and performed all Obedience as Thomas did in his great Confession My Lord and my God John 20. 28. Now as he had before intimated that those who disowned him and called him accursed did speak by the instinct and instigation of the Devil by whom they were acted So he lets them know on the other hand that no man can thus own and confess Jesus to be the Lord but by the Holy Ghost But it may be said that some acted by the unclean Spirit confessed Christ to be the Lord. So did the Man in the Synagogue who cryed out I know thee who thou art the Holy One of God Mark 1. 23 24. And vers 24. He suffered not the Devils to speak because they knew him And the Damsel possessed with a Spirit of Divination cryed after the Apostle saying These Men are the Servants of the most high God Acts 16. 17. So also did the Man who abode in the Tombs possessed with an unclean Spirit who cryed out unto him What have I to do with thee Jesus thou Son of the most high God Mark 5. 7. And other Testimonies to the like purpose among the Heathen and from their Oracles might be produced Ans. 1. Our Apostle speaks of such a saying of Jesus to be Lord as is accompanied with Faith in him and subjection of Soul unto him which is from the Holy Ghost alone Thus none acted by the unclean Spirit can call him Lord. 2. These Acknowledgments were either 1. wrested from the Devil and were no small part of his punishment and torment or 2 were designed by him with an intention to prejudice the Glory of Christ by his Testimony who was a Lyar from the Beginning And Malus bonum cum simulat tunc est pessimus These things therefore can have here no place Hereby then the Apostle informs them wherein the Foundation of all Church-Relation Order and Worship did consist For whereas they had all respect unto the Lordship of Christ and their acknowledgment thereof this was not from themselves but was a pure Effect of the Operation of the Holy Ghost in them and towards them And any thing of the like kind which doth not proceed from the same Cause and Fountain is of no Use to the Glory of God nor of any advantage unto the Souls of Men. Sect. 3 Some think that this saying of Jesus to be the Lord is to be restrained unto the manner of speaking afterwards insisted on For the Apostle in the following verses treateth of those Extraordinary Gifts which many in that Church were then endowed withall None can saith he say Jesus is the Lord in an extraordinary manner with divers tongues and in Prophesy but by the Holy Ghost Without his especial Assistance none can eminently and miraculously declare him so to be And if this be so it is likely that those before intended who said Jesus was accursed were some Persons pretending to be acted or really acted by an extraordinary Spirit which the Apostle declares not to be the Spirit of God And so Chrysostome interprets those words of them who were visibly and violently acted by the Devil Many such Instruments of his Malice did Satan stir up in those dayes to preserve if it were possible his tottering Kingdom from Ruine But there is no necessity thus to restrain the words or to affix this sense unto them Yea it seems to me to be inconsistent with the Design of the Apostle and Scope of the Place For intending to instruct the Corinthians as was said in the Nature Use and Exercise of Spiritual Gifts he first lays down the Spring and Fountain of all Saving Profession of the Gospel which those Gifts were designed to the furtherance and improvement of Hereupon having minded them of their Heathen State and Condition before he lets them know by what means they were brought into the Profession of the Gospel and owning of Jesus to be the Lord in opposition unto the dumb Idols whom they had served And this was by the Author of those Gifts unto whose consideration he was now addressing himself The great Change wrought in them as to their Religion and Profession was by the Holy Ghost For no Man can say that Jesus is the Lord which is the Sum and Substance of our Christian Profession but by him though some think he hath little or no concern at all in this matter But to say Christ is the Lord includes two things First Faith in him as Lord and Saviour So was he declared and preached by the Angels Luke 2. 11. A Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And this word Lord includes as the Dignity of his Person so his Investiture with those Offices which for our Good this Lord did exercise and discharge Secondly The profession of that Faith which two where they are sincere do always accompany each other Rom. 10. 10. For as the saying of Jesus to be Anathema did comprise an open Disclaimure and Abrenunciation of him so the calling of him Lord expresseth the Profession of our Faith in him and Subjection unto him And both these are here intended to be sincere and saving For that Faith and Profession are intended whereby the Church is built upon the Rock the same with that of Peter Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God Matth. 16. 16. And that these are the Works of the Holy Ghost which none of themselves are sufficient for shall God assisting be afterwards abundantly declared Sect. 4 Having thus stated the Original and Foundation of the Church in its Faith Profession Order and Worship he farther acquaints them that the same Spirit is likewise the Author of all those Gifts whereby it was to be built up and established and whereby the Profession of it might be enlarged V. 4. Now there are diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit These are the things which he intendeth to discourse upon wherein he enlargeth himself in the whole ensuing Chapter Now because the Particulars here insisted on by him in the beginning of his Discourse will all of them occur unto us and be called over again in their proper places I shall only point unto the Heads of the Discourse in the verses preceeding the Eleventh which we principally aim it Treating therefore ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of these Spiritual Things or Gifts in the Church he first declares their Author from whom they come and by whom they are wrought and bestowed Him he calls the Spirit v. 4. the Lord v. 5. God v. 6. And to denote the Oneness of their Author notwithstanding the diversity of the things themselves he calls him the same Spirit the same Lord the same God The words may be understood two wayes First That the whole Trinity and each Person distinctly should be intended in them For consider the immediate Operator of these Gifts and it is the Spirit or the Holy Ghost vers 4. Consider them as to their Procurement and immediate Authoritative Collation and so they are from Christ the Son
Things themselves concerning which we are to treat it will be necessary to speak something unto the Name whereby the Third Person in the Trinity is commonly known and peculiarly called in the Scripture This is the Spirit or the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost as we usually speak And this I shall do that we be not deceived with the Homonimy of the Word nor be at a loss in the intention of those places of Scripture where it is used unto other Purposes For it is so that the Name of the Second Person ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Word and of the Third ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Spirit are often applyed to signifie other things I mean those words are so And some make their Advantages of the ambiguous use of them But the Scripture is able of it self to manifest its own Intention and Meaning unto humble and diligent enquirers into it Sect. 2 It is then acknowledged that the use of the words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Old Testament and New is very various yet are they the words whereby alone the Holy Spirit of God is denoted Their peculiar signification therefore in particular places is to be collected and determined from the Subject Matter treated of in them and other especial Circumstances of them This was first attempted by the most Learned Didymus of Alexandria whose Words therefore I have set down at large and shall cast his Observations into a more perspicuous Method with such Additions as are needful for the further clearing of the whole Matter In general ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifie a Wind or Spirit that is any thing which moves and is not seen So the Air in a violent agitation is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Gen. 8. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And God made a Wind or Spirit that is a strong and mighty Wind to pass over the Earth for the driving and removal of the Waters So ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is used John 3. 8. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whether it goeth which is a proper description of this first signification of the Word It is an agitation of the Air which is unseen So Psal. 1. 4. And in this sense sometimes it signifies a violent and strong Wind that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Kings 19. 11. And sometimes a cool and soft Wind or a light easie agitation of the Air such as often ariseth in the Evenings of the Spring or Summer So Gen. 3. 8. God Walked in the Garden ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the cool of the Day that is when the Evening-Air began to breath gently and moderate the heat of the Day So in the Poet Solis ad occasum cum frigidus aera Vesper temperat Virgil. Georg. 3. At the going down of the Sun when the cold Evening tempers the Heat of the Air. And some think this to be the sense of that place Psal. 104. v. 4. Who maketh his Angels ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Spirits Swift agile powerful as mighty Winds But the Reader may consult our Exposition on Heb. 1. 7. Sect. 3 This is one signification of the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or this is one thing denoted by it in the Scripture So among many other places expresly Amos 4. 13. for lo ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He that formeth the Mountains and createth the Spirit that is the Wind. The LXX render this place ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã who establisheth the Thunder and createth the Spirit though some Copies read ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Mountains And the next words in the Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and declareth unto Man what is his Thought they render ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and declareth unto men his Christ or his Anointed or his Messiah For they took ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by inadvertency and not for want of Points or Vowels as some imagine seeing the Mistake consists in the casting out of a Letter it self And thence the old Latin Translation renders the words Firmans Tonitruum creans Spiritum annuncians in homines Christum suum Which Hierom rectified into formans Montes creans Ventum annuntians Homini eloquium suum discovering in his Comment the Mistake of the LXX But it is certain that from the Ambiguity of the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in this place with the corrupt Translations making mention of Christ in the next words some who of old denied the Deity of the Holy Spirit mightily insisted on it to prove him a Creature as may be seen in Didymus Ambrose Hierom Hilarius and the Ancients generally But the Context determines the signification of the Word beyond all just Exceptions It is the Power of God in making and disposing of things here below whether dreadful for their Greatness and Height as the Mountains or Mighty and Effectual in their operations as the Wind or Secret in their Conceptions as the Thoughts of men or stable in their Continuance as the Night and Day the Evening and Morning without the least respect to Christ or the Spirit that it treateth of Sect. 4 And I cannot but observe from hence the great necessity there is of searching the Original Text in the Interpretation of the Scriptures as it might be evidenced by a Thousand other Instances But one we may take from two Great and Learned Men who were Contemporaries in the Latin Church in their thoughts on this place The one is Ambrose who interpreting these words in his second Book de Spiritu Sancto cap. 1. being deceived by the corrupt Translation mentioned annuncians in homines Christum suum is forced to give a very strained Exposition of that which in Truth is not in the Text and to relieve himself also with another Corruption in the same place where forming the Mountains is rendred by establishing the Thunder and yet when he hath done all can scarce free himself of the Objection about the creation of the Spirit which he designs to answer His words are Siquis propheticum dictum ideo derivandum putet ad interpretationem Spiritus sancti quia habet annuncians in homines Christum suum is ad Incarnationis Dominicae Mysteria dictum facilius derivabit Nam si te movet quia Spiritum dixit hoc non putas derivandum ad Mysteria a assumptionis humanae persequere scripturas invenies ptime congruere de Christo de quo bene convenit aestimari quia firmavit tonitrua adventu suo vim videlicet sonum coelestium scripturarum quarâm velut quodam tonitru mentes nostrae redduntur attonitae timere disâââus reverentiam caelestibus deferamus oraculis Denique in Evangelio fratres Domini Filii tonitru dicebantur Et cum vox Patris facta esset dicentis ad Filium honorificavi te
crassa impletione accipiunt quam tamen talis ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã seu impletio locorum in Mundo omnium quae vel expansionem corpoream in quantitate continua vel multiplicationem imo infinitam multitudinem unius ejusdemque corporis in discreta praesupponit ex humana speculatione orta est falsoque nostris Ecclesiis aââingitur wherein yet he confesseth that it is taught Ne cogitanda quidem sit pio homini sed potius Omnipraesentia Christi Hominis uti promissa est modo nobis ineffabili credi multo certius aliunde sciri possit ex ipsius promissione Matth. 28. 20. This way as we say with the Scripture is by his Spirit the perfect manner of whose Presence and Operation is ineffable Sect. 6 Fourthly As he represents the Person and supplies the Room and Place of Jesus Christ so he worketh and effecteth what-ever the Lord Christ hath taken upon himself to Work and Effect towards his Disciples Wherefore as the Work of the Son was not his own Work but rather the Work of the Father who sent him and in whose Name he performed it so the Work of the Holy Spirit is not his own Work but rather the Work of the Son by whom he is sent and in whose Name he doth accomplish it John 16. 13 14 15. Howbeit when 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 he shall speak and he will shew you things to come He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you all things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shew it unto you He comes to reveal and communicate Truth and Grace to the Disciples of Christ. And in his so doing he speaks not of himself that is of himself only He comes not with any absolute new Dispensation of Truth or Grace distinct or different from that which is in and by the Lord Christ and which they had heard from him The Holy Spirit being promised unto the Disciples and all their Work and Duty being suspended on the accomplishment of that Promise whereas he is God they might suppose that he would come with some absolute new Dispensation of Truth so that what they had learned and received from Christ should pass away and be of no use unto them To prevent any such Apprehensions he lets them know that the Work he had to do was only to carry on and build on the Foundation which was laid in his Person or Doctrine or the Truth which he had revealed from the Bosom of the Father And this I take to be the meaning of that Expression For he shall not speak of himself he shall reveal no other Truth communicate no other Grace but what is in from and by my self This was the Holy Spirit to do and this he did and hereby may we try every Spirit whether it be of God That Spirit which revealeth any thing or pretendeth to reveal any Thing any Doctrine any Grace any Truth that is contrary unto that is not consonant to yea that is not the Doctrine Grace or Truth of Christ as now revealed in the Word that brings any thing new his own or of himself that Spirit is not of God So it is added 2. Whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak This which he hears is the whole Counsel of the Father and the Son concerning the Salvation of the Church And how is he said to hear it which word in its proper signification hath no place in the mutual internal Actings of the Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity Being the Spirit of the Father and the Son proceeding from both he is equally participant of their Counsels So the outward Act of Hearing is mentioned as the sign of his Infinite Knowledg of the Eternal Counsels of the Father and Son He is no stranger unto them And this is a general Rule That those words which with respect unto us express the means of any thing as applyed unto God intend no more but the signs of it Hearing is the means whereby we come to know the mind of another who is distinct from us And when God is said to hearken or hear it is a sign of his knowledg not the means of it So is the Holy Spirit said to hear those things because he knows them As he is also on the same account said to search the deep things of God Add hereunto that the Counsel of these things is originally peculiar to the Father and unto him it is every where peculiarly ascribed therefore is the participation of the Spirit therein as a distinct Person called his hearing Hereunto 3. his great Work is subjoyned He saith Christ shall glorifie me This is the Design that he is sent upon this is the Work that he comes to do even as it was the Design and Work of Jesus Christ to glorifie the Father by whom he was sent And this are they alwayes to bear in mind who stand in need of or pray for his Assistance in their Work or Office in the Church of God He is given unto them that through him they may give and bring Glory to Jesus Christ. And 4. how the Holy Spirit doth glorifie the Lord Christ is also declared He shall receive of mine and shew it unto you The Communication of Spiritual Things from Christ by the Spirit is here called his receiving of them as the communication of the Spirit from the Father by the Lord Christ to his Disciples is called the receiving of the Promise The Spirit cannot receive any thing subjectively which he had not as an addition unto him It is therefore the Oeconomy of these things that is here intended He is not said to receive them as though before he had them not For what can he who is God so receive only when he begins to give them unto us because they are peculiarly the things of Christ he is said to receive them For we can give nothing of anothers but what we receive of him Good things are given unto us from Christ by the Spirit For so it is added and shall shew them unto you He shall make them known unto you so declare them and manifestly evidence them to you and in you that you shall understand and have experience of them in your selves shew them by Revelation instructing you in them by communication imparting them to you And what are these things that he shall so declare They are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã my things saith our Saviour The things of Christ may be referred unto two Heads His Truth and His Grace John 1. 17. The first he shews by Revelation the latter by Effectual Communication His Truth he shewed unto them by Revelation as we have declared him to be the Immediate Author of all Divine Revelations This he did unto the Apostles by his Inspirations enabling
Mistakes about Ability to comply with Gods Commands 544 20 Abuse of the best Duties Possible 398 13 Abuse of spiritual Gifts 1 1 Abuse of Eternal Love devilish 525 14 Acquaintance with the Pollution of Sin necessary 394 11 Every Gracious Act of the Will wrought by the Holy Spirit 470 10 Difference between the Act of the Spirit in forming the Humane Nature of Christ and the Act of the Son in assuming it 133 12 To be acted by the Spirit what it is 468 11 How the Holy Prophets were Acted by the Spirit 104 10 All Actings of the Person of the Son of God towards the Humane Nature voluntary 129 6 Actings of the Holy Spirit not ascribed unto him exclusively 130 9 Internal Actings of the blessed Trinity where one Person is the Object of the Love of another natural and necessary to the Being of God 45 5 External Actings of one Divine Person towards another of what sort 46 5 All Actions internal and external to be tryed by the Word 412 3 Internal Acts of the Holy Trinity how undivided 131 9 All Acts of Natural Life from God 465 6 No Vital Acts under the Power of Death Spiritual 246 21 Act of the Holy Ghost in forming the Body of Christ a Creating Act. 132 Two-fold Event of Mens falls into Actual Sins 291 292 7 8 Actual Sins how they spring from Original Sins 289 5 Actual supplyes of Grace necessary to the Mortification of Sin 486 23 Actual assistance of Grace necessary unto Obedience 548 27 Adam how he had the Spirit of God in the state of Innocency 76 14 Adam had many things revealed unto him 100 6 Adherence and Assimulation Effects of of Love 496 Adjuncts of Divine Inspiration 103 9 Admiration an effect of love 514 26 Administration of Grace not equal at all times 547 24 Advantage and Priviledge in the Participation of the Gifts of the Spirit 83 7 Advantage of the New Testament in our Access to God 155 2 Advantage of Duties vitiated in their Performance 249 28 Great Advantage of spiritual Experience 342 Affections wrought upon and excited by Convictions 200 18 Affections fixed by Grace on spiritual things 201 18 Affections when renewed work sensibly 353 Affections how depraved how sanctified 285 57 Affections the Means of Convictions 294 13 Afflictions how they purge away sin 391 9 Afflictions how sanctified and made usefull ibid. Various Aggravations of the Defilement of Sin 379 Aggravations of sin in them who have received a Principle of Grace 549 29 All personal Properties assigned unto the Holy Spirit in the Scripture 48 8 Alienation from the Life of God what it is 216 22 Alienation of the Minds of men from the Gospel on what Ground 233 54 Allusion unto Local Motion in sending of the Spirit whence taken 84 8 Angels Gods Host. 70 6 Ministry of Angels about the Body of Christ when dead 147 10 Anointing at the Inauguration of Governours what it signified 117 The Spirit of Antichrist what it is 41 17 An Anti-Spirit set up in Opposition to the Spirit of God 19 23 Apostasie of the Church in several Ages with respect unto the Persons of the Holy Trinity 24 27 Apostasie of Christian Churches in the Rejection of the Holy Spirit and his Work 25 27 Apostasie from beginnings of Conversion how brought on 300 24 Appellations or Titles of the Holy Spirit in the Scripture 34 9 Appearances of the Holy Spirit under visible Signs 52 15 Appearances of Persons in Divine Visions 108 14 All Apprehensions of Divine Operations to be tryed by the Rule of the Word 187 Apprehension of Eternal danger from the Law before Conversion 308 31 Application of the Blood of Christ for the Cleansing of Sin 371 1 Application to the Blood of Christ for the Cleansing of Sin and the Nature of it 387 388 389 s. 5. 400 405 Applications of the Death of Christ unto the subduing of Sin wherein it consists 494 495 36 Arguments in Prayer for the further Communications of the Spirit 359 4 Weak Arguments for Holiness prejudicial to it 498 2 Arguments to prove the Divine Personality of the Holy Ghost 47 48 c. 8 Articulate Voyces in Divine Revelations how formed 106 12 Internal Assistance of the Spirit of God necessary to every Act of Obedience 465 5 Assumption the only immediate Act of the Person of the Son towards the Humane Nature 129 4 Assurance accompanying Divine Revelations 104 10 Assurance of Success and final preservation an Encouragement to Duties of Holiness 529 21 Assurance of the End an Encouragement unto the use of the Means 530 23 Attonement or Satisfaction not required of Sinners 331 13 False Wayes of making Attonement the Ground of all Superstition ibid. Vain Attempts for the Mortification of Sin 478 8 Auricular Confession an Invention to accommodate the Inclinations of all Flesh 380 Authority in giving the Spirit respects his Gifts and Grace 81 4 Authority of God gives Efficacy to the Word 259 13 Authority of God to be alwayes considered in his Commands 537 10 Sense of the Authority of God to be carried into all our Occasions 542 17 B. Baalam how a Prophet and how a Sorcerer 110 17 Baptized into the Name of the Holy Spirit as into the Father and Son 51 14 Baptisme of Christ the time of his being anointed unto his Prophetical Office 139 140 5 Baptism is not Regeneration 179 15 All that are duely Baptized are not Regenerate 180 16 Baptism how it expresseth our Sanctification 371 2 Baptism washeth not away Sin virtute Operis operati 380 Beauty of the Soul in its Conformity unto God 376 5 Beginning and Ending of the Gift of Prophesie 100 6 Beginnings of Holiness small like seed 340 4 Beginning of Good from our selves a Pelagian Fiction 467 9 Believers alone receive the Spirit in what sense 82 5 Believers much unacquainted with the Nature of Holiness and their own interest therein 327 10 Believers the only Subject of Sanctification 356 6 Benefit and use of the Word Preached 341 5 Benignity and Charity the great Resemblances of God 515 28 Blasphemy of the Jewes against the Name of Jesus 3 3 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost 64 29 Blindness of may about the Nature of Sin 479 11 The Blood of Christ how it cleanseth from sin 384 3 The Blood of Christ that purgeth sin is the Blood of his sacrifice 385 4 Blood in Sacrifice both Offered and Sprinkled 385 4 The Blood of Christs Sacrifice alwayes in the same condition as to Efficacy 386 Boasting and Despondency prevented by the same Means 345 6 Bodily strength given by the Spirit of God 118 24 Bodily Absence of Christ how supplyed by the Holy Spirit 161 6 Body of Christ formed of the substance of the Blessed Virgin Reasons thereof 132 The Body how depraved by Sin 366 The Body how sanctified 368 Bounty expressed in pouring forth the Spirit 87 13 The Spirit how called the Breath of Gods Mouth 39 13 How God Breathed into
accompanyed with irrecoverable and eternal Ruine And so is nothing else in the World So Mark 3. 28 29. All sins shall be forgiven unto the Sons of Men and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgivness Or He that speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this World nor in the World to come Matth. 12. 32. There remains nothing for him who doth despite to the Spirit of Grace but a certain fearful looking-for of Judgment and fiery Indignation that shall devour the Adversaries Heb. 10. 27 29. This is that sin unto death whose remission is not to be prayed for 1 Joh. 5. 16 For He having taken upon him to make effectual unto us the great Remedy provided in the blood of Christ for the Pardon of our Sins if He in the Prosecution of that Work be dispised blasphemed despitefully used there neither is Relief nor can there be Pardon for that Sin For whence in that Case should they arise or Spring As God hath not another Son to offer another sacrifice for Sin so that he by whom his Sacrifice is despised can have none remaining for him no more hath he another Spirit to make that Sacrifice effectual unto us if the Holy Ghost in his work be despised and rejected This therefore is a tender Place We cannot use too much Holy Diligence in our Enquiries after what God hath revealed in his Word concerning his Spirit and his Work seeing there may be so fatal a miscarriage in an opposition unto him as the Nature of Man is incapable of in any other Instance And these Considerations belong unto the first Head of Reasons of the Importance Use and Necessity of the Doctrine proposed to be enquired into They are enough to manifest what is the Concernment of all Believers herein For on the Account of these things the Scripture plainly declares as we observed before that he who hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his their Portion is not in him they shall have no benefit by his Mediation Men may please themselves with a Profession of being Christians and owning the Gospel whilst they dispise the Spirit of God both name and thing Their Condition we shall examine and judge by the Scripture before we come to the End of this Discourse And for the Scripture it self whoever reads the Books of the New-Testament besides the great and precious Promises that are given concerning him in the Old will find and conclude unless he be prepossessed with Prejudice that the whole of what is declared in those Writings turns on this only hinge Remove from them the consideration of the Spirit of God and his Work and it will be hard to find out what they aim at or tend unto Sect. 15 Secondly The great Deceit and Abuse that hath been in all Ages of the Church under the Pretence of the Name and Work of the Spirit make the through-consideration of what we are taught concerning them exceeding necessary Had not these things been Excellent in themselves and so acknowledged by all Christians they would never have been by so many falsely pretended unto Men do not seek to adorn themselves with Rags or to boast of what on its own account is under just contempt And according to the worth of things so are they liable to abuse And the more excellent any thing is the more vile and pernitious is an undue Pretence unto it Such have been the false Pretences of some in all Ages unto the Spirit of God and his work whose real Excellencies in themselves have made those pretences abominable and unspeakably dangerous For the better the things are which are counterfeited the worse always are the Ends they are employed unto In the whole World there is nothing so vile as that which pretendeth to be God and is not nor is any other thing capable of so pernicious an abuse Some Instances hereof I shall give both out of the Old Testament and the New Sect. 16 The most signal Gift of the Spirit of God for the Use of the Church under the Old Testament was that of Prophesy This therefore was deservedly in Honour and Reputation as having a great impression of the Authority of God upon it and in it of his Neerness unto Man Besides those in whom it was had justly the Conduct of the Minds and Consciences of others given up unto them For they spake in the Name of God and had his warranty for what they proposed which is the highest security of Obedience And these things caused many to pretend unto this Gift who were indeed never inspired by the Holy Spirit but were rather on the contrary acted by a Spirit of Lying and uncleanness For it is very probable that when Men falsly and in meer pretence took upon them to be Prophets divinely inspired without any antecedent Diabolical Enthusiasm that the Devil made use of them to compass his own Designs Being given up by the righteous Judgment of God unto all Delusions for belying his Spirit and holy Inspirations they were quickly possessed with a Spirit of Lying and unclean Divination So the false Prophets of Ahab who encouraged him to go up unto Ramoth Gilead foretelling his prosperous success 1 Kings 22. 6. seemed only to have complied deceitfully with the Inclinations of their Master and to have out-acted his other Courtiers in Flattery by gilding it with a pretence of Prophesy But when Micaiah came to lay open the Mystery of their Iniquity it appeared that a Lying Spirit by the permission of God had possessed their Minds and gave them Impressions which being Supernatural they were deceived as well as they did deceive v. 21 22 23. This they were justly given up unto pretending falsly unto the Inspiration of that Holy Spirit which they had not received And no otherwise hath it fallen out with some in our Days whom we have seen visibly acted by an extraordinary Power unduely pretending unto Supernatural Agitations from God they were really acted by the Devil a thing they neither desired nor looked after but being surprized by it were pleased with it for a while as it a was with sundry of the Quakers at their first appearance Sect. 17 Now these false Prophets of old were of two sorts both mentioned Deut. 18. 20. First such as professedly served other Gods directing all their Prophetick actings unto the Promotion of their Worship Such were the Prophets of Baal in whose name expresly they prophesied and whose Assistance they invocated They called on the name of Baal saying O Baal hear us 1 Kings 18 26 27 28. Many of these were slain by Elijah and the whole Race of them afterwards extirpated by Jehu 2 Kings 25 26 27 28. This put an End to his Diety for it is said he destroyed Baal out of Israel false Gods having no Existence but in the deceived Minds of their Worshippers It may be asked why these
and to obey he knows not why be the Properties of Christians see Rom. 12. 2. Ephes. 5. 8 9 10 11. Phil. 1. 10. 1 Thess. 5. 21. The other so far as was needful to preserve the Church in Truth and Peace was provided for in those Primitive Times whilst there was a real communication of extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit and so more occasion given to the false Pretence of them and more danger in being deceived by them by a peculiar Gift of discerning them bestowed on some amongst them 1 Cor. 12. 10. Discerning of Spirits is reckoned among the Gifts of the Spirit So had the Lord graciously provided for his Churches that some among them should be enabled in an extraordinary manner to discern and judg of them who pretended unto extraordinary actings of the Spirit And upon the ceasing of Extraordinary Gifts really given from God the Gift also of discerning Spirits ceased and we are left unto the Word alone for the tryal of any that shall pretend unto them Now this kind of Pretence was so common in those dayes that the Apostle Paul writing to the Thessalonians to caution them that they suffered not themselves to be deceived in their Expectation and Computations about the Time of the coming of Christ in the first place warns them not to be moved in it by Spirit 2 Thess. 2. 2. That is Persons pretending unto Spiritual Revelations Something also of this nature hath continued and broken out in succeeding Ages and that in Instances abominable and dreadful And the more eminent in any Season are the real Effusions of the Holy Spirit upon the Ministers of the Gospel and Disciples of Christ the more Diligence and Watchfulness against these Delusions are necessary For on such opportunities it is when the Use and Reputation of Spiritual Gifts is eminent that Satan doth lay hold to intrude under the colour of them his own deceitful Suggestions In the dark Times of the Papacy all Stories are full of Satanical Delusions in Phantastical Apparitions Horrors Spectrums and the like Effects of Darkness It was seldom or never that any falsly pretended to the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Spirit For these things were then of little use or request in the World But when God was pleased to renew really a fresh communication of Spiritual Gifts and Graces unto Men in and upon the Reformation the old Dreads and Terrors nightly Appearances tending unto Deeds of Darkness vanished and every where by Satans Instigation arose false Pretenders to the Spirit of God in which way of delusion he will still be more active and industrious as God shall increase the Gifts and Graces of his Spirit in his Churches though as yet in these latter Ages he hath not attained what he was arrived unto in the Primitive Times of the Gospel A full and clear Declaration from the Scripture of the Nature of the Holy Spirit and his Operations may through the blessing of God be of use to fortifie the Minds of Professors against Satanical Delusions counterfeiting his Actings and Inspirations For Directions unto this purpose are given us by the Holy Apostle who lived to see great havock made in the Churches by deluding Spirits Knowledg of the Truth trying of Spirits that go abroad by the Doctrines of the Scriptures Dependence on the Holy Spirit for his Teachings according to the Word are the Things which to this purpose he commends unto us Sect. 23 Thirdly There is in the Dayes wherein we live an anti-Anti-Spirit set up and advanced against the Spirit of God in his Being and all his Operations in his whole Work and Use towards the Church of God For this new Spirit takes upon him whatever is promised to be effected by the good Spirit of God This is that which some Men call the Light within them though indeed it be nothing but a dark Product of Satan upon their own Imaginations or at best the Natural Light of Conscience which some of the Heathens also called a Spirit But hereunto do they trust as that which doth all for them leaving no room for the Promise of the Spirit of God nor any thing for him to do This teacheth them instructs them enlightens them to this they attend as the Samaritans to Simon Magus and as they say yield Obedience unto it And from hence with the Fruits of it do they expect Acceptation with God Justification and Blessedness hereafter And one of these two things these deluded Souls must fix upon namely that this Light whereof they speak is either the Holy Spirit of God or it is not If they say it is the Spirit it will be easie to demonstrate how by their so saying they utterly destroy the very Nature and Being of the Holy Ghost as will evidently appear in our Explication of them And if they say that it is not the Holy Spirit of God which they intend thereby it will be no less manifest that they utterly exclude him on the other side from his whole Work and substitute another yea an Enemy in his room For another God is a false God another Christ is a false Christ and another Spirit is a false Spirit the Spirit of Antichrist Now because this is a growing Evil amongst us many being led away and seduced our Duty unto Jesus Christ and Compassion for the Souls of Men do require that our utmost indeavour in the wayes of Christ's Appointment should be used to obviate this Evil which eateth as doth a Canker which also is propagated by prophane and vain bablings encreasing still unto more ungodliness Some I confess do unduly rage against the Persons of those who have imbibed these Imaginations falling upon them with violence and fury as they do also on others The Lord lay it not unto their charge Yet this hinders not but that by those Weapons of our Warfare which are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down such like Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the Knowledg of God and bringing into Captivity every thought unto the Obedience of Christ We ought to attempt the destruction of their Errors and the breaking of the Snares of Satan by whom they are taken captive alive at his pleasure The course indeed of opposing Errors and false Spirits by Praying Preaching Writing is despised by them in whose furious and haughty minds Ure Seca Occide Burn Gût and Kill are alone of any signification that think Arise Peter kill and eat to be a Precept of more Use and Advantage unto them than all the Commands of Jesus Christ besides But the way proposed unto us by the Lord Jesus Christ himself walked in by his Holy Apostles and all the Ancient Holy Learned Writers of the Church is that which in these Matters we must and shall attend unto And that course which is particularly suited to obviate the Evil mentioned is to give a full plain evident Declaration from the Scripture of the
those to whom he wrote that in what was so preached unto them they had not followed cunningly devised Fables 2 Pet. 1. 16. For so were the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ then reported to be in the World What was preached concerning them was looked on as cunningly devised and artificially framed fables to inveagle and allure the People This the Apostle gives his Testimony against and withal appeals unto the Divine Assurance which they had of the Holy Truths delivered unto them v. 17 18 19 20. In like manner our Lord Jesus Christ himself having preached the Doctrine of Regeneration unto Nicodemus he calls it into Question as as thing incredible or unintelligible Joh. 3. 4. For whose Instruction and the Rebuke of his Ignorance he lets him know that he spake nothing but what he brought with him from Heaven from the Eternal Fountain of Goodness and Truth v. 11 12. 13. It is fallen out not much otherwise in this Matter Sect. 31 The Doctrine concerning the Spirit of God and his Work on the Souls of Men hath been preached in the World What he doth in convincing Men of Sin what in Working Godly Sorrow and Humiliation in them what is the exceeding Greatness of his Power which he puts forth in the Regeneration and Sanctification of the Souls of Men What are the supplys of Grace which he bestowes on them that do believe what Assistance he gives unto them as the Spirit of Grace and Supplications hath been preached taught and pressed on the minds of them that attend unto the Dispensation of the Word of the Gospel Answerable hereunto Men have been urged to try search examine them-selves as to what of this Work of the Holy Ghost they have found observed or had experience to have been effectually accomplished in or upon their own Souls And hereon they have been taught that the Great Concernments of their Peace Comfort and Assurance of their Communion among themselves as the Saints of God with many other Ends of their Holy Conversation do depend Nay it is and hath been constantly taught them that if there be not an effectual Work of the Holy Ghost upon their hearts that they cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Now these things and whatever is spoken in the Explication of them are by some called in Question if not utterly rejected Yea some look on them as cunningly devised Fables Things that some not long since invented and others have propagated for their Advantage Others say that what is delivered concerning them is hardly if at all to be understood by Rational Men being only empty Speculations about things wherein Christian Religion is little or not at all concerned Whereas therefore many very many have received these things as Sacred Truths and are perswaded that they have found them realized in their own Souls so that into their Experience of the work of the Holy Spirit of God in them and upon them according as it is declared in the Word all their Consolation and Peace with God is for the most part resolved as that which gives them the best Evidence of their Interest in him who is their Peace and whereas for the Present they do believe that unless these things are so in and with them they have no Foundation to build an Hope of Eternal Life upon it cannot but be of indispensible necessity unto them to examine and Search the Scripture diligently whether these things be so or no. For if there be no such Work of the Spirit of God upon the Hearts of Men and that indispensibly necessary to their Salvation if there are no such Assistances and supplys of Grace needful unto every Good Duty as wherein they have been instructed then in the whole course of their Profession they have only been seduced by cunningly devised Fables their deceived hearts have fed upon ashes and they are yet in their Sins It is then of no less consideration and Importance than the eternal welfare of their Souls immediately concerned therein can render it that they diligently trye examine and search into these things by the safe and infallible Touchstone and Rule of the Word whereon they may must and ought to venture their Eternal Condition I know indeed that most Believers are so far satisfyed in the Truth of these things and their own Experience of them that they will not be moved in the least by the Oppositions which are made unto them and the scorn that is cast upon them For he that beleiveth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself 1 Joh. 5. 10. But yet as Luke wrote his Gospel to Theophilus that he might know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed Luke 1. 4. that is to confirm him in the Truth by an Addition of new Degrees of Assurance unto him so it is our Duty to be so far excited by the Clamorous Oppositions that are made unto the Truths which we Profess and in whose being such we are as much concerned as our Souls are worth to compare them diligently with the Scripture that we may be the more fully confirmed and established in them And upon the Examination of the whole matter I shall leave them to their option as Elijah did of Old if Jehovah be God serve him and if Baal be God let him be worshipped If the things which the Generality of Professors do believe and acknowledg concerning the Spirit of God and his Work on their Hearts his Gifts and Graces in the Church with the manner of their Communication be for the substance of them wherein they all generally agree according to the Scripture taught and revealed therein on the same terms as by them received them may they abide in the Holy Profession of them and rejoyce in the Consolations they have received by them But if these things with those other which in the Application of them to the Souls of Men are directly and necessarily deduced and to be deduced from them are all but vain and useless Imaginations it is high time the Minds of Men were disburthened of them The Name and Titles of the HOLY SPIRIT CHAP. II. 1. Of the Name of the Holy Spirit 2. Various Uses of the words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã for the Wind or any thing invisible with a sensible Agitation 3. Amos 4. 14. Mistakes of the Antients rectified by Hierom. 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã metaphorically for vanity 6. Metonymically for the part or quarter of any thing 7. For our Vital Breath The Rational Soul The Affections Angels good and bad 8. Ambiguity from the Use of the Word how to be removed Rules concerning the Holy Spirit The Name Spirit how peculiar and appropriate unto him Why he is called the Holy Spirit Whence called the Good Spirit The Spirit of God The Spirit of the Son Acts 2. 33. 1 Pet. 1. 10 11. explained 1 John 4. 3. vindicated Sect. 1 BEfore we ingage into the consideration of the
For that Spirit who appeared before the Lord and offered himself to be a lying spirit in the Mouths of Ahab's Prophets was no other but he who appeared before God Job 1. who is called Satan These in the New Testament are called unclean Spirits Matth. 10. 1. And the Observation of the Ancients that Satan is not called a Spirit absolutely but with an Addition or Mark of Distinction holds only in the New Testament And because Evil Spirits are wont to torment the Minds and Bodies of Men therefore evil Thoughts disorders of Mind wicked Purposes disquieting and vexing the Soul arising from or much furthered by Melancholy Distempers are called it may be sometimes an Evil Spirit The Case of Saul shall be afterwards considered Sect. 8 In such variety are these words used and applyed in the Scripture because of some very general Notions wherein the things intended do agree For the most part there is no great difficulty in discovering the especial meaning of them or what it is they signifie in the several places where they occur Their Design and Circumstances as to the Subject Matter treated of determine the signification And notwithstanding the ambiguous Use of these words in the Old and New Testament there are two things clear and evident unto our purpose First That there is in the Holy Scriptures a full distinct Revelation or Declaration of the Spirit or the Spirit of God as one singular and every way distinct from every thing else that is occasionally or constantly signified or denoted by that Word Spirit And this not only a multitude of particular places gives testimony unto but also the whole course of the Scripture supposeth as that without an acknowledgment whereof nothing else contained in it can be understood or is of any use at all For we shall find this Doctrine to be the very Life and Soul which quickens the whole from first to last Take away the Work and powerful Efficacy of the Holy Spirit from the administration of it and it will prove but a dead Letter of no saving advantage to the Souls of Men and take away the Doctrine concerning him from the writing of it and the whole will be unintelligible and useless Secondly That what-ever is affirmed of this Holy Spirit the Spirit of God it all relates either to his Person or his Operations And these Operations of his being various are sometimes by a Metonymy called Spirit whereof afterwards I shall not therefore need to prove that there is an Holy Spirit distinct from all other Spirits whatever and from every thing else that on several Occasions is signified by that Name For this is acknowledged by all that acknowledg the Scriptures yea it is so by Jews and Mahometans as well as all sorts of Christians And indeed all those false apprehensions concerning him which have at this day any countenance given unto them may be referred unto two Heads 1. That of the Modern Jews who affirm the Holy Ghost to be the influential fluential Power of God which conceit is entertained and diligently promoted by the Socinians 2. That of the Mahumetans who make him an eminent Angel and sometimes say it is Gabriel which being traduced from the Maâedonians of old hath found some Defenders and Promoters in our dayes Sect. 9 This then being the Name of him concerning whom we treat some things concerning it and the use of it as peculiarly applyed unto him are to be premised For sometimes he is called âhe Spirit absolutely sometimes the Holy Spirit or as we speak the Holy Ghost sometimes the Spirit of God the Good Spirit of God the Spirit of Truth and Holiness sometimes the Spirit of Christ or of the Son The first absolutely used denotes his Person the Additions express his Properties and Relation unto the other Persons In the Name Spirit two things are included First his Nature or Essence namely that he is a pure spiritual or immaterial Substance For neither the Hebrews nor the Greeks can express such a Being in its Subsistence but by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Spirit Nor is this Name firstly given unto the Holy Spirit in allusion unto the Wind in its Subtilty Agility and Efficacy For these things have respect only unto his Operations wherein from some general Appearances his Works and Effects are likened unto the Wind and its Effects Joh. 3. 8. But it is his Substance or Being which is first intended in this Name So it is said of God Joh. 4. 24. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God is a Spirit that is he is of a pure spiritual immaterial Nature not confined unto any place and so not regarding one more than another in his Worship as is the design of the place to evince It will therefore be said that on this account the Name of Spirit is not peculiar unto the third Person seeing it contains the Description of that Nature which is the same in them all For whereas it is said God is a Spirit it is not spoken of this or that Person but of the Nature of God abstractedly I grant that so it is and therefore the name Spirit is not in the first place characteristical of the Third Person in the Trinity but denotes that Nature whereof each Person is partaker But moreover as it is peculiarly and constantly ascribed unto Him it declares his especial Manner and Order of Existence So that where-ever there is mention of the Holy Spirit his Relation unto the Father and Son is included therein for he is the Spirit of God And herein there is an allusion to somewhat created Not as I said to the Wind in general unto whose Agility and Invisibility he is compared in his Operations but unto the Breath of man For as the vital breath of a man hath a continual Emanation from him and yet is never separated utterly from his Person or forsaketh him so doth the Spirit of the Father and the Son proceed from them by a continual Divine Emanation still abiding one with them For all these Allusions are weak and imperfect wherein substantial things are compared with Accidental Infinite things with Finite and those that are Eternal with those that are Temporary Hence their disagreement is infinitely more than their Agreement yet such Allusions doth our weakness need instruction from and by Thus he is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Psal. 33. 6. The Spirit or Breath of the Mouth of the Lord or of his Nostrils as Psal. 18. 15. wherein there is an eminent Allusion unto the Breath of a Man Of the manner of this proceeding and emanation of the Spirit from the Father and the Son so far as it is revealed and as we are capable of an useful Apprehension of it I have treated elsewhere And from hence or the Subsistence of the Holy Spirit in an eternal Emanation from the Father and Son as the Breath of God did our Saviour signifie his Communication of
