the whole Some suppose that it is our Affections only in their Deliverance from corrupt Lusts and Prejudices with their direction unto Heavenly Objects that are the Subject of this Work For the Mind or rational Intellectual Power of the Soul is in its self they say pure noble untainted and needs no other Ayd but to be delivered from the Prejudices and Obstructions of its Operations which are cast upon it by the Engagements and Inclinations of corrupt Affections and a vitious course of Conversation in the World received by uninterrupted Traditions from our Fathers from whence it is not able to extricate or deliver it self without the Aid of Grace But they have placed their Instance very unhappily For among all things that belong unto our Nature there is not any one which the Scripture so chargeth this Depravation of it upon as the Mind This in particular is said to be fleshly to be Enmity against God to be filled with Vanity Folly and Blindness as we have at large before evinced Nor is there any thing concerning which the Work of Sanctification and Renovation is so expressly affirmed as it is concerning the Mind It is declared by the Renovation of our Minds Rom. 12. 2. or being Renewed in
the spirit of our Minds Ephes. 4. 23. that we put on the New man that is renewed in knowledge Col. 3. 10. with other Expressions of the like nature It is therefore our Entire Nature that is the Subject of Evangelical Holiness For to manifest in particulars 1 Hence it is called the New Man Ephes. 4. 24. Put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and Holiness As the Principle of Sin and corrupted Nature in us is called the Old Man for no other Reason but that it possesseth all the Active Powers of the whole Man so that he neither doth nor can do any thing but what is influenced thereby so this Principle of Holiness in us the Renovation of our Natures is called the New Man because it possesseth the whole Person with respect unto its proper Operations and Ends. And it extends it self as large as the Old Man or the Depravation of our Natures which takes in the whole Person Soul and Body with all their Faculties and Powers 2 The Heart in the Scripture is taken for the whole Soul and all the Faculties of it as they are one Common Principle of all Morall Operations as I have proved before Whatever therefore is wrought in and upon the Heart under this Consideration is wrought upon the whole Soul Now this is not only said to be affected with this Work of Sanctification or to have Holiness wrought in it but the principal Description that is given us of this Work consists in this that therein and thereby a New Heart is given unto us or created in us as it is expressed in the Promise of the Covenant This therefore can be nothing but the possessing of all the Powers and Faculties of our Souls with a New Principle of Holiness and Obedience unto God 3 There is especial mention made of the effecting of this Work on our Souls and Bodies with their Powers and Faculties distinctly This I have already proved in the Declaration of the Work of our Regeneration or Conversion to God which is only preserved cherished improved and carryed on to its proper End in our Sanctification The Nature also of that spiritual Light which is communicated unto our Minds of Life unto our Wills of Love unto our Affections hath been declared Therefore doth it follow thence unavoidably that the whole Person is the Subject of this Work and that Holiness hath its residence in the whole Soul entirely 4 We need goe no further for the proof hereof than unto that Prayer of the Apostle for the Thessalonians which we insisted on at the beginning of this Discourse 1 Thess. 5. 23. The God of Peace himself sanctifie you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughout that is in your whole Natures or Persons in all that you are and doe that you may not in this or that part but be every whit clean and Holy throughout And to make this the more evident that we may know what it is which he prayes may be sanctified and thereby preserved blameless to the coming of Christ he distributes our whole Natures into the two Essential parts of Soul and Body And in the former he considereth two things 1 the Spirit 2 the Soul peculiarly so called And this distinction frequently occurrs in the Scripture wherein that by the Spirit the Mind or Intellectual Faculty is understood and by the Soul the Affections is generally acknowledged and may evidently be proved These therefore the Apostle prayes may be sanctified and preserved Holy throughout and entirely and that by the Infusion of an Habit of Holiness into them with its Preservation and Improvement whereof more afterwards But this is not all Our Bodyes are an Essential part of our Natures and by their union with our Souls are we constituted individual Persons Now we are the Principles of all our Operations as we are Persons Every Moral Act we do is the Act of the whole Person The Body therefore is concerned in the Good and Evil of it It became a subject of the Depravation of our Nature by Concomitancy and Participation and is considered as one entire Principle with the Soul of communicating Original Defilement from Parents unto Children Besides it is now subject in that Corruption of its Constitution which it is fallen under as a punishment of sin unto many disorderly Motions that are Incentives and Provocations unto sin Hence sin is said to reign in our mortal Bodyes and our Members to be servants unto unrighteousness Rom. 6. 12. 19. Moreover by its Participation in the Defilement and Punishment of sin the Body is disposed and made obnoxious unto Corruption and Destruction For Death entred by Sin and no otherwise On all these Accounts therefore it is necessary on the other hand that the Body should be interested in this Work and Priviledge of Sanctification and Holiness And so it is 1 By Participation For it is our Persons that are sanctified and made Holy sanctifie them throughout and although our Souls are the first proper Subject of the infused Habit or Principle of Holiness yet our Bodyes as essential parts of our Natures are Partakers thereof 2 By a peculiar Influence of the Grace of God upon them also as far as they have any influence into Moral Operations For the Apostle tells us that our Bodyes are Members of Christ 1 Cor. 3. 