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
A DISCOURSE Concerning The OPERATIONS OF The HOLY SPIRIT TOGETHER WITH A Confutation of some part of Dr. OWEN'S Book Upon that Subject Imprimatur May 4th 1677. Guil. Jane R.P.D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã sacris domest LONDON Printed by J. C. for Hen. Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1678. THE PREFACE AMongst other things which are usually aimed at in a Preface one is to invite the Reader to the Book The Author of this Book does not think it worthy of every man's perusal into whose hands it may chance to come and therefore does not commend it to All. It was written principally for their sake who have been made to believe that the Ministers of the Church of England have departed from the Scriptures in their Doctrine concerning the Operations and Grace of the Holy Spirit which is one of those prejudices that have been instill'd into the dissenting party by their Leaders to confirm them in their Separation The Author thinks he has made it plain that they do not onely accuse us very wrongfully but that they themselves are guilty of that Crime which they lay to our charge And he hopes their Followers cannot think it an unreasonable request that they would impartially consider what is said on both sides and judge accordingly But if he should be mistaken in that he has this satisfaction however that he has done his Part by giving them a fair occasion so to do If some of them should be inclined by the weightiness of the subject to read the Discourse and yet be tempted on the other hand to throw it aside merely because it pretends to be a Confutation of some of Dr. Owen's Principles Dr. Owen himself will help to cure them of so unreasonable a prejudice For he has told you long since in a Book of his called The duty of Pastors and People distinguished that you are not to take any Doctrine of Religion on the credit of his Authority Alas says he you are in a miserable condition if you have all this while relied upon the Authority of men in Heavenly things He that builds his Faith upon Preachers though they preach nothing but truth and he pretend to believe it hath indeed no Faith at all but a wavering opinion built upon a rotten Foundation Now you know the Authority of the Doctor is no more than the Authority of a Man and therefore you have his own word for it that to build your Faith upon his Authority is to build it upon a rotten Foundation Whether you have so done all this while I cannot say but if you have he tells you that you are in a miserable condition And if you have not you will easily be perswaded to take this opportunity now offered to you of examining his Doctrine by the Word of God to which the Author does appeal as heartily as the Doctor himself can do I confess I am not altogether of his minde in the fore-mentioned passage for it seems to imply that all men are in a state of Damnation who rely upon the honesty and wisdom of their Spiritual Guides in matters of Faith But I doubt there are some persons incapable of inquiring much further and I hope some of these do so firmly believe the truth upon the testimony of God's Ministers as to live according to it which if they do God forbid that I should say they are in a damnable condition But you see in what strict terms the Doctor admonishes every one of you not to rely upon the Authority of men but to examine their Doctrines by the Word of God Possibly he means no more than that this is a duty to be discharged by all Christians according to the measure of those Means Abilities and Opportunities which God has been pleased to give them and this surely is a great truth But then I desire you to consider that every one of you are more concerned to look to it that you omit not this duty than many other Christians are and that for this reason because you have withdrawn your selves from the communion of the Lawful Guides of this Church to follow those that take upon them to lead you without any known Authority by which they do so For if you follow these your Leaders into errour it will be no excuse for you to say they led you into errour because you set them up to your selves against the will of your rightful Superiours both in Church and State Whereas if the Christians of our Communion should be led into some great mistake as I am perswaded they are not by relying upon the Authority and Wisdom of their Pastors though it would not totally excuse them yet it would be some mitigation of their fault that they were misled by those Guides and Ministers which God had set over them The Doctor himself tells you in that Book that the people are bound to hear those who possess the place of teaching in the Church And that if the Law accounts onely such Assemblies to be Conventicles where the Assemblers contemn and despise the service of God in publick he had not spoken one word in favour of them You do not wonder I suppose at these passages for you know this Book was written by him above thirty years since when he was a Presbyterian as he there solemnly declares himself to be and engaged by the Interest of his Party to contend for some Church-decency and Order as he there does after his manner Indeed since that time he turned Independant But however you have no reason to conclude from thence that he has changed his minde in that other point also of the peoples being bound to examine by the Word of God the Doctrines of those Teachers whom they are bound to hear or that he believes that all that is said in Conventicles or written by those Assemblers that despise the service of God in publick may be taken upon trust No though he has chang'd his party he may still be of this minde that unless Ministers as he tells you will answer for all those souls they shall mislead and excuse them before God at the day of Tryal they ought not to debar them from trying their Doctrine Now this they cannot do for if the blinde lead the blinde both shall fall into the pit of destruction Now unless he excepts himself from a possibility of misleading you thus far I would not desire a fairer Adversary and if you think he ought not to except himself I cannot wish more equal Judges than your selves Sure I am the Doctor must either explain himself further or he must not debar you from trying his Doctrine and enquiring whether he himself be not a blinde Guide whom you may follow into the Pit of destruction For what he saith in general may be applied to him in particular that if he should mislead you he cannot excuse you before God at the day of Tryal Now the truth is although he
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
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
thereunto For my part I do not think that Pride and Petulancy qualifie men either to maintain Arguments or to answer them the Doctor seems to be of the opinion that they do and much good may his advantage do him But this I see that Pride and Petulancy are good helps towards the writing of a Great Book For if this man had spar'd himself the pains of charging his Adversaries with Pelagianism Ignorance Impudence and ill Manners and his frequent Tautologies into the bargain the bulk of his Book had been taken down so considerably that the smalness of the Volume would have carried an even proportion to the truth and the profitableness of his Discourse And how much of that is to be allowed to him I will leave the indifferent Reader to judge SECT II. MY designe as I have said is to treat of the operations of the Holy Spirit but before I enter upon this work it will be necessary to remove one prejudice which the Doctor hath laid in every man's way that shall pretend to write against him concerning this or any other Divine Subject And that is that no man's reasonings about spiritual things are to be heeded till his minde be illuminated by an almighty work of the Holy Ghost i. e. till he be regenerated This is the clear consequence of his affirming that without such illumination a man cannot understand spiritual things spiritually i. e. as they ought to be understood For if he himself cannot understand them spiritually neither can he explain them spiritually to others and then let him say what he will he is not fit to be regarded And there is a very great advantage he makes by this pretence for when he is not able to answer the objections that lie against him he despiseth them under the name of carnal Reasonings and when he hath run himself upon manifest absurdities he comes off with pretending that they are mysteries not to be understood without the illumination of the Spirit and therefore Natural men understand them not because they are not enlightened 'T is true he makes use of Scripture very often and he makes a shew of reasoning also i. e. of propounding difficulties and giving their solutions and the like but then if you make it never so plain that he argues weakly and that he alledges Scripture impertinently this will not serve your turn for you must know that you have not yet received that new saving Light he speaks of which can onely make you to understand spiritual things spiritually for without the addition of this new Light which onely the regenerate have the use of Reason and Scripture is utterly insufficient to give you a spiritual understanding of them so that you can neither be convinced that another understands them spiritually till security be given you that he is a regenerate man nor when you are certain of that is he able to make you understand them so till you are regenerated your self Now if this be true then I have a very strange task for then I cannot confute Dr. Owen till I can prove him to be an unregenerate man nor can I convince any man that what I am to say is true till I have proved the truth of mine own Conversion both which Arguments I take to be very improper for a Book for though I should argue from Principles common either to all Christians or to all men with never such appearance of Reason it might yet be replied that all this is but carnal reasoning which the Doctor and his sanctified Friends discover to be no better by that illumination which because I have not I cannot understand spiritual Mysteries spiritually But for this reason you will say our Author ought consonantly to his Principles to have proved himself a regenerate man before he could reasonably expect that we should surrender our belief to his discourses of Spiritual Mysteries You must know therefore that he hath done something towards it in divers places of his Book for he supposes that whoever understands Gospel-mysteries in that spiritual manner wherein he hath explain'd them is thereby proved one that hath received the special illumination of the Holy Ghost and consequently regenerate So that if you ask how a man is qualified to understand and teach spiritual things spiritually you are told by the especial illumination of the Holy Ghost But if you would then be satisfied that the Doctor suppose is thus illuminated you must know it cannot be otherwise because he understands and teaches Spiritual things spiritually which I take to be a shameful Circle Now whether I have injured the Doctor in any thing that I have hitherto charged him with let the Reader judge by a few of many passages to that purpose which lie up and down in his Book He saith that without an effectual powerful work of the Holy Spirit creating and by his Almighty power inducing a new saving Light into the mindes of men they are not able to discern receive understand or believe savingly spiritual Truths or the Mysteries of the Gospel And again such is the darkness of their unregenerate mindes that they are powerfully and as unto any light of their own i. e. till the Almighty creating work is done invincibly kept off from receiving spiritual things in a spiritual manner Now I shall shew by two or three instances that the Doctor makes his way of understanding spiritual things to be a mark of Regeneration and an Argument that the irresistible work hath been upon a man's minde When he undertakes to shew why God doth require Holiness and Righteousness of us and affirms that he doth not require it in order to our Justification he tell us carnal Reason cannot discern of what use it should be if it serve not to this purpose or one of those which he there rejects Now that Holiness is necessary is one of the spiritual things of the Gospel and this carnal Reason may understand but if you understand this Doctrine spiritually you must understand that it is not necessary to the purpose of Justification and this forsooth carnal Reason cannot discern But what follows makes it plainer yet But the first saving Light that shines by the Gospel from Jesus Christ into our Hearts begins to undeceive us in this matter So that he who believes that God hath required Holiness of us as an indispensible condition of our being justified hath had no saving Light shining into his Heart by Jesus Christ for he hath not had the first of all and this clearly shews how the Doctor makes the rejecting of his Notions to be a mark of an unregenerate man He saith further And there is no greater evidence of our receiving an Evangelical Baptism or of being baptized into the spirit of the Gospel than the clear compliance of our Mindes with the Wisdom of God herein This is full and home to the purpose for you see that on the other hand to discard the necessity of Holiness under that
consideration is a clear compliance with the Wisdom of God and a mark of Regeneration I take this to be a competent instance of the Doctor 's proving himself to be regenerated by his spiritual understanding of things but how he came to understand them so spiritually you heard before viz. by an Almighty Power which induced a new saving Light into his minde for I suppose he has not a way by himself of arriving at this Felicity This now is very plain That if you spiritually understand the necessity of Holiness you must not understand it to be necessary to Justification But if you ask the Doctor why you cannot understand it as he doth his Answer is Because you are not enlightned and regenerated by the irresistible Work for where this work is not that spiritual thing cannot be so understood and where it is 't is impossible but it should be so understood Now then if you ask how the Doctor proves himself to be a regenerate man he proves it clearly by his understanding the necessity of Holiness in that spiritual manner wherein he understands it And at this rate I think a man may prove any thing Thus the Doctor tells us how the purifying vertue of the blood of Christ is applied to us by Faith but in so mystical a manner that he is forced to confess it himself and therefore says he when you understand these things you will not think it so strange that God should appoint this way of believing onely as the means to interest us in the purifying vertue of the Blood of Christ. For the truth is before he had done with that point he had made it so unintelligible that he had nothing to keep up his Readers in heart withal but by promising them that when they understood those things they would not think them strange i. e. when that new saving Light is once darted into their mindes by which the Doctor discerns spiritual Mysteries In the mean time he cautions them against those that pretend the believing he speaks of to be no more than a work of the fancy in these words Despise their ignorance for they know not what they say when men come to the real practice of this Duty the practise of believing that the Blood of Christ without any more ado will cleanse them from their Sins they will finde what it is to discard all other ways and pretences of cleansing viz. a sincere reformation of Heart and Life what it is to give unto God against all difficulties and oppositions i. e. though it be never so absurd to imagine this makes for the Glory of God the glory of his Attributes in finding out this way for us Again after he had given such a description of Gospel-holiness as any one would be asham'd to own that pretends to an intelligible Religion he hopes to make up all with saying The thing it self as hath been declared is deep and mysterious not to be understood without the aid of spiritual Light in our mindes So that if you do not understand what the Doctor says the reason is plain because you have not the Spirit and at this rate any man may write Nonsense safely enough and put it off for a Gospel-mystery when he has done For the thing may be understood though you do not understand it for it may be understood by the aid of spiritual Light And if you understand it not 't is because you rely upon carnal Reason and have not the Light of the Spirit For thus the Doctor tells us The reason why men have other notions of holiness than he has is their ignorance and hatred of the onely true real principle of Evangelical holiness which we have described for what the world knoweth not in these things it always hateth and they cannot discern it clearly or in its own light and evidence for it must be spiritually discerned This the Natural man cannot do 1 Cor. 2.14 and in that false light of corrupted reason wherein they discern and judge it they esteem it foolishness and fancy So that 't is to no purpose what the Natural man a man that useth the best means he can to finde out the meaning of the Scriptures says in these matters till that new Light be created in his minde by the help whereof this Author as it should seem talks of sublime Mysteries which we use to call Nonsense and yet are blamed for it though he confesses 't is impossible that we should do otherwise Now the Doctor is as safe as may be if he can thus make his Reader believe that to understand the Doctrines of the Gospel spiritually is to understand them according to his apprehensions of them and that to contradict him is an infallible signe of one that wants the special illumination of the Holy Ghost For upon these terms whoever goes about to write against him must do it at the peril of being reckoned an unregenerate man and then the Doctor is secure for we have often seen as it is said by him that such a man because he wants special illumination cannot understand the Mysteries of the Gospel spiritually and then he cannot discourse of them spiritually and then I think he may as well hold his tongue for any good he is likely to do with his carnal Reason And this is that prejudice which I am in danger of lying under with the Doctor 's party while I treat concerning the assistance of the Holy Spirit for he uses the same artifice to support his notions in this matter Thus he tells us A Command they suppose leaves no room for a Promise at least such a Promise as wherein God should take upon himself to work in us what the Command requires of us and a Promise they think takes off all the influencing authority of the Command If Holiness be our duty there is no room for Grace in this matter and if it be an effect of Grace there is no place for Duty But all these arguings are a fruit of the wisdom of the flesh Now as I shall shew hereafter in these words he belies those whom he writes against for they suppose no such matter as he talks of But the Doctor as we shall see doth in other places mean by Grace an irresistible force upon the mindes of men though he conceals it here dishonestly to slander his Adversaries Now that such a Grace is inconsistent with the commands of God in Scripture may be so evidently argued that he hath nothing to say against it but to call such arguing a fruit of the wisdom of the flesh which is his perpetual refuge But to be short he expresly tells us The whole work of the Spirit is rationally to be accounted for by and unto them who believe the Scriptures that I like very well and have received the spirit of Truth but there we are all spoil'd again for we know what he means by having received the spirit of Truth viz. being
