doth in that manner work his graces in us that they are still the genuine effects of the Evidence and Motives of the Gospel Of the natural use of our faculties the understanding and will and of our own care and diligence in using the external means of grace His operations in us make us capable of recovering our selves by degrees and all the while there is no sensible difference between them and the natural operatious of our minds and yet we are sure we have his assistance and help in all the good we do and without it we can do nothing at all to saving purposes This is the Doctrine which if no inferences but Orthodox be drawn from it I take to be sound We have then some Vse of it which is also very good There is but a little of it but if he had been more in that and less in quarrels with the Doctor it had yet been all better And so God bless the hopeful Author in his Studies CHAP. VI. Of the Authors Calumniations of Dr. Owen and some reply to them Having thus done with the Book there are some passages require my reflection upon them for the Doctors vindication The Doctor is accused of Nonsense of Contradiction of Error It is fit that some thing should be said in reference to the two latter though it be but a rudeness to go about to answer any thing to the former For the first therefore I will say this only If the Doctor hath expressed any thing darkly that this Author cannot make sense of it such a place or passage as to him is to go for nothing That is all in civility to be said of it For the second There is one instance I will mention about Election The Doctor in one place of his Book speaking I suppose to a prophane person yet presuming on his Election tells him He cannot believe his Election any otherwise but as God reveals it by the effects that is untill he believe and repents he cannot conclude he is Elected In another place speaking I suppose to the tender serious Christian who is yet in trouble about his Election he saies He cannot justly doubt of his Election until he be in such a condition as wherein it is impossible that the effects of Election should be wrought in him This the Author makes a contradiction but it is only the distinguishing between these two things A not concluding and A concluding not and the Doctor is cleared The man who sees not the effects of Election on his heart and in his life cannot conclude that he is elected here is the not concluding which ought to be And the man that sees them not cannot conclude for all that that he is not Elected because they may be wrought in him before he dies here is the concluding not which must be avoided So the one is rebuked and the other supported as they should both be Such are the Doctors contradictions For the third which is the Doctors Errors I must distinguish of Error There is Human Error Error common to man It is the nature of man to be subject to mulake to be deceived to err saies the Orator and there are Pernicious Errors This Gentlemans accusations are of both sorts For the former sort There is two or three places where this Author is very confident upon the Doctor for his saying that the Spirit is given to us in his Person as well as in his Effects which methinks I cannot pass because I do not know well whether the Error be in the Doctor or in this Author or in my self I am apt to think that it is too much to say that the Spirit dwelleth personally in any man though we are said to be the Temples of the Holy Ghost and that it is too little to say he is given only in his gists graces or effects I would say rather that the Spirit is given it self for these Effects I look upon the Spirit of Christ to be given to us for a principle of life and union with our Head from whom we have through this Spirit the communication of all saving influence unto a holy life It is the received opinion that there is an habitual righteousness infused by God in the soul for our justification according to the Schools or according to our Divines for our Regeneration and that this is the principle of life and power in the soul unto holy operations I must confess here I do not receive this Doctrine I have it somewhere in my Mediocria I think more cautiously but I do really believe no infusion of habits I count that the Spirit by a motion on the Will exciting it to act does incline it to farther acts by the impression which is made and that the habit then is acquired by the iteration of those acts and delight in them or love to them shed abroad in our hearts by the same Holy Ghost given to us I do believe consequently that it is the Spirit it self dwelling in us as the Scripture understands its own expression which is that principle of life from whose constant secret and unperceptable aid does proceed all those actions which are holy and good and acceptable to God I do believe there is a time when Christ gives his Spirit to every one of his Elect for uniting him to himself as his head and that this union is effected immediately by that communication and that through this Spirit all vital influence must be derived to us I cannot frame my self to say the Spirit is personally in us but he is in Christs members as a principle of life and spiritual action and as the formal band of that union which we have with him Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that body are one body so also is Christ I cannot tell well therefore how to brook some expressions as I find somewhere in this Author and in another before him that when the Scripture speaks of our having the Spirit of Christ and having it so as to be led by him and if we have not the Spirit of Christ we are none of his they are willing to interpret the having Christs Spirit to be only the being of his temper and and disposition which is the bringing down the Scripture to our ordinary converse and seems to me unholy I hope these men do believe the Christian faith and do reverence his mysteries And there are these three of them The mysterie of the Trinity The mysterie of the Incarnation and the Mystical Union between Christ and his Church It is true that Christ is not a Natural head but a Political as opposed to natural but not as opposed to mystical He is a Political head as he governs us and as we are in subjection to him but he is also a Mystical head vouchsafing to us that spiritual influence which enables us to obey him He governs us and so
is our head but he governs us by his Spirit which is infused though I think no habit be and when we are lead by this Spirit as there is Rule there is Influence and this Union must be Real and Mystical and not that which is Political only Suppose a man whâ—se head was high as the Heavens yet so long as the same soul animates all the members the feet as in the head it is one man Christ our head is in Heaven and we on earth yet as the same Spirit is in us which is in him the head and members make one dy nay in the words of the Scripture one Christ O Agrippa believest thou the Prophets O thou Author of this Book against Dr. Owen Believest thou these mysteries of the Christian Religion I know that thou believest For the later sort There is one place in his Book where we have two of his pernicious errors together The Doctor belike hath said that though a man should reform his life and be changed from vice to vertue and that by hearing the word preached This is the most I count he saies and which may be exemplified in Herod who heard John and did many things yet if there be not an habitual righteousness infufed it signifies nothing to regeneration To this purpose is it only and altogether the Doctor speaks Hereupon this Gentleman breaks out and challenges him before his own party as he speaks and before the world for contradicting the Scripture He that doeth Righteousness is born of God and then charges him with Pelagianism He professes he is in earnest and that this is rank Pelagianism that the Doctor allows so much to be done without saving grace I have the more reason to be moved at this because a certain person of quality and of a ready judgement having this Author by him turned me to