15. and so consequently have influences of Grace from him as our Head 3 In the Work of Sanctification the Holy Ghost comes and dwells in us And hereon our Bodyes are the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us 1 Cor. 3. 19. And the Temple of God is Holy although I confess this rather belongs unto the Holiness of peculiar Dedication unto God whereof we shall treat afterwards And hereby 1 are the Parts and Members of the Body made Instruments and Servants of Righteousness unto Holiness Rom. 6. 19. do become meet and fit for to be used in the Acts and Dutyes of Holiness as being made clean and sanctified unto God 2 Hereby are they disposed and prepared unto a blessed Resurrection at the Last Day which shall be wrought by the Spirit of Christ which dwelt in them and sanctified them in this Life Rom. 8. 10 11. Phil. 3. 20 21. 2 Cor. 4. 14 16 17. Our whole Persons therefore and in them our whole Natures are the Subject of this Work and true Holiness invests the whole of it Now whether this universal Investiture of our Nature in all the Faculties and Powers of it by a new Principle of Holiness and Obedience unto God whereby it is renewed unto his Image do belong unto that Morall Vertue which some so plead for as to substitute it in the Room of Gospel-Holiness they may do well to consider who are the Patrons of that Cause For if it doth not then doth not it self belong unto that Holiness which the Gospel teacheth requireth promiseth and communicates whatever else it be And moreover it is practically worthy consideration that men
and strengtheneth continually by effectual supplyes of Grace from Jesus Christ disposing enclining and enabling the whole Soul unto all Wayes Acts and Dutyes of Holiness whereby we live to God opposing resisting and finally conquering whatever is opposite and contrary thereunto This belongs Essentially unto Evangelical Holiness yea herein doth the Nature of it Formally and Radically consist This is that from whence Believers are denominated Holy and without which none are so or can be so called Sect. 36 Secondly The Properties of this Power are Readiness and Facility Wherever it is it renders the Soul ready unto all Dutyes of Holy Obedience and renders all Dutyes of holy Obedience easie unto the Soul 1. It gives Readiness by removing and taking away all those incumbrances which the Mind is apt to be clogged with and hindred by from Sin the World spiritual Sloth and Unbelief This is that which we are exhorted unto in a way of Duty Heb. 12. 1. Luke 12. 35. 1 Pet. 1. 13. chap. 4. 1. Ephes. 6. 14. Herein is the Spirit ready though the Flesh be weak Mark 14. 35. And those Incumbrances which give an unreadiness unto Obedience to God may be considered two wayes 1 As they are in their full power and efficacy in persons Unregenerate whence they are unto every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 13. Hence proceed all those prevalent Tergiversations against a Complyance with the Will of God and their own Convictions which bear sway in such persons Yet a little slumber a little sleep a little folding of the hands to sleep Prov. 6. 10. By these do men so often put off the Calls of God and perniciously procrastinate from time to time a full Complyance with their Convictions And whatever particular Dutyes such Persons do perform yet are their Hearts and Minds never prepared or ready for them but the incumbrances mentioned do influence them into spiritual Disorders in all that they doe 2 These Principles of Sloth and Vnreadiness do oft-times partially influence the Minds of Believers themselves unto great Indispositions unto spiritual Dutyes So the Spouse states her case Cantic 5. 2 3. By reason of her Circumstances in the World she had an unreadiness for that Converse and Communion with Christ which she was called unto And it is so not unfrequently with the Best of men in this World A spiritual unreadyness unto holy Dutyes arising from the Power of Sloth or the Occasions of Life is no small part of their sin and Trouble Both these are removed by this spiritual Power of the Principle of Life and Holiness in Believers The total prevailing Power of them such as is in persons unregenerate is broken by the first Infusion of it into the Soul wherein it gives an habitual fitness and Preparation of Heart unto all Dutyes of Obedience unto God And by various Degrees it freeth Believers from the Remainders of the Incumbrances which they have yet to conflict with and this it doth three wayes As 1 it weakeneth and taketh off the bent of the Soul from Earthly things so as they shall not possess the Mind as formerly Col. 3. 2. How it doth this was declared before and when this is done the Mind is greatly eased of its Burden and some way ready unto its Duty 2 It gives an insight into the Beauty the Excellency and Glory of Holiness and all Dutyes of Obedience This they see nothing of who being unsanctified are under the Power of their Natural Darkness They can see no Beauty in Holiness no form nor Comeliness why it should be desired and it is no wonder if they are unfree to the Dutyes of it which they are but as it were compelled unto But the spiritual Light wherewith this Principle of Grace is accompanyed discovers an Excellency in Holiness and the Dutyes of it and in the Communion with God which we have thereby so as greatly to encline the mind unto them and prepare it for them 3 It causeth the Affections to cleave and adhere unto them with Delight How doe I love thy Law saith David my delight is in thy Statutes they are sweeter