illuminated by an almighty work of the Spirit so that none but the Doctor and his enlightned ones can possibly either give or receive a rational account of the workings of the Spirit and then if we reject his talk 't is because we want that spiritual Power without which the minde cannot receive it If you ask yet further what this spiritual Power is he gives you an admirable description of it The spiritual power of the Minde consists in a spiritual light and ability to discern spiritual things in a spiritual manner So that spiritual Light is spiritual Power and spiritual Power is spiritual Light This men in the state of Nature are utterly void of but any one that is truely sanctified hath light enough to understand the spiritual things of the Gospel in a spiritual manner for we have received the Spirit of God that we may know the things that are freely given us of God What others may think of this I know not but methinks it would grieve any Christian heart to observe the Gospel of our Saviour that Divine means of making men truely wise and good thus debased and dishonoured by such a senseless use of Scripture-phrases as this man makes of them who writes himself D. D. For that which sets off all this wilde and confused talk of his which is enough to puzzle any man at the first blush is his perverting the true use of these Phrases viz. the Natural man and the state of Grace spiritual things and discerning them spiritually with which he rings the changes so often in his Book leaving a noise of the words in the fancies of his Readers instead of the true i. e. the Scriptural notion belonging to them imprinted on their Mindes That I may therefore reconcile the Reader to an opinion that I may possibly write of the operation of the Holy Spirit with more truth than this man hath done I shall prepare my way by enquiring into the sense of this Text of St. Paul The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned For it is chiefly upon this place as far as I can understand that the Doctor builds his confidence that we cannot spiritually discern Spiritual things and as by expounding thereof the use of those Phrases and such as are equivalent to them will be understood so the understanding of them will be conducible also to the main designe of this Book I shall first examine the Doctor 's interpretation of this place of Scripture and then offer that sense of it which I take to be truer than his Before I attempt either of which things I must beg his pardon if I do not think it fit to follow him as oft as he is pleased to leave the Argument and fall a railing against those that have other thoughts of the Text than he has especially where he spends almost two whole Pages upon nothing else charging his Adversaries with the want of those Vertues particularly enumerated by him which they greatly praise and extol and accusing them of Pride Ambition Covetousness Vanity and Profaneness and I know not how many Vices more Now what is all this and a great deal more of the like stuff which he hath swelled his Discourse withal to the explanation of St. Paul's Text which he was endeavouring Suppose I had a minde to retaliate having so large a Subject as Dr. Owen's Pranks from the year 1648 to this present time to expatiate upon what goodly work were here for the Reader Therefore all I shall say to this matter is that whereas his lewd and notorious practices against the Church and State have been exposed in Print and these charged upon him not from Tales pickt up in the Streets and at Gossiping-meetings but from his own publick Actions and Writings He hath no way to be revenged upon the Gentleman that hath done him this kindeness but by letting fly upon his whole Order with all sorts of Calumnies and Reproaches though 't is very likely he is not able to fasten his Accusations upon any one of those whom he thus bespatters since his plentiful Rage against them might satisfie any man that his Will was not wanting Wherefore it being to as little purpose to attempt the confutation of such loose and general Calumnies as it had been to have answered the Doctor if he could have satisfied his implacable malice with being at a word and calling us once for all Rogues and Villains I shall leave him in the quiet possession of his Talent at Lying and Defamation and shall now onely try whether his Reasonings be as unanswerable as his Railings SECT III. I Often finde it very difficult to fasten any meaning upon so slippery a Writer as this but to my best understanding he thus explains the phrases of the Text. 1. By the Natural man he means one that hath the use of all his rational faculties or every one that is so and that is no more than so that is every one who is not a spiritual man is not one who hath received the spirit of Christ one that hath the spirit of a man enabling him to know things Natural Civil or Political but not the Spirit of Christ to know things Spiritual So that the Natural man is one who is not a Spiritual man but a Natural man onely as the Spiritual man is one who is not onely a Natural man or thus the Natural man concerning whom the Apostle saith that he cannot know the things of the Spirit of God is one who hath not the Spirit and cannot know the things of the Spirit of God And if the Doctor had rested in this Explication I think he had been safe enough for ever being confuted But he hath a further meaning which discovers not it self till we come towards the end of his Comment For he tells us the reason why the Natural man hath no ability to discern spiritual things is because the Light it self whereby alone spiritual things can be spiritually discerned is created in us by an Almighty Act of the Power of God so that at last this is his notion of a Natural man which agrees with the rest of his Book that he is one in whose minde spiritual Light is not created by the Almighty Power of God 2. By the things of the Spirit of God he understands the mysteries of the Gospel which depend wholly on supernatural Revelation and I think this is the onely Phrase he understands right If he means honestly by supernatural Revelation viz. that Revelation which was communicated to the World by Christ and his Apostles and not any particular Revelation made to himself and his Party by an irresistible work of the Spirit upon their mindes But such a custom he has gotten to confound every thing that within two Pages he understands by it all the Commands of God whatsoever for through
two whole Sections he discourses concerning the impotency of Man to perform the Commands of God and makes it equivalent to an inability of receiving Spiritual things and quotes Rom. 7.8 The carnal minde is not subject to the Law of God as if it were a parallel place to the Text in hand For my part I cannot tye these incoherent things together if the Doctor can let him He had told us in plain terms that moral Duties to be observed towards God our selves and other men were not the things here peculiarly intended and that is right but the Mysteries depending on more Soveraign Supernatural Revelation and that wholly And in this notion I shall understand him for I cannot understand him in both together 3. He explains receiving of these things by receiving them spiritually and sometimes by receiving them as they are in themselves and by other Phrases that are equivalent according to him But what means he by Spiritually he tells you the Natural man may so receive them as to assent to their truth but that which he cannot do is to assent to them under an apprehension of their conformity to the Wisdom and Holiness of God nor can he discern their suitableness unto the great ends for which they are proposed as the means of accomplishing So that this it is to discern them spiritually and as they are in themselves He likewise tells us the proper meaning of receiveth not is he cannot know them and that impotency is double 1. A Natural impotency that of the Vnderstanding in respect whereof he is absolutely unable so to do without an especial renovation by an irresistible work of the Holy Ghost and this impotency he says is absolutely and naturally insuperable And 2. A moral Impotency that of the Will and Affections The short of it is he neither will nor can if he would know them spiritually so that his meaning of these words The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God is this That a man in whose minde an Eternal Light is not created by the Almighty Power of God although the Doctrines of the Gospel be proposed to him with that evidence that he assents to the truth of them yet he neither can nor will understand them to be agreeable to the Wisdom and Holiness of God and suitable to the ends of the Gospel the Glory of God and the Salvation of Man 4. This clause they are foolishness unto him he hath perplexed with various interpretations After giving several accounts on which a thing may be esteemed foolishness he tells us for one or other or all of these reasons are spiritual things foolishness to the natural man which is as much as to say there is some reason why they are so though he cannot directly tell us what it is If any of his Reasons will serve let us take one for instance That is looked on as foolish which contains means and ends disproportionate Now he had told us spiritual things are foolishness in the nature of the things themselves with respect unto the minde I think he means thus that such is the nature of them that a natural man must needs look upon them to be a means unsuitable and disproportionate to the ends of God's Glory and Man's good and then his interpretation runs thus The Natural man is one who for want of the irresistible Light cannot discern the suitableness of the Gospel to those ends because he cannot discern it is suitable to them But it may be his Instances will make his minde more plain One is that of the Philosophers of old to whom the Gospel was foolishness now says he if spiritual things had been suited to the reasons of natural men then those who had most improved their mindes would more readily have received them than others By which I perceive he understands by these things being foolishness to the natural man their unsuitableness to their mindes who had most improved them or were wisest and knew most But that which is somewhat stranger is his telling of us that things of any worth in nature and morality are soonest embraced by such persons But here things fell out quite otherwise they were the Wise the Rational that made the longest opposition to spiritual things i. e. if the Doctor 's instance be pertinent that such is the nature of those things that it could not be otherwise so that the unsuitableness of spiritual things to our mindes doth at last consist in this that the more wise and knowing a man is the more unapt he is to receive them But then his other instance of those to whom the Gospel is as he says foolishness viz. That of his present Adversaries is to a quite contrary purpose for he chargeth them with profound Ignorance and Confidence which cannot be sufficiently admired or despised and certainly then their mindes are not very much improved Now I think he says concerning these that they look upon the spiritual things of the Gospel as foolish and unsuited to the rational principles of their mindes So that all the light we have gained by the Doctor 's instances to discern his meaning of this clause is that the spiritual things of the Gospel are in themselves unsuitable to the mindes of those who have the best improved reasons and they are look'd upon to be unsuitable to the rational principles of their mindes whose Ignorance and Confidence can never be sufficiently despised And here I desire the Doctor to make my peace with the Reader for carrying him along with me to grope after his meaning in such a tedious Labyrinth as he hath contrived to lose us in But I do not ask the Doctor 's pardon if I have miss'd of his meaning at last since if he please he may write more perspicuously if he cannot his Friends would do well to finde out a more natural employment for him 5. Because they are spiritually discerned he explains thus because they are discerned by a spiritual light What light is that he tells you the light it self whereby alone spiritual things can be spiritually discerned is created in us by an Almighty act of the Power of God Now from the examination of his Notions concerning the several Phrases his sense of the whole seems to be this That a man in whose minde a spiritual Light is not created by the Almighty act of the power of God neither can nor will understand the revealed Doctrines of the Gospel to be agreeable to the attributes of God and fit to procure man's Salvation because such is the nature of those Doctrines that he cannot but look upon them to be disagreeable to the one and unfit for the other or because they are unsuitable or are looked upon as unsuitable to the rational Principles of the Minde and 't is utterly impossible he should discern that agreeableness and fitness without that new light created in his minde because such is the manner whereby
