was with me 1 Cor. 15.10 But because they are our own free acts therefore He is not the onely cause of them The Holy Spirit doth not regenerate us in that manner as to do all himself and leave nothing for us to do in order to our regeneration but we are as much concerned to use all proper means of Regeneration as if the whole matter depended upon our single endeavours as I shewed Sect. 4. and that which I say of Regeneration is equally true of every particular Grace of the Holy Ghost It is this Supposition viz. that the Operations of the Spirit are Aids and Helps to our natural Faculties which makes the ascribing of all Christian Virtues to his Grace consistent with leaving the use of our Reason and those duties which depend thereupon necessary to the attainment of them Which our Author understood so well that in his Preface where he complains so tragically of the Reproaches that are cast upon those that dare take upon them to defend the work of the Spirit he pretends to plead for nothing else but the Aids and Assistances of the Spirit very well knowing that they do not impugn the use of reason in Religion as his Phrase is and withal that this Objection is produced by his Adversaries against nothing but his opinion of the irresistible manner of the Spirit 's Operations which very wisely he says not one word of through his whole Preface The onely inconvenience saith he wherewith our Doctrine is pressed is the pretended difficulty in reconciling the nature and necessity of our Duty with the efficacy of the Grace of the Spirit and I have been so far from waving the consideration of it as that I have embraced every opportunity to examine it in all particular instances wherein it may be urged with most appearance of probability And it is I hope at length made to appear that not onely the necessity of our duty is consistent with the efficacy of God's Grace but also that as on the one hand we can perform no duty to God as we ought without its AID and ASSISTANCE nor have any encouragement to attempt a course of obedience without a just expectation thereof So on the other that the work of Grace it self is no way effectual but in our compliance with it in a way of duty onely with the leave of some persons or whether they will or no we give the Preeminence in all unto Grace and not unto our selves And now who would not believe that there are some amongst us who do not give the Pre-eminence in all unto Grace nay and think that if we cannot perform our duty as we ought without the Aid and Assistance of the Spirit that the nature of Duty and the use of Reason in it is destroyed and withal that this man has spent a Folio of railing upon us because we denied the Aids of Grace and the internal Operations of the Holy Ghost Why any man saith he should be discouraged from the exercise of that industry which God requires of him by the consideration of the AID and ASSISTANCE which he hath promised unto him I cannot understand No truely nor I neither nor any man that has common sense For is it possible that a man should be discouraged from industry because he is promised that help without which his industry would not prevail But what is the reason that we hear nothing at all now but of Aids and Assistances when the Operations of the Spirit are mentioned Did the Doctor 's Adversaries ever urge any Objections against them Was the inconvenience wherewith his Doctrine of irresistible Grace is pressed ever charged by them upon the Aids of the Spirit When and where did any of them with or without whose leave he was resolved to write his Book pretend that the Supposition of the Aids of Grace was liable to the inconvenience he promiseth to remove Or rather what can this man say to palliate so foul an Imposture Let others as he goes on do what they please I shall endeavour to comply with the Apostles advice upon the enforcement which he gives unto it Work out your own salvation c. for it is God which worketh c. By all means Sir endeavour it but do not endeavour to perswade the World that the reason why you persecute us with bitter words is because we are not like to be pleased with you for taking the Apostles reason to follow his advice Or if you continue to insinuate this belief of us and to make folks think that the principal cause and occasion of your present undertaking was the open and horrible Opposition that is made unto the Spirit of God and his work in the World since as you go on there is no concernment of his that is not by many derided exploded and blasphemed and that your Adversaries of the Church of England whom you are so angry with for saying that you make a Buz and a Noise and trouble the mindes of men with unintelligible notions are such Scoffers that if any one shall plead the necessity of the Assistance of the Spirit for the due performance of Duties he shall hardly escape from being notably derided by them I say if you go on in this manner surely you must forget all the while that there is a day coming when you must appear before the Tribunal of the Great God to give an account of your Writings But as for our selves to use your own words I shall not trouble my self about an accusation which is laden with as many Convictions of Forgery as there are persons against whom you level these your uncharitable and malicious suggestions Let any indifferent man read your Preface where you pretend to give a Summary Account of your Book and say if the principal designe of it were not to possess your Readers with an opinion that it is our blaspheming the Doctrine of the Aids of the Holy Spirit which enkindled your zeal against us and that you have bestirred your self in the Book principally to make it good against all our opposition that we cannot do the Will of God without them But now if you light upon a Reader so unfortunate to your self as will take the pains to compare you and your self together your Preface with the greatest part of your Book he will soon finde that your Preface was but the Copy of your Countenance and not of your Heart For when you come to give us your opinion concerning the Operations of Grace in good earnest it plainly appears that 't is you that deny them to be Assistances and Helps and that your true quarrel against us is because we say they are Assistances not the onely Causes of Regeneration For you labour as I shall shew you further in the second Part with abundance of words and with all your might to prove that mere Assistance how great soever is utterly insufficient to the conversion of a Sinner and that Conversion is impossible to
thereof p. 277. An instance of his excessive boldness in this matter p. 280. The manner of the holy Spirit 's Operations suitable to the rational nature of Mankinde p. 282. which is in words granted but in effect denied by Dr. Owen p. 283. His vain endeavours to reconcile this Proposition with his Physical immediate Operation p. 286. Isa. 5.4 discoursed upon p. 290. The holy Spirit operates in that manner as to leave our diligence necessary to attain the end of his Operations p. 292. What is meant by God's working in us to will and to do p. 293. And by giving a new Heart p. 296. The Operations of the Spirit suited to our spiritual estate p. 298. That his Graces are wrought gradually is an useful consideration p. 302. That the Operations of the holy Spirit are in themselves imperceptible and known onely by their effects p. 305. That to be guided by the Holy Spirit and by the Gospel and by a good Conscience is one and the same thing p. 309. That men resist the Holy Spirit when they think of nothing less p. 312. That the Operations of the Holy Spirit are Assistances p. 314. Dr. Owen falsly pretends that his Adversaries deny the Assistances of Grace p. 315. That his errour is more justly chargeable upon himself p. 318. The promise of the Holy Spirit a forcible motive to Godliness shewn from the general Heads of the whole Discourse p. 324. The Conclusion of the First Part p. 326. THE INTRODUCTION SECT I. FRom what St. Paul saith Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure it is evident that the consideration of that Divine Assistance whereof the Apostle speaks is a pregnant motive to excite our greatest care and endeavour to do the will of God For I suppose no Christian will say that St. Paul pretended to enforce his Exhortation with an Argument that had little or no force in it to perswade The forcibleness of this Motive lies principally in this Supposition that as they upon whom the aids of the Holy Spirit which are promised in the Gospel are bestowed may fulfil the conditions of obtaining Eternal Life so withal they may miscarry through their own negligence and then their sin becomes more inexcusable and their punishment will be more heavy And this is a clear reason why even those in whom God worketh both to will and to do are yet exhorted to work out their Salvation with fear and trembling Upon this Supposition the Author to the Hebrews doth earnestly exhort Christians to perseverance in the profession and practice of the Gospel For saith he of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath done despite to the spirit of grace which he saith plainly for this end to excite them to an effectual care in improving those Spiritual Aids whereby they were able to persevere This I think will easily be granted unless we can imagine that the Apostle talks at as strange a rate as Dr. John Owen frequently doth in his Book concerning the Holy Spirit where he often threatens them with the day of Judgement that look upon him and divers of his notions in Divinity to be senseless and fanatical For we shall see that his threatnings have not that charitable meaning in them which the admonitions of the Apostle have He tells us that Those by whom Regeneration i. e. his notion of it is exposed to scorn will one day understand the necessity of it although it may be not before 't is too late to obtain any advantage by it Now one would think it to be the Doctor 's opinion that those who shall one day be damned might by a timely care have prevented it and that he intended this warning to make them careful to understand the necessity of Regeneration before it be too late But if you think so you are much mistaken and you do not yet understand this man's Principles for throughout his whole Book he supposes a certain powerful illumination of the Holy Ghost given to none but those that shall certainly be saved to be necessary in order to a saving knowledge of Regeneration And as for the rest the darkness that is in them is no less effectual to binde them in a state of Sin than it is in the Devils themselves Now I do not understand how the Doctor 's Warnings could be of any use to the Devils themselves And I do as little understand why he makes such frequent excursions as he doth to threaten his Adversaries with the day of Judgement unless as one would be tempted to believe by the insulting language that goes along with it it be some refreshing to a man so naturally vindictive to think he shall one day see 'em damn'd This is one great exception I have against this Man's Book that whereas he contends so fiercely for his Opinions as he doth all along pretending in particular That it is of the highest importance to us to enquire into and secure unto our selves the promised workings of the Spirit yet supposing his notions thereof to be true it is no matter whether they be enquired into or no for neither can we have a true understanding what they are nor if we could would that excite our endeavours to secure them for according to him it is impossible for a man to understand a spiritual truth or do any thing that is spiritually good unless he be enabled by such an Almighty Power as leaves it on the other hand impossible for him to be spiritually blinde and dead any longer For this power he saith is irresistible and he affirmeth it to be false that the Will can make use of that Grace for Conversion which it can refuse Now the Doctor confesses that this kinde of blindness and deadness with respect unto spiritual things is a matter which the World cannot endure to hear of and is ready to fall into a tumult upon the mention of it And if he says true I am very glad on 't because if the World could not endure to hear such Doctrines as these are we might hope to see a great many men wiser and better than they are for he hath stated the Doctrine of the operations of the Spirit in that manner that instead of exciting men thereby to hearty endeavours after true goodness he hath laid down Principles that will excuse them if they be never so careless and so hath betray'd this great encouragement of the Gospel into the hands of lazy and wicked men I shall therefore endeavour to give a better account of what the Holy Scripture teacheth us in this matter then I think he hath done and I shall withal examine those Arguments wherewith he pretends so to demonstrate his notions that the proudest and most petulant of his Adversaries shall not be able to return any thing of a solid answer
does not say in plain terms that he is infallible yet in that Book which I have taken the pains to consider he lays claim as you will see to such an Illumination of minde by the Holy Spirit as differs very little from that kinde of Inspiration which the Apostles had But this will not hinder you from trying the Doctor 's Spirit and way of Teaching if you consider what he very well observed in the fore-mentioned Book viz. that the Bereans were highly extoll'd for searching whether the Doctrine concerning our Saviour preached by St. Paul were so or no For he must not desire to be believed more hastily than St. Paul did who we are sure spake by an infallible Spirit The more highly any man pretends to the divine Spirit the better Testimonies he had need to produce for the truth of his pretence No wise man will lightly take up that belief of another which if he once gives way to he must believe him in all things else The brighter those Illuminations are which any Teacher boasts of the less reason you have to take his bare word for it and if he be not willing that you should examine his Doctrines he gives you great cause of suspition that they will not abide the Tryal Besides the Doctor takes notice that what was praised in the Bereans is commended in the Scripture Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God because many false spirits are gone out into the world 1 Joh. 4.1 Prophets then as he goes on must be tried before they be trusted now the reason of this holds still there are many false Teachers abroad in the world wherefore try every one try his spirit his spiritual gift of Teaching and that by the Word of God I will onely adde that the reason holds more strongly now for if false Teachers pretended to an infallible Spirit even whilst the Apostles were alive to contradict them and discover them much more likely are they to do so now when they think they may do it more securely and therefore we had need to use the more diligence in trying those Teachers that pretend loftily by that Word of God which the Apostles have left us in their Writings Now if the Doctor would have you to shut your own Eyes and then trust to that New saving Light by which he pretends to explain Gospel-Truths this were enough to make you suspect that the Light that is in him is Darkness Or if he meant to except himself from being tried when he bad you try the Spirits for that reason he is least of all to be excepted I have obeyed the Apostles advice and tried him as you may see in the following Book which I was willing to make publick because those Reasons which satisfie me that he is very much out of the way in discoursing upon spiritual things after this manner may possibly seem as clear to you as they do to my self If there be any Sophistry in them or carnal Reasoning or perverting of Holy Writ 't is more than I know and I shall thank the Doctor for making the discovery which I think he is bound to do if he can not onely for your sake but for mine too For so far as I understand my self I am not less desirous to retract any errour of my own than I am to convince you of his And therefore if he be as willing as I am I shall in all probability hear further from him In the mean time I desire you to believe neither of us but to try us both If the Doctor 's friends should be troubled to find him charg'd with Nonsence in the following Book the Author has this to say for himself that he knew no other name so fit as Nonsence to call Nonsence by And he believes that he has not onely said but prov'd also that the Doctor is guilty of Nonsence where he has charged him with it He hopes also that they will not be offended with him for taking occasion sometimes to rebuke this man for those rude Words and unjust Reproaches which he has poured forth for whole Pages together upon his Adversaries of the Church of England For if it be possible he should be taught at last to manage controversies in Religion in a more Christian manner than he has done hitherto And now the Author will onely say in behalf of himself that his designe in this Book was to clear the Truth of that Question which he has undertaken to every ordinary understanding and thereby to promote the power of Godliness And the best thing he can say of the Book it self is that it hath been thought by men of far better judgement than he can pretend to not to be altogether improper for that end And if they are not mistaken may the All-wise and good God prosper the designe of it with his Blessing The CONTENTS Of the Introduction SECT I. THat the promise of the Holy Spirit is according to the Scriptures a great motive to diligence in Religion Page 1. That according to Dr. Owen's principles it seems to be none at all p. 3. The Author's designe p. 4. SECT II. The advantage which the Doctor makes by pretending that onely the Regenerate understand spiritual things spiritually p. 5. while he proves himself to be regenerate by his spiritual understanding of spiritual things p. 6. This Artifice of his discovered in some instances p. 7. That he allows onely himself and his party to be competent Judges of his Doctrine concerning the Operations of the Holy Spirit p. 11. SECT III. His interpretation of 1 Cor. 2.14 explained p. 15. SECT IV. That his meaning of the natural man is groundless p. 20. Of his not receiving the things of the Spirit absurd p. 21. And of their being foolishness to him blasphemous p. 25. The odde account he gives of the reasonableness of the Gospel in his Preface p. 27. Other reflections upon his sence of the fore-mentioned Text p. 30. That the Doctor 's pretended Gospel-mysteries need his interpretation of that Text but the real mysteries of the Gospel need it not p. 31. The pernicious consequence of his interpretation p. 32. SECT V. Another sence of the Text offered according to St. Chrysostome whose Authority the Doctor pretends in favour of his own p. 33. The scope of the Apostle in that and the former Chapter largely shewn p. 34. From whence it plainly appears what he meant by the natural man p. 40. The Scriptural notion of the state of nature p. 42. What is meant by the things of the Spirit of God and their being spiritually discerned p. 43. and by the spiritual man p. 45. The incoherence of the Doctor 's sence with the Context p. 46. Dr. Hammond's Paraphrase upon the Text vindicated from the exceptions of Dr. Owen p. 47. And shewn to agree with those passages of St. Chrysostome which Dr. Owen himself produceth p. 51. That the following Book is not to be