unto me than the Honey-Comb Where these three things concurr that the Mind is freed from the powerfull Influences of carnal Lusts and Love of this World where the Beauty and Excellency of Holiness and the Dutyes of Obedience lye clear in the Eyes of the Soul and where the Affections cleave unto spiritual things as commanded then will be that Readiness in Obedience which we enquire after Sect. 37 2. It gives Facility or Easiness in the Performance of all Dutyes of Obedience Whatever men do from an Habit they doe with some kind of Easiness That is easie to them which they are accustomed unto though hard and difficult in its self And what is done from Nature is done with Facility And the Principle of Grace as we have shewed is a new Nature an infused Habit with respect unto the Life of God or all Dutyes of Holy Obedience I grant there will be Opposition unto them even in the Mind and Heart it self from sin and Sathan and Temptations of all sorts yea and they may sometimes arise so high as either to defeat our purposes and intentions unto Dutyes or to clogge us in them to take off our Chariot-wheels and to make us drive heavily But still it is in the Nature of the Principle of Holiness to make the whole Course of Obedience and all the Dutyes of it easie unto us and to give us a Facility in their Performance For 1 it introduceth a suitableness between our Minds and the Dutyes we are to perform By it is the Law written in our Hearts that is there is an Answerableness in them unto all that the Law of God requires In the state of Nature the great things of the Law of God are a strange thing unto us Hos. 8. 12. there is an enmity in our Minds against them Rom. 8. 7. There is no suitableness between our Minds and them But this is taken away by the Principle of Grace Thereby do the Mind and Duty answer one another as the Eye and a lightsome Body Hence the Commands of Christ are not grievous unto them in whom it is 1 Joh. 5. 3. They do not appear to contain any thing uncouth unreasonable burdensome or any way unsuited to that new Nature whereby the Soul is influenced and acted Hence all the Wayes of Wisdom are unto Believers as they are in themselves Pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. 3. 17. The great Notion of some in these dayes is about the suitableness of Christian Religion unto Reason And to make good their Assertion in the principal Mysteries of it because Reason will not come to them they bring them by violence unto their Reason But it is with respect unto this renewed Principle alone that there is a suitableness in any of the things of God unto our Minds and Affections 2 It keeps up the Heart or whole Person unto a frequency
spiritual Life Strength and Nourishment made unto every Member of the Body unto its Encrease Growth and Edification for we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Chap. 5. 30. being made out of him as Eve was out of Adam yet so continuing in him as to have all our Supplyes from him we in him and he in us as he speaks Joh. 14. 20. And Col. 2. 19. it is expressly affirmed that from him the Head there is Nourishment ministred unto the Body unto its Encrease with the Encrease of God And what this Spiriritual Nourishment supplyed unto the Souls of Believers for their Encrease and Growth from Christ their Head can be but the Emanation from his Person and Communication with them of that Grace which is the Principle and Spring of all Holiness and Duties of Evangelical Obedience none have as yet undertaken to declare And if any do deny it they do what lies in them to destroy the Life and overthrow the Faith of the whole Church of God Yea upon such a blasphemous Imagination that there could be an Intercision for one Moment of Influences of spiritual Life and Grace from the Person of Christ unto the Church the whole must be supposed to dye and perish and that Eternally Sect. 70 4 The whole of what we assert is plainly and evidently proposed in sundry instructive Allusions which are made use of to this purpose The principal of them is that both laid down and declared by our Saviour himself Joh. 15. 1. 4 5. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman Abide in me and I in you As the Branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me I am the Vine and ye are the Branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me or severed from me apart from me ye can do nothing The Natural in-being of the Vine and Branches in each other is known unto all with the Reason of it and so is the Way whereby the in-being of the Branches in the Vine is the Cause and Means of their Fruit-bearing It is no otherwise but by the Communication and Derivation of that Succus i. e. Juyce and Nourishment which alone is the Preservative of Vegetative Life and the next Cause of Fruit-bearing In this Juyce and Nourishment all Fruit is Virtually yea also as to the first matter and substance of it In and by the Branch it is only formed into its proper Kind and Perfection Let any thing be done to intercept this Communication from the Vine unto any Branch and it not only immediately looseth all its Fruit-bearing Power and Vertue but its self also withereth and dyeth away And there is a mutual acting of the Vine and Branches in this matter Unto the Vine it self it is Natural from its own Fullness to communicate Nourishment unto the Branches it doth it from the Principle of its Nature And unto the Branches it is also Natural to draw and derive their Nourishment from the Vine Thus is it saith the Lord Christ unto his Disciples between me and you I am the Vine saith he and ye are the Branches and there is a mutual in-being between us I am in you and ye are in me by vertue of our Union That now which is expected from you is that you bring forth Fruit that is that you live in Holiness and Obedience unto the Glory of God Unless you do so you are no true real Branches in me whatever outward Profession you may make of