Evangelical Faith and Obedience until the state and condition of our Reason be agreed Wherefore to speak plainly in the case as we do acknowledge that Reason in its corrupted state is all that any man hath in that state whereby to understand and judge of the sense and truth of revealed Doctrines c. so as to the Spiritual things themselves of the Gospel in their own nature they are foolishness unto it If the Doctor speaks plainly here then 1. according to him it is in vain to dispute with any whose reason is corrupted about the reasonableness of Evangelical Faith and Obedience According to him also every mans Reason is corrupted whose Minde is not renewed by the Holy Ghost i. e. enlightned by an Almighty act of the Power of God So that 't is in vain to dispute with any such person about the Reasonableness of the Gospel for the Spiritual things thereof will seem foolishness to him do what he can till the Holy Ghost renews him by his Almightiness And thus the Doctor hath proved that 't is in vain for him or any man to go about to convince an Infidel of the reasonableness of the Gospel for 't is in vain to dispute it with him till the state and condition of their reason be agreeed on i. e. till it be agreed to make renewed Reason the judge of the matter in question but the Infidel hath none of that Reason for all the reason he hath to judge of these matters by is corrupted reason as the Doctor himself contends wherefore 't is impossible for him to agree that their renewed Reason shall be the judge in this case Wherefore 't is in vain one would think to dispute with him at all The only remedy in this case is for the Infidel to make the Doctor 's renewed Reason the judge between them and when they are agreed upon that they may fall to dispute i. e. when the dispute is at an end for if the Doctor 's reason is to judge of the Reasonableness of the Gospel the Infidel hath yielded the cause without any more ado Thus the Doctor hath left no other way for a Christian to convince an Infidel but this ridiculous one of perswading the Infidel to let him be judge of the controversie between them as if he should say Here is like to be a dispute between you and me whether the Gospel be the true Religion now the Gospel is indeed the true and reasonable Religion but this is only discernible by renewed Reason such as mine is and yours is not Wherefore before we dispute you must agree that my renewed Reason that is that I should be the judge of the Reasonableness of the Gospel for till we are thus agreed 't is in vain to dispute about the reasonableness of Evangelical Faith and Obedience I do not wonder that the Doctor falls foul upon the Quakers in his Book for they and such sottish Enthusiasts as they are seem to be the only men besides himself that claim the priviledge of this way of arguing if the Doctor had it by himself without any Competitors and his Fanatic cause needs it as much as theirs though thanks be to God the Gospel needs it not he would in a short time carry the world before him 2. 'T is also according to the Doctor in vain to dispute with a man about the reasonableness of the Gospel till he be convinced of it already For to say the truth though the Infidel should make the Doctor judge in his own cause he is yet never the nearer for the Gospel will be foolishness to him till he is himself enlightned by the irresistible work Now when he is illuminated as the Doctor is he shall believe and understand the Gospel to be a wise and reasonable dispensation as the Doctor doth but before he is so 't is in vain to dispute with him So that for ought I can see the regenerate men are e'en left to dispute it amongst themselves that is who need not dispute it at all because they are already of one minde about it And thus the Doctor hath proved all disputing whatsoever upon this matter to be vain and useless which makes me wonder why he hath troubled the world with his great railing Book wherein he hath pretended to prove the wilde Opinions of his Party to be Gospel-Mysteries For if his Reader be enlightened he is convinced of them already if he be not his Arguments cannot enlighten him And therefore though the Doctor might pity him yet methinks there is no reason why he should rail at him because his Doctrines are foolishness unto him since such is the nature of them with respect unto our minds that 't is impossible it should be otherwise 4. Whereas he interprets those words He receiveth them not and he cannot know them by adding spiritually thereunto he makes the Apostle to speak downright nonsense For he makes him to say that the natural man cannot know the Mysteries of the Gospel spiritually because they are spiritually discerned or known for this is as much as to say that he cannot know them spiritually because he cannot know them spiritually which I hope the Doctor will grant to be nonsense and this is a defect which runs through this whole Paraphrase which I have charged him withal the short of it being no more than this The Natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God no he cannot 5. He doth in effect clear the natural man from all blame for his not receiving the Doctrines of the Gospel For he roundly tells us that his impotency to discern them is absolutely and naturally insuperable What can be said more fully to prove that a beast is not to be blamed for not discerning these things than that it is absolutely and naturally impossible that he should But that which is still more absurd is that he doth not only ascribe his ignorance of these Spiritual matters to a moral impotency likewise but he makes the moral impotency to be greater than the natural for though he had concluded this impotency of the Understanding to be absolutely insuperable yet he saies the Will and Affections are more corrupted than the Understanding that is more than most of all For what greater corruption of the Understanding as to these things can be imagined than that it is naturally impossible for it to understand and discern them that is unless I am turned into such a block as he speaks of by reading his unintelligible Notions that as to these things it quite ceaseth to be an understanding and a beast may be assoon made to discern them as a man Now I freely grant that there are some Opinions which the Doctor would perswade us are Gospel-Mysteries to which this his Interpretation very well agrees and if he had meant them only I had not gone about to confute him here for indeed I look upon them to be as he saith Vnsuitable to the rational principles of
we finde in vers 22 23. For the Jews require a signe and the Greeks seek after wisdom But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness Here are two sorts of men concerning whom the Apostle speaks and he shews concerning each of them why they rejected the Gospel 1. The Jews were offended at it because it required the belief of a crucified Messias but their pretence was that they wanted a Sign i. e. some Prodigy from Heaven or some such amazing appearances as accompanied the delivery of the Law to Moses upon mount Sinai 2. The Greek Philosophers of those days were offended at the simplicity of the Apostles preaching who nakedly represented their Doctrines without any such Philosophical Subtleties and Reasonings as they used themselves For that which they sought after which they pretended to want in the preaching of the Gospel was wisdom or demonstration from natural Principles and therefore 't is of these peculiarly said that the Gospel was foolishness unto them viz. because they looked for Wisdom or Discourses merely Philosophical Now it is plain that the Apostles chief designe in the second Chapter is to vindicate his way of Preaching the Gospel against the fault which the Greeks found with it For to this purpose he begins directly thus And I Brethren when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God i e. I answered not their expectation who looked for Eloquence or Philosophy For I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified v. 2. not to make known unto you any other Doctrines but those which God had revealed and particularly that the crucified Jesus was the Son of God And my Speech and my Preaching was not with enticing words but in demonstration of the Spirit c. i. e. and these Doctrines I proved by Miracles and other Divine Testimonies Now this way of proving them the Apostle justifies from the nature of those things which he had preached unto them shewing that they had depended altogether upon the free and Sovereign Will of God and therefore could not be known but by Revelation and therefore could not be proved to those unto whom they were not immediately revealed otherwise than by sufficient testimony that God had revealed them to others such as Miracles and this was enough to shew why he rejected excellency of speech and wisdom viz. because it was an improper way of proving things of that nature which he had delivered to them Thus saith the Apostle We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordain'd before the world unto our glory v. 7. i. e. we declare those counsels of God concerning the Salvation of Mankinde which were concealed from former ages and which God hath now honoured us with the clear revelation of Which none of the Princes of the world knew for had they But as it is written Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man what things c. vers 8 9. i. e. if it could have been found out by natural Sense or natural Reason that God would send his Son into the world c. the chief men among the Jews could not have been ignorant of it and instead of crucifying him they would have become his Disciples themselves But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit vers 10. But these things to the knowledge whereof no man by meer natural reason could attain God hath made known to us by revelation of his Spirit so that this contrivance of Divine Wisdom is no longer hidden now being revealed to us by the Spirit For the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God for the Spirit of God is acquainted with all the secret Counsels of God and we may therefore be sure that we are acquainted with as many of them as the Spirit reveals unto us For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God vers 11. i. e. what man knows the secret purposes of another man till he thinks fit to discover them himself So the things of God i. e. his Counsels concerning the Salvation of man which depend meerly upon his own Will and Choice none can know but the Spirit of God And that these are the things which the Apostle means is plain from the Argument which he useth here for those things of a man which are common to humane nature one man may know concerning another without being acquainted by him what they are In like manner without particular Revelation a man may understand the Natural Perfections of God and those Divine Truths which by the meer use of Reason may be thence inferred wherefore the things of God here meant are those intentions and designes of God which by natural reason cannot be inferred from the consideration of the divine Perfections because they depend only upon the Will and Pleasure of God and are therefore only to be known by Revelation And this is further expressed by the Apostle in the 12 vers We have received the Spirit which is of God that we may know the things which are freely given to us of God to instruct men in the knowledge of those things that could not otherwise be known Which things also we speak not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual i. e. there is then no reason why they should be offended that we pretend not to prove these divine matters by Philosophical Arguments but by such Arguments only as are proper to prove them by The truth of our Revelation we prove by the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power vers 4. The sense of Revelation we prove by comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual i. e. one divine Revelation with another the Revelations of the Old Testament with the Revelations of the New Then the Apostle addes But the natural man receiveth not c. which is the Text to be explained Now if we will allow the Apostle to speak consistently we are 1. By the Natural man to understand one who rejects Revelation not excluding him that never had it offered to him But the former seems principally to be intended though upon the matter it comes all to one viz. he who rejects the testimonies whereby any thing is proved to be divinely revealed which is above the reach of Philosophical wisdom Thus did the Greek Philosophers who counted the Doctrine of a crucified Saviour foolishness as here the natural man doth the things of the Spirit of God and it is he to whom the Apostle offers the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power against the excellency of speech and wisdom wherefore the Natural man is he against whom St. Paul was proving the necessity
of Revelation and the truth of revealed Doctrines by testimonies of Revelation and consequently the Natural man is one who rejects revealed Doctrines Though as I intimated before he may be so called that is fain to rely upon his meer natural Reason for want of Revelation because it was never proposed to him For whether a man never had it or rejects it being offered he is equally forced to trust to natural Reason in his enquiry after divine Truths And therefore if the Doctor by the state of Nature which he makes such a clutter about all over his Book means the state of the Natural man here spoken of the Scriptural notion thereof though we do not finde this very phrase The state of Nature in the Scripture is this viz. the state of an heathen man who either wants or rejects divine Revelation And thus it is fitly opposed to a state of Grace as that signifies being a Believer or a member of the Christian Church And both are distinguish'd from the state of Judaism or being under the Law For the Jews did not reject all divine Revelation believing that which came by Moses and so were not in a meer state of Nature as the Heathens were But as many of the Jews as would not receive the Gospel were under the Law but not under Grace as the Apostle speaks Rom. 3. i. e. they were not in a state of Grace not as the phrase is taken now adays but as it signifies no other thing than the receiving of the Christian Faith which those Jews who received not were under the Law those Heathens who received not were in a state of nature or the natural men which the Apostle here speaks of 2. By the things of God which the natural man rejects the Apostle means those Doctrines of Christianity the truth whereof is not discoverable by natural Reason which neither eye hath seen c. vers 9. the hidden wisdom of God v. 7. but are knowable only by Revelation God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit vers 10. being they concern the purposes of God that depended upon his Soveraign Will and Pleasure even so the things of God c. vers 11 12. and therefore are to be proved only by divine Testimonies and Arguments by the demonstration c. vers 4. in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth c. vers 13. 3. Because they are foolishness unto him signifies because they are not proved by wisdom which the Greeks seek after by Philosophical Demonstrations from Natural Principles chap. 1. vers 22. 4. By being spiritually discerned is meant their being known and understood and judged of by the Revelation and Testimony of the Spirit and that external to those who are not immediately inspir'd as the Apostles were which is clear from St. Paul's former discourse for he proposes this way whereby to judge of the truth of the Gospel viz. the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power he also proposeth this way whereby to judge of the sense of the Doctrines thereof viz. by comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual that is one divine Revelation with another Now this had been utterly vain if those to whom that evidence and this help was proposed could not possibly know spiritual things without such an internal and immediate Revelation of them as the Apostles had themselves The Doctrines of the Gospel are revealed to the world not immediately by the Spirit but by the Apostles who had the Spirit of Christ and have left us the Doctrines of Christ in their holy Writings They proved that the Spirit of God had revealed those Doctrines by the demonstration of the Spirit they proved the Sense of them by comparing one divine Revelation with another And this way of Conviction St. Paul clearly opposeth to Philosophical Demonstrations which it had been ridiculous to do if he had not meant an external means of conviction by it i. e. a means by which one man may convince another which the Doctors irresistible Light cannot with any face be pretended to be wherefore to be spiritually discerned doth according to the clear scope of the Apostle signifie to be discerned and understood by the external revelations and testimonies of the Spirit As things that are naturally discerned are things discernable by Sense or meer natural Reason so things that are spiritually discerned are those which be discernible only by the revelation of the Spirit i. e. by the testimony of the Spirit in the Miracles of Christ his Apostles as to the truth of them and by comparing one divine Revelation with another as to the meaning of them So that the Apostle's Argument is this A Natural man cannot understand those things which are to be known by revelation from the Spirit because they are spiritually discerned i. e. because there is no way of knowing these things but by Revelation and Testimony of the Spirit which he rejects Now he whose Faith is grounded upon this Revelation the Apostle calls a Spiritual man v. 15. in opposition to the Natural man and he saith concerning him that he judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man i. e. either according to St. Chrysostome's excellent Note He judgeth both the Doctrines that may be known by meer natural Reason and those which cannot be known but by Revelation For he hath the Principles of Natural Reason equally with the Natural Man and moreover he hath further knowledge by Revelation which the other hath not Or He judgeth all things of that nature whereof the Apostle was speaking viz. Gospel-Mysteries He is able to prove the truth of these things by proving that they are divinely revealed and thereby to confute their pretences who reject them because they cannot be known by meer natural Reason but no man can confute him whose knowledge of these things is grounded upon sufficient evidence that they are divinely revealed For who hath known the minde of the Lord Who can pretend to know the minde of God better than God himself doth and yet those must do so who contradict what is proved by the demonstration of the Spirit and therefore this is the certain foundation of our knowledge which must stand when all the Wisdom of the wise men shall perish that we have the minde of Christ that we are instructed by Christ himself who came from God Thus have I largely shewn the designe of the Apostle in these two Chapters and that sense of the Text in hand which makes the Apostles Discourse clearly consistent And now I leave it to the unprejudiced Reader to judge whether the Doctor 's interpretation of it which I have already shewn to be absurd in it self be not also utterly impertinent to the Apostles main designe for supposing the natural man to be one in whom spiritual Light is not created by an almighty work of God upon his minde how strangely must the Apostle have wandered from his purpose which was to shew that revealed Truths