9. So the Evil Spirit came upon him to excite out of his own adust Melancholy discontents fears a sense of Guilt as also to impress terrifying thoughts and Apprehensions on his Imagination For so it is said an Evil Spirit from the Lord ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Sam. 16. 14. terrified him frightened him with dreadful Agitations of Mind And that we may touch a little on this by the way The Foundation of this Trouble and distress of Saul lay in himself For as I do grant that he was sometimes under an immediate Agitation of Body and Mind from the powerful Impressions of the Devil upon him for under them it is said he prophesied in the midst of the House 1 Sam. 18. 10. which argues an extraordinary and involuntary Effect upon him yet principally he wrought by the Excitation and Provocation of his Personal Distempers Moral and Natural For these have in themselves a great Efficacy in cruciating the Minds of Guilty Persons So Tacitus observes out of Plato Annal. lib. 6. Neque frustra praestantissimus humanae sapientiae firmare solitus est si recludantur Tyrannorum mentes posse aspici laniatus ictus quando ut corpora verberibus ita saevitia libidine malis consultis animus dilaceretur The most Eminent Wiseman was not wont in vain to affirm that if the minds of Tyrants were laid open and discovered it would be seen how they were cruciated and punished seeing that as the Body is rent and torn by stripes so is the Mind by cruelty Lusts evil Counsels and Undertakings so he as I suppose from Plato de Repub. lib. 9. Where Socrates disputes sundry things to that purpose And another Roman Historian gives us a signal Instance hereof in Jugurtha after he had contracted the Guilt of many horrible wickednesses And yet this Work in it self is of the same kind with what God sometimes employs holy Angels about because it is the Execution of his Righteous Judgments So it was a watcher and an Holy One that in such a Case smote Nebuchadnezzar with a sudden madness and frenzy Dan. 4. 13 14. Sect. 12 To return as he is called the Holy so he is the Good Spirit of God Psal. 143. v 10. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Thy Spirit is Good lead me into the Land of Uprightness So Ours Rather Thy Good Spirit shall lead Me. Or as Junius Spiritu tuo bono deduc me lead me by thy Good Spirit The Chaldee here adds ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Good Spirit of thy Holiness or thy Holy Good Spirit Didymus Lib. 2. de Spirit Sanc. says that some Copies here read ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Remembrance whereof is in the M. S. of Tâcla and not elsewhere So Nehem. 9. 10. Thou gavest them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that Good Spirit of thine to instruct them And he is called so principally from his Nature which is essentially Good as there is none Good but One that is God Matth. 19. 17. as also from his Operations which are all Good as they are Holy and unto them that believe are full of goodness in their Effects Crel Prolegom p. 7. distinguisheth between this Good Spirit and the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost For this Good Spirit he would confine unto the Old Testament making it the Author or Cause of those Gifts of Wisdom Courage Prudence and Government that were granted unto many of the People of old So it is said of Bezaliel That he was filled with the Spirit of God in Wisdom and Understanding and in Knowledg Exod. 31. 3. So Chap. 35. 31. That is saith he with this Good Spirit of God So also it is pretended in all those Places where the Spirit of God is said to come on Men to enable them unto some great and extraordinary Work as Judg. 3. 10. But this is plainly to contradict the Apostle who tells us that there are indeed various Operations but one Spirit and that the one and self same Spirit worketh all these things as he pleaseth And if from every different or distinct Effect of the Spirit of God we must multiply Spirits and assign every one of them to a distinct Spirit no Man will know what to make of the Spirit of God at last Probably we shall have so many feigned Spirits as to lose the only true One. As to this particular Instance David prays that God would lead him by his Good Spirit Psal. 143. 10. Now certainly this was no other but that Holy Spirit which he prays in another place that the Lord would not take from him Psal. 51. 11. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me which is confessed to be the Holy Ghost This he also mentions 2 Sam. 23. 2. The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his Word was in my Tongue And what Spirit this was Peter declares 1 Epist. Chap. 1. v. 21. The Holy Men of God spake in old time as they were moved by the Holy Ghost So vain is this pretence Sect. 13 Again He is commonly called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Lord So in the first mention of Him Gen. 1. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Spirit of God moved on the Face of the Waters And I doubt not but that the Name ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Elohim which includes a plurality in the same Nature is used in the Creation and the whole Description of it to intimate the Dictinction of the Divine Persons For presently upon it the Name Jehovah is mentioned also Chap. 2. 4. but so as Elohim is joyned with it But that Name is not used in the account given us of the Work of Creation because it hath respect onely unto the Unity of the Essence of God Now the Spirit is called the Spirit of God originally and principally as the Son is called the Son of God For the Name of God in those Enunciations is taken personally for the Father that is God the Father the Father of Christ and our Father John 20. 17. And he is thus termed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã upon the account of the Order and Nature of Personal Subsistence and Distinction in the Holy Trinity The Person of the Father being Fons Origo Trinitatis the Son is from him by eternal Generation and is therefore his Son the Son of God whose denomination as the Father is originally from hence even the Eternal Generation of the Son So is the Person of the Holy Spirit from him by eternal Procession or Emanation Hence is that Relation of his to God even the Father whence he is called the Spirit of God And he is not only called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Spirit of God but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Spirit that is of God which proceedeth from him as a Distinct Person This therefore arising from and consisting in his proceeding from him he is called Metaphorically the Breath of his Mouth as proceeding from him by an eternal Spiration On this Foundation and Supposition he is
rather coming upon him He that is John the Baptist not Christ himself The Relative ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã refers in this Place to the more remote Antecedent For although he that is Christ himself also saw the descending of the Holy Spirit yet I suppose this relates unto that Token which was to be given of him unto John whereby he should know him Joh. 1. 32 33. The following words are ambiguous For that Expression like a Dove may refer to the manner of his descending descending in a bodily shape as a Dove descends Or they may respect the manner of his Appearance he appeared like a Dove descending And this sense is determined in the other Evangelists to the bodily shape wherein he descended He took the form or shape of a Dove to make a visible Representation of himself by For a visible Pledg was to be given of the coming of the Holy Ghost on the Messiah according to the Promise and thereby did God direct his great forerunner to the Knowledg of him Now this was no real Dove That would not have been a thing so Miraculous as this Appearance of the Holy Ghost is represented to be And the Text will not bear any such Apprehension though it was entertained by some of the Antients For it is evident that this shape of a Dove came out of Heaven He saw the Heavens opened and the Dove descending that is out of Heaven which was opened to make way as it were for him Moreover the Expression of the Opening of the Heavens is not used but with respect unto some Appearance or Manifestation of God himself And so or which is the same the bowing of the Heavens is often used Psal. 144. 5. Isa. 64. 1. Bow thy Heavens O Lord and come down 2 Sam. 22. 10. Ezek. 1. 1. The Heavens were opened and I saw the Visions of God So Acts 7. 56. God used not this Sign but in some manifestation of himself And had not this been an Appearance of God there had been no need of bowing or opening the Heavens for it And it is plainly said that it was not a Dove but the shape or representation of a Dove It was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a bodily shape and that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of a Dove Sect. 16 As then at the beginning of the old Creation the Spirit of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã incubabat came and fell on the Waters cherishing the whole and communicating a prolifick and vivifick Quality unto it as a Fowl or Dove in particular gently moves it self upon its Eggs until with and by its generative warmth it hath communicated vital heat unto them so now at the entrance of the new Creation he comes as a Dove upon Him who was the immediate Author of it and virtually comprized it in himself carrying it on by vertue of his Presence with him And so this is applyed in the Syriack Ritual of Baptism composed by Severinus in the account given of the Baptism of Christ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And the pirit of Holiness descended flying in the likeness of a Dove and rested upon him and moved on the Waters And in the assumption of this form there may be some respect unto the Dove that brought tydings to Noah of the ceasing of the Flood of Waters and of the ending of the Wrath of God who thereon said that he would curse the Earth no more Gen. 8. 11. For herein also was there a significant Representation of him who visited poor lost mankind in their cursed Condition and proclaimed Peace unto them that would return to God by him the Great Peace-maker Ephes. 2. 14 15. And this Work he immediately ingaged into on the resting of this Dove upon him Besides there is a natural aptness in that Creature to represent the Spirit that rested on the Lord Jesus For the known Nature and Course of a Dove is such as is meet to mind us of Purity and harmless Innocencie Mat. 10. 16. Hence is that Direction Be harmless as Doves So also the sharpness of its sight or eyes as Cant. 1. 16. Chap. 4. 1. is fixed on to represent a quick and discerning Understanding such as was in Christ from the resting of the Spirit upon him Isa. 11. 3. Sect. 14 The shape thereof that appeared was that of a Dove but the Substance it self I judge was of a fiery Nature an aethereal Substance shaped into the form or resemblance of a Dove It had the shape of a Dove but not the appearance of Feathers Colours or the like This also rendred the appearance the more Visible Conspicuous Heavenly and Glorious And the Holy Ghost is often compared to Fire because he was of old typified or represented thereby For on the first solemn offering of Sacrifices there came fire from the Lord for the kindling of them Hence Theodotion of old rendred ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Gen. 4. 4. the Lord had respect to the Offering of Abel by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God fired the Offering of Abel sent down Fire that kindled his Sacrifice as a Token of his Acceptance However it is certain that at the first Erection of the Altar in the Wilderness upon the first Sacrifices fire came out from before the Lord and consumed on the Altar the Burnt-Offering and the Fat which when all the People saw they shouted and fell on their Faces Levit. 9. 24. And the Fire kindled hereby was to be perpetuated on the Altar so that none was ever to be used in Sacrifice but what was traduced from it For a neglect of this Intimation of the Mind of God were Nadab and Abihu consumed Chap. 10. 1. So was it also upon the Dedication of the Altar in the Temple of Solomon Fire came down from Heaven and consumed the Burnt-Offering 2 Chron. 7. 1. and a fire thence kindled was alwayes kept burning on the Altar And in like manner God bare Testimony to the Ministry of Elijah 1 King 18. 38 39. God by all these signified that no Sacrifices were accepted with him where Faith was not kindled in the Heart of the Offerer by the Holy Ghost represented by the Fire that kindled the Sacrifices on the Altar And in Answer hereunto is our Lord Jesus Christ said to offer himself through the eternal Spirit Heb. 9. 14. It was therefore most probably a fiery Appearance that was made And in the next bodily shape which he assumed it is expresly said that it was fiery Acts 2. 3. There appeared unto them cloven Tongues like as of Fire which was the Visible Token of the coming of the Holy Ghost upon them And he chose then that figure of Tongues to denote the Assistance which by the miraculous Gift of speaking with divers Tongues together with that Wisdom and Utterance which he furnished them withal for the Publication of the Gospel And thus also the Lord Christ is said to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Matth. 3. 11. Not two things are intended but the
latter words and with Fire are added ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the expression is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã with the Holy Ghost who is a Spiritual Divine Eternal Fire So God absolutely is said to be a consuming Fire Heb. 12. 29. Deut. 4. 24. And as in these words He shall Baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire there is a Prospect unto what came to pass afterwards when the Apostles received the Holy Ghost with a visible Pledg of fiery Tongues So there seems to be a Retrospect by way of Allusion unto what is recorded Isa. 6. 6 7. For a living or fiery Coal from the Altar where the Fire represented the Holy Ghost or his Work and Grace having touched the Lips of his Prophet his sin was taken away both as to the guilt and filth of it And this is the Work of the Holy Ghost who not onely sanctifieth us but by ingenerating Faith in us and the application of the Promise unto us is the Cause and Means of our Justification also 1 Cor. 6. 11. Tit. 3. 4 5 6 7. whereby our sins on both accounts are taken away So also his Efficacy in other places is compared unto Fire and Burning Isa. 4. 4 5. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the Daughters of Sion and shall have purged the Blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of Judgment and the Spirit of Burning He is compared both to Fire and Water with respect unto the same cleansing vertue in both So also Mal. 3. 2. Hence as this is expressed by the Holy Ghost and Fire in two Evangelists Matth. 3. 11. Luke 3. 16. So in the other two there is mention onely of the Holy Ghost Mark 8. John 1. 33. the same thing being intended I have added these things a little to clear the manner of this Divine Appearance which also belongs unto the Oeconomy of the Spirit Sect. 18 Now I say that this Appearance of the Holy Ghost in a bodily shape wherein he was represented by that which is a Substance and hath a Subsistence of his own doth manifest that he himself is a Substance and hath a Subsistence of his own For if he be no such thing but a meer influential Effect of the Power of God we are not taught right Apprehensions of him but mere mistakes by this Appearance For of such an accident there can be no substantial Figure or Resemblance made but what is monstrous It is excepted by our Adversaries Crell de Natur. Spirit Sanct. that a Dove is no Person because not endued with an Understanding which is essentially required unto the constitution of a Person And therefore they say no Argument can thence be taken for the Personality of the Holy Ghost But it is enough that he was represented by a subsisting Substance which if they will grant him to be we shall quickly evince that he is endued with a Divine Understanding and so is compleatly a Person And whereas they farther Object That if the Holy Ghost in the Appearance intended to manifest himself to be a Divine Person he would have appeared as a Man who is a Person for so God or an Angel in his Name appeared under the Old Testament it is of no more importance than the preceeding Exception The Holy Ghost did manifest himself as it seemed good unto him and some Reasons for the instructive Use of the shape of a fiery Dove we have before declared Neither did God of old appear only in an humane shape He did so sometimes in a burning fiery Bush Exod. 3. 2 4. Sometimes in a Pillâr of Fire or a Cloud Exod. 14. 24. Moreover the Appearances of God as I have elsewhere demonstrated under the Old Testament were all of them of the second Person and he assumed an Humane Shape as a preludium unto and a signification of his future personal Assumption of our Nature No such thing being intended by the Holy Ghost he might represent himself under what shape he pleased Yea the Representation of himself under an humane shape had been dangerous and unsafe for us For it would have taken off the Use of those instructive Appearances under the Old Testament teaching the Incarnation of the Son of God and also that sole Reason of such Appearances being removed namely that they had all respect unto the Incarnation of the Second Person as they would have been by the like appearance of the Third there would have been danger of giving a false Idea of the Deity unto the Minds of Men. For some might from thence have conceived that God had a bodily shape like unto us when none could ever be so fond as to imagine him to be like a Dove And these with the like Testimonies in general are given unto the Divine Personality of the Holy Spirit I shall next consider those Personal Properties which are particularly and distinctly ascribed unto him Sect. 19 First Understanding or Wisdom which is the first inseparable Property of an Intelligent Subsistence is so ascribed unto him in the Acts and Effects of it 1 Cor. 2. 10. The Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God What Spirit it is that is intended is declared expresly v. 12. For we have not received ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Spirit of the World are not acted by the Evil Spirit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but that Spirit which is of God a signal Description of the Holy Ghost So he is called his Spirit vers 10. God hath revealed these things unto us by his Spirit Now to search is an Act of Understanding And the Spirit is said to search because he knoweth v. 11. No man knoweth the things of a Man save the Spirit of a Man which is intimate unto all its own Thoughts and Counsels So the Things of God knoweth no Man but the Spirit of God and by him are they revealed unto us for by him we know the things that are freely given us of God v. 12. These things cannot be spoken of any but a Person endued with Understanding And he thus searcheth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the deep things of God that is the Mysteries of his Will Counsel and Grace and is therefore a Divine Person that hath an Infinite Understanding As it is said of God ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Isa. 40. 28. There is no End Measure or Investigation of his Understanding Psal. 147. 5. There is no number of his Understanding it is endless boundless infinite It is excepted Schilicting de Trinitat p. 605. that the Spirit is not here taken for the Spirit himself nor doth the Apostle express what the Spirit himself doth but what by the Assistance of the Holy Ghost men are enabled to do By that Believers are helped to search into the deep Counsels of God But as this Exception is directly against the words of the Text so the context will by no means admit of it For the Apostle giveth an account how the Wisdom Counsels and
of the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost said separate unto me He therefore alone is intended All the Answer which the Wit and Diligence of our Adversaries can invent is That these words are ascribed unto the Holy Ghost because the Prophets that were in the Church of Antioch spake therein by his Instinct and Inspiration But in this Evasion there is no regard unto the force of our Argument for we do not argue meerly from his being said to speak but from what is spoken by him separate unto me and do enquire whether the Prophets be intended by that word or no If so which of them for they were many by whom the Holy Ghost spake the same thing and some one must be intended in common by them all And to say that this was any of the Prophets is foolish indeed blasphemous 2. The close of the third Verse confirms this application of the Word to the Work whereunto I have called them This confessedly is the Holy Ghost Now to call Men to the Ministry is a free Act of Authority Choice and Wisdom which are Properties of a Person and none other Nor is either the Father or the Son in the Scripture introduced more directly clothed with Personal Properties than the Holy Ghost is in these places And the whole is confirmed vers 4. And they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed He called them by furnishing them with Ability and Authority for their work he commanded them to be set apart by the Church that they might be blessed and owned in their Work and he sent them forth by an impression of his Authority on their Minds given them by those former Acts of his And if a Divine Person be not hereby described I know not how he may so be Sect. 27 The other Text speaks unto the same purpose Chap. 20. 28. It is expresly said that the Holy Ghost made the Elders of the Church the Overseers of it The same Act of Wisdom and Authority is here again assigned unto him and here is no room left for the Evasion before insisted on For these words were not spoken in a way of Prophesie nor in the Name of the Holy Ghost but concerning him And they are Explicatory of the other For he must be meant in those Expression separate unto Me those whom I have called by whom they are made Ministers Now this was the Holy Ghost for he makes the Overseers of the Church And we may do well to take notice that if he did so then he doth so now for they were not Persons extraordinarily inspired or called that the Apostle intends but the ordinary Officers of the Church And if Persons are not called and constituted Officers as at the first in ordinary Cases the Church is not the same as it was And it is the Concernment of those who take this Work and Office upon them to consider what there is in their whole Undertaking that they can ascribe unto the Holy Ghost Persons furnished with no Spiritual Gifts or Abilities entring into the Ministry in the pursuit of Secular Advantages will not easily satisfie themselves in this Enquiry when they shall be willing or be forced at the last to make it Sect. 28 There remains yet one sort of Testimonies to the same purpose which must briefly be passed through And they are those where he is spoken of as the Object of such Actings and Actions of Men as none but a Person can be For let them be applyed unto any other Object and their Inconsistency will quickly appear Thus he is said to be tempted of them that sin You agree together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord Acts 5. 9. In what sense soever this word is used whether in that which is indifferent to try as God is said to tempt Abraham or in that which is evil to provoke or induce to sin it never is it never can be used but with respect unto a Person How can a Quality an Accident an Emanation of Power from God be tempted None can possibly be so but he that hath an Understanding to consider what is proposed unto him and a Will to determine upon the Proposals made So Satan tempted our first Parents so Men are tempted by their own Lusts so are we said to tempt God when we provoke him by our Unbelief or when we unwarrantably make Experiments of his Power So did they tempt the Holy Ghost who sinfully ventured on his Omniscience as if he would not or could not discover their sin or on his Holiness that he would patronize their Deceit In like manner Ananias is said to lie to the Holy Ghost vers 3. And And none is capable of lying unto any other but such a one as is capable of hearing and receiving a Testimony For a Lie is a false Testimony given unto that which is spoken or uttered in it This He that is lyed unto must be capable of judging and determining upon which without Personal Properties of Will and Understanding none can be And the Holy Ghost is here so declared to be a Person as that he is declared to be One that is also Divine For so the Apostle Peter declares in the Exposition of the words v. 4. Thou hast not lyed unto Men but unto God These things are so plain and positive that the Faith of Believers will not be concerned in the Sophistical Evasions of our Adversaries In like manner he is said to be resisted Acts 7. 51. which is the moral Reaction or Opposition of one Person unto another So also is he said to be grieved or we are commanded not to grieve him Ephes. 4. 30. as they of old were said to have rebelled and vexed the Holy Spirit of God Isa. 63. 10. A figurative Expression is allowed in these words Properly the Spirit of God cannot be grieved or vexed for these things include such Imperfections as are incompetent unto the Divine Nature But as God is said to repent and to be grieved at his heart Gen. 6. 6. when he would do things correspondent unto those which Men will do or judg fit to be done on such Provocations and when he would declare what Effects they would produce in a Nature capable of such perturbations So on the same Reason is the Spirit of God said to be grieved and vexed But this can no way be spoken of him if he be not one whose respect unto sin may from the Analogie unto humane Persons be represented by this figurative Expression To talk of grieving a Vertue or an actual Emanation of Power is to speak that which no Man can understand the Meaning or Intention of Surely He that is thus tempted resisted and grieved by Sin and Sinners is one that can understand judg and determine concerning them And these things being elsewhere absolutely spoken concerning God it declares that he is so with respect unto whom they are mentioned in particular Sect. 24 The whole of the Truth contended for is yet more evident in that
Discourse of our Saviour Matth. 12. 24. The Pharisees said He doth not cast out Devils but by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils v. 28. If I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God then the Kingdom of God is come unto you v. 31 32. Wherefore I say unto you All manner of Sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven unto Men but the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto Men And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him To the same purpose see Luk. 12. 8 9 10. The Spirit is here expresly distinguished from the Son as one Person from another They are both spoken of with respect unto the same things in the same manner and the things mentioned are spoken concerning them universally in the same sense Now if the Holy Ghost were only the Vertue and Power of God then present with Jesus Christ in all that he did Christ and that Power could not be distinctly spoken against for they were but one and the same The Pharisees blasphemed saying That he cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils A Person they intended and so expressed him by his Name Nature and Office To which our Saviour replies that he cast them out by the Spirit of God A Divine Person opposed to him who is Diabolical Hereunto he immediately subjoyns his Instruction and Caution that they should take heed how they blasphemed that Holy Spirit by assigning his Effects and Works to the Prince of Devils And blasphemy against him directly manifests both what and who He is especially such a peculiar blasphemy as carrieth an aggravation of Guilt along with it above all that Humane Nature in any other Instance is capable of It is supposed that blasphemy may be against the Person of the Father So was it in him who blasphemed the Name of Jehovah and cursed by it Levit. 24. 11. The Son as to his distinct Person may be blasphemed so it is said here expresly and thereon it is added that the Holy Ghost also may be distinctly blasphemed or be the immediate Object of that Sin which is declared to be inexpiable To suppose now that this Holy Ghost is not a Divine Person is for Men to dream whilst they seem to be awake Sect. 30 I suppose by all these Testimonies we have fully confirmed what was designed to be proved by them namely that the Holy Spirit is not a Quality as some speak residing in the Divine Nature not a meer Emanation of Vertue and Power from God not the acting of the Power of God in and unto our Sanctification but an Holy Intelligent Subsistent or Person And in our Passage many Instances have been given whence it is undeniably evident that he is a Divine Self-sufficient Self-subsisting Person together with the Father and the Son equally participant of the Divine Nature Nor is this distinctly much disputed by them with whom we have to do For they confess that such things are ascribed unto him as none but God can effect Wherefore denying him so to be they lay up all their hopes of success in denying him to be a Person But yet because the Subject we are upon doth require it and it may be useful to the Faith of some I will call over a few Testimonies given expresly unto his Deity also Sect. 31 First He is expresly called God and having the Name of God properly and directly given unto him with respect unto Spiritual Things or things peculiar unto God he must have the Nature of God also Acts 5. 3. Ananias is said to lie to the Holy Ghost This is repeated and interpreted v. 4. Thou hast not lyed unto Men but unto God The Declaration of the Person intended by the Holy Ghost is added for the aggravation of the Sin for he is God The same Person the same Object of the sin of Ananias is expressed in both places and therefore the Holy Ghost is God The word for lying is the same in both places ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã only it is used in a various construction v. 3. It hath the Accusative Case joyned unto it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that thou shouldest deceive or think to deceive or attempt to deceive the Holy Ghost How by lying unto him in making a Profession in the Church wherein he presides of that which is false This is explained v. 4. by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã thou hast lyed unto God the Nature of his Sin being principally intended in the first place and the Object in the latter Wherefore in the progress of his Discourse the Apostle calls the same sin a tempting of the Spirit of the Lord vers 9. It was the Spirit of the Lord that he lyed unto when he lyed unto God These three Expressions the Holy Ghost God the Spirit of the Lord do denote the same thing and Person or there is no coherence in the Discourse It is excepted that what is done against the Spirit is done against God because he is sent by God It is true as he is sent by the Father what is done against him is morally and as to the Guilt of it done against the Father And so our Saviour tells us with respect unto what was done against himself For saith he He that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me But directly and immediately both Christ and the Spirit were sinned against in their own Persons He is God here provoked So also He is called Lord in a sense appropriate unto God alone 2 Cor. 3. 17 18. Now the Lord is that Spirit and we are changed from Glory to Glory ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by the Lord the Spirit or the Spirit of the Lord where also Divine Operations are ascribed unto him What is affirmed to this purpose 1 Cor. 12. 6 7 8. hath been observed in the opening of the beginning of that Chapter at the beginning of our Discourse The same also is drawn by just Consequence from the comparing of Scriptures together wherein what is spoken of God absolutely in one place is applyed directly and immediately unto the Holy Ghost in another To instance in one or two particulars Levit. 26. 11 12. I will saith God set my Tabernacle amongst you and I will walk among you and will be your God and ye shall be my People The accomplishment of this Promise the Apostle declares 2 Cor. 6. 16. Ye are the Temple of the Living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk amongst them and I will be their God and they shall be my People How and by whom is this done 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. Know you not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you If any Man defile the Temple of God him will God destroy for the Temple of God is Holy which ye are If it were then God who of old promised to dwell in his People
received And although the direct end of some of them be not the Spiritual Good of them on whom they are bestowed but the Edification of others for the manifestation of the Spirit is given unto every man to profit withal 1 Cor. 4. 12 17. yet there is that excellency and worth in them and that use may be made of them as to turn greatly to the advantage of them that receive them For although they are not Grace yet they serve to stir up and give an edg unto Grace and to draw it out unto Exercise whereby it is strengthened and increased And they have an influence into Glory For it is by the Abilities which they give that some are made wise effectual Instruments for the turning of many to Righteousness who shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. 3. But the Unbelief Ingratitude and Lusts of Men can spoil these and any other good things whatever And these things will afterwards in particular fall under our Consideration In general to be made Partaker of the Holy Ghost is an inestimable Priviledg and Advantage and as such is proposed by our Saviour John 14. 17. Sect. 8 Secondly God is said to SEND him Psal. 104. 30. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit John 14. 26. The Father will send the Holy Ghost in my Name This is also spoken of the Son I will send unto you the Comforter from the Father John 15. 26. John 16. 7. And in the accomplishment of that Promise it is said he poured him forth Acts 2. 33. Gal. 4. 6. God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son in your hearts and in other places the same Expression is used Now this upon the matter iâ the same with the former of Giving him arguing the same Authority the same Freedom the same Bounty Only the word naturally includes in its signification a respect unto a local Motion He which is sent removeth from the place where he was from whence He is sent unto a place where he was not whither he was sent Now this cannot properly be spoken of the Holy Ghost For he being God by Nature is naturally omnipresent and an Omnipresence is inconsistent with a Local Mutation So the Psalmist expresly Psal. 139. 7 8. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence if I ascend up into Heaven c. There must therefore a Metaphor be allowed in this Expression but such a One as the Scripture by the frequent use of it hath rendred familiar unto us Thus God is said to arise out of his place to bow the Heavens and come down to come down and see what is done in the Earth Gen. 18. 21. Isa. 64. 1. That these things are not spoken properly of God who is immense all men acknowledg But where God begins to work in any place in any kind where before he did not do so he is said to come thither For so must we do we must come to a place before we can work in it Thus the Sending of the Holy Ghost includeth two things as added unto his being Given 1. That He was not before in or with that Person or amongst those Persons for that especial Work and End which he is sent for He may be in them and with them in one respect and be afterwards said to be sent unto them in another So our Lord Jesus Christ promiseth to send the Holy Ghost unto his Disciples as a Comforter whom they had received before as a Sanctifier I will saith he send him unto you and you know him for he dwelleth with you John 14. 17. He did so as a Sanctifier before he came unto them as a Comforter But in every coming of His He is sent for one especial Work or another And this sufficiently manifests that in his Gifts and Graces he is not common unto all A supposition thereof would leave no place for this especial Act of sending him which is done by Choice and Distinction of the Object Much less is he a Light which is alwayes in all Men and which all Men may be in if they please For this neither is nor can be absent in any sense from any one at any time 2. It denotes as especial Work there or on them where and on whom there was none before of that kind For this cause is he said to be sent of the Father No Local Motion then is intended in this Expression only there is an allusion thereunto For as a Creature cannot produce any Effects where it is not until it either be sent thither or go thither of its own accord So the Holy Ghost produceth not the blessed Effects of his Power and Grace but in and towards them unto whom he is given and sent by the Father How in answer hereunto he is said himself to come shall be afterwards declared And it is the Person of the Spirit which is said to be thus sent For this belongs unto that Holy Dispensation of the several Persons of the Trinity in the Work of our Salvation And herein the Spirit in all his Operations is considered as sent of the Father for the Reasons before often intimated Sect. 9 Thirdly God is said to MINISTER the Spirit Gal. 3. 5. He that ministreth the Spirit unto you ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He that gives you continual or abundant supplies of the Spirit ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is to give a sufficiency of any thing and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are dimensum a sufficiency of Provision And addition thereunto is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whereby the Communication of the Spirit is expressed Phil. 1. 19. For I know that this shall turn to my Salvation through your Prayers ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and the additional supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. That Spirit and its Assistance he had before received but He yet stood in need of a daily further supply So is the word used constantly for the adding of one thing to another or one degree of the same thing unto another 2 Pet. 1. 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã add to your Faith Vertue or in your Faith make an increase of Vertue When therefore God is thus said to Minister the Spirit it is his continual giving out of Additional Supplies of his Grace by his Spirit which is intended For the Holy Spirit is a voluntary Agent and distributes unto every one as he will When therefore he is given and sent unto any his Operations are limited by his own Will and the Will of him that sends him And therefore do we stand in need of supplies of him and from him which are the principal Subject Matter of our Prayers in this World Sect. 10 Fourthly God is said to PUT his Spirit in or upon Men and this also belongeth unto the manner of his Dispensation Isa. 42. 1. Behold my Servant whom I uphold I have put my Holy Spirit upon him The word there indeed is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I have given my Holy Spirit upon
him but because ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã upon Him is joyned to it it is by ours rendred by Put. As also Ezek. 37. 14. where ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in you is added Put my Spirit in you The same is plainly intended with that Isa. 63. 11. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that put his Holy Spirit in the midst of them Hence ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I have given or I will give Isa. 42. 1. is rendred by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Matth. 12. 18. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I will put my Spirit upon him The Word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã then used in this sense doth not denote the granting or Donation of any thing but its actual bestowing as ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth And it is the effectual Acting of God in this Matter that is intended He doth not only give and send his Spirit unto them to whom he designs so great a Benefit and Priviledg but he actually collates and bestows him upon them He doth not send Him unto them and leave it in their Wills and Power whether they will receive Him or no but he so effectually collates and puts him in them or upon them as that they shall be actually made Partakers of him He efficaciously endows their Hearts and Minds with Him for the Work and End which he is designed unto So Exod. 31. 6. I have put Wisdom is as much as I have filled them with Wisdom v. 2. So then where God intendeth unto any the Benefit of his Spirit he will actually and effectually collate Him upon them He doth not indeed always doe this in the same manner Sometimes he doth it as it were by a surprizal when those who receive him are neither aware of it nor do desire it So the Spirit of the Lord as a Spirit of Prophesy came upon Saul when his Mind was remote and enstranged from any such thoughts In like manner the Spirit of God came upon Eldad and Medad in the Camp when the other Elders went forth unto the Tabernacle to receive Him Numb 11. 27. And so the Spirit of Prophesy came upon most of the Prophets of Old without either Expectation or Preparation on their Parts So Amos giveth an Account of his Call unto his Office Chap. 7. 1â 15. I was saith he no Prophet neither was I a Prophets Son but I was an Heardman and a gatherer of Sycomore fruits And the Lord took me as I followed the Flock and the Lord said unto me go Prophesy He was not brought up with any Expectation of receiving this Gift He had no Preparation for it but God surprized him with his Call and Gift as he followed the Flock Such also was the Call of Jeremiah Chap. 1. 5 6 7. So vain is the Discourse of Maimonides on this Subject prescribing various Natural and Moral Preparations for the receiving of this Gift But these things were extraordinary Yet I no way doubt but that God doth yet continue to Work Grace in many by such unexpected Surprizal the manner whereof shall be afterwards inquired into But sometimes as to some Gifts and Graces God doth bestow his Spirit where there is some Preparation and Cooperation on our Part. But wherever he designs to put or place him he doth it effectually Fifthly God is said to POUR him out and that frequently Prov. 1. 23. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã signifies ebullire more scaturiginis to bubble up as a Fountain Hence the words are rendered by Theodot ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã scaturire faciam I will cause my Spirit to Spring out unto you as a Fountain And it is frequently applied unto speaking when it signifies eloqui aut proferre verba more scaturiginis See Psal. 72. 2. Psal. 145. 7. And ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã also which some take to be the root of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Prov. 1. 23. hath the same signification And the Word hath a double lively Metaphor For the Proceeding of the Spirit from the Father is compared to the continual rising of the Waters of a Living Spring and his Communication unto us to the overflowing of those Waters yet guided by the Will and Wisdom of God Isa. 32. 15. Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on High and the Wilderness be a fruitful field ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is indeed sometimes to pour out but more properly and more commonly to uncover to make bare to reveal Until the Spirit be revealed from on High There shall be such a plentiful Communication of the Spirit as that He and His Work shall be made open revealed and plain Or the Spirit shall be bared as God is said to make his Arme bare when he will Work mightily and effectually Isa. 52. 10. Isa. 44. 3 I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed and my Blessing upon thine Offspring ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Word here is so to pour a thing out as that it cleaveth unto and abideth on that which it is poured out upon As the Spirit of God abides with them unto whom he is Communicated Ezek. 39. 29. I have poured out my Spirit on the House of Israel ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã another word This is properly to pour out and that in a plentiful manner The same word that is used in that great Promise Joel 2. 28. which is rendred Acts 2. 17. by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã effundam I will pour out my Spirit and the same Thing is again expressed by the same word Acts 10. 45. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is poured on the Gentiles Sect. 12 Let us then briefly consider the Importance of this Expression And one or two things may be observed concerning it in general As 1. wherever it is used it hath direct respect unto the Times of the Gospel Either it is a part of the Promises concerning it or of the Story of its Accomplishment under it But where-ever it is mentioned the Time State and Grace of the Gospel are intended in it For the Lord Christ was in all things to have the preeminence Col. 1. 18. And therefore although God gave his Spirit in some measure before yet he poured him not out until He was first anointed with his Fulness 2. There is a tacit comparison in it with some other Time and Season or some other Act of God wherein or whereby God gave his Spirit before but not in the way and manner that he intended now to bestow him A larger Measure of the Spirit to be now given than was before or is signified by any other Expressions of the same Gift is intended in this Word Sect. 13 Three things are therefore comprized in this Expression 1. An eminent Act of Divine Bounty Pouring forth is the way whereby Bounty from an all-sufficeing fulness is expressed As the Clouds filled with a moist vapour pour