your so being But how shall this be effected How shall they be able to bring forth Fruit This can be no otherwise done but by their abiding in Christ and thereby continually deriving spiritual nourishment that is Grace and supplyes of Holiness from him For saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separate or apart from me ye can do nothing of this kind And that is because nothing becomes Fruit in the Branch that was not Nourishment from the Vine Nothing is Duty nothing is Obedience in Believers but what is Grace from Christ communicated unto them The Preparation of all fructifying Grace is in Christ as the Fruit of the Branches is naturally in the Vine And the Lord Christ doth spiritually and voluntarily communicate of this Grace unto all Believers as the Vine communicates its Juyce unto the Branches naturally And it is the new Nature of Believers to derive it from him by Faith This being done it is in them turned into particular Duties of Holiness and Obedience Therefore it is evident that there is nothing of Evangelical Holiness in any one Person whatever but what is in the Vertue Power and Grace of it derived immediately from Jesus Christ by vertue of Relation unto him and Union with him And it may be enquired Whether this be so with Moral Vertue or no. The same is taught by our Apostle under the Similitude of an Olive-tree and its Branches Rom. 11. As also where he is affirmed to be a living Stone and Believers to be built on him as lively Stones into a spiritual House 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. Sect. 71 Particular Testimonies do so abound in this Case as that I shall only name some few of them Joh. 1. 15. He is full of Grace and Truth And of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace It is of the Person of Christ or the Word made Flesh the Son of God Incarnate that the Holy Ghost speaketh He was made Flesh and dwelt among us full of Grace and Truth It is not the Fulness of the Deity as it dwelt in him personally that is here intended but that which was in him as he was made flesh that is in his Humane Nature as inseparably united unto the Divine An All-fulness that he received by the good pleasure or voluntary Disposal of the Father Col. 1. 19. and therefore belongeth not unto the Essential Fulness of the Godhead And as to the Nature of this Fulness it is said to consist in Grace and Truth that is the Perfection of Holiness and Knowledge of the whole Mind Counsel and Mystery of the Will of God Of this Fulness do we receive Grace for Grace all the Grace in every Kind whereof we are made partakers in this World That this Fulness in Christ expresseth the unconceivable Fulness of his Humane Nature by vertue of his indissolute Personal Union with all Graces in their perfection wherein he received not the Spirit by measure Joh. 3. 34. is as I suppose by all Christians acknowledged I am sure cannot be denyed without the highest Impiety and Blasphemy Hence therefore the Holy Ghost being witness do we derive and receive all our Grace every one according to his Measure Ephes. 4. 7. Wherefore Grace is given unto the Lord Christ in an immeasurable Perfection by vertue of his Personal Vnion Col. 2. 9. and from him is it derived unto
Holiness and are accepted with God they proceed from a peculiar Operation of the Holy Spirit in us And herein to make our Intention the more evident we may distinctly observe 1 That there is in the Minds Wills and Affections of all Believers a Meetness Fitness Readiness and habitual Disposition unto the Performance of all Acts of Obedience towards God all Duties of Piety Charity and Righteousness that are required of them and hereby are they internally and habitually distinguished from them that are not so That it is so with them and whence it comes be so we have before declared This Power and Disposition is wrought and preserved in them by the Holy Ghost 2 No Believer can of himself act that is actually exert or exercise this Principle or Power of a spiritual Life in any one Instance of any Duty internal or external towards God or Men so as that it shall be an Act of Holiness or a Duty accepted with God He cannot I say do so of himself by vertue of any Power habitually inherent in him We are not in this World intrusted with any such spiritual Ability from God as without further actual Aid and Assistance to do any thing that is Good Therefore 3 That which at present I design to prove is That the Actual Aid Assistance and internal Operation of the Spirit of God is necessary required and granted unto the producing of every holy Act of our Minds Wills and Affections in every Duty whatever Or notwithstanding the Power or Ability which Believers have received in or by Habitual Grace they still stand in need of Actual Grace in for and unto every single gracious holy Act or Duty towards God And this I shall now a little further explain and then confirm Sect. 6 As it is in our natural Lives with respect unto Gods Providence so it is in our spiritual Lives with respect unto his Grace He hath in the Works of Nature endowed us with a vital Principle or an Act of the quickening Soul upon the Body which is quickened thereby By vertue hereof we are enabled unto all vital Acts whether Natural and Necessary or Voluntary according to the Constitution of our Beings which is Intellectual God breathed into man the Breath of Life and he became a living Soul Gen. 2. 7. giving him a Principle of Life he was fitted for and enabled unto all the proper Acts of that Life For a Principle of Life is an Ability and Disposition unto Acts of Life But yet whosoever is thus made a living Soul who is indued with this Principle of Life he is not able Originally without any motion or Acting from God as the first Cause or independently on him to exert or put forth any vital Act That which hath not this Principle as a dead Carkase hath no meetness unto vital Actions nor is capable either of Motion or Alteration but as it receives Impressions from an outward Principle of Force or an inward Principle of Corruption But he in whom it is hath a Fitness Readiness and habitual Power for all vital Actions yet so as without the Concurrence of God in his Energetical Providence moving and Acting of him he can do nothing For in God we live and move and have our being Acts 17. 