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
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
be whether there be not more Metaphors than he allows not as he pretends here whether there be any Metaphors at all But since he will have it so he must not say hereafter that he intended only to prove all the expressions of the Gospel were not Metaphorical since his Argument concludes that they are all proper if it concludes any thing That most of them are proper we grant and 't is well that it stands not in need of being proved by him for his untoward way of proving would tempt a man to suspect the plainest truth he meddles withal if he had not better reasons of his own For Secondly What consequence is there in this Arguing If there be a secret mysterious work of the Spirit upon the Souls of men intended in the Scriptures then are all the expressions of the Gospel concerning it plain and proper otherwise the Scripture is obscure For 1. None of the expressions of it might have been proper and yet some of them plain and then the Scripture would not have been obscure in that thing for a Figurative expression may be plain enough to be understood by a man of common sense Sure our Author will grant that saying of our Saviour This is my body to be figurative and I hope he will not deny it to be plain because it is figurative So that his Argument by which he concludes all the expressions of the Scripture concerning this mysterious work to be proper doth not prove that any one is so 2. If some of the expressions be both plain and proper and others figurative some whereof are more and some less plain as the truth is and if those which are not so plain may be understood by the help of plainer then may this secret mysterious work be sufficiently understood by the expressions of it in the Scripture and consequently the Scripture far from being the obscurest Book in the world because all the expressions of it are not to be taken properly and literally But it seems our Author hath an opinion by himself that no Writer in the world ever used the liberty of Metaphorical expressions Thirdly his way of proving that there is such a mysterious work is a mere begging of the Question This we shall see by considering what he must mean by a secret mysterious work viz. such a work of the Spirit as is properly exprest by Regenerating Creating Quickning and Drawing the Soul of a man and this I grant to be a very mysterious work if these be all proper expressions of it Now he proves there is such a work by this Argument That otherwise the Scriptures are obscure Why so Because they are obscure if these be not proper expressions of the work of the Spirit so that he proves there is a mysterious work i. e. a work properly expressed by Regeneration Creation c. by this Argument that these are proper expressions of such a work which is to prove a thing by it self And he proves also that these are proper expressions because there is such a mysterious work that is a work properly expressed by them which is to beg the Question So that if you will grant the Doctor that they are proper expressions he can then prove there is a a work properly expressed by them or if you will grant there is such a work he can prove those to be proper expressions And now I understand the Doctor when he saies The Difficulties which seem to be in these things arise from their mysterious Nature and not from any obscurity in the Declaration of them and I am fully of his minde for if any one tells me that a Body may be greater than it self and lesser than it self and that Transubstantiation may be true Doctrine or that a man may be properly Regenerated Created Quickned Drawn and Awakened all at once I grant he does not obscurely declare his minde to me and that I finde no difficulty to understand the meaning of his words But the onely difficulty which seems to be in these things ariseth from the mysterious nature or rather the nonsence of the things themselves contained under these plain expressions for the more plain any nonsence is the more easily it is understood to be so This I think is a sufficient answer to that slender proof which the Doctor brings for the judgement of his party concerning the propriety of these Scripture-expressions but it will not be amiss to consider how he represents the judgement of those others whom he speaks of For he saith SECT 4. Others think the words and expressions of it to be mystical and figurative but the things intended to be ordinary and obvious to the natural Reason of every man So that if the Doctor may be believed there are some who think the effects of the Holy Spirit upon our Hearts are not expressed by any proper words at all in the Scriptures but as he saith they turn all Scripture-expressions of spiritual things into Metaphors If any such senceless people there be they are I should think most likely to be found among those that separate from the Church of England for many of their Preachers if we may judge of their Sermons by their Books do so train them up to Metaphorical talking that some of them may possibly believe the Scripture affords little or nothing else But as for those who think the things intended by these expressions suppose the assistances of the Divine Spirit are ordinary and obvious to the natural Reason of every man I never heard there were any such before if by obvious the Doctor means discoverable by mere natural Reason for the knowledge of these things is by all granted to depend on divine Revelation But being revealed I would fain know what reason we are to understand them withal besides our natural Reason But if by ordinary and obvious he means plain and intelligible by an ordinary capacity I am one of those who think the things of the Gospel whereof we are speaking to be ordinary and obvious and that they are not the less but the more excellent for being so our Author must grant unless he will revoke his Argument that the expressions of these things are not Metaphorical taken from hence that otherwise the Gospel is dark and unintelligible So that we are both agreed in words at least that Perspicuity and Intelligibleness is an excellent thing But the truth is he and his Party have a notion of Intelligibleness and Perspicuity by themselves as any one would guess by their Writings For Example the Doctor here tells us that if the Gospel intends nothing but moral Duties and their observance in its Doctrine of Regeneration then it is dark and unintelligible Now this is very strange for â—f as it is confessed on all hands moral Duties are easily intelligible and if the Scripture intends 〈◊〉 more by the Doctrine of Regeneration than the performance of moral Duties then is the Scripture very intelligible in the point of
from being addicted to sensuality and worldliness they are come to love God with all their Hearts and to be strongly inclined to Holiness and Virtue This likewise produceth a suitable change in their lives which now are led not according to the lusts of the Flesh and the examples of evil Men but the Laws of God and the Example of Christ. And thus we come to the true use of all our Faculties as an Infant after it is born falls into those natural motions which are hindred by its imprisonment in the Womb. Now when our mindes are thus purified from sin when the Spirit that was in Christ is in us and our bodies and souls are become the Instruments of Righteousness there follows a Relative change in our state as considerable as the other For then are we the Sons of God Heirs with Christ Brethren to God's Children in heaven and on earth we are of kin to the Family of God we enjoy his Favour and Blessing and have an actual right to that promise which he hath promised even eternal life Lay all these things together and nothing will be more evident to you than this that so great a change of our state is implied in our being the true Disciples of Christ that we are as it were other men by being so and so may fitly be said to be Born again when we become such persons But that Intrinsick alteration which seems to afford the clearest Similitude regards that sense of good and evil which is proper to a true Christian. We know that all living Creatures have such a sense of things hurtful and destructive to them that they are thereby generally prompted to avoid them 'T is thus I say in the natural life that we readily apprehend what is contrary to it and therefore we do not run into the Fire nor venture down Precipices because these things are contrary and destructive to our Natures And this is a very fit Emblem of the state of a true Christian for by reason of that divine temper of Soul which is wrought in him by the Holy Spirit he hath such a like sense of good and evil with regard to his Minde and Conscience as all living Creatures have with respect to their Natures He therefore that is in Christ i. e. who is a true Christian is said to be Born again and to become a new Creature for he hath a new sense of things which he had not before he hath other apprehensions of sin than sensual and worldly men have he looks not upon any immorality as a harmless thing but apprehends all kindes of wickedness to be what they are pernicious and detestable which is the reason as I have already intimated of what St. John saith He that is born of God sinneth not In like manner that which in the Relative change seems to be most visibly intended by this Metaphor is our being qualified to enter into the Kingdom of God which is the Inheritance of the Saints or the true Disciples of Christ for by becoming his Disciples we are as it were born to this Inheritance we are the Sons of God and if Sons then Heirs as the Apostle tells us Now if faith in Christ and obedience to his Laws make men so much better and more excellent persons than they were before and qualifie them also for an everlasting reward then here is another visible reason for the choice of this Metaphor to express the state of a good Christian by viz. the great advantages they gain by it we have as it were a new being given unto us when we truely believe in Jesus and conform our selves to his Doctrine and Example we are so much altered for the better as if we had never lived till then and we have infinitely more reason to think of this alteration in our state than to remember the day of our Birth with joy and gladness Hence we finde that the Scripture does not onely represent the advantages we gain by the Gospel of our Saviour under Metaphors taken from things most grateful to our natural Appetites as Liberty Life and Light but withal it assures us that the good implied in those things does in a more eminent manner belong to the true Disciples of Christ than to any body else as when our Saviour saith Joh. 8.36 If the Son shall make you free then are you free indeed Now what this freedom is we are told vers 32. The truth shall make you free and vers 34. He that committeth sin is the servant of sin So that this freedom consisteth in the knowledge of the Truth and in obedience to the Laws of God which is that very state that the Scripture elsewhere calls Light and Life and being Born again and created in Christ Jesus Lastly Since it is by the Operations of the Holy Spirit in us that we become true believers and good men it is visible that our being then said to be born of God does fitly express the concurrence of that Divine power whereby this change is effected in us There are other Metaphors whereby the Scripture expresseth the same thing but none of them seem to be so full of signification as this although the use and meaning of all of them is easily discernible Those expressions of Creating and Drawing seem principally to respect that divine Grace by which we are enabled to overcome the world and to live to God Converting or Turning peculiarly notes that alteration that is hereby made in our state Taking away the Heart of stone expresseth the same thing but chiefly with regard to what we were before as giving the Heart of flesh also doth with respect to what we become afterward Making a new Heart and a new Spirit signifies that change which is wrought in the Dispositions of the Minde as causing us to walk in God's Statutes notes the reformation that is made in the life Purifying Cleansing and Purging are Metaphors that express the excellency of this change and how much our Natures are bettered by it But Quickning and making Free and turning from darkness to light do express all the advantages which we gain by the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel whether they be Inherent or Relative And this may serve to shew in what divers respects these Metaphors conspire to express the same thing But you may observe that the Metaphor of Regeneration or the new Birth contains all those Similitudes to the state of a true Christian which are severally discernible in the rest And this probably is the reason why it is more frequently used in the Scriptures than the rest are as that is the reason I suppose why it hath obtained amongst Christian writers to treat of the conditions of eternal Life more frequently under the name of Regeneration than under any other phrase whereby they are Metaphorically exprest And possibly this common use of the word may have been an occasion to some unwary Christians of imagining that it is to be understood in
of that change And as that original or cause of that change is not perceived by us as we know not whence the Wind cometh so the end of it is not perceived by us neither for that is eternal Life which yet we do not see as we know not whither the Wind goeth but onely believe 3. Our Saviour's Similitude likewise shews that a thing may be discoverable onely by its effects as the Wind is by the noise it maketh and other effects thereof so likewise the Operations of the Holy Spirit upon our mindes though they are not in themselves perceivable by us yet in their effects they are for if Christian Virtue and Piety cannot be attained or preserved without the Operations of the Holy Spirit then where there is this change in a mans state there we are sure have been and still are the Operations of the Spirit and though he doth not feel the cause it self yet he discovers it in its effects Dr. Owen indeed tells us that the Work it self is discoverable in its Causes and brings this very Text to prove his saying which proves the contrary 'T is true we know that the Spirit of God is the cause of this change but how not by the Work it self but by the Revelation of Christ who withal hath informed us that we have no other way to discern the Operations of the Spirit in us but by their effects i. e. those alterations that are thereby produced in our Hearts and Lives Thus then we may understand our Saviour's words Let not this startle you that the Operations of the Holy Spirit whereby you must be changed and as it were born again are not discernible and sensible for though you cannot feel them yet you may understand them by the effects and alterations in you that are caused by them Now whereas Nicodemus answered How can these things be I suppose the reason of his Hesitation was either 1. That he did not understand this to be our Saviour's meaning or 2. That he thought as Dr. Owen does that to be born again was too Hyperbolical an expression of that which he now perceived our Saviour meant by it I cannot positively say which it was But suppose whether you will our Saviour's Reply to him rebuked his Ignorance either way Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things vers 10. q. d. Art thou one of the Great Council a learned Jew and yet ignorant of these matters Do you not perceive that I speak to you of the necessity of becoming my Disciple in such language as any man who is vers'd in your Customs and in the Writings of the Prophets may easily understand Is not being born again that very phrase whereby you express the making of a Proselyte Is not washing one of the Ceremonies whereby a Proselyte is made amongst you and therefore when I tell you a man must be born of Water what should you think I mean but that he must become my Disciple by Baptism I have also told you that he must be born of the Spirit too and can you be ignorant that those Prophecies which speak of the days of the Messias do mention the Operations of the Holy Spirit upon the Hearts of men which shall then be liberally bestowed upon the Subjects of his Kingdom to make them good and holy persons viz. that God will circumcise the Hearts of his people that he will take away their Heart of stone and give