their Beginnings and Engagements and turn wholly unto Sin and Folly From such Persons the Holy Ghost utterly departs all their Gifts dry up and wither their Light goeth out and they have Darkness in stead of a Vision The Case of such is deplorable for it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them 2 Pet. 2. 21. And some of these add despight and contempt of that whole Work of the Spirit of God whereof themselves were made Partakers unto their Apostasie And the condition of such profligate Sinners is for the most part irrecoverable Heb. 6. 4 5 6. Chap. 10. v. 26 27 28 29 30. From some He withdraweth and departeth partially only and that mostly but for a season And this Departure respects the Grace Light and Consolation which he administers unto Believers as to the degrees of them and the Sense of them in their own Souls On whom He is bestowed to work these things in a saving way from them he never utterly or totally departs This our Blessed Saviour plainly promiseth and asserteth John 4. 14. Whosoever drinketh of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the Water that I shall give him shall be in him a Well of Water springing up into Everlasting Life That this Well of Living Water is his Sanctifying Spirit himself declares John 7. 37 38. He who hath received him shall never have a thirst of total Want and Indigence any more Besides He is given unto this end by vertue of the Covenant of Grace And the Promise is express therein that he shall never depart from them to whom he is given Isa. 59. 21. Jer. 31. 33. Chap. 32. 39 40. Ezek. 11. 19 20 But now as to the degrees and sensible Effects of these Operations He may depart and wiâhdraw from Believers for a Season Hence they may be left unto many Spiritual Decays and much weakeness the things of Grace that remain in them being as it were ready to die Revel 3. 2. and they may apprehend themselves deserted and forsaken of God So did Sion Isa. 40. 27. Chap. 49. 15. For therein doth God hide himself Isa. 44. 15. or forsake his People for a moment Chap. 54. 7. He hides himself and his wrath Chap. 57. 17. These are the things which David so often and so bitterly complaineth of and which with so much earnestness he contendeth and wrestleth with God to be delivered from These are those spiritual Desertions which some of late have laden with reproach contempt and scorn All the apprehensions and complaints of the People of God about them they would represent as nothing but the idle Imaginations of distempered Brains or the Effects of some disorder in their Blood and Animal Spirits I could indeed easily allow that Men should despise and laugh at what is declared as the Experience of Professors at present Their prejudice against their Persons will not allow them to entertain any thoughts of them but what are suited unto Folly and Hypocrisie But at this I acknowledg I stand amazed that whereas these things are so plainly so fully and frequently declared in the Scriptures both as to the actings of God and his Holy Spirit in them and as to the sense of those concerned about them whereas the whole of God's dealings and Believers application of themselves to him in this Matter are so graphically exemplified in sundry of the Holy Saints of old as Joh David Heman and others and great and plentiful Provision is made in the Scripture for the Direction Recovery Healing and Consolation of Souls in such a condition yet men professing themselves to be Christians and to believe the Word of God at least not to be a Fable should dare to cast such opprobrious Reproaches on the Wayes and and Works of God The end of these Attempts can be no other but to decry all real entercourse between God and the Souls of Men leaving only an outside form or shape of Religion not one jot better than Atheism Neither is it only what concerns Spiritual Desertions whose Nature Causes and Remedies are professedly and at large handled by all the Casuistical Divines even of the Roman Church but the whole Work of the Spirit of God upon the Hearts of Men with all the Effects produduced in them with respect unto Sin and Grace that some men by their odious and scurrilous Expressions endeavour to expose to contempt and scorn S. P. p. 339 340 341 342. Whatever trouble befals the minds of men upon the account of a sense of the guilt of Sin whatever Darkness and Disconsolation they may undergo through the displeasure of God and his withdrawing of the wonted influences of his Grace Love and Favour towards them whatever Peace Comfort or Joy they may be made Partakers of by a sense of the Love of God shed abroad in their Hearts by the Holy Ghost it is all ascribed in most opprobrious Language unto Melancholy reeks and vapours whereof a certain and mechanical account may be given by them who understand the Anatomy of the Brain To such an height of Profane Atheism is the daring Pride and Ignorance of some in our dayes arrived Sect. 20 There remaineth yet one general Adjunct of the Dispensation and Work of the Holy Ghost which gives a further Description of the manner of it which I have left unto a single Consideration This is that which is mentioend Heb. 2. 4. God witnessing unto them with Signs and Wonders with divers Miracles ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and Gifts say we of the Holy Ghost But ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are Distributions or Partitions And hence advantage is taken by some to argue against his very Being So Crellius contends that the Holy Ghost here is taken passively or that the Expression ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is Genitivus Materiae Wherefore he supposes that it followeth that the Holy Ghost himself may be divided into Parts so that one may have one Part and Parcel of him and another may have another Part. How inconsistent this is with the Truth of his Being and Personality is apparent But yet neither can he give any tolerable account of the Division and Partition of that Power of God which he calls the Holy Ghost unless he will make the Holy Spirit to be a Quality in us and not in the Divine Nature as Justin Martyr affirms Plato to have done and so to be divided And the Interpretation he useth of the words is wrested perverse and foolish For the Contexture of them requires that the Holy Ghost be here taken actively as the Author of the Distribution mentioned He gives out of his Gifts and Powers unto Men in many Parts not all to One not all at once not all in one way but some to one some to another some at one time some at another and that in great variety The Apostle therefore in this place
provoked to abolish the Scripture it self But the Sum and Substance of the Prophetical Work under the Old Testament with the Light Design and Ministry of the Prophets themselves are declared in those Words The Work was to give Testimony unto the Truth of God in the first Promise concerning the Coming of the Blessing Seed This was God's Method First He gave Himself immediately that Promise which was the Foundation of the Church Gen. 3. 15. Then by Revelation unto the Prophets he confirmed that Promise after all which the Lord Christ was sent to make them all good unto the Church Rom. 15. 8. Herewithal they received fresh Revelations concerning his Person and his Sufferings with the Glory that was to ensue thereon and the Grace which was to come thereby unto the Church Whilst they were thus employed and acted by the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of Christ they diligently endeavoured to come to an Acquaintance with the Things themselves in their Nature and Efficacy which were revealed unto them yet so as considering that not Themselves but some Succeeding Generations should enjoy them in their actual Exhibition And whilst they were intent on these things they searched also as far as intimation was given thereof by the Spirit after the Time wherein all these things should be accomplished both when it should be and what Manner of time it should be or what would be the State and Condition of the People of God in those Days This was the Principal End of the Gift of Prophecy and this the principal Work and Employment of the Prophets The first Promise was given by God in the Person of the Son as I have proved elsewhere Gen. 3. 15. But the whole Explication Confirmation and Declaration of it was carryed on by the Gift of Prophecy Sect. 6 The Communication of this Gift began betimes in the World and continued without any known interruption in the Possession of some one or more in the Church at all times during its Preparatory or subservivient Estate After the finishing of the Canon of the Old Testament it ceased in the Judaical Church until it had a revival in John the Baptist who was therefore Greater than any Prophet that went before because he made the nearest Approach unto and the clearest Discovery of the Lord Jesus Christ the End of all Prophecys Thus God spake by the mouth of his Holy Prophets ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Luke 1. 70. that were from the Beginning of the World Adam himself had many things revealed unto him without which he could not have Worshipped God aright in that state and condition whereinto he was come For although his Natural Light was sufficient to direct Him unto all Religious Services required by the Law of Creation yet was it not so unto all Duties of that state whereinto he was brought by the giving of the Promise after the entrance of Sin So was he guided unto the Observance of such Ordinances of Worship as were needful for Him and accepted with God as were Sacrifices The Prophecy of Enoch in not only remembred but called over and recorded Jude 14. 15. And it s a matter neither curious nor difficult to demonstrate that all the Patriarchs of Old before the Flood were guided by a Prophetical Spirit in the Imposition of Names on those Children who were to succeed them in the sacred Line Concerning Abraham God expresly saith Himself that he was a Prophet Gen. 20. 7. that is One who used to receive Divine Revelations Sect. 7 Now this Gift of Prophecy was always the immediate Effect of the Operation of the Holy Spirit So it is both affirmed in general and in all the Particular Instances of it In the first way we have the Illustrious Testimony of the Apostle Peter 2 Epist. Chap. 1. v. 20 21. Knowing this first that no Prophecy of Scripture is of any Private Interpretation for the Prophecy came not in Old Time by the Will of Man but Holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost This is a Principle among Beleivers this they grant and allow in the first Place as that which they resolve their Faith into Namely that the sure word of Prophecy which they in all Things take heed unto v. 19. was not a fruit of any Mens private conceptions nor was Subject to the Wills of Men so as to attain it or exercise it by their own Ability But it was given by Inspiration from God 2 Tim. 3. 16 For the Holy Ghost by acting moving guiding the Minds of Holy Men inabled them thereunto This was the sole Fountain and Cause of all true Divine Prophecy thatever was given or granted to the Use of the Church And in particular the Coming of the Spirit of God upon the Prophets enabling them unto their Work is frequently mentioned Micah declares in his own Instance how it was with them all Chap. 3. 8. But truly I am full of Power by the Spirit of the Lord and of Judgment and of Might to declare unto Jacob his Transgression and to Israel his Sin It was from the Spirit of God alone that he had all his Ability for the discharge of that Prophetical Office whereunto he was called And when God would endow Seventy Elders with a Gift of Prophecy he tells Moses that he would take of the Spirit that was upon him and give unto them for that Purpose that is he would communicate of the same Spirit unto them as was in Him And where it is said at any time that God spake by the Prophets or that the Word of God Came to them of God spake to them it is always intended that this was the immediate Work of the Holy Ghost So says David of Himself The Spirit of the Lord spake by Me or in me and his word was in my Tongue 2 Sam. 23. 2. Hence our Apostle repeating his words ascribes them directly to the Holy Ghost Heb. 3. 7. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith to day if you will hear his voice and Chap. 4. 7. Saying in David So the Words which are ascribed unto the Lord of Hosts Isa. 6. 9. are asserted to be the Words of the Holy Ghost Acts 28. 25. He spake to them or in them by his holy Inspirations and he spake by them in his effectual infallible guidance of them to utter declare and write what they received from Him without Mistake or Variation Sect. 8 And this Prophesy as to its Exercise is considered two ways First precisely for the Prediction or foretelling things to Come as the Greek word and the Latine traduced from thence do signify So Prophecy is a Divine Prediction of future things proceeding from Divine Revelation But the Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whence are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Prophet and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Prophesy is not confined unto any such signification although Predictions from supernatural Revelation are constantly expressed by it But in general âhe word signifies no
the People of God into destructive and Judgment-procuring sins Numb 33. 16. And in the whole of his Enterprize he thought to have satisfied his Covetousness with a reward for cursing them by his Enchantments And yet this Man not onely professeth of himself that he heard the Words of God and saw the Visions of the Almighty Numb 24. 4. but did actually foretel and prophesie Glorious Things concerning Christ and his Kingdom Shall we then think that the Holy Spirit of God will immix his own Holy Inspirations with the wicked suggestions of the Devil in a South-sayer Or shall we suppose that the Devil was the Author of those Predictions whereas God reproacheth false Gods and their Prophets acted by them that they could not declare the things that should happen nor shew the things that were to come afterwards Isa. 41. 22 23. So also it is said of Saul that the Spirit of the Lord departed from him and an Evil Spirit vexed him and yet afterwards that the Spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied 1 Sam. 19. 24. The Old Prophet at Bethel who lyed unto the Prophet that came from Judah and that in the Name of the Lord seducing him unto Sin and Destruction and probably defiled with the Idolatry and false Worship of Jeroboam was yet esteemed a Prophet and did foretel what came to pass 1 Kings 13. Sect. 18 Sundry things may be offered for the Solution of this Difficulty For 1. as to that place of the Apostle Peter 1. It may not be taken Universally that all who prophesied at any time were Personally Holy but only that for the most part so they were 2. He seems to speak particularly of them only who were Pen-men of the Scripture and of those Prophesies which remain therein for the Instruction of the Church concerning whom I no way doubt but that they were all Sanctified and Holy 3. It may be that he understandeth not real inherent Holiness but only a Separation and Dedication unto God by especial Office which is a thing of another nature 2. The Gift of Prophesie is granted not to be in it self and its own Nature a Sanctifying Grace nor is the Inspiration so whereby it is wrought For whereas it consists in an affecting of the Mind with a transient irradiation of Light in hidden things it neither did nor could of it self produce Faith Love or Holiness in the Heart Another Work of the Holy Ghost was necessary hereunto 3. There is therefore no Inconsistency in this Matter that God should grant an immediate Inspiration unto some that were not really sanctified And yet I would not grant this to have been actually done without a just Limitation For whereas some were established to be Prophets unto the Church in the whole course of their Lives after their first Call from God as Samuel Elijah Elisha Jeremiah and the rest of the Prophets mentioned in the Scripture in like manner I no way doubt but they were all of them really sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God But others there were who had only some occasional Discoveries of hidden or future things made unto them or fell into some Extasies or Raptures with a Supernatural Agitation of their Minds as it is twice said of Saul for a short Season And I see no Reason why we may not grant yea from Scripture-Testimonies we must grant that many such Persons may be so acted by the Holy Spirit of God So was it with wicked Caiaphas who is said to Prophesie John 11. 51. And a great Prophesie indeed it was which his words expressed greater than which there is none in the Scripture But the Wretch himself knew nothing of the Importance of what was uttered by him A suddain Impression of the Spirit of God caused him against his Intention to utter a Sacred Truth and that because he was High Priest whose words were of great Reputation with the People And as Balaam was over-ruled to Prophesie and speak good of Israel when he really designed and desired to curse them So this Caiaphas designing the Destruction of Jesus Christ brought forth those words which expressed the Salvation of the World by his Death 5. For the Difficulty about Balaam himself who was a Sorcerer and the Devil's Prophet I acknowledg it is of Importance But sundry things may be offered for the removal of it 1. Some do contend that Balaam was a Prophet of God only That indeed he gave himself unto Judicial Astrologie and the Conjectures of future Events from Natural Causes But as to his Prophesies they were all Divine and the Light of them affecting only the Speculative Part of his Mind had no influence upon his Will Heart and Affections which were still corrupt This Tostatus pleadeth for But as it is expresly said That he sought for Enchantments Numb 24. 1. So the whole Description of his Course and End gives him up as a Cursed Sorcerer and he is expresly called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a Sooth-sayer John 12. 22. Which word though we have once rendred by Prudent that is One who prudently conjectureth at future Events according unto present appearing Causes Isa. 3. 2. yet it is mostly used for a Diabolical Diviner or Sooth-sayer And for what he said of himself That he heard the Voice of God and saw the Visions of the Most High it might be only his own boasting to procure veneration to his Diabolical Incantations But in Reputation we find he was in those dayes in the World and supposed he was to utter Divine Oracles unto Men. This God in his Providence made use of to give out a Testimony to the Nations concerning the coming of the Messiah the Report whereof was then almost lost amongst Men. In this condition it may be granted that the Good Spirit of God without the least Reflection on the Majesty and Purity of his own Holiness did over-rule the Power of the Devil cast out his Suggestions from the Man's Mind and gave such an Impression of Sacred Truths in the room of them as he could not but utter and declare For that instant he did as it were take the Instrument out of the Hand of Satan and by his Impression on it caused it to give a sound according to his Mind which when he had done he left it again unto his Possession And I know not but that he might do so sometimes with others among the Gentiles who were professedly given up to receive and give out the Oracles of the Devil So he made the Damsel possessed with a Spirit of Divination and Sooth-saying to acknowledg Paul and his Companions to be Servants of the most High God and to shew to Men the way of Salvation Acts 16. 16 17. And this must be acknowledged by them who suppose that the Sybills gave out Predictions concerning Jesus Christ seeing the whole strain of their Prophetical Oracles were expresly Diabolical And no Conspiracy of Men or Devils shall cause him to forego his Sovereignty over them
and the using of them to his own Glory 6. The Case of Saul is plain The Spirit of the Lord who departed from him was the Spirit of Wisdom Moderation and Courage to fit him for Rule and Government that is the Gifts of the Holy Ghost unto that purpose which he withdrew from him And the Evil Spirit that was upon him proceeded no farther but to the stirring up Vexatious and disquieting Affections of Mind And notwithstanding this molestation and punishment inflicted on him the Spirit of God might at a season fall upon him so as to cast him into a Rapture or Extasie wherein his Mind was acted and exercised in an extraordinary manner and himself transported into Actions that were not at all according unto his own Inclinations So is this Case well resolved by Augustine And for the old Prophet at Bethel 1 Kings 13. although he appear to have been an evil Man yet he was one whom God made use of to reveal his Mind sometimes to that People nor is it probable that he was under Satanical Delusions like the Prophets of Baal for he is absolutely called a Prophet and the Word of the Lord did really come unto him v. 20 21. Sect. 19 The Writing of the Scripture was another Effect of the Holy Ghost which had its beginning under the Old Testament I reckon this as a distinct Gift from Prophesie in general or rather a distinct Species or kind of Prophesie For many Prophets there were Divinely Inspired who yet never wrote any of their Prophesies nor any thing else for the use of the Church And many Pen-men of the Scripture were no Prophets in the strict sence of that Name And the Apostle tells us that the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Scripture or Writing it self was by Inspiration from God 1 Tim. 3. 16. as David affirms that he had the Pattern of the Temple from the Spirit of God in Writing because of his guidance of him in putting its Description into Writing 1 Chron. 28. 19. Now this Ministry was first committed unto Moses who besides the Five Books of the Law probably also wrote the Story of Job Many Prophets there were before Him but he was the first who committed the Will of God to Writing after God himself who wrote the Law in Tables of Stone which was the Beginning and Pattern of the Scriptures The Writers of the Historical Books of the Old Testament before the Captivity are unknown The Jews call them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the first or former Prophets Who they were in particular is not known but certain it is that they were of the Number of those Holy Men of God who of old Wrote and Spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Hence are they called Prophets For although they wrote in an Historical manner as did Moses also concerning things past and gone in their Dayes or it may be presently acted in their own Times yet they did not Write them either from their own Memory nor from Tradition nor from the Rolls or Records of Times although they might be furnished with and skilled in these things but by the Inspiration Guidance and Direction of the Holy Ghost Hence are they called Prophets in such a Latitude as the Word may be used in to signifie any that are Divinely Inspired or receive immediate Revelations from God And thus was it with all the Pen-men of the Holy Scripture As their Minds were under that full assurance of Divine Inspiration which we before described so their words which they wrote were under the especial care of the same Spirit and were of his Suggestion or Inditing Sect. 20 There were therefore three things concurring in this Work 1. The Inspiration of the Minds of these Prophets with the Knowledg and Apprehension of the things communicated unto them 2. The Suggestion of words unto them to express what their Minds conceived 3. The guidance of their Hands in setting down the words suggested or of their Tongues in uttering them unto those by whom they were committed to Writing as Baruch wrote the Prophesie of Jeremiah from his Mouth Jer. 36. 3. 18. If either of these were wanting the Scripture could not be absolutely and every way Divine and Infallible For if the Pen-Men of it were left unto themselves in any thing wherein that Writing was concerned who can secure us that nihil Humani no Humane Imperfection mixed it self therewithal I know some think that the Matter and Substance of things only was communicated unto them but as for the words whereby it was to be expressed that was left unto themselves and their own Abilities And this they suppose is evident from that variety of Stile which according to their various Capacities Education and Abilities is found amongst them This argues as they say that the wording of their Revelations was left unto themselves and was the Product of their Natural Abilities This in general I have spoken unto elsewhere and manifested what mistakes sundry have run into about the Stile of the Holy Pen-Men of the Scripture Here I shall not take up what hath been argued and evinced in another place I only say that the variety intended ariseth mostly from the variety of the Subject Matters treated of nor is it such as will give any countenance to the prophaneness of this Opinion For the Holy Ghost in his Work on the Minds of Men doth not put a force upon them nor acts them any otherwise than they are in their own Natures and with their present Endowments and Qualifications meet to be acted and used He leads and conducts them in such Paths wherein they are able to walk The words therefore which he suggests unto them are such as they are accustomed unto and he causeth them to make use of such Expressions as were familiar unto themselves So he that useth divers Seals maketh different Impressions though the guidance of them all be equal and the same And he that toucheth skilfully several Musical Instruments variously tuned maketh several Notes of Musick We may also grant and do That they used their own Abilities of Mind and Understanding in the choice of Words and Expressions So the Preacher sought to find out acceptable words Eccles. 12. 10. But the Holy Spirit who is more intimate unto the Minds and Skill of Men than they are themselves did so guide act and operate in them as that the words they fixed upon were as directly and certainly from him as if they had been spoken to them by an audible Voice Hence that which was written was upright even Words of Truth as in that place This must be so or they could not speak as they moved by the Holy Ghost nor could their Writing be said to be of Divine Inspiration Hence oft-times in the Original great Senses and Significations depend on a single Letter as for instance in the change of the Name of Abraham And our Saviour affirms that every Apex and Iota of the Law is under the
the edification of the Church Ephes. 4. 10 11 12 13. The owning therefore and avowing the Work of the Holy Ghost in the Hearts and on the Minds of Men according to the Tenor of the Convenant of Grace is the principal part of that Profession which at this day all Believers are called unto Sect. 5 4. We are taught in an especial manner to pray that God would give his Holy Spirit unto us that through his Aid and Assistance we may live unto God in that Holy Obedience which he requires at our hands Luk. 11. 9 10 12 13. Our Saviour enjoyning an importunity in our Supplications v. 9 10. and giving us encouragement that we shall succeed in our Requests v. 11 12. makes the Subject Matter of them to be the Holy Spirit Your Heavenly Father shall give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him v. 13. Which in the other Evangelists is good things Mat. 7. 11. because he is the Author of them all in us and to us Nor doth God bestow any good thing on us but by his Spirit Hence the Promise of bestowing the Spirit is accompanied with a Prescription of Duty unto us that we should ask him or pray for him which is included in every Promise where his sending giving or bestowing is mentioned He therefore is the great Subject Matter of all our Prayers And that signal Promise of our Blessed Saviour to send him as a Comforter to abide with us for ever is a Directory for the Prayers of the Church in all Generations Nor is there any Church in the World fallen under such a total Degeneracy but that in their Publick Offices there are Testimonies of their ancient Faith and Practice in praying for the coming of the Spirit unto them according to this Promise of Christ. And therefore our Apostle in all his most solemn Prayers for the Churches in his dayes makes this the chief Petition of them That God would give unto them and increase in them the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Spirit with the Spirit himself for sundry especial Effects and Operations whereof they stood in need Ephes. 1. 17. Chap. 3. 16. Col. 2. 2. And this is a full conviction of what importance the Consideration of the Spirit of God and his Work is unto us We must deal in this Matter with that confidence which the Truth instructs us unto and therefore say That he who prayeth not constantly and diligently for the Spirit of God that he may be made partaker of him for the Ends for which he is promised is a Stranger from Christ and his Gospel This we are to attend unto as that whereon our Eternal Happiness doth depend God knows our State and Condition and we may better learn our Wants from his Prescription of what we ought to pray for than from our own Sense and Experience For we are in the Dark unto our own Spiritual Concerns through the Power of our Corruptions and Temptations and know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. 8. 26. But our Heavenly Father knows perfectly what we stand in need of And therefore whatever be our present Apprehensions concerning our selves which are to be examined by the Word our Prayers are to be regulated by what God hath enjoyned us to ask and what he hath promised for to bestow Sect. 6 5. What was before mentioned may here be called over again and farther improved yea it is necessary that so it should be This is the solemn Promise of Jesus Christ when he was to leave this World by Death And whereas he therein made and confirmed his Testament Heb. 9. 15 16 17 He bequeathed his Spirit as his great Legacy unto his Disciples And this he gave unto them as the great Pledg of their future Inheritance 2 Cor. 1. 22. which they were to live upon in this World All other good things he hath indeed bequeathed unto Believers as he speaks of Peace with God in particular Peace I leave with you my Peace I give unto you John 14. 27. But he gives particular Graces and Mercies for particular Ends and Purposes The Holy Spirit he bequeaths to supply his own Absence John 16. 17. that is for all the Ends of Spiritual and Eternal Life Let us therefore consider this Gift of the Spirit either formally under this Notion that he was the principal Legaoy left unto the Church by our dying Saviour or materially as to the Ends and Purposes for which he is so bequeathed and it will be evident what valuation we ought to have of Him and his Work How would some rejoice if they could possess any Relique of any thing that belonged unto our Saviour in the dayes of his Flesh though of no use or benefit unto them Yea how great a part of Men called Christians do boast in some pretended Parcels of the Tree whereon he suffered Love abused by Superstition lies at the bottom of this Vanity For they would embrace any thing left them by their dying Saviour But he left them no such things nor did ever bless and Sanctify them unto any holy or Sacred Ends. And therefore hath the abuse of them been punished with blindness and Idolatry But this is openly testified unto in the Gospel then when his Heart was overflowing with Love unto his Disciples and Care for them when he took an Holy Prospect of what would be their Condition their Work Duty and Temptations in the World and thereon made Provision of all that they could stand in need of he promiseth to leave and give unto them his Holy Spirit to abide with them for ever directing us to look unto Him for all our Comforts and Supplies According therefore unto our valuation and esteem of Him of our Satisfaction and Acquiescency in Him is our regard to the Love Care and Wisdom of our Blessed Saviour to be measured And indeed it is only in his Word and Spirit wherein we can either honour or despise him in this World In his own Person he is exalted at the Right Hand of God far above all Principalities and Powers So that nothing of ours can immediately reach him or affect him But it is in our regard to these that he makes a Tryal of our Faith Love and Obedience And it is a matter of Lamentation to consider the contempt and scorn that on various Pretences is cast upon this Holy Spirit and the Work whereunto he is sent by God the Father and by Jesus Christ. For there is included therein a contempt of them also Nor will a pretence of honouring God in their own way secure such Persons as shall contract the guilt of this Abomination For it is an Idol and not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who doth not work effectually in the Elect by the Holy Ghost according to the Scriptures And 2. if we consider this Promise of the Spirit to be given unto us as to the Ends of it Then Sect. 7 6. He is promised and given as
all things sin only excepted if he had not been Partaker of our Nature there had been no Foundation for the imputing that unto us which he did suffered and wrought Rom. 8. 3. And hence these things are accounted unto us and cannot be so unto Angels whose Nature he did not take upon him Heb. 2. 16. This therefore was the Work of the Holy Ghost in reference unto the Humane Nature of Christ in the Womb of his Mother By his Omnipotent Power he formed it of the Substance of the Body of the Holy Virgin that is as unto his Body And hence sundry things do ensue Sect. 11 1. That the Lord Christ could not on this account no not with respect unto his Humane Nature only be said to be the Son of the Holy Ghost although he supplyed the Place and Vertue of a Natural Father in Generation For the Relation of Filiation dependeth only on and ariseth from a Perfect Generation and not on every Effect of an Efficient cause When one Fire is kindled by another we do not say that it is the Son of that other unless it be very improperly Much less when a Man builds an House do we say that it is his Son There was therefore no other Relation between the Person of the Holy Ghost and the Humane Nature of Christ but that of a Creator and a Creature And the Lord Christ is and is called the Son of God with respect only unto the Father and his eternal ineffable Generation communicating Being and Subsistence unto Him as the Fountain and Original of the Trinity Filiation therefore is a Personal Adjunct and belongs unto Christ as he was a Divine Person and not with respect unto his Humane Nature But that Nature being assumed whole Christ was the Son of God Sect. 12 2. That this Act of the Holy Ghost in forming of the Body of Christ differs from the Act of the Son in assuming the Humane Nature into Personal Union with Himself For this Act of the Son was not a Creating Act producing a Being out of Nothing or making any thing by the same Power to be what in its own Nature it was not But it was an ineffable Act of Love and Wisdom taking the Nature so formed by the Holy Ghost so prepared for him to be his own in the instant of its Formation and thereby preventing the singular and individual Subsistence of that Nature in and by it self So then as the creating Act of the Holy Ghost in forming the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Womb doth not denominate him to be his Father no not according to the Humane Nature but he is the Son of God upon the account of his Eternal Generation only So it doth not denote an Assumption of that Nature into Union with himself nor was he incarnate He made the Humane Nature of Christ Body and Soul with in and unto a Subsistence in the Second Person of the Trinity not his own Sect. 13 3. It hence also followes that the Conception of Christ in the Womb being the Effect of a Creating Act was not accomplished successively and in process of time but was perfected in an Instant For although the Creating Acts of Infinite Power where the Works effected have distinct Parts may have a Process or Duration of Time allotted unto them as the World was Created in six Dayes yet every part of it that was the Object of an especial Creating Act was instantaneously produced So was the forming of the Body of Christ with the infusion of a Rational Soul to quicken it though it increased afterwards in the Womb unto the Birth And as it is probable that this Conception was immediate upon the Angelical Salutation so it was necessary that nothing of the Humane Nature of Christ should exist of it self antecedently unto its Union with the Son of God For in the very instant of its Formation and therein was the Word made Flesh John 1. 14. And the Son of God was made of a Woman Gal. 4. 4. So that the whole Essence of his Nature was created in the same Instant Thus far the Scriptures go before and herein it is necessary to assert the forming of the Body and Soul of Christ by the Holy Spirit The curious enquiries of some of the Schoolmen and others are to be left unto themselves or rather to be condemned in them For what was farther in this Miraculous Operation of the Holy Ghost it seems purposely to be hid from us in that Expression ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Power of the most High shall overshadow thee Under the Secret Glorious Covert hereof we may learn to adore that Holy Work here which we hope to rejoyce in and bless God for unto Eternity And I suppose also that there is in the Word an allusion unto the Expression of the Original Acting of the Holy Spirit towards the newly produced Mass of the Old Creation whereof we spake before Then it is said of Him that He was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as it were hovering and moving over it for the Formation and Production of all things living For both the Words include in them an allusion unto a Covering like that of a Fowl over its Eggs communicating by its cognate warmth and heat a principle of Life unto their Seminal Virtue Sect. 14 It remaineth only that we consider how the same Work of the Conception of Christ is assigned unto the Holy Ghost and to the Blessed Virgin For of Her it is said expresly in Prophesie ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Isa. 7. 14. A Virgin shall Conceive the same Word that is used to express the Conception of any other Woman Gen. 4. 1. Hence She is termed by the Ancients ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and Dei genetrix which last at least I wish had been forborn Compare it with the Scripture and there will appear an unwarrantable ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in it So Luk. 1. 31. The words of the Angel to Her are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Thou shalt Conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son where Her Conception of Him is distinguished from her bringing of him forth And yet in the Ancient Creed commonly called the Apostles and generally received by all Christians as a Summary of Religion it is said he was Conceived by the Holy Spirit and only Born of the Virgin Mary An. The same Work is assigned to both as Causes of a different kind unto the Holy Spirit as the active efficient Cause who by his Almighty Power produced the Effect And the Disputes managed by some of the Ancients about de Spiritu Sancto and ex Spiritu Sancto were altogether needless For it is his Creating Efficiency that is intended And his Conceiving is ascribed unto the Holy Virgin as the passive material Cause for his Body was formed of her Substance as was before declared And this Conception of Christ was after her Solemn Espousals unto Joseph and that for sundry Reasons For 1. under the
22. Jesus of Nazareth a Man approved of God by Miracles and Wonders and Signs which God did by him For they are all immediate Effects of Divine Power So when he cast out Devils with a word of command he affirms that he did it by the Finger of God Luke 11. 20. that is the Infinite Divine Power of God but the Power of God acted in an especial manner by the Holy Spirit as is expresly declared in the other Evangelist Matth. 12. 28. And therefore on the Ascription of his Mighty Works unto Beelzebub the Prince of Devils he lets the Jews know that therein they blasphemed the Holy Spirit whose Works indeed they were v. 31 32. Hence these mighty Works are called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Powers because of the Power of the Spirit of God put forth for their working and effecting see Mark 6. 5. Chap. 9. 39. Luke 4. 36. 5. 17. 6. 19. 8. 46. 9. 1. And in the Exercise of this Power consisted the Testimony given unto him by the Spirit that he was the Son of God For this was necessary unto the Conviction of the Jews to when he was sent John 10. 37 38. Sect. 7 Sixthly By him was he guided directed comforted supported in the whole Course of his Ministry Temptations Obedience and Sufferings Some few Instances on this Head may suffice Presently after his Baptism when he was full of the Holy Ghost he was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness Luke 4. 1. The Holy Spirit guided him to begin his Contest and Conquest with the Devil Hereby he made an entrance into his Ministry and it teacheth us all what we must look for if we solemnly engage our selves to follow him in the Work of Preaching the Gospel The word used in Mark to this purpose hath occasioned some doubt what Spirit is intended in those words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 1. 12. The Spirit driveth him into the Wilderness It is evident that the same Spirit and the same Act is intended in all the Evangelists here and Mat. 4. 1. Luke 4. 1. But now the Holy Spirit should be said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to drive him is not so easie to be apprehended But the Word in Luke is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which denotes a guiding and rational Conduct And this cannot be ascribed unto any other Spirit with respect unto our Lord Jesus but onely the Spirit of God Matthew expresseth the same effect by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Chap. 4. 1. he was carried or carried up or taken away from the midst of the People And this was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of that Spirit namely which descended on him and rested on him immediately before Chap. 3. 17. And the Continuation of the Discourse in Luke will not admit that any other Spirit be intended And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness namely by that Spirit which he was full of By ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã therefore in Mark no more is intended but the sending of him forth by an high and strong impression of the Holy Spirit on his Mind Hence the same word is used with respect unto the sending of others by the powerful impression of the Spirit of God on their Hearts unto the Work of Preaching the Gospel Matth. 9. 38. Pray you therefore the Lord of the Harvest ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So also Luk. 10. 2. that he would thrust forth Labourers into his Harvest namely by furnishing them with the Gifts of his Spirit and by the Power of his Grace constraining them to their Duty So did he enter upon his Preparation unto his Work under his Conduct And it were well if others would endeavour after a conformity unto them within the Rules of their Calling 2. By his assistance was he carried triumphantly through the course of his Temptations unto a perfect Conquest of his Adversary as to the present Conflict wherein he sought to divert him from his Work which afterwards he endeavoured by all wayes and means to oppose and hinder 3. The Temptation being finished he returned again out of the Wilderness to Preach the Gospel in the Power of the Spirit Luk. 4. 14. He returned ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Power of the Spirit into Galilee that is powerfully enabled by the Holy Spirit unto the discharge of his Work And thence is his first Sermon at Nazareth he took those Words of the Prophet for his Text The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because he hath anointed me to Preach the Gospel to the Poor Luke 4. 18. The issue was That they all bare him Witness and wondred at the gracious Words that proceeded out of his Mouth v. 22. And as he thus began his Ministry in the Power of the Spirit so having received him not by measure he continually on all occasions put forth his Wisdom Power Grace and Knowledg to the astonishment of all and the stopping of the Mouths of his Adversaries shutting them up in their Rage and Unbelief 4. By him was he directed strengthned and comforted in his whole Course in all his Temptations Troubles and Sufferings from first to last For we know that there was a confluence of all those upon him in his whole Way and Work a great part of that whereunto he humbled himself for our sakes consisting in these things In and under them he stood in need of mighty Supportment and strong Consolation This God promised unto him and this he expected Isa. 50. 7 8. 42. 4 6. 49. 5 6 7 8. Now all the voluntary Communications of the Divine Nature unto the Humane were as we have shewed by the Holy Spirit Sect. 8 Seventhly He offered himself up unto God through the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9. 14. I know many Learned Men do judge that by the Eternal Spirit in that place not the Third Person is intended but the Divine Nature of the Son himself And there is no doubt but that also may properly be called the Eternal Spirit There is also a Reason in the words themselves strongly inclining unto that sense and acceptation of them For the Apostle doth shew whence it was that the Sacrifices of the Lord Christ had an Efficacy beyond and above the Sacrifices of the Law and whence it would certainly produce that great Effect of purging our Consciences from dead Works And this was from the Dignity of his Person on the account of his Divine Nature It arose I say from the Dignity of his Person his Deity giving sustentation unto his Humane Nature in the Sacrifice of himself For by reason of the indissoluble Union of both his Natures his Person became the Principle of all his Mediatory Acts and from thence had they their Dignity and Efficacy Nor will I oppose this Exposition of the words But on the other side many Learned Persons both of the Ancient and Modern Divines do judg that it is the Person of the Holy Spirit
may be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Phil. 3. 21. And these are some of the principal Instances of the Operations of the Holy Spirit on the Humane Nature of the Head of the Church The whole of them all I confess is a Work that we can look but little into only what is plainly revealed we desire to receive and imbrace considering that if we are his we are predestinated to be made conformable in all things unto him and that by the powerful and effectual Operation of that Spirit which thus wrought all things in him to the Glory of God And as it is a matter of unspeakable consolation unto us to consider what hath been done in and upon our Nature by the Application of the Love and Grace of God through his Spirit unto it so it is of great Advantage in that it directs our Faith and Supplications in our Endeavours after Conformity with him which is our next End under the enjoyment of God in Glory What therefore in these Matters we apprehend we embrace and for the depth of them they are the Object of our Admiration and Praise Sect. 13 Secondly There is yet another Work of the Holy Spirit not immediately in and upon the Person of the Lord Christ but towards him and on his behalf with respect unto his Work and Office And it comprizeth the Head and Fountain of the whole Office of the Holy Spirit towards the Church This was his witness-bearing unto the Lord Christ namely that he was the Son of God the true Messiah and that the Work which he performed in the World was committed unto him by God the Father to accomplish And this same Work he continueth to attend unto unto this day and will do so to the consummation of all things It is known how the Lord Christ was reproached whilst he was in this World and how ignominiously he was sent out of it by Death Hereon a great contest ensued amongst mankind wherein Heaven and Hell were deeply ingaged The greatest part of the World the Princes Rulers and Wise Men of it affirmed that he was an Impostor a Seducer a Malefactor justly punished for his Evil Deeds He on the other side chose twelve Apostles to bear Testimony unto the Holiness of his Life the Truth and Purity of his Doctrine the Accomplishment of the Prophesies of the Old Testament in his Birth Life Work and Death and in especial unto his Resurrection from the Dead whereby he was justified and acquitted from all the Reproaches of Hell and the World and their Calumnies refelled But what could the Testimony of twelve poor Men though never so honest prevail against the confronting Suffrage of the World Wherefore this Work of bearing witness unto the Lord Christ was committed unto him who is above and over all who knoweth how and is able to make his Testimony prevalent John 15. 26. But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me Accordingly the Apostles plead his concurring Testimony Acts 5. 32. And we are his Witnesses of these things and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God hath given to them that obey him And how he thus gave his Testimony our Apostle declares Heb. 2. 4. God also bearing witness with them that is the Apostles both with Signs and Wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his Will The first principal End why God gave the Holy Spirit to work all those miraculous Effects in them that believed in Jesus was to bear witness unto his Person that he was indeed the Son of God owned and exalted by him For no Man not utterly forsaken of all Reason and Understanding not utterly blinded would once imagine that the Holy Spirit of God would work such marvelous Operations in and by them who believed on him if he designed not to justifie his Person Work and Doctrine thereby And this in a short time together with that effectual Power which he put forth in and by the Preaching of the Word carried not only his Vindication against all the Machinations of Satan and his Instruments throughout the World but also subdued the generality of Mankind unto Faith in him and Obedience unto him 1 Cor. 10. 4 5. And upon this Testimony it is that there is real Faith in him yet maintained in the World This is that which he promised unto his Disciples whilst he was yet with them in the World when their hearts were solicitous how they should bear up against their Adversaries upon his absence I will saith he send the Comforter unto you and when he is come he will reprove the World of Sin and of Righteousness and of Judgment of sin because they believe not on me of Righteousness because I go to my Father and ye see me no more of Judgment because the Prince of this World is Judged John 16. 7 8 9 10 11. The Reason why the World believed not on Christ was because they believed not that he was sent of God John 9. 29. By his Testimony the Spirit was to reprove the World of their Infidelity and to convince them of it by evidencing the Truth of his Mission For hereon the whole issue of the Controversie between him and the World did depend Whether he were Righteous or a Deceiver was to be determined by his being sent or not sent of God and consequently God's Acceptance or Disapprobation of him That he was so sent so approved the Holy Spirit convinced the World by his Testimony manifesting that he went to the Father and was exalted by him for it was upon his Ascention and Exaltation that he received and poured out the Promise of the Spirit to this purpose Acts 2. 33. Moreover whilst he was in the World there was an unrighteous Judgment by the instigation of Satan passed upon him On this Testimony of the Spirit that Judgment was to be reversed and a contrary Sentence passed on the Author of it the Prince of this World For by the Gospel so testified unto was he Discovered Convicted Judged Condemned and cast out of that Power and Rule in the World which by the darkness of the Minds of Men within and Idolatry without he had obtained and exercised And that the Holy Spirit continueth to do the same Work though not absolutely by the same means unto this very day shall be afterwards declared And by these Considerations may we be led into that Knowledg of and Acquaintance with our Lord Jesus Christ which is so necessary so useful and so much recommended unto us in the Scripture And the utter neglect of Learning the Knowledg of Christ and of the Truth as it is in him is not more pernicious unto the Souls of Men than is the learning of it by undue means whereby false and mischievous Ideas