28. And if any one could of himself perform an Action without any Concourse of Divine Operation he must himself be absolutely the first and only Cause of that Action that is the Creatour of a New Being Sect. 7 It is so as unto our spiritual Life We are by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ furnished with a Principle of it in the Way and for the Ends before described Hereby are we enabled and disposed to Live unto God in the Exercise of spiritually vital Acts or the performance of Dutyes of Holiness And he who hath not this Principle of spiritual Life is spiritually dead as we have at large before manifested and can do nothing at all that is spiritually Good He may be moved unto and as it were compelled by the Power of Convictions to do many things that are materially so But that which is on all Considerations spiritually good and accepted with God he can do nothing of The Enquiry is What Believers themselves who have received this Principle of spiritual Life and are Habitually sanctified can do as to Actual Duties by vertue thereof without a new immediate Assistance and working of the Holy Spirit in them And I say they can no more do any thing that is spiritually good without the particular Concurrence and Assistance of the Grace of God unto every Act thereof than a man can naturally act or move or doe any thing in an absolute Independency on God his Power and Providence And this proportion between the Works of Gods Providence and of his Grace the Apostle expresseth Ephes. 2. 10. For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them God at the Beginning made all things by a creating Power producing them out of Nothing and left them not meerly to themselves and their own Powers when so created but he upholds supports sustains and preserves them in the Principles of their Beings and Operations acting powerfully in and by them after their several Kinds Without his Supportment of their Beings by an Actual incessant Emanation of Divine Power the whole Fabrick of Nature would dissolve into Confusion and nothing And without his Influence into and Concurrence with their Ability for Operation by the same Power all things would be dead and deformed and not one Act of Nature be exerted So also is it in this Work of the New Creation of all things by Jesus Christ. We are the Workmanship of God he hath formed and fashioned us for himself by the Renovation of his Image in us Hereby are we sitted for good Works and the Fruits of Righteousness which he hath appointed as the Way of our Living unto him This New Creature this Divine Nature in us he supporteth and preserveth so as that without his continual influential Power it would perish and come to nothing But this is not all He doth moreover act it and effectually concurre to every singular Duty by new supplyes of Actual Grace So then that which we are to prove is That there is an Actual Operation of the Holy Ghost in us necessary unto every Act and Duty of Holiness whatever without which none either will or can be produced or performed by us which is the Second Part of his Work in our Sanctification And there are several Wayes whereby this is confirmed unto us Sect. 8 First The Scripture declares that we our selves cannot in and by our selves that is by vertue of any strength or power that we have received do any thing that is spiritually Good So our Saviour tells his Apostles when they were sanctified Believers and in them all that are so without me ye can do nothing John 15.
intended is the Relation of this Work and Duty to the Death of Christ whence we and our sins are said to be crucified with him because we and they are so by vertue of his Death And herein do we alwayes bear about in the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 10. representing the Manner of it and expressing its Efficacy Sect. 5 Secondly Thus is this Duty expressed whose Nature in the next place we shall more particularly enquire into and declare in the ensuing Observations 1. Mortification of Sin is a Duty alwayes incumbent on us in the whole Course of our Obedience This the Command testifieth which represents it as an alwayes present Duty When it is no longer a Duty to grow in Grace it is so not to mortifie Sin No man under Heaven can at any Time say that he is exempted from this Command nor on any Pretence And he who ceaseth from this Duty le ts go all Endeavours after Holiness And as for those who pretend unto an absolute Perfection they are of all Persons living the most impudent nor do ever in this Matter open their mouths but they give themselves the Lye For 2. This Duty being alwayes incumbent on us argues undenyably the abiding in us of a Principle of Sin whilest we are in the Flesh which with its Fruits is that which is to be mortified This the Scripture calleth the sin that dwelleth in us the evil that is present with us the Law of the Members evil Concupiscence Lust the Flesh and the like And thereunto are the Properties and Actings of folly deceit tempting seducing rebelling warring captivating ascribed This is not a place to dispute the Truth of this Assertion which cannot with any Reputation of Modesty be denyed by any who own the Scripture or pretend to an Acquaintance with themselves But yet through the Craft of Sathan with the Pride and Darkness of the Minds of men it is so fallen out that the want of a true understanding hereof is the Occasion of most of those pernitious Errors wherewith the Church of God is at present pestered and which practically keeps men off from being seriously troubled for their sins or seeking out for Relief by Jesus Christ. Thus one hath not feared of late openly to profess that he knowes of no deceit or evil in his own Heart though a wiser than he hath informed us that he who trusteth his own Heart is a Fool Proverb 28. 