this place as if the Doctor was much to be blamed when I must needs say that this Gentleman hath no where exposed himself so much in his Book as here where he endeavours to expose the Doctor There is no man that reads practical Divines that lay down characters of the truly godly man the sound Believer and how far the Hypocrite may go but does know they speak commonly as the Doctor does and there are few one would think so inconsiderate or raw but should also know here how to distinguish so easily as between the matter of what is done and the manner of the performance Good works may be considered quoad operis substamtiam or quoad modum quo ordinaniur id vuam aevernam There is no good act no not the least that can be done is performed in that manner as it ought or as it is required to be accepted in order to salvation but a man must be born of God according to his text and have the assistance of the Spirit But for the matter of the work or of our duty this Author must consider better that the Regenerate and Unrepenerate are alike as to that One can hear and pray and give alms and abstain from evil as well as the Other and many times the veryest Hippocrite pretends most Nay what saies this Gentleman to Socrates Aristides Epimomdas Plato Plutark Cato What saies he to Almanzor that Mahomet in Einperor whose life is set out by Sir Walter Rayleigh in a little Book for such singular vertues especially as to his goodness and righteousness that I find him not paralleld by any Christian Will this Author censure Sir Walter for a Pelagian for such a narration or will he make me one if I believe it Or will he come over here and when he hath placed such in a state of Nature and so out of a state of Grace will he allow an Heathen or Mahometan to be a regeherate person Hath the Gentleman read Ruiz or one such a kind of Schoolman as he all over Let him see when they have denied against pelagius all ability in man to do any thing even but to give an occasion which is active and not passive only to infuse in us their justifying grace whether they are also ignorant of some such distinction It is no Pelagianism in the Schools to say a man can do many things civily morally good through the power of nature education custome for company sake for glory but it is so to say he can do any thing without preventing grace in order to his justification There is no need therefore of such vehemence nor of any such expressions he uses otherwhere I will desire the Doctor to consider whether the Father of lies be not the representative of such shameful Writers as he is the example of These kind of words are not well There is a great deal of acrimony I see with a little truth mixt methinks like the fire and hail that ran together in one of the Egyptian Plagues in the Books of many late rising adversaries to this learned pious and reverend person It were happy if the opprobrious words of the prejudicate would make thewise mend their faults It were well also if such an inconsiderate confident piece of elation of mind as here indeed is be but repressed with the shame and blushes of another Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an oyle and not break my head CHAP. VII Of Dr. Owen's Book of Justification and of the reconciliation of St. Paul and St. James and the Imputation of Christ's righteousness upon his account HAving said this for the Doctor I have a little now also to say to him I was reading his later Book of Justification when this Author came to my hands and I had thought of making some remarks upon it I am not satisfied with what he hath offered for the reconciliation of St. James and Paul on that subject This is the reason I suppose that is the most solid why so many do choose here of late to go with the mediocrian or steer the middle way in that point I perceive that Dr. Tully with our first Reformed Divines and this excellent Doctor are for distinguishing of Faith and Justification but will not let us by no means distinguish of Works for the reconciliation of the Apostles I do wonder at this The Apostle James and the Apostle Paul do both agree that we are justified by Faith The one saies we conclude that a man is justified by Faith and the other saies also it is by Faith Their seeming difference is only about works when one saies by Faith without Works and the other by Faith and Works also And how then comes it to pass that we must not distinguish of Works but of Justification and Faith to compose the difficulty I will offer the Doctor therefore here one Argument under his favour which shall be but one and that not as others have so far as I know for then it were like he had already weighed it It is this That Justification which St. Paul
therefore for it is another and this Authour must not compound his with it to be laid down in the second place By the natural man which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may understand him who hath onely the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or reasonable soul derived from Adam and by the spiritual man him who hath received the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that Spirit which is from Christ The first man Adam was made a living soul the second Adam was made a quickening spirit This Spirit as it was promised to be poured out upon men in the latter daies which was the time of the New Testament so do we find it given ordinarily at their Baptism and Confirmation as we read in the Acts and as we find in this Epistle The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all Where we have this Spirit given and that to every one and the Manifestation of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That manifestation possibly might be by some Shechinah sometimes on the heads of the baptized but the certain meaning appears in the following verses to be by the miraculous gifts then poured out Among which gifts one of them was the Discernment of mysteries Spirits that is Doctrines and so is the Spirit given and received we are to suppose in this place We have received the Spirit of God saies the Text to this effect That we may know the things which he hath freely given us The whole meaning then is thus the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the man who had not this Spirit then poured on him could not discern those things of the Spirit as others of them could who had it because these hidden things were discoverable by that miraculous gift and he having not the Gift to discern them must judge of them by natural reason onely and so they were foolishness to him when as to them who had it they appeared the Power of God and Wisdom of God And of this Spiritual man so interpreted that is the inspired man one that had the mind of Christ in the last verse and that received the Spirit in the tenth for this effect the discernment of these things it is easie to understand how he could judge all things and be judged of none in regard that this inspâ—ration within could be discernable to himself onely and so the text and context and the whole chapter shall be made to agree throughout one verse with another Nevertheless there is one inconvenience this interpretation is liable to as will make it to be refused by most men when we have said all we can It is this that if this be the meaning then must this whole place be applicable onely to those Christians in the Apostles daies and no Christian at this time can be concerned That is if this be the sense then is there no man now that hath received the Spirit of God that he may know the things of God no spiritual man now in the true sense of this place but all must be natural men onely as having not the Spirit according to this interpretation when yet the giving of the Spirit otherwhere and in the sense of other Texts is a branch of the New Covenant and he that hath not the Spirit of Christ St. Paul saies in another place is none of his There is a third Interpretation therefore that by the Natural man and Spiritual man we are to understand the Vnregenerate and Regenerate man that is one that hath not and one that