are before this Work is wrought in them and on them Ephes. 2. 1 5. which is the Work of the Spirit alone for it is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing John 6. 63. see Rom. 8. 9 10. Titus 3. 4 5 6. where the same Truth is declared and asserted But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards Man appeared not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit which he shed on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Sect. 4 What we have frequently mentioned occurreth here expresly namely the whole Blessed Trinity and each Person therein acting distinctly in the Work of our Salvation The Spring or Fountain of the whole lyeth in the Kindness and Love of God even the Father Thereunto it is every-where ascribed in the Scripture see John 3. 16. Ephes. 1. 4 5 6. What-ever is done in the Accomplishment of this Work it is so in the pursuit of his Will Purpose and Counsel and is an Effect of his Love and Grace The procuring Cause of the Application of the Love and Kindness of God unto us is Jesus Christ our Saviour in the whole Work of his Mediation v. 6. and the immediate efficient Cause in the Communication of the Love and Kindness of the Father through the Mediation of the Son unto us is the Holy Spirit And this he doth in the Renovation of our Natures by the washing of Regeneration wherein we are purged from our sins and sanctified unto God Sect. 5 More Testimonies unto this purpose need not be insisted on This Truth of the Holy Spirit being the Author of our Regeneration which the Ancients esteemed a Cogent Argument to prove his Deity even from the the Greatness and Dignity of the Work is in words at least so far as I know granted by all who pretend to sobriety in Christianity That by some others it hath been derided and exploded is the occasion of this Vindication of it It must not be expected that I should here handle the whole Doctrine of Regeneration practically as it may be educed by Inferences from the Scripture according to the Analogie of Faith and the Experiences of them that believe It hath been done already by others My present aim is only to confirm the Fundamental Principles of Truth concerning those Operations of the Holy Spirit which at this day are opposed with violence and virulence And what I shall offer on the present Subject may be reduced unto the ensuing Heads Sect. 6 1. Although the Work of Regeneration by the Holy Spirit was wrought under the Old Testament even from the Foundation of the World and the Doctrine of it was recorded in the Scriptures yet the Revelation of it was but obscure in comparison of that Light and Evidence which it is brought forth into by the Gospel This is evident from the Discourse which our Blessed Saviour had with Nicodemus on this Subject For when he acquainted him clearly with the Doctrine of it he was surprized and fell into that enquiry which argued some amazement How can these things be But yet the Reply of our Saviour manifests That he might have attained a better acquaintance with it out of the Scripture than he had done Art thou saith he a Master in Israel and knowest not these things Dost thou take upon thee to Teach others what is their State and Condition and what is their Duty towards God and art ignorant thy self of so Great and Fundamental a Doctrine which thou mightest have learned from the Scripture For if he might not so have done there would have been no just cause of the Reproof given him by our Saviour For it was neither Crime nor Negligence in him to be ignorant of what God had not revealed This Doctrine therefore namely That every one who will enter into the Kingdom of God must be born again of the Holy Spirit was contained in the Writings of the Old Testament It was so in the Promises That God would circumcise the Hearts of his People that he would take away their Heart of Stone and give them a Heart of Flesh with his Law written in it and other wayes as shall be afterwards proved Sect. 7 But yet we see that it was so obscurely declared that the principal Masters and Teachers of the People knew little or nothing of it Some indeed would have this Regeneration if they knew what they would have or as to what may be gathered of their minds out of their great swelling words of vanity to be nothing but Reformation of Life according to the Rules of the Scripture But Nicodemus knew the necessity of Reformation of Life well enough if he had ever read either Moses or the Prophets And to suppose that our Lord Jesus Christ proposed unto him the thing which he knew perfectly well only under a new Name or Notion which he had never heard of before So to take an advantage of charging him with being ignorant of what indeed he full well knew and understood is a blasphemous Imagination How they can free themselves from the Guilt hereof who look on Regeneration as no more but a Metaphorical Expression of Amendment of Life I know not And if it be so if there be no more in it but as they love to speak becoming a new Moral Man a thing which all the World Jews and Gentiles understood our Lord Jesus was so far from bringing it forth into more Light and giving it more perspicuity by what he teacheth concerning Regeneration the Nature Manner Causes and Effects of it that he cast it thereby into more darkness and obscurity than ever it was delivered in either by Jewish Masters or Gentile Philosophy For although the Gospel do really teach all Duties of Morality with more exactness and clearness and press unto the Observance of them on motives incomparably more cogent than any thing that otherwise ever befel the Mind of Man to think or apprehend yet if it must be supposed to intend nothing else in its Doctrine of the New Birth or Regeneration but those Moral Duties and their Observance it is dark and unintelligible I say if there be not a secret mysterious Work of the Spirit of God in and upon the Souls of Men intended in the Writings of the New Testament but only a Reformation of Life and the Improvement of Mens Natural Abilities in the Exercise of Moral Virtue through the Application of outward means unto their Minds and Understandings conducting and perswading thereunto they must be granted to be obscure beyond those of any other Writers whatsoever as some have not feared already to publish unto the World concerning the Epistles of Paul But so long as we can obtain an acknowledgment from Men that they are true and in any sense the Word of God we doubt not but to evince that the things intended in them are clearly and
properly expressed so as they ought to be and so as they are capable to be expressed The Difficulties which seem to be in them arising from the Mysterious Nature of the things themselves contained in them and the weakness of our Minds in apprehending such things and not from any obscurity or intricacy in the Declaration of them And herein indeed consists the main Contest whereunto things with the most are reduced Some judg that all things are so expressed in the Scripture with a condesension unto our Capacity so as that there is still to be conceived an inexpressible Grandure in many of them beyond our Comprehension Others judg on the other hand That under a Grandure of Words and Hyperbolical Expressions things of a meaner and a lower sense are intended and to be understood Some judg the Things of the Gospel to be deep and mysterious the Words and Expressions of it to be plain and proper Others think the Words and Expressions of it to be Mystical and Figurative but the Things intended to be ordinary and obvious to the Natural Reason of every Man But to return Sect. 8 Both Regeneration and the Doctrine of it were under the Old Testament All the Elect of God in their several Generations were all Regenerate by the Spirit of God But in that Ampliation and Enlargement of Truth and Grace under the Gospel which came by Jesus Christ who brought Life and Immortality to light as more Persons than of old were to be made Partakers of the Mercy of it so the Nature of the Work it self is far more clearly evidently and distinctly revealed and declared And because this is the principal and internal Remedy of that Disease which the Lord Christ came to cure and take away one of the first things that he Preached was the Doctrine of it All things of this Nature before even from the beginning of the World lay hid in God Ephes. 3. 9. Some intimations were given of them in Parables and dark Sayings ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Psal. 78. 2. in Types Shadows and Ceremonies so as the Nature of the Grace in them was not clearly to be discerned But now when the great Physician of our Souls came who was to heal the Wound of our Natures whence we were dead in Trespasses and Sins he layes naked the Disease it self declares the Greatness of it the Ruine we were under from it that we might know and be thankful for its Reparation Hence no Doctrine is more fully and plainly declared in the Gospel than this of our Regeneration by the effectual and ineffable Operation of the Holy Spirit And it is a Consequent and Fruit of the Depravation of our Nature that against the full Light and Evidence of Truth now clearly manifested this Great and Holy Work is opposed and despised Sect. 9 Few indeed have yet the confidence in plain and intelligible words to deny it absolutely But many tread in the steps of him who first in the Church of God undertook to undermine it This was Pelagius whose principal Artifice which he used in the Introduction of his Heresie was in the clouding of his Intentions with general and ambiguous Expressions as some would be making use of his very Words and Phrases Hence for a long time when he was justly charged with his Sacrilegious Errors he made no defence of them but reviled his Adversaries as corrupting his Mind and not understanding his Expressions And by this means as he got himself acquitted in the Judgments of some less experienced in the sleights and cunning craftiness of them who lie in wait to deceive and juridically freed in an Assembly of Bishops so in all probability he had suddenly infected the whole Church with the poison of those Opinions which the proud and corrupted Nature of Man is so apt to receive and embrace if God had not stirred up some few Holy and Learned Persons Austin especially to discover his Frauds to refel his Calumnies and confute his Sophisms which they did with indefatigable industry and good success But yet these Tares being once sown by the envious one found such a suitable and fruitful Soil in the darkned Minds and proud Hearts of Men that from that day to this they could never be fully extirpated but the same bitter Root hath still sprung up unto the defiling of many though various new Colours have been put upon its Leaves and Fruit. And although those who at present amongst us have undertaken the same Cause with Pelagius do not equal him either in Learning or Diligence or an Appearance of Piety and Devotion yet do they exactly imitate him in declaring their minds in cloudy ambiguous Expressions capable of various Constructions until they are fully examined and thereon reproaching as he did those that oppose them as not aright representing their Sentiments when they judg it their Advantage so to do as the scurrilous clamorous Writings of S. P. do sufficiently manifest Sect. 10 Secondly Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is the same Work for the kind of it and wrought by the same Power of the Spirit in all that are Regenerate or ever were or shall be so from the beginning of the World unto the end thereof Great variety there is in the Application of the outward means which the Holy Spirit is pleased to use and make effectual towards the Accomplishment of this great Work Nor can the Wayes and Manner hereof be reduced unto any certain order For the Spirit worketh how and when he pleaseth following the sole Rule of his own Will and Wisdom Mostly God makes use of the Preaching of the Word thence called an Engrafted Word which is able to save our Souls James 1. 21. and the incorruptible Seed by which we are born again 1 Pet. 1. 21. Sometimes 't is wrought without it as in all those who are Regenerate before they come to the use of Reason or in their Infancy Sometimes Men are called and so regenerate in an extraordinary manner as was Paul but mostly they are so in and by the use of ordinary Means instituted blessed and sanctified of God to that end and purpose And great variety there is also in the perception and understanding of the Work it self in them in whom it is wrought For in it self it is secret and hidden and is no other wayes discoverable but in its Causes and Effects For as the Wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit John 3. 8. Sect. 11 In the Minds and Consciences of some this is made known by infallible Signs and Tokens Paul knew that Christ was formed and revealed in himself Gal. 1. 16. So he declared that who-ever is in Christ Jesus is a New Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. that is is born again whether they know themselves so to be or no. And many are in the dark as to their own condition in
But as it hath been in part already manifested and will fully God assisting be evinced afterwards that in our Regeneration the native Ignorance Darkness and Blindness of our Minds are dispelled Saving and Spiritual Light being introduced by the Power of God's Grace into them That the pravity and stubbornness of our Wills are removed and taken away a new principle of Spiritual Life and Righteousness being bestowed on them and that the Disorder and Rebellion of our Affections are cured by the infusion of the Love of God into our Souls so the corrupt Imagination of the contrary Opinion directly opposite to the Doctrine of the Scriptures the Faith of the Antient Church and the Experience of all sincere Believers hath amongst us of late nothing but Ignorance and ready Confidence produced to give countenance unto it Sect. 25 Thirdly The Work of the Holy Spirit in Regeneration doth not consist in Enthusiastical Raptures Extasies Voices or any thing of the like kind It may be some such things have been by some deluded Persons apprehended or pretended unto But the countenancing of any such Imaginations is falsly and injuriously charged on them who maintain the powerful and effectual Work of the Holy Spirit in our Regeneration And this some are prone to do wherein whether they discover more of their Ignorance or of their Malice I know not but nothing is more common with them All whom in this Matter they dissent from so far as they know what they say or whereof they affirm do teach Men to look after Enthusiastick Inspirations or unaccountable Raptures and to esteem them for Conversion unto God although in the mean time they live in a neglect of Holiness and Righteousness of Conversation I Answer if there be those who do so we doubt not but that without their Repentance the Wrath of God will come upon them as upon other Children of Disobedience And yet in the mean time we cannot but call aloud that others would discover their diligence in attendance unto these things who as far as I can discern do cry up the Names of Virtue and Righteousness in opposition to the Grace of Jesus Christ and that Holiness which is a Fruit thereof But for the Reproach now under Consideration it is as applyed no other but a Calumny and false Accusation And that it is so the Writings and Preachings of those who have most diligently laboured in the Declaration of the Work of the Holy Spirit in our Regeneration will bear Testimony at the great Day of the Lord. We may therefore as unto this Negative Principle observe three things 1. That the Holy Spirit in this Work doth ordinarily put forth his Power in and by the use of Means He worketh also on Men suitably unto their Natures even as the Faculties of their Souls their Minds Wills and Affections are meet to be affected and wrought upon He doth not come upon them with involuntary Raptures using their Faculties and Powers as the Evil Spirit wrests the Bodies of them whom he possesseth His whole Work therefore is rationally to be accounted for by and unto them who believe the Scripture and have received the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive The formal efficiency of the Spirit indeed in the putting forth the exceeding greatness of his Power in our quickning Which the Ancient Church constantly calleth his Inspiration of Grace both in private Writing and Canons of Councils is no otherwise to be comprehended by us than any other Creating Act of Divine Power for as we hear the Wind but know not from whence it cometh nor whither it goeth so is every one that is born of God yet these two things are certain herein First That he worketh nothing nor any other way nor by any other means than what are determined and declared in the Word By that therefore may and must every thing really belonging or pretended to belong unto this Work of Regeneration be tryed and examined Secondly That he acts nothing contrary unto puts no force upon any of the Faculties of our Souls but works in them and by them suitably to their Natures and being more intimate unto them as Austin speaks than they are unto themselves by an Almighty Facility he produceth the Effect which he intendeth Sect. 20 This great Work therefore neither in part nor whole consists in Raptures Extasies Visions Enthusiastick Inspirations but in the Effect of the Power of the Spirit of God on the Souls of Men by and according to his Word both of the Law and the Gospel And those who charge these things on them who have asserted declared and preached it according to the Scriptures do it probably to countenance themselves in their hatred of them and of the Work it self Wherefore 2dly where by Reason of Distempers of Mind Disorder of Fancy or long continuance of distressing Fears and Sorrows in and under such Preparatory Works of the Spirit which sometimes cut Men to their Hearts in the sense of their sin and sinful lost condition any do fall into Apprehensions or Imaginations of any thing extraordinary in the wayes before-mentioned if it be not quickly and strictly brought unto the Rule and discarded thereby it may be of great danger unto their Souls and is never of any solid Use or Advantage Such Apprehensions for the most part are either Conceptions of distempered Minds and discomposed Fancies or Delusions of Satan transforming himself into an Angel of Light which the Doctrine of Regeneration ought not to be accountable for Yet I must say 3dly That so it is come to pass that many of those who have been really made Partakers of this gracious Work of the Holy Spirit have been looked on in the World which knows them not as mad Enthusiastick and Fanatical So the Captains of the Host esteemed the Prophet that came to anoint Jehu 2 Kings 9. 11. And the Kindred of our Saviour when he began to Preach the Gospel said He was besides himself or extatical Mark 3. 21. and they went out to lay hold of him So Festus judged of Paul Acts 26. 24 25. And the Author of the Book of Wisdom gives us an account what acknowledgments some will make when it shall be too late as to their own Advantage Chap. 5. 3 4 5. They shall say crying out because of the trouble of their Minds This is he whom we accounted a scorn and a common reproach We Fools esteemed his Life madness and his latter End to have been shameful but how is he reckoned among the Sons of God and his Lot is among the Holy Ones From what hath been spoken it appears Sect. 26 Fourthly That the Work of the Spirit of God in Regenerating the Souls of Men is diligently to be enquired into by the Preaching of the Gospel and all to whom the Word is dispensed For the former sort there is a peculiar Reason for their Attendance unto this Duty For they are used and employed in the Work it self by the Spirit
of God and are by him made instrumental for the effecting of this New Birth and Life So the Apostle Paul stiles himself the Father of them who were Converted to God or Regenerate through the Word of his Ministry 1 Cor. 4. 15. Though you have ten thousand Instructers in Christ yet have you not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel He was used in the Ministry of the Word for their Regeneration and therefore was their Spiritual Father and he only though the Work was afterwards carried on by others And if Men are Fathers in the Gospel to no more than are Converted unto God by their Personal Ministry it will be no Advantage unto any one day to have assumed that Title when it hath had no Foundation in that Work as to its effectual success So speaking of Onesimus who was Converted by him in Prison he calls him his Son whom he had begotten in his Bonds Philem. 10. and this he declared to have been prescribed unto him as the Principal End of his Ministry in the Commission he had for Preaching the Gospel Acts 26. 17 18. Christ said unto him I send thee unto the Gentiles to open their Eyes to turn them from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God which is a Description of the Work under Consideration And this is the principal End of our Ministry also Now certainly it is the Duty of Ministers to understand the Work about which they are employed as far as they are able that they may not Work in the Dark and Fight Uncertainly as Men beating the Air What the Scripture hath revealed concerning it as to its Nature and the manner of its Operation as to its Causes Effects Fruits Evidences they ought diligently to enquire into To be spiritually skilled herein is one of the principal Furnishments of any for the Work of the Ministry without which they will never be able to divide the Word aright nor shew themselves Workmen that need not be ashamed Yet is it scarcely imaginable with what rage and perversity of Spirit with what scornful Expressions this whole Work is traduced and exposed to contempt Those who have laboured herein are said to prescribe long and tedious trains of Conversion to set down nice and subtile Processes of Regeneration to fill Peoples Heads with innumerable Swarms of Superstitious Fears and Scruples about the due Degrees of Godly Sorrow and the certain Symptoms of a through-Humiliation p. 306 307. Could any mistake be charged on particular Persons in these things or the prescribing of Rules about Conversion to God and Regeneration that are not warranted by the Word of Truth it were not amiss to reflect upon them and refute them But the intention of these Expressions is evident and the reproach in them is cast upon the Work of God it self And I must profess that I believe the Degeneracy from the Truth and Power of Christian Religion the Ignorance of the principal Doctrines of the Gospel and that scorn which is cast in these and the like Expressions on the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ by such as not only profess themselves to be Ministers but of an higher Degree than ordinary will be sadly ominous unto the whole State of the Reformed Church amongst us if not timely repressed and corrected But what at present I affirm in this Matter is That it is a Duty indispensibly incumbent on all Ministers of the Gospel to acquaint themselves throughly with the Nature of this Work that they may be able to comply with the Will of God and Grace of the Spirit in the Effecting and Accomplishment of it upon the Souls of them unto whom they dispense the Word Neither without some competent knowledg hereof can they discharge any one part of their Duty and Office in a right manner If all that hear them are born dead in Trespasses and Sins if they are appointed of God to be the Instruments of their Regeneration It is a madness which must one day be accounted for to neglect a sedulous enquiry into the Nature of this Work and the means whereby it is wrought And the ignorance hereof or negligence herein with the want of an Experience of the Power of this Work in their own Souls is one great cause of that lifeless and unprofitable Ministry which is among us Sect. 27 Secondly It is likewise the Duty of all to whom the Word is Preached to enquire also into it It is unto such to whom the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith prove your own selves know you not your own Selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be Reprobates It is the Concernment of all individual Christians or Professors of Christian Religion to try and examine themselves what Work of the Spirit of God there hath been upon their hearts and none will deter them from it but those who have a design to hoodwink them to Perdition And 1. the Doctrine of it is revealed and taught us For secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our Children for ever that we may do all the Words of the Law Deut. 29. 29. And we speak not of curious Enquiries into or after hidden things or the secret veiled Actions of the Holy Spirit but only of an upright endeavour to search into and comprehend the Doctrine concerning this Work to this very end that we might understand it 2. It is of such Importance unto all our Duties and all our Comforts to have a due Apprehension of the Nature of this Work and of our own Concernment therein that an enquiry into the one and the other cannot be neglected without the greatest folly and madness Whereunto we may add 3. the danger that there is of Mens being deceived in this Matter which is the Hinge whereon their Eternal State and Condition doth absolutely turn and depend And certain it is that very many in the World do deceive themselves herein For they evidently live under one of these pernicious Mistakes namely That 1. either Men may go to Heaven or enter into the Kingdom of God and not be born again contrary to that of our Saviour John 3. 6. or that Men may be born again and yet live in sin contrary to 1 John 3. 9. Works of the HOLY SPIRIT Preparatory unto Regeneration CHAP. II. 1. Sundry things Preparatory to the Work of Conversion 2. Material and Formal Dispositions with their Difference 3 4. Things in the power of our Natural Abilities required of us in a way of Duty 5. Internal Spiritual Effects wrought in the Souls of Men by the Word 6 7. Illumination Conviction of Sin Consequents thereof 8. These Things variously taught 9. Power of the Word and Energie of the Spirit distinct 10. Subject of this Work Mind Affections and Conscience 11 12 13. Nature of this whole Work and Difference from Saving
which in Conjunction with the sense of the guilt of sin mentioned brings Men into bondage under fear Rom. 8. 15. 3. Humiliation for Sin which is the exercise or working of Sorrow and Fear in outward Acts of Confession Fasting Praying and the like This is the true Nature of Legal Humiliation 1 Kings 21. 29. 4. Unless by these things the Soul be swallowed up in despair it cannot be but that it will be filled with Thoughts Desires Enquiries and Contrivances about a Deliverance out of that State and Condition wherein it is as Acts 2. 27. Acts 16. 30. Thirdly Oftentimes a great Reformation of Life and Change in Affections doth ensue hereon as Matth. 13. 20. 2 Pet. 2. 20. Matth. 12. 43. Sect. 9 All these things may be wrought in the Minds of Men by the Dispensation of the Word and yet the Work of Regeneration be never perfected in them Yea although they are good in themselves and Fruits of the kindness of God towards us they may not only be lost as unto any Spiritual Advantage but also be abused unto our great disadvantage And this comes not to pass but by our own Sin whereby we contract a new Guilt upon our Souls And it commonly so falls out one of these three wayes For 1. some are no way careful or wise to improve this Light and Conviction unto the end whereunto they tend and are designed Their Message is to turn the Minds of Men and to take them off from their self-confidence and to direct them unto Christ. Where this is not attended unto where they are not used and improved unto the pursuit of this End they insensibly wither decay and come to nothing 2. In some they are overborn by the Power and Violence of their Lusts the Love of Sin and Efficacy of Temptation They are sinned away every day and leave the Soul in ten-times a worse condition than they found it 3. Some rest in these things as though they comprized the whole Work of God towards them and guided them in all the Duties required of them This is the State of many where they extend their Power in the last Instance unto any considerable Reformation of Life and Attendance unto Duties of Religious Worship But this as was said falls out through the abuse which the Carnal Minds of Men retaining their Enmity against God do put these things unto In their own Nature they are good useful and material Preparations unto Regeneration disposing the Mind unto the reception of the Grace of God Sect. 10 And the Doctrine concerning these things hath been variously handled distinguished and applyed by many Learned Divines and Faithful Ministers of the Gospel Unto that Light which they received into them from the infallible Word of Truth they joyned those Experiences which they had observed in their own Hearts and the Consciences of others with whom they had to do which were suitable thereunto And in the Dispensation of this Truth according to the measure of the Gift of the Grace of Christ which they severally received they had an useful and fruitful Ministry in the World to the Converting of many unto God But we have lived to see all these things decried and rejected And the way which some have taken therein is as strange and uncouth as the thing it self For they go not about once to disprove by Scripture or Reason what hath been taught or delivered by any sober Persons to this purpose nor do they endeavour themselves to declare from or by the Scriptures what is the Work of Regeneration what are the Causes and Effects of it in opposition thereunto These and such like wayes made use of by all that have treated of Spiritual Things from the Foundation of Christianity are despised and rejected But horrible and contemptuous Reproaches are cast upon the things themselves in words heaped together on purpose to expose them unto scorn among Persons ignorant of the Gospel and themselves Those that teach them are extatical and illiterate and those that receive them are superstitious giddy and Phanatical All conviction sense of and sorrow for sin all fear of the Curse and Wrath due unto Sin all Troubles and Distressed of Mind by reason of these things are foolish Imaginations the Effects of bodily Diseases and Distempers Enthusiastick Notions arising from the disorders of Mens Brains and I know not what untoward Humours in their Complexions and Constitutions The same or the like account is also given concerning all Spiritual Desertions or Joys and Refreshments And the whole Doctrine concerning these things is branded with novelty and hopes expressed of its sudden vanishing out of the World This contempt and scorn of the Gospel have we lived to see whereof it may be other Ages and Places have not had Experience For as all these things are plentifully taught by some of the Ancients in their Expositions of the Scriptures wherein they are expressed especially by Austin who had occasion particularly to enquire into them so the Doctrine concerning them is in a great measure retained in the Church of Rome it self Only some amongst ourselves are weary of them who being no way able to oppose the Principles and Foundations whereon they are Built nor to disprove them by Scripture or Reason betake themselves to these Revilings and Reproaches And as if it were not enough for them to proclaim their own Ignorance and Personal unacquaintance with those things which inseparably accompany that Conviction of Sin Righteousness and Judgment which our Lord Jesus Christ hath promised to sent the Holy Spirit to Work in all that should believe they make the reproaching of it in others a Principal Effect of that Religion which they profess Nevertheless the Foundation of God standeth sure God knoweth who are his But we must return to our purpose Sect. 11 Thirdly All the things mentioned as wrought instrumentally by the Word are Effects of the Power of the Spirit of God The Word it self under a bare proposal to the Minds of Men will not so affect them We need go no further for the Confirmation hereof than meerly to consider the Preaching with the Effects which it had towards many of the Prophets of old Isa. 49. 4. Jer. 15. 30. Ezek. 33. 31 32. of Jesus Christ himself John 8. 59. And of the Apostles Acts 13. 41 45 46. Hence to this day the Jews who enjoy the Letter of the Old Testament without the Administration of the Spirit are as full of blindness hardness and obstinacy as any in the World who are utterly deprived of it Many amongst our selves fit all their dayes under the Preaching of the Word and yet have none of the Effects mentioned wrought upon them when others their Associates in Hearing are really Affected Convinced and Converted It is therefore the Ministration of the Spirit in and by the Word which produceth all or any of these Effects on the Minds of Men. He is the Fountain of all Illumination Hence they that are enlightned are
the Apostle when he sent him to Preach the Gospel was to open the Eyes of Men and to turn them from Darkness to Light Acts 26. 18. not a Light within them for Internal Light is the Eye or seeing of the Soul But the Darkness was such as consisted in their blindness in not having their eyes open To open their Eyes and turn them from Darkness Ephes. 5. 8. Ye were sometimes Darkness but now are ye Light in the Lord. What is the Change and Alteration made in the Minds of Men intended in this Expression will afterwards appear But that a great Change is proposed none can doubt Col. 1. 13. Who hath delivered us from the Power of Darkness as also 1 Pet. 2. 9. Who hath called us out of Darkness into his marvelous Light And the Darkness which is in these Testimonies ascribed unto Persons in an unregenerate Condition is by Paul compared to that which was at the beginning before the Creation of Light Gen. 1. 2. Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep There was no Creature that had a Visive Faculty there was Darkness Subjectively in all and there was no Light to see by but all was objectively wrapt up in Darkness In this state of things God by an Almighty Act of his Power created Light vers 3. God said Let there be Light and there was Light And no otherwise is it in this new Creation God who commanded then Light to shine out of Darkness shines into the Hearts of Men to give them the knowledg of his Glory in the Face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. Spiritual Darkness is in and upon all Men until God by an Almighty and Effectual Work of the Spirit shine into them or Create Light in them And this Darkness is that Light within which some boast to be in themselves and others Sect. 7 To clear our way in this Matter we must consider first the Nature of this Spiritual Darkness what it is and wherein it doth consist and then secondly shew its Efficacy and Power in and on the Minds of Men and how they are corrupted by it First The Term of Darkness in this case is Metaphorical and borrowed from that which is Natural What Natural Darkness is and wherein it consists all Men know if they know it not in its Cause and Reason yet they know it by its Effects They know it is that which hinders Men from all Regular Operations which are to be guided by the outward Senses And it is two-fold 1. When Men have not Light to see by or when the usual Light the only external Medium for the discovery of distant Objects is taken from them So was it with the Egyptians during the three dayes darkness that was on their Land They could not see for want of Light they had their Visive Faculty continued unto them yet having no Light they saw not one another nor arose any from his place Exod. 10. 23. For God probably to augment the terror of his Judgment restrained the vertue of Artificial Light as well as he did that which was Natural 2. There is Darkness unto Men when they are blind either born so or made so Psal. 69. 29. Let their Eyes be darkned that they may not see So the Angel smote the Sodomites with blindness Gen. 19. 11. and Paul the Sorcerer Acts 13. 11. However the Sun shineth it is all one perpetual Night unto them that are blind Sect. 8 Answerable hereunto Spiritual Darkness may be referred unto two Heads For there is an Objective Darkness a Darkness that is on Men and a Subjective Darkness a Darkness that is in them The first consists in the want of those Means whereby alone they may be enlightned in the Knowledg of God and Spiritual Things This is intended Mat. 4. 16. This Means is the Word of God and the preaching of it Hence it is called a Light Psal. 119. 105. and is said to give Light Psal. 19. 8. or to be a Light shining in a dark place 2 Pet. 1. 19. And it is so termed because it is the outward Means of Communicating the Light of the Knowledg of God unto the Minds of Men. What the Sun is unto the World as unto things natural that is the Word and the Preaching of it unto Men as to Things Spiritual And hence our Apostle applies what is said of the Sun in the Firmament as to the enlightning of the World Psal. 19. 1 2 3 4. unto the Gospel and the Preaching of it Rom. 10. 15 18. Sect. 9 And this Darkness is upon many in the World even all unto whom the Gospel is not declared or by whom it is not received where it is or hath been so Some I know have entertained a vain Imagination about a Saving-Revelation of the Knowledg of God by the Works of Creation and Providence objected to the Rational Faculties of the Minds of Men. It is not my purpose here to divert unto the confutation of that Fancy Were it so it were easie to demonstrate that there is no Saving Revelation of the Knowledg of God unto Sinners but as he is in Christ reconciling the World unto himself and that so he is not made known but by the Word of Reconciliation committed unto the Dispensers of the Gospel What-ever knowledg therefore of God may be attained by the means mentioned as he is the God of Nature ruling over Men and requiring Obedience from them according to the Covenant and Law of their Creation yet the knowledg of him as a God in Christ pardoning Sin and saving Sinners is attainable by the Gospel only But this I have proved and confirmed elsewhere Sect. 10 It is the Work of the Holy Spirit to remove and take away this Darkness which until it is done no Man can see the Kingdom of God or enter into it And this he doth by sending the Word of the Gospel into any Nation Country Place or City as he pleaseth The Gospel doth not get ground in any place nor is restrained from any Place or People by accident ãâã by the endeavours of Men but it is sent and disposed of ãâã to the Sovereign Will and Pleasure of the Spirit of God He Gifteth Calls and Sends Men unto the Work of Preaching it Acts 13. 2 4. and disposeth them unto the Places where they shall declare it either by express Revelation as of old Acts 16. 6 7 8 9 10. or guides them by the secret Operations of his Providence Thus the Dispensation of the Light of the Gospel as to Times Places and Persons depends on his Sovereign Pleasure Psal. 147. 19 20. Wherefore although we are to take care and pray much about the continuance of the Dispensation of the Gospel in any place and its Propagation in others yet need we not to be over-solicitous about it This Work and Care the Holy Ghost hath taken on himself and will carry it on according to the Counsel of God and his Purposes concerning the Kingdom of Jesus
are not delivered from a state of sin And he who denies the necessary perishing of all that live and dye in the state of Corrupted Nature denies all the use of the Incarnation and Mediation of the Son of God For if we may be saved without the Renovation of our Natures there was no need nor use of the New Creation of all things by Jesus Christ which principally consists therein And if Men may be saved under all the Evils that came upon us by the fail then did Christ dye in vain Besides it is frequently expressed that Men in that state are Enemies to God alienated from him Children of Wrath under the Curse and if such may be saved so may Devils also In brief it is not consistent with the Nature of God his Holiness Righteousness or Truth with the Law or Gospel nor possible in the nature of the thing it self that such persons should enter into or be made possessors of Glory and Rest with God A Deliverance therefore out of and from this Condition is indispensibly necessary to make us meet for the inheritance of the Saints in Light Sect. 3 This Deliverance must be and is by Regeneration The Determinaof our Saviour is positive both in this and the necessity of it before asserted Joh. 3. 3. Except a Man be born again or from above he cannot see the Kingdom of God Whatever sense the Kingdom of God is taken in either for that of Grace here or of Glory hereafter it is all the same as unto our present purpose There is no Interest in it to be obtained no Participation of the Benefits of it unless a man be born again unless he be Regenerate And this Determination of our Saviour as it is absolute and decretory so it is applicable unto and equally comprizeth every Individual of mankind And the Work intended by their Regeneration or in being born again which is the Spiritual Conversion and Quickning of the Souls of Men is everywhere ascribed unto them that shall be saved And although Men may have through their ignorance and prejudices false Apprehensions about Regeneration and the Nature of it or wherein it doth consist yet so far as I know all Christians are agreed that it is the way and means of our Deliverance from the state of Sin or Corrupted Nature or rather our Deliverance it self For this both express Testimonies of Scripture and the Nature of the thing it self put beyond Contradiction Tit. 3. 3 4 5. And those by whom it is exposed unto scorn who esteem it a ridiculous thing for any one to enquire whether he be Regenerate or no will one day understand the necessity of it although it may be not before it is too late to obtain any Advantage thereby Sect. 4 The Holy Ghost is the immediate Author and Cause of this work of Regeneration And herein again as I suppose we have in general the Consent of all Nothing is more in words acknowledged than that all the Elect of God are sanctified by the Holy Ghost And this Regeneration is the Head Fountain or Beginning of our Sanctification virtually comprizing the whole in it self as will afterwards appear However that it is a part thereof is not to be denied Besides as I suppose it is equally confessed to be an Effect or Work of Grace the Actual Dispensation whereof is solely in the hand of the Holy Spirit This I say is in words acknowledged by all although I know not how some can reconcile this Profession unto other notions and sentiments which they declare concerning it For setting aside what Men do herein themselves and what others do towards them in the Ministry of the Word and I cannot see what remains as they express their loose Imaginations to be ascribed unto the Spirit of God But at present we shall make use of this general concession that Regeneration is the Work of the Holy Ghost or an Effect of his Grace Not that we have any need so to do but that we may avoid contesting about those things wherein Men may shrowd their false Opinions under general ambiguous Expressions which was the constant practice of Pelagius and those who followed him of Old But the Scripture is express in Testimonies to our purpose What our Saviour calls being born again John 3. 3. He calls being born of the Spirit ver 5. 6. because he is the sole principal efficient Cause of this new birth For it is the Spirit that quickneth Joh. 6. v. 63. Rom. 8. 11. And God saveth us according to his mercy by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. whereas therefore we are said to be born of God or to be begotten again of his own will John 1. 13. Jam. 1. 18. 1 John 3. 9. it is with respect unto the especial and peculiar Operation of the Holy Spirit Sect. 5 These things are thus far confessed even by the Pelagians themselves both those of old and those at present at least in general nor hath any as yet been so hardy as to deny Regeneration to be the Work of the holy Spirit in us unless we must except those deluded Souls who deny both him and his Work Our sole Enquiry therefore must be after the manner and nature of this work for the nature of it depends on the manner of the working of the Spirit of God herein This I acknowledg was variously contended about of old and the truth concerning it hath scarce escaped an open Opposition in any Age of the Church And at present this is the great Ball of Contention between the Jesuites and the Jansenists the latter keeping close to the Doctrine of the principal Ancient Writers of the Church the former under new Notions Expressions and Distinctions endeavouring the Reinforcement of Pelagianism whereunto some of the Elder School-Men led the way of whom our Bradwardine so long ago complained But never was it with so much Impotence and Ignorance traduced and reviled as it is by some among our selves For a sort of Men we have who by stories of wandring Jews Rhetorical Declamations pert Cavillings and proud Revilings of those who dissent from them think to scorn and banish Truth out of the World though they never yet durst attempt to deal openly and plainly with any one Argument that is pleaded in its defence and confirmation Sect. 6 The Ancient Writers of the Church who looked into these things with most diligence and laboured in them with most success as Austin Hilary Prosper and Fulgentius do represent the whole Work of the Spirit of God towards the Souls of Men under certain Heads or Distinctions of Grace And herein were they followed by many of the more sober School-Men and others of late without number Frequent mention we find in them of Grace as preparing preventing Working Co-working and Confirming Under these Heads do they handle the whole Work of our Regeneration or Conversion unto God And although there may be some Alteration in
means unto Men in the state of Sin if they are not complyed withal is sufficient on the grounds before laid down to leave them by whom they are rejected inexcusable so Isa. 5. 3 4 5. Prov. 29. 1. 2 Chron. 36. 14 15. Joh. 2. That the effect of Regeneration or Conversion unto God is assigned unto the Preaching of the Word because of its efficacy thereunto in its own kind and way as the outward means thereof 1 Cor. 4. 15. James 1. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 23. Sect. 10 2ly We may consider what is the Nature and wherein the Efficacy of this Moral Work doth consist To which purpose we may observe Sect. 11 1. That in the use of this Means for the Conversion of Men there is preparatory unto that wherein this Moral Perswasion doth consist an Instruction of the Mind in the knowledg of the Will of God and its duty towards him The first regard unto Men in the Dispensation of the Word unto them is their Darkness and Ignorance whereby they are alienated from the Life of God This therefore is the first End of Divine Revelation namely to make known the Counsel and Will of God unto us see Matth. 4. 15 16. Luk. 4. 18 19. Acts 26. 17 18. Acts 20. 20 21 26 27. By the Preaching of the Law and the Gâspel Men are instructed in the whole Counsel of God and what he requires of them And in their Apprehension hereof doth the Illumination of their Minds consist whereof we must treat distinctly afterwards Without a supposition of this Illumination there is no use of the Perswasive Power of the Word for it consists in affecting the Mind with its Concernment in the things that it knows or wherein it is instructed Wherefore we suppose in this Case that a Man is taught by the Word both the Necessity of Regeneration and what is required of himself thereunto Sect. 12 2. On this Supposition that a Man is instructed in the knowledg of the Will of God as revealed in the Law and the Gospel there is accompanying the Word of God in the Dispensation of it a powerful perswasive Eâââcacy unto a complyance with it and observance of it For Instance Suppose a Man to be convinced by the Word of God of the Nature of Sin of his own sinful Condition of his danger from thence with respect unto the Sin of Nature on which account he is a Child of Wrath and of his actual Sin which further renders him obnoxious unto the Curse of the Law and the Indignation of God of his Duty hereon to turn unto God and the way whereby he may so do there are in the Precepts Exhortations Expostulations Promises and Threatnings of the Word especially as dispensed in the Ministry of the Church Powerful Motives to affect and Arguments to prevail with the Mind and Will of such a Man to endeavour his own Regeneration or Conversion unto God rational and cogent above all that can be objected unto the contrary On some it is acknowledged that these things have no effect they are not moved by them they care not for them they do despise them and live and die in rebellion against the Light of them having their Eyes blinded by the God of this World But this is no Argument that they are not powerful in themselves although indeed it is that they are not so towards us of themselves but only as the Holy Spirit is pleased to act them towards us But in these Motives Reasons and Arguments whereby Men are in and from the Word and the Ministry of it urged and pressed unto Conversion to God doth this Moral Perswasion whereof we speak consist And the efficacy of it unto the end proposed ariseth from the things ensuing which are all resolved into God himself Sect. 13 1. From an evidence of the Truth of the things from whence these Motives and Arguments were taken The Foundation of all the Efficacy of the Dispensation of the Gospel lies in an evidence that the things proposed in it are not cunningly devised Fables 2 Pet. 1. 16. Where this is not admitted where it is not firmly assented unto there can be no perswasive Efficacy in it But where this is namely a prevalent Perswasion of the Truth of the Things proposed there the Mind is under a Disposition unto the things whereunto it is perswaded And hereon the whole Efficacy of the Word in and upon the Souls of Men is resolved into the Truth and Veracity of God For the things contained in the Scripture are not proposed unto us meerly as true but as Divine Truths as immediate Revelations from God which requires not only a rational but a sacred Religious respect unto them They are Things that the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken 2. There is a proposal unto the Wills and Affections of Men in the Things so assented unto on the one hand as Good Amiable and Excellent wherein the chiefest Good Happiness and utmost End of our Natures are comprized to be pursued and attained and on the other of things Evil and Terrible the utmost Evil that our Nature is obnoxious unto to be avoided For this is urged on them that to comply with the Will of God in the proposals of the Gospel to conform thereunto to do what he requires to turn from Sin unto him is good unto Men best for them assuredly attended with present Satisfaction and future Glory And therein is also proposed the most noble Object for our Affections even God himself as a Friend as reconciled unto us in Christ and that in a way suited unto his Holiness Righteousness Wisdom and Goodness which we have nothing to oppose unto nor to lay in the Ballance against The way also of the Reconciliation of Sinners unto God by Jesus Christ is set out as that which hath such an Impress of Divine Wisdom and Goodness upon it as that it can be refused by none but out of a direct enmity against God himself Unto the enforcing of these things on the Minds of Men the Scripture abounds with Reasons Motives and Arguments the rendring whereof effectual is the principal end of the Ministry On the other hand it is declared and evidenced that Sin is the great Debasement of our Natures the Ruine of our Souls the only Evil in the World in its Guilt and Punishment that a Continuance in a state of it with a Rejection of the Invitation of the Gospel unto Conversion to God is a thing foolish unworthy of a rational Creature and that which will be everlastingly pernitious Whereas therefore in the judgment of every rational Creature Spiritual Things are to be preferred before Natural Eternal Things before Temporal and that these things are thus disposed of in infinite Goodness Love and Wisdom they must needs be apt to affect the Wills and take the Affections of Men. And herein the Efficacy of the Word on the Minds and Consciences of Men is resolved into the Authority of God These Precepts these Promises