rejected on pretence that the Author is but a natural man which concludes the Introduction p. 53. Of the Book PART 1. CHAP. 1. What significations of the Word Spirit are needful to be noted p. 56. The difference made by Dr. Owen between giving of the Spirit and giving his Graces p. 58. And what more he understands by putting on the Spirit p. 59. The subject of the discourse stated p. 61. That Dr. Owen confounds the promise of the Spirit made to the Apostles and the first Disciples onely with that which is made to Christians in all ages p. 64. And argues inconsequently from the former in favour of his own mistakes concerning the latter p. 65. That by this way of arguing he sometimes also concludes that which is true from premises that do not infer it p. 67. His designe in all this p. 68. And the disservice that is done the Truth by it p. 70. CHAP. 2. For the producing of what effects the Holy Spirit is promised to men which is the first matter of enquiry p. 72. may be discerned in great part from Luke 11.13 p. 73. To which end the scope of our Saviour's discourse there is considered p. 74. And it is from thence proved that they are onely needful purposes for which the Holy Spirit is there promised p. 76. What effects are needful p. 77. What are necessary p. 79. What are profitable p. 81. How we are to pray for needful Graces of the latter sort p. 83. Several Consectaries useful to our proceeding in the following enquiries gained from the fore-mentioned Text p. 88. An exception to this Chapter from the necessity of Regeneration p. 94. CHAP. 3. The Doctor 's loose way of talking concerning Regeneration p. 96. But at last he concludes the word is to be understood in its proper sence p. 99. That it is absurd so to understand it p. 100. That it cannot be so understood without contradicting the Scriptures p. 101. His argument that the Scripture has no metaphorical expressions of the work of the Spirit p. 106. His manner of charging his Adversaries with turning all Scripture-expressions of spiritual things into Metaphors p. 110. His scornful hints concerning Christian Virtues p. 112. That Regeneration is a metaphorical expression proved from what he saith himself where he denies it p. 113. How Dr. Owen and the Papists do alike abuse the Scriptures p. 115. What we are to understand by the state of Regeneration p. 117. The notion proved p. 119. The Doctor represents his Adversaries notion of Regeneration falsly p. 123. And that knowingly p. 125. The distinction between Grace and moral Virtue considered 126. That the Doctor rejects the true notion of Regeneration in terms that do notoriously contradict the Scriptures p. 128. That he contradicts them also by that reason which he gives for rejecting it p. 130. The charge of Pelagianism justly retorted upon Dr. Owen p. 133. Regeneration considered as an Effect p. 136. Several reasons why the state of a true Disciple of Christ is exprest by the Metaphors of Regeneration the New Creature c. p. 139. Why the expression of Regeneration is more used than the rest p. 143. The scope of our Saviour's discourse to Nicodemus shewn p. 145. A Paraphrase of that part of it which concerns Regeneration p. 149. The reddition of our Saviour's similitude of the Wind explained p. 150. A probable sence of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by our Saviour to Nicodemus p. 155. The Doctor 's Objection against the true notion of Regeneration grounded upon the rebuke given to Nicodemus answered p. 157. CHAP. 4. That Faith is an effect of a divine Operation p. 161. In what sence it is affirmed so to be p. 162. The preparation required for Faith p. 165. That all those Christian vertues which flow from Faith are also the Graces of the Holy Spirit p. 169. That our improvement in those virtues is so likewise p. 173. What is meant by God's dwelling in men p. 175. What was signified by his dwelling in the Ark p. 176. which is applied to the state of the Christian Church p. 178. That God is said to dwell onely in good men p. 181. That their progress in Christian vertue and perseverance is from the Holy Spirit p. 185. Some Consectaries from the foregoing discourse p. 186. CHAP. 5. Gifts pretended to be from the Spirit p. 189. Immediate revelation of the true sence of Scripture not promised in St. Luke p. 191. Either to the spiritual Guides or their people p. 193. Nor absolute assurance of our particular Election p. 195. Dr. Owen's way of proving such assurance profitable p. 197. What the Author understands by the full assurance of Hope mentioned Heb. 6.11 p. 199. The reason why some will not admit of comfort without assurance p. 204. Neither is it there promised that the Spirit will dictate extemporary Prayers p. 205. That in the better sort of these Prayers there is a form of matter and usually of method and that all the variety commonly lies in shifting of Words and Phrases p. 209. That these three pretended gifts are promised no where in the Scripture p. 211. What is meant by sealing to the day of Redemption p. 214. And by the witness of the Spirit p. 216. And by praying with the Spirit p. 218. And by the Spirit 's helping our infirmities p. 219. CHAP. 6. The Holy Spirit given to whom p. 233. The difference between common and special Grace p. 234. Special Grace promised upon conditions p. 237. And not to be expected but by those that perform them p. 239. Dr. Owen's mystical talk concerning the object of sanctifying Grace p. 240. That he makes no qualification on our part requisite beforehand for Regeneration p. 243. And that according to him all praying for it is unprofitable p. 244. That he shuffles off the task of proving his main principle by pretending falsly that he had proved it before p. 246. The folly of trusting to a supposed absolute Decree p. 247. The Doctor 's insincerity in changing his notion of Election to shift off the difficulty of proving his own opinion concerning it p. 250. That he makes nothing to contradict himself as his cause requires it p. 258. What that common Grace is which is given to all p. 261. The notion proved p. 262. Why the promise of common Grace is not expresly made to all p. 266. That it is not properly part of the New Covenant p. 267. That the promises of special Grace are made to all under possible conditions p. 268. CHAP. 7. Difficult to define the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations particularly p. 270. Dr. Owen peremptory and fierce in this point p. 271. His definition of it of dangerous consequence p. 274. Faith and Repentance are in that manner caused by the holy Spirit that they are still properly the effects of God's Word p. 274. That according to Dr. Owen's principles they are not the effects
Miracles Prophecies c. The true difference between Dr. H. and Dr. O. in this matter is not whether the manner or the means of receiving spiritual things be signified by the word spiritually but whether it is designed to express those means which Dr. H. affirms viz. external Testimonies of divine Revelation or those which Dr. O. contends for viz. the internal and irresistible operations of the Spirit upon a mans minde But 2. I have shewn by the clear scope of the Apostle that the outward means are here to be understood This I see is our Author 's great trouble that Dr. H. supposes the true cause why the Natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit is because he will onely be led by his natural Reason and will not attend to Revelation and the outward means whereby revealed Doctrines may be proved whereas J. Owen's meaning is that he cannot receive them because the New Light is not yet created in his minde by an almighty act of the Spirit The truth of Dr. Hammond's sence and the absurdity of Dr. Owen's I have already shewn and shall onely adde this to help our Authors understanding viz. That the proposal of the external evidences of a divine Revelation made equally to those who rejected the Gospel with them who received it is no argument that they who rejected it could not receive it because their mindes were not enlightned by an omnipotent act of the Spirit For another reason may be given why they could not viz. the Apostles reason because they sought after mans Wisdom and would not admit of that for truth which was not proved by Philosophical discourse By the Authorities he brings to confirm his own exposition and to confront Dr. Hammond's we may guess how pertinent the rest are that his Book is stuffed withal He produceth that saying of St. Chrysostome A natural man is he who lives by the flesh and hath not his minde yet enlightned by the Spirit but only hath that connatural humane understanding which the Creator of all things hath endued the mindes of men withal This Exposition which he calls better than Dr. Hammond's is clearly to the same purpose with it for here is not a word about that irresistible Light which J. O. contends for and to be led only by the Light of humane Reason which are Dr. Hammond's words is perfectly the same with having only the connatural humane understanding c. The following passage of Chrysostome which he quotes is to the same effect I shall only adde that citation out of the same Writer which he brings in at the beginning of his Exposition The natural man is one that ascribes all to the reasonings of his own minde and doth not think that he stands in need of aid from above which is madness for God hath given the Soul that it should learn and receive what he bestows or what is from him and not suppose that it is sufficient to it self Eyes are beautiful and profitable but if they would see without light this beauty and power will not profit but hurt them and the Minde if it would see without the Spirit of God it doth but entangle it self This is clearly against him For that which God is here said to bestow is not that irresistible Light the Doctor speaks of but the Light of Revelation which I have been discoursing of i. e. revealed truths which St. Chrysostome saith the Soul is to learn but to learn that Light he talks of is nonsence St. Chrysostome is so far from supposing that it is impossible for a man to receive what Revelations God bestows unless the Almighty Power of God necessitateth him to do it that he saies God hath given the Soul that it might receive them when they are bestowed And he reckons it madness for a man to think he needs no divine Revelations and consequently to reject them when they are offered with sufficient evidence Now the only reason according to J. O. why he rejects them is because the Almighty work hath not been yet upon his minde If St. Chrysostome had thought so too he had been a mad man himself for accusing them of Madness that fail'd of doing what no Power less than almighty could enable them to do which is in effect to accuse them of Madness because they were not Almighty themselves St. Chrysostome's Similitude is very pertinent For as Light is to bodily Eyes so is Revelation to the Minde in respect of revealed Truths which are such as none but the Spirit of God could discover And therefore whoever refuseth to attend to his revelation of them must needs be ignorant of them and will finde himself entangled in many difficulties which he might have understood by hearkning to Revelation This Similitude St. Chrysostome useth elsewhere to the same purpose for he saith As no man with his naked eyes can learn the appearances in the heavens so the Soul alone cannot learn the things of the Spirit i. e. they are not to be learned by meer Natural Reason without the aid of Revelation I now leave the Reader to judge with what conscience this man could pretend the Authority of St. Chrysostome to countenance his own Exposition of this Text of St. Paul and this is all I shall say to the Doctor 's Authorities which any one may see are as convincing as his Reasons And now at length I desire him to take notice that it will be to no purpose for him to reject what I have to say concerning spiritual things contrary to his notions of them under pretence that I am a natural man for I thank God I am a Christian and so long as I have the Scriptures by me I enjoy the means of understanding what Revelations God hath made known to us by his Son For they contain those Doctrines which were proved by the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power These Doctrines are so far from being foolishness to me or rejected by me because they are not knowable by meer natural Reason that I should be guilty of inexcusable madness if I should not surrender up my belief unto them Though I could not possibly finde them out nor have known them unless they had been revealed yet being revealed I discern the great Wisdom and Goodness of God towards us in them still acknowledging that I know but in part and that there is a depth of Wisdom in the Mysteries of the Gospel which my understanding cannot reach But the truth of these Revelations I learn principally from the testimonies given to them and the sence of them not excluding other subordinate helps by comparing one Divine Revelation with another and the Doctor hath no other means to qualifie him for the discerning of these things aright but that new light which he pretends to but which the Apostle speaks never a word of and let him make his best advantage of it But if the Doctor be resolved to Cant on still in his own defence and
call this Exposition of St. Paul's Text which I have offered carnal Reasoning and the Wisdom of the Flesh and perhaps he will finde little else to say against it there will be small hope left of doing any good upon him nor is any thing to be done with him but to turn him over to the Quakers and with them at present I leave him PART 1. An Account of what we are taught in the Holy Scriptures concerning the Operations of the Holy Spirit CHAP. I. The General Subject of the following Discourse stated § 1. THrough the Assistance of that Holy Spirit whose Operations I intend to treat of I shall endeavour the performance of these two things First to lay down as clearly and methodically as I can what I finde the Holy Scriptures have taught us concerning his Operations and as I go along to remove those erroneous and as I am yet perswaded dangerous Opinions of Dr. Owen and his Brethren concerning this matter which may seem needful to be debated in order to the present clearing of the Truth and this shall be the work of the First Part. Secondly to confute some other pernicious Doctrines of his relating to the same subject the consideration whereof may be fitly enough reserved till we have concluded what the Holy Scriptures affirm in this matter and that will be my designe in the Second Part of this Discourse I shall begin the First part with stating the general Subject of my intended Discourse as plainly as I can Amongst other significations of the word Spirit that may be met with in the Scripture it will be sufficient for my present designe to take notice of these that follow 1. It is sometimes used to signifie the Minde of man as in Joh. 4.24 to worship God in Spirit is to worship him with our Souls and in Gal. 6.18 and Col. 2.5 and in divers other places This is so plain that it needs onely to be mentioned for where the word is used in that sence the Context does easily lead a man to the right understanding of it 2. It sometimes signifies the Temper and Disposition of a man's minde Thus we are to understand that spirit of Faith mentioned by St. Paul 2 Cor. 4.13 which the Christians and God's Servants also in former times had viz. the same pious temper of Minde in bearing Afflictions for Gods sake and looking for deliverance and reward from him So likewise God hath not given us the spirit of Fear but of Power of Love c. 2 Tim. 1.7 contrary to that timorous cowardly temper of being afraid to endure Persecution for Righteousness sake Hereby saith St. John we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit And what that spirit is we see plainly by the former words Chap. 4. vers 12. If we love one another God dwelleth in us It is that spirit of Love that Benignity and charitableness of minde whereby we become like unto God 3. By the Spirit we are frequently to understand the Holy Spirit of God the third person in the blessed Trinity as in 1 Joh. 5.7 There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost or Spirit So also when St. Paul saith There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit 1 Cor. 12.4 we are by Spirit to understand the Holy Ghost for vers 6. he saith it is the same God which worketh all in all which compared with vers 11. But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will makes it plain that by the Spirit here St. Paul understands God the Holy Ghost This is the sence wherein I understand the word Spirit when I speak of the operations of the Holy Spirit in us I mean the person of the Holy Ghost But we must observe 4. That the Holy Spirit is frequently used to signifie his Operations or those Effects which are wrought by his Operations Thus the pouring out of the Spirit mentioned Acts 2. plainly signifies his bestowing supernatural gifts in great measures upon the Apostles and Disciples of Christ. So Received ye the Spirit i. e. the gifts of the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 Thus also are we to understand that promise made to the Apostles of sending the Holy Ghost Joh. 14.26 For this being the promise of the Father mentioned Acts 1.4 which was foretold in these words I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh Acts 2.16 17. must needs signifie the same thing with pouring out of the Spirit which phrase as Dr. Owen truely notes hath respect unto his Gifts and Graces So likewise the phrase of giving the Spirit Luke 11.13 is explained in Matth. by giving good things i. e. such good things as the Spirit of God is the Author of to Believers Indeed nothing can properly be said to be given to us but what is capable of becoming our own therefore when the Holy Spirit is said to be given some spiritual good or benefit is meant which accrues to us by the Operation of the Holy Spirit But the Doctor tells us that where the Spirit is given he is given absolutely and as to himself not more or less but his Gifts and Graces may be more plentifully and abundantly given at one time than at another to some persons than to others So that he makes two different things of having the Spirit of God given to us and our being partakers of his Gifts and Graces for according to him a man may have these limitedly That he must have absolutely These more or less That not so And this is a mystery which he hath found out in that expression of giving the Spirit Whatever he intends by this conceit it is plainly contrary to the use of that Phrase in the Scripture for John 3.34 it is said of our Saviour that God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him from whence it is evident that the Spirit may be given in measure Wherefore this Phrase doth not necessarily imply that the person of the Spirit is properly given as the Doctor pretends for he confesseth that as to himself he is not given more or less Nay those words of St. John Baptist imply that the Spirit was given to all other Prophets and Righteous men in measure and consequently the giving of the Spirit unto men cannot signifie the giving of his Person or the giving of him absolutely neither more nor less for he is alwaies given to them in measure i. e. in the same measure wherein his Gifts and Graces are communicated to them The same thing is otherwise exprest Matth. 12.18 I will put my Spirit upon him which being spoken concerning our Saviour Christ is parallel to Gods giving the Spirit to him mentioned John 3.34 Indeed there is little difference in the expressions if it be observed that the passage in St Matthew is cited out of
Isai. 42.1 where the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have given my Spirit upon him which is almost the same expression with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. John only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon Him makes the former to allude to the Descent of that visible Glory upon our Saviour when he was consecrated to his Office by the Holy Ghost But the Doctor hath met with an unexpected Secret in the Phrase of putting on for he doth not only pretend that it is the person of the Spirit which God is said to put upon men but he thinks something more is meant by it than by Giving the Spirit He saith God doth not only give and send his Spirit unto them to whom he designes so great a benefit and privilege but he actually collates and bestows him upon them He doth not send him unto them and leave it in their wills and power whether they will receive him or no but he so effectually collates and puts him in them or upon them as that they shall be actually made partakers of him And again As to some Gifts and Graces God doth bestow his Spirit where there is some preparation and cooperation on our part but wherever he designes to put or place him he doth it effectually This is too serious a subject to be pleasant withal otherwise here would be occasion enough The Doctor it seems hath discovered that the person of the Spirit is bestowed upon those that are converted and that their Conversion is by an irresistible work and all this in the Phrase of putting the Spirit upon a man or in him Now what a goodly Argument is here lost if this Phrase should signifie the same thing with that of giving the Spirit as I have shewn that it doth unless our Authour is subtle enough to shew some real difference betwen the meaning of these Phrases in Matth. 12.18 and John 3.34 where they are used concerning Christ. But perhaps the force of his Argument lies in the only word Put and therefore he produces that Text Isai. 63.11 where indeed the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is made use of which properly signifies to Put. The words are Where is he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that put his Holy Spirit in the midst of them i. e. whose Spirit was present with the Israelites to save them from their enemies For the Context plainly shews this to be the meaning Where is he that brought them up out of the Sea where is he that put c. that led them by the right hand of Moses c. vers 12. Now certainly this work of the Spirit in saving the Israelites from the Aegyptians doth not imply that the very person of the Spirit was put upon them and without all question 't is of a very forreign nature from that work for which as he pretends to prove from this place the Spirit is irresistibly put upon men And therefore this Text is every way impertinent to his purpose To conclude The Reason of these and the like expressions may be easily understood by comparing them with that plain Text of St Paul 1 Cor. 12.4 There are diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom to another c. All these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every one severally as he will vers 11. For because it is the person of the Holy Spirit that bestowed these several gifts therefore by an usual Metonymy they who received these gifts were said to receive the Holy Spirit 1 Cor. 2.12 And in like manner the Spirit of God is said to be given and sent and poured forth and administred and put upon those in whom his Operations are and upon whom his Blessings and Benefits his Gifts and Graces are bestowed These are 〈◊〉 significations of this word Spirit in the Holy Scriptures which I have not noted as being too â—â—â—rain to my present purpose of stating the subject of this Discourse to which I now proceed SECT 2. First of all by the Operations of the Holy Ghost I understand those which the Minde of man is the object of and therefore I do not intend to say any thing of the work of the Spirit in the creation of Man in the forming of his Body and his Soul and in enduing him with Intellectual and Moral Abilities much less in the Creation of the World the Heavens and the Earth c. which Dr. Owen hath taken great pains about But I cannot think this needful to the designe which I have of discoursing about the Actions and Operations of the Holy Spirit upon our mindes for they are hereby supposed to have been created and to be what they are Thus the first signification of the word Spirit is proper to the object about which those Operations of the Holy Ghost that I mean are conversant Secondly I intend those Actions of the Holy Ghost upon our mindes which are proper to cause certain Qualities in them whereof they are capable subjects for instance such as are contained under the second signification of the word Spirit viz. Faith and Charity and Meekness and the like But I do not mean nor is it requisite for me to say any thing of the Operation of the Spirit whereby our mindes or any other created beings are sustained in their Natures especially because the Doctor hath taken care not to omit that Subject Thirdly I mean those Operations of the Holy Spirit onely the promise whereof is contained in the Gospel of our Saviour by which limitation of the Subject you see I am not like to trouble you with any enquiry concerning the Operations of the Spirit upon the minde of Man before the Fall for the promise of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel is made to Faln creatures and what his Operations upon our mindes are since the Fall cannot be known but by Revelation because it depended altogether upon God's free Will and Pleasure to bestow the Spirit upon us Neither shall I discourse of the nature and degrees of the Spirit of Prophecy as it was communicated before the coming of the Messias nor shall I at present examine our Author's learning in that point because I intend to confine my self to those promises of the Spirit which may be met withal in the Gospel For the same reason I shall altogether omit to take notice how by the Operations of the Spirit men grow skilful Politicians in which matter if any one hath a minde to be informed he may consult Dr. Owen Nor lastly do I think my self concerned to say any thing of the work of the Holy Spirit in and upon the humane nature of Christ which the Doctor hath likewise spent above a long Chapter upon for that is not the work of the Spirit upon our mindes which Christ hath promised to us and which we can have no other knowledge of than by his Word i. e. by