them an Heart of flesh with his Law written in it that they may be the true Disciples of the Messias that Prophet to whom you are to hearken in all things I say unto thee We speak that we do know and testifie that we have seen and ye receive not our testimony vers 11. Now I am that Prophet but how credible soever that testimony is which is given hereof ye regard it not If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things vers 12. This last is a place of some difficulty for although by heavenly things are meant Doctrines which were to be known by the Revelation of Christ yet by those earthly things which our Saviour had told Nicodemus already we must not understand truths merely natural for that Jesus was the Messias that it was necessary for the Jews to become his Disciples by Baptism and to be born of the Spirit which none but his Disciples could be these were heavenly Doctrines too in this sence that they were knowable onely by Revelation Wherefore I conceive that by heavenly things here may probably be meant such revealed Doctrines as were most contrary to the worldly and sensual expectations of the Jews who had long cherished in themselves the notion of a Messias who should fight their Battels for them as their other Saviours and Deliverers had done and rescue them from the Roman Power Now these Doctrines were that Christ should be delivered into the hands of the Romans and be Crucified for the sins of the World that those who believed in him should not perish but have everlasting Life Divers Considerations make it probable that these are the heavenly things meant by our Saviour in this place for 1. After he had made way for it by telling Nicodemus that he onely ascended up into Heaven i. e. knew the secret purposes of God concerning the way of Salvation he falls upon the mention of that Death which he was to undergo for the sins of the World And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in c. 2. The Cross of Christ was that which made the Jews most of all offended that his Disciples should still pretend him to be the Christ. It was to the Jews a Stumbling-block and to the Greeks Foolishness and therefore it is probable this was the thing which the Jews would hardly believe viz. that God would save Mankinde by the death of his Son 3. When St. Peter rebuked our Saviour foretelling his own Passion he said unto Peter Get thee behinde me Satan for thou savourest not the things that be of God or heavenly things i. e. the wisdom of God's way to save the World but the things that be of man thou speakest according to the imaginations of the Jews who perswade themselves that the Kingdom of the Messias will be of this World Lay all these things together and it will appear probable that by those heavenly things which our Saviour intimated would be more difficulty believed by the Jews than those which he had already mentioned to Nicodemus are meant his Sufferings and Death by which Believers should be saved and which he discoursed to Nicodemus of presently after And then by the earthly things on the other hand we are to understand those truths which were indeed divinely revealed but were not so contrary to the worldly expectations of the Jews as the other viz. that Jesus was the Christ and that all men were to be his Disciples which
in believing his Gospel so as to yield a sincere obedience to his Laws This is that Regeneration which is necessary to Adult persons as Nicodemus was and as you may remember is one of those needful effects for the producing of which in our mindes God will give the Holy Spirit to us if we ask him Thus have I shewn what those Qualifications are for the effecting of which the Holy Spirit is promised in St. Luke 11.13 Now though I have not pretended to prove from this place that God will give the Holy Spirit to work faith and the beginnings of a good minde and good desires in us and there was good reason for it since the Spirit is here promised to Believers and such as desire to do the will of God yet I intended not to exclude them from being the effects of the Holy Spirit and I shall immediately prove that they are for I now proceed to shew what those several Graces are which the Scriptures particularly ascribe to the Operations of the Holy Spirit which was the second way propounded for the resolving of the first Question and will not onely confirm what has been offered for that end from St. Luke but fully satisfie the Question we are upon CHAP. IV. Concerning the several Graces of the Holy Spirit SECT I. IN the first place Faith it self as that signifies a firm perswasion of the truth of our Saviour's Doctrine is an effect in our Mindes which the Scripture frequently ascribes to the Operations of the Holy Spirit This is the first Grace of the Holy Spirit which I mention because an hearty belief of the Gospel is the foundation of all other Christian Virtues And I shall now shew that the Spirit of God is given to prepare our mindes as they ought to be prepared that we may become the true Disciples of Christ. To speak clearly to this matter we are to consider 1. That the Revelations of the Doctrines of the Gospel and sufficient testimonies that they are divinely revealed are presupposed to our obligation of believing them and 2. That teachableness and due attention is necessarily required to Faith or actual believing of those Doctrines Now that which I shall take upon me to prove is this That the Teachableness of Minde which is necessary to actual Believing is from the Holy Spirit And I onely say that Faith in this sence is an effect of his Operations upon the Mindes of men But I do not say that the Holy Spirit doth now reveal the Doctrines of the Gospel to men by immediate Inspiration or that he convinceth them of their truth by any immediate or any new testimony whatsoever that they may believe Not the First because we have them in the Scriptures As to the Doctrines of the Gospel themselves we may say with the Apostle God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.10 But not to us as he did to the Apostles to them by Inspiration to us by their Writings whereby we may be fully instructed in all necessary Truth Not the Second because the Doctrines of the Gospel have been sufficiently confirmed already even by the demonstration of the Spirit and Power in the Miracles and Resurrection of Christ and the supernatural Gifts which the Apostles and the primitive Believers had And there is not any one promise in the Scripture that I can finde that God will give unto us any further testimony of the Holy Ghost to the truth of the Gospel after that which was given to it by the Holy Ghost at first Wherefore we have no Warrant to look for any private Illumination and Conviction by the Holy Spirit to assure us of the truth of that Doctrine which hath been abundantly confirmed to our hands by so many divine Testimonies already It is the same light and the same evidence by which we discern the truth of the Gospel that those to whom Christ and his Apostles preached discerned it by i. e. the Testimonies by which they proved their Doctrines onely with this difference that they saw and heard them we know them by the tradition of the Scriptures Our Saviour saith Light is come into the world but men c. i. e. The Will of God was plainly revealed by him and he was clearly proved to be the Son of God by the testimony of his Works c. and yet many would not believe him Now this is that Light which still continues in the world viz. the Revelations of the Gospel and the Testimonies by which they were confirmed for we have them in the Scriptures which are delivered to us that we might believe the same Doctrines which Christ and his Apostles preached to the world and upon the same evidence whereby men were at first convinced of their truth Therefore I do not say that the Holy Spirit worketh Faith in us by illuminating our mindes with any new Revelation of the Christian Doctrine or any new Testimony of the truth thereof for this is more than needs to be done and I conceive more than any body can prove But he doth it by disposing our mindes to attention and teachableness or to that temper which whosoever is of will believe truths that are proposed to him with sufficient evidence It is true indeed that there is no more required to an understanding man's assent to a true propoâ—tion in Philosophy than to explain the meaning and represent the reasons of it to him intelligibly and clearly This ordinarily is sufficient in that case But there is more assistance required towards the belief of the Gospel though propounded with sufficient evidence of divine Revelation For there is this difference between the truths of Religion and conclusions in natural Philosophy and other Sciences that our sensual Appetites and worldly Interests are thwarted by those but not by these and therefore we are not so apt to rise up in contradiction to the latter as we are to the former though they may be both proved with equal evidence Religion is to govern our lives and bindeth us to deny the pleasures and advantages of sin under the penalty of God's high displeasure And no wonder if the Lusts of men influence their Judgements and blass their Understandings against the belief of those Doctrines which are so irreconcilable to a wicked life These are the things which do not onely so often spoil the virtue and efficacy of Faith where it is but do also cause uncertainty and unbelief where Faith is not but where in all reason it ought to be For they make men unwilling to believe and this unwillingness doth on the one hand hinder their attention to the force of those Arguments which prove the Gospel to be indeed the Word of God and inclines them on the other hand to lean to the weakest Objections that can be offered against it This was just the case of the great men amongst the Jews as is plain from that one instance in John 9. amongst many For when our Saviour had
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
was in general promised by our Saviour Luke 11.13 and proved also that they are in the Scriptures severally ascribed to his Operations Now upon the whole matter we cannot but conclude that in respect of the end of this divine Grace God hath made us a very large and bountiful promise thereof and given thereby such an abundant demonstration of his good-will towards us that indeed he desireth not the death of a sinner but had rather he should turn and live as we ought to acknowledge with our utmost Thanks and Praises But after all this it will be pretended by some men that if we say the Operations of the Holy Spirit are limited to those effects we have been speaking of we confine the Promise within too narrow a compass and do in effect deny several divine Graces and works of the Holy Spirit upon the Hearts of God's people such as darting the true sence of Scripture into their mindes suggesting words and matter to them when they pray Extempore and giving them absolute assurance that they shall be saved at last Hence it is that if we take the liberty of dissenting from their sence of a place of Scripture the next thing we hear is that we want the Illumination of the Spirit and all that we can say is at once turned off for carnal reasoning If we dare not pretend to any other than a conditional assurance of our Salvation we are those that have not the testimonies of the Spirit And if we make use of pious forms of Prayer and other exercises of Devotion we do not pray by the Spirit Therefore I think my self obliged to enquire upon what grounds they pretend to these spiritual Gifts But before I do so I shall premise by way of Caution these following things 1. That those dispositions which qualifie us for a profitable understanding of the Scriptures such as Teachableness Humility Attention and Industry are the graces of the Holy Spirit and consequently that our success in endeavouring after the knowledge of divine Truths depends upon his blessing and grace 2. That it is our duty to labour after a right understanding of our spiritual estate and that this knowledge of it is a grace of the Holy Spirit 3. That those affections which make our Prayers acceptable to God such as love to God trust in him hatred of sin zeal and fervency and the like are likewise the effects of divine Grace All these things I heartily acknowledge and they are no other things than what may be concluded easily from the foregoing discourse concerning the graces of the Holy Spirit But that which I have some reason to question is this Whether we can conclude that the Spirit will convey a right understanding of the Scripture into any mans minde by an immediate revelation of the meaning of it or that he will give to some men an absolute assurance of their salvation while they live here upon their trial or that he suggests to them by Inspiration what they say in their extemporary Prayers For whatever he may do in this kinde I do not finde that he hath promised any where so to do And I think we are not to promise to our selves that divine Grace which God hath no where promised to us And that he hath not promised these things I shall shew 1. By comparing the contrary pretence with that promise of our Saviour concerning the Holy Spirit in Luke 11.13 2. By considering what ground there is for it from other places of Scripture 1. By comparing the pretence with Luke 11.13 and here I shall shew that whatever countenance it may have from other Scriptures it can have none from this which as I have already proved contains a promise of such gifts as are needful to our eternal happiness 1. As to that of coming to the sence of Scripture by inherent Revelation I say that such a Revelation is not needful for us to make us wise unto salvation because those places of Scripture which are necessary to be understood by us need no infallible Interpreter for all Truths necessary to be known are plainly delivered in the Scriptures and there is no need of a new Revelation to acquaint us with the meaning of those Texts the sence whereof is plain and obvious There are indeed many passages hard to be understood in the Scriptures but there is no necessity of an Infallible guide or of New revelation to come to the sence of them unless they were themselves necessary to be understood If you say that because all Scripture is profitable the revelation of the true meaning of those Texts at least which have the greatest difficulties belonging to them must be profitable also I answer 1. It does not follow in every particular that because such a thing is profitable therefore if I ask God will give it which you know was proved in the explication of St. Luke's Text Chap. 2. Sect. 2. Wherefore if I pray onely that God may prosper my industry in endeavouring to understand such a difficult place it does not follow from the promise in St. Luke that God will grant my request in that particular For he may give me something as good or better instead of it As I may get advantage by understanding that place so I may also get advantage by finding that after all I do not understand it which may through the grace of God be improved by me into an occasion of more Humility Modesty and Charity which if St. Paul may be believed is better than Knowledge as my trying to understand did before excite me to Prayer and Industry But much less does it follow that God will grant my request if I pray yet more particularly that the meaning of the difficult place may be revealed to me by immediate Inspiration For 2. Though that be profitable yet 't is profitable also to come to the knowledge of it by study and the industrious use of means common to learned men if I am a Teacher of others or by the help of a spiritual Guide if I am merely a Learner And if I come either of these ways to the understanding of a difficult Text God hath not been less good to me for not communicating it to me by immediate revelation Especially if it be considered 3. That if God giveth me the understanding of a difficult place by blessing my industry in Reading Hearing Conferring with others Meditating and Comparing place with place this will in all probability be more useful to others not to say to my self than if he gave it to me by immediate Illumination because the knowledge which is gained the former way may be more easily imparted to another than that which might be obtained by the latter For I can lead another into my knowledge of Scripture which comes by the way of industry and study by shewing him the reason that convinced me and discovering the method of my coming to it Now Reason you know is a thing common to you and me
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-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