these Threatnings are his who hath right to give them and power to execute them And with his Authority his Glorious Greatness and his Infinite Power come under consideration So also doth his Goodness and Love in an especial manner with many other things even all the known Properties of his Holy Nature all which concur in giving Weight Power and Efficacy unto these Motives and Arguments Sect. 14 3. Great Power and Efficacy is added hereunto from the management of these Motives in the preaching of the Word Herein by some the Rhetorical Faculty of them by whom it is dispensed is of great consideration For hereby are they able to prevail very much on the Minds of Men. Being acquainted with the Inclinations and Dispositions of all sorts of Persons the nature of their Affections and Prejudices with the Topicks or kinds and heads of Arguments meet to affect them and prevail with them as also the wayes of insinuating Perswasive Motives to their Minds they express the whole in words elegant proper expressive and suited to allure draw and ingage them unto the Wayes and Duties proposed unto them Herein do some place the principal Use and Efficacy of the Ministry in the dispensation of the Word with me it is of no consideration For our Apostle rejects it utterly from any place in his Ministry 1 Cor. 2. 4. My Speech and my Preaching was not with enticing words of Man's Wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power Some of late have put in faint and weak Exceptions unto the latter Clause as though not an evidence of the powerful presence of the Spirit of God in the Dispensation of the Gospel were intended therein but the power of working Miracles contrary to the whole scope of the place and consent of the best Expositors But that by the first Clause the Perswasive Act of Humane Oratory is excluded from Use and Efficacy in the preaching of the Gospel none as yet hath had the impudence to deny But let this also be esteemed to be as useful and efficacious in this Work as to the end of Preaching in the Conversion of the Souls of Men as any can imagine it shall be granted Only I shall take leave to resolve the Efficacy of Preaching into two other Causes Sect. 15 1. The Institution of God He hath appointed the Preaching of the Word to be the Means the only outward ordinary Means for the Conversion of the Souls of Men 1 Cor. 1. 17 18 19 20. Mar. 16. 15 16. Rom. 1. 16. And the Power or Efficacy of any thing that is used unto an End in Spiritual Matters depends solely on its Divine Appointment unto that End Sect. 16 2. The Especial Gifts that the Spirit of God doth furnish the Preachers of the Gospel withal to enable them unto an effectual discharge of their Work Ephes. 4. 11 12 13. whereof we shall treat afterwards All the Power therefore that these things are accompanied withal is resolved into the sovereignty of God For he hath chosen this way of Preaching for this End and he bestows these Gifts on whom he pleaseth From these things it is that the Perswasive Motives which the Word abounds withal unto Conversion oâ turning to God from Sin have that peculiar Efficacy on the Minds of Men which is proper unto them Sect. 17 4. We do not therefore in this Case suppose that the Motives of the Word are left unto a meer Natural Operation with respect unto the Ability of them by whom it is dispensed but moreover that it is blessed of God and accompanied with the Power of the Holy Spirit for the producing of its Effect and End upon the Souls of Men. Only the Operation of the Holy Ghost on the Minds and Wills of Men in and by these means is supposed to extend no further but unto Motives Arguments Reasons and Considerations proposed unto the Mind so to influence the Will and the Affections Hence his Operation is herein Moral and so Metaphorical not real proper and Physical Now concerning this whole Work I affirm these two things Sect. 18 1. That the Holy Spirit doth make use of it in the Regeneration or Conversion of all that are Adult and that either immediately in and by the Preaching of it or by some other Application of Light and Truth unto the Mind derived from the Word For by the Reasons Motives and Perswasive Arguments which the Word affords are our Minds affected and our Souls wrought upon in our Conversion unto God whence it becomes our reasonable Obedience And there are none ordinarily converted but they are able to give some account by what Considerations they were prevailed on thereunto But 2. We say that the whole Work or the whole of the Work of the Holy Ghost in our Conversion doth not consist herein but there is a real Physical Work whereby he infuseth a gracious Principle of Spiritual Life into all that are effectually Converted and really Regenerated and without which there is no Deliverance from the State of Sin and Death which we have described which among others may be proved by the ensuing Arguments Sect. 19 The principal Arguments in this Case will ensue in our Proofs from the Scriptures that there is a Real Physical Work of the Spirit on the Souls of Men in their Regeneration That all he doth consisteth not in this Moral Swasion the ensuing Reasons do sufficiently evince 1. If the Holy Spirit worketh no otherwise on Men in their Regeneration or Conversion but by proposing unto them and urging upon them Reasons Arguments and Motives to that purpose then after his whole Work and notwithstanding it the Will of Man remains absolutely indifferent whether it will admit of them or no or whether it will convert it self unto God upon them or no for the whole of this Work consists in proposing Objects unto the Will with respect whereunto it is left undertermined whether it will chuse and close with them or no. And indeed this is that which some plead for For they say That in all Men at least all unto whom the Gospel is Preached there is that Grace present or with them that they are able to comply with the Word if they please and so believe repent or do any Act of Obedience unto God according to his Will And if they will they can refuse to make use of this Assistance Aid Power or Grace and so continue in their Sins What this Grace is or whence Men have this Power and Ability by some is not declared Neither is it much to be doubted but that many do imagine that it is purely Natural only they will allow it to be called Grace because it is from God who made us Others acknowledg it to be the Work or Effect of Grace Internal wherein part of the difference lay between the Pelagians and Semi-pelagians of old But they all agree that it is absolutely in the Power of the Will of Man to make use of
it or not that is of the whole Effect on them or product in them of this Grace communicated in the way described For notwithstanding any thing wrought in us or upon us thereby the Will is still left various flexible and undetermined It is true that notwithstanding the Grace thus Administred the Will hath Power to refuse it and to abide in Sin But that there is no more Grace wrought in us but what may be so refused or that the Will can make use of that Grace for Conversion which it can refuse is false Sect. 20 For 1. this ascribes the whole Glory of our Regeneration and Conversion unto our selves and not to the Grace of God For that Act of our Wills on this Supposition whereby we convert unto God is meerly an Act of our own and not of the Grace of God This is evident for if the Act it self were of Grace then would it not be in the Power of the Will to hinder it 2. This would leave it absolutely uncertain notwithstanding the purpose of God and the purchase of Christ whether ever any one in the World should be Converted unto God or no. For when the whole Work of Grace is over it is absolutely in the Power of the Will of Man whether it shall be effectual or no and so absolutely uncertain which is contrary to the Covenant Promise and Oath of God unto and with Jesus Christ. 3. It is contrary to express Testimonies of Scripture innumerable wherein actual Conversion unto God is ascribed unto his Grace as the immediate Effect thereof This will further appear afterwards God worketh in us to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. The Act therefore it self of willing in our Conversion is of God's Operation and although we will our selves yet it is he who causeth us to Will by working in us to will and to do And if the Act of our Will in Believing and Obedience in our Conversion to God be not the effect of his Grace in us he doth not work in us both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure Sect. 21 Secondly This Moral Perswasion how-ever advanced or improved and supposed to be effectual yet it confers no new real supernatural strength unto the Soul For whereas it worketh yea the Spirit or Grace of God therein and thereby by Reasons Motives Arguments and Objective Considerations and no otherwise it is able only to excite and draw out the strength which we have delivering the Mind and Affections from Prejudices and other Moral Impediments Real Aid and internal Spiritual Strength neither is nor can be conferred thereby And he who will acknowledg that there is any such internal spiritual strength communicated unto us must also acknowledg that there is another Work of the Spirit of God in us and upon us than can be effected by these Perswasions But thus it is in this case as some suppose The Mind of Man is affected with much Ignorance and usually under the Power of many Prejudices which by the corrupt course of things in the World possess it from its first actings in the state of Infancy The Will and the Affections likewise are vitiated with depraved Habits which by the same means are contracted But when the Gospel is proposed and preached unto them the Things contained in it the Duties it requires the Promises it gives are so rational or so suited unto the Principles of our Reason and the subject Matter of them is so good desirable and beautiful unto an intellectual Appetite that being well conveyed unto the Mind they are able to discard all the Prejudices and Disadvantages of a corrupt course under which it hath suffered and prevail with the Soul to desist from sin that is a course of sinning and to become a new Man in all vertuous Conversation And that this is in the Liberty and Power of the Will is irrefragably proved by that Sophism of Biel out of Scotus and Occam which contains the substance of what they plead in this Cause Yea thus to do is so suitable unto the rational Principles of a well-disposed Mind that to do otherwise is the greatest folly and madness in the World Especially will this Work of Conversion be unquestionably wrought if the Application of these means of it be so disposed in the Providence of God as that they may be seasonable with respect unto the Frame and Condition of the Mind whereinto they are applyed And as sundry things are necessary to render the means of Grace thus seasonable and congruous unto the present Frame Temper and Disposition of the Mind so in such a Congruity much of its Efficacy doth consist And this as it is said is the Work of the Holy Ghost and an Effect of the Grace of God For if the Spirit of God did not by the Word prevent excite stir up and provoke the Minds of Men did he not help and assist them when endeavouring to turn to God in the removal of Prejudices and all sorts of Moral Impediments Men would continue and abide as it were dead in Trespasses and Sins at least their endeavours after Deliverance would be weak and fruitless Sect. 22 This is all the Grace all the Work of the Spirit of God in our Regeneration and Conversion which some will acknowledg so far as I can learn from their Writings and Discourses But that there is more required thereunto I have before declared As also it hath been manifested what is the true and proper use and efficacy of these means in this Work But to place the whole of it herein is that which Pelagius contended for of old Yea he granted a greater Use and Efficacy of Grace than I can find to be allowed in the present confused Discourses of some on this Subject Wherefore it is somewhat preposterous to endeavour an imposition of such rotten Errors upon the Minds of Men and that by crude Assertions without any pretence of proof as is the way of many And that the sole Foundation of all their Harangues namely the suitableness of Gospel Principles and Promises unto our Wisdom and Reason antecedently unto any saving Work of the Spirit on our Minds is directly contradictory to the Doctrine of our Apostle shall afterwards be declared But it may be it will be said That it is not so much what is Pelagian and what is not as what is Truth and what is not that is to be enquired after And it is granted that this is and ought to be our first and principal Enquiry But it is not unuseful to know in whose steps they tread who at this day oppose the doctrine of the Effectual Grace of Christ and what Judgment the Ancient Church made of their Principles and Opinions Sect. 23 It is pretended yet further That Grace in the Dispensation of the Word doth work really and efficiently especially by illumination internal excitations of the Mind and Affections and if thereon the Will do put forth its
to convert themselves no more than Arguments can prevail with a blind Man to see or with a dead Man to rise from the Grave or with a lame Man to walk steadily Wherefore the whole Description before given from the Scripture of the state of lapsed Nature must be disproved and removed out of the way before his Grace can be thought sufficient to be for the Regeneration and Conversion of Men in that Estate But some proceed on other Principles Men they say have by Nature certain Notions and Principles concerning God and the Obedience due unto him which are demonstrable by the Light of Reason and certain Abilities of Mind to make use of them unto their proper End But they grant at least some of them do that however these Principles may be improved and acted by those Abilities yet they are not sufficient or will not eventually be effectual to bring Men unto the Life of God or to enable them so to believe in him love him and obey him as that they may come at length unto the enjoyment of him at least they will not do this safely and easily but through much danger and confusion wherefore * God out of his Goodness and Love to Mankind hath made a further Revelation of himself by Jesus Christ in the Gospel with the especial way whereby his Anger against Sin is averted and Peace made for Sinners which Men had before only a confused Apprehension and Hope about How the things received proposed and prescribed in the Gospel are so good so rational so every way suited unto the Principles of our Beings the Nature of our intellectual Constitutions or the Reason of Men and those fortified with such rational and powerful Motives in the Promises and Threatnings of it representing unto us on the one hand the chiefest Good which our Nature is capable of and on the other the highest evil to be avoided that we are obnoxious unto that they can be refused or rejected by none but out of a bruitish love of Sin or the efficacy of depraved Habits contracted by a vitious course of living And herein consists the Grace of God towards Men especially as the Holy Ghost is pleased to make use of these things in the Dispensation of the Gospel by the Ministry of the Church For when the Reason of Men is by these means excited so far as to cast off Prejudice and enabled thereby to make a right Judgment of what is proposed unto it it prevails with them to convert to God to change their Lives and yield Obedience according to the Rule of the Gospel that they may be saved And no doubt this were a notable Systeme of Christian Doctrine especially as it is by some Rhetorically blended or Theatrically represented in feigned Stories and Apologues were it not defective in one or two things For first it is exclusive of a supposition of the fall of Man at least as unto the Depravation of our Nature which ensued thereon and Secondly of all real Effective Grace dispensed by Jesus Christ which render it a Phantastick Dream alien from the Design and Doctrine of the Gospel But it is a fond thing to discourse with Men about either Regeneration or Conversion unto God by whom these things are denyed Sect. 27 Such a Work of the Holy Spirit we must therefore enquire after as wherey the Mind is effectually renewed the Heart changed the Affections sanctified all actually and effectually or no Deliverance will be wrought obtained or ensue out of the Estate described For notwithstanding the utmost improvement of our Minds and Reasons that can be imagined and the most eminent proposal of the Truths of the Gospel accompanied with the most powerful enforcements of Duty and Obedience that the Nature of the things themselves will afford yet the Mind of Man in the state of Nature without a supernatural Elevation by Grace is not able so to apprehend them as that its Apprehension should be Spiritual Saving or Proper unto the Things apprehended And notwithstanding the Perception which the Mind may attain unto in the Truth of Gospel-Proposals and the Conviction it may have of the necessity of Obedience yet is not the Will able to apply it self unto any Spiritual Act thereof without an Ability wrought immediately in it by the Power of the Spirit of God or rather unless the Spirit of God by his Grace do effect the Act of willing in it Wherefore not to multiply Arguments we conclude That the most effectual use of outward means alone is not all the Grace that is necessary unto nor all that is actually put forth in the Regeneration of the Souls of Men. Sect. 28 Having thus evidenced wherein the Work of the Holy Spirit in the Regeneration of the Souls of Men doth not consist namely in a supposed congruous Perswasion of their Minds where it is alone 1. I shall proceed to shew wherein it doth consist and what is the true Nature of it And to this purpose I say 1. What-ever efficacy that Moral Operation which accompanies or is the Effect of the Preaching of the Word as blessed and used by the Holy Spirit is of or may be supposed to be of or is possible that it should be of in and towards them that are unregenerate we do willingly ascribe unto it We grant that in the Work of Regeneration the Holy Spirit towards those that are Adult doth make use of the Word both the Law and the Gospel and the Ministry of the Church in the Dispensation of it as the ordinary means thereof yea this is ordinarily the whole external means that is made use of in this Work and an efficacy proper unto it it is accompanied withal Whereas therefore some content that there is no more needful to the Conversion of Sinners but the Preaching of the Word unto them who are congruously disposed to receive it and that the whole of the Grace of God consists in the effectual Application of it unto the Minds and Affections of Men whereby they are enabled to comply with it and turn unto God by Faith and Repentance they do not ascribe a greater Power unto the Word than we do by whom this Administration of it is denied to be the total Cause of Conversion For we assign the same Power to the Word as they do and more also onely we affirm that there is an Effect to be wrought in this Work which all this Power if alone is insufficient for But in its own kind is it sufficient and effectual so far as that the effect of Regeneration or Conversion unto God is ascribed thereunto This we have declared before Sect. 29 2. There is not onely a Moral but a Physical immediate Operation of the Spirit by his Power and Grace or his powerful Grace upon the Minds or souls of Men in their Regeneration This is that which we must cleave to or all the Glory of God's Grace is lost and the Grace administred by Christ neglected
their condition But when God is pleased to carry on his Work of Light and Grace in them they can call to mind and understand how it was with them in their former Darkness Then will they acknowledg that in Truth they never had serious steady thoughts of God but only such as were occasional and transient Wheresore God begins here with them and thereby to subduct them from under the absolute Power of the vanity of their Minds By one means or other he fixeth in them steady thoughts concerning himself and their relation unto him And there are several wayes which he proceedeth in for the effecting hereof As Sect. 13 1. By some sudden amazing Judgments whereby he revealeth his Wrath from Heaven against the ungodliness of Men Rom. 1. 18. So Waldo was affected when his Companion was stricken dead as he walked with him in the Fields which proved the occasion of his Conversion unto God So the Psalmist describes the Affections and Thoughts of Men when they are surprized with a Storm at Sea Psal. 107. 25 26 27 28. An instance whereof we have in the Mariners of Jona's Ship Chap. 1. 5 6 7. And that Pharaoh who despised one day saying Who is the Lord that I should regard him Being the next day terrified with Thunder and Lightning cries out Intreat the Lord for me that it may be so no more Exod. 9. 28. And such like Impressions from Divine Power most Men at one time or other have experience of 2. By Personal Afflictions Job 33. 19 20. Psal. 78. 34 35. Hos. 5. 15. Affliction naturally speaks Anger and Anger respects Sin It bespeaks it self to be God's Messenger to call Sin to remembrance 1 Kings 17. 8. Gen. 42. 21 22. The time of Affliction is a time of Consideration Eccles. 7. 14. And if Men be not obdurate and hardned almost unto practical Atheism by a course of sinning they cannot but bethink themselves who sends Affliction and for what End it is sent Hence great thoughts of the Holiness of God and of his hatred of Sin with some sense of Mens own Guilt and especial Crimes will arise And these Effects many times prove preparatory and materially dispositive unto Conversion And not what these things are in themselves able to operate is to be considered but what they are designed unto and made effectual for by the Holy Ghost 3. By remarkable Deliverances and Mercies So it was with Naaman the Syrian 2 Kings 2. 15 16 17. Sudden changes from great Dangers and Distresses by unexpected Reliefs deeply affect the Minds of Men convincing them of the Power Presence and Goodness of God And this produceth a sense and acknowledgment of their own unworthiness of what they have received Hence also some temporary Effects of submission to the Divine Will and Gratitude do proceed 4. An observation of the Conversation of others hath affected many to seek into the Causes and Ends of it And this inclines them unto imitation 1 Pet. 3. 1 2. 5. The Word in the Reading or Preaching of it is the principal means hereof This the Holy Spirit employeth and maketh use of in his entrance into this Work 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. For those Convictions befal not Men from the Word universally or promiscuously but as the Holy Spirit willeth and designeth It is by the Law that Men have the knowledg of Sin Rom. 7. 7. Yet we see by experience that the Doctrine of the Law is despised by the most that hear it Wherefore it hath not in it self a force or vertue alwayes to work conviction of Sin in them unto whom it is outwardly proposed Only towards some the Spirit of God is pleased to put forth an especial Energie in the Dispensation thereof Sect. 14 By these and the like means doth God oft-times put the wildness of Corrupted Nature unto a stand and stirs up the Faculties of the Soul by an effectual though not saving Impression upon them seriously to consider of its self and its Relation unto Him and his Will And hereby are Men oft-times incited and ingaged unto many Duties of Religion as Prayer for the Pardon of Sin with Resolutions of Amendment and although these things in some are subordinated unto a further and more effectual Work of the Spirit of God upon them yet with many they prove evanid and fading their Goodness in them being as a Morning Cloud or as the early Dew which passeth away Hos. 6. 4. And the Reasons whence it is that Men cast off these Warnings of God and pursue not their own Intentions under them nor answer what they lead unto are obvious For Sect. 15 1. The Darkness of their Minds being yet uncured they are not able to discern the true Nature of these Divine Intimations and Instructions but after a while regard them not or reject them as the Occasions of needless Scruples and Fears 2. Presumption of their present Condition that it is as good as it need be or as is convenient in their present Circumstances and Occasions makes them neglect the improvement of their Warnings 3. Profane Societies and Relations such as it may be scoff at and deride all tremblings at Divine Warnings with ignorant Ministers that undertake to Teach what they have not learned are great means of hardning Men in their Sins and of forfeiting the benefit of these Divine Intimations 4. They will as to all Efficacy and the Motions they bring on the Affections of Men decay and expire of themselves if they are not diligently improved Wherefore in many they perish through meer sloth and negligence 5. Satan applies all his Engines to the defeatment of these beginnings of any Good in the Souls of Men. 6. That which effectually and utterly overthrows this Work which causeth them to cast off these Heavenly Warnings is meer love of Lusts and Pleasures or the unconquered adherence of a corrupted Heart unto sensual and sinful Objects that offer present satisfaction unto its Carnal Desires By this means is this Work of the Spirit of God in the Hearts and Minds of many utterly defeated to the increase of their Guilt an addition to their natural hardness and the ruine of their Souls But in some of them he is graciously pleased to renew his Work and by more effectual means to carry it on to Perfection as shall be afterwards declared Sect. 16 Now there is scarce any of these Instances of the care and watchfulness of God over the Souls of Men whom he designs either to convince or convert for the Ends of his own Glory but the Holy Person whom we have proposed as an Example gives an account of them in and towards himself declaring in like manner how by the wayes and means mentioned they were frustrate and came to nothing Such were the Warnings which he acknowledged that God gave him by the Perswasions and Exhortations of his Mother lib. 2. cap. 3. Such were those which he had in Sicknesses of his own and in the death of his dear
conspectu sanctae multitudinis profiteri non enim erat salus quam docebat in Rheterica tamen eam publice professus erat Quanto minus vereri debuit Mansuetam gregem tuam pronuncians verbum tuum qui non verebatur in verbis suis turbas insanorum Itaque ubi ascendit ut redderet omnes sibimet invicem ut eum noverant instrepurent nomen ejus strepitu congratulationis Quis autem ibi eum non noverat Et sonuit presso sonitu per ora cunctorum Victorinus Victorinus cito sonuerunt exultatione quia videbant eum cito siluerunt intentione ut audirent eum pronunciat ille fidem veracem praeclara fiducia volebant eum omnes rapere intro in cor suum rapiebant amando gaudeno Hae rapientium manus erant Lib. 8. Cap. 2. Not a few things concerning the Order Discipline and fervent Love of the Primitive Christians in their Church-Societies are intimated and represented in these words which I shall not here reflect upon Sect. 39 And this is the second Great Work of the Spirit of God in the New Creation This is a summary Description of his Forming and Creating the Members of that Mystical Body whose Head is Christ Jesus The latter part of our Discourse concerning the external manner of Regeneration or Conversion unto God with the gradual Preparation for it and Accomplishment of it in the Souls of Men is that Subject which many Practical Divines of this Nation have in their Preaching and Writings much insisted on and improved to the great Profit and Edification of the Church of God But this whole Doctrine with all the Declarations and Applications of it is now by some among our selves derided and exposed to Scorn although it be known to have been the constant Doctrine of the most Learned Prelates of the Church of England And as the Doctrine is exploded so all experience of the Work it self in the Souls of Men is decried as Fanatical and Enthusiastical To obviate the Pride and Wantonness of this filthy Spirit I have in the summary Representation of the Work it self now given confirmed the several Instances of it with the Experience of the Great and Holy Man so often named For whereas some of those by whom this Doctrine and Work are despised are puffed up with a conceit of their Excellency in the Theatrical Scoptical Faculty of these Days unto a contempt of all by whom they are contradicted in the most importune of their Dictates yet if they should swell themselves until they break like the Frog in the Fable they would never prevail with their fondest Admirers to admit them into a competition with the immortal Wit Grace and Learning of that Eminent Champion of the Truth and Light of the Age wherein he lived BOOK IV. The Nature of Sanctification and Gospel Holiness explained CHAP. I. 1 Regeneration the Way whereby the Spirit forms living Members for the Mystical Body of Christ. 2 Carryed on by Sanctification 2 Thess. 5. 23. opened 3 God the only Author of our Sanctification and Holiness 4 And that as the God of Peace 5 Sanctification described 6 A diligent enquiry into the nature whereof with that of Holiness proved necessary 7 Sanctification two-fold 1. By External Dedication 2. By Internal Purification 8 Holiness peculiar to the Gospel and its Truth 9 Not discernible to the eye of Carnal Reason 10 Hardly understood by Believers themselves 11 It passeth over into Eternity 12 Hath in it a present Glory 13 Is all that God requireth of us and in what sense 14 Promised unto us 15 How we are to improve the Command for Holiness Sect. 1 IN the Regeneration or Conversion of Gods Elect the Nature and Manner whereof we have before described consists the second part of the Work of the Holy Spirit in order unto the compleating and perfecting of the New Creation As in the former he prepared a Natural Body for the Son of God wherein he was to obey and suffer according to his Will so by this latter he prepares him a Mystical Body or members spiritually living by uniting them unto Him who is their Head and their Life Col. 3. 4. For as the Body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one Body being many are one Body so also is Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. Nor doth he leave this work in that Beginning of it whereof we have treated but unto him also it belongs to continue it to preserve it and to carry it on to perfection And this he doth in our Sanctification whose Nature and Effects we are in the next place to enquire into Sect. 2 Our Apostle in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians Chap. 5. having closely compiled a great number of weighty particular Evangelical Duties and annexed sundry Motives and Enforcements unto them closeth all his holy Prescriptions with a fervent Prayer for them v. 23. And the very God of Peace sanctifie you wholly and let your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blamelesse to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Or as I had rather read the words And God himself even the God of peace sanctifie you throughout that your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless The Reason hereof is because all the Graces and Duties which he had enjoyned them did belong unto their Sanctification which though their own Duty was not absolutely in their own Power but was a Work of God in them and upon them Therefore that they might be able thereunto and might actually comply with his Commands he prayes that God would thus sanctifie them throughout That this shall be accomplished in them and for them he gives them assurance from the Faithfulness and consequently Power and Unchangeableness which are included therein of him who had undertaken to effect it v. 24. Faithfull is he that calleth you who will also do it Now whereas this Assurance did not arise nor was taken from any thing that was peculiar unto them but merely from the consideration of the Faithfulness of God himself it is equal with respect unto all that are effectually called They shall all infallibly be sanctified throughout and preserved blameless to the Coming of Jesus Christ. This therefore being the great priviledge of Believers and their eternal safety absolutely depending thereon it requires our utmost Diligence to search into the Nature and Necessity of it which may be done from this and the like places of Scripture Sect. 3 And in this place 1 The Author of our Sanctification who only is so is asserted to be God He is the Eternal Spring and only Fountain of all Holiness there is nothing of it in any Creature but what is directly and immediately from him There was not in our first Creation He made us in his own image And to suppose that we can now sanctifie or make our selves holy is proudly to renounce and cast off our principal Dependance upon him We may as
evident from the Context For they pray for this Encrease of Faith upon the Occasion of our Saviours enjoyning frequent forgiveness of offending Brethren a Duty not at all easie nor pleasing to Flesh and Blood And the Apostle prayes for the Ephesians that they may be rooted and grounded in Love chap. 3. 17. that is that by the encrease and strengthening of their Love they may be more established in all the Duties of it See 1 Thess. 3. 12 13. Sect. 5 These Graces being the Springs and Spirits of our Holiness in the encrease of them in us the work of Sanctification is carryed on and universal Holiness encreased And this is done by the Holy Spirit several wayes First By exciting them unto frequent Actings Frequency of Acts doth naturally encrease and strengthen the Habits whence they proceed And in these spiritual Habits of Faith and Love it is so moreover by Gods Appointment They grow and thrive in and by their exercise Hos. 6. 3. The want thereof is the principal means of their decay And there are two wayes whereby the Holy Spirit excites the Graces of Faith and Love unto frequent Acts. 1 He doth it Morally by proposing their Objects suitably and seasonably unto them This he doth by his Ordinances of Worship especially the preaching of the Word God in Christ the Promises of the Covenant and other proper Objects of our Faith and Love being proposed unto us these Graces are drawn out unto their Exercise And this is one principal Advantage which we have by attendance on the Dispensation of the Word in a due Manner namely that by presenting those Spiritual Truths which are the Object of our Faith unto our Minds and those Spiritual Good Things which are the Object of our Love unto our Affections both these Graces are drawn forth into frequent actual Exercise And we are greatly mistaken if we suppose we have no Benefit by the Word beyond what we retain in our Memories though we should labour for that also Our chief Advantage lyes in the Excitation which is thereby given unto our Faith and Love to their proper Exercise And hereby are these Graces kept alive which without this would decay and wither Herein doth the Holy Spirit take the things of Christ and shew them unto us Joh. 16. 14 15. He represents them unto us in the Preaching of the Word as the proper Objects of our Faith and Love And so brings to remembrance the things spoken by Christ Chap. 14. 26. that is in the Dispensation of the Word he minds us of the gracious Words and Truths of Christ proposing them to our Faith and Love And herein lies the secret profiting and thriving of Believers under the preaching of the Gospel which it may be they are not sensible of themselves By this means are many Thousands of Acts of Faith and Love drawn forth whereby those Graces are exercised and strengthened and consequently Holiness is encreased And the Word by the Actings of Faith being mixed with it as Hebr. 4. 2. increaseth it by its incorporation 2 The Spirit doth it really and internally He dwelleth in Believers preserving in them the Root and Principle of all their Grace by his own immediate Power Hence all Graces in their Exercise are called the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22 23. He brings them forth from the Stock that he hath planted in the Heart And we cannot Act any one Grace without his Effectual Operation therein God worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 1. 13. That is there is no part of our Wills singly and separately from him in Obedience but it is the Operation of the Spirit of God in us so far as it is Spiritual and Holy He is the immediate Author of every good or gracious Acting in us For in us that is in our Flesh and of our selves we are but Flesh there dwelleth no Good Wherefore the Spirit of God dwelling in Believers doth effectually excite and stir up their Graces unto frequent Exercise and Actings whereby they are increased and strengthened And there is nothing in the whole Course of our Walking before God that we ought to be more carefull about than that we grieve not that we provoke not this good and Holy Spirit whereon he should with-hold his gracious Aids and Assistances from us This therefore is the first way whereby the work of Sanctification is gradually carryed on by the Holy Ghost exciting our Graces unto frequent Actings whereby they are encreased and strengthened Secondly He doth it by supplying Believers with Experiences of the Truth and Reality and Excellency of the things that are believed Experience is the Food of all Grace which it growes and thrives upon Every Taste that Faith obtains of Divine Love and Grace or how Gracious the Lord is addes to its measure and stature Two things therefore must briefly be declared 1 That the Experience of the Reality Excellency Power and Efficacy of the things that are believed is an effectual means of encreasing Faith and Love 2 That it is the Holy Ghost which gives us this Experience For the First God himself expostulates with the Church how its Faith came to be so weak when it had so great Experience of Him or of his Power and Faithfulness Isa. 40. 27 28. Hast thou not heard hast thou not known How then sayest thou that God hath forsaken thee And our Apostle affirms that the Consolations which he had experimentally received from God enabled him unto the discharge of his Duty towards others in trouble 2 Cor. 7. 4. For herein we prove or do really approve of as being satisfied in the good and acceptable and perfect will of God Rom. 12. 2. And this is that which the Apostle prayeth for in the behalf of the Colossians chap. 2. v. 2. I may say that he who knoweth not how Faith is encouraged and strengthened by especial Experiences of the Reality Power and spiritual Efficacy on the Soul of the things believed never was made partaker of any of them How often doth David encourage his own Faith and others from his former Experiences which were pleaded also by our Lord Jesus Christ to the same purpose in his great Distress Psal. 22. 9 10. Secondly That it is the Holy Ghost who giveth us all our Spiritual Experiences needs no other Consideration to evince but only this that in them consists all our Consolation His Work and Office it is to administer Consolation unto Believers as being the only Comforter of the Church Now he administreth Comfort no other way but by giving unto the Minds and Souls of Believers a Spiritual sensible Experience of the Reality and Power of the things we do believe He doth not comfort us by Words but by Things Other means of Spiritual Consolation I know none and I am sure this never fails Give unto a Soul an Experience a Taste of the Love and Grace of God in Christ Jesus and be its Condition what
Degree as Universal Sincerity doth require But it may be yet said that indeed hereby he makes us Pure and prevents many future Defilements yet how is Soul freed from those it had contracted before this work upon it or those which it may and doth unavoidably afterwards fall into for as there is no man doth good and sinneth not so there is none who is not more or less defiled with Sin whilest they are in the Body here in this World The Apostle answereth this Objection or Enquiry 1 Joh. 1. 7 8 9. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us But if Sin be in us we are defiled and how shall we be Cleansed God is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness But how may this be done by what means may it be accomplished The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin Sect. 3 2 It is therefore the Blood of Christ in the Second place which is the Meritorious procuring and so the Effective Cause that immediately purgeth us from our sins by an especial Application of it unto our Souls the Holy Ghost And there is not any Truth belonging unto the Mystery of the Gospel which is more plainly and evidently asserted as hath in part been made to appear before The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. He hath washed us from our sins in his own Blood Revel 1. 5. The Blood of Christ purgeth our Consciences from dead Works that we may serve the Living God Heb. 9. 14. He gave himself for his Church that he might wash and cleanse it Ephes. 5. 26. To Purifie to himself a peculiar People Tit. 2. 14. Besides whatever is spoken in the whole Scripture concerning purifying the Unclean the Leprous the Defiled by Sacrifices or other Institutions of the Old Testament it is all Instructive in and Directive unto the Purifying Nature of the Blood of Christ from whence alone these Institutions had their Efficacy and the Vertue of it is promised under that Notion Zech. 13. 1. And this the Faith and Experience of all Believers doth confirm for they are no Imaginations of their own but what being built on the Truth and Promises of God yield sensible Spiritual Relief and Refreshment unto their Souls This they believe this they pray for and find the Fruits and Effects of it in themselves It may be some of them do not it may be few of them do comprehend distinctly the Way whereby and the Manner how the Blood of Christ so long since shed and offered should cleanse them now from their sins But the Thing it self they do believe as it is revealed and find the use of it in all wherein they have to do with God And I must say let Profane and Ignorant Persons whilest they please deride what they understand not nor are able to disprove that the Holy Spirit of God which leadeth Believers into all Truth and enableth them to pray according to the Mind and Will of God doth guide them in and by the working and Experience of Faith to pray for those things the depths of whose Mysteries they cannot comprehend And he who well studyeth the things which he is Taught of the Spirit to ask of God will find a Door opened into much spiritual Wisdom and Knowledge For let the World rage on in those Prayers which Believers are taught and enabled unto by the Holy Ghost helping of them as a Spirit of Supplications there are Two things inexpressible 1 The Inward Labouring and Spiritual Working of the Sanctified Heart and Affections towards God wherein consist those Sighs and Groans that cannot be uttered Rom. 8. 26. God alone sees and knowes and understands the fervent Workings of the New Creature when acted by the Holy Ghost in Supplications And so it is added in the next words Vers. 27. An he who searcheth the Hearts knoweth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã what is the meaning of the Spirit what it savours and inclines unto It is not any distinct or separate Acting of the Spirit by himself that is intended but what and how he works in the Hearts of Believers as he is a Spirit of Grace and Supplication And this is known only unto him who is the Searcher of Hearts and as he is so And he knoweth what is the bent frame inclination and acting of the Inward Man in Prayer from the Power of the Spirit which they themselves in whom they are wrought do not fathom nor reach the Depth of This he doth in the Subject of Prayer the Hearts and Minds of Believers the Effects of his Operation in them are inexpressible 2 As to the Object of Prayer or things prayed for he doth in and by the Word so represent and exhibit the Truth Reality Subsistence Power and Efficacy of spiritual Mysterious things unto the Faith and Affections of Believers that they have a real and Experimental sence of do mix Faith with and are affected by those things now made nigh now realized unto them which it may be they are not able Doctrinally and distinctly to explain in their proper Notions And thus do we oft-times see Men low and weak in their Notional Apprehension of things yet in their Prayers led into Communion with God in the Highest and Holyest Mysteries of his Grace having an Experience of the Life and Power of the Things themselves in their own Hearts and Souls And hereby do their Faith Love Affiance and Adherence unto God act and Exercise themselves So is it with them in this matter of the actual present purifying of the Pollutions of sin by the Blood of Jesus Christ the Way whereof we shall now briefly enquire into Sect. 4 1. Therefore by the Blood of Christ herein is intended the Blood of his Sacrifice with the Power Vertue and Efficacy thereof And the Blood of a Sacrifice fell under a double Consideration 1 As it was offered unto God to make Attonement and Reconciliation 2 As it was sprinkled on other things for their Purging and Sanctification Part of the Blood in every Propitiatory Sacrifice was still to be sprinkled round about the Altar Levit. 1. 11. And in the Great Sacrifice of Expiation some of the Blood of the Bullock was to be sprinkled before the Mercy-seat seven time Levit. 16. 14. This our Apostle fully expresseth in a great and signal Instance Heb. 9. 19 20 21 22. For when Moses had spoken every Precept to all the People according to the Law he took the Blood of Calves and of Goats with Water and Scarlet-wooll and Hyssop and sprinkled both the Book and all the People saying This is the Blood of the Testament which he hath enjoyned unto you and almost all things are by the Law purged with Blood Wherefore the Blood of Christ as it was the Blood of his Sacrifice hath these two Effects and falls under this double Consideration 1 As he offered himself by the