26. Sect. 6 3. In-dwelling sin which is the Object of this Duty of Mortification falls under a three-fold Consideration 1. Of its Root and Principle 2. Of its Disposition and Operations 3. Of its Effects These in the Scripture are frequently distinguished though mostly under Metaphorical Expressions So are they mentioned together distinctly Rom. 6. 6. Our old Man is crucified with Christ that the Body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 1 The Root or Principle of sin which by Nature possesseth all the Faculties of the Soul and as a depraved Habit enclines unto all that is evil is the Old man so called in Opposition unto the New man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness 2 There is the Inclination actual Disposition and Operations of this Principle or Habit which is called the Body of sin with the Members of it For under those Expressions sin is proposed as in procinctu in a Readiness to Act its self and enclining unto all that is evil And this also is expressed by the Affections and Lusts of the Flesh Gal. 4. 25. Deceitfull Lusts Ephes. 4. 24. The Old man is Corrupt according unto the deceitfull Lusts the Wills of the Flesh and the Mind 3 There are the Effects Fruits and Products of these things which are Actual sins whereby as the Apostle speaks we serve sin as bringing forth the Fruits of it that we should not henceforth serve sin And these Fruits are of two sorts 1. Internal in the Figments and Imaginations of the Heart which is the first way whereby the Lusts of the Old man do act themselves And therefore of those that are under the Power or Dominion of sin it is said that every Figment or Imagination of their Hearts are evil continually Gen. 6. 5. For they have no other Principle whereby they are acted but that of Sin and therefore all the Figments of their Hearts must be necessarily evil And with respect hereunto our Saviour affirms that all Actual sins proceed out of the Heart Math. 15. 19. because there is their Root and there are they first formed and framed 2. External in Actual sins such as those enumerated by our Apostle Col. 3. 5. Gal. 5. 19 20 21. All these things together make up the compleat Object of this Duty of Mortification The old man the body of Death with its Members and the Works of the flesh or the Habit Operations an Effects of Sin are all of them intended and to be respected herein Sect. 7 4. This Principle its Operations and Effects are opposed and directly contrary unto the Principle Operations and Fruits of Holiness as wought in us by the Spirit of God which we have before described 1 They are opposed in their Principle For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other Gal. 5. 17. These are those two adverse Principles which maintain such a Conflict in the Souls of Believers whilst they are in this world and which is so Graphically described by our Apostle Rom. 7. so the Old and New man are opposed and contrary 2 In their Actings The Lusting of the Flesh and the Lusting or desires of the Spirit Walking after the Flesh and Walking after the Spirit living after the Flesh and living in the Spirit are opposed also This is the Opposition that is between the Body of Sin with its Members and the Life of Grace Who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1 4 5. We are Debters not to the flesh to live after the flesh for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye by the Spirit doe mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh ye shall live ver 11 12 13. By this walking after the Flesh I understand not at least not principally the committing of Actual Sins but a Compliance with the Principle or Habit of sin prevailing in Depraved unsanctified Nature allowing it a predominancy in the Hearts and Affections It is when men are disposed to Act according to the Inclinations Lustings Motions Wills and Desires of it Or it is to bend that way Habitually in our Course and Conversation which the Flesh inclines and leads unto This Principle doth not indeed Equally bring forth Actual sins in all but hath various Degrees of its Efficacy as it is advantaged by Temptations controlled by Light or hampered by Convictions Hence all that are under the Power of Sin
to undertake it for him and to acquaint him with it Psal. 139. 23 24. 2. There may be some perplexing Temptations befall the Mind of a Believer or some Corruption take advantage to break loose for a season it may be for a long season which may much gall the Soul with its suggestions and so trouble disturb and unquiet it as that it shall not be able to make a right Judgment of its Grace and Progress in Holiness A Ship may be so tossed in a storm at Sea as that the most skilfull Mariners may not be able to discern whether they make any way in their intended Course and Voyage whilest they are carryed on with Success and speed In such cases Grace in its Exercise is principally engaged in an Opposition unto its Enemy which it hath to conflict withall and so its thriving other wayes is not discernible If it should be enquired how we may discern when Grace is exercised and thrives in Opposition unto Corruptions and Temptations I say that as great Winds and Storms do sometimes contribute to the Fruit-bearing of Trees and Plants so do Corruptions and Temptations unto the Fruitfulness of Grace and Holiness The wind comes with violence on the Tree ruffles its boughs it may be breaks some of them beats off its Budds looseneth and shaketh its Roots and threatens to cast the whole to the ground But by this means the Earth is opened and loosed about it and the Tree gets its Roots deeper into the Earth whereby it receives more and fresh nourishment which renders it