hath received the Spirit to the ordinary effects of it which is illumination and sanctification And this is the most general Opinion and Interpretation which is received by our Divines and so taken up by Dr. Owen however elaborately he hath improved it so little reason hath this Gentleman or any others to make any assault on him for that matter When the unreâ—â—â—â—rate man then in the Text is said not 〈…〉 things of the Spirit or Doctrines of Christ 〈…〉 he cannot that is morally cannot receive 〈…〉 meaning of our Divines in general is this that 〈◊〉 does not or cannot receive or discern them so as to savour them or relish them he does not or cannot embrace them in his heart as good to him or so as to lead his life according to them In short he cannot receive them so as to apply them And this is a Truth never to be gainsaid by this man though which of the three Interpretations is to be preferr'd I pass not my own judgment Let us hear this Authour's Objections The Doctor saies he does grant that an unregenerate man may assent to the truth of the things of God and if he can assent to them he can see a conformity in them to God's Attributes and a suitableness to the ends of the Gospel and if he can see this then will they not appear foolishness to him and consequently he can know them Every one will answer to this There is a Speculative and a Practical knowledge When our Divines say the unregenerate man cannot know these things they understand it of a Practical knowledge he does know them special lively but he hath no vital experimental knowledge of them And when the reason is given in the Text because they are spiritually discerned we must expound spiritually i. e. by the assistance of God's Spirit according to this third Interpretation The Natural man does not receive know or discern these things of God as able I account to apply them because they are discerned onely by a supernatural assistance of the Holy Ghost which they having not cannot do it I will answer farther The Spirit may be given and received to divers effects on her for illumination and conviction or for conversion and sanctification If the Natural man who is one without the Spirit hath not the Spirit at all to illuminate and convince him he believes not the Doctrines of Christ though he hears them There is no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost and while he in his heart believes them not they are indeed to him but foolishness when if he hath the Spirit but to enlighten and to convince him he may dogmatically receive them going so far and yet until he hath the Spirit also to convert him and sanctifie him he cannot discern them I must still say so as to apply them to his salvation Here are three Interpretations then proposed to them who please to strive for mastery I have but one Note more to add out of this Authour By being spiritually discerned saies he speaking of these things in the Text is meant their being known understood and judged of by the revelation and testimony of the Spirit Thus much is right and must be agreed upon by all three Interpretations onely their difference then also must be laid down This revelation or testimony of the Spirit therefore is either external or internal The first Opinion which is this Author's will have this
revelation external and so shall he that hath the Scriptures onely be accounted to have the Spirit and to discern these spiritual things The other two Opinions will have this testimony or revelation internal so that without the Spirit 's operation within the man is to be held a Natural man and not to understand these things This internal revelation of the Spirit then is either extraordinary in the miraculous gifts and discernment of the Primitive times and the second Opinion is that the place is to be understood of these gifts and such workings of the Spirit as do not belong now to ours or it is ordinary in the work of illumination and conversion which still continue in the world and the third Opinion which is the Drs. rests in this as of most concern to us and most easie of admission There is a fourth Interpretation By the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be understood the Sensual man and by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the intellectual contemplative man The Platonists do distinguish their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some of our Platonical Divines do favour this Exposition To confirm it there is that Text in Jude may be produced where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are so translated sensual not having the Spirit with other places where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are opposed This Note by the way I take up however that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are indeed the same But this interpretation I think too extreamly opposite to the first which is our Authors for these mens spiritual man is no more than his natural man and I am satisfied with him that no man of the highest attainment by contemplation can be able to find out any of these things in the text which depend on Gods Soveraign Will and can be discovered only by his Spirit For As no man knoweth the things of a man saies the text save the spirit of a man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God These things of God are I say the arbitrary councils of God's will for the saving man by his grace in and through Jesus Christ which lies not within the scheam of Nature and come not therefore within the ken of humane understanding unless they be made known to us either by inspiration of them into our selves or by the Revelation of them through the Spirit by others There may be haply more Interpretations than these for I consult not Commentators but if any be apt to mingle the two former into one for confutation of the third because it is Dr. Owens I do apprehend such to betray a precipitate disaffection rather than a ponderous judgement I know that the first and second this Authors and the Friendly Debaters may be made use of to confute the third which is the received interpretation and the Doctors but so may the third and second be used to confute this Authors and yet that will neither make the first and second nor the second and third to be the same That interpretation which gives such a sense of the Chapter as makes the receiving the Spirit there applicable only to the Christians in the Primitive times cannot be the same with that which gives such a sense of it as makes it applicable to Christians now whether all of them regenerate and unregenerate who have but their Bibles as this man will have it or those only who are partakers of it to the effect of Regeneration according to Dr. Owen Let us look the Gentlemans Introduction now again over and we shall find that the braggery of that Interpretation which he hath advanced to confute Dr. Owen does lye herein that every one who hath the Scriptures and does not reject them must have the Spirit in the Text to discern the things of God and the Doctor must be a very proud man who does number himself among such and will allow the Regenerate only to know them This must be shewn by all means what an absurd person the Doctor is who will have an almighty irresistible new light brought into the soul by the Holy Ghost that is a work of illumination on the mind and conversion on the heart to enable a man to discern these things when by the Spirit according to him we are to understand the outward revelation of the Word only which all have to enable them to discern the same There is one notion for all this which is much inculcated by him that seems to verge upon a mixture of the two first Interpretations by setching in something from the second into his which upon the account of corroborating is but some confounding himself first for confutation of the Doctor The Apostle saies he proposes the demonstration of the Spirit and of power to judge of the truth of the Gospel and he also proposeth the comparing spiritual things with spiritual to judge of the sense of the Doctrines of it