what he hath been pleased to declare concerning it by himself and his Apostles Lastly I mean those Operations of the Holy Spirit upon our mindes the continuance whereof is promised to the Church in all Ages removing those from the matter of our enquiry which were peculiar to the first i. e. such as shewed themselves in the extraordinary and miraculous Gifts of the Apostles and the Believers of that time who were to confirm and establish the Christian Doctrine in the world by the demonstration of the Spirit and of power by supernatural effects evident to sense and such testimonies of divine Revelation When the Doctrine of the Gospel was once fully demonstrated to be divinely revealed there was no need that God should appear in every Age to own it by new testimonies of Revelation because the knowledge of those that were given thereunto at first is conveyed down to us with sufficient evidence that they were then given Now Miracles and such extraordinary works of the Spirit are ceas'd But the Scriptures mention such a Promise of the Spirit which will never be out-dated while the ministration of the Gospel lasts and this is one of those promises made in the Gospel which argue the constant bounty and affection of our Heavenly Father towards us Now they are these Operations of the Spirit viz. which are continued through all ages of the Church to which I shall confine my thoughts in the following discourse But before I proceed it may not be amiss to make this plain Inference that since these Operations of the Spirit differ clearly in their nature and end from those which were peculiar onely to the first ages of the Church therefore those places of the Holy Scripture which onely concern the work of the Holy Spirit in gifts extraordinary and miraculous are not to be produced for the proof of any opinion concerning his ordinary and constant Operations And whatsoever is affirmed concerning those must not presently be affirmed of these unless it can be shewn by some clear Text or other good Reason that what is so affirmed is common to them both And therefore to be sure some care must be had not to mistake those places of Scripture which speak of the extraordinary gifts of some Believers for Texts which mention those Operations and Graces that are common to all But as obvious as the difference between these things is I finde Dr. Owen frequently confounding them as if there were no difference to be put between them Thus after he had recited those promises of our Saviour made to his Disciples 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 your remembrance whatever I have said unto you I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he shall shew you things to come He supposeth that these are instances of that general promise of the Spirit which belongs unto all Believers unto the end of the world than which nothing can be more apparently false as is plain from our Saviours words themselves He shall bring to your remembrance whatever I have said unto you c. and he shall shew you things to come which and the like expressions no sober man can apply to Believers now And this the Doctor himself is so sensible of that he tells us in the same breath The Holy Ghost was bestowed on the Primitive Christians in a peculiar manner and for especial ends Now I would gladly know of him what other ends besides those that were peculiar to the state of the Primitive Church are mentioned in the foresaid promise of the Holy Ghost Many instances of this nature might be produced against him were it not for wasting of time I shall onely give the Reader a Specimen how he argues from those Texts which speak of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit He tells us that in some the Spirit works Conviction and Illumination without intending to work saving Grace in them which therefore shall never be effected and that the reason why some Believers are not so good as others is because the Spirit carrieth on the work to a great inequality And this Doctrine he makes a shift to countenance by saying that the Spirit worketh in all these things according to his own will aiming at that place of the Apostle to the Corinthians where he faith The Spirit worketh all these things dividing to every man severally as he will Now I think we have as good as his own confession presently after that this place belongeth to another â—â—tter viz. the distribution of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit For thus he faith And this is that which the Apostle mindes the Corinthians of to take away all emulation and envy about spiritual Gifts that every one should orderly make use of what he had received to the profit and edification of others Now either the Doctor alleadged this place to no purpose or he must be supposed to argue in this manner Because the Spirit distributed extraordinary gifts for the edification of the Church according to his own will therefore it is sometimes the will of the Spirit to enlighten and convince those men in whom he intends not to work saving Grace That the Spirit of God worketh always according to his own will and wisdom there is no question but we may well question whether in bestowing that Grace which is necessary to the salvation of every Believer he worketh in the same manner and method as he did in conferring extraordinary gifts that were none of them necessary to the salvation of those particular persons on whom they were bestowed and therefore that the Spirit of God in the distribution of these worked according to his own will can be no proof of the affirmative And the Doctor might have observed the inconvenience of referring to this Text in favour of his opinion from what he himself concludes So that it is an unreasonable thing for any to contend about them i. e. about those spiritual Gifts For if what is affirmed truely of the distribution of them be true also of all the effects of the Holy Spirit upon the mindes of men it is also an unreasonable thing to contend about any of them i. e. it is as unreasonable for the Doctor to reprove any man because he is not converted or because he hath no more Grace than he has as it would have been for him that could speak with Tongues to finde fault with his Christian Brother to whom that gift was not imparted Again it is plain enough that the promise of the Father concerning the Spirit which the Apostles were to wait for Acts 1.4 and the power which they received after the Holy Ghost came upon them
that they might be Witnesses c. and the promise of the Holy Ghost which Christ received from the Father Acts 2.23 peculiarly concerned the miraculous Gifts which were bestowed after Christs Ascension and this as I conceive the Doctor acknowledgeth by saying that Christ shed forth what they saw and heard in the miraculous operations and effects of it Now saith he In this promise viz. Acts 1. vers 4 8. the Lord Christ founded the Church it self and by it he builded it up And this is the Hinge whereon the whole weight of it doth turn and depend unto this day It is indeed certain that the faith of the Church is at this day founded upon the extraordinary testimonies that were given to the Gospel by the Spirit in the first ages of the Church But that which follows is absolutely false Take away this promise suppose it to cease as unto a continual Accomplishment and there will be an absolute end of the Church of Christ in this world For as he elsewhere confesses himself Miracles are ceased and yet there is a Church He proceeds thus No Dispensation of the Spirit no Church he that would utterly separate the Spirit from the Word had as good burn his Bible Be not so hasty for although this happens to be a truth yet 't is more than you have proved The Operations of the Spirit may now be utterly separated from the Word for all Acts 1.4 And although you very truely tell us that the bare Letter of the New Testament cannot ingenerate Faith and Obedience in the hearts of men yet for any thing you have here said it may For those Texts upon which you ground your confidence speak onely of the miraculous Gifts whereby the Gospel was confirmed Now these being recorded in the New Testament together with that Doctrine which was proved by them may be as able to assure men of the truth of the Gospel and make them obedient to the Law of Christ as they were when they were seen and heard and that of themselves too for any thing you have shewn to the contrary from Acts 1. though the contrary may well be shewn from other Scriptures Now I cannot see to what end these men when they are speaking of the Promise of the Spirit which will in all ages be accomplished should fly so often as they do to those Texts which mention those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit that were bestowed in the first unless it be to make their followers believe that the true Ministers of the Gospel are inspired as the Apostles were and that they preach in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power as the Apostles did Which because we do not pretend to it is left to them who do so to be sole owners of the Priviledge Just as the Papists support their pretence to Miracles and Infallibility by drawing the promises peculiarly made to the Apostles and first Believers into consequence for the Church of Rome in every age And I fear by the like device our Author hath laid his Plot to unchurch us quite and clean who conform to the Laws For saith he Let men cast themselves into what order they please institute what forms of Government and religious Worship they please let them do it by an attendance according to the best of their Vnderstandings unto the Letter of the Scripture i. e. let their Government and Worship be as neer the rule of the Scripture as they can possibly frame it yet if the work of the Spirit of God be disowned or disclaimed by them if they disown those extravagant pretences to the Spirit which you set up to magnifie your selves withal If there be not in them and upon them such a work of his as is promised by our Lord Jesus Christ there is no Church-state amongst them nor as such is it to be owned and esteemed And is this that you have been driving at all this while you have now found out a new colour for your Schism and it seems the separation from the Church of England must go forward upon this pretence that the work of the Spirit promised by our Lord Jesus Christ is not in us and upon us which in many places of your Book also you spare not to say we reproach and disavow But I beseech you dare you say that you have that work of the Spirit in you and upon you which is signified by the fore-mentioned Texts If you say so we shall presently desire you to convince us of it by Miracles and such signes as the Apostles did If you dare not say it then it seems that work of the Spirit is no more in you and upon you than 't is in us and then I hope we are not unchurched for not pretending to it nor fit to be accounted Reprobates because we are not Liars I acknowledge that promise of our Saviour mentioned by you in your next Section Matth. 28.20 I am with you always even unto the end of the world proves the constant presence of Christ in his Church by his Spirit but then Sir it doth not prove nor I think are you able to prove that the fore-mentioned promise made to the Apostles is the same promise with that which is here made Now as to that work of the Spirit which will indeed continue through all ages of the Church God forbid that we should disown and disclaim it But we disown the proving it from such places of Scripture as you lay the great stress of your proof upon lest we should seem to pretend to those influences of the Holy Spirit which were poured forth upon the Church at her first appearance in the world to confirm the Christian Faith by signes and wonders and not being able to make good our pretence be laughed at for our pains It would not avail us to say that we pretend not to those measures of the Spirit those extraordinary Gifts which the Apostles and first Believers had for it would be unanswerably returned upon us that these Texts cannot be proved to speak of any but these and thus we should disparage a good cause by arguing no better for it Therefore Doctor if the whole work of the Spirit in and towards the Church it self be openly derided as you complain you may I doubt in great part thank your self and such as you who by imprudent Discourses upon this subject have given profane persons occasion to make a question whether now-a-days there be any work at all of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of men I shall now endeavour to shew that there is and that by laying together what the Holy Scriptures say concerning it All which I suppose may be reduced to these three heads 1. What those effects are for the producing of which in the mindes of men God will give the Holy Spirit in all ages of the Church 2. To whom this promise of the Holy Spirit is made 3. What is the manner and measure of his Operations By
shewing what we are taught in the Scriptures concerning these things I hope the Reader who hath not so well considered them may gain a profitable knowledge of this part of Christian Doctrine And that is a profitable knowledge of it which will incite him to the study of Godliness and Virtue For this promise is made to encourage men to be good and the principal end which I aim at in this undertaking is to make it appear what great reason they have to endeavour earnestly after true goodness since God hath promised to give his Holy Spirit CHAP. II. Concerning those effects for the producing of which the Holy Spirit is given to Believers SECT I. DOctor O. saith well that when we treat of the Operations of the Holy Spirit we are exercised in such a Subject as wherein we have no rule nor guide nor any thing to give us assistance but pure Revelation For I suppose he means by these words that all our knowledge concerning this matter depends upon Revelation For the promise of the Spirit is a branch of the New Covenant which depended upon the pleasure of God therefore our knowledge of this part of the Covenant must be grounded upon the Scriptures which contain the revelation of it And by God's assistance I shall endeavour to govern my self by that rule while I am debating those Questions I have propounded concerning the Operations of the Holy Spirit The first whereof is this What those effects are for the producing of which the Holy Spirit is given to men And this I the rather begin withal because the end of his Operations being well understood we shall be the better able to judge of the meaning of those Texts which tell us who they are to whom the Spirit is promised and what is the manner of his Operations What the effects themselves are for which the Spirit is given may be known 1. In great part from that promise of the Holy Spirit which our Saviour made to his Disciples Luke 11.13 2. They may be fully known from those other places of Scripture which mention the several Graces of the Holy Spirit I begin with the promise in St. Luke whereby we may understand for what purposes the Holy Spirit is promised to those that believe in Christ. The Text is this How much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him These words deserve our attention the more because they are the first wherein we finde our Saviour mentioning the Gift of the Holy Spirit to his Disciples and therefore let us consider their connexion with the precedent part of the Chapter to come by that means to their true meaning and hereby also we shall plainly see what those effects are for the producing of which the Holy Spirit is promised to us in this place We finde vers 1. that one of his disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray whereupon he taught them that Form of Prayer Our Father c. Having thus answered their desire he takes this occasion to require them to pray fervently and importunately urging his Command with this Argument that if they did so they should certainly be heard and their requests should be granted for thus he speaks to them vers 9. I say unto you Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you for every one that asketh receiveth c. This argument is enforced by two similitudes whereof the former makes way for the latter to proceed with more strength towards the proving of this thing that God will hear our earnest Prayers The first is that of a man that goes to his friend at midnight to beg three Loaves for the entertainment of another friend of his vers 5 6. Now it is here observed that the request was very troublesome and unseasonable vers 7. Trouble me not the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed and withal the trouble was so great that the bare friendship that was between them would not have prevailed vers 8. He will not rise and give him because he is his friend Yet on the other side 't is observed that two considerations prevailed with him viz. that of the necessity and that of the importunity of his friend Yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth Now from hence our Saviour concludes vers 9. that if we ask we shall have i. e. God will give us whatsoever things we ask of him importunately if those things are needful for us And this with great reason for 1. God is our best Friend and greatest Benefactor 2. We are never unseasonable to him and the giving of what we ask is never uneasie to himself Wherefore if a man will grant to his friend what he is importunate with him for if it be needful for him though he cannot do it without trouble and uneasiness to himself much more will God who loveth us more than a man can do his friend bestow such things upon us as are needful if we earnestly desire him since he can without any trouble to himself grant our requests In the next Similitude the Argument is improved If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father will he give him a stone or if he ask a fish will he for a fish give him a serpent Or if he shall ask an egg will he offer him a scorpion vers 11 12. Now here 1. The Son asks of the Father where on the one hand the natural affection is greater between a Father and his Son and on the other the dependance greater in the Son upon his Father than in one Friend upon another 2. The Son requests food necessary to sustain himself not for the entertainment of another as in the former Similitude wherefore seeing here is greater love on his part that is asked greater dependance and necessity on his that asks our Saviour concludes he will prevail so that the Father instead of giving that which is necessary will not give that which is unprofitable as a Stone instead of Bread much less will he instead of that which is profitable give that which is hurtful as a Serpent for a Fish and a Scorpion for an Egg. From hence our Saviour argues If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him The Argument proceeds à minori and the force of it lies in this That earthly Parents who may be tenacious towards others and envy what they enjoy for in that sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken Is thine eye evil because mine is good will not yet be so towards their Children when they ask such things as they need much less will God who is in this Similitude affirmed to be our Father as in the former he is supposed to be our Friend and who