fruitfull though it bring not forth Fruit visibly it may be not till a good while after In the Assaults of Temptations and Corruptions the Soul is wofully ruffled and disordered its Leaves of Profession are much blasted and its beginnings of Fruit-bearing much broken and retarded but in the mean-time it secretly and invisibly casts out its roots of Humility Self-abasement Mourning in hidden and continual labouring of Faith and Love after that Grace whereby Holiness doth really increase and way is made for future visible Fruitfulness For 3. God who in Infinite Wisdom manageth the New Creature or whole Life of Grace by his Spirit doth so turn the streams of it and so renew and change the especial kinds of its Operations as that we cannot easily trace his paths therein and may therefore be often at a loss about it as not knowing well what He is doing with us For Instance it may be the Work of Grace and Holiness hath greatly put forth and evidenced it self in the Affections which are renewed by it Hence Persons have great Experience of Readiness unto Delight and Chearfulness in Holy Duties especially those of Immediate Entercourse with God For Affections are quick and vigorous for the most part in the Youth of Profession And the Operations of them being sensible unto them in whom they are and their Fruits visible they make Persons seem alwayes fresh and green in the wayes of Holiness But it may be after a while it seems good to the Soveraign Disposer of this Affair to turn as it were the streams of Grace and Holiness into another Channel He sees that the Exercise of Humility Godly Sorrow Fear diligent Conflicting with Temptations that it may be strike at the very root of Faith and Love are more needfull for them He will therefore so order his Dispensations towards them by Afflictions Temptations Occasions of Life in the world as that they shall have new work to doe and all the Grace they have be turned into a new Exercise Hereon it may be they find not that sensible vigour in their Spiritual Affections nor that Delight in Spiritual Duties which they have done formerly This makes them sometimes ready to conclude that Grace is decayed in them that the Springs of Holiness are drying up and they know neither where nor what they are But yet it may be the real Work of Sanctification is still thriving and effectually carryed on in them 3 ly It is acknowledged that there may be that there are in many great Decayes in Grace and Holiness that the work of Sanctification goeth back in them and that it may be universally and for a long season Many Actings of Grace are lost in such Persons and the things that remain are ready to dye This the Scripture abundantly testifieth unto and giveth us instances of How often doth God charge his People with Back-sliding Barrenness Decayes in Faith and Love And the Experience of the Dayes wherein we live sufficiently confirm the Truth of it Are there not open and visible Decayes in many as to the whole Spirit all the Dutyes and Fruits of Holiness Cannot the best among us contribute somewhat to the Evidence hereof from our own Experience What shall we say then is there no sincere Holiness where such Decayes are found God forbid But we must enquire the Reasons whence this comes to pass seeing this is contrary to the gradual Progress of Holiness in them that are sanctified which we have Asserted And I answer two things unto it 1. That these Decayes are Occasional and Preternatural as to the true Nature and Constitution of the New Creature and a disturbance of the Ordinary Work of Grace They are Diseases in our spiritual State which it is not to be measured by Are you dead and cold in Duties backward in Good Works careless of your Hearts and Thoughts addicted to the World These things belong not to the State of Sanctification but are Enemies unto it Sicknesses and Diseases in the Spiritual Constitution of the Persons in whom they are 2. Although our Sanctification and Growth in Holiness be a Work of the Holy Spirit as the Efficient Cause thereof yet is it our own Work also in a way of Duty He hath prescribed unto us what shall be our part what he expects from us and requireth of us that the Work may be regularly carryed on unto Perfection as was before declared And there are two sorts of things which if we attend not unto in a due Manner the orderly progress of it will be obstructed and retarded For 1 The Power and Growth of any Lust or Corruption and a complyance from them with Temptations which is inseparable from the prevalency of any sin in us lyes directly against this Progress If we allow or approve of any such thing in us if we indulge unto any actings of sin especially when known and grown frequent in any one kind when we neglect the use of the best Means for the constant Mortification of sin which every enlightened Soul understands to be necessary thereunto there is and will be encreased an universal decay in Holiness and not only in that particular Corruption which is so spared and indulged A Disease in any one of the Vitals or principal parts of the Body weakens not only the part wherein it is but the whole Body it self and vitiates the whole Constitution by a sympathy of parts And any particular Lust