Again Things that are spiritually discerned are those which be discernable only by the revelation of the Spirit That is by the testimony of the Spirit in miracles as to the truth of them and by comparing one divine revelation with another as to the meaning of them I love the Author for this because I must confess it seems to me to be very neatly spoken and yet it is but a tale when he hath said it The Apostle distinguishes not the truth of the things of God in the Text and the meaning of them 'T is he makes the distinction and puts it on the Apostle as if he intended that which came not once into his mind Nor does the Apostle propose these two ways of discerning things spiritually but himself proposes them I do not think the Apostle to be so double minded as to understand two things by this one expression spiritually discerned If he intended by it that the truth of the things revealed was discerned by the testimony of the Spirit given thereunto by miracles he intended not by it that the meaning of them is discerned by the testimony of Scripture And e contra if he intended the later he meant not the former The Apostle I believe had but one meaning though these two things be true asunder There is no man can be sure that by the demonstration of the Spirit in this Chapter and the comparing spiritual things with spiritual the Apostle intended two things or two wayes of that Spirits testimony it is more likely that the later expression does de industria expound the former To wit that when we find out any truth or doctrine by comparing one Scripture with another this is the demonstration of the Spirit intended in the place which I shall have occasion to suppose again by and by in regard to another Writer If they are two sorts of testimony no man can be sure that he intended them both I say still by that one explanation And who can
these Controversies that must be found out in regard both to Practise as well as Theory or we shall neither have our Consciences nor Judgments well pacified in these matters For the third thing then I will take a little more room for as I have had and took an occasion before to speak of Preaching by the Spirit or with the demonstration of it so I think it also seasonable sutable and profitable to speak of praying by the Spirit unto which this Author himself and much more the Friendly Debater hath given such ample opportunity I wish I might not call it in regard to man good devout Christians provocation There is one Text therefore in regard to this matter as there was one in regard to the other that requires our more serious consideration It is Rom. 8. 26 27. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because be maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God The Apostle speaking in the eighteenth Verse before the Text and in the twenty eight after it about the afflictions of this life which God's Children endure whereby they are conformed to Christ in sufferings as they shall be in glory this ingenious Author does apprehend that the exposition of these words is to be confined to that matter altogether We know not what to pray for as we ought That is we know not what is best for us in this mortal life in regard to these troubles persecutions or miseries whereby God intends sometimes to do us much good and we are therefore to seek to him with submission to his will in these things having this encouragement in our hearts that the Spirit of God is our Guide as I said before where this Author left it out to direct us under all these Providences and to be our Intercessor also to obtain for us that which is like to prove best He knows what that is and stirs up in our souls many earnest desires after it which seeing we cannot reach our selves these desires cannot be uttered by us that is are unutterable on that account but so long as our requests are put up by him in those desires God who knows the mind of his own Spirit hears these petitions and grants those very things which are best that is which he means so that these things do and shall certainly work together for our good as the Apostle says in the place so long as we love him This is in length the contents of that interpretation and I suppose according to his mind which he hath sedulously proposed both with authority and dexterity enough if he were but as tender withal of preserving that support and warrantable expectation from the Holy Spirit which we have ground to take up in this place I like well of all that is expressed in regard to afflictions unto the illustration of which sense the Apostles own example in his praying himself to have his troubles the thorn in the flesh removed and God's seeing it best for him rather to afford him his sufficient Grace does opportunely conduce but I do not approve by no means the slaking down the interpretation of these words to that matter only And much less will I give way to Doctor Hammond's translating the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Misery for seeing there is twenty places perhaps where the word is taken in this sense Infirmity to one where it is taken in the other for Affliction I must hold it but right to give it here according to our Translations English and Latin its ordinary and genuine signification There is a great deal of comfort in these dear words of the Text that the Spirit helps our infirmities We are sensible with how many of them we are encompassed not in regard to the thiugs without us so much as within us and if the weaknesses frailty shortnesses imperfections of our natures persons abilities tempers conditions be not provided for by the Divine succor we are undone I look upon the man that will go to take away from me the comfort of these words and this place in regard to my addresses unto God as him that is coming to pick my Lock and take away my Treasure I will not suffer this man to rob me of my trust in the conduct and assistance of God's gracious good Spirit in the very making and pouring out my Prayers for all the good that he and Doctor Hammond can do me with both their Books I do hate to put the name of Formal men or Formalists on any party yet seeing some of all parties are such I cannot but declare that man to be a Formalist to me who shall offer to speak the least thing wilfully to damp the prayers of any the humblest ones or weakest ones in whom the Spirit of God does dwell There is another interpretation then of these words and of the matter intended in them that will carry it I think from the former The word Likewise which ushers in the Text will carry it When I consider the Context the words in Verse 28. following the Text does almost persuade me that the matter this Author hath proposed may be intended and I am pleased that it is likely but the word Likewise doth import plainly that the matter intended must relate to the words before and not to those that follow and they carry it I say otherwise The Apostle therefore in this Chapter speaking of Gods Children and thinking presently of the evils they endure does for our support upon that account fall to telling us of the freedom we shall have in another state in comparison whereof these things deserve not any reckoning This is in Verse 11. Of this state then in the verses following he treats as that which is expected of all the Creatures and by Vs a state of liberty and glory which we hope for though we see it not and with patience wait for it in the Verses immediately foregoing And then in this Text it follows that likewise we also through the Spirit pray for it Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities Mark it likewise and also This must hold the same matter together in this and the former Verses For we know not what we should pray for as we ought What is that then but we are not able in this life to comprehend any thing to purpose of that state of glorious liberty whereof he was speaking We know not what we shall be says St. John but we shall be like him Things there be that are prepared for us but what they are neither hath the eye seen nor ear heard nor can the heart conceive truly of these things which yet we hope for and so pray for the Spirit exciting these desires in us who knows them makes intercession by these