elected to the testimony of the Spirit or while men impatient of contradiction ascribe their absurd interpretations of the Scripture to the Revelation of the Spirit or while men low and weak in their national apprehensions of things impute the vanity which they frequently utter in their Prayers to the impulse and suggestion of the Spirit 2. To take off the minds of Christians from the expectation of such gifts from the Spirit as are nowhere promised that they may more zealously pursue after those Graces which are indeed promised and without which they cannot be saved And thus much for that part of my undertaking which concerned those Effects for the producing of which the Holy Spirit is promised CHAP. VI. Concerning those to whom the Holy Spirit is promised and given SECT 1. TO speak clearly to this matter we are in the first place to observe that the Operations of the Holy Spirit are either 1. Such as prevent our belief of the Gospel and our very first desires to know the will of God and to live according to it this is that Grace which depends not upon our believing being the cause of those dispositions which I have shewn to be preparatory and antecedently necessary to Faith it self 2. Such as follow after to cherish and improve such good beginnings in us and to endue us with all qualifications necessary to eternal Life Now the promises of this Grace are conditional such is that promise in St. Luke 11.13 and the condition is plainly exprest God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him who are already convinced of the Truth and desire to do the Will of God and pray for divine assistance Such also is that promise in 2 Cor. 6. that God will dwell in us which depends upon our being the sincere Disciples of Christ and cleansing our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit These are the principal promises of Grace made to us in the Gospel and it is evident we have no right to the former but on condition of our believing in Christ and owning our selves to be his Disciples nor to the latter if we do not obey the Gospel And from hence we may learn where the true difference lies between common and special Grace which is a distinction I doubt oftner used than understood That special Grace implies an higher degree of favour towards them upon whom it is bestowed than is signified by common Grace is obvious to every man's understanding Now there are indeed divers promises of such Grace to be met with in the Gospel and which will be in force to the end of the world but they are all of them conditional and made with respect to some Qualification without which they do not belong to us Wherefore special Grace is that which is suspended upon the performance of some condition and consequently that Grace to which such a condition is not required beforehand is common But since there are several degrees of Grace proportionable to the several Qualifications of men For instance since more Grace is promised to Believers than to Unbelievers and yet more to sincere Christians than to mere Professors The distinction is to be understood in this Latitude that the same degree of Grace which is special in one respect may be common in another for that Grace whereof Faith is the condition is common in respect of that which obedience qualifies a Believer to receive as it is special with regard to that which does not require the condition of Faith and which an Unbeliever is capable of Wherefore the distinction is not accurate enough to be nice withal for if it be strictly held to there are several instances of divine Grace that will not fall under it because then onely the first Operations of the Spirit upon our mindes preventing all good inclinations in them will be common Grace and those onely which crown our obedience with perseverance special But admitting the former Latitude the distinction will reach every Operation of the Holy Spirit upon our mindes and the difference between that Grace which is common and that which is special may be so placed as that we may understand one another when we use the distinction And then I offer it to be considered whether it be not most agreeable to the Scriptures to place the difference between them in this that common Grace is that whereby we are led to the faith of Christ and the profession of Christianity and so includes all those goods desires that are excited and all those good dispositions that are produced in the mindes of men before they believe and special Grace that which is given to Believers onely for the strengthning of their Faith the increasing of their good desires and the enabling of them to live according to the Gospel For although there are degrees of that Grace to which Faith is pre-required and of that which is antecedent to Faith our Saviour's rule To him that hath shall be given holding equally in both cases yet it is observable that the promise of the Holy Spirit in St. Luke and all the particular promises of that nature in the Gospel are given onely to Believers and that we have no right to them but upon the performance of some condition required in the New Covenant Now since there are peculiar promises of the Holy Spirit which belong onely to them that believe it seems agreeable to the Scriptures to suppose Faith to be the first condition of special Grace and consequently that Grace to be common which requires not the performance of any condition undertaken by us when we are admitted into the Covenant It is in this sence that I shall understand the distinction because otherwise I think it will often prove a Distinction without Difference since in the strict meaning of the words the same Grace may be both common and special Thus also we may understand the difference between preventing and co-operating Grace and between preparing and perfecting Grace For these distinctions express the same thing in other respects that is meant by common and special Grace For that Grace which we call common because it is given without that condition which is necessary to qualifie us for greater Grace is also said to be preventing Grace with respect to God who is the first cause of all that is good in us and likewise preparing Grace with regard to some further improvement that we are thereby made capable of attaining And then co-operating and perfecting Grace are but other words expressing the same thing that is meant by special Grace with a like difference of respects So that these distinctions are to be understood with the same Latitude and used with the same caution that the former is If I am mistaken in this they are more subtile and intricate than I was aware of But the accurate use of these distinctions is not that which I contend for it is sufficient for me if I can make my meaning to be
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
Christian Virtue is ascribed both to the Holy Spirit and to the Word of God in that Prayer of St. Paul for the Colossians that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that they might walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good work c. that is by the means of a fuller understanding of the Will of God Col. 1.9 10. And the co-operation of both these Causes for the producing of the same Effect is yet more plainly expressed in those words of our Saviour's Prayer for his Disciples Sanctifie them through thy TRVTH thy WORD is TRVTH where nothing can be more plain than this that the holiness of Believers is ascribed to the Operation of Truth upon their mindes viz. that Truth which is revealed in the Gospel Seing then that the Gospel is not onely in it self a proper means of converting the Unbeliever and the Disobedient of confirming and improving the sincere Convert but as you see the Graces of the Holy Spirit are those effects also which the Scriptures frequently ascribe to the weightiness of those Reasons and Considerations that are offered to our understandings by the Word of God We must be careful not to define the manner whereby the Holy Spirit worketh in the mindes of men to produce these Graces so as to deny them to be the Genuine and proper effects of divine Truths which is done by assigning such a manner of Operation to the Holy Spirit as must needs be inconsistent with ascribing Conversion to the Operation of Truth Wherefore it is too boldly done of Dr. Owen and his Party to affirm that Conversion is an effect of such an Operation of the Holy Spirit upon the minde as makes it impossible for a man not to be converted and withal that Conversion is impossible without such an irresistible Operation For 1. If a man must necessarily resist the whole strength of God's Word till Conversion be wrought in him by an irresistible action of the Spirit as these men teach then 't is plainly absurd to make Conversion to be an effect of God's Word For upon this Hypothesis it contributes no more to a man's conversion than the hurling of a Pebble does to the throwing down of a mighty Wall that is falling by the fury of the Cannon If as the Doctor saith the Will cannot make use of that Grace for conversion which it can refuse if also it can resist all kinde of Perswasions Reasons Arguments and Motives as he himself supposes and by consequence that Operation of the Spirit whereby Conversion is caused be irresistible What can be more evident than that Conversion must upon these terms be onely and wholly the effect of an irresistible power and not at all of Reasons and Motives To say that the Operations of the Spirit produce their effects irresistibly because they are joyned with the Word is to ascribe an irresistible Operation to the Word as well as to the Spirit or rather to make the irresistibleness to arise from the concurrence of both those Causes Now besides that upon this Hypothesis all men to whom the Gospel is made known would be converted seeing we have proved the ministration of the Gospel to be accompanied with the Operations of the Spirit in all that hear it Besides this I say these men do not place the irresistible force by which Conversion as they say is wrought in the concurrence of the Word and the Spirit but in the sole Operation of the Spirit Now that Conversion should at the same time be an effect of God's Word which as they say a man cannot but resist till he is converted and of such an Operation of the Spirit too as is altogether irresistible is to me as unintelligible as Transubstantiation For if it were onely said that 't is possible for a man to resist the Operations of Truth and withal granted that Conversion must as well be an effect of the truth of God's Word as of the Holy Spirit 's Operating in our mindes it would plainly follow that his Operations were resistible The reason is because where an Effect depends upon the concurrence of two Causes he that hath it always in his power to resist the force of one is at any time able to frustrate the other and consequently to hinder the effect Now they themselves grant and it is plain by daily experience that the Word of God may be resisted and heard in vain as it was even when preached in the demonstration of the Spirit and Power Wherefore when the Operations of the Spirit conspire with the power of the Word to convert a sinner if he can be obstinate against the latter he may also quench the former and then they are not irresistible Furthermore it may be said if Conversion be wrought irresistibly by the sole Operation of the Spirit then the Word which may be resisted is unnecessary But if the Word cannot but be resisted till the effect is wrought by another power that is invincible viz. that of the Spirit then 't is plain that the effect is owing onely to that power which is to render the whole Ministry of the Gospel utterly vain and useless and to contradict all those passages of Scripture which attribute our Conversion to the force of divine Truth But 2. It is further evident from the manner of their explaining this irresistible Operation that they exclude all the influence of God's Word from being a means of Conversion Dr. Owen tells us that the Holy Ghost is the immediate Author and cause of Regeneration and he is often putting us in minde that we are converted by an immediate Physical Operation of the Spirit which he endeavours to prove for many Pages together Now a Physical Operation he opposeth to Moral and thereby excludeth from it all use of any Reasons Arguments and Motives whatsoever as he doth industriously more than once Now what is more plain than that to ascribe Conversion to such an Operation as this is wholly to exclude the Word of God from being any way subordinate to that Grace whereby we are converted For although the Doctor tells us sometimes that he grants a Moral Operation of the Spirit and that he onely denies the concurrence of that with the Word to be the total cause of Conversion yet by his leave he does not make it so much as a partial cause For if this Physical Operation onely is that Grace which can remove all obstacles and overcome all oppositions and infallibly produce the effect intended as he speaks if this Operation doth not consist in the use of any motive whatsoever contained in the Word of God Finally if this Operation be the immediate cause of Conversion if nothing intervenes between this Operation and the Effect it is then plain I conceive that the Word of God is wholly excluded from being a means of Conversion for neither is the use of any
few moments it cannot be procured at all It many times hinders a good beginning that a man findes he cannot become a Convert in an instant and thence concludes that it can never be better with him than it is at present which he will be the more ready to do if he has heard that Conversion is a thing that comes by a snatch and an Instantaneous Act and that unless the work be done all of a sudden which he findes it will not be it can never be done But this is a Doctrine so pernicious to the Souls of men that the mischief of it were sufficient to prove it false For if it were true it were then in vain for an habitual sinner at least to attempt his own recovery since a custom in sin cannot be suddenly broken without a Miracle but must be worn away by contrary practices or not at all It will require some time and much patience to unlearn a way of life that is grown customary and natural and to make the contrary habitual and easie But by assiduity and constancy the thing may be done Therefore if a man has entertained any serious thoughts of Repentance he ought not to discourage himself though he findes his affection to sin hard to put off nor to give up himself for a lost person when he is again overtaken by a Temptation but to renew his resolutions more vigorously and to pray more frequently and earnestly and to keep on thus in a way of well-doing for there is not the least doubt but by this means every day something will be done to the bettering of his minde and the making of a good life more easie and ready to him till he has gained the true liberty of the Sons of God 2. This very Consideration which is of good use against despairing to prevail if a man that has yet the opportunity desires to amend his life is also a good Antidote against the madness of deferring our Repentance upon a presumption that we can repent and turn to God when we please For if it be not in the power of a wicked man while he is thus flattering himself to repent this present moment he has no reason to think that he may suddenly repent any time hereafter The most that is in his power at present is to do something in order to Repentance or Conversion but that is not to repent The utmost he can do is to begin well but that is not doing the thing Now the longer he is thus trifling with himself his evil habits contract more stubbornness and will require more time to break them and yet he has less time to do it in than he had before Nor is it likely that he will begin hereafter while he has any time before him for the reason why a man defers his reformation to another time is not because he intends to begin then but because he has no minde to begin now and unless he be then in a better minde than he is at present he will certainly defer his Repentance still nor is there any probability that he will finde himself better disposed after he has added Iniquity to Iniquity and made himself more a Childe of the Devil than he was before And indeed it commonly happens that they who cheat themselves in this manner run out their foolish presumption almost to the length of their Lives till the terrours of death make them serious and then I fear 't is too late to make a good beginning For what good should it do a man to promise that he will mend his life now he can live no longer or to resolve that he will spend his time better when he has no more to spend To conclude if the Conversion of a wicked man be a work of some time and requires much diligence and preparation If so far as we can judge by several Promises and Exhortations in holy Writ and by the experience of Mankinde the Operations of the Spirit move Unregenerate men according to their present capacities for instance either to Fear if they be yet Fearless or to Sorrow if they have yet little or no Remorse or to Care if they are ready to run upon Temptations and the like If the Holy Spirit enables them to mend their state by such Degrees and Means till their lusts and evil habits be subdued then as they that have lived a wicked life and yet enjoy the opportunity of Repentance have no reason to despair of their Conversion merely because they cannot break the power of their Lusts and overcome the world all at once so neither has any man the least reason to presume that he can repent when he pleases and thereupon to neglect the present opportunity For all that he can do at present is to make a good beginning and not to do that immediately when upon this moment my eternal state may depend what a madness is that SECT 5. To all that hath been said we may further adde that the Holy Spirit moves upon the mindes oâ— men in a most familiar way and that his Motions are not discernible by us from the natural Operations of our mindes We feel them no otherwise than we do our own Thoughts and Meditations we cannot distinguish them by the manner of their affecting us from our natural Reasonings and the Operations of Truth upon our Souls This imperceptibleness of the impressions made upon our Souls by the divine Spirit was that which as I told you before Chap. 3. Sect. 10. our Saviour signified to Nicodemus by the Similitude of the Wind Joh. 3. And we are not to wonder that the Holy Spirit does move our Souls when we are not conscious to our selves of any supernatural Influence which they are acted by since he can communicate Reason and Perswasion to them without making use of any thing that belongs to our bodily Structure and much more of our external Senses without which it is impossible for us to convey our Thoughts and Reasonings to one another's mindes Wherefore the Holy Spirit being intimate to our Souls which is a good expression of the Doctor 's used to another purpose can affect us when we are not sensible of it and produce effects upon our mindes in that manner as if they were merely the effects of our own natural reasoning and such consideration of divine Truth as we can excite in our selves and in one another Such is the manner of the Spirit 's Operations in us that if God had onely designed to give the Holy Spirit to us without making any mention of it in his Word we could never have known unless it had been communicated to us by some private Revelation that our Souls are moved by a divine Power when we love God and do his Will which as I take it the Doctor seems to grant in those words of his that this is a subject in the handling whereof we have nothing to give us assistance but pure Revelation which are large words