is good to all his creatures who envieth no man's happiness who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth none much less I say will he deny us his Holy Spirit if we ask him From hence it is evident that the scope of our Sayiour in this Discourse is to perswade his Disciples to pray fervently for such things as are indeed needful for them and that by this Argument that God will grant such requests as these are It is also evident that our Saviour concludes with this Argument in these words God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Wherefore I conceive we have gained one note of those spiritual Effects which the Holy Spirit is promised to work in our mindes viz. that they are such as are indeed needful For it is plain that in both Similitudes the things that were asked either by the Friend or the Childe were really such as they stood in need of the one for his friend the other for himself and that this was one reason why they prevailed Now from hence our Saviour infers that God will much more give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him i. e. for such purposes as are needful otherwise the Argument will not hold For we cannot infer from this consideration that we are ready to bestow upon our Children what they need therefore our heavenly Father will give us the Holy Spirit for such ends as are needless If the demands of Children be not within the limits of Reason and Modesty if they ask not to supply their real needs but to gratifie their wanton appetites it is consistent with the goodness of a Parent to deny such desires as those and to rebuke the folly of them too And if we should ask those gifts of the Holy Ghost which are not needful for us this would be more than we are encouraged to do by the promise of Christ and the compassion of our Heavenly Father may very well consist with the refusal of such Requests as these SECT 2. But this general Rule that we are to pray for such effects of the Holy Spirit as are needful for us would be insufficient to direct us what to pray for in particular if we did not also understand what effects are needful Now to satisfie you in this matter I might presently produce those places of Scripture where the several effects of the Holy Spirit upon the mindes of Believers are mentioned which work belongs properly to the second way propounded for the resolution of the present Question But before I come to that I shall try how far we may conclude from our Saviour's promise thus This is a needful Grace therefore we are to pray for it and then I shall in due place proceed to the second Head under which those Texts are to be considered from whence we may conclude in this manner This Grace we are to pray for therefore it is needful These methods of arguing will indeed bring us to the same conclusion concerning what those effects are for which the Holy Spirit is promised in St. Luke But by so doing they will afford mutual light to each other and infer the conclusion with more strength which I hope will not be judged unprofitable in a matter of so great weight for every Christian to be well satisfied about I begin with arguing from our needs to those Graces of the Holy Spirit which we are to pray for Now because it is some good or advantage of ours that is regarded in this promise of the Holy Spirit and in respect whereof his Graces are supposed to be needful we must in the first place set that end before us by which we are to measure what effects are needful to be wrought in us by the Holy Spirit and then consider what are indeed needful to that end for so far as we understand this we shall know what Graces to pray for since we are to pray for those that are needful and the needfulness of any thing must be judged of according to that end in respect whereof it is said to be needful 1. As for the end it self if we consider that this promise of the Holy Spirit is part of the New Covenant there can be no reason to doubt but the ultimate end of this promise with regard to our Good is our eternal Salvation and Glory For that which is the last end of the whole Covenant is the last end of every part of it Now the state which Christ came to bring us to at last is that of seeing God as he is and living for ever in the enjoyment of his Love For which reason St. John tells us This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life 1 Joh. 2.25 not as if the Gospel had no other promises but because the rest are subordinate to this and consequently that of the Holy Spirit must needs be so Wherefore in that promise of his Operations to produce all needful effects in our mindes those are supposed to be such which are needful for our Eternal Salvation Now 2. We must consider what effects are needful to be wrought in us for that end The needfulness of any means to an end consists either in this that the end cannot be attained without them at all or not so well without them That which is needful in the former sense is absolutely necessary that which is needful in the latter is onely profitable Let us therefore first consider what effects are absolutely necessary to be wrought in us in order to our eternal Salvation what these are we are plainly told in the Scripture and they may be comprised under these Heads 1. Faith in Jesus or believing him to be the Son of God and so one upon whose Authority we may safely rely as to whatever Revelations he hath made of God's Will the necessity of which Faith our Saviour hath told us in those words If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins Though indeed the Holy Spirit cannot be said to be promised in this place of St. Luke for the producing of Faith in this notion it being apparently supposed that whatever is here promised is promised to the Disciples of Jesus who do already believe him to be the Christ. 2. So much knowledge of the Christian Doctrine which is Faith in another notion as is necessary to instruct us in and encourage us to that Repentance and Holiness which the Gospel requires in order to Salvation When we believe in Christ our next care must be to know what his will is and to possess our mindes with those principles of Obedience without which it is impossible to please God For if it be necessary to salvation to do the Will of Christ it is equally necessary to understand his Revelations his Laws and Promises in that measure which is necessary to the doing of his Will and therefore a Believer is encouraged by this promise of our Saviour to ask the Holy Spirit that he may
use the means of arriving to such needful knowledge in that manner as not to miss of it 3. All those Vertues and Graces which make up practical Christianity and consist in having our mindes set free from the dominion of all sensual and worldly Lusts and in sincere obedience to the Commands of Christ So that we make it our greatest care to keep every one of his Laws endeavouring to grow better in some proportion to those means which we enjoy by the good providence of God What these Vertues are in particular we may know by the precepts of the Gospel and principally by our Saviours Sermon from the Mount where he directs his Disciples in the way to everlasting Blessedness obliging all whose office it is to teach and all his Disciples whatsoever to do the very least of his Commandments upon pain of being excluded out of the Kingdom of Heaven All those dispositions of Minde therefore which are supposed to the keeping of these his Commandments are effects necessary to our eternal Happiness and such as we are to ask of God that they may be produced in us by his Holy Spirit And look whatever Vertue or Qualification of our Wills and Affections the Gospel lays so great a stress upon that if we want it it is not possible for us in that state to see the Kingdom of God that is an effect so needful to be wrought in us that we may be sure our Heavenly Father such is his compassion towards us will no more deny us his Holy Spirit to that end if we importunately ask him than we can refuse to give our most beloved Children Bread or any other good thing as necessary for them as that 4. After we are brought into this state and thus become the sincere Disciples of Christ it is equally necessary to our eternal Salvation that we persevere therein For it had been better for us not to have known the way of righteousness than after we have known it so as to escape the pollutions of the world to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto us 2 Pet. 2.20 21. And therefore constancy and unweariedness in well-doing is also a Grace for the obtaining of which we are encouraged by our Saviour's Promise to ask the Holy Spirit that we may be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation I know not any effects that are absolutely necessary to Salvation which are not plainly implied and readily deducible from some of these And thus much for the former sort of needful Graces viz. such as without which Salvation cannot be attained at all being indispensibly necessary thereunto Secondly I come to speak of those Graces which are profitable to Salvation and these are such as regard our improvement either in Goodness or in Knowledge Of the former sort are those degrees of goodness according to which sincere Christians who are all careful to avoid wilful sin and endeavour to grow in Grace do yet excel one another These degrees consist in being more or less free from sins of mere infirmity an absolute freedom from which is that which our condition in this world cannot admit of but every degree towards Perfection which we attain unto in this kinde must needs be so much the more profitable by how much greater it is We are the better able to conclude certainly of our good estate towards God which is a matter of great advantage in the course of a Godly Life whereas a man may be conscious to himself of so many of these sins that it may be a difficult matter for himself or any body else to pronounce certainly concerning his Spiritual estate and therefore the onely good advice that can be given him in that case seems to be this to put the matter out of doubt by using more effectual endeavours after a further amendment Besides the nearer we come to Perfection the further off are we from Apostacy and the less in danger of back-sliding into a wicked course of Life we are the more confirmed in ways of Godliness and Vertue and more likely to persevere therein to the end Finally the degrees towards Perfection wherein some good men excel others are profitable because they will encrease their reward in Heaven For God will judge every man according to his works and therefore they that have done better shall have a better reward they that have done worse than others shall be beaten with more Stripes and there seems to be the same reason for a proportionable difference in Rewards When St. Peter exhorts us that Christian Vertues should not be in us onely but abound he gives this reason for the Exhortation viz. that an entrance may be ministred unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord 2 Pet. 1.11 Upon all these accounts those degrees towards Perfection which consist in prevailing against sins of mere Infirmity are highly profitable in the way of Salvation The latter sort of profitable things are such degrees of Knowledge in divine matters as are not simply necessary for Salvation The more knowledge a Christian hath the better able he is to avoid all errours that are dangerours and thus that knowledge which is not absolutely necessary may be profitable to himself Likewise the more a man understands in Religion the more useful he may be to others in promoting their Salvation by rescuing them from dangerous Errour and removing Doubts and many other ways If it now be demanded whether we can conclude from our Saviour's promise that if we ask the Holy Spirit for needful Graces of this sort God will grant our Request I answer 1. It follows in general from our Saviours promise that God will give the Holy Spirit not only for what is necessary to Salvation but also for what is profitable and advantageous to us in the way of Salvation For our Saviour assureth us that God in bestowing his Holy Spirit will use us with the Kindness and Bounty of a Father Now we know that although the affection of wise and good Parents towards their Children will not carry them to gratifie their wanton and unreasonable Desires yet neither will they deal so straitly and narrowly with them as to give them what is but barely needful to keep them from perishing To this purpose we may observe that two of the good things mentioned by our Saviour viz. the Egge and the Fish which Parents are not wont to deny their Children are instances of that Food which is not absolutely Necessary but Convenient and of ordinary use for the preservation of Life Now the Affection of our Heavenly Father being much more than that of Earthly Parents it may strongly be concluded in the general that God will not deny us what is profitable any more than what is necessary to Salvation But 2. It doth not follow in every particular That is I have no reason thus to conclude This is usefull therefore if I Ask it shall be given me For you must observe that our
Saviour argues from the Fatherly Goodness of God that he will grant our request Now we cannot argue against that Goodness of God if he doth not grant every particular request of this kinde 1. Because he may grant me the effect of my request which is to obtain something profitable for Salvation though he doth not give me that particular which I ask for he may give me another thing more profitable than that instead of it and then he is far from being less good for so doing As if a Child asks his Parent for such a Fish and he gives him a better or another sort of food more proper for him he is not the less bountiful and though perhaps he doth not please him so well yet he doth not deny him the effect of his request Thus I may pray for knowledge in some point of Religion which I would fain be satisfied in while in the mean time I may lie under a greater need than at present I am sensible of not having improved that knowledge which God hath already blessed me with to those degrees of Goodness which I might and ought to have attained by it and in this case the knowledge I ask might probably puff me up rather than edifie me Wherefore if God doth not bless my endeavours after it with the thing itself but instead thereof give me a better knowledge of my self helping me to rectifie some disorder in my Will and Affections he gives me that which is more profitable than that which I ask in particular 2. God may grant me all those profitable things which are suitable to that place and condition which he hath appointed to me and then I ought not to question his paternal goodness if he denies my particular request of some profitable thing which is more suitable to anothers condition than mine own If a Father should allow a more liberal maintenance to one of his Sons who serves him in a more expensive employment than the rest they are not to take it ill that he has not made them all equal but on the other hand to acknowledge his goodness if every one of them have a convenient allowance proportionable to their needs Thus if I that am but a private Christian labour to know as much in divine things as my spiritual Guide and pray for Gods blessing upon my endeavours do yet fail of my desire I must not conclude that God is wanting in his kindness to me if upon my industry in searching for knowledge with a sincere intent he grants me that measure of profitable Understanding which is suitable to my state education and calling and abundantly sufficient to all the purposes of Christian Life as to my own particular or for the Government of my Family if that be my case also To this it must be added that God knows what profitable things are most suitable to us better than we our selves Though Children are humbly to acquiesce in the allowance of their Parents yet they may not alwaies be bound to believe that it is made with good judgment and proportioned wisely to their needs But here 't is otherwise for as we may conclude from the Goodness of God that if we are sincere and diligent he will give us such profitable things as he judgeth to be most suitable to our condition So we may likewise argue from his Wisdome that he cannot be mistaken in judging what that is though we may and thereupon ask some profitable thing in particular which his Goodness may very well consist with the denial of Finally It is consistent with the Fatherly Goodness of God in bestowing what is profitable for Salvation upon every one that asketh to use his Sovereign Power in giving to one more than to another for though upon my sincere endeavours and prayers I may promise my self from that his Goodness besides the necessaries what is abundantly profitable in answer to my Needs I may not every profitable thing which I can think of or which I see another of my own rank in other respects favoured withal Wherefore I have no reason to complain if I see another man wiser than his Teachers while I need to be instructed by them or if I am a Teacher to see my self so far excelled by those of my own profession that it is fit for me to be a Learner under them For these Reasons it doth not follow in every particular that if I ask something that is profitable God will grant it Yet 3. We are to remember that a great difference is to be put between things profitable viz. between degrees of improvement in Goodness on the one hand and in Knowledge on the other There is this difference between them that the former do of themselves recommend us to the greater Love and Favour of God the latter not so but onely as they are the fruit of sincere Love and study of the Truth which is a branch of Righteousness and accompanied with an upright care to do the will of God more perfectly Therefore let a sincere Christian pray for any degree of Righteousness and Holiness which his imperfect condition in this world will admit of though he cannot conclude that God will grant that particular request merely because he asks something that is profitable for so is every degree of Knowledge too yet he has this reason to conclude which is not common to praying for profitable Knowledge that he prays for something which God loves for it self and which he will be the more pleased with him for obtaining That delight which God takes in the persons of men is not founded upon the mere improvements of their Understandings but upon the sincerity of their Obedience which the Scripture doth often witness to us in such places as these The Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright Psal. 11.7 The prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15.8 The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord but he loveth him that FOLLOWETH after Righteousness vers 9. Whence we may conclude that the more we grow in Grace and Virtue the more God loveth us and therefore that he will give the Holy Spirit to encrease all Christian virtues in us to such degrees towards Perfection as are proportionable to our Prayers and Endeavours in Following after Righteousness From which we may see what encouragement we have to study the defects and infirmities of our Wills as particularly as we can and to observe the several Irregularities of our thoughts and affections with our best attention since by this means we may employ our care and prayers against them more effectually for the more particular and importunate we are in so doing the more is God pleased with us and therefore he will not fail to answer the sincerity of our intention with a proportionable gift of the Holy Spirit But as for other sorts of profitable things such as greater measures of knowledge which do not of themselves recommend us to