groans or desires which are unutterable both in regard to our selves in that we know not the things of Heaven and cannot utter them and in regard to the nature of the things which are expresly called by the Apostle when he was ravished in his Spirit up thither to see them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things not possible to be uttered And yet are they prepared for us though above our comprehension and God who does above what we are able to ask or think and knows what is the mind of his own Spirit will grant them because this Intercession is by his appointment and we are to support our hearts that this time is coming when not only all these miseries shall have an end but we shall see Gods end in them all in making them work for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory Here are two interpretations then which I leave to the Reader and he perhaps may choose neither of them but in both of them that objection which is obvious from the Lord's Prayer is prevented Christ hath taught us what we are to pray for and yet does the Text tell us that we know not what we should pray for as we ought There are things in the Lord's Prayer which we are to pray for and know that we ought to pray for them and do pray for them yet do we know them but in part and we are more short in our knowing how to pray for them as best for us When we pray for deliverance from evil and temptation that includes our present troubles and these are the things we know not according to the first Interpretation When we pray that God's Kingdom may come that includes the things of heaven and these are the things we know not according to the second Interpretation That which cannot be denied in regard to these two Petitions must be acknowledged in all others under a like condition There is little reason for this Author then to pick a quarrel with Doctor Owen for attributing too much to the assistance of God's Spirit in the making our Prayers who is so very cautious to allow any thing but in regard to the matter of them when there is so much more included here in the Spirits praying for us and that for the things we know not as it may make any man at a stand who goes about to limit the Holy One almost at all for fear of presuming on the Ark of his imperceptible operations Having said this I have but three or four notes more upon this Text which must not be waved It is to be considered first we have the Spirit put here into the Office of Intercessor and there is a practical case requires satisfaction Christ hath promised again and again that whatsoever we ask by Faith in his name according to his will we shall have it There is many a good man now troubled at this that he hath prayed often and not been heard It must be answered therefore upon this account that whatsoever request we make or any one makes with the qualifications exprest it is and must be put up to God by the Holy Spirit and though it be not answered according to our mind it is according to his who maketh intercession for us A second note is this that though the Apostle be supposed to bring in these words We know not what we should pray for as we ought with regard to the Context it will not follow from the instance of one or other of these particular matters to be intended that all others must be excluded but rather that the universal matters of Prayer so far as they are subject to the like condition must be certainly also concluded Note in the third place that though there does appear some reason from the objection mentioned for limiting these words We know not what to pray for there is no reason for limitation of the first part of the Text The Spirit helpeth our infirmities For when it is affirmed that it is by reason of our infirmity that we know not what to pray for it does not follow that therefore that is all our infirmity We have many more infirmities to be helpt than this in making our Prayers Note in the last place that though the groans unutterable in the Text be expounded in both these interpretations with regard to the matter prayed for they may very likely be better expounded with regard to these infirmities to be helped that is though we are such many of us as are so weak that we cannot utter our requests or frame our desires into petitions yet by the Spirit we are assisted some way to put these small unutterable groans with his good motions together so as they are accepted in Heaven It is not by reason of the intensiveness or greatness but because of their smallness said Master Perkins that these groans are unutterable I do not think therefore that it is in this Authors power to divert that favour which this Text does cast upon those Prayers which he calls ex tempore the Ancients ex pectore feeing such Prayers do follow or slow most genuinely from the motions that are upon the soul and which so long as they are good we are to ascribe to the Holy Spirit And when this is granted on all hands that he does excite our affections who is there can say what influence or how much that work alone hath or must have on our expressions The Holy Spirit being intimate to our souls can affect us when we are not sensible of it and produce effects upon our minds in that manner as if they were meerly the effects of our own reasoning says this very Author And why then do such able and good men for such I hope they indeed are and that they do not speak what they do as Scoffers let such Discourses and Debates as these come from them which carry a tendency in them to repress that devotion that has in it or pretends at least the most of warmth and enlargement of affection in this duty as if a coldness or beadishness in the performance was to be preferred as more safe and wise when Christ that hath taught us to pray does also exhort us to fervency and importunity I cannot tell what they would have by it unless it be that all should come in to the Liturgy or else they should have no other Prayers But this is more than can be expected in conscience The circumstances of praying in a Book or without is not so material as that they should be so earnest I am a profest Neuter against extremes and will apply that saying of the Apostle If we be besides our selves it is to Godward and if we be sober it is for your cause And so having got over this one Text I will now present you my poor thoughts more closely on this subject with reference to Liturgical and Extempore Devotion There are four things here therefore to be distinguished and presented The Spirit of
Prayer The Gift of Prayer Praying in the Spirit Praying by it or with it The Spirit of Prayer I apprehend to be no other than the Spirit of Grace or Regeneration with the connotation of its operation on the soul in regard to this duty There is no Christian born of God without this whereby he cries Abba Father as no man born after the flesh without his breathing There is no holy thought meditation desire after God or request that is acceptable to him in Christ but it is from this Spirit of Adoption or Prayer It follows then that forasmuch as any gracious and regenerate man may use a Form if he pleases and some such have used a Form sometimes as well as Conceived Prayer that it is a conceit exceedingly extravagant and in no wise to be approved to think that a Liturgy or use of a Form is inconsistent with the Spirit of Prayer Suppose we saw those holy men Bradford Rogers Philpot Saunders saying their Prayers out of the Psalter and blessing God for the Book of King Edward I will pour upon the house of Judah and Jerusalem the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication The Gift of Prayer I account to be a natural or acquired not infused ability or faculty of expressing the thoughts and affections with fluency or readiness in Prayer It does depend chiefly I think upon an aptness of memory retaining the sentences and very words of Scripture when others can retain the sense only together