but according to a candid construction very true But this I think may at least be inferred from them That without Revelation we could not have known that the Spirit operates in the mindes of men in order to their Regeneration And consequently that his Operations are imperceptible by us now for if we were sensible that the Holy Spirit moves us we might argue from our own sense as well as from Revelation that the Spirit is given to us Wherefore the best rule we can have to know when we are moved by the Holy Spirit must be taken from the Nature and End of his Operations When we finde our selves inclined to that which is good when we are bent upon the doing of God's Will when we perform our Duty and govern our Actions by the Word of God then we may conclude that we are acted by a divine Spirit and that therefore we have occasion given us of humble and thankful Praises But if we forsake the steady rules of our duty written upon our Hearts in our Creation or in the Bible by the inspired Messengers of God and take every violent impulse that we feel within us for a suggestion of the Holy Spirit we may easily mistake a brutish Inclination or a suggestion of the Devil for divine direction since no sort of men are acted with a more sensible and impetuous zeal than they that are strongly led by the Devil and their own corrupt affections Therefore unless we will expose our selves to Fanatical and Diabolical delusions we must keep close to Reason and Scripture and try the nature of all the impulses and motions of our mindes by them We must not pretend that the Spirit inciteth us to such an action and therefore 't is warranted by the Scripture for the motions of the Spirit are in themselves imperceptible But we must first see what the Scripture would have us do and then if we have a minde to that we may conclude that the Spirit hath moved us to it for the Spirit inclineth us onely to what is good and the Scripture is a steady and unalterable rule of that These are very plain and evident truths and yet we can hardly say too much to possess the mindes of men with the apprehension of them since we can remember what infinite dishonours have been done to God in the late times by men professing Godliness and pretending to the special Guidance of the Spirit how they asked counsel of God whether they should commit Murder and Treason Rebellion and Sacriledge how they thought to justifie the most execrable Parricide as the Doctor knows who did that was ever heard of in these parts of the World and how blasphemously they pretended that the Lord had put these things into their Hearts God does not now give the Spirit to justifie the actions of men but to assist them in those that are good and he hath shewn us what is good partly by the light of Nature which is common to all men and compleatly by the publick revelation of his Will contained in the Scriptures Wherefore since the Operations of the Spirit are imperceptible by us and merely an object of our Faith we have no other way of assuring our selves that we follow the guidance of the Spirit but by following the rule of God's Word To this purpose it is observable that the word Spirit does sometimes signifie the Gospel as several Divines have proved and particularly when St. Paul does oppose the Spirit to the Flesh as in Gal. 3.3 We are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh i. e. we are the true Children of Abraham who worship God according to the Gospel placing no confidence in the observation of Moses's Law And in Gal. 5.16 Walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh i. e. walk according to that Law of Love vers 14. which the Gospel so strictly prescribes and do not yield to inclinations of Revenge Hatred Variance c. vers 20. But at least in these and the like places 't is indifferent whether by the word Spirit you understand the Gospel or the Holy Ghost because it is in effect the same thing to be led by the Spirit and to obey the Gospel Thus when the Apostle Rom. 8. so often notes the difference between those that walk after the Flesh and those that walk after the Spirit we may easily see that walking after the Spirit may indifferently be interpreted either by living according to the rules of the Gospel or by following the perswasion of a well-instructed Minde or Conscience or by obeying the motions of the Holy Spirit of God For to do one of these things is to do them all since they are the Precepts of the Gospel which the Conscience ought to be directed by and 't is the obedience of the Gospel to which the Holy Spirit doth move and incite us We may observe also that in this Chapter these following expressions are equivalent viz. To walk after the Spirit v. 1. To be freed from the law of sin v. 2. To minde the things of the Spirit v. 5. To be spiritually minded v. 6. To be subject to the law of God v. 7. To please God v. 8. To have the Spirit of Christ v. 9. Christ being in us v. 10. The Spirit of God dwelling in us v. 11. Mortifying the deeds of the body by the Spirit v. 13. And being led by the Spirit v. 14. These several Phrases I say do all express the same state viz. our being the true Disciples of Christ onely they conspire to express the same thing under different respects That of being subject to the Law of God respecting the rule of our Lives as that of minding the things of the Spirit regards that serious consideration of the Doctrines of the Gospel which disposeth us to walk according to that Rule To be freed from the Law of sin notes the same thing with respect to our former condition Not to be carnally but spiritually minded not to live after the flesh but to mortifie the deeds of the body the Spirit are expressions that principally regard the prevalency of our Conscience over our sensual Appetites The Spirit of God dwelling in us is an expression of that constant readiness in good men to do the Will of God which is cherished in them by the Holy Spirit as our having 〈◊〉 the Spirit of Christ seems principally to regard that likeness to him which we gain by becoming such persons Finally to walk after the Spirit or to be led by the Spirit are Phrases which seem to take in all these respects indifferently Now because it is really one and the same state and disposition that is signified by these Phrases there can be no dangerous mistake incurred if a man should understand any one of them under a respect which perhaps was not principally intended as for instance if by the Spirit of God dwelling in us he should
understand our being strongly and deeply affected with divine Truths for where the Word of God dwells richly there the Spirit of God dwells too Nay I may adde further that there is no need of being curious to mark what respect was principally aimed at by the Apostle in the use of these Phrases throughout Rom. 8. and likewise Gal. 5. and other places and that because the Apostle does not seem to be curious in the use of them himself Nor was it necessary for him so to be in order to the making good of that conclusion against the Jews which he aimed at viz. that Justification was not to be had by the works of the Law but by the faith of Christ i. e. by being a true Disciple of Christ in mortifying the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts. But on the other hand his using of those Phrases of being led by and walking after the Spirit indifferently for living according to the Gospel and being governed by the motions of the Holy Spirit was very suitable to his designe of shewing that Justification was no other way to be obtained but by being a true Christian For since mortifying of the deeds of the body and being subject to the Law of God in that degree which Christianity now required were necessary to Justification the Jew who rejected the Gospel of Christ must needs be under Condemnation because the Holy Spirit whose guidance and incitations were necessary to the subduing of sin was given for that purpose to none that rejected Christianity Wherefore as long as the Jew would not submit to the Law of the Spirit of Life i. e. to the Gospel to the profession whereof the special promise of the Spirit was made he must needs be subject to the Law of Sin and of Death Of sin because he refused the necessary means of subduing the lusts of the Flesh viz. the Faith of the Gospel which was to refuse the Incitations and Grace of the Spirit Of Death because if we live after the Flesh we shall die This Observation I thought might not prove altogether unuseful to well-meaning persons that have not hit on it before for a man may well be in danger of mistaking the Apostle's designe in this and other places where the fore-mentioned Phrases are promiscuously used if he expects that every one of them should have a peculiar mystery belonging to it and a sence quite different from all the rest But that which I chiefly intended was to observe that the promiscuous use of those Phrases in the holy Scripture is extreamly agreeable to that familiar way wherein the Holy Spirit moveth the mindes of men For if we are so moved by him that we are not sensible of any operation in our mindes but that of divine Truth as it is represented to us by ordinary means and thereupon embraced by our Understandings then we cannot better express our being led and guided by the Spirit than by saying that we obey the Gospel And thus you see a further reason of the promiscuous and indifferent use of the above-mentioned Phrases and that taken from the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations as the former was from the end and designe of them I shall conclude this point with inferring from what hath been said concerning it that we resist the Holy Spirit of God many times when we think of nothing less and we do not think of it because we do not feel that supernatural impression which is made upon us and cannot discern it from the free and natural Operations of our minds And thus we quench the motions of the Spirit very often when we imagine that we onely quarrel with our own Thoughts or reject the good counsels of a Friend or the exhortations of a Minister or the rebukes of our own Conscience Now if we could hear or apprehend the Holy Spirit disswading us from any wickedness as sensibly as when a good man speaks to us we should not dare surely to entertain one thought more of going forward A temptation could no more prevail against us if we were thus admonish'd than if God should speak to us from Heaven with an audible voice in these words O do not that wicked thing which I hate But God doth not use this method upon us because we are here to live by Faith because he will prove us whether we believe his Word or not Therefore if it be plain from the holy Scriptures that when we are sinning against the clear Convictions of our duty when we are baffling any good Exhortations and Counsels and our own hopes of Heaven or our fears of Hell or the force of any seasonable good thought tending to Repentance we do then as really contradict the perswasions of the blessed Spirit as if we heard his Voice sounding in our Ears shall we not be as much afraid to do the former as we should be to do the latter For it will not be admitted in our excuse that we did not think of rebelling against the Holy Spirit for our not thinking of it is another fault since we have reason to believe that every sin we commit against the checks of Conscience has that aggravation and why should we think that one fault will excuse another Wherefore if we cannot but acknowledge that the doing of despight to the Spirit of Grace must needs adde an heavy weight to every sin which we commit presumptuously and to every neglect of improving an inclination to Repentance methinks we should tremble to do the one or to delay the other Finally the consideration of this matter if we have any due reverence of God will not fail of making all good counsels profitable to us of giving strength to all our own good purposes and making us careful to improve by all reasons that are proper to convince us by all Examples that are fit to instruct us and by all opportunities of serious reflection upon our selves For the Operations of the Holy Spirit do conspire with such familiar methods as these are to produce his Graces in us SECT 6. From all these things it follows in the last place that the Operations of the Holy Spirit in our minds are Assistances or Helps as they are generally called by Christians of all perswasions not excepting our Author and the Friends of his way But I say also they are properly so called because the Operations of the Spirit are no more than Assistances and that because his Graces are truely and properly the effects of other Causes viz. of the ministration of the Gospel of the external means of Grace and of our own endeavours with all which the Operations of the Holy Spirit conspire for the producing of those effects in us The Spirit is indeed the principal cause of these effects and therefore they are called his Graces and ascribed to him as if we did nothing our selves to gain them according to that saying of the Apostle I laboured abundantly yet not I but the grace of God which