God we are not to ask them so particularly or if we do not so absolutely as the former I may and ought to pray for them in general and particularly for those degrees of them which are proper for my condition if I govern a Family for so much knowledge as may well serve me to bring up those that are under me in the fear of God and the way of Salvation or if I am a Minister for that underderstanding in Religion which may best fit me to discharge that duty I owe to God of guiding those souls to Heaven that are committed to my trust but if I pray more particularly for the understanding of such a difficult Point in Religion which I would satisfie my self or others about I must not do it absolutely but with submission to God's wisdom and pleasure Thus have I endeavoured to shew what qualifications of minde we are to pray for under this notion of their being needful to Salvation and consequently what those effects are for the producing of which the Operations of the Holy Spirit are promised to Believers in Luke 11.13 Dr. Owen indeed thinks that there is a certain change of the minde of a very different nature from any that I have named necessary to Salvation which he makes to be the Great work of the Spirit upon the Souls of Believers I shall not be long before I come to consider what reason he has for it In the mean time it may not be amiss to observe what conclusions may be made from this promise of the Holy Spirit which we have begun with the Consideration of And the first is SECT 3. 1. That we ask the Holy Spirit in the Lords Prayer which as it may be concluded from the perfection of that Form in general so more particularly from the coherence of our Saviour's Discourse in this place upon occasion of that request made by one of his Disciples that he would teach them to pray For to satisfie the request fully he did these two things 1. He taught them what things to pray for by prescribing to them the use of this Form Our Father who art in Heaven c. 2. He taught them in what manner to pray for these things that they might obtain them viz. to pray importunately and fervently for them as 't is plain from vers 9. compared with vers 8. and one reason given by him upon which they may conclude God will grant their requests is this that they ask onely needful things Now it is very improbable that our Saviour should have left out so needful a Request as that of the Holy Spirit in that Prayer which he had taught them for then he did not instruct them so fully what needful things to pray for by prescribing that Form as he did in what manner they should pray for those things by the following directions But much more improbable is it that he left that Request out of this Form considering that he chose the gift of the Holy Spirit for an instance of what might be obtained by Prayer so soon after he had commanded his Disciples to use the Form of his prescribing For this gift of the Holy Ghost is the greatest blessing that is now to be obtained under Heaven and it is not credible that he should immediately as it were tax his own Form of so much imperfection as the want of that Request must suppose in it Or that he should let his Disciples know there was no other way to obtain the Holy Spirit but by asking though he had not before taught them to ask it in the Prayer which he had given them But lastly there is no necessity of inferring this Conclusion from the coherence of our Saviour's Discourse since the gift of the Holy Ghost comprehends the gift of all those Heavenly Graces which we ask in the Lords Prayer and therefore the meaning of those words God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him is this God will give the Disciples of Christ such needful Graces as he hath taught them to ask in that excellent Form which he gave to his Disciples And this indeed makes the coherence of our Saviour's Discourse most clear and accurate For upon this supposition you see that he does at last instance in such a request viz. that of the Holy Spirit which is a brief Summary of all the most considerable matters that he had taught them to pray for before Wherefore observe that 2. We pray for the Holy Spirit when we pray for any Grace or Virtue or for any Disposition of minde which is needful to qualifie us for the Kingdom of God In the Lords Prayer wherein the Holy Spirit is asked the Petition is not formally express'd but contained under other words for instance under these amongst others Thy Will be done as in Heaven so in Earth For in this Petition we pray That till we come to the perfect heavenly state we may by the Divine Spirit be disposed to such a submissive and cheerful performance of the Will of God upon Earth as may bear some resemblance and carry some proportion to that absolute readiness of minde wherewith the Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect and wherewith we our selves do hope ere long to perform the Will of God in the Kingdom of Heaven I say although in that Petition we do not expresly ask the Holy Spirit yet in effect we do because we pray for such a temper of minde as may qualifie us for the heavenly Life hereafter And to ask of God so needful a Grace as this is is as I have already shewn by the plain scope of our Saviour's Discourse the same thing with asking the Holy Spirit Now for the same reason in every Petition wherein we beg of God that we may be able to subdue any Lust that we may be endued with any Christian Virtue or grow in any Grace In every such Petition I say we ask the Holy Spirit because this is to ask those needful things for which his Operations are promised to us Therefore those Prayers of our Church that God would make us to have a perpetual fear and love of his holy Name that he would give unto us the increase of Faith Hope and Charity that he would keep us from all things hurtful and lead us to all things profitable for our salvation together with all the yearly Collects are Prayers for the gift of the Holy Spirit i. e. for the several Graces of the true Disciple of Christ which are expresly ascribed to the Spirit in that Prayer that God would grant to us his Spirit to think and to do always such things as be rightful that we who cannot do any thing that is good without him may by him be enabled to live according to his will And this I have by the way observed that you may see how fully our publick Prayers agree to that rule of our Saviour concerning what we are to pray for viz. that we
are to ask of God to give us the Holy Spirit which is done both when we use the formal Petition and when we pray for any Divine Grace or Christian Virtue And when our Souls breath after true Goodness when they hunger and thirst after Righteousness when they zealously strive against every evil desire and every evil work that we may perfect Holiness in the fear of God then do we importunately ask the Holy Spirit we do effectually invoke him and attract those Divine Aids to our selves which will make us what we desire to be the true followers of Christ and holy as he was holy in all manner of Conversation 3. And by consequence the Operations of the Holy Spirit are supposed in those places of Scripture where God is said to give or work any Grace or good Disposition in our mindes for if it be the same thing to ask any such Grace and to ask the Holy Spirit then the same thing is meant by Gods giving the one and his giving the other i. e. as Dr. Owen very often and very truely notes when God bestoweth any Blessing of this nature he doth it by his Spirit So that all those Texts which ascribe Christian Vertues to a Divine Operation and consequently those Prayers of St. Paul in behalf of the Christians that God would make them eminent in all kindes of Goodness are places pertinent to this subject and proper to inform us what we are to believe concerning those Operations of the Holy Spirit which I am now discoursing of But that which is most necessary of all to observe is this 4. That this promise of our Saviour concerning the Holy Spirit does equally regard the Church in all ages to the end of the world For those Effects which his Operations are here promised to produce are needful for all Christians and not onely for those to whom Christ spake in person Now the reason why God would give his Holy Spirit to them being this that they needed those things which he had taught them to pray for and because God was their Father it follows that upon the performance of the same condition we shall obtain the Holy Spirit for God is our Father too and those things we ask in the Lords Prayer are as needful for us and for all Believers as they could be for them to whom the Promise was made at first Therefore the gift of the Holy Ghost here promised did not determine with the age of Miracles Lastly it is not improbable that as by the latter Similitude where it is observed that Children obtain of their Parents things needful for themselves our Saviour doth encourage every one of his Disciples to ask the Holy Spirit in his own behalf So by the former Similitude where the man is said to prevail who requested of his Neighbour what was needful for his Friend we are encouraged to pray for one another that God would give us his Holy Spirit to convert us from all our sins and to encrease his Graces in us This I conceive may be one intention of our Saviour in that Similitude viz. to excite us to this â—…nd of Charity by letting us know that we fare the better for the earnest Prayers we make in each others behalf and it is the more probable because he used that Similitude immediately after he had taught his Disciples to pray for one another by prescribing to them a Form of Prayer in the use of which they could not do otherwise These things seem to be clearly implied in that place of St. Luke which we have been considering and not improper to be observed And now I should forthwith proceed to those places of Scripture which expresly mention the several Graces of the Holy Spirit and shew that those needful effects for the producing of which the Holy Spirit is here in general promised to Believers are in several of them particularly ascribed to his Operations But I am sensible that I should then leave behinde me a great Objection against what I have already said viz. that I have given a very lame account of those Qualifications which are needful to Salvation For Dr. Owen comes and tells us that there is a Qualification of quite another kinde than any I have named absolutely necessary to Salvation and that you must know is Regeneration Now indeed our Saviour saith Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3.3 And this Regeneration our Saviour likewise ascribeth to the Operation of the Holy Spirit Except a man be born of the Spirit he cannot c. vers 5. Wherefore God forbid that any Christian should deny Regeneration to be needful even in the degree of necessity to qualifie us for eternal Life or to be an effect of the Holy Spirit wherever it is But I cannot think it to be so unintelligible a thing as our Author represents it who makes it to be somewhat distinct from believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ. Wherefore I shall in the next place particularly enquire into the true notion of Regeneration and because this is not onely a matter of great Consequence but the great Out-cry which has been long raised by the Doctor and his Brethren of the Separation against the present Ministers of the Church of England is this that we are not Orthodox in the point of Regeneration I shall throughly consider what the Doctor hath written Pro and Con in this Book of his concerning it CHAP. III. Of the state of Regeneration SECT I. THat we are Regenerated by the Operations of the Holy Spirit and thereby qualified for eternal Life is agreed between us but I can by no means grant our Authors notion of Regeneration to be true and I think his mistake in that may have led him into divers others To proceed therefore with the more clearness I come to shew what it is to be Regenerate or born again And here I shall be forced to consider the Doctors notion of Regeneration as far as I can understand it because if the principle upon which he goes in stating his notion be true it fundamentally overthrows that which I take to be the true Scriptural notion thereof For he contends that these Expressions to be born again to be a new creature and to have a new heart and the like do properly and literally signifie that which is intended by them I say they signifie it figuratively It must therefore be debated in the first place whether they be proper or Metaphorical expressions before we can settle the true notion of the words This must be done by inquiring whether to be born again to have a new heart and to be created anew can properly be affirmed of those that are qualified to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven If not we are next to consider what figurative sence it is in which these expressions are to be understood By determining which according to the Scriptures we shall come to the right notion of Regeneration
way clearly contradicts what the Scripture saith concerning the state of Regeneration which is the thing I am concerned to prove for the Scripture makes the state of Regeneration to consist in having the Heart of stone taken away as well as the Heart of flesh given in putting off the Old man as well as in putting on the New and when St. Paul saith He that is in Christ is a new creature we are not to understand that he is the old creature too for he tells us all old things are pass'd away and all things are become new Now thus I argue If these expressions are to be understood literally then it is literally true that the old man the old creature is put off c. as well as the new man put on and therefore it is contrary to Scripture to affirm Regeneration to consist in the addition of a new creature literally understood to the old Lastly since the Scripture doth express the state of Regeneration by phrases which literally and properly taken do some of them signifie the addition of a new Nature to the old and others the removal of the old Nature with a substitution of the new it is impossible that the literal and proper sence should be intended Thus I have proved the literal sence of these expressions to be inconsistent with the Scriptures and having before proved the absurd consequences which understanding them in this manner is chargeable with I hope it is sufficiently proved that they are not so to be understood which was the first thing to be done The consequence of what hath been said is clear that if they are not to be understood literally and properly then are they to be understood figuratively and metaphorically and nothing can be reasonably desired for the farther clearing of this point but to answer our Author's arguments against it which was the second thing proposed SECT 3. All that he saith to the contrary which can pretend to 〈◊〉 arguing we have Sect. 7. where his Arguments against the Metaphorical use of these expressions are two though they are there jumbled together by him without any distinction whereof one lies against affirming Regeneration to be a metaphorical expression or rather such an expression of what he saith his Adversaries understand by it the other lies against the supposition of any metaphorical expressions whatsoever whereby the Scripture is said to represent the work of God's Spirit upon the Souls of men The former Argument is to this purpose If Regeneration be no more than a metaphorical expression of amendment of Life according to the rules of the Scripture then our Saviour proposed unto Nicodemus a thing which he knew perfectly well before onely under a new name and notion which he had never heard of before so to take an advantage of charging him of being ignorant of what indeed he full well knew and understood But this he saith is a blasphemous imagination therefore Regeneration is no metaphorical expression of c. The latter Argument if you will be so civil as to call it an Argument is designed against the opinion that the Scripture useth any Metaphors at all in this matter For thus he concludes Some judge the things of the Gospel to be deep and mysterious the words and expressions of it to be plain and proper Others think the words and expressions of it to be mystical and figurative but the things intended to be ordinary and obvious to the Natural Reason of every man Now that which he thinks is that the things are mysterious and the words proper His Argument to prove this is contained in these passages If there be not a secret mysterious work of the Spirit of God upon the Souls of men intended in the Writings of the New Testament they must be granted to be obscure beyond those of any other Writers whatsoever If they are the Word of God the things intended in them are clearly and properly expressed The difficulties which seem to be in them arising from the mysterious nature of the things themselves contained in them and the weakness of our minds in apprehending such things and not from any obscurity or intricacy in the declaration of them Therefore some do well to judge the things of the Gospel to be deep and mysterious and the words of it to be plain and proper If there be any coherence in this Arguing I think it would be this If there be a mysterious Work of the Spirit upon the Souls of men intended in the Scripture then the words and expressions of the Gospel concerning it are plain and proper and such a mysterious work there is otherwise the Scriptures are obscure beyond all other Writings because the words of the Gospel are proper expressions of such a mysterious work I begin with this latter Argument First of all let us consider the Doctor 's Conclusion that we may afterwards see whether it is to be found in the Premises If he concludes any thing against his Adversaries he concludes that the Scripture hath used no Metaphorical expressions at all of the things of the Gospel For he saith Herein indeed consists the main controversie whereunto things with the most are reduced viz. that he and his friends judge the things of the Gospel to be mysterious and the words and expressions proper that is ALL the words and expressions of it For if he concludes only that some or the greater part of them are proper and not figurative expressions he concludes what none of his Adversaries deny and unless he concludes universally he proves nothing Now by the way I shall convince our Author that he hath concluded amiss for himself by putting him in minde that he elsewhere acknowledgeth that very thing of the Gospel which is the subject of our Debate to be in the Scripture Metaphorically exprest The work of the Spirit is exprest there by Quickning from Death to Life it is also exprest by Turning from Darkness to Light Now as to the latter our Authors words are these The term of Darkness in this case is Metaphorical and borrowed from that which is Natural As to the former these There in is men a spiritual Death called so Metaphorically from the Analogie and proportion that it bears to Death Natural Let us see whether the Doctor 's Argument will not Vnmetaphor these expressions again If there be a secret mysterious work of the Spirit intended in these expressions then they are not Metaphorical if no such work be intended by them then are the Scriptures obscure beyond all other Writers If he can Answer his Argument for himself he can Answer it for us too and then Regeneration in particular will prove a Metaphorical expression for if Death be so then Life is so too and being Born into that Life will unavoidably be so likewise Some of the expressions of the Gospel concerning these matters the Doctor allows to be Metaphorical so that the controversie we have with him one would think should
from this charge of contradicting the Apostle but that his meaning is not that the carnal man can mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit and that he can walk after the Spirit i. e. that he reforms himself thus universally as he is supposed to do by the Spirit but onely that he may be such a reformed man that he may mortifie the deeds of the body that he may walk according to the rules of the Gospel and yet all this proceeds from the Old Nature and this work belongs but to the old Creation And this I finde indeed to be his sence for he tells us Whatever is in the Soul of Power Disposition or Ability or Inclination unto God or for any moral action by nature i. e. before regenerating Grace comes it belongs unto the old Creation it is no new Creature Now by comparing these words with his 17 Section we may now discern that by the inherent habitual righteousness which the moral man wants as he saith he does not mean an internal disposition and inclination to Virtue correspondent to that righteousness which he practiseth in his life for he supposeth that in the state of Nature or Vnregeneracy such a disposition and inclination such a power and ability he may have But he means by it a principle of spiritual life and holiness infused by the Holy Spirit as he explains himself afterward So that this is the defence he must make for himself out of his Book when I charge him with contradicting St. Paul viz. that he onely saith the carnal man may mortifie the deeds of the body may be universally righteous and obedient in his life but this is no more than a natural work all this while all his actual righteousness and his internal disposition to it belongs unto the old Creation it is no new Creature whereas the spiritually-minded man of whom St. Paul saith that he walks after the Gospel walks after the Spirit too and when he mortifies the deeds of the body does mortifie them by the Spirit This pretence so derogatory from the grace of the Holy Spirit contradicts the Scripture which saith He that doth righteousness is born of God I shall now onely observe that our Author whatever he pretends to the contrary is discovered to be a rank Pelagian I speak it with great seriousness for the thing is plain and he cannot with any modesty now deny it He makes it possible for a man to mortifie the deeds of the body without the Spirit and to walk after the Gospel though he be not led by the Spirit to keep the commands of God by the mere abilities of Nature to be universally righteous in his life and to be disposed and inclined thereunto in his Soul without an infusion as his phrase is of a new principle of spiritual life and holiness And he plainly supposeth that all that righteousness which the Gospel requires viz. an universal performance of God's commands proceeding from the belief of the Gospel may belong unto the old Creation and be no new Creature nor the work of the Spirit Now Pelagius his great Heresie was this That a man by his natural Faculties might do that which God required without any further help from God than that of declaring his will For setting that aside he thought our willing and doing needed no divine assistance as St. Austin reports him and that God gave us the power of choice in vain if we cannot do his will unless he always helpeth us as St. Hierom saith concerning him It is the same which the Doctor saith while he makes all the righteousness and disposition thereunto which we have been considering even that of the faith and obedience of the Gospel to be the effect of nature and to belong unto the old Creation so that a man may believe the Gospel and keep the Commandments of God without the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit If the Doctor saith that however in all the Regenerate he ascribes that righteousness to the Holy Spirit and his Grace this will not bring him off For Pelagius himself was brought to confess though not the same thing yet what would serve his turn as well as this can the Doctor 's For at length he said Therefore is the Grace of God given that what we are able to do by Nature we may more easily do by Grace But the Doctrine of the Catholick Church was that Grace is necessary to our doing the Will of God and if that be true it does equally conclude both him and Pelagius to be the same Hereticks though he saith doing the Will of God is sometimes the effect of the gracious Aids of the Spirit and Pelagius said doing it more easily was always so Our Author I confess speaks divers things in this Book which destroy this Pelagian Doctrine for he is sometimes in the humour of a Manichee which is an Heresie of the other extream and will not allow that a man can do any good action whatsoever without an irresistible determination of his Will thereunto as in due place I shall put him in minde again How he came by the knack of believing such inconsistent things if he believes them I know not but he makes great use of his Talent that way as I shall have further occasion to shew him hereafter But whether he believes these Contradictions or not as long as he asserts Pelagian Doctrines he is to be judged from his own words and to go for a Pelagian I grant that the sence of what a man saith in one part of a Book is to be judged of by what he saith in another but that always is upon supposition that his words are capable of that sence which is that way endeavoured to be put upon them But our Author 's arguing in Sect. 17. compared with Sect. 20. is in my judgement so notoriously for the Pelagian Heresie that if Pelagius himself were here we could not discern the least difference between them in the point of man's natural ability to keep the Commandments of God Indeed he gives the Pelagians ill words enough in many places of his Book and he would perswade his Reader that his Adversaries are a kinde of Pelagian Hereticks but for ought I see he is more angry at the name of Pelagius than at his errour or he hopes that he may unsuspectedly broach the opinions of Pelagius while he falls foul upon other men as if they were his followers And truely this insincerity he might happily learn from Pelagius himself who was wont to say and unsay to contradict his own Concessions one while and his Assertions another when he was to save himself now against the Catholicks and then against his own Party as St. Augustin tells us which being considered I leave it to others to judge whether our Author is not to be esteemed a Pelagian though he elsewhere affirms things inconsistent with Pelagianism I believe he has but one way to come off and