114 20 Matter of Holiness wherein it consists 411 3 Means assigned in the Wisdom of God for the Recovery of fallen Man 8 9 Due Means to be sued in coming to the knowledge of Christ. 151 14 False Means rejected ibid. Means of Regeneration various 177 10 Vse of Means towards Persons unregenerate 244 16 Measures of the Gift of the Holy Spirit 95 21 The Spirit not given by Measure to Christ. 140 Mediation of Christ the only procuring Cause of Holiness 444 49 Christ a Mediator in what sence 451 62 Mediation of Christ confined unto his Offices 554 2 Merit inâânsistent with Grace 332 13 Merit destractive unto Holiness 505 14 Metaphors not to be faigned in the Scripture 57 21 Metaphor in the Expression of sending the Spirit 84 8 Meteors when created 72 8 Method of the Work of the Spirit in Regeneration 189 26 Method of the Gospel in declaring the Matters contained in it 235 58 Method of Divine Revelations to be believed 523 9 The Mind Depraved in things Natural and Moral 209 12 The Mind as the leading Faculty of the Soul how Corrupted 211 15 The Mind affected with Darkness 236 60 Carnal Mind in all Man-kind by Nature 243 14 Mind as the Conducting faculty of the Soul how Depraved 181 51 Mind to be renewed 367 Wofull Disorder of the Mind in a Natural Condition 567 2 Impotency of the Mind to receive spiritual Things 210 13 To be spiritually Minded what it is 424 18 Ministration of the Spirit renders the Gospel effectual 11 11 Ministration of the Spirit or how he is ministred 85 9 Ministers how called by the Holy Ghost 62 26 Ministers Duty to inquire into and declare the Nature of Regeneration 188 26 Ministry of the Gospel how the Ministry of the Spirit 122 3 Ministry of Angels about the Body of Christ when dead 147 10 Ministry of the Word its use in Conversion 257 9 Foundation of the Ministry of the Church in the Promise of the Spirit 156 3 Miracles Effects of the Power of the Holy Ghost 114 21 No Mere Man the real Subject of a Power of working Miracles 115 21 Miraculous Operations in Christ by the Power of the Holy Ghost 141 6 Misery of Defiled Sinners 394 10 Misery of Man in this World not renewed by Grace 566 1 Moral Condition of Man by Creation 75 11 Moral Vertues and Endowments in Civil things wrought by the Holy Spirit 118 23 Moral Impotency of the Mind wherein it consists 225 41 Moral Vertue its worth and Excellency 325 326 8 Moral Vertue is not the Holiness of Truth 326 8 Moral Habits the Nature of them 416 8 Moral what is intended thereby 460 79 Name and Nature of Moral Vertue examined 459 78 Moral Operation and Efficacy of Dutyes for the Mortifying of sin 490 29 Moral Vertue what intended thereby 506 15 Morality improved by Grace no way hindred 181 17 Morality or a Course of Moral Duties not Gospel Holiness 440 441 c. To mortifie sin what it signifies 474 3 Mortification of Sin the Nature of it explained 473 1 Mortification an alwayes present Duty 475 5 Mortification progressive 479 10 Moses the first who committed Divine Revelations to writing 113 19 No local Motion in the sending of the Spirit 84 8 Motives unto Religious Worship taken from what God is unto us 44 2 Motives unto the Purification of Sin 391 8 Example of Christ our great Motive unto Holiness 449 58 Principal Motive unto the Mortification of Sin what it is 489 19 Moving on the Face of the Waters 72 8 Mistake of sundry ancient Translations 30 3 Mystery of Holiness 326 9 Mystery of the Cleansing of Sin by the Blood of Christ. 399 Mystical Body prepared for Christ by the Holy Ghost 321 1 N. The Name Spirit with the several Significations of it in the Scripture considered 28 2 The Name Spirit how peculiar to the third Person in the Trinity 34 9 The Name of God denoting his Being and Authority proper to each Person in the Trinity 50 12 The Nature of God the Foundation of all Religion 43 2 Nature of Prophesie of Old 100 5 Humane Nature of Christ derived no Evil from the Fall of Adam Reasons thereof 136 1 Sanctification of the Humane Nature of Christ in the Womb. 137 1 Divine Nature in Christ acted not as his Soul 137 2 The Divine Nature what it is 184 21 Nature of the Common Work of the Spirit explained what 198 13 Our whole Nature the subject of Sanctification 323 3 Nature of Holiness not to be comprehended by Natural Reason 326 9 Nature of Merit wherein it consists 332 13 Nature lapsed and depraved not able to repair it self 335 14 Nature of Decayes in Holiness 353 Nature created in the Image of God 365 The Nature of the Guilt and Filth of Sin how made known 375 True Nature of spiritual Liberty 434 34 Nature of God the onely infinite Fountain of Holiness 451 63 Holy Nature of God the Original Reason of the Necessity of Holiness in us 499 3 The Nature of that Holiness which God requireth of us revealed in Christ. 502 7 Some things clear in the Light of Nature 560 13 The Natural Man who he is 217 24 Natural Impotency of the Mind wherein it consists 225 40 Necessity of Changes in the Work of Grace 353 3 Necessity of Holiness acknowledged by all 498 1 Necessity of Holiness notwithstanding Gods readiness to pardon sin 518 33 Necessity of Holiness arising from Gods Command 533 2. 553 37 Neglect of known Duty ruinous to the Life of Holiness 250 10 New Act of especial Grace required unto every particular Duty 430 28 New Creation how effected by the Holy Spirit 95 1 Work of the Holy Spirit in the New Creation greatly to be considered 121 1 New Creation the Work whereby God designed to glorifie himself principally in this World 126 8 New Creation how assigned unto the Father Son and Spirit dictinctly 126 9 New Creature what it is and wherein it consists 183 20 New Man what it is 367 New Nature wherein it consisteth 411 2 Nine sorts of spiritual Gifts 6 7 7 Nocturnal Visions and Dreams the same 107 13 Nothing to be done in Obedience without Aids from Christ. 466 8 Nourishing of the Creation the Work of the Holy Spirit 73 9 O. Obedience of Christ gave Efficacy to his Oblation 144 Obedience without Merit Foolishness to Carnal Reason 334 13 Obedience with respect unto Rewards and Punishments not servile 541 15 Object of Christs Priestly Acts God himself 555 3 Objects of the Life of Innocency and the Life of Grace in Christ different 242 10 Objects of Creating Acts not in potentia before their Existence 273 37 Objections against the Progressive Nature of Holiness answered 349 350 c. 10 Objections against the Necessity of Holiness from the Decree of Election removed 522 523 c. How the Lord Christ sanctified himself to be an Oblation or Sacrifice 143 9 Oblation of Christ
whence voluntary and meritorious 146 9 Obligation unto Holiness no less under the Gospel than under the Law 535 6 All Obstacles removed by effectual Grace 270 30 Obstinacy and Stubbornness of the Heart by Nature 277 45 Obstructions of the Growth of Holiness 350 10 Occasions of spiritual decays in Grace 354 How Christ Offered himself to God through the Eternal Spirit 143 8 Office of Witness-bearing unto the Lord Christ discharged by the Holy Spirit 149 13 One singular Spirit of God declared in the Scripture 33 8 The Holy Spirit One dividing as he pleaseth to others 94 21 Operations of the Spirit called the Spirit by a Metonymy 33 8 Divine Operations of all sorts ascribed to the Holy Spirit 59 24 All Divine Operations ascribed unto God absolutely 68 1 Operations of the Holy Spirit on the Humane Nature of Christ of two sorts 128 2 Operations of the Holy Spirit on the Humane Nature of Christ notwithstanding its personal Vnion with the Son 129 3 Operations of the Holy Spirit in Conversion suited unto the Powers of our Souls 270 31 Two-fold Operation of Christ as Three in One 162 Opening of the Heavens what it signifies 52 15 Opinions in the Primitive Church falsly fathered on spiritual Revelations 15 19 Opposition to the Spirit of God and his Works with the Grounds of it 21 25 Pretences of Opposition unto the Spirit of God examined 21 25 Oppositions against the Church suppressed by the Spirit of God 78 16 No Opposition between Gods Commands and his Grace 167 Vniversal Opposition between Sin and Grace 477 7 Order of Divine Dispensations dependeth on the Order of the subsistence of the Divine Persons 39 14 Order of subsistence of the Holy Spirit in the Blessed Trinity 66 33 Order of Operation depending on the Order of Subsistence not the Order of Promination ibid. Outward Order in the Church of no use without the Presence and Work of the Spirit 158 4 Order in Subsistence gives Order in Operation 162 Order of the Mind in its first Creation 212 15 Order of the Gospel inverted by Prejudices 235 58 Order of Precedency in the Acts of Sanctification 410 1 Skill in the Original Text necessary to the Exposition of the Scripture 30 4 Original of all things in their several kinds 73 9 Original of the Spirits Acting in all his Works towards the Church 89 15 Where Original Sin is denyed Regeneration cannot be effected 186 24 Original Order of our Souls wherein it consisted 568 6 Outward Manner and wayes of Divine Revelations 106 11 P. Pains of Death how loosed towards Christ. 147 11 Vanity of Papal Inventions for the Purification of Sin 379 380 Partial departure of the Spirit from any 91 19 Partial Works deceitfull 369 Two Parts of the Life of God 423 16 Particular good End not sufficient to render a Duty Good or Holy 441 44 Peace with God preserved by Sanctification 323 3 How God sanctifieth us as the God of Peace ibid. Pelagius his Artifices 177 9 Doctrine of Pelagius 183 20 Pelagianism renewed 255 5 Pelagianisme reduced unto its Head 256 7 Difference between Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians 262 19 Pelagian Grace inconsistent with Prayer 265 24 Pelagius his Prayer 266 25 Pelagian Grace rejected 458 73 Pen-men of the Scripture whether all holy 111 18 Pen-men of the Scripture not left unto the use of their own Natural Abilities 114 20 Sinless Perfection not attainable in this Life 547 25 Persecution of Erring Persons vain and fruitless 19 20 23 Person of the Spirit and his Operations distinguished 33 8 Third Person in the Trinity whence called the Spirit 34 9 Person of the Father the Fountain of the Trinity 38 13 Some things not proper to a Person assigned to the Holy Ghost in what sence 48 9 The Person of the Holy Spirit not poured out but his Gifts and Graces 87 13 Every Divine Person Author of the same Work 68 1 The Person of Christ how the Fountain of all Grace 455 The whole Person of a Believer the subject of Sanctification 365 Divine Persons succeeded not to each other in their Operations 70 3 Manifestation of the distinction of Persons in the Divine Nature a great End in the Work of the New Creation 155 2 All Personal Properties assigned unto the Holy Spirit in the Scripture 48 8 Personal Vnion or the Subsistence of both the Natures of Christ in one Person the necessary Consequent of Assumption 129 5 Personality of the Holy Spirit from John 14. 15 16. 60 61 25 Perswasive Efficacy of the Word Preached 258 12 Perswasion conferres no Strength 262 21 Perswasions enable not men to convert themselves 266 25 Perswasions of Perfection ruinous to Holiness 355 Pharisaical Confidence 397 12 Wise Philosophers of Old the greatest Despisers of the Gospel 221 222 Physical Operations of Grace proved 269 29 Pleas for Balaam answered 111 112 19 Pleas of Pelagians 263 21 Vain Pleas for the Power of Free-will in Opposition to the Aids of the Spirit 471 15 Pleas for Holiness by unholy persons uncomely and dangerous 498 2 Pleas for Moral Vertue examined 506 15 Pollution or spiritual Defilement in Sin 372 3 Pollution of Sin that property of it whereby it is opposed to the Holiness of God 374 4 Habitual Pollution inconsistent with any Holiness 378 Pouring forth of the Spirit 86 11 Pouring forth of the Spirit alwayes respects the times of the Gospel 87 12 Power ascribed unto the Holy Spirit 58 22 Powers and Operations of Secondary Causes to be owned 77 15 Power of the Mind with respect unto spiritual things examined 216 23 Power in the Mind by Nature to discern spiritual things 221 30 Power of spiritual Darkness 227 43 Power of Darkness in the Devil 228 45 Powers and Duties of the Mind 236 60 Power unto Obedience in the State of Innocency 241 8 Power in Natural men beyond what they do or will use 245 20 Power in the Faculties of Nature as Corrupted 250 29 Power of the Word to prevail on the Souls of Men whereon it depends 258 13 Spiritual Power in the Habit of Holiness 432 31 Commands of the Covenant respect the Power administred in the Covenant 432 30 Spiritual Power wherein it consists 432 31 No Power in Believers unto Duties of Holy Obedience without assistance of the Spirit 465 c. Power administred by Christ enabling us to be Holy 502 8 No Power given by one Covenant to fulfill the Commands of the other 544 20 All power unto Obedience from Grace 546 22 Two-fold power necessary unto Obedience 547 26 Practice of Moral Vertue not Gospel Holiness 459 77 Pravity of Sin with respect unto the Holiness of God Two-fold 377 6 Praying for the Spirit prescribed as our Duty 123 124 5 Difference between the Prayers of Wicked men and of Believers 164 6 Prayers of the Church prove Effectual Grace 265 24 Prayers for Grace and Holiness of what Nature 348 349 9 Prayer for the Holy Spirit in what sence 357 2 Prayers of Believers for the purification of Sin how influenced by the Spirit of God 384 3 Prayer for Light to discern the Nature of Sin necessary 395 Prayer how a Means of purging Sin 400 13 Prayer weakeneth Sin and how 492 32 Preaching of the Word by the Holy Spirit 119
what sence 453 67 Universality the best Evidence of sincere Sanctification 369 Unregenerate Persons must all perish 253 2 Unregenerate Persons may pray for the Spirit 361 4 Use of spiritual Gifts 1 1 Use of Promises Exhortations and Threatnings 166 10 Use of Ordinances and Means necessary to the Progress of Holiness 354 Diligent Use of Means required unto every one that would be holy 521 4 Usefulness in the World depends on our Conformity to God 512 22 W. Water poured on Grace to cause it to grow 347 8 Fire and Water the Means of all Typical Cleansing 371 1 Watching against Sin on the Account of its Defilement 403 15 The Way whereby the Blood of Christ cleanseth from Sin known to few 384 3 The Way of Cleansing Sin made known by the Holy Spirit alone 388 Wayes whereby Grace is encreased 343 6 Wayes and Means whereby we may come to a Discovery of the Defilement of Sin 395 The weakest Grace shal be preserved 344 6 Weakness of Humane Reason to instruct us unto Obedience 559 13 A Rational Will the most eminent Property of a Person ascribed to the Holy Ghost 57 2â The Will of the Spirit in all his Operations 165 8 Christ not to be sought in the Wilderness in what sence 151 15 Will and Affections how under the Power of the Mind 237 61 The Will of God the only Rule of Obedience 249 27 Wills and Assections of men how wrought upon by the Word 259 13 The Will in Conversion acts not but as it is acted 271 35 Acts of the Will in Conversion how to be considered 274 39 The Will considered as a Vital Faculty and as a free Principle 283 55 Will of God the Rule and Measure of our Obedience 412 3 Every gracious Act of the Will wrought by the Holy Spirit 470 14 Wisdom and Power of the Holy Spirit in the Preservation of Grace 348 9 Wisdom of God to be considered in all Commands of Obedience 543 18 19 c. Office of Witness-bearing unto the Lord Christi discharged by the Holy Spirit 149 13 Witness of the Spirit 168 9 Words the Means of any thing in us applyed to God intend signs onely of it 160 What the Word worketh instrumentally the Spirit worketh effectually 197 11 Word of God the onely Rule and Means of perswading the Soul to Conversion 257 8 Word and Doctrine of Christ the Rule and Measure of Holiness 445 52 Every divine Work distinctly assigned to each Person 68 1 Work of the Spirit towards the Humane Nature of Christ in the state of the Dead 146 10 Every Work of the Spirit is not sanctifying or saving 166 9 Work of Illumination and Conviction wherein it comes short of Conversion 199 16 Work of the Spirit in Regeneration not confined to Arguments and Motives 261 19 Work of the Holy Ghost in Sanctification owned by all the Nature of that Work questioned 339 3 Work of Holiness secret and Mysterious 351 10 Work of Grace variously carryed on in the Soul 353 Work of the Holy Spirit in us as to the Subject and Object of it 385 3 Entire Work of the Holy Ghost in Sanctification explained 435 35 What Works ascribed distinctly to the Father what to the Son and what to the Holy Spirit 69 2 Works supposed satisfactory for Sin overthrow the Gospel 331 13 Workings of the Spirit of God on and in men of the World 77 15 Writing of the Scripture an Effect of the Holy Ghost 113 19 Three things required unto the Writing of the Scripture 113 20 Z. Zeal to the Glory of God how Acted by Christ in his Oblation 144 A TABLE of some Places of Scripture Explained or Applyed in this Treatise GENESIS Chapters Verses Pages Sections 1 2 38 13 1 2 72 8 1 22 32 7 1 26 27 75 11 2 7 74. 465 10 6 3 8 29 2 4 4 53 16 6 5 211 366 15 6 6 63 28 8 1 29 2 8 11 53 16 9 1 2 510 18 17 1 334 413 13 4 EXODUS 4 8 115 21 7 1 102 8 31 2 3. 118 25 LEVITICUS 1 11 385 4 9 24 53 16 NUMBERS 11 16 17 95 116 21 12 8 106 12 19 4 5 6. 389 Â Â 20 387 4 â4 1 112 18 DEUTERONOMY 5 29 424 17 13 1 2 18 22 18 20 14 17 30 6 417 11 32 12 65 31 JOSHUA 10 11 115 12 12 22 112 18 JUDGES Chapters Verses Pages Sections 3 10 17 15 5 20 71 6 I. SAMUEL 10 9 117 Â 16 14 36 11 Â 15 91 19 18 10 37 11 19 24 110 17 II. SAMUEL 23 2 101 7 I. KINGS 22 6 13 16 22 26 15 18 22 21 22. 33 7 22 18 108 14 II. KINGS 2 9 95 21 I. CHRONICLES 12 18 90 16 28 12 105 10 28 19 113 19 EZRA 9 6 396 Â JOB 9 29 30 31 379 Â 26 13 71 7 32 4 58 22 33 4 75 12 PSALMS 1 4 29 2 5 4 5 6. 500 3 8 3 72 7 Psalms Verses Pages Sections 16 11 146 10 18 21 22 23 490 28 19 12 13 408 Â 33 6 35 9 38 5 377 5 40 6 7 8 144 Â 45 13 329 12 5â 11 35 9 Â 5 402 Â Â 7 389 5 53 3 395 Â 63 8 425 18 68 18 157 3 104 29 30. 73 9 139 13 14. 327 10 143 10 37 12 PROVERBS 1 23 86 11 4 18 347 9 6 10 436 36 8 26 74 10 30 12 397 12 ECCLESIASTES 5 6 31 5 12 10 114 20 SOLOMONS SONG 5 2 3 436 Â ISAIAH 4 4 370 1 6 6 7 54 17 11 1 2 3 131 59. 90 94. 23 18 20. 20 1 2 3. 109 15 32 15 86 11 40 27 28 342 5 40 31 431 30 44 3 88 13 45 1 77 118 15 22 57 9 10 376 232. 5 53 59 20 21 11 11 61 1 139 4 63 10 11 14 35 65 9 31 64 6 377 6 JEREMIAH 2 22 379 Â 4 22 216 22 20 9 103 8 23 28 104 10 23 33 36 108 14 31 33 418 11 52 23 32 6 EZEKIEL Chapters Verses Pages Sections 8 3 109 16 13 3 32 7 16 60 61 62 63 396 Â 36 25 26 27. 185 335 370 418 23 14 1 11. DANIEL 10 9 107 13 12 3 83 7 12 9 104 10 HOSEA 1 2 109 15 5 13 388 Â 8 12 236 59 14 5 6 346 8 AMOS 4 13 30 3 MICAH 2 7 59 23 3 8 101 7 6 6 7 331 13 ZEPHANIAH 3 17 91 18 ZECHARIAH 4 7 78 16 12 8 342 5 13 1 387 394. 4 11. MATTHEW 1 18 131 10 3 11 54 17 3 16 17 52 139 17 4 16 207 6 6 22 23 237 61 9 38 142 6 12 24 28 31 32. 63 141 6 29 24 26 151 15 27 46 130 6 28 19 45 50 51 Â MARK 1 12 141 7 11 13 36 Â 13 32 130 6 17 5 360 Â LUKE Chapters Verses Pages Sections 1 35 131 10 2 11 5 3 2 40 137 2 3 16 88
of these actings is not considered absolutely as a Divine Person but with respect unto some peculiar Dispensation and Condescention So the Father gives sends commands the Son as he had condescended to take our Nature upon him and to be the Mediator between God and Man So the Father and the Son do send the Spirit as he condescends in an especial manner to the Office of being the Sunctifier and Comforter of the Church Now these are free and voluntary Acts depending upon the Sovereign Will Counsel Pleasure of God and might not have been without the least diminution of his Eternal Blessedness 2. There are especial Acts ad extra towards the Creatures This the whole Scripture testifieth unto so that it is altogether needless to confirm it with particular Instances None who have learned the first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ but can tell you what works are ascribed peculiarly to the Father what to the Son and what to the Holy Ghost Besides this will be manifested afterwards in all the distinct Actings of the Spirit which is sufficient for our purpose Sect. 6 Fifthly Hence it follows unavoidably that this Spirit of whom we treat is in himself a distinct living powerful intelligent divine Person for none other can be the Author of those internal and external Divine Acts and Operations which are ascribed unto him But here I must stay a little and firm that Foundation which we build upon For we are in the Investigation of those things which that one and self-same Spirit distributeth according to his own Will And it is indispensibly necessary unto our present Design that we enquire who and what that one and self-same Spirit is seeing on him and his Will all these things do depend And we do know likewise that if men prevail in the Opposition they make unto his Person it is to no great purpose to concern our selves in his Operations For the Foundation of any Fabrick being taken away the Superstructure will be of no use nor abide Sect. 7 The Opposition that is made in the World against the Spirit of God Doctrinally may be reduced unto two Heads For some there are who grant his Personality or that he is a distinct self-subsisting Person but they deny his Deity deny him to be a participant of the Divine Nature or will not allow him to be God A Created Finite Spirit they say he is but the chiefest of all Spirits that were created and the Head of all the Good Angels Such a Spirit they say there is and that he is called the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost upon the account of the Work wherein he is employed This way went the Macedonian Hereticks of old and they are now followed by the Mahumetans and some of late among our selves have attempted to revive the same Frenzy But we shall not need to trouble our selves about this Notion The folly of it is so evident that it is almost by all utterly deserted For such things are affirmed of the Holy Ghost in the Scripture as that to assert his Personality and deny his Deity is the utmost madness that any one can fall into in Spiritual things Wherefore the Socinians the present great Enemies of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity and who would be thought to go soberly about the work of destroying the Church of God do utterly reject this Plea and Pretence But that which they advance in the room of it is of no less pernitious Nature and Consequence For granting the things assigned to him to be the Effects of Divine Power they deny his Personality and assert that what is called by the Name of the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit is nothing but a Quality in the Divine Nature or the Power that God puts forth for such and such purpose which yet is no new invention of theirs I do not design here professedly to contend with them about all the Concernments of this Difference for there is nothing of importance in all their Pretences or Exceptions but it will in one place or other occur unto consideration in our Progress I shall onely at present confirm the Divine Personality of the Holy Ghost with one Argument which I will not say is such as no Man can return the shew of an Answer unto For what is it that the Serpentine Wits of Men will not pretend an Answer unto or an Exception against if their Lusts and Prejudices require them so to do But I will boldly say it is such as that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it in the Hearts of true Believers the strengthning of whose Faith is all that in it I do aim at And if it doth not unto all unprejudiced Persons evince the Truth and Reality of the Divine Personality of the Holy Ghost it must certainly convince all Men that nothing which is taught or delivered in the Scripture can possibly be understood Sect. 8 One Consideration which hath in part been before proposed I shall premise to free the Subject of our Argument from Ambiguity And this is that this Word or Name Spirit is used sometimes to denote the Spirit of God himself and sometimes his Gifts and Graces the Effects of his Operations on the Souls of Men. And this our Adversaries in this Cause are forced to confess and thereon in all their Writings distinguish between the Holy Spirit and his Effects This alone being supposed I say it is impossible to prove the Father to be a Person or the Son to be so both which are acknowledged any other way than we may and do prove the Holy Ghost to be so For he to whom all personal Properties Attributes Adjuncts Acts and Operations are ascribed and unto whom they do belong and to whom nothing is or can be truly and properly ascribed but what may and doth belong unto a Person he is a Person and him are we taught to believe so to be So know we the Father to be a Person as also the Son For our Knowledg of things is more by their Properties and Operations than by their Essential Forms Especially is this so with respect to the Nature Being and Existence of God which are in themselves absolutely Incomprehensible Now I shall not confirm the Assumption of this Argument with reference unto the Holy Ghost from this or that particular Testimony nor from the Assignation of any single Personal Property unto him but from the constant Uniform Tenor of the Scripture in ascribing all these Properties unto him And we may add hereunto that things are so ordered in the Wisdom of God that there is no Personal Property that may be found in an Infinite Divine Nature but it is in One place or other ascribed unto him Sect. 9 There is no Exception can be laid against the force of this Argument but only that some things on the One hand are ascribed unto the Spirit which belong not unto a Person nor can be spoken of him
deep things of God which the World could not understand were now preached and declared unto the Church God saith he hath revealed them unto us by the Spirit But how cometh the Spirit himself the Author of these Revelations to be acquainted with these things This he hath from his own Nature whereby he knoweth or searcheth all things even the deep things of God It is therefore the Revelation made by the Spirit unto the Apostles and Pen-men of the Scripture of the New Testament who were acted by the Holy Ghost in like manner as were the Holy Men of old 1 Pet. 1. 21. which the Apostle intendeth and not the Illumination and Teaching of Believers in the knowledg of the Mysteries by them revealed whereof the Apostle treateth in these words But who is this Spirit The same Apostle tells us that the Judgments of God are unsearchable and his wayes past finding out Rom. 11. 33. And asketh who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor v. 34. And yet this Spirit is said to search all things even the deep things of God such as to all Creatures are absolutely unsearchable and past finding out This then is the Spirit of God himself who is God also For so it is in the Prophet from whence these words are taken Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his Counsellor hath taught him Isa. 40. 13. It will not relieve the Adversaries of the Holy Ghost though it be pleaded by them that he is compared with and opposed unto the spirit of a Man v. 11. which they say is no Person For no Comparisons hold in all Circumstances The Spirit of a Man is his Rational Soul endued with Understanding and Knowledg This is an individual intelligent Substance capable of a subsistence in a separate Condition Grant the Spirit of God to be so far a Person and all their Pretences fall to the ground And whereas it is affirmed by one among our selves though otherwise asserting the Deity of the Holy Ghost Good p. 175. that this Expression of searching the things of God cannot be applyed directly to the Spirit but must intend his enabling us to search into them because to search includes imperfection and the use of means to come to the knowledg of any thing it is not of weight in this matter For such Acts are ascribed unto God with respect unto their Effects And searching being with us the means of attaining the perfect knowledg of any thing the perfection of the knowledg of God is expressed thereby So David prays that God would search him and know his heart Psal. 139. 23. And he is often said to search the hearts of men whereby his infinite Wisdom is intimated whereunto all things are open and naked So is the Spirit said to search the deep things of God because of his infinite Understanding and the perfection of his Knowledg before which they lie open And as things are here spoken of the Spirit in reference unto God the Father so are they spoken of him in reference unto the Spirit Rom. 8. 27. He that searcheth the Hearts knoweth the Mind of the Spirit And hereunto that this Spirit is the Author of Wisdom and Understanding in and unto others and therefore he must have them in himself and that not virtually or causally onely but formally also 1 Cor. 12. 8. Wisdom and Knowledg are reckoned among the Gifts bestowed by him For those of Faith and Tongues it is enough that they are in him virtually But for Wisdom and Understanding they cannot be given by any but he that is wise and understandeth what he doth And hence is he called expresly a Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding of Counsel and Knowledg Isa. 11. 3. I might confirm this by other Testimonies where other Effects of Understanding are ascribed unto him as 1 Tim. 4. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 11. 2 Pet. 1. 21. but what hath been spoken is sufficient unto our purpose Sect. 20 Secondly A Will is ascribed unto him This is the most eminently distinguishing Character and Property of a Person Whatever is endued with an intelligent Will is a Person And it cannot by any Fiction with any tolerable congruity be ascribed unto any thing else unless the Reason of the Metaphor be plain and obvious So when our Saviour sayes of the VVind that it bloweth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as it willeth or listeth Joh. 3. 8. the abuse of the Word is evident All intended is that the Wind as unto us is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and not at all at our disposal acts not by our Guidance or Direction And no Man is so foolish as not to apprehend the meaning of it or once to enquire whether our Saviour doth properly ascribe a Will to the Wind or no. So James Chap. 3. v. 4. The words rendred by us turned about with a very small Helm whithersoever the Governour listeth are in the Original ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in which the act of Willing is ascribed to the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the impâtus or inclination of the Governour which yet hath not a Will But the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in that place is not the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of the Philosophers the motus primo-primus or the first Agitation or Inclination of the Mind but it is the Will it self under an earnest Inclination such as is usual with them who govern Ships by the Helms in Storms Hereunto the Act of Willing is properly ascribed and he in whom it is proved to be a Person Thus a Will acting with Understanding and Choice as the Principle and Cause of his outward Actions is ascribed unto the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 11. All these things worketh that one and self-same Spirit dividing unto every Man as he will He had before asserted that he was the Author and Donor of all the Spiritual Gifts which he had been discoursing about v. 4 5 6. These Gifts he declares to be various as he manifests in nine Instances and all variously disposed of by him v. 8 9 10. If now it be enquired what is the Rule of this his distribution of them he tells us that it is his own Will his Choice and Pleasure What can be spoken more fully and plainly to describe an intelligent Person acting voluntarily with freedom and by choice I know not Sect. 21 We may consider what is excepted hereunto They say Schliâting p. 610. that the Holy Ghost is here introduced as a Person by a Prosopopeia that the distribution of the Gifts mentioned is ascribed unto him by a Metaphor and by the same or another Metaphor he is said to have a Will or to act as he will But is it not evident that if this course of interpreting or rather of perverting Scripture may be allowed nothing of any certainty will be left unto us therein It is but saying this or that is a Metaphor and if one will not serve the turn to bring in two or
down Rain Job 36. 27. until it water the Ridges of the Earth abundantly setling the Furrows thereof and making it soft with Showers as Psal. 65. 10. which with the things following in that place v. 11 12 13. are spoken Allegorically of this pouring out of the Spirit of God from above Hence God is said to do this richly Tit. 3. 6. The renewing of the Holy Ghost ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which he hath poured on us richly that is on all Believers who are converted unto God For the Apostle discourseth not of the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost which were then given forth in a plentiful manner but of that Grace of the Holy Ghost whereby all that believe are regenerated renewed and converted unto God For so were men converted of old by a rich participation of the Holy Ghost and so they must be still whatever some pretend or die in their sins And by the same word is the bounty of God in other things expressed The living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy 1 Tim. 6. 17. 2. This pouring out hath respect unto the Gifts and Graces of the Spirit and not unto his Person For where he is given he is given absolutely and as to himself not more or less but his Gifts and Graces may be more plentifully and abundantly given at one time than at another to some Persons than to others Wherefore this Expression is metonymical that being spoken of the Cause which is proper to the Effect the Spirit being said to be poured forth because his Graces are so 3. Respect is had herein unto some especial Works of the Spirit Such are the Purifying or Sanctifying and the Comforting or Refreshing them on whom He is poured With respect unto the first to these Effects he is compared both unto Fire and Water For both Fire and Water have purifying Qualities in them though towards different Objects and working in a different manner So by Fire are Metals purified and purged from their Dross and Mixtures and by Water are all other unclean and defiled things cleansed and purified Hence the Lord Jesus Christ in his Work by his Spirit is at once compared unto a Refiners Fire and to Fullers Sope Mal. 3. 2 3. because of the purging purifying Qualities that are in Fire and Water And the Holy Ghost is expresly called a Spirit of Burning Isa. 4. 4. For by him are the Vessels of the House of God that are of Gold and Silver refined and purged as those that are but of Wood and Stone are consumed And when it is said of our Lord Jesus that he should baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Luke 3. 16. it is but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the same thing doubly expressed and therefore mention is made only of the Holy Ghost John 1. 33. But the Holy Ghost was in his Dispensation to purifie and cleanse them as Fire doth Gold and Silver And on the same account is he compared to Water Ezek. 36. 35. I will sprinkle clean Water upon you and you shall be clean which is expounded v. 26. by a New Spirit will I put within you which God calls his Spirit Jer. 32. 39. So our Saviour calls him Rivers of Water Joh. 7. 38 39. see Isa. 44. 3. And it is with regard unto his purifying cleansing and sanctifying our Natures that he is thus called With respect therefore in an especial manner hereunto is he said to be poured out So our Apostle expresly declares Tit. 3. 4 5 6. Again it respects his comforting and refreshing them on whom he is poured Hence is he said to be poured down from above as Rain that descends on the Earth Isa. 44. 3. I will pour Water upon him that is thirsty and Floods upon the dry ground that is I will pour my Spirit on thy Seed and my Blessing upon thy Off-spring and they shall spring up as among the Grass as Willows by the Water-Courses v. 4. see Chap. 35. 6 7. He comes upon the dry parched barren ground of the hearts of men with his refreshing fructifying Vertue and Blessing causing them to spring and bring forth Fruits in Holiness and Righteousness to God Heb. 6. 7. And in respect unto his Communication of his Spirit is the Lord Christ said to come down like Rain upon the mown Grass as Showers that water the Earth Psal. 72. 6. The good Lord give us alwayes of these Waters and refreshing Showers And these are the wayes in general whereby the Dispensation of the Spirit from God for what End or Purpose soever it be is expressed Sect. 14 We come nextly to consider what is ascribed unto the Spirit Himself in a way of complyance with these Acts of God whereby he is given and administred Now these are such Things or Actions as manifest him to be a Voluntary Agent and that not only as to what he acts or doth in men but also as to the manner of his coming forth from God and his Application of himself unto his Work And these we must consider as they are declared unto us in the Scripture The first and most general Expression hereof is that he proceedeth from the Father and being the Spirit of the Son he proceedeth from him also in like manner John 15. 25. The Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me There is ãâ¦ã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Procession of the Holy Ghost The ãâ¦ã Natural or Personal This expresseth his Eternal Relation to the Persons of the Father and the Son He is of them by an eternal Emanation or Procession The manner hereof unto us in this Life is incomprehensible Therefore it is rejected by some who will believe no more than they can put their hands into the sides of And yet are they forced in things under their Eyes to admit of many things which they cannot perfectly comprehend But we live by Faith and not by Sight This is enough unto us that we admit nothing in this great Mystery but what is revealed and nothing is revealed unto us that is inconsistent with the Being and Subsistence of God For this Procession or Emanation includes no Separation or Division in or of the Divine Nature but only expresseth a distinction in Subsistence by a Property peculiar to the Holy Spirit But this is not that which at present I intend The consideration of it belongeth unto the Doctrine of the Trinity in general and hath been handled elsewhere Secondly There is an ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Procession of the Spirit which is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or dispensatory This is the Egress of the Spirit in his Application of Himself unto his Work A voluntary Act it is of his Will and not a necessary Property of his Person And he is said thus to proceed from the Father because he goeth forth or proceedeth in the pursuit of the Counsels and Purposes of the Father and as sent by him to put them into
Execution or to make them effectual And in like manner he proceedeth from the Son sent by Him for the Application of his Grace unto the Souls of his Elect John 15. 16. It is true this proves his Eternal Relation to the Father and the Son as he proceeds from them or receives his peculiar Personal Subsistence from them For that is the Ground of this order of Operation But it is his own Personal voluntary acting that is intended in the Expression And this is the general Notation of the Original of the Spirits acting in all that he doth He proceedeth or cometh forth from the Father Had it been only said that He was given and sent it could not have been known that there was any thing of his own Will in what he did whereas he is said to divide unto every one as He will But in that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He proceedeth of his own accord unto his Work his own Will and Condescention is also asserted And this his proceeding from the Father is in complyance with his sending of Him to accomplish and make effectual the Purposes of his Will and the Counsels of his Grace Sect. 16 Secondly To the same purpose He is said to come John 15. 26. When the Comforter is come John 16. 7. If I go not away the Comforter will not come v. 8. and when he is come So is he said to come upon Persons We so express it 1 Chron. 12. 18. The Spirit came upon Amasai ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And the Spirit clothed Amasai possessed his Mind as a Man's Cloths cleave unto him Acts 19. 6. The Holy Ghost came on them and they prophesied ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to come is as it were the Terminus ad Quem of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã going forth or proceeding For there is in these Expressions an Allusion unto a local Motion whereof these two words denote the Beginning and the End The first intendeth his voluntary Application of himself to his Work the other his progress in it such Condescentions doth God make use of in the declaration of his Divine Actings to accommodate them unto our Understandings and to give us some kind of Apprehension of them He proceedeth from the Father as given by him and cometh unto us as sent by him The meaning of both is that the Holy Ghost by his own Will and Consent worketh in the pursuit of the Will of the Father there and that where and what he did not work before And as there is no local Motion to be thought of in these things so they can in no tolerable sense be reconciled to the Imagination of his being onely the inherent Vertue or an actual Emanation and Influence of the Power of God And hereby is our Faith and Obedience Regulated in our dealing with God about Him For we may both pray the Father that he would give and send Him unto us according to his Promise and we may pray to Him to come unto us to sanctifie and comfort us according to the Work and Office that he hath undertaken This is that which we are taught hereby For these Revelations of God are for our Instruction in the Obedience of Faith Sect. 17 Thirdly He is said to fall on Men Acts 10. 44. While Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word So Chap. 11. 4. Where Peter repeating the same Matter sayes The Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning that is Acts 2. 4. A greatness and suddainness in a surprizal is intended in this Word As when the Fire fell down from Heaven which was a Type of him upon the Altar and Sacrifice of Elijah the People that saw it were amazed and falling on their Faces cryed out The Lord he is God 1 Kings 18. 38 39. When Men are no way in expectation of such a Gift or when they have an Expectation in general but are suddainly surprized as to the particular Season it is thus declared But where-ever this word is used some extraordinary Effects evidencing his Presence and Power do immediately ensue Acts 10. 44 46. And so it was at the beginning of his Effusion under the New Testament Acts 2. 4. 8. 16. Sect. 18 Fourthly Being come He is said to Rest on the Persons to whom he is given and sent Isa. 11. 3. And the Spirit of the Lord shall Rest upon him This is interpreted abiding and remaining John 1. 32 33. Numb 11. 25 26. The Spirit of the Lord rested on the Elders So the Spirit of Elijah rested on Elisha 2 Kings 2. 15. 1 Pet. 4. 14. The Spirit of God and of Glory resteth on you Two things are included herein 1. Complacency 2. Permanency First He is well-pleased in his Work wherein he Rests So where God is said to rest in his Love he doth iâ with Joy and singing Zeph. 3. 17. so doth the Spirit rejoyce where he rests Secondly He abides where he Rests Under this Notion is this acting of the Spirit promised by our Saviour He shall abide with you for ever John 14. 16. He came only on some Men by a sudden surprizal to act in them and by them some peculiar Work and Duty To this end he only transiently affected their Minds with his Power But where he is said to rest as in the works of Sanctification and Consolation there he abides and continues with Complacency and Delight Sect. 19 Fifthly He is said to depart from some Persons So it is said of Saul 1 Sam. 16. 14. The Spirit of the Lord departed from him And David prayes that God would not take his Holy Spirit from him Psal. 51. 11. And this is to be understood answerably unto what we have discoursed before about his coming and his being sent As he is said to come so is he said to depart and as he is said to be sent so is he said to be taken away His departure from men therefore is his ceasing to work in them and on them as formerly and as far as this is penal he is said to be taken away So he departed and was taken away from Saul when he no more helped him with that Ability for Kingly Government which before he had by his Assistance And this departure of the Holy Ghost from any is either total or partial onely Some on whom he hath been bestowed for the working of sundry Gifts for the good of others with manifold convictions by Light and general Assistance unto the performance of Duties He utterly deserts and gives them up unto themselves and their own hearts lusts Examples hereof are common in the World Men who have been made Partakers of many Gifts of the Holy Ghost and been in an especial manner enlightned and under the Power of their Convictions carried out unto the Profession of the Gospel and the performance of many Duties of Religion yet being entangled by Temptations and overcome by the power of their lusts relinquish all
care of God as that which was given by Inspiration from himself Matth. 5. But I have on other occasions treated of these things and shall not therefore here enlarge upon them Sect. 21 The third sort of the immediate extraordinary Operations of the Holy Ghost absolutely exceeding the actings and compliance of Humane Faculties are Miracles of all sorts which were frequent under the Old Testament Such were many things wrought by Moses and Joshua Elijah and Elisha with some others those by Moses exceeding if the Jews fail not in their Computation all the rest that are recorded in the Scripture Now these were all the immediate Effects of the Divine Power of the Holy Ghost He is the sole Author of all real miraculous Operations For by Miracles we understand such Effects as are really beyond and above the Power of Natural Causes however applyed unto Operation Now it is said expresly that our Lord Jesus Christ wrought Miracles for Instance the casting out of Devils From Persons possessed by the Holy Ghost And if their immediate Production were by him in the Humane Nature of Jesus Christ personally united unto the Son of God how much more must it be granted that it was He alone whose Power they were wrought in those who had no such Relation unto the Divine Nature And therefore where they are said to be wrought by the Hand or Finger of God it is the Person of the Holy Spirit which is precisely intended as we have declared before And the Persons by whom they were wrought were never the real Subjects of the Power whereby they were wrought as though it should be inherent and residing in them as a Quality Acts 2. 12 16. Only they were infallibly directed by the Holy Ghost by Word or Action to presignifie their Operation So was it with Joshua when he commanded the Sun and Moon to stand still Josh. 10. 12. There was no Power in Joshua no not extraordinarily communicated to Him to have such a real influence upon the whole frame of Nature as to effect so great an Alteration therein Onely he had a Divine Warranty to speak that which God himself would effect whence it is said that therein God hearkned unto the Voice of a Man v. 14. It is a vanity of the greatest magnitude in some of the Jews as Maimonides More Nebuch p. 2. cap. 35. Levi B. Gerson on the place and others who deny any fixation of the Sun or Moon and judge that it is only the speed of Joshua in subduing his Enemies before the close of that day which is intended This they contend for lest Joshua should be thought to have wrought a greater Miracle than Moses But as the Prophet Habakkuk is express to the contrary c. 3. 11. and their own Sirachides c. 45. 56. so it is no small prevarication in some Christians to give countenance unto such a putid Fiction see Grot. in loc It is so in all other miraculous Operations even where the Parts of the Bodies of Men were made instrumental of the Miracle it self as in the Gift of Tongues They who had that Gift did not so speak from any Skill or Ability residing in them but they were meerly Organs of the Holy Ghost which he moved at his Pleasure Now the end of all these miraculous Operations was to give reputation to the Persons and to confirm the ministry of them by whom they were wrought For as at first they were the occasion of wonder and astonishment so upon their consideration they evidenced the respect and regard of God unto such Persons and their Work So when God sent Moses to declare his Will in an extraordinary manner unto the People of Israel he commands him to work several Miracles or Signs before them that they might believe that he was sent of God Exod. 4. 8. And such Works were called Signs because they were Tokens and Pledges of the Presence of the Spirit of God with them by whom they were wrought Nor was this Gift ever bestowed on any Man alone or for its own sake but it was alwayes subordinate unto the Work of Revealing or Declaring the Mind of God And these are the general Heads of the extraordinary Operations of the Holy Spirit of God in Works exceeding all Humane or Natural Abilities in their whole kind Sect. 22 The next sort of the Operations of the Holy Ghost under the Old Testament whose Explanation was designed is of those whereby he improved proved through immediate impression of his own Power the Natural Faculties and Abilities of the Minds of Men. And these as was intimated have respect to things Political Moral Natural and Intellectual with some of a mixed Nature First He had in them respect unto things Political such were his Gifts whereby he enabled sundry Persons unto Rule and Civil Government amongst Men. Government or Supream Rule is of great concernment unto the Glory of God in the World and of the highest usefulness unto Mankind Without it the whole World would be filled with violence and become a Stage for all Wickedness visibly and openly to act it self upon in disorder and confusion And all Men confess that unto a due management hereof unto its proper Ends sundry peculiar Gifts and Abilities of Mind are required in them and needful for them who are called thereunto These are they themselves to endeavour after and sedulously to improve the Measures which they have attained of them And where this is by any neglected the World and themselves will quickly feed on the Fruits of that Negligence But yet because the utmost of what Men may of this kind obtain by their ordinary endeavours and an ordinary Blessing thereon is not sufficient for some especial ends which God aimed at in and by their Rule and Government the Holy Ghost did oftentimes give an especial Improvement unto their Abilities of Mind by his own immediate and extraordinary Operation And in some Cases he manifested the Effects of his Power herein by some external visible Signs of his coming on them in whom he so wrought So in the first Institution of the Sanhedrim or Court of Seventy Elders to bear together with Moses the Burden of the People in their Rule and Government the Lord is said to put his Spirit upon them and that the Spirit rested on them Numb 11. 16 17. And the Lord said unto Moses Gather unto me Seventy Men of the Elders of Israel whom thou knowest to be Elders of the People and Officers over them And I will take of the Spirit that is upon thee and put it upon them and they shall bear the burden of the People with thee vers 25. And the Lord took of the Spirit that was on Moses and gave it unto the Seventy Elders and the Spirit rested on them That which these Elders were called unto was a share in the Supream Rule and Government of the People which was before intirely in the hand of Moses This the occasion of their Call declares vers