indulged unto vitiates the whole Spiritual Health and weakens the Soul in all Duties of Obedience 2 There are some things required of us to this End that Holiness may thrive and be carryed on in us Such are the constant use of all Ordinances and Means appointed unto that End a due Observance of Commanded Duties in their Season with a Readiness for the Exercise of every especial Grace in its proper circumstances Now if we neglect these things if we walk at all peradventures with God attending neither to Means nor Dutyes nor the Exercise of Grace as we should we are not to wonder if we find our selves Decaying yea ready to dye Doth any man wonder to see a person formerly of a sound Constitution grown weak and sickly if he openly neglect all Means of health and contract all sorts of Diseases by his Intemperance Is it strange that a Nation should be sick and faint at heart that Grey-hairs should be sprinkled upon it that it should be poor and decaying whilest Consuming Lusts with a strange Neglect of all envigorating Means do prevail in it No more is it that a Professing people should decay in Holy Obedience whilest they abide in the Neglects expressed Having vindicated this Assertion I shall yet adde a little further Improvement of it And 1. If the Work of Holiness be such a Progressive thriving Work in its own nature if the Design of the Holy Ghost in the use of Means be to carry it on in us and encrease it more and more unto a perfect Measure then is our Diligence still to be continued to the same End and Purpose For hereon depends our growth and thriving It is required of us that we give all Diligence unto the Encrease of Grace 2 Pet. 1. and that we abound therein 2 Cor. 8. 7. abounding in all Diligence and not only so but that we shew the same Diligence unto the End Heb. 6. 11. Whetever Diligence you have used in the attaining or improving of Holiness abide in it unto the End or we cast our selves under Decayes and endanger our Souls If we slack or give over as to our Duty the Work of Sanctification will not be carryed on in a way of Grace And this is required of us this is expected from us that our whole Lives be spent in a Course of diligent Complyance with the Progressive Work of Grace in us There are three Grounds on which men doe or may neglect this Duty whereon the Life of their Obedience and all their Comforts do depend 1 A Presumption or Groundless Perswasion that they are already perfect This some pretend unto in a proud and foolish Conceit destructive of the whole Nature and Duty of Evangelical Holiness or Obedience For this on our parts consists in our willing Complyance with the Work of Grace gradually carryed on unto the measure appointed unto us If this be already attained there is an End of all Evangelical Obedience and men return again to the Law unto their Ruine See Phil. 3. 12 13 14. It is an excellent Description of the Nature of our Obedience which the Apostle gives us in that place All Absolute Perfection in this Life is rejected as unattainable The End proposed is Blessedness and Glory with the Eternal Enjoyment of God and the Way whereby we press towards it which comprizeth the whole of our Obedience is by continual uninterrupted following after pressing reaching out a constant Progress in and by our utmost Diligence 2 A foolish Supposition that being interested in a state of Grace we need not now be so solicitous about exact Holiness and Obedience in all things as we were formerly whilest our minds hung in suspense about our Condition But so much as any one hath this Apprehension or Perswasion prevailing in him or influencing of him so much hath he cause deeply to question whether he have yet any thing of Grace or Holiness or no. For this Perswasion is not of him who hath called us There is not a more effectual Engine in the hand of Sathan either to keep us off from Holiness or to stifle it when it is attained nor can any thoughts arise in the Hearts of men more opposite to the nature of Grace For which cause the Apostle rejects it with Detestation Rom. 6. 1 2. 3 Weariness and Despondencies arising from Oppositions Some find so much difficulty in and Opposition to the Work of Holiness and its Progress from the Power of Corruptions Temptations and the Occasions of Life in this World that they are ready to faint and give over this Diligence in Dutyes and Contending against Sin But the Scripture doth so abound with Encouragements unto this sort of Persons as we need not to insist thereon CHAP. III. Believers the only Object of Sanctification and Subject of Gospel Holiness 1 Believers the only Subject of the Work of Sanctification 2 How men come to believe if Believers alone receive the Spirit of Sanctification 3 The principal Ends for which the Spirit is promised with their Order in their Accomplishment 4 Rules to be observed in praying for the Spirit of God and his Operations therein 5 That Believers only are Sanctified or Holy proved and confirmed 6 Mistakes about Holiness both Notional and Practical discovered 7 The Proper Subject of Holiness in Believers Sect. 1 THat which we are next to enquire into is the personal Subject of this Work of Sanctification or who and of what sort those Persons are that are made Holy Now these are All and Only Believers All who unseignedly believe in God through Jesus Christ are sanctified and no other Unto them is Evangelical Holiness confined It is for them and them only that our Saviour prayes for this Mercy Grace or Priviledge Joh. 17. 17. Sanctifie them by thy Truth And concerning them he affirms for their sakes I sanctifie my self that they also may be sanctified through the Truth v. 19. And whereas in the Verses foregoing he had immediate Respect unto his Apostles and present Disciples that we may know that neither his Prayer nor this Grace are confined or limited unto them he addes Neither pray I for these alone that is in this Manner and for these Ends but for them also which shall believe on me through their World v. 20. It was therefore the Prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ that all Believers should be sanctified and so also was it his Promise John 7. 38 39. He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall slow rivers of living water But this he spake of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive And it is with respect principally unto this Work of Sanctification that he is compared unto flowing and living Water as hath been declared before It is for Believers the Church that was in God the Father and in Jesus Christ that is by Faith 1 Thess. 1. 1. that our Apostle prayes that the God of Peace would sanctifie them throughout chap. 5.