not able to please thee mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our Hearts through Jesus Christ our Lord. THE END The Author's distance from London hath occasioned these Errata's which the Reader may correct PAge 33. In the Margin r. P. 260. p. 61. line 12 for these are the r. there are other p. 93. l. 18. for end r. kinde p. 105. l. 6. for to his r. to be p. 163. l. 30. for proportion r. proposition p. 191. l. 13. for there is r. there is said to be Ibid. l. 22. for inherent r. immediate p. 310. l. 28. for having by r. having p. 322. l. 10. for may r. my P. 44. P. 44. P. 52. P. 42. P. 46 47. P. 45. P. 44. P. 44. Philipp 2.12 13. Heb. 10.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or a Discourse c. J.O. Page 254. P. 228. P. 164. P. 262. P. 206. P. 206. P. 209. P. 236. P. 334. P. 401. P. 421. P. 336. P. 187. P. 432. P. 433. 1 Cor. 2.14 P. 222 223. P. 217 218. P. 224. Sect. 38. P. 218. Sect. 26. Sect. 29.30 Sect. 27. Sect. 26. Sect. 28. Sect. 42. Sect. 38 39 40 41. Sect. 31. Sect. 33. Sect. 38. Sect. 38. Thus St. Chrysostome upon the place Hom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This happens not through the nature of the thing but their disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wisdom that is without did not only not instruct men in the Mysteries of the Gospel but also hinder them Chrysost. in loc Hom. 7. But how it hindered them St. Chrysostome plainly tells us in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For these great men who rejected the Gospel were full of Pride Hom. 5. Sect. 39. Sect. 41. * This Text our Author produces in another place P. only to show his dislike of the sense thereof given in the Friendly Debate as any one may see by the impertinence of it to his design there For this is all he saies about it Some of late have put in faint and weak exceptions against this latter clause this Slanderer should have said against his interpretation of this clause viz. Demonstration of the Spirit c. as though not an evidence of the powerful presence of the Spirit of God in the dispensation of the Gospel was intended therein but the power of working Miracles contrary to the whole scope of the place and consent of the best Expositors Now unless the Doctor supposes that the Power of working Miracles was not an evidence of the powerful presence of the Spirit of God in the c. his exception is nonsense But I leave it to the Doctor 's second thoughts to consider with what modesty he could call that Authors apprehensions of the Demonstration c. faint and weak exceptions contrary to the whole scope of the place and consent of best Expositors after that excellent person hath vindicated them against his Adversary by such clear and solid Reasons and such pregnant Authorities as neither he nor any of his friends nor the Doctor for them have been able to say a wise word to But what can that man want a forehead to say who hath a face to pretend St. Chrysostome is for his turn in an interpretation of a place of Scripture wherein he is clearly contradicted by St. Chrysostome in three or four Homilies together out of one of which too he transcribes a passage in favour of his own sense as he pretends Now whether the Doctor be not guilty of this dishonesty I shall leave the Reader and him too to judge by the following marginal Notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys. in loc Hom. 4. Who of those that are busied in Syllogismes who of those that are skilled in the Jewish matters have saved men and made known the truth to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. The Doctrine of the Cross being a discourse not about any ordinary mean things but concerning God and true Piety and the Evangelical way of living and the Judgment of the world to come hath made all Believers Philosophers even rusticks and private men themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 6. For a demonstration by miraculous works and signs is much more clear and convincing than that by Philosophical Arguments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 7. Worldly wisdom was excelled not by foolishness but by a more perfect wisdome and that so much more perfect that it seemed foolishness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. I hear that Christ was crucified and thereupon I admire his love to mankind He that calls this foolishness when he hears it thinks the death of Christ was an argument of his weakness and inability to save himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 4. The Greeks require of us Oratory and Philosophical Arguments And this is that which St. Chrysost. calls so often the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wisdom that is without which prejudiced the Philosophers against the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 6. For the Apostle said I determined to know nothing in direct opposition to the wisdome that is without I came not forming Syllogisms and Sophisms nor saying any thing in that way to you but only that Christ was crucified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For a Mystery a revealed Doctrine needs no Philosophical Argumentation but 't is enough that it be barely declared what it is Hom. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 6. What should give men assurance of the truth of these things but the Demonstration of the Spirit for this is a clear demonstration for who I pray could see the dead raised and evil Spirits cast out and not receive Those Doctrines that were confirmed by these works That which the Apostles confirmed their Preaching withal were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Signs and Testimonies out of the old Scripture Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 4. For if we should go about to prove by natural reasons how that God was made man and entred into the Virgins womb instead of leaving these revealed matters to faith i. e. instead of proving them by testimonies of divine Revelation they would laugh at us more than they do already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 7. This Honour has God done to us that by our means others should hear his Mysteries For to those whom we make our friends we give this testimony of our friendship that we communicate our secrets to them before to any else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. If the Prophets spake of these things why saith he Ear hath not heard nor have entred into the heart of man c This is yet true for he speaks concerning humane nature for they did not hear as men but as Prophets i. e. what they knew of these matters they knew by Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 7. When a Spiritual Doubt ariseth we bring testimonies from Spiritual things for instance I say that Christ arose from the dead that he was born of a Virgin then I produce these testimonies types
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
signified too by that his dwelling in us which is mentioned in the New Testament but this in order to that more eminent blessing of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.4 5. I shall onely adde that as this presence of God still denotes his goodness and mercy as was proved by St. Paul's interpretation of it 2 Cor. 6.16 so dwelling does according to the propriety of the word signifie that this grace and goodness shall not be transitory but abiding while the condition abides upon which it is promised and that condition is no other than this that we be careful to keep the Commandments of God which is the second thing I am now to discourse of but before I attempt it I must confess that I am now falling upon a subject which belongs to the second Question viz. Who they are to whom the promise of the Holy Spirit is made which I shall fully treat of in the sixth Chapter But there is this excuse to be made for preventing some part of the designe of that Chapter that the consideration of the several ends and degrees of the Holy Spirit 's Operations is so neerly related to that which concerns the Objects of those Operations and so often interwoven with it that they cannot be so fully separated and distinctly treated of as we could wish Wherefore 2. I come to shew that they are onely good and holy men in whom God is said to dwell And this I think is not obscurely intimated by the Ark's being call'd peculiarly the Ark of his presence for as the Cherubims were the Symbols or visible Tokens of the divine presence in the most Holy place as the Mercy-seat signified the end of God's presence there viz. to dispense his blessings and graces amongst his people So the Ark being the peculiar place of his presence seems clearly to note upon what condition he would be thus gratious to them viz. if they would keep his Commandments the Tables whereof you know were laid up in that place How probably it might be inferred from hence that God dwells onely in good men I shall not say at present but sure I am that there is a true harmony between this explication of those Types and Figures and between the clear and evident Doctrines of the New Testament concerning this matter which I lay the greatest stress upon and which you may finde in such passages as these He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3.24 and the same is repeated Chap. 4. vers 13. Now doubtless he speaketh here of such a priviledge as those who kept not the Commandments of God had no reason to pretend to Again vers 14. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God i. e. who is not afraid of suffering for him vers 18. and hath overcome the world Chap. 5. vers 5. God dwelleth in him But in that place of St. Paul to the Corinthians which we have already noted it is observable that obedience and true holiness is made the condition of God's dwelling in us God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you i. e. I will then dwell in you as I have promised And this is yet more clear from the beginning of the next Chapter Having therefore these promises that God will dwell in us c. let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit that it may be unto us as God hath promised Now whereas the Apostle tells them vers 16. Ye are the temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in you c. we must observe that their being God's Temple signifies the right he had to their service but by his dwelling in them that peculiar favour and grace wherewith he would reward their obedience so that the Apostle useth a double Argument to perswade them to cleanse themselves 1. From their duty they ought so to do being God's Temple and this Argument he elsewhere more largely insists upon What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost in you the outward Court as it were of the Lord's house and that here especially noted because he was warning them to flee Fornication which is a sin that defiles the Body which ye have of God and ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods 1 Cor. 6.19 20. In which words it is plain that he principally urgeth them to consider the right by which their serving God by an holy use of themselves was due 2. From the reward of so doing for then as God hath said He will dwell in them and walk in them as in his Temple but not upon other terms Thus although the House of Israel was God's peculiar by vertue of that Covenant which he had made with them and his particular right to their service grounded thereupon which remained even when they rebelled against him yet when they did so he dwelt not amongst them he did not come unto them and bless them but forsook them and departed from his house although the Ark of his presence was still amongst them In like manner we who have been admitted into God's Covenant by Baptism and thereby consecrated to his use and service are become his Temple and peculiar and we cannot alienate his right to us But if we profane our selves if we defile the Temple of God if our Mindes be unholy and our Actions wicked God dwelleth not in us for what fellowship hath Righteousness with Unrighteousness What communion hath Light with Darkness They are those Virtues by which we grow like to God that make us capable of those Communications of the divine Spirit which are signified by his dwelling in us And the nearer we ascend to God by righteousness and true goodness which is a participation of the divine Nature the more freely and plentifully we receive the emanations of his grace and love It is the minde of a good Christian wherein God delighteth to dwell and to shew himself gratiously present For this is a Temple to speak in the language of the Metaphor where his glory is indeed spoken of Here his Name is honoured and his great Perfections adored his immense Presence his infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness effectually acknowledged not onely by a bare confession that there is a Being absolutely perfect but by affections suitable to the Divine Attributes his Goodness being here loved his Justice feared his Power and Wisdom reverenced his Fidelity and Truth
trusted and his Soveraign Dominion owned by a spirit of obedience and submission to it which are incomparably more effectual acknowledgments of the Divine perfections than whole Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices For this as our Saviour speaks is to worship God in spirit and in truth Such a Temple as this God is so delighted in that in comparison therewith he disregarded the Temple at Hierusalem with all the external services that belonged to it For that God dwelleth in pious mindes was not unknown to the Jews Where is the house that ye build unto me and where is the place of my rest To him will I look saith the Lord even to him that is poor and of a contrite heart and trembleth at my word Isa. 66.2 3. Thus saith the high and holy One that inhabiteth eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the spirit of the contrite ones Isa. 57.15 Let us now lay these things together and the conclusion will be that God's dwelling in men implies a plentiful communication of Divine grace to confirm and strengthen them in all goodness which was what I took upon me to shew under this head For since this expression of God's dwelling in men denotes the presence of a peculiar grace and favour to those in whom he is said to dwell which is not afforded to others Since the dwelling of the Holy Ghost in Believers is to enable them to mortifie the deeds of the body and to prevail finally against all their spiritual Enemies Since also it is true that God dwelleth in good and righteous but not in impure and unholy persons it follows in the first place that after we are regenerated it is still by the grace of God and the Operations of his Holy Spirit that we are enabled to proceed in vertue and godliness and to persevere therein to the end for God dwelleth in us that we may mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit Secondly it follows also that there is a more abundant measure of Divine Grace communicated to holy persons than to those who are not so For God's dwelling implies the presence of more than ordinary Grace And thus our Saviour also hath plainly told us To him that hath shall be given and he shall have abundantly Finally this Doctrine is very well consistent with that of attributing the beginnings of Christian Faith and goodness in us to the Operations of the Holy Spirit For although the Spirit of God dwells onely in good men yet it is by his Operations that any are made so at first and as the Apostle speaks we are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit Eph. 2.22 But his dwelling in us afterward signifies as we have shewn the more abundant grace we are made partakers of And thus although the blessings which all the World enjoyed while the Tabernacle and Temple stood flowed to Mankinde from the Divine bounty and goodness yet God was said to dwell onely among the Israelites because he had a more especial care of that people than of any other Nation in the World My designe in this Chapter was to shew that the beginnings and progress of that state whereby we are qualified for Heaven are in the Scriptures ascribed to the Operations of the Holy Spirit and that all Christian Vertues are the gifts and graces of God I might now prove by as convincing testimonies that perseverance in the Faith and obedience of the Gospel is the effect of a Divine Operation in us But this truth is so evidently consequent from what the Scripture asserts concerning God's dwelling in good men which I have largely enough discoursed of that I reckon it needless to produce any further testimonies to confirm it Thus have I discharged what I promised in the close of the last Chapter which was to prove that those Christian Vertues in which the state of Regeneration consists together with our improvement and perseverance in them are particularly ascribed in the Scriptures to the Operations of the Holy Spirit And from what hath been thus proved these things follow 1. That he who is endued with these Virtues hath the Spirit of God for they are the effects of his grace And to say that a man may be endued with them and yet be void of Grace is to contradict the Scriptures which ascribe them in whomsoever they are to the Operations of the Holy Spirit 2. And by consequence it is an idle supposition that God will be displeased with us though we be never so careful to do his Commands and to increase in Christian Virtues if all this while we have not the Spirit of God for the former cannot be without the latter 3. Wherefore also it is a vain thing to make our believing and obeying the Gospel on the one side and our having true Grace and the Spirit of God on the other distinct marks of a Regenerate state For if Faith and Obedience are the fruits of the Holy Spirit within us if they are Grace as that signifies the performance of our duty and the effects of Grace as that signifies Divine Assistance then having the Grace of God and the Spirit of God is not a mark of Regeneration distinct from believing and obeying the Gospel because this is Grace it self in the former and is it self the onely mark of Grace in the latter sence of the word i. e. of our having the Spirit of God And now I have not discoursed upon this subject out of the least suspition that there are any in this Church who deny the Qualifications of a true Disciple of Jesus to be the graces of the Holy Spirit For excepting Dr. Owen and some of his party and as those who are acquainted with them say the Quakers I do not know of any in England who may justly be suspected to use one of the Doctor 's phrases of being gone over into the Tents of the Pelagians Nor was it merely to vindicate the Ministers of this Church whose judgement in this matter I am acquainted with something better than our Author seems to be from the imputation of Pelagianism which with so much clamour and railing he hath charged them withal But principally to give those who believe what the Scripture thus plainly declares occasion to consider it again and to lay it to heart since there can hardly be a more effectual encouragement to Piety and Virtue than this that God will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him for all blessings needful for their eternal welfare And nothing will render the wilful sinner more inexcusable and more severely punishable than this that whilst he goes on in his wicked life he does despight unto the Spirit of Grace CHAP. V. Concerning pretended Gifts of the Spirit SECT I. HItherto I have shewn of what kinde those Effects are for which the Holy Spirit