opened the Eyes of him that was born blinde the Pharisees would believe never the more that he was of God and yet all the pretence they could finde against him was because this cure was wrought on the Sabbath-day vers 16. For when they had strictly examined all circumstances of the Miracle and the healed person in conclusion talked such unanswerable reason against them Herein is a marvelous thing that ye know not whence he is c. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the Eyes of one that was born blinde If this man were not of God he could do nothing i. e. he could do no such works as these they were resolved to give him the hearing no longer but first bitterly reproached him and then cast him out Now our Saviour frequently told these men that their prejudice against him arose from their Lusts How saith he can ye believe who receive honour from one another and seek not the honour that cometh from God onely John 5.44 i. e. so long as your Hearts are set upon worldly greatness and the praise of men which if you can compass you care not in the mean while whether God approves of you or not it is no wonder that ye reject my Doctrine who came not to answer your ambitious and worldly expectations although I come with testimony from God and the works that I do bear witness of me vers 36. Thus the Apostle tells us That the God of this world blindeth the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4.4 where we have a plain reason given us by the Apostle why some believed not who had the light of the Gospel shining about them i. e. who had it preached to them with its proper evidence viz. because the God of this world had blinded their Mindes i. e. because they were blinded with the prejudices of prevailing Lust and Passion by which the Devil rules in the Children of disobedience Wherefore as Faith is necessary to that more perfect victory over our Lusts which includes the universal doing of God's Will So on the other hand our mindes must in some degree be disengaged from the power of our Lusts before we can heartily believe viz. so far as that we may be ready to yield to the truth how contrary sover it proves to our sensual and worldly affections and consequently that they shall not hinder our attention and consideration when the Word of God is offered to be made known to us Of this teachable disposition we have a remarkable instance in Acts 16.14 The Lord opened Lydia 's heart that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul where we may observe 1. That her being qualified to hear which is here expressed by the opening of her Heart is ascribed to a divine operation which prevented even her attention to what she heard 2. That the immediate effect of the Lords opening her Heart was not her believing but her attending to those things which were spoken of Paul i. e. she heard him diligently without prejudice and passion and was willing to embrace the truth This was the effect of God's Spirit and whoever is thus disposed will believe the Gospel when it is made known to him because it is indeed the Word of God This is that temper of minde which was all that our Saviour desired to finde among men in order to the convincing of them that he was the true Prophet If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self Joh. 7.17 i. e. If a man be willing to do whatsoever shall appear to be the Will of God and so is not prejudiced against the truth by his Lusts such a one will easily be convinced that my Doctrine is of God And because this temper comes from the divine Spirit therefore he that is thus disposed is said to be of God For it is exactly to the same purpose what our Saviour saith John 8.47 He that is of God heareth God's Words ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God For this was the Answer he made to that Question of his own If I say the truth why do ye not believe me He gives the reason himself Because ye are not of God The meaning whereof is plain from vers 44. Ye are of your Father the Devil and the lusts of your Father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth c. So that to be of the Devil is to be wedded to our Lusts and enraged against the truth that contradicts them And therefore the contrary state or temper to be of God is plainly to be ready to perform all duty and to believe all truth and whoever was thus disposed would hear God's Words and believe them vers 47. Thus after our Saviour had appealed to the Miracles which he wrought before his Enemies Joh. 10.25 he tells them But ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep Where by Sheep cannot be meant actual Disciples for then the sence were Ye believe not because ye believe not But such as were by a teachable spirit disposed to be so and would hear his voice for such as these would follow him assoon as he called them because he was the true Shepherd Now that this preparedness of minde to embrace the truth was an effect of the divine Spirit is clearly implied in vers 29. My Father who gave them me i. e. who hath thus disposed and qualified them to hear my voice is greater than all and none is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hands to defeat them of that eternal Life which Christ had promised v. 28. All these places being compared with John 6.37 give a clear light to the true interpretation thereof All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me i. e. will believe in me and become my Disciples and then to be given of the Father is the same thing with being resolved to do the Will of God Joh. 7.17 and being of God Joh. 8.47 and being Christ's Sheep Joh. 10.26 All which Phrases signifie that humility and teachableness of minde whereby men are prepared to believe the truth Onely the Fathers giving such persons to Christ is an expression noting that divine Grace whereby their mindes are thus disposed for which reason being brought to this temper is called vers 44. being drawn by the Father No man can come to me except the Father who hath sent me draw him i. e. unless the grace of God hath so far prevailed over his Affections as to indue him with an impartial love to the truth and his Heart be thereby opened to attend to God's Word And in this sence we may use those words of the Apostle spoken upon another occasion No man can say that Jesus is the Lord
perswaded that it was the purpose of God from all eternity to bring a few men to eternal Life by an irresistible power and to leave the rest to unavoidable ruine he can no more hope to obtain the favour of God by doing what he can to please him than to reverse the Decrees of Heaven Wherefore if he understands his own principles he must needs be under a great Agony till he becomes assured that he is one of that happy number whom nothing no not sin it self can separate from the love of God But if we entertain honourable thoughts of God as we have great reason to do if we believe that he seriously calls upon us to repent and would have us to be saved and that he is ready to supply us with Grace sufficient 2 Cor. 12.9 then upon our care to please God in all things we shall never want so much comfort as we need i. e. the joy of well-doing which is the testimony of a good Conscience Wherefore since an absolute assurance that we shall be saved is needful neither as a condition of Salvation nor as a motive to Holiness nor as a means of Comfort I may conclude also that neither is this one of those Graces which our Saviour hath told us God will give to them that ask him SECT 3. Lastly that promise giveth us no reason to expect that the Holy Spirit will dictate extemporary Prayers to us For 1. Such Prayers themselves are not necessary to the obtaining of our requests for had that been so then certainly we should have been admonish'd in the Scriptures to pray Extempore as they call it as well as to pray at all and to beware of Book-prayers and the use of Forms as much as of neglecting the Duty altogether or performing it in a careless slothful manner And this the rather because Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving were used in the Jewish Church and because also the modesty of many good Christians and the inabilities of many more would naturally prompt them to the use of so ready a help to devotion as pious and useful Forms of Prayer are But so far are we from finding any Command in Scripture to pray upon sudden invention that we finde no preference given to this way above the use of Forms but rather the contrary for when our Saviour taught his Disciples to pray he enjoyned them the use of a Form When ye pray say Our Father c. Luke 11. But 2. Not to contend for the usefulness of Forms of Prayer above leaving the performance of this duty to extemporary effusions but admitting the advantage lay on the side of the latter as some men perswade themselves I affirm that the suggestions of the Holy Spirit are not necessary to the conception or utterance of such Prayers For first they are not necessary to dictate what things we are to pray for since the Holy Scriptures may abundantly supply us with the knowledge of them Therefore I see no reason why Dr. Owen should say with so much anger that the Spirit of God let the proud carnal world despise it whilst they please and at their peril doth gratiously in the Prayers of Believers carry out and act their Souls and Mindes in Desires and Requests which for the matter of them are far above their natural contrivances and invention This is somewhat obscure but I would know what requests those are which for the matter of them are above your natural contrivance and invention If they be agreeable to the Word of God as I suppose you will say they are then either you knew them to be so before you pray'd or you knew it not If you did you have no reason to say that the matter of these requests was above your natural contrivance and invention if you mean thereby as I think you do that when you were praying you could not possibly have thought of those requests without a supernatural suggestion for you confess that you knew well enough before that you were to pray for such things as then come to your minde But if you knew them not then either you prayed for such things as you did not then know to be agreeable to God's Word or else you must suppose that the Holy Spirit which then gave you the first notice of them did immediately reveal to you that they were And yet you said just before I do not think that the Spirit worketh supplications in us by an immediate supernatural divine Afflatus so as he inspir'd the Prophets of old who oft-times understood not the things uttered by themselves Now that Revelation is as immediate and supernatural as the Inspiration of the Prophets was and to make all even you say elsewhere that let prophane and ignorant persons whilst they please deride what they understand not nor are able to disprove the Holy Spirit of God doth guide Believers in and by the working and experience of Faith to pray for those things the depths of whose mysteries they cannot comprehend So that if you neither know them before nor understand them afterward I think you may lay claim to the Afflatus of the old Prophets upon a double Title by your own account Now I shall be so far from deriding your pretence that I shall not go about to disprove it but onely tell you that we are not bound to believe you to be Inspired men unless you could prove it by some evident divine Testimony for want of which you again appeal to your Experiences and let us know withal that he who hath not experience hereof i. e. of having the matter of his Prayers suggested to him by the Spirit is a greater stranger to these things than will at length be unto his advantage which any man may say who speaks more than he understands All that I contend for is that the matter of our Prayers needs not to be dictated by Inspiration and that because the Spirit teacheth us by the written Word of God what we may and what we ought to pray for Nor 2. The words in which we pray for a ready use of our Mother-tongue will serve us with them freely enough so that a competent understanding of the chief Heads of Religion and the retaining in memory of a certain number of Scripture-phrases and Passages of holy Writ proper to be converted into Petitions together with a tolerable readiness of uttering ones thoughts in proper words will in some measure furnish a man with this gift and being thus qualified he shall not need to have the matter or the words of his Prayers dictated to him by the Holy Spirit any more than of an ordinary discourse with his Neighbour upon a subject which he is used to speak of But if he hath over and above a warm Invention and a voluble Tongue and a good share of Assurance in himself especially if he be apt to be heated with his own thoughts and expressions he is then qualified to excel in the way of
extemporary praying and to pass for one that hath a double measure of the Spirit with them who are apt to ascribe all Heat and Eloquence in matters of Religion to a divine Principle I do not speak this to undervalue any man's abilities in this kinde but onely to shew that they may be set too high As for them that do so they may undeceive themselves by observing the very Prayers of those persons whose gifts this way are most remarkable for although these men are sometimes pleased to decry the use of Forms as not savouring of the Spirit yet it is plain enough that their own Prayers as spiritual as they look may be as purely Humane as the Prayers of a Book are by them judged to be For it is evident that they tie up themselves to those usual Topicks of Prayer and Heads of Devotion according to which Book-prayers as they call them are framed They usually begin with the Invocation of God by the acknowledgement of his Attributes and then they run through the common places of Confession Petition and Thanksgiving which are the subjects that furnish set Forms of Prayer They confess the same Sins they beg the same Graces they praise God for the same Blessings in all their Prayers Now this is that which I suppose none of them will deny and then I think they must confess that their Prayers as to the matter of them are as formal as those of the Liturgy But further as the matter of their Prayers is confined to certain Heads so for the most part they use the same expressions onely with this condition that they are laid in with such good store of them that they need not use them all at once but may keep some against another time And thus indeed they do not tie up themselves to a form of Words because they have as many Forms to use as may be made by the shifting and transposing of those Phrases which they have in stock and so many Forms they have more or fewer according as that stock increases more or less And thus as we pray out of our Books so do they out of their Memories and the difference between their way and ours for I speak now of those that do not use to talk idly and extravagantly in their extemporary Prayers is this that ours hath the advantage of Safety and theirs of Popularity and Ostentation But I am not able to divine what that is in Extemporary praying as that is distinguish'd from using a set Form which must needs be ascribed to the immediate suggestion of the Spirit The matter of such Prayers is certainly the most considerable and the knowledge of that we see may come another way which seem'd to be the minde too of the late Assembly who although they threw aside the Book of Common-prayers to make way for Extemporary Performances yet thought fit to give the Minister a Directory for the Matter without leaving him to be guided in that by the suggestion of the Holy Ghost which made some men think they might e'ne as well have prescribed a set Form unless they intended to leave the meaner office of supplying him with words to the Holy Spirit But the words and phrases as I have shewn you may come from a more familiar Principle And then there is nothing left but that shifting and changing of places with them which makes the great show of variety But this is so unworthy to be ascribed to a divine principle that I may conclude extemporary Prayers allowing them to be never so useful and profitable need not to be dictated by Inspiration and therefore no such Inspiration was promised by our Saviour when be promised the Gift of the Holy Spirit to all his Disciples Thus have I shewn that neither of these three things come under the promise in St. Luke 11.13 For they are not Gifts of that kinde which are there promised to them that ask the Spirit And I adde it may be strongly presumed that they are promised nowhere else since they do not fall under this general promise of the Spirit which comprehends all the rest But because there are some men so vehemently perswaded that the Holy Spirit is given for these purposes that they reckon it little better than Blasphemy to gainsay it I shall proceed to those places of Scripture upon which such mighty confidence is grounded to see whether they afford any reason for it SECT 4. And first as to those testimonies which are alledged out of the Bible in favour of interpreting or understanding Scripture by the immediate revelation of the Spirit I refer the Reader wholly to Dr. Hammond's Postscript concerning New Light and divine Illumination annexed to his Paraphrase c. upon the New Testament where they are all considered and shewn to infer no such thing as is desired to be concluded from them But if after all any man should say that he knows by the Light of the Spirit that Interpretation which Dr. Hammond hath given of those Texts to be nothing better than carnal Reasoning and come over with Dr. Owen's talk of the Natural Man and the impossibility of understanding the spiritual sence of Gospel-truths without the Almighty Illumination of the Spirit I confess it will prove a matter of as great difficulty to reply to such a pretender as it is to finde out a way to convince a Quaker For what success can any man promise himself by replying to a confident Enthusiast who perpetually appeals from the most evident reasons the plainest testimonies of Scripture and the most rational inferences from them to the testimony of the Spirit However this I will venture to say that if it were granted impossible to understand these Texts without that New Light which the Papists call an Infallible Spirit and Dr. Owen and his party an Almighty work of the Holy Ghost for in effect they are both the same thing then it must be granted withal that these Texts are impertinently produced to convince us who do not pretend to this Infallible Spirit that there are a sort of men upon whom God bestows that priviledge For that theirs is the true sence cannot be proved to us but by rational means i. e. either by arguing from the original words or the Context or parallel places or the like or else by some clear divine testimony proper to convince us that they in particular are inspired such as real and undoubted Miracles This latter way is pretended to onely by the Papists and though the frauds they have been deprehended in sufficiently shew those amongst them that have raised the noise of their Miracles to be Impostors yet it is to be acknowledged that they pretend to offer a rational means of Conviction that their Church interprets the Scripture by an infallible Spirit which the men I am at present speaking of do not offer in the least As for the former way of convincing us by rational evidence from the Text it self it is that which we are