11 12 13 14 15. and they were ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã inferior Officers before such as they had in Egypt who influenced the People by their Counsel and Arbritration Exod. 3. 16. Chap. 5. 6. Chap. 24. 1 9. Now they had a Supream Power in Judgment committed to them and were thence called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or Gods For these were they unto whom the Word of God came who were thence called Gods John 10. 34 35. Psal. 82. 6. and not the Prophets who had neither Power nor Rule And on them the Spirit of God that was in Moses rested that is wrought the same Abilities for Government in them as he had received That is Wisdom Righteousness Diligence Courage and the like that they might judge the People wisely and look to the Execution of the Law impartially Now when the Spirit of God thus rested on them it is said they Prophesied and ceased not v. 25 26. That is they sang or spake forth the Praises of God in such a way and manner as made it evident unto all that they were extraordinarily acted by the Holy Ghost So is that Word used 1 Sam. 10. 10. and elsewhere But this Gift and Work of Prophesie was not the especial End for which they were endowed by the Spirit for they were now called as hath been declared unto Rule and Government But because their Authority and Rule was new among the People God gave that visible Sign and Pledg of his calling them to their Office that they might have a due Veneration of their Persons and acquiesce in their Authority And hence from the Ambiguity of that word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which we render and ceased not they Prophesied and ceased not vers 25. which may signifie to add as well as to cease many of the Jews affirm that they so prophesied no more but that day only they prophesied then and added not that is to do so any more So when God would erect a Kingdom amongst them which was a new kind of Government unto them and designed Saul to be the Person that should Reign it is said that he gave him another heart 1 Sam. 10. 9. that is the Spirit of God came upon him as it is elsewhere expressed to endow him with that Wisdom and Magnanimity that might make him meet for Kingly Rule And because he was new called from a Low Condition unto Royal Dignity the Communication of the Spirit of God unto him was accompanied with a Visible sign and Token that the People might acquiesce in his Government who were ready to despise his Person For he had also an extraordinary Afflatus of the Spirit expressing it self in a Visible Rapture vers 10 11. And in like manner he dealt with others For this cause also he instituted the Ceremony of Anointing at their Inauguration for it was a Token of the Communication of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost unto them though respect were had therein to Jesus Christ who was to be anointed with all his fulness of whom they were Types unto that People Now these Gifts for Government are Natural and Moral Abilities of the Minds of Men such as are Prudence Righteousness Courage Zeal Clemency and the like And when the Holy Ghost fell upon any Persons to enable them for Political Rule and the Administration of Civil Power he did not Communicate Gifts and Abilities unto them quite of another kind but only gave them an extraordinary improvement of their own ordinary Abilities And indeed so great is the Burden wherewith a just and useful Government is attended so great and many are the Temptations which Power and a Confluence of Earthly Things will invite and draw towards them that without some especial Assistance of the Holy Spirit of God Men cannot chuse but either sink under the weight of it or wretchedly miscarry in its Exercise and Management This made Solomon when God in the beginning of his Reign gave him his option of all earthly desirable things to prefer Wisdom and Knowledg for Rule before them all 2 Chron. 1. 10 11 12. And this he received from him who is the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding Isa. 11. 3. And if the Rulers of the Earth would follow this Example and be earnest with God for such supplies of his Spirit as might enable them unto an Holy Righteous discharge of their Office it would in many places be better with them and the World than it is or can be where is the state of things described Hos. 7. 3 4 5. Now God of old did carry this Dispensation out of the Pale of the Church for the effecting of some especial Ends of his own and I no way question but that he continueth still so to do Thus he anointed Cyrus and calls him his Anointed accordingly Isa. 45. 1. For Cyrus had a double Work to do for God in both parts whereof he stood in need of his especial Assistance He was to execute his Judgements and Vengeance on Babylon as also to deliver his People that they might re-edifie the Temple For both these he stood in need and did receive especial Aid from the Spirit of God though he was in himself but a ravenous Bird of prey Isa. 46. 11. For the Gifts of this Holy One in this kind wrought no real Holiness in them on whom they were bestowed they were only given them for the good and benefit of others with their own success in what they attempted unto that purpose Yea and many on whom they are bestowed never consider the Author of them but sacrifice to their own Nets and Drags and look on themselves as the Springs of their own Wisdom and Ability But it is no wonder that all regard unto the Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Government of the World is despised when his whole Work in and towards the Church it self is openly derided Sect. 23 Secondly We may add hereunto those especial Endowments with some Moral Vertues which he granted unto sundry Persons for the accomplishment of some especial Design So He came upon Gideon and upon Jeptha to anoint them unto the Work of delivering the People from their Adversaries in Battel Judg. 6. 34. Chap. 11. 29. It is said before of them both That they were Men of Valour Chap. 6. 12. Chap. 11. 1. This coming therefore of the Spirit of God upon them and cloathing of them was his especial Excitation of their Courage and his fortifying of their Minds against those Dangers they were to conflict withal And this he did by such an efficacious impression of his Power upon them as that both themselves received thereby a Confirmation of their Call and others might discern the presence of God with them Hence it is said that the Spirit of the Lord cloathed them they being warmed in themselves and known to others by his Gifts and Actings of them Sect. 24 Thirdly There are sundry Instances of his adding unto the Gifts of the Mind whereby he qualified Persons for
their Duties even bodily strength When that also was needful for the Work whereunto he called them Such was his Gift unto Sampson His bodily strength was supernatural a meer effect of the Power of the Spirit of God and therefore when he put it forth in his Calling it is said that the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him Judg. 14. 6. Chap. 15. 14. or wrought powerfully in him And he gave him this strength in the way of an Ordinance appointing the growing of his Hair to be the Sign and Pledg of it the Care whereof being violated by him he lost for a season the Gift it self Sect. 25 Fourthly He also communicated Gifts intellectual to be exercised in and about things Natural and Artificial So he endowed Bezaliel and Aholiab with Wisdom and Skill in all manner of curious Workmanship about all sorts of things for the building and beautifying of the Tabernacle Exod. 31. 2 3. Whether Bezaliel were a Man that had before given himself unto the Acquisition of those Arts and Sciences is altogether uncertain But certain it is that his present Endowments were extraordinary The Spirit of God heightned improved and strengthned the Natural Faculties of his Mind to a Perception and Understanding of all the curious Works mentioned in that place and unto a skill how to contrive and dispose of them into their Order deigned by God himself And therefore although the skill and wisdom mentioned differed not in the kind of it from that which others attained by industry yet he received it by an immediate Afflatus or Inspiration of the Holy Ghost as to that degree at least which he was made Partaker of Sect. 27 Lastly The Assistance given unto Holy Men for the Publishing and Preaching of the Word of God to others as to Noah who was a Preacher of Righteousness 2 Pet. 2. 5. for the Conviction of the Word and Conversion of the Elect wherein the Spirit of God strove with Men Gen. 6. 3. and preached unto them that were Disobedient 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. might here also be considered but that the Explanation of his whole Work in the Particular will occur unto us in a more proper place Sect. 28 And thus I have briefly passed through the Dispensation of the Spirit of God under the Old Testament Nor have I aimed therein to gather up his whole Work and all his Actings for then every thing that is praise-worthy in the Church must have been enquired into For all without him is Death and Darkness and Sin All Life Light and Power are from him alone And the instances of things expresly assigned unto him which we have insisted on are sufficient to manifest that the whole Being and Welfare of the Church depended solely on his Will and his Operation And this will yet be more evident when we have also considered those other Effects and Operations of his which being common to both States of the Church under the Old Testament and the New are purposely here omitted because the Nature of them is more fully cleared in the Gospel wherein also their Exemplifications are more illustrious From him therefore was the Word of Promise and the Gift of Prophesie whereon the Church was founded and whereby it was built From him was the Revelation and Institution of all the Ordinances of Religious Whorship from him was that Communication of Gifts and Gracious Abilities which any Persons received for the Edification Rule Protection and Deliverance of the Church All these things were wrought by that one and self-same Spirit which divideth to every Man severally as he will And if this were the state of things under the Old Testament a Judgment may thence be made how it is under the New The principal Advantage of the present State above that which is past next unto the coming of Christ in the Flesh consists in the pouring out of the Holy upon the Disciples of Christ in a larger manner than formerly And yet I know not how it is come to pass that some Men think that neither He nor his Work are of any great use unto us And whereas we find every thing that is good even under the Old Testament assigned unto him as the sole immediate Author of it it is hard to perswade with many that he continues now to do almost any good at all And what he is allowed to have any hand in it is sure to be so stated as that the principal praise of it may redound unto our selves So diverse yea so adverse are the thoughts of God and Men in these things where our Thoughts are not captivated unto the Obedience of Faith But we must shut up this Discourse It is a common saying among the Jewish Masters That the Gift of the Holy Ghost ceased under the second Temple or after the finishing of it Their meaning must be that it did so as to the Gifts of Ministerial Prophesie of Miracles and of Writing the Mind of God by Inspiration for the Use of the Church Otherwise there is no Truth in their Observation For there were afterwards especial Revelations of the Holy Ghost granted unto many as unto Simeon and Anna Luke 1. And others constantly received of his Gifts and Graces to enable them unto Obedience and fit them for their Employments For without a continuance of these supplies the Church it self must absolutely cease General Dispensation of the HOLY SPIRIT with respect unto the New Creation CHAP. II. 1. The Work of the Spirit of God in the New Creation proposed to Consideration The Importance of the Doctrine hereof 2. The plentiful Effusion of the Spirit the great Promise respecting the Times of the New Testament 3. Ministry of Gospel founded in the Promise of the Spirit 4. How this Promise is made unto all Believers 5. Injunction to all to pray for the Spirit of God 6. The solemn Promise of Christ to send his Spirit when he left the Word 7. The ends for which he promised him 8. The Work of the New Creation the principal means of the Revelation of God and his Glory 9. How this Revelation is made in particular herein Sect. 1 VVE are now arrived at that part of our Work which was principally intended in the Whole and that because our Faith and Obedience is principally therein concerned This is the Dispensation and Work of the Holy Ghost with respect to the Gospel or the New Creation of all things in and by Jesus Christ. And this if any thing in the Scripture is worthy of our most diligent Enquiry and Meditation nor is there any more important Principle and Head of that Religion which we do profess The Doctrine of Being and Unity of the Divine Nature is common to us with the rest of Mankind and hath been so from the Foundation of the World however some like bruit Beasts have herein also corrupted themselves The Doctrine of the Trinity or the Subsistence of three Persons in the one Divine Nature or Being was known to
common means of it For he will both glorifie his Word thereby and give out Pledges of ãâã Approbation of our Obedience unto his Commands and Institutions Sect. 5 Secondly There are certain internal Spiritual ãâ¦ã in and upon the Souls of Men whereof the Word ãâ¦ã the immediate instrumental Cause which ordinarily do precâde the Work of Regeneration or real Conversion unto God And they are reduceââ ãâã to three Heads 1. Illumination 2. Conviction 3. Refââââ The first of these respects the Mind only the second the Minââââââscience and Affections and the third the Life and Conversation Sect. 6 The first is Illumination of whose Nature and Causes we must afterwards treat distinctly At present I shall only consider it as it is ordinarily previous unto Regeneration and materially disposing the Mind thereunto Now all the Light which by any means we attain unto or Knowledg that we have in or about Spiritual Things things of supernatural Revelation come under this Denomination of Illumination And hereof there are three Degrees 1. That which ariseth meerly from an industrious Application of the Rational Faculties of our Souls to know perceive and understand the Doctrines of Truth as revealed unto us For hereby much knowledg of Divine Truth may be obtained which others through their negligence sloth and pride are unacquainted with And this knowledg I refer unto Illumination that is a Light superadded to the innate conceptions of Mens Minds and beyond what of themselves they can extend unto because it is concerning such things as the heart of Man could never of it self conceive but the very knowledg of them is communicated by their Revelation 1 Cor. 2. 9 11. And the reason why so very few do exercise themselves to the attaining of this Knowledg according to their Abilities is because of the Enmity which is in the Carnal Minds of all Men by Nature unto the things themselves that are revealed And within the compass of this Degree I comprize all knowledg of Spiritual Things that is merely Natural 2. There is an Illumination which is an especial Effect of the Holy Ghost by the Word on the Minds of Men. With respect hereunto some who fall totally from God and perish Eternally are said to have been once enlightned Heb. 6. 4. This Light variously affects the Mind and makes a great Addition unto what is purely natural or attainable by the meer exercise of our Natural Abilities Sect. 7 For 1. it adds Perspicuity unto it making the things discerned in it more clear and perspicuous to the Mind Hence Men endowed with it are said to know the Way of Righteousness 2 Pet. 2. 21. clearly and distinctly to apprehend the Doctrine of the Gospel as the way of Righteousness They know it not only or meerly as true but as a way of Righteousness namely the way of God's Righteousness which is therein revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1. 17. and the way of Righteousness for sinners in the sight of God Rom. 10. 3 4. 2. It adds a greater Assent unto the Truth of the things revealed than meer natural Reason can rise up unto Hence those thus Illuminated are frequently said to believe their Faith being only the naked Assent of their Minds unto the Truth revealed to them So it is said of Simon the Magician Acts 8. 12. and of sundry of the Jews John 2. 23 24. Chap. 12. 42. 3. It adds unto them some kind of evanid Joy These receive the Word with Joy and yet have no Root in themselves Luke 18. 13. They rejoyce in the Light of it at least for a Season Joh. 5. 35. Persons that are thus enlightned will be variously affected with the Word so as they are not whose Natural Faculties are not Spiritually Excited 4. It adds oft-times Gifts also wherof this Spiritual Light is as it were the common Matter which in Exercise is formed and fashioned in great variety I say this kind of Spiritual Light the Effect of this Ilumination is the Subject Matter and contains in it the Substance of all Spiritual Gifts One sort of Gift it is when put forth and exercised in one way or one kind of Duty and another as in another And where it is improved into Gifts which principally it is by Exercise there it wonderfully affects the Mind and raiseth its Apprehensions in and of Spiritual Things Now concerning this Degree of Illumination I say 1. That it is not Regeneration nor doth it consist therein nor doth necessarily or infallibly ensue upon it A third Degree is required thereunto which we shall afterwards explain Many therefore may be thus enlightned and yet never be converted 2. That in order of Nature it is previous unto a full and real Conversion to God and is materially preparatory and dispositive thereunto For Saving Grace enters into the Soul by Light As it is therefore a Gift of God so it is the Duty of all Men to labour after a participation of it however by many it be abused Sect. 8 Secondly Conviction of Sin is another Effect of the Preaching of the Word antecedaneous unto real Conversion to God This in general the Apostle describes 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. If ye prophesie and one cometh in who believeth not he is convinced of all and thus are the Secrets of his Heart made manifest and so falling down on his Face he will Worship God And sundry things are included herein or do accompany it As 1. a disquieting sense of the guilt of Sin with respect unto the Law of God with his Threatnings and future Judgments Things that before were slighted and made a mock of do now become the Soul's Burthen and constant Disquietment Fools make a mock of Sin they traverse their ways and snuff up the Wind like the wild Ass but in their Month when Conviction hath burthened them you may find them And hereby are the Minds of Men variously affected with fears and anguish in various degrees according as Impressions are made upon them by the Word And these Degrees are not prescribed as necessary Duties unto Persons under their Conversions but only described as they usually fall out to the relief and direction of such as are concerned in them As a Man going to give Directions unto another how to guide his Course in a Voyage at Sea he tells him That in such a place he will meet with Rocks and Shelves Storms and cross Winds so that if he Steer not very heedfully he will be in danger to miscarry and to be cast away He doth not prescribe it unto him as his Duty to go among such Rocks and into such Storms but only directs him how to guide himself in them where he doth meet with them as assuredly he will if he miss not his proper Course 2. Sorrow or Grief for Sin committed because past and irrecoverable which is the formal Reason of this condemning Sorrow This the Scripture calls sorrow of the World 2 Cor. 7. 10. Divines usually legal sorrow as that
is filled with There is indeed a Vanity which is penal namely that vexation and disappointment which Men finally meet withal in the pursuit of perishing things whereof the Wise Man treats at large in his Ecclesiastes But I intend that sinful Vanity which the Mind it self produces and that in all sorts of Persons Ages Sexes and Conditions in the World This some of the Heathens saw complained of reproved and derided but yet could never reach to the cause of it nor free themselves from being under the Power of the same Vanity though in a way peculiar and distinct from the common sort as might easily be demonstrated But the thing is apparent almost all that our Eyes see or our Ears hear of in the World is altogether vain All that which makes such a Noise such a Business such an Appearance and Shew among Men may be reduced unto two Heads 1. The Vanity that they bring into the things that are and that are either good in themselves and of some use or at least indifferent So Men do variously corrupt their Buildings and Habitations their Trading their Conversation their Power their Wealth their Relations they joyn innumerable Vanities with them which render them loathsome and contemptible and the meanest condition to be the most suitable to rational Satisfaction 2. Men find out and as it were create things to be meer Supporters Countenancers and Nourishers of Vanity Such in Religion are carnal pompous Ceremonies like those of the Church of Rome which have no end but to bring in some kind of Provision for the satisfaction of vain Minds Stage-Playes Mimicks with innumerable other things of the same nature which are nothing but Theatres for Vanity to act it self upon It were endless but to mention the common Effects of Vanity in the World and Men are mightily divided about these things Those engaged in them think it strange that others run not out into the same compass of excess and riot with themselves speaking evil of them 1 Pet. 4. 4. They wonder at the perverse stubborn and froward Humour which befals some Men that they delight not in that they approve not of those Things and Wayes wherein they find so great a suitableness unto their own Minds Others again are ready to admire whence it is that the World is mad on such vain and foolish things as it is almost wholly given up unto The Consideration we have insisted on gives us a satisfactory account of the Grounds and Reasons hereof The Mind of Man by Nature is wholly vain under the Power of Vanity and is an endless fruitful Womb of all monstrous Births The World is now growing towards six thousand years old and yet is no nearer the bottom of the Springs of its vanity or the drawing out of its supplies than it was the first day that Sin entred into it New Sins new Vices new Vanities break forth continually and all is from hence that the Mind of Man by Nature is altogether vain Nor is there any way or means for putting a stop hereunto in Persons Families Cities Nations but so far as the Minds of Men are cured and renewed by the Holy Ghost The World may alter its shape and the outward appearances of things it may change its Scenes and act its Part in new Habits and Dresses but it will still be altogether vain so long as natural uncured vanity is predominant in the Minds of Men and this will sufficiently secure them from attaining any saving acquaintance with Spiritual Things Sect. 19 Again it is one of the principal Duties incumbent on us to be acquainted with and diligently to watch over the remainders of this Vanity in our own Minds The sinful Distempers of our Natures are not presently cured at once but the healing and removing of them is carried on by degrees unto the consummation of the course of our obedience in this World And there are three Effects of this natural Vanity of the Mind in its depraved condition to be found among Believers themselves 1. An instability in Holy Duties as Meditation Prayer and Hearing of the Word How ready is the Mind to wander in them and to give entertainment unto vain and fond Imaginations at least unto Thoughts and Apprehensions of things unsuited to the Duties wherein we are ingaged How difficult is it to keep it up unto an even fixed stable frame of acting spiritually in Spiritual Things How is it ready at every breath to unbend and let down its Intension All we experience or complain of in this kind is from the uncured Reliques of this Vanity 2. This is that which inclines and leads Men towards a conformity with and unto a vain World in its Customs Habits and ordinary Converse which are all vain and foolish And so prevalent is it herein and such Arguments hath it possessed it self withal to give it countenance that in many instances of vanity it is hard to give a distinction between them and the whole World that lies under the Power of it Professors it may be will not comply with the World in the things before-mentioned that have no other use nor end but meerly to support act and nourish vanity but from other things which being indifferent in themselves are yet filled with Vanity in their use How ready are many for a complyance with the course of the World which lyeth in evil and passeth away 3. It acts it self in fond and foolish Imaginations whereby it secretly makes provision for the Flesh and the Lusts thereof for they all generally lead unto Self-Exaltation and Satisfaction And these if not carefully checkt will proceed to such an excess as greatly to taint the whole Soul And in these things lies the principal Cause and Occasion of all other Sins and Miscarriages We have therefore no more important Duty incumbent on us than mightily to oppose this Radical Distemper It is so also to attend diligently unto the remedy of it And this consists 1. in an holy fixedness of Mind and an habitual inclination unto Things Spiritual which is communicated unto us by the Holy Ghost as shall be afterwards declared Ephes. 4. 23 24. 2. In the due and constant improvement of that gracious Principle 1. By constant watchfulness against the Minds acting it self in vain foolish unprofitable Imaginations so far at least that vain thoughts may not lodg in us 2. By exercising it continually unto Holy Spiritual Meditations minding alwayes the things that are above Col. 3. 3. 3. By a constant conscientious humbling of our Souls for all the vain actings of our Minds that we do observe All which might be usefully enlarged on but that we must return Sect. 20 The Minds of Men unregenerate being thus depraved and corrupted being thus affected with Darkness and thereby being brought under the Power of Vanity we may yet farther consider what other Effects and Consequents are on the same account ascribed unto it And the Mind of Man in this State may be considered either
1. The Opposition is not ad idem The Enmity and Opposition that is acted by the Will against Grace is against it as objectively proposed unto it So do Men resist the Holy Ghost that is in the external Dispensation of Grace by the Word And if that be alone they may alwayes resist it the Enmity that is in them will prevail against it Ye alwayes resist the Holy Ghost The Will therefore is not forced by any Power put forth in Grace in that way wherein it is capable of making opposition unto it but the prevalency of Grace is of it as it is internal working really and physically which is not the Object of the Wills opposition for it is not proposed unto it as that which it may accept or refuse but worketh effectually in it Sect. 35 2. The Will in the first Act of Conversion as even sundry of the Schoolmen acknowledg acts not but as it is acted moves not but as it is moved and therefore is passive therein in the sense immediately to be explained And if this be not so it cannot be avoided but that the Act of our turning unto God is a meer natural Act and not spiritual or gracious For it is an Act of the Will not enabled thereunto antecedently by Grace Wherefore it must be granted and it shall be proved that in Order of Nature the Acting of Grace in the Will in our Conversion is antecedent unto its own acting though in the same instant of time wherein the Will is moved it moves and when it is acted it acts it self and preserves its own Liberty in its exercise There is therefore herein an inward almighty secret Act of the Power of the Holy Ghost producing or effecting in us the Will of Conversion unto God so acting our Wills as that they also act themselves and that freely So Austin cont Duas Epistol Pelag. lib. 1. cap. 19. Trahitur homo miris modis ut velit ab illo qui novit intus in ipsis cordibus hominum operari non ut homines quod fieri non possit nolentes credant sed ut volentes ex nolântibus fiant The Holy Spirit who in his Power and Operation is more intimate as it were unto the Principles of our Souls than they are to themselves doth with the Preservation and in the Exercise of the liberty of our Wills effectually work our Regeneration and Conversion unto God This is the substance of what we plead for in this Cause and which declares the Nature of this Work of Regeneration as it is an inward Spiritual Work I shall therefore confirm the Truth proposed with evident Testimonies of Scripture and Reasons contained in them or educed from them Sect. 36 1. The Work of Conversion it self and in especial the Act of believing or Faith it self is expresly said to be of God to be wrought in us by him to be given unto us from him The Scripture says not that God gives us Ability or Power to believe onely namely such a Power a we may make use of if we will or do otherwise but Faith Repentance and Conversion themselves are said to be the Work and Effect of God Indeed there is nothing mentioned in the Scripture concerning the communicating of Power remote or next unto the Mind of Man to enable him to believe antecedently unto actual believing A remote Power if it may be so called in the Capacities of the Faculties of the Soul the Reason of the Mind and Liberty of the Will we have given an account concerning But for that which some call a next Power or an ability to believe in order of Nature Antecedent unto Believing it self wrought in us by the Grace of God the Scripture is silent The Apostle Paul saith of himself ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things or prevail in all things through Christ who enableth me where a Power or Ability seems to be spoken of antecedent unto Acting But this is not a Power for the first Act of Faith but a Power in them that believe Such a Power I acknowledg which is acted in the Co-operation of the Spirit and Grace of Christ with the Grace which Believers have received unto the performance of all Acts of Holy Obedience whereof I must treat elsewhere Believers have a stock of Habitual Grace which may be called Indwelling Grace in the same sense wherein Original Corruption is called Indwelling-Sin And this Grace as it is necessary unto every Act of Spiritual Obedience so of it self without the renewed Co-working of the Spirit of Christ it is not able nor sufficient to produce any Spiritual Act. This working of Christ upon and with the Grace we have received is called enabling of us But with Persons Unregenerate and as to the first Act of Faith it is not so Sect. 37 But it will be Objected That every thing which is actually accomplished was in potentia before There must therefore be in us a Power to believe before we do so actually Answ. The Act of God working Faith in us is a Creating Act. For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus Ephes. 2. 10. And he that is in Christ Jesus is a New Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. Now the effects of Creating Acts are not in Potentia any-where but in the Active Power of God so was the World it self before its actual existence This is termed Potentia Logica which is no more but a Negation of any contradiction to Existence not Potentia Physica which includes a disposition unto actual existence Notwithstanding therefore all these Preparatory Works of the Spirit of God which we allow in this Matter there is not by them wrought in the Minds and Wills of Men such a next Power as they call it as should enable them to believe without further Actual Grace working Faith it self Wherefore with respect to believing the first Act of God is to work in us to will Phil. 1. 13. He worketh in us to will Now to will to believe is to believe This God works in us by that Grace which Austin and the School-men call Gratia Operans because it worketh in us without us the Will being meerly moved and passive therein That there is a Power or Faculty of believing given unto all Men unto whom the Gospel is preached or who are called by the outward Dispentation of it some do pretend And that because those unto whom the Word is so Prâacâed if they do not actually believe shall perish eternally as is positively declared in the Gospel Mark 16. 16. But this they could not justly do if they had not received a Power or Faculty of Believing Answ. 1. Those who believe not upon the Proposal of Christ in the Gospel are left without remedy in the guilt of those other Sins for which they must perish eternally If you believe not saith Christ that I am he you shall die in your sins John 8. 12. 2. The Impotency that is in Men as
like that which is in a dead Man unto the Acts of Life Natural if there be not an alike Power of God required unto our Deliverance from that Condition and the working in us a Principle of Spiritual Obedience as is required unto the raising of him that is dead they may as well say That the Scripture speaks not truly as that it speaks metaphorically And that it is Almighty Power the exceeding greatness of God's Power that is put forth and exercised herein we have proved from Ephes. 1. 18 19. Col. 2. 12 13. 2 Thess. 1. 11. 2 Pet. 1. 3. And what do these Men intend by this quickning this raising us from the Dead by the Power of God A perswasion of our Minds by rational Motives taken from the Word and the Things contained in it But was there ever heard of such a monstrous Expression if there be nothing else in it What could the Holy Writers intend by calling such a Work as this by a quickning of them who were dead in Trespasses and Sins through the mighty Power of God unless it were by a noise of insignificant words to draw us off from a right understanding of what is intended And it is well if some are not of that Mind Sect. 50 2. The Work it self wrought is our Regeneration I have proved before that this consists in a new spiritual supernatural vital Principle or Habit of Grace infused into the Soul the Mind Will and Affections by the Power of the Holy Spirit disposing and enabling them in whom it is unto Spiritual Supernatural Vital Acts of Faith and Obedience Some Men seem to be inclined to deny all Habits of Grace And on such a Supposition a Man is no longer a Believer than he is in the Actual Exercise of Faith For there is nothing in him from whence he should be so denominated But this would plainly overthrow the Covenant of God and all the Grace of it Others expresly deny all gracious supernatural infused Habits though they may grant such as are or may be acquired by the frequent Acts of those Graces or Vertues whereof they are the Habits But the Scripture giveth us another Description of this Work of Regeneration for it consists in the Renovation of the Image of God in us Ephes. 4. 23 24. Be renewed in the Spirit of your Mind and put on that new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness That Adam in innocency had a supernatural Ability of living unto God habitually residing in him is generally acknowledged And although it were easie for us to prove that whereas he was made for a supernatural End namely to live to God and to come to the enjoyment of him it was utterly impossible that he should answer it or comply with it by the meer strength of his natural Faculties had they not been endued with a supernatural Ability which with respect unto that End was created with them and in them Yet we will not contend about Terms Let it be granted that he was created in the Image of God and that he had an Ability to fulfil all God's Commands and that in himself and no more shall be desired This was lost by the Fall When this is by any denyed it shall be proved In our Regeneration there is a Renovation of this Image of God in us Renewed in the Spirit of our Minds And it is renewed in us by a Creating Act of Almighty Power which after God or according to his likeness is created in Righteousness and true Holiness There is therefore in it an Implantation of a new Principle of Spiritual Life of a Life unto God in Repentance Faith and Obedience or Universal Holiness according to Gospel-Truth or the Truth which came by Jesus Christ John 1. 18. And the Effect of this Work is called Spirit Joh. 8. 5. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit It is the Spirit of God of whom we are born that is our new Life is wrought in us by his Efficiency And that which in us is so born of him is Spirit not the Natural Faculties of our Souls they are once Created once Born and no more but a new Principle of Spiritual Obedience whereby we live unto God And this is the product of the internal immediate Efficiency of Grace Sect. 51 This will the better appear if we consider the Faculties of the Soul distinctly and what is the especial Work of the Holy Spirit upon them in our Regeneration or Conversion to God 1. The leading conducting Faculty of the Soul is the Mind or Understanding Now this is corrupted and vitiated by the Fall and how it continues depraved in the State of Nature hath been declared before The sum is that it is not able to discern Spiritual Things in a Spiritual manner for it is possessed with Spiritual Blindness or Darkness and is filled with enmity against God and his Law esteeming the things of the Gospel to be foolishness because it is alienated from the Life of God through the ignorance that is in it We must therefore enquire what is the Work of the Holy Spirit on our Minds in turning of us to God whereby this Depravation is removed and this vitious State cured whereby we come to see and discern Spiritual Things in a Spiritual manner that we may savingly know God and his Mind as revealed in and by Jesus Christ. And this is several wayes declared in the Scripture Sect. 52 1. He is said to give us an Understanding 1 John 5. 20. The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is True which he doth by his Spirit Man by Sin is become like the Beasts that perish which have no Understanding Psal. 49. 12 20. Men have not lost their natural intellective Faculty or Reason absolutely It is continued unto them with the free though impaired use of it in things Natural and Civil And it hat an advance in Sin Men are wise to do evil But it is lost as to the especial use of it in the saving knowledg of God and his Will to do good they have no knowledg Jer. 4. 22. For naturally there is none that understandeth that seeketh after God Rom. 3. 17. It is corrupted not so much in the Root and Principle of its Acting as with respect unto their proper Object Term and End Wherefore although this giving of an Understanding be not the creating in us a-new of that Natural Faculty yet it is that gracious work in it without which that Faculty in us as depraved will no more enable us to know God savingly than if we had none at all The Grace therefore here asserted in the giving of an Understanding is the causing of our natural Understandings to understand savingly This David prayes for Psal. 119. 34. Give me Understanding and I shall keep thy Law The whole Work is expressed by the Apostle Ephes. 1. 16 17 18. That thâ God of our Lord
Disquietment of Mind fear of Ruine and the like see Acts 2. 37. Acts 24. 25. But this I must not enlarge upon Sect. 21 This therefore is the second thing which we observe in God's gracious Actings towards the Recovery of the Souls of Men from their Apostacy and from under the Power of sin The principal efficient Cause of this Work is the Holy Ghost the preaching of the Word especially of the Law being the Instrument which he maketh use of therein The Knowledg of sin is by the Law both the Nature Guilt and Curse belonging to it Rom. 7. 7. There is âherefore no Conviction of sin but what consists in an Emanation of Light and Knowledg from the Doctâine of the Law with an Evidence of its Power and a sense of its Curse Other Means as Afflictions Dangers Sicknesses Fears Disappointments may be made use of to excite stir up and put an edge upon the Minds and Affections of Men yet it is by one means or other from the Law of God that such a discovery is made of sin unto them and such a sense of it wrought upon them as belongs unto this work of Conviction But it is the Spirit of God alone that is the principal efficient Cause of it or he works these effects on the Minds of Men. God takes it upon himself as his own work to reprove Men and set their sins in order before their eyes Psal. 50 21. And that this same Work is done immediately by the Spirit is expresly declared John 16. 8. He alone it is who makes all means effectual unto this End and Purpose Without his especial and immediate Actings on us to this End we may hear the Law preached all the Days of our Lives and not be once affected with it Sect. 22 And it may by the way be worth our Observation to consider how God designing the Calling or Conversion of the Souls of Men doth in this holy wise Providence over-rule all their outward Concernments so as that they shall be disposed into such Circumstances as conduce to to the end aymed at Either by their own Inclinations and Choice or by the Intervention of Accidents crossing their Inclinations and frustrateing their Designes he will lead them into such Societies Acquaintances Relations Places means as he hath ordained to be useful unto them for the great ends of their Conviction and Conversion So in particular Austin aboundeth in his Contemplation on the Holy Wise Providence of God in carrying of him from Carthage to Rome and from thence to Milan where he heard Ambrose preach every Lords-day which proved at length the Means of his through-Conversion to God And in that whole Course by his discourse upon it he discovers Excellently as on the one hand the variety of his own Projections and Designes his Aymes and Ends which oft-times were perverse and froward so on the other the constant guidance of divine Providence working powerfully through all Occurrences towards the blessed End designed for him And I no way doubt but that God exercised him unto those distinct Experiences of Sin and Grace in his own Heart and Wayes because he had designed him to be the great Champion of the Doctrine of his Grace against all its enemyes and that not only in his own Age wherein it met with a fierce Opposition but also in all succeeding ages by his Excellent Labours preserved for the use of the Church see Confess lib. 5. cap. 7. 8 9 c. Tu spes mea in terra viventium ad mutandum terrarum locum pro salute animae mea Carthagini stimulos quibus inde avellerer admovebas Romae illecebras quibus attraberer proponebas mihi per homines qui diligebant vitam mortuam hinc insana facientes inde vana pollicentes ad corrigendos gressus meos utebaris occulte illorum mea perversitate cap. 8. Thou who art my hope in the Land of the Living that I might remove from one Country to another for the Salvation of my Soul didst both apply goads unto me at Carthage whereby I might be driven from thence and proposedst Allurements unto me at Rome whereby I might be drawn thither and this thou didst by Men who loved the Dead Life in sin here doing things outragious there promising things desirable to vain Minds whilst thou to correct and reform my ways didst secretly make use of their frowardness and mine Sect. 23 3. It must be granted that many on whom this work hath been wrought producing great Resolutions of Amendment and much Reformation of Life do lose all the Power and Efficacy of it with all the impressions it had made on their Affections And some of these wax worse and more profligate in sinning than ever they were before For having broken down the Damm of their restraints they pour out their lusts like a Flood and are more senseless than ever of those Checks and Fears with which before they were bridled and awed 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. 22. So the person lately mentioned declares that after many Convictions which he had digested and neglected he was grown so obdurate and sensless that falling into a feaver wherein he thought he should die and go immediately unto Hell he had not that endeavour after Deliverance and Mercy as he had many years before on lesser dangers And this perverse Effect is variously brought about Sect. 24 1. It is with most an immediate product of the power of their own Lust. Especially is it so with them who together with their Convictions receive no Gifts of the Holy Ghost For as we observed their Lusts being only checked and controuled not subdued they get new strength by their Restraint and rebel with success against Conviction Such as these fall away from what they have attained suddenly Math. 13. 5. 21. One day they seem to lye in Hell by the Terror of their Convictions and the next to be hasting towards it by their sins and pollutions see Luke 11. 24 25 26. Hos. 4. 6. cap. 6. 4. 2. This Apostacy is promoted and hastned by others As 1. such as undertaking to be Spiritual Guides and Instructers of Men in their way towards Rest who being unskilful in the Word of Righteousness do heal their wounds slightly or turn them out of the way Seducers also it may be interpose their crafty deceits whereby they lye in wait to deceive and so turn Men off from those Good ways of God whereinto they would otherwise enter So it fell out with Austin who beginning somewhat to enquire after God fell into the society and heresy of the Manichees which frustrated all the Convictions which by any means he had received 2. Such as directly and that perhaps with importunity and violence will endeavour to draw Men back into the wayes of the World and the pursuit of their lusts Pro. 1. 11 12 13 14. So the same Person declares with what earnestness and restless importunities some of his Companions endeavoured to draw
wisely and rationally contend that we have not our Being and our Lives from God as that we have not our Holiness from him when we have any Hereunto are the proud Opinions of educeing an Holiness out of the principles of Nature to be reduced I know all men will pretend that Holiness is from God it was never denyed by Pelagins himself But many with him would have it to be from God in a way of Nature and not in a way of especial Grace It is this latter way which we plead for and what is from our selves or educed by any means out of our Natural Abilities is not of God in that way For God as the Author of Grace and the best of corrupted Nature are opposed as we shall see further afterwards And therefore 2 is He that is the Author of our Sanctification so emphatically here expressed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Even God himself if he doth it not none other can do it it is no otherwise to be wrought nor effected There is no other way whereby it may be brought about nor doth it fall under the power or efficacy of any means absolutely whatever but it must be wrought by God himself He doth it of Himself from his own Grace by Himself or his own Power for Himself or his own Glory And that 3 under this especial consideration as he is the God of Peace Sect. 4 This Title is ascribed unto God only by our Apostle and by him frequently Rom. 15. 33. chap. 16. 20. 2 Cor. 13. 11. Phil. 4. 9. Heb. 13. 20. Were it unto our present purpose to discourse concerning the general nature of Peace I might shew how it is comprehensive of all Order Rest and Blessedness and all that is in them On this account the enclosure of it in this Title unto God as its only Possessour and Author belongs to the Glory of his Soveraign Diadem Every thing that is contrary unto it is evil and of the evil One yea all that is evil is so because of its contrariety unto peace Well therefore may God be styled the God of Peace But these things I may not here stay to explain although the words are so comprehensive and expressive of the whole work of Sanctification and that Holiness which is the effect thereof as that I shall choose to found my whole Discourse concerning this subject upon them That which offers it self unto our present design from this expression is the peculiar respect unto the Work of our Sanctification which lies in this especial Property of God Wherefore he is said to sanctifie us as the God of peace 1 Because it is a fruit and effect of that peace with himself which he hath made and prepared for us by Jesus Christ. For he was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself destroying the Enmity which entred by sin and laying the Foundation of Eternal Peace From hence it is that he will sanctifie us or make us Holy without a respect whereunto he would no more do so than he will sanctifie again the Angels that have sinned for whom there is no peace made nor Attonement 2 God by the Sanctification of our Natures and Persons preserves that peace with himself in its Exercise which he made and procured by the Mediation of Christ without which it could not be kept nor continued For in the Duties and Fruits thereof consist all those Actings towards God which a State of Reconciliation Peace and Friendship do require It is Holiness that keeps up a sense of Peace with God and prevents those spiritual breaches which the remainders of our Enmity would occasion Hence God as the Author of our Peace is the Author of our Holiness God even God himself the God of Peace doth sanctifie us How this is done immediately by the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Love and Peace and wherein the nature of this work doth consist are the things which must afterwards be more fully declared And he is here said to sanctifie us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is universally and compleatly carrying on the work untill it comes to perfection For two things are intended in that Expression 1. That our whole Nature is the subject of this work and not any one Faculty or Part of it 2. That as the work it self is sincere and universal communicating all parts of real Holiness unto our whole Natures so it is carryed on to Compleatness and Perfection Both these in the ensuing words the Apostle expresseth as the end and design of his Prayer for them and the Effect of the work of Grace which he prayed for For 1 the Subject of this Sanctification he makes to be our whole Natures which he distributes unto our entire spirits Souls and Bodies and 2. The End of the whole is the preservation of of us blameless in the peace of God unto the coming of Christ which will both of them be immediately more fully spoken unto Wherefore Sect. 5 Sanctification as here described is the immediate Work of God by his Spirit upon our whole Natures proceeding from the peace made for us by Jesus Christ whereby being changed into his likeness we are kept entirely in peace with God and are preserved unblameable or in a state of gracious Acceptation with him according to the Terms of the Covenant unto the End Sect. 6 The nature of this Work and its Effect which is our Holiness with the Necessity of them both we must on many Accounts with our utmost Diligence enquire and search into This both the Importance of the Truth it self and the Opposition thatis made unto it render necessary Besides whereas we are in the Declaration of the especial Operations of the Holy Ghost although he be not so denominated originally from this peculiar Work as though he should be called Holy meerly because he is the Author of Holiness in all that are made partakers of it which we have before disproved yet there is a general consent in words at least among all who are called Christians that this is his immediate and proper Work or that he is the only sanctifier of all them that do believe And this I shall take as yet for granted although some among us who not only pretend high to the preaching of Holiness whatever be their practice but reproach others as weakning the necessity of it do talk at such a rate as if in the Holiness which they pleaded for he had nothing to do in a peculiar manner For it is no news to meet with queint and guilded Discourses about Holiness intermixed with scoffing reflections on the work of the Holy Ghost therein This Work therefore of his we are in an especial manner to attend unto unless we would be found among the number of such as those who own themselves and teach their Children That the Holy Ghost sanctifies all the Elect of God and yet not only despise the work of Holiness in themselves but deride those who plead an interest therein as an effect