with a warm fancy and a tongue that is voluble In short it is a ready utterance which must be always distinguished from the former I remember a person who was otherwise of large parts filled with all present matter for administring a word in season to the weary who in praying sometimes alone with me I have observed to hum and hack so in his Prayer that I never heard any so unable to express himself in my life who yet would use only conceived Prayer and in the mean while I have been so assured of the Grace of God and eminency of that Grace in the person of that sincerity in his duty such an humbling under sin fervency in his petitions melting under the sence of God's mercy and pardon and in a word a heart it self no less broken than those words that I cannot but be satisfied beyond doubt for ever since that the Gift of Prayer is one thing and the Spirit of Prayer is another Now forasmuch as the gifts which are administred to men by God's Spirit are bestowed for use and the edification of the Church if a Liturgy or form of Prayer were imposed on the Clergy in opposition to that provision which God hath made and appointed for the good of his Church that is Gifts unto men for the work of the Ministry or if the Bishops would not suffer them to be employed to the end they are given I do not know any argument of so much weight and like to be prevailing with Religious people against Common-Prayer as this allegation As every one hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold Grace of God But we must not judge so of our Superiors The Churches imposing a Liturgy and set forms on the Minister is to be lookt on as cumulative to his gifts and not as destructive to them There is the gift of Prayer as of Prudence and Knowledge to Ministers as they are single and as they are in conjunction These forms of Prayer are the exercise of the mutual gifts of the Churches Pastors in conjunction and when this Common Service of theirs is performed in the Pew the Minister is lest to the use of his single gifts in the Pulpit without any prejudicing the one by the other Indeed if the Common-Prayer be made a Napkin to wrap up the Talents of any I will not justifie the abuse of that which hath its use and commendation upon other reasons And yet by the way I do not know moreover whether all those Texts which speak of gifts for the Church and which argue power thereupon to profit with them are not to be understood of the Spirit in those times so that when it was manifestly injurious to the Holy Ghost himself then to forbid the use of those Gifts to any which he had ministred to them to that end it may not be so altogether as to those natural gifts and talents that men have now which notwithstanding they are not to be denied to be also from the Spirit seeing even Bezaleel and his fellows skill in working in curious works is attributed to him and every good gift is said to be of God I question whether the person himself be either so engaged to put them to that particular use having them from nature to general service or that there does appear the like injury to God and the Church in some restraint on them as there would be in the other There are diversity of Gifts but the same Spirit Praying in the Spirit I apprehend to be praying with those qualifications which are wrought in us by the Spirit and prescribed by him in the word to make our Prayers acceptable to God Praying in the Spirit say Practical Divines consists not in a copiousness of words but extent of affections The actuating of all does lie in the operation of the Spirit on our hearts in this duty We must pray also according to God's will which is another qualification in Prayer and when a man does pray according to what the Spirit hath directed in the Word he may be said very appositely to pray in the Spirit Two things there are then more particularly wherein I will place this operation The one is the Spirit doth many times pitch the heart upon those objects or things which are most fit for us to ask The other is and then doth excite our desires and enlarge our affections about the same The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God I will not doubt to quote this Text again for thus much It is said that Satan entred into Judas when he went to betray his Lord. And Satan moved David to number the people It appears from hence that Satan puts evil thoughts in the heart and pitches them on objects he tempts them withal The Spirit of God doubtless does no less in the good actions which he stirs up in Gods Saints He puts good thoughts in the mind and represents things to us says the Author of the Friendly Debate himself more clearly than we could make them by all our reasoning I might perhaps cite something from this Gentleman to sute with this but I think the subject here too grave to make him my Authority When the Spirit is said to help us in the Text before exagitated to make our Prayers even about things our selves know not and
to intercede for us therein according to the will of God it cannot be imagined but thus much must be allowed to that operation whatsoever farther he does for us Now then when the Spirit doth not only move the affections in relation to the things the heart is upon in those groanings mentioned to be unutterable but pitches the heart upon these things those very things or objects themselves sometimes at least that are most sutable to our wants which he knows better than we and most agreeable to God's will whether we regard his promises and word or the will of his providence and what he is minded to accomplish for us whâ—â— he alone does know and not we it does seem that the prescribing a set form to our prayers does indeed put some stint to one part of this operation I say iâ— really seems so which is the suggesting good thoughts or the good things themselves into our minds or pitching our hearts upon the things he knows best for every one when the Minister does not know it though it puts no stint to him in his operation on the affections exciting or enlarging them after those objects or the petitions which the Church hath prescribed And how far this will go for the preferring of Conceived Prayer before a Form I leave to that learned and able Doctor of the Church and this ingenious person who is following him to give judgment There are many reasons in regard to the Minister if he hath no Gift or if he have and have not grace least he be puffed up in the ostentation of it and of the Congregation under some considerations why a set form is more eligible when in regard of the humbly godly who are endowed with the Gist and Spirit both there is this reason from praying in the Spirit to be alledged for conceived prayer I must say in the Pulpit out of that Doctors own words before named as nothing for ought I know can be put in ballance against it for notwithstanding the severity of some reflections he hath upon such as are of that mind and practise I do not see any reason at all why a fluent expression a raised voice a zeal in the delivery a melting soul touching phrase out of Scripture with newness and variety of the same and the like circumstances which many times pierce the heart that is slat otherwise and hath 〈◊〉 of all we can to quicken it should any way be derogatory to the sound and wholesome requests otherwise which a man puts up to God in his prayerâ— And consequently if such circumstances indeed as these which will raise the affections are incident to conceived Prayer which are not to a set form then hath that worthy Doctor administred an effectual reason why the very same material petitions or confessions of a Prayer are better oftentimes when delivered extempore than in form and consequently an argument for one above the other even while he is seeking occasion hereby to blast conceived Prayer And why indeed let me ask should not the Church be as ready to use those Gifts which God hath given unto any to excite the people the more in their Devotions as well as they are to make use of Organs and diversity of Voices in their choosing Singing-men and Singing-boyes