ready to submit to and then I desire Dr. Hammond's interpretation may be considered But if they neither use this way nor the other nor any like it it is an absurd thing to produce those testimonies of Scripture at all to convince us by them because upon these terms it is utterly impossible they should convince us till we have received that New Light which they themselves pretend to And this is all that I can hope to bring them to viz. to confess their own impertinency in offering any testimony of Scripture for the justifying of their pretence and that when all is done they have nothing to say but the Spirit tells them this is the true sence and meaning of Scripture without enabling them to make it appear to any body else And so we are to let them go either for errant Hypocrites or rank Enthusiasts whom the State hath reason to be jealous of lest they should have some dangerous design against the Government or be prompted to Sedition and Rebellion by the heats of their own fancies or the suggestions of the Devil which by an Enthusiast may be so easily mistaken for the Impulses of the Holy Ghost If last of all it should be said that although God hath not promised this Inspiration we are speaking of yet for ought we know he may do more than he hath promised and reveal the true sence of what passages in Scripture he pleaseth to whom he pleaseth I answer that as I am no way obliged to contradict this supposition so withal I must adde 1. That supposing a man to be thus inspired he cannot prove to another that he is so otherwise than by Miracles which if he doth not neither can he justly expect to convince another that the sence revealed to him is the true sence otherwise than by such rational means as he must have used if it had not been revealed and 2. That therefore if one man hath nothing to say in conclusion for his interpretation of a place of Scripture but that the Spirit led him to it and that to put any other sence upon it is the fruit of carnal reasoning and of the wisdom of the flesh and a signe of Vnregeneracy and the state of a natural man that hath not the Spirit of God which is always Dr. Owen's last refuge and another plainly shews either by the words themselves or by the designe of the discourse to which they belong or by some other way apt to convince a rational man that the foresaid meaning does not belong to them but one that is different from it In this case I say the former is convinced to pretend falsly to Inspiration and in plain English he must be a very Fool that will prefer his interpretation before the other And so much for that matter SECT 5. 2. The principal passages of Scripture which seem to imply Assurance to be a gift bestowed upon the regenerate by the Holy Spirit are two The first I shall mention is that of St. Paul to the Ephesians Grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption Eph. 4.30 Now by the Believers being sealed c. some have thought that a testimony of the Spirit whereby they are absolutely assured that they shall be saved must needs be meant But first the words are fairly capable of another meaning viz. that the gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon Believers were an evidence that God was now preparing them for the Kingdom of Heaven since upon their believing he had blest them with so many advantages in order thereunto and therefore that he had now a peculiar right to their obedience For this we know is one use of sealing to distinguish that which of right belongs to our selves from what is common Thus are all Believers marked out for God's portion and peculiar by the eminent advantages of the Gospel which he hath made them partakers of and therefore are they said to be sealed by the Holy Spirit because the Gospel is a divine Revelation and the ministration of the Gospel is the ministration of the Spirit Thus when it is said that God the Father hath sealed Christ John 6.27 the meaning is that by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him he owned him to be his Son that great Prophet who was to declare the will and pleasure of God to men In like manner God's giving his Holy Spirit to them that believe in Christ is as St. Chrisostome speaks excellently upon this place his marking them out to be a Royal Flock it is a token of their peculiar designation to the service and obedience of God and a pledge of that Inheritance 2 Cor. 1.22 they shall be rewarded with if they walk as becomes the Gospel But all this is very far from inferring an absolute assurance in them who are thus marked out for God's people that they shall infallibly persevere in that duty which belongs to their peculiar relation to God and the performance whereof is the condition of receiving the Inheritance And therefore such assurance cannot be proved to be spoken of in this place But 2. The words are not onely capable of that sence which I have offered but their coherence with the foregoing and following verses and the force and reason of St. Paul's Exhortation requires it Let him saith he that stole steal no more and let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth c. Let all bitterness and wrath c. be put away The Argument wherewith he enforceth these Exhortations is this that otherwise they would grieve the Holy Spirit by which they were sealed c. i. e. they would plainly contradict the end for which God had bestowed the gifts of the Spirit upon them who were thus marked out to be his Servants and Children This would be to grieve the Holy Spirit i. e. to bereave themselves of his gracious presence and to come in danger of being excluded for ever out of the Rest of God as it was with the Israelites in the Wilderness with whom God was grieved forty years and he swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest Heb. 3. And the note which the Apostle makes thereupon is this that we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end vers 14. i. e. if we hold on resolvedly and patiently in the course of a Christian life It is the like Argument which the Apostle useth more concisely to the Ephesians when he disswades them from impure and evil courses lest they grieve the Holy Spirit of God and by consequence never enter into that Rest God had designed for them But this consideration could have been of no force at all if they had been absolutely sure of their Inheritance as some from these words have pretended they were whereas it must be granted to be very prevailing on supposition that by sealing is here meant their being as it were
consecrated to a life of obedience by the Spirit of God which they were made partakers of for then they would finde little excuse and a greater punishment for their unchristian practices if being so greatly obliged they should prove unthankful and disobedient The second place is that of St. Paul to the Romans The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 But 1. This testimony of the Spirit is that publick Testimony which was given by the Spirit that true Christians are the Sons of God for it is said in the former Verse that they had received the spirit of Adoption which being opposed to the spirit of Bondage shews the Apostle's meaning to be this that the Christians were the Children of the promise and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Free-woman as he expresseth it Gal. 4.28 whereas the Jews those of them that were under the Law answered the condition of Ishmael who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of the Bond-woman to whom there was no promise of an Inheritance Now that none but true Christians were the Sons of God and Heirs of the promised Inheritance was that which was testified against the Jews by the Miracles and supernatural gifts of the Apostles and primitive Believers i. e. by the testimony of the Spirit And then this Text is very far from intending any immediate testimony of the Holy Ghost to our mindes that we are God's Children And yet 2. All that is here affirmed regards onely our present state that we are the Children of God which if we be it is certainly possible for us to be assured of it nay we cannot be ignorant of our spiritual condition without our own fault since we have so plain a rule to try our selves by as the Word of God By this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments Now our keeping of God's Commandments is that which our own spirit or Conscience must witness and then upon this condition the Revelations of the Gospel wherein to be sure is the witness of the Spirit witness to us that we are the children of God and if children then heirs c. All which may very well be without our believing that it is absolutely impossible for us to forfeit our Inheritance by any future miscarriage and therefore from this place it cannot be concluded that such assurance is given by the Holy Spirit SECT 6. 3. For the pretence of uttering the suggestions of the Spirit in Extemporary Prayers I know likewise but two places of Scripture commonly urged in favour of it The former is St. Paul's saying I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also 1 Cor. 14.15 Which I confess is a Text that I never heard produced for this pretence but by those that have nothing but mere zeal to defend their opinions withal I mean some of the people that follow Dr. Owen and his Brethren of the Separation I do not wonder that after they have been possest with a strong perswasion that the Spirit of God helps them to Words or Sence or both in their Prayers they conceit this Text to be a proof for their purpose for the words sound that way if a man believes what they do about Extemporary Prayers before-hand But I have often wondered that they who take upon them to be their Guides who pretend to learning and if they minded the Text at all can hardly be ignorant that the praying by the Spirit there meant was using the gift of Tongues in Prayer and the praying by the Vnderstanding was praying in a Language understood by the people that they I say should suffer their people to run away so long together with a belief that this Text gives them Authority to expect that the Spirit of God will take care they shall speak good sence in their Extemporary Prayers this is that which I cannot but admire I do not say they are all so dishonest but I have reason to think that many of them are and they cannot deny it I suppose unless they grant that we are acquainted with the talk of their Followers better than they themselves are But dismissing this place which is so very wide from the purpose which it is produced for I proceed to the second which indeed carries a more likely appearance and in the judgement of Dr. Owen contains a sufficient proof that the Spirit of God carries out the mindes of Believers in requests which for the matter of them are far above their natural contrivance and invention i. e. that when Believers venture to pray Extempore the Spirit of God prompts them as they go along to pray for such things as otherwise could never have come to their mindes For his words signifie thus much at least if not that the very knowledge of those things is communicated to them at that very instant before they pray for them and that by immediate Revelation The place is this 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 minde of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Rom. 8.26 27. I shall endeavour to shew the true meaning of these words and leave it to the Reader whether the foresaid opinion of the Doctor can be concluded from them His other thoughts of this matter I shall not pretend to confute because I do not so well comprehend what he means viz. when he tells us with respect to the subject of Prayer the sanctified Heart that by the Groans which cannot be uttered are meant that bent frame inclination and acting of the Inward man in prayer from the power of the Spirit which they themselves in whom they are wrought do not fathom nor reach the depth of unless he means that a man may desire the Graces of God with inexpressible vehemence and yet not understand that he does so If he intends this I need onely to tell him that because these groanings are unutterable it follows not that they are unintelligible If he intends it not I do not fathom nor reach the depth of his meaning Again when he tells us with respect to the object of Prayer that the mysterious things which Believers pray for are now made nigh now realized unto them I do not well know whether he means now at their Prayers or now at some other time before If when they are praying 't is somewhat hard to conceive that the Spirit represents the truth of those things in and by the Word as he saith if at some other time before then certainly the things themselves were represented before too and they knew they were to pray for these things and then it is above my apprehension how the matter of their Prayers should be far above
to all that shall hear that it will be possible for them to believe Which is so clear a consequence that the very mention of it would have been sufficient had not some men gotten a custom of imputing the want of Faith and indeed of all other Christian vertues to a defect on God's part as if he had not given them Grace enough to believe and repent c. The meaning of which Phrase and the like if it be this that the Grace of God hath not put it into their power to believe is so highly dishonourable to the divine Goodness that I have thought fit to shew wherein it is so and thereby to prove the untruth of it Finally this implicite promise of that Grace which is necessary to put them that hear the Gospel into the way of obtaining Salvation by it is not properly a part of the New Covenant such as the promises made to Believers and good men are because there is no condition annexed to it Thus that promise of God that he would send his Son into the world to be the Mediator between God and Man could be no part of that Covenant whereof Christ is the Mediator and which he was to seal with his Blood But it was an absolute promise of an act of Grace that was antecedent to the Covenant it self and which depended not upon any condition required by it The promise of a Saviour was indeed part of the Gospel or of the revelation of God's Will to Mankinde in order to our recovery and salvation but it cannot be affirmed to be a part of the Covenant between God and Man with any more propriety than it can be said that God's entring into Covenant with Man is an Article of the Covenant In like manner that Grace by which we are first put into a capacity of believing and consequently of obeying the Gospel after it is revealed is supposed in the Gospel otherwise the conditions of the Covenant were impossible which is to take away the very foundation of a Covenant of Grace such as that is whereof our Lord Jesus is the Mediator But although the promise of this Grace is implied in the Gospel yet 't is not properly any part of the Covenant because 't is a promise without condition SECT 4. 4. From what hath been already proved it may be inferred That the promises of special Grace are made to us all under possible conditions For since a Believer may by his prayers obtain that special Grace of God which is needful for sincere obedience since an obedient Christian may obtain that further Grace which is needful for perseverance seeing also that Grace which is necessary to a good beginning i. e. to excite good desires in us and to bring us to Faith is given absolutely to all that live under the means of Grace It follows plainly that the promises of special Grace are made to all such under possible conditions Wherefore we may conclude that God will give his Holy Spirit to all that live under the ministration of the Gospel that they may learn and believe and pray for his further Grace that to all who are thus qualified he will give his Spirit that they may overcome the World and obey the Gospel And that to all such sincere Christians he will give his Spirit that they may perfect holiness in the fear of God and persevere to the end which is a plain and satisfactory Answer to the second Question CHAP. VII Concerning the Manner and Measure of the Holy Spirit 's Operations SECT 1. THis Question may easily be multiplied into a great many more according as men are led by their curiosity That which has been still most debated under this Head is this How far or in what measure the Operations of the Holy Spirit upon our mindes conduce to those effects which are designed to be produced by them Now concerning this and all other Questions of this kinde I observe that the Scriptures are very silent in comparison to that clear and full account which they have given us of the former God having thought it sufficient for our encouragement in the search of Truth and the study of Godliness and Virtue to let us know assuredly that he will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him for necessary and profitable purposes without satisfying our curiosity about the manner of his Operations and the measure of their power Wherefore in treating upon this Subject a man should not venture to affirm many things or to conclude very particularly much less to obtrude his Opinions upon other men For in matters that are not knowable but onely by Revelation and concerning which there is but little revealed he that is most ready to affirm boldly and particularly is still most likely to miscarry and that if there were no other reason for it because it argues an immodest temper to define peremptorily in things which God hath reserved from our knowledge and this to be sure is none of those Qualifications which he hath promised to reward with the discovery of truth But yet I observe that some men have been as dogmatical and particular in determining the manner and measure of the Holy Spirit 's Operations as if their Conclusions were as clearly grounded upon Revelation as the plainest truth in the Gospel and have thrust them upon the world with more fierceness and zeal than would have become a much better Cause For an instance hereof we may take Dr. Owen's Book where he does not onely assert for himself and his Brethren that the efficiency as he calls it of the Holy Spirit on the mindes of men is irresistible and that Grace is always prevalent or effectual and cannot be resisted as to that end whereunto of God it is designed and much more to the same purpose but falls upon his Adversaries in this point with such insolent language and immodest reproaches that they could hardly deserve to be worse used by him if they had affirmed divine Grace was not necessary to Regeneration as resolutely as they maintain the contrary This is the Doctrine which he pretends to stand up for against the New Pelagians and a crew of Socinianized Arminians they are his own words as if to deny the personality of the Holy Ghost and the assistances of divine Grace and to contradict his opinion that the Holy Spirit does irresistibly produce the effects of Grace upon the mindes of men were the same thing But this you will less wonder at when you consider that he makes nothing to compare those that oppose his opinion to Cain and Ishmael For he saith The Enmity of Cain against Abel was but a branch of this proud inclination The instance of Ishmael in the Scripture is a representative of all such as under an outward profession of the true Religion do scoff at those who being as Isaac Children of the Promise do profess and evidence an interest in the internal power of it which they are
unquainted withal And by this he shews that the practice of despising his opinions concerning Grace has not been taken up of late Now I will not say how old the practice has been of making every quarrel a man is concerned in equal to the Cause of those godly men whose sufferings are mentioned in the Scripture but 't is well enough known that 't is at least as old as that Faction which our Author hath espoused and whether this be not one branch of a proud inclination let sober men judge It has been often observed of these men how dear They and their Opinions are to themselves and the Doctor has here given you a good ordinary instance of it For if he had not been bewitch'd with self-conceit he had never made this absurd parallel for what had Abel or Isaac to do with his Cause If he had onely called us the seed of Cain and Ishmael without saying why who would have thought the reason had been our questioning whether men are snatch'd into a state of Grace by an irresistible power And yet this is his great quarrel against us concerning the manner of Conversion which here he pretends to explain I know he does more than insinuate and that more than once that we disown the very assistances of the Holy Spirit as I shall convince you in a fitter place but this you are to look upon as an effect of his rage which makes him foam out Calumnies against us without any discretion for he knows well enough that his Adversaries are not guilty of it as I shall shew you too from his own words and then I shall desire him to consider whether the Father of Lyes be not the Representative of such shameless Writers as he is an example of As to what he saith that such a work of God upon men as he contends for is exposed to derision if upon that account he compares his Adversaries to scoffing Ishmael I think he does them great wrong For let him if he can name any of his opinion in this matter who has debated the point with any appearance of Modesty and Sobriety and was answered with the least shew of Contempt But as for those of whom Dr. Owen is one that instead of answering the Arguments of their Adversaries complain that they are laughed at and do themselves fall upon them with the foulest reproaches as upon the Enemies of Christ it may be sometimes good to take down their haughty spirits and to render their arrogance contemptible lest others be encouraged to hope that any Cause may be carried by vapouring In my opinion it is a difficult undertaking to define in particular what is the manner and measure of the Holy Spirit 's Operations because I think the Scriptures have not particularly acquainted us what it is Let others who have better considered the thing enjoy the liberty of thinking otherwise and for my own part I shall with all thankfulness submit to further instruction But as for Dr. Owen I hope to make it appear that the Scriptures do not favour his determination of the Question which I shall the rather endeavour because I conceive this opinion that the Spirit worketh upon our mindes in an irresistible manner especially as he hath advanced it to be of dangerous consequence to the Souls of men In the mean time I shall lay down some Propositions the truth of which will I think be easily granted by all sober Christians from whence we may in general conclude what is the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations and the measure of their power not that I think even this were needful if our Author and those of his way had not fallen into a dangerous Mistake by venturing too far For that which has been already said seems to me to afford a sufficient foundation of Godliness and Comfort if all be not subverted again by their opinion of the Manner wherein we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit Now I think it will appear that those general Propositions wherein they agree with us concerning the Manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations on our mindes are inconsistent with their particular definition of it And the first of them is this That 1. Faith and Repentance or Conversion to God together with Perseverance in Holiness are truely and properly the effects of God's Word revealed to us in the Doctrines of the Gospel Wherefore such is the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operation in producing these Qualifications in our mindes that it hinders them not from being the Genuine effects of the Revelation of the Gospel but they ought still to be ascribed to that force and efficacy of those divine Truths which are contained in it whereby the Gospel is in it self a fit and proper means of working the Grace of God in the mindâ— of men Now it is very plain that the proper and natural power of the Gospel to produce these effects consists in the evidence of its Truth in the authority and excellency of its Laws and in the weightiness of its Promises and Threatnings and other motives to obedience Wherefore if Conversion be the proper effect of God's Word it follows that the Holy Spirit does 1. Onely co-operate to the producing of that effect and 2. In that manner as it may truely be affirmed to be an effect of those considerations which are propounded to us in the Gospel The truth of the Supposition is manifest from divers places of Scripture As for Faith St. Paul plainly tells us it comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10.17 Thus upon the conversion of many Unbelievers it is said that the Word of God grew mightily and prevailed Acts 19.20 i. e. the testimonies which God gave to the truth of the Gospel convinced many that were in all appearance most likely to oppose it Hence St. Paul tells the Corinthians that in Christ Jesus he had begotten them through the Gospel i. e. by the preaching of the Gospel he had first brought them over to the faith of Christ. Furthermore our obedience is by St. Peter ascribed to the power of God's Word where he saith that we have great and precious promises given to us that by These we might be partakers of the divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1.4 To the same purpose the Word of God is said to work effectually in those that believed 1 Thess. 2.13 i. e. by the force of those promises mentioned by St. Peter and other weighty considerations moving to holiness Finally our Regeneration is expresly ascribed to the Word of God for we are said to be born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 and our Spiritual improvement is attributed not long after to the same cause As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 Thus the increase of
purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more i. e. God would afford them the means and opportunities of Conversion no longer because they had already obstructed the efficacy of them so long together And then by his purging Hierusalem it is plain nothing can be meant but his doing all that was proper for him to do in order to that end and which would certainly have accomplished it had they complied as they might with his gracious methods Thus also the goodness of God is said to lead them to Repentance who are not actually led by it being such as after their hardness and impenitent hearts treasure up wrath unto themselves against the day of wrath Rom. 2.4 5. The meaning is plainly this that the forbearance and Grace of God is a most sufficient means of bringing those to repentance who do not onely neglect what they ought to do in compliance with the goodness of God but harden their Hearts against it Thus we see the holy Scripture does ascribe unto God the honour of what he does toward the conversion of those Sinners that continue in impenitence by saying that he has converted and healed them even while they are yet in their sins hereby intimating to us that it was not through any defect of Grace on his part but onely through their own failing to excite such endeavours as they might have done that they were not actually reformed Now in like manner and according to the usual stile of the Scripture God may be said to Work even in those men to Will and to Do who are still unwilling and disobedient and therefore that Phrase does not necessarily import that God does more than excite and stir up our Wills by his Grace or that he does not leave it possible for us to obstruct the efficacy of his Operations For we see the Scripture supposes God's administring of those gracious Helps which are abundantly sufficient to make us true Converts to be ground enough for saying that he hath converted us Wherefore if the Words themselves are capable of such a meaning if the scope also and designe of the place does necessarily require such a meaning I know not what can be required more to prove this to be the true meaning of them viz. that God worketh in us to Will and to Do in that manner that if our own care and diligence be wanting we may neither will nor do but continue in our sins and perish everlastingly Further whereas God is said to give Repentance and a new Heart it is from hence plain that the meaning of such places is not this that he does all himself and leaves nothing for us to do that we may be converted because he commands us often to do those things which he is yet said to do for us Thus as it is said in Ezek. 36.26 A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and cause you to walk in my statutes which words considered by themselves run as if God had absolutely undertaken to do this for his People and they needed not now to trouble themselves with doing any thing towards it So by the same Prophet God requires them to Cast away from them all their transgressions to make themselves a new heart and a new spirit for saith he why will ye die O house of Israel Ezek. 18.31 From whence it is plain that notwithstanding God's promise of giving them a new Heart it was necessary for them to Renew their own Hearts And what can this signifie but that the Promise is not absolute but supposeth the concurrence of our own endeavours and consequently that it was given to encourage them but not to make them needless And this will be more evident to you if you consider that what the Lord promised to do in this kinde for his People was not done for some of them as you may see in Ezek. 11.19 20 21. I will put a new spirit into them and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh That they may walk in my statutes c. But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations I will recompence their way upon their own heads saith the Lord God From whence the needfulness of their own care to walk in God's Statutes is most evident for if no such condition had been implied in the Promise none of them could have walked after their Abominations Finally Since the Holy Spirit is not onely promised to work in us all needful Qualifications for eternal Life but we are also Commanded Exhorted Entreated and that most Seriously Affectionately and Frequently to Repent and be Converted and to persevere in Holiness and all this with promises of an eternal Reward if we do and with threatnings of everlasting Punishment if we do not it follows that the Spirit is not promised to work his Graces in our Hearts in such a manner as to make our own endeavours unnecessary to the attainment of them For this were to make all those Commands and Exhortations of God's Word a solemn piece of Pageantry and to say that God hath required us under the greatest penalties and with the most alluring promises to obtain those Qualifications which will be thrust upon us though we do nothing to obtain them Wherefore I conclude that the Holy Spirit worketh no otherwise in the mindes of men than to leave them under as great an obligation to be diligent in the use of all proper means for their recovery and perseverance as if they had not the benefit of any such divine Operation but were left if it had been possible for them to do all themselves SECT 4. 4. It may be added that the Operations of the Holy Spirit upon the mindes of men are suited or proportioned to their present spiritual state He does not produce those effects in us all at once which the Scripture ascribes to divine Grace but in such an Order and by those Degrees that suit with our capacities and qualifications This is partly evident 1. From what hath been already said concerning the communications of special Grace the promises whereof are made onely to Believers and good men the Holy Spirit doth not form his other graces in us till he hath wrought an hearty belief of the Gospel in our Souls Nor does he dwell in them till they are purged from the love of sin and this world And since there are various degrees of holiness according to which good men differ from each other since also our Saviour hath told us that to him that hath more shall be given we may conclude that the communications of the Holy Spirit are not made in equal measures to all good men neither but according as their mindes are more or less raised towards the heavenly state And that the more perfect Christian enjoys a more plentiful influence of Grace from above and is
more sensibly affected with those joys of the Holy Ghost which increase the love of Virtue and confirm him in every divine disposition 2. This is further evident from those passages in Holy Writ where we are required to grow in grace to abound in the work of the Lord and to go on to perfection For these places and the like do strongly imply that we cannot on a sudden arrive to any degree of goodness which we fall greatly short of at present much less that we can presently be filled with the fulness of God Wherefore it plainly follows that the Holy Spirit does not affect our mindes when we begin the Christian life in the same manner and measure that he moveth us in after we have made some progress in it or shall arrive to such an eminent degree of Christianity as may answer that expression of being filled with the fulness of God For if it were thus then we might become Men in Christ assoon as we are Babes and come to the fulness of our stature without growing and going on to perfection It is further observable that the Word of God is affirmed to be the means of our increasing in holiness we must desire the sincere Milk of the Word that we may grow thereby as St. Peter tells us and in Col. 1.9 St. Paul instructs us that the way whereby the Spirit maketh us to walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good work is by filling us with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding From whence I observe that our improvement in holiness is greater or lesser according as we consider and meditate upon divine Truths viz. for this end of governing our lives by them which is to know them in Wisdom and spiritual Vnderstanding Now since the effects of the Holy Spirit 's Operation in our mindes are as I have shewn the genuine and proper effects of the Word of God seriously considered and laid to heart it follows that the Holy Spirit worketh in us according to that measure wherein divine Truths are considered by us Therefore since our fruitfulness depends upon our increasing in the knowledge of God or that spiritual Vnderstanding which the Apostle speaks of the Holy Spirit who worketh in us by the Word of God does not make us capable of arriving to that state of walking before the Lord in all well-pleasing all at once but by degrees viz. as we increase in the knowledge of God by daily Meditation Lastly since by the experience we have of Humane Nature we see that customes are not easily and presently put off and that matters of difficulty cannot be made familiar to us but by use and practice more particularly that they who are accustomed to do evil cannot of a sudden learn to do well that ill habits are not wasted but by degrees that the difficulties of a Religious life press most upon us when we first enter upon it and that they wear away insensibly by continuance in well-doing likewise that vertue is improved by exercise and that the Path of the just as the Wise man speaks is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day I say this being considered we must needs acknowledge that the Holy Spirit does not produce the effects of his Grace in the mindes of men all at once but that he accommodates his Operations to the state in which they are at present prompting them to that amendment which the measure of their capacity will admit And this I take to be a Consequence also of what the Doctor so fully grants viz. that the Spirit acts the mindes of men onely as they are meet to be acted according to their own Nature Power and Ability and according to their natural Operations For if we may trust the constant experience of Mankinde both of the good and the bad although an evil habit is sooner contracted than a good one yet none is gained without some use and exercise and ordinarily it cannot be otherwise Now if the Spirit moves us no otherwise than according to the Nature Power and Ability of our mindes we must not think that by his Grace we may leap out of a wicked course of life in a moment into the habits of Piety and Virtue but that he is in that manner present with us as to enable us to make a good beginning and if we do so that by his more abundant Grace we may proceed and so by degrees come to a divine temper of minde and to walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing There is no doubt but God if he pleaseth can in an instant change the most vicious man into a Saint but we have no more reason to think that he will do so than that he should work new Miracles to convert us But we have great reason to perswade us that he will not do so for if we may judge of the Manner and Measure of the Holy Spirit 's Operations by the promises of special Grace which belong onely to qualified and prepared persons or by the Commands of the Scripture to grow in Grace and in the knowledge of Christ or by the general experience of Humane Nature we may conclude that an habitual Sinner cannot become a good man in an instant He must first learn to be afraid of God's angry Justice he must be heartily sorry for his sins he must deeply consider the promises of the Gospel he must avoid the occasions of sin and fortifie himself with vehement resolutions to forsake his wicked course and he must make many earnest prayers before he can subdue his Lusts and overcome the world and yield a sincere obedience to all the Commands of God And by consequence he cannot expect that the Operations of the Holy Spirit should make him a holy man but by the former means and therefore by degrees This Consideration ought not to have been omitted because it may be of great use to two very different sorts of men 1. To those who have been long accustomed to a sinful course of life and think it impossible to recover themselves although they have the opportunities of amendment before them For it happens sometimes that such men wish they had taken an early care to live in the fear of God and the practice of Religion and Virtue but they believe it is now in vain to strive against those fatal habits which are so deeply rooted in their mindes and so they abandon themselves to carelessness and desperation The reason whereof is commonly this that when they attempted their own reformation and had purposed to lead a new life they soon found themselves surprized again by their former temptations and carried away as strongly by their sensual appetites as ever they were before which makes them conclude it is to no purpose to take any more pains with themselves as if because their freedom from the servitude of sin could not be effected in a
Diligence in using the external means of Grace His Operations in us make us capable of recovering our selves by degrees and all the while there is no sensible difference between them and the natural Operations of our mindes and yet we are sure that we have his Assistance and Help in all the good we do and without it can do nothing at all to saving purposes To affirm more particularly what is the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations in us I dare not unless I had warrant which I think I have not from the holy Scripture so to do And if this be all which the Scripture lets us know concerning it we have good reason to think that no more is needful to be known by us SECT 7. Thus I have throgh the blessing of God finished the First Part of my Undertaking and given you a plain account of that which I believe to be the true sence of the Holy Scriptures concerning those Operations of the Holy Spirit which are promised in the Gospel to all Ages of the Church I do not know that I have swerved in the least from the sence of the antient Church in any thing I have said upon this subject and I am the more perswaded that I have not done so being very confident that I have not at all departed from the Doctrine of the Church of England in this matter the judgement whereof I am prepared to leave to my Superiors I had observed that some late Writers especially have represented the Grace of the Holy Ghost under such notions as are either intricate and unintelligible or inconsistent with the great ends of Religion and of fatal consequence to the Souls of men Those of them that cannot be understood serving onely to the multiplying of idle Questions and frivolous Disputes and those that are ministring either to unreasonable Presumption or incurable Despair Therefore when the Streams were so muddy and impure I thought it was the best way to go to that Fountain of Truth the holy Word of God and to guide all my thoughts of this matter by what I could discern there And truely I found that although the Doctrine of Grace as it has been tampered withal by men that serve a Cause and as it has been debased by humane mixtures and inventions is at best a subject of unprofitable talk yet as it is represented in the holy Scriptures it is clear and plain to the understanding and likewise a most powerful motive to Godliness How nearly I have kept to the sence of Holy Writ I must leave you to judge As for the Reader who is yet in any thing otherwise perswaded than I am if he has used diligence and sincerity in examining as I know my self to have done in considering all I have written where we do not agree I hope God will pardon the errour on which side soever it lies I think it cannot be denied that I have in some measure expressed my meaning plainly easily naturally which a man needs not be ashamed to do who believes that he speaks the truth I have neither pretended to explain things that are not intelligible nor made any thing difficult to understand by affecting obscurity of expression As for the profitableness of this Discourse it cannot be better judged of than by that which should be the end of all Writings of this nature viz. the promoting of true Godliness And certainly if the true Doctrine of the Operations of the Holy Spirit be that which I have here offered to your consideration it does apparently render all wicked men inexcusable that live under the Gospel and makes highly for the encouragement of Religion This will appear by surveying the three General Heads of this Discourse for by so doing it may easily be shewn that there is nothing wanting to make the promise of the Holy Spirit as it has been explained the most powerful motive to the study of godliness and virtue that it can be supposed to be For 1. There is nothing wanting in respect of the end of this promise and of those effects for the producing of which in us the Operations of the Holy Spirit are promised For they are all Christian virtues whatsoever all sorts of qualifications that are needful to our eternal happiness And therefore we need not doubt to strive against that sin which does most easily beset us nor sit down in despair of obtaining that Grace or Virtue which is most contrary to our corrupt affections and customs for if God will give the Holy Spirit for all needful purposes he will bestow a more plentiful measure of his Grace for the subduing of that sin and the gaining of that virtue because here his assistance is most needful and he that hath promised his Spirit to answer all our needs will not deny us when we ask him to supply the greatest of all 2. There is nothing wanting in the promise of the Holy Spirit to make it such a motive in respect of those to whom the promise is made because it is made to every one that believes the Gospel to every one I say under a possible condition so that none of us can have any reason to fear that we are shut out of the Promise for I have shewn you it lies open to all and we cannot lose the benefit of it but by excluding our selves Besides the condition of obtaining special Grace from God being that of importunate asking we are hereby moved to earnest and frequent Prayers which you know is one branch of pious endeavour And then the condition of more plentiful Communications of the divine Spirit being a careful improvement of those measures of Grace which we have now obtained this also is a plain and powerful motive to every Christian that has proceeded more or less in the way of Salvation to be as fruitful as he can in every good work and to follow after holiness looking diligently lest he fail of the Grace of God 3. There is nothing wanting in this promise to make it a strong motive to the study of godliness if we consider the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations in us which as you have heard will not be effectual without our own Consideration and Care and Watchfulness because God hath promised his Spirit to assist our Endeavours but not to make us good men without them and our recovery still depends as much upon our diligence in the event as if it depended upon nothing else Wherefore in all respects the promise of the Holy Spirit as it is expressed in the Scriptures is a most prevalent motive to the study of Piety and Virtue And since it was my designe from the first to recover it to this use out of the hands of those men that had made it good for nothing I could not conclude better than with shewing you plainly wherein the force of this Promise lies to make us all careful to Work out our own Salvation O God forasmuch as without thee we are