to that purpose The same Psalm in an Anthem hath another operation on the heart of a devout Conformist out of the mouth of a Choire than it hath in a private Parlour And if a Non-conformist does find the like experience as to an Extempore Prayer above any Composure why should that Doctor or this person be any less pleased with it The use of a man's Gifts in prayer is but an Organ of God's making a warbling and holy descant upon the plain requests of the heart to affect it the more with them and an Organ is the use of those Gifts as I may say which are of man's making or which man hath given to the Church for the same end to wit the enlivening our dull affections while we are meditating praying and praising the Almighty To return we know that Christ bids his Disciples when they were brought before Magistrates they should leave it to the Spirit to direct them what they should speak without solicitude for matter or words It is a modest rule when any thing extraordinary is promised to the Church that it is to be expected at first but afterward we are to look only for what is ordinary I believe that such assistance as that but in an ordinary way and manner is always to be expected by the godly with faith in all they are put upon for his glory and upon supposition of the Spirits suggesting sometimes the very objects into the Ministers mind in such a way as is agreeable to spiritual operation though we are ignorant how which he knowes does befit the present frame of the Congregation How much more likely is the performance of the duty after these motions when there is a gift in the Minister to follow them to affect the hearts of all present then the performance of it after a form of man whether of anothers or his own composure This I must say with faithfulness who am not for the rust of any Ministers parts seeing he hath such continual occasion to use them yet not without these two or three cautions The one is that in the prayers which the Church hath composed we may humbly conceive that the Spirit of God did pitch the hearts of those who were to joyn in their gifts or judgements for the composure upon those objects or matter which is most agreeable to our publick Congregations as it does the heart of any single Minister upon those things as is most agreeable to his will for the present occasion Another is that if a Minister hath not the gift to express himself without study and does therefore take pains for his prayer as for his Preaching having a gift perhaps upon his pains and study though none else that does equal if not excel his that hath the best without it he may expect the same assistance on his study that the Spirit should help his infirmities as to the putting in his mind those things which are most conducive for his people to receive and most agreeable to his will to give as any other may who hath the readiest gift to follow his present motions The last is that though a Minister therefore should take heed of drying up his gifts by one constant form in the Pulpit where he hath liberty yet if any do so I do hold that it is not a sufficient ground for his people to run from him into separation for though that will make his Ministry the less comfortable as the Ministry of one who hath less gifts must be less comfortable than one that hath greater yet the majus and minus does not vary the species and this reaches not to make the service unlawful Besides he who prayes with the largest
the one does ever savingly believe and repent or is truly converted till he have the other also there is no hurt in it but I see no need of it What need is there of Grace only to bring us power which we have already There is no man shall be condemned for his cannot but his will not Every man then must have power A man hath his faculties his Understanding his Will and his Executive power the object is proposed His duty known There is nothing to hinder He may act if he will The Scripture indeed speaks of a Cannot that we can do nothing that we are dead in trespasses and the like but all these expressions put together comes to this to wit such an indisposition on the soul as that a man certainly never will of himself This is the Scriptures cannot truly defined See Mediocria in the Paper of Election which otherwhere therefore is ordinarily called a will not You will not come to me that you may have life There is Natural power still where yet there is Moral impotency as others have it And it is no absurd thing I hope to say a man can do what he can that is he can do what he hath natural power to do Here then I will stick Power is of Nature I said it before but to exert that power into act is of Grace Power is of Nature but to Will and to Do is of God There is no people but have the Object I count and some light of it in their measure so that every body may live according to what he hath and be accepted if he will I grant this to the Pelagian to the Schools to the Arminian that every one may if they will The Spirit saies come and the Bride saies come and whosoever will let him come What 〈◊〉 I say more Whosoever will believe and repent may believe and repent whosoever will be saved may be saved This I say with them but I must then say again with the Orthodox that if any will it is of the grace of God If he will it is of Gods grace against Pelagius No man cometh to me unless the Father draw him If he will it is of Gods special grace against the Arminian But ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep As many as were ordained to salvation believed In short then whosoever will may or can but no man will though he can without grace and this grace Here is the decision of this great controversie And as for the Arminian grace what good of that which if one had it not he should have pleaded a Cannot and been excused but by having it he must be condemned In the last place seeing I perceive this Gentleman is listed for Arminianism I care not if I tell him yet some more of my heart about it I am pretty sensible how things hang together If God intend to give grace and salvation to a few particular persons it is suitable that such only should be redeemed and if this grace be free as decreed absolutely to these it is suitable the will be not free so as to be able to choose or refuse it It is then agreeable that those be kept by the same almighty power to salvation Here are the five points on one side On the other hand If a man that hath grace is to take heed lest he fall it is suitable that grace be such as might be refused at first as well as it may after be lost That the will consequently is free so as to co-operate with it or not That Christ therefore hath purchased but the same grace for one as well as another That Election then be of such persons as use their own liberty and Gods grace as they ought when those that do not are justly rejected and condemned I must declare now I find here no aversion in my mind against the last set of opinions but rather some disinclination to the former I feel my genius more afraid of a captivity by that we call Orthodoxism than by any thing else which makes me come with less prejudice to read Vorstius than Rutherford or Twisse I have no preocupation therefore I am sure on my affections whatsoever I have on my judgement in these points Nevertheless there is a chain laid on my soul from the holy Scriptures which holds it fast The chain consists of these links Personal Election Regeneration and that Few shall be saved These three Doctrines I must say are so concatenated in my mind one with another that so long as any one of them will hold it is in vain to make any attempt to get loose from either of the other I cannot but confess many times they are grievous to my mind and I could wish they were otherwise but if they are the dictates of holy writ I must pray to God to forgive my reluctancy and submit to them I have had indeed sometimes in my soul some other notion of Election than is expressed ordinarily by others I have lookt methinks on the deliberations of the Almighty with his Son from eternity to speak after the manner of men to be how they should be glorified most in the Salvation of man and there are two waies to that end the way of Works and the way of Grace If man being made after Gods image does live according to the law of his Creation and stand in that estate he must be happy and glorifie his Maker in a method of works but if he be left to himself and fall and be recovered by the rdemption of the Son and then have a new Law for his faln condition and continued help to live according to it then shall God glorifie himself in mans salvation by the methods of his most wonderful grace Now what if Gods election from eternity be nothing else but this design that mans salvation shall be in a way of Grace and not of Works He hath chosen us in him saies the Text that we should be holy I put the Emphasis on the words in him It is Christ hath procured the new Law according to which we may be holy and accepted when else we could not be holy by the Law of our Nature and so it is not by the works of righteousness which we have done or works by that Law but by the renewing of the Holy Ghost or his assistance to perform the Law of Grace so that when it is said other-where Not of works lest any should boast it is added For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works We were created at first to a law of righteousness but this being once broken unless we had had a new Law purchased by Christ and a new Creation through him we could not have been righteous any more so that it is not of works which are properly mans own according to the Law of his Nature but of those which we are created to in Christ Jesus to wit those which are called the righteousness of
Communication with Christ cannot indeed be rationally thought on but we must conceive of some Vnion presently which is the ground of it But there is a double Union between Christ and us The one is by taking upon him our Nature and the other by giving us his Spirit The blessed Commutation the Dr. speaks of does not depend upon that Union which we have with him by the Communication of his Spirit for this indeed is no waies any effect thereof But it does depend on the Union which he hath with us in taking upon him our Flesh Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also took part of the same Again He took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham and in that seed our Nature and as he took our nature he took on him our sins for he took our nature only to this end that he might redeem Man when the Angels whose nature he took not were not redeemed Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared me A body is prepar'd for Christ that he may be a sacrifice to answer those Types under the Law which without him could signifie nothing The Beast for the Propitiatory Sacrifice had the sins of Israel laid on him and this is exhibited in that saying of John Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world And of that in Peter Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the Tree It is manifest then that this Commutation which consists in Christ's taking upon him our sins that he might be a sacrifice for them and fulfilling the duty of the whole Law which we were bound unto but broke to procure new terms in the performance whereof we might be righteous and so accepted upon the account of his merits which is his becoming sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him as I have said before and have need to say again does belong to that Union which Christ hath with Mankind according to that Text in the Hebrews He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are of one that is of one flesh as appears by what follows and not to that Union which he hath with his Members only according to that Text in the Corinths He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit that is it belongs to that Union which is Hypostatical in Christ's taking our nature with the Divine Nature into one person and not to that Union which is Mystical according to the supposition of the Dr. There is a distinction then to be remembred which we have often in Scripture and that is of Christ in the Flesh and Christ in the Spirit We must make a difference accordingly between what he did for us as he was in the flesh and what he does for us in the Spirit or by it That which he did for us in the Flesh I speak it indefinitely must belong to All for the flesh he took was the flesh of All and hence is he said to die for All to taste Death for every man to be a propitiation not for our sins only but for the sins of the world That which he does for us in the Spirit is peculiar to his Members and the Elect to whom he gives it I speak of the Spirit as a principle of Union and Life in Christ and not as Author of common gists I argue now It is certain that the Righteousness Christ performed and the Sacrifice he made for us was performed and made in the Flesh It is certain that in this Righteousness and Sacrifice is contained all that he undertook in our behalf as he sustained our part in the work of his Mediation for Man's Redemption It is certain that the Commutation the Dr. speaks of must be supposed unto Christ's sustaining our part in this work It is certain consequently that this Commutation and the part Christ sustained in the performing this Righteousness and offering this Sacrifice does belong to Christ in the Flesh and so must be universal for all the world and does not belong to Christ in the Spirit to be appropriated to his Church or Members only which is this Learned Drs. apprehension throughout his Book Let us distinguish then now at last between the Impetration of our Redemption and all those benefits we have by Christ and the Application of them The Impetration belongs to Christ in the Flesh and the Application to Christ in the Spirit I mean by Impetration obtaining by Sacrifice and Merit and distinguish it from Intercession Christ took our Flesh to procure our Redemption he gives us his Spirit to apply it Now I have this notion to offer the Dr. under his correction if I be out and under his candour to receive it if it be light that this blessed Commutation he speaks of and rightly magnifies does go to the Impetration of our Redemption and the benefits we have by Christ and not to the Application If this Commutation between Christ and us of his Righteousness for our sins did go to or was made in the Application I see not how any more than one man could have it If Christ makes the Commutation with Peter and so takes his sins and gives him his Righteousness in exchange this Righteousness of Christ must now be Peter's and so Paul and James and John cannot have it It must not be therefore conceived sure that this Commutation is made with particular persons or that it does go into the Application but that it goes into the Impetration of those benefits we have by Christ which being procured for all upon condition there is no particular person but by the performing that condition alike may and by that means only can enjoy them one with another To make this quite clear there is but one cloud to be removed which does as I suppose hang on the mind of most in thinking something more of the Spirit 's Application of what Christ hath done for us or of his Merits and Righteousness to the soul than there is But this is all that I am able to understand of this Application to wit that the Spirit by his grace enables us to perform the conditions upon which these benefits are procured for us and so they become ours and the Merits and Righteousness of Christ are said to be so in regard to those effects They are ours for the Impetration of these benefits but they cannot be ours in themselves that is not ours in regard to the Application What. Christ did for us in the Flesh was to reconcile our salvation to God's glory and the ends of Government What Christ does in the Spirit is to reconcile our spirits to what God requires of us and so to qualifie us for our possession of the benefits which he hath purchased in the flesh The benefits are ours and we enjoy them as being impetrated for