the Souls of Believers purifying and cleansing of their Natures from the pollution and uncleanness of sin renewing in them the Image of God and thereby enabling them from a spiritual and habitual Principle of Grace to yield obedience unto God according unto the Tenor and Terms of the New Covenant by vertue of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ. Or more briefly It is the Vniversal Renovation of our Natures by the Holy Spirit into the Image of God through Jesus Christ. Hence it followes that our Holiness which is the Fruit and Effect of this Work the Work as terminated in us as it comprizeth the renewed Principle or Image of God wrought in us so it consists in an Holy Obedience unto God by Jesus Christ according to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace from the Principle of a Renewed Nature Our Apostle expresseth the whole more briefly yet namely He that is in Christ Jesus is a New Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. For herein he expresseth both the Renovation of our Natures the Endowment of them with a new Spiritual Principle of Life and Operation with Actings towards God suitable thereunto I shall take up the first general Description of it and in the Consideration of its Parts give some account of the Nature of the Work and its Effects and then shall distinctly prove and confirm the true Nature of it wherein it is opposed or call into question Sect. 3 1 It is as was before proved and is by all confessed the Work in us of the Spirit of God It is the Renovation of the Holy Ghost whereby we are saved And a reall internall powerfull physical work it is as we have proved before abundantly and shall afterwards more fully confirm He doth not make us holy only by perswading us so to be He doth not only require us to be holy propose unto us Motives unto Holiness give us Convictions of its necessity and thereby excite us unto the pursuit and attainment of it though this he doth also by the Word and Ministration thereof It is too high an impudency for any one to pretend an owning of the Gospel and yet to deny a Work of the Holy Ghost in our Sanctification And therefore both the Old and New Pelagians did and do avow a Work of his herein But what is it that really they ascribe unto him meerly the Exciting our own Abilities aiding and assisting us in and unto the Exercise of our own native Power which when all is done leaves the Work to be our own and not his and to us must the Glory and Prayse of it be ascribed But we have already sufficiently proved that the things thus promised of God and so effected are really wrought by the exceeding greatness of the Power of the Spirit of God and this will yet afterwards be made more particularly to appear Sect. 4 2 This Work of Sanctification differs from that of Regeneration as on other Accounts so especially on that of the Manner of their being wrought The work of Regeneration is Instantaneous consisting in one single creating Act. Hence it is not capable of Degrees in any subject No One is more or less Regenerate than Another every one in the world is absolutely so or not so and that equally although there are Degrees in their state on other Reasons But this work of Sanctification is progressive and admits of Degrees One may be more sanctified and more holy than another who is yet truely sanctified and truely holy It is begun at once and carryed on gradually But this Observation being of great importance and such as if rightly weighed will contribute much Light unto the Nature of the whole work of Sanctification and Holiness I shall divert in this Chapter unto such an Explanation and Confirmation of it as may give an understanding and furtherance herein 1. An Encrease and Growth in Sanctification or Holiness is frequently in the Scripture enjoyed us and frequently promised unto us So speaks the Apostle Peter in a way of Command 2 Pet. 3. 18. Fall not be not cast down from your own steadfastness but grow or encrease in Grace It is not enough that we decay not in our Spiritual Condition that we be not diverted and carryed off from a steady Course in Obedience by the Power of Temptations but an endeavour after an Improvement an Encrease a thriving in Grace that is in Holiness is required of us And a Complyance with this Command is that which our Apostle so commendeth in the Thessalonians 2 Epist. Chap. 1. v. 3. namely the exceeding growth of their Faith and abounding of their Love that is the thriving and encrease of those Graces in them that which is called increasing with the increase of God Col. 2. 19. or the Encrease in Holiness which God requires accepts approves by supplyes of spiritual strength from Jesus Christ our Head as it is there expressed The Work of Holiness in its beginning is but like seed cast into the Earth namely the seed of God whereby we are born again And it is known how seed that is cast into the Earth doth grow and encrease Being variously cherished and nourished it is in its nature to take root and to spring up bringing forth fruit So is it with the Principle of Grace and Holiness It is small at first but being received in good and honest Hearts made so by the Spirit of God and there nourished and cherished it takes root and brings forth fruit And both these even the first planting and the encrease of it are both equally from God by his Spirit He that begins this good Work doth also perform it to the Day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1. 6. And this he doth two wayes 1 By Encreasing and Strengthning those Graces of Holiness which we have received and been engaged in the exercise of There are some Graces whose Exercise doth not depend on any outward Occasions but they are and that in their actual Exercise absolutely necessary unto the least Degree of the Life of God such are Faith and Love No man doth no man can live to God but in the Exercise of these Graces Whatever Dutyes towards God men may perform if they are not enlivened by Faith and Love they belong not unto that Spiritual Life whereby we live to God And these Graces are capable of Degrees and so of Increase For so we read expresly of little Faith and great Faith weak and strong Faith both true and the same in the substance but differing in Degrees So also is there fervent Love and that which comparatively is but cold These Graces therefore in carrying on the work of Sanctification are gradually encreased So the Disciples prayed our Saviour that he would encrease their Faith Luke 17. 5. That is adde unto its Light confirm it in its Assent multiply its Acts and make it strong against its Assaults that it might work more effectually in difficult Duties of Obedience which they had an especial regard unto as is
deceive not themselves with a partial work in Conviction only or Change of the Affections also in stead of this Evangelical Sanctification It is often and truely spoken unto how men may have their Minds enlightened their Affections wrought upon and their Lives much changed and yet come short of reall Holiness The best tryal of this Work is by its Vniversality with respect unto its Subject If any thing remain unsanctified in us sin may there set up its Throne and maintain its Sovereignty But where this Work is true and reall however weak and imperfect it may be as unto its Degrees yet it possesseth the whole Person and leaveth not the least hold unto sin wherein it doth not continually combat and conflict with it There is saving Light in the Mind and Life in the Will and Love in the Affections and Grace in the Conscience suited to its Nature there is nothing in us whereunto the Power of Holiness doth not reach according to its measure Men may therefore if they please deceive themselves by taking up with some Notions in their Minds some Devotions in their Affections or some good and vertuous Deeds in their Conversations but Holiness doth not consist therein And Lastly men may hence see how vainly they excuse themselves in their Sins their Passions Intemperances and the like disorders of Mind from their Constitutions and Inclinations for true Sanctification reacheth unto the Body also It is true Grace doth not so change the natural Constitution as to make him that was sickly healthy and strong nor so as to make him who was Melancholy to be Sanguine or the like it altereth not the course of the Blood the animal spirits with the Impressions they make on our Minds But consider these things Morally and as the whole Person is a Principle of Spiritual and Moral Operations and so it doth work that Change and Alteration on the whole Person as to cure Morally sinfull distempers as of Passion Elation of Mind and Intemperancies which men were before more than ordinarily inclined unto by their Tempers and Constitutions Yea from the Efficacy of it upon our whole Persons in the curing of such habitual inordinate and sinfull distempers lyes the principal discovery of its Truth and Reality Let no men therefore pretend that Grace and Holiness do not change mens Constitutions thereby to excuse and palliate their disorderly Passions before men and to keep themselves from being humbled for them before God For although it do not so naturally and physically yet it doth so Morally so that the Constitution it self shall be no more such a fomes and Incentive unto disorderly Passions as it hath been If Grace hath not cured that Passion Pride Causeless Anger Inveterate Wrath Intemperance which mens Constitutions peculiarly incline unto I know not for my part what it hath done nor what a number of outward Dutyes do signifie The Spirit and Grace of Christ causeth the Wolf to dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard to lye down with the Kid Isa. 11. 6. It will change the most wild and savage Natures into Meekness Gentleness and Kindness Examples whereof have been multiplyed in the World CHAP. IV. The Defilement of Sin wherein it consists with its Purification 1 Purification the first proper Notion of Sanctification 2 Institution of Baptisme confirming the same Apprehension 3 A Spiritual Defilement and Pollution in Sin 4 The Nature of that Defilement or wherein it doth consist 5 Depravations of Nature and Acts with respect unto Gods Holiness How and Why called Filth and Pollution 6 Two-fold Pravity and Defilement of Sin Its Aggravations We cannot purge it of our selves nor could it be done by the Law nor by any Wayes invented by men for that End Sect. 1 THese things being premised we proceed to the Consideration of Sanctification it self in a further Explication of the Description before given And the first thing we ascribe unto the Spirit of God herein which constitutes the first part of it is the Purifying and cleansing of our Natures from the Pollution of Sin Purification is the first proper Notion of internal real Sanctification And although in order of Time it do not precede the other Acts and parts of this Work yet in order of Nature it is first proposed and apprehended To be unclean absolutely and to be Holy are universally opposed Not to be purged from sin is an Expression of an unholy Person as to be cleansed is of him that is holy And this Purification or the effecting of this Work of Cleansing is ascribed unto all the Causes and Means of Sanctification As 1 unto the Spirit who is the principal Efficient of the whole Not that Sanctification consists wholly herein but firstly and necessarily it is required thereunto Prov. 30. 12. Ezek. 36. 25. I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you That this sprinkling of clean Water upon us is the Communication of the Spirit unto us for the End designed I have before evinced It hath also been declared wherefore he is called Water or compared thereunto And the next Verse shews expressly that it is the Spirit of God which is intended I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes And that which he is thus in the first place promised for is the Cleansing of us from the Pollution of sin which in order of Nature is preposed unto his enabling us to walk in Gods Statutes or to yield holy Obedience unto him To the same purpose among many others is that Promise Isa. 4. 4. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the Daughters of Zion and shall have purged the blood of Hierusalem by the Spirit of Judgment and the Spirit of Burning Upon what ground the Spirit is compared to Fire and thence here called a Spirit of Burning hath been also declared In brief Fire and Water were the Means whereby all things were purified and cleansed Typically in the Law Numb 31. 23. And the Holy Spirit being the principal Efficient Cause of all spiritual cleansing is compared to them both by which his Work was signified and called by their names See Mal. 3. 2 3. And Judgment is frequently taken for Holiness The Spirit of Judgment therefore and the Spirit of Burning is the Spirit of Sanctification and Purification And he is here promised for the Sanctification of the Elect of God And how shall he effect this Work He shall do it in the first place by washing away their filth and purging away their blood that is all their spiritual sinfull Defilements 2 The Application of the Death and Blood of Christ unto our Souls for our Sanctification by the Holy Ghost is said to be for our cleansing and purging Ephes. 5. 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word He gave
Whatever we do of our selves in answer unto our Convictions is a Covering not a Cleansing And if we dye in this Condition unwashed uncleansed unpurified it is utterly impossible that ever we should be admitted into the Blessed Presence of the Holy God Rev. 21. 27. Let no man deceive you then with Vain Words It is not the doing of a few Good Works it is not an outward Profession of Religion that will give you an Access with Boldness and Joy unto God Shame will cover you when it will be too late Unless you are washed by the Spirit of God and in the Blood of Christ from the Pollutions of your Natures you shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6 9 10 11. Yea you will be an horrid spectacle unto Saints and Angels yea to your selves unto one another when the shame of your Nakedness shall be made to appear Isa. 66. 24. If therefore you would not persih and that Eternally if you would not perish as base defiled Creatures an abhorring unto all flesh Then when your Pride and your Wealth and your Beauty and your Ornaments and your Dutyes will stand you in no stead look out betimes after that only way of purifying and cleansing your Souls which God hath ordained But if you love your Defilements if you are proud of your Pollutions if you satisfie your selves with your outward Ornaments whether Moral of Gifts Dutyes Profession Conversation or Natural of Body Wealth Apparel Gold and Silver there is no Remedy you must perish for ever and that under the Consideration of the Basest and Vilest part of the Creation Sect. 11 Seeing this is the Condition of all by Nature if any one now shall enquire and ask what they shall doe what course they shall take that they may be cleansed according to the Will of God in Answer hereunto I shall endeavour to direct defiled Sinners by sundry steps and degrees in the Way unto the Cleansing Fountain There is a Fountain set open for Sin and Vncleanness Zech. 13. 1. But it falleth out with many as the Wise man speaketh The Labour of the Foolish wearyeth every one of them because he knoweth not how to goe to the City Eccles. 10. 15. Men weary themselves and pine away under their Pollutions because they cannot find the Way they know not how to go to the Cleansing Fountain I shall therefore direct them from First to Last according to the best skill I have 1. Labour after an Acquaintance with it to know it in its Nature and Effects Although the Scripture so abounds in the Assertion and Declaration of it as we have shewed and Believers find a sence of it in their Experience yet men in common take little Notice of it Somewhat they are affected with the Guilt of sin but little or not at all with its Filth So they can escape the Righteousness of God which they have provoked they regard not their unanswerableness unto his Holiness whereby they are Polluted How few indeed do enquire into the Pravity of their Natures that Vileness which is come upon them by the Loss of the Image of God or do take themselves to be much concerned therein How few do consider aright that Fomes and filthy Spring which is continually bubling up crooked perverse defiled Imaginations in their Hearts and influencing their Affections unto the Lewdness of depraved Concupiscence Who meditates upon the Holiness of God in a due Manner so as to ponder what we our selves ought to be how Holy how Upright how Clean if we intend to please him or enjoy him With what Appearances what Out-sides of things are most men satisfied Yea how do they please themselves in the shades of their own Darkness and Ignorance of these things when yet an unacquaintedness with this Pollution of sin is unavoidably ruinous unto their Souls See the Danger of it Revel 3. 16 17 18. Those who would be cleansed from it must first know it and although we cannot do so aright without some convincing Light of the Spirit of God yet are there Duties required of us in Order thereunto As 1 To Search the Scripture and to consider seriously what it declareth concerning the Condition of our Nature after the Loss of the Image of God Doth it not declare that it is shamefully naked destitute of all Beauty and Comeliness wholly polluted and defiled And what is said of that nature which is common unto all is said of every one who is Partaker of it Every one is gone aside every one is become altogether filthy or stinking Psal. 53. 3. This is the Glass wherein every man ought to Contemplate himself and not in foolish flattering Reflections from his own Proud Imaginations And he that will not hence learn his Natural Deformity shall live Polluted and dye Accursed 2 He who hath received the Testimony of the Scripture concerning his corrupted and polluted Estate if he will be at the Pains to trie and Examine himself by the Reasons and Causes that are assigned thereof will have a farther View of it When men read hear or are instructed in what the Scripture teacheth concerning the Defilement of Sin and giving some Assent to what is spoken without an Examination of their own state in particular or bringing their Souls unto that Standard and Measure they will have very little advantage thereby Multitudes learn that they are polluted by Nature which they cannot gainsay but yet really find no such thing in themselves But when men will bring their own Souls to the Glass of the Perfect Law and consider how it is with them in respect of that Image of God wherein they were at first created what manner of Persons they ought to be with respect unto the Holiness of God and what they are how Vain are their Imaginations how Disorderly are their Affections how Perverse all the Actings of their Minds they will be ready to say with the Leprous Man Vnclean unclean But they are but few who will take the pains to search their own Wounds it being a matter of smart and trouble to corrupt and carnal Affections Yet 3 Prayer for Light and Direction herein is required of all as a Duty For a Man to know himself was of Old esteemed the highest Attainment of Humane Wisdom Some men will not so much as enquire into themselves and some men dare not and some neglect the doing of it from spiritual sloth and other deceitfull Imaginations But he that would ever be purged from his sins must thus far make bold with himself and dare to be thus far Wise. And in the use of the Means before prescribed considering his own Darkness and the Treacheries of his Heart he is to pray fervently that God by his Spirit would guide and assist him in his search after the Pravity and Defilement of his Nature Without this he will never make any great or usefull Discoveries And yet the discerning hereof is the first Evidence that a Man hath received the least
known Instances The Consideration of the Terrour of the Lord the Use of the Threatnings both of the Law and Gospel declare this to be our Duty Neither let any say that this is servile fear that Denomination is taken from the frame of our Minds and not from the Object feared When men so fear as thereon to be discouraged and to encline unto a Relinquishment of God Duty and Hope that Fear is servile whatever be the Object of it And that Fear which keeps from Sin and excites the Soul to cleave more firmly to God be the Object of it what it will is no servile Fear but an holy Fear of due Reverence unto God and his Word But this is the most genuinely gracious fear of sin when we dread the defilement of it and that Contrariety which is in it to the Holiness of God This is a Natural Fruit of Faith and Love And this Consideration should alwayes greatly possess our Minds and the truth is if it do not so there is no assured Preservative against sin For together with an Apprehension of that spiritual Pollution wherewith sin is accompanyed Thoughts of the Holiness of God of the Care and Concernment of the sanctifying Spirit of the Blood of Christ will continually abide in our Minds which are all efficaciously preservative against Sin I think that there is no more forceable Argument unto Watchfulness against all sin unto Believers in the whole Book of God than that which is mannaged by our Apostle with especial respect unto one kind of sin but may in Proportion be extended unto all 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. Chap. 6. 15 19. Moreover where this is not where the Soul hath no respect to the Defilement of sin but only considers how it may shift with the Guilt of it innumerable things will interpose partly arising from the abuse of Grace partly from Carnal Hopes and foolish Resolutions for after-times as will set it at Liberty from that watchfull Diligence in universal Obedience which is required of us The Truth is I do not believe that any one that is awed only with respect to the Guilt of sin and its Consequents doth keep up a firm Integrity with regard to inward and outward actings of his Heart and Life in all things But where the Fear of the Lord and of Sin is influenced by a deep Apprehension of the Holiness of the one and the Pollution that inseparably attends the other there is the Soul kept alwayes upon its best Guard and Defence 2 How we ought to walk humbly before the Lord all our Dayes Notwithstanding our utmost Watchfulness and Diligence against sin there is yet no man that liveth and sinneth not Those who pretend unto a Perfection here as they manifest themselves to be utterly ignorant of God and themselves and despise the Blood of Christ so for the most part they are left visibly and in the sight of men to confute their own Pride and Folly But to what purpose is it to hide our selves from our selves when we have to do with God God knows and our own Souls know that more or less we are defiled in all that we doe The best of our Works and Duties brought into the presence of the Holiness of God are but as filthy raggs And Man even every man of himself drinketh in Iniquity like water Our own Cloaths are ready to defile us every day Who can express the Motions of Lust that are in the Flesh the irregular actings of Affections in their inordinate risings up to their Objects the Folly of the Imaginations of our Hearts and Minds which as far as they are not Principled by Grace are only evil and that continually with the vanity of our Words yea with a mixture of much corrupt Communications all which are defiling and have Defilements attending of them I confess I know not that my Heart and Soul abhorrs any Eruption of the Diabolical pride of man like that whereby they reproach and scoff at the deepest Humiliations and self-Abasements which poor sinners can attain unto in their Prayers Confessions and Supplications Alas that our Nature should be capable of such a Contempt of the Holiness of God such an Ignorance of the infinite distance that is between him and us and be so senceless of our own Vileness and of the abominable Filth and Pollution that is in every Sin as not to tremble at the despising of the lowest Abasements of poor sinners before the Holy God Behold his Soul which is lifted up is not upright in him but the Just shall live by his Faith 3 How we ought continually to endeavour after the wasting of Sin in the Root and Principle of it There is a Root of sin in us which springs up and defiles us Every man is tempted that is chiefly and principally of his own Lust and seduced and then when Lust hath conceived it bringeth forth Sin It is the Flesh that lusteth against the Spirit and which bringeth forth corrupted and corrupting polluted and polluting Fruits This Principle of Sin of Aversation from God of Inclination unto things Sensual and Present however wounded weakened dethroned impaired yet still abides in all Believers And it is the Foundation the Spring the Root the next Cause of all sin in us which tempts enticeth draws aside conceives and brings forth And this hath in us all more or less degrees of Strength Power and Activity according as it is more or less mortified by Grace and the Application of the Vertue of the Death of Christ unto our Souls And according to its strength and power so it abounds in bringing forth the defiled Acts of sin Whilest this retains any considerable Power in us it is to no purpose to set our selves meerly to watch against the Eruptions of Actual sins in the Frames of our Hearts in the Thoughts of our Minds or outward Actions If we would preserve our selves from multiplying our Defilements if we would continually be perfecting the Work of Holiness in the Fear of the Lord it is this we must set our selves against The Tree must be made good if we expect good Fruit and the evil Root must be digged up or evil Fruit will be brought forth That is our main Design should be to crucifie and destroy the Body of the sins of the flesh that is in us the Remainders of the Flesh or In-dwelling sin by the Wayes and Means which shall afterwards be declared 4 Hence also is manifest the Necessity we have of continual Applications to Jesus Christ for cleansing Vertue from his Spirit and the sprinkling of his Blood on our Consciences in the Efficacy of it to purge them from dead works We defile our selves every day and if we go not every day to the Fountain that is open for sin and for uncleanness we shall quickly be all over Leprous Our Consciences will be filled with dead Works so that we shall no way be able to serve the Living God unless they are daily purged out How
positive Effect upon the Soul which we now enter upon the Description of nor absolutely in Order of Nature Yea much of the Means whereby the Holy Ghost purifieth us consisteth in this other Work of his which now lyes before us Only we thus distinguish them and cast them into this Order as the Scripture also doth for the Guidance of our Understanding in them and furtherance of our Apprehension of them Sect. 2 We therefore now proceed unto that part of the Work of the Holy Spirit whereby he Communicates the great permanent positive Effect of Holiness unto the Souls of Believers and whereby he guides and assists them in all the Acts Works and Duties of Holiness whatever without which what we doe is not so nor doth any way belong thereunto And this part of his Work we shall reduce unto two Heads which we shall first propose and afterwards clear and vindicate And our First Assertion is That in the Sanctification of Believers the Holy Ghost doth work in them in their whole Souls their Minds Wills and Affections a gracious supernatural Habit Principle and Disposition of Living unto God wherein the Substance or Essence the Life and Being of Holiness doth consist This is that spirit which is born of the Spirit that new Creature that new and Divine Nature which is wrought in them and whereof they are made partakers Herein consists that Image of God whereunto our Natures are repaired by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ whereby we are made conformable unto God firmly and steadfastly adhering unto him through Faith and Love That there is such a Divine Principle such a gracious supernatural Habit wrought in all them that are Born again hath been fully proved in our Assertion and Description of the Work of Regeneration It is therefore acknowledged that the first supernatural Infusion or Communication of this Principle of spiritual Light and Life preparing sitting and enabling all the Faculties of our Souls unto the Duties of Holiness according to the Mind of God doth belong unto the Work of our first Conversion But the preservation cherishing and encrease of it belongs unto our Sanctification both its Infusion and Preservation being necessarily required unto Holiness Hereby is the Tree made good that the Fruit of it may be good and without which it will not so be This is our new Nature which ariseth not from precedent Actions of Holiness but is the Root of them all Habits acquired by a multitude of Acts whether in things Morall or Artificial are not a new Nature nor can be so called but a readiness for Acting from Use and Custom But this Nature is from God its Parent it is that in us which is born of God And it is Common unto or the same in all Believers as to its Kind and Being though not as to Degrees and Exercise It is that we cannot learn which cannot be taught us but by God only as he teaches other Creatures in whom he planteth a natural Instinct The Beauty and Glory hereof as it is absolutely inexpressible so have we spoken somewhat to it before Conformity to God Likeness to Christ Compliance with the Holy Spirit Interest in the Family of God Fellowship with Angels Separation from Darkness and the World do all consist herein Sect. 3 Secondly The Matter of our Holiness consists in our Actual Obedience unto God according to the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace For God promiseth to write his Law in our Hearts that we may fear him and walk in his Statutes And concerning this in general we may observe two things 1. That there is a certain fixed Rule and Measure of this Obedience in a Conformity and Answerableness whereunto it doth consist This is the Revealed Will of God in the Scripture Micah 6. 8. Gods Will I say as revealed unto us in the Word is the Rule of our Obedience A Rule it must have which nothing else can pretend to be The secret Will or hidden Purposes of God are not the Rule of our Obedience Deut. 29. 29. much less are our own Imaginations Inclinations or Reasons so neither doth any thing though never so specious which we do in Complyance with them or by their Direction belong thereunto Col. 2. 19 20 21 22. But the Word of God is the Adequate Rule of all Holy Obedience 1 It is so materially All that is commanded in that Word belongs unto our Obedience and nothing else doth so Hence are we so strictly required neither to add unto it nor to diminish or take any thing from it Deut. 4. 2. Chap. 12. 32. Josh. 1. 7. Prov. 36. 6. Revel 22. 18. 2 It is so formally that is we are not to do only what is commanded all that is commanded and nothing else but whatever we do we are to do it because it is commanded or it is no part of our Obedience or Holiness Deut. 6. 24 25. Chap. 29. 19. Psal. 119. 9. I know there is an in-bred Light of Nature as yet remaining in us which gives great Direction as to Moral Good and Evil commanding the one and forbidding the other Rom. 2. 14 15. But this Light however it may be made subservient and subordinate thereunto is not the Rule of Gospel Holiness as such nor any part of it The Law which God by his Grace writes in our Hearts answers unto the Law that is written in the Word that is given unto us and as the first is the only Principle so the latter is the only Rule of our Evangelical Obedience For this End hath God promised that his Word and his Spirit shall alwayes accompany one another the one to quicken our Souls and the other to guide our Lives Isa. 59. 20. And the Word of God may be considered as our Rule in a threefold Respect 1. As it requires the Image of God in us The Habitual Rectitude of our Nature with respect unto God and our Living to him is Enjoyned us in the Word yea and wrought in us thereby The whole Renovation of our Natures the whole Principle of Holiness before described is nothing but the Word changed into Grace in our Hearts for we are born again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God The Spirit worketh nothing in us but what the Word first requireth of us It is therefore the Rule of the inward Principle of spiritual Life and the growth thereof is nothing but its increase in Conformity to that Word 2. With respect unto all the Actual Frames Designs and Purposes of the Heart All the internal Actings of our Minds All the Volitions of the Will all the Motions of our Affections are to be regulated by that Word which requires us to Love the Lord our God with all our Minds all our Souls and all our Strength Hereby is their Regularity or Irregularity to be tried All that Holiness which is in them consists in their Conformity to the Revealed Will of God 3. With respect unto all our outward Actions and
us by the gracious Inhabitation of his Spirit in us 1 Cor. 6. 19. Eph. 4. 30. according unto the Degree of participation allotted unto us This in the substance of it is contained in this Testimony There was and is in Jesus Christ a Fulness and Perfection of all Grace in us of our selves or by any thing that we have by Nature or natural Generation by Blood or the Flesh or the Will of Man v. 13. there is none at all Whatever we have is received and derived unto us from the Fullness of Christ which is an inexhaustible Fountain thereof by Reason of his Personal Vnion Sect. 72 To the same purpose is he said to be our Life and our Life to be hid with him in God Col. 3. 3. Life is the Principle of all Power and Operation And the Life here intended is that whereby we live to God the Life of Grace and Holiness For the Actings of it consist in the setting of our Affections on heavenly things and mortifying our Members that are on the Earth This Life Christ is He is not so Formally for if he were then it would not be our Life but his only He is therefore so Efficiently as that he is the immediate Cause and Author of it and that as he is now with God in Glory Hence it is said that we live that is this Life of God yet so as that we live not of our selves but Christ liveth in us Gal. 1. 20. And he doth no otherwise live in us but by the Communication of vital Principles and a Power for vital Acts that is Grace and Holiness from himself unto us If he be our Life we have nothing that belongs thereunto that is nothing of Grace of Holiness but what is derived unto us from him Sect. 73 To conclude we have all Grace and Holiness from Christ or we have it of our selves The old Pelagian Fiction that we have them from Christ because we have them by yielding Obedience unto his Doctrine makes our selves the only Spring and Author of them and on that Account very justly condemned by the Church of old not only as false but as blasphemous Whatever therefore is not thus derived thus conveyed unto us belongs not unto our Sanctification or Holiness nor is of the same Nature or Kind with it Whatever Ability of Mind or Will may be supposed in us what Application soever of Means may be made for the exciting and exercise of that Ability whatever Effects in Vertues Dutyes all Offices of Humanity and Honesty or Religious Observances may be produced thereby from them and wrought by us if it be not all derived from Christ as the Head and Principle of spiritual Life unto us it is a thing of another nature than Evangelical Holiness Sect. 74 Thirdly The immediate efficient Cause of all Gospel Holiness is the Spirit of God This we have sufficiently proved already And although many Cavils have been raised against the Manner of his Operation herein yet none have been yet so hardy as openly to deny that this is indeed his Work For so to doe is upon the matter expressly to renounce the Gospel Wherefore we have in our foregoing Discourses at large vindicated the manner of his Operations herein and proved that he doth not educe Grace by Moral Applications unto the natural Faculties of our Minds but that he creates Grace in us by an immediate Efficiency of Almighty Power And what is so wrought and produced differeth Essentially from any Natural or Moral Habits of our Minds however acquired or improved Sect. 75 Fourthly This Evangelical Holiness is a Fruit and Effect of the Covenant of Grace The Promises of the Covenant unto this purpose we have before on other Occasions insisted on In them doth God declare That he will cleanse and purifie our Natures that he will write his Law in our Hearts put his Fear in our inward parts and cause us to walk in his Statutes in which things our Holiness doth consist Whoever therefore hath any thing of it he doth receive it in the Accomplishment of these Promises of the Covenant For there are not two wayes whereby men may become Holy one by the Sanctification of the Spirit according to the Promise of the Covenant and the other by their own Endeavours without it though indeed Cassianus with some of the Semi-Pelagians dreamed somewhat to that purpose Wherefore that which is thus a Fruit and Effect of the Promise of the Covenant hath an especial Nature of its own distinct from whatever hath not that Relation unto the same Covenant No man can ever be made partaker of any the least Degree of that Grace or Holiness which is promised in the Covenant unless it be by vertue and as a Fruit of that Covenant For if they might do so then were the Covenant of God of none Effect for what it seems to promise in a peculiar Manner may on this Supposition be attained without it which renders it an empty Name Sect. 76 Fifthly Herein consists the Image of God whereunto we are to be renewed This I have proved before and shall afterward have Occasion to insist upon Nothing less than the intire Renovation of the Image of God in our Souls will constitute us Evangelically Holy No series of Obediential Actings no Observance of Religious Duties no Attendance unto Actions amongst men as Morally vertuous and usefull how exact soever they may be or how constant soever we may be unto them will ever render us lovely or holy in the sight of God unless they all proceed from the Renovation of the Image of God in us or that Habitual Principle of spiritual Life and Power which renders us conformable unto him Sect. 77 From what hath been thus briefly discoursed we may take a Prospect of that horrible mixture of Ignorance and Impudence wherewith some contend that the Practice of Moral Vertue is all the Holiness which is required of us in the Gospel neither understanding what they say nor whereof they do affirm But yet this they do with so great a Confidence as to despise and scoffe at any thing else which is pleaded to belong thereunto But this Pretence notwithstanding all the swelling words of vanity wherewith it is set off and vended will easily be discovered to be weak and frivolous For Sect. 78 1 The Name or Expression it self is foreign to the Scripture not once used by the Holy Ghost to denote that Obedience which God requireth of us in and according to the Covenant of Grace Nor is there any sence of it agreed upon by them who so magisterially impose it on others Yea there are many express Contests about the signification of these words and what it is that is intended by them which those who contend about them are not ignorant of and yet have they not endeavoured to reduce the sence they intend unto any Expression used concerning the same matter in the Gospel but all men must needs submit unto it that at
least the main parts if not the whole of Religion consists in Moral Vertue though it be altogether uncertain what they intend by the one or the other These are they who scarce think any thing intelligible when declared in the words of the Scripture which one hath openly traduced as a ridiculous Jargon They like not they seem to abhorre the speaking of Spiritual Things in the Words which the Holy Ghost teacheth the only Reason whereof is because they understand not the things themselves And whilest they are foolishness unto any it is no wonder the terms whereby they are declared seem also so to be But such as have received the Spirit of Christ and do know the Mind of Christ which profane Scoffers are sufficiently remote from do best receive the Truth and apprehend it when declared not in the Words which Mans Wisdom teacheth but which are taught by the Holy Ghost It is granted to be the Wisdom and Skill of men further to explain and declare the Truths that are taught in the Gospel by sound and wholsom words of their own which yet all of them as to their Propriety and Significancy are to be tryed and measured by the Scripture it self But we have a new Way of teaching spiritual Things sprung up among some who being ignorant of the whole Mystery of the Gospel and therefore despising it would debase all the glorious Truths of it and the Declaration made of them into dry barren sapless Philosophical Notions and Terms and those the most common obvious and vulgar that ever obtained among the Heathen of old Vertuous Living they tell us is the Way to Heaven but what this Vertue is or what is a Life of Vertue they have added as little in the Declaration of as any Persons that ever made such a Noyse about them Sect. 79 2 That ambiguous Term Morall hath by Usage obtained a double Signification with respect unto an Opposition unto other things which either are not so or are more than so For sometimes it is applyed unto the Worship of God and so is opposed unto Instituted That Religious Worship which is prescribed in the Decalogue or required by the Law of Creation is commonly called Moral and that in Opposition unto those Rites and Ordinances which are of a superadded Arbitrary Institution Again it is opposed unto things that are more than merely moral namely Spiritual Theological or Divine So the Graces of the Spirit as Faith Love Hope in all their Exercise whatever they may have of Morality in them or however they may be exercised in and about moral Things and Duties yet because of sundry Respects wherein they exceed the Sphear of Morality are called Graces and Duties Theological Spiritual Supernatural Evangelical Divine in Opposition unto all such Habits of the Mind and Duties which being required by the Law of Nature and as they are so required are merely moral In neither sence can it with any tolerable Congruity of speech be said that Moral Vertue is our Holiness especially the whole of it But because the Duties of Holiness have the most of them a Morality in them as Morall is opposed to Instituted some would have them have nothing also in them as Moral is opposed to Supernatural and Theological But that the Principle and Acts of Holiness are of another special Nature hath been sufficiently now declared Sect. 80 3 It is as was before intimated somewhat uncertain what the great Pleaders for Moral Vertue do intend by it Many seem to design no more but that Honesty and Integrity of Life which was found among some of the Heathens in their vertuous Lives and Actions And indeed it were heartily to be wished that we might see more of it amongst some that are called Christians For many things they did were Materially good and usefull unto Mankind But let it be supposed to be never so exact and the Course of it most diligently attended unto I defie it as to its being the Holiness required of us in the Gospel according unto the terms of the Covenant of Grace and that because it hath none of those Qualifications which we have proved Essentially to belong thereunto And I defie all the men in the World to prove that this Moral Vertue is the summe of our Obedience to God whilest the Gospel is owned for a Declaration of his Will and our Duty It is true all the Duties of this Moral Vertue are required of us but in the Exercise of every one of them there is more required of us than belongs unto their Morality as namely that they be done in Faith and Love to God through Jesus Christ and many things are required of us as necessary parts of our Obedience which belong not thereunto at all Sect. 81 4 Some give us such a Description of Morality as that it should be of the same extent with the Light and Law of Nature or the Dictates of it as rectified and declared unto us in the Scripture And this I confess requires of us the Obedience which is due towards God by the Law of our Creation and according to the Covenant of Works materially and formally But what is this unto Evangelical Holiness and Obedience Why it is alleadged that Religion before the Entrance of Sin and under the Gospel is one and the same and therefore there is no difference between the Duties of Obedience required in the one and the other And it is true that they are so far the same as that they have the same Author the same Object the same End and so also had the Religion under the Law which was therefore so far the same with them But that they are the same as to all the Acts of our Obedience and the Manner of their Performance is a vain Imagination Is there no Alteration made in Religion by the Interposition of the Person of Christ to be Incarnate and his Mediation No Augmentation of the Object of Faith No Change in the Abolishing of the Old Covenant and the Establishment of the New the Covenant between God and Man being that which gives the especial form and kind unto Religion the Measure and Denomination of it No Alteration in the Principles Aids Assistances and whole Nature of our Obedience unto God The whole Mystery of Godliness must be renounced if we intend to give way unto such Imaginations Be it so then that this Moral Vertue and the Practice of it do contain and express all that Obedience materially considered which was required by the Law of Nature in the Covenant of Works yet I deny it to be our Holiness or Evangelical Obedience and that as for many other Reasons so principally because it hath not that respect unto Jesus Christ which our Sanctification hath Sect. 82 5 If it be said that by this Moral Vertue they intend no Exclusion of Jesus Christ but include a respect unto him I desire only to ask whether they design by it such an Habit of Mind and such Acts
as we are capable of and which no man hath any discouragement from endeavouring to attain Sect. 8 4 There is in and by Christ declared and administred a spiritual Power of Grace which shall work this Holiness in us or that Conformity unto the Holiness of God which he doth require From this Fountain therefore we draw immediately as the Reasons of the Necessity so prevalent Motives unto Holiness in our Souls Hence some things may be inferenced As First That the Mediation of Christ and in particular his Satisfaction is so farre from being an Hinderance of or a Discouragement unto Holiness as some blasphemously pretend that the great fundamental Reason of it in us namely the Holiness of God himself can have no influence upon us without the supposition of it and Faith in it unless Faith be built hereon no sinner upon a view of Gods Holiness as absolutely considered can have any other thoughts but those of Cain My sin is great it cannot be pardoned God is an Holy God I cannot serve him and therefore will depart out of his presence But the Holiness of God as manifested in Jesus Christ including a supposition of Satisfaction made unto what is required by its absolute Purity and a condescention thereon to accept in him that Holiness of Truth and Sincerity which we are capable of doth equally maintain the indispensible necessity of it and encourage us unto it And we may see what contrary Conclusions will be made on these different Considerations of it Those who view it only in the first way can come to no other issue in their thoughts but that which they express in the Prophet Isa. 33. 14. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall inhabit with everlasting burnings God fiery Holiness serves towards them unto no other End but to fill them with terror and despair But other Inferences are natural from the Consideration of the same Holiness in the latter way Our God saith the Apostle is a consuming fire what then what follows as our Duty thereon Let us have Grace whereby we may serve him acceptably with Reverence and Godly fear Heb. 12. 28 29. There is no such forcible Reason for no such powerful Motive unto our Adherence unto him in Holy Obedience Such different Conclusions will men make from these different Considerations of the Holiness of God when once they come to be serious and in good earnest about them Sect. 9 Secondly It follows from hence also that our Holiness under the New Covenant although it have the same general Nature and one principal End with that which was required in the Covenant of Works yet as it hath an especial Spring and Fountain which that had not and relates unto sundry Causes which the other had no concernment in so it is not of the same especial use therewith The immediate End and Use of that Holiness in us was to answer the Holiness of God absolutely as expressed in the Law whereon we should have been Justified This is now done for us by Christ alone and the Holiness which God requireth of us respects onely those Ends which God hath proposed unto us in Compliance with his own Holiness as he will Glorifie it in Jesus Christ which must be afterwards declared Secondly We may consider in what particular Instances the Force of this Argument is conveyed unto us or what are the especial Reasons why we ought to be Holy because God is so And they are three Sect. 10 1 Because herein consists all that Conformity unto God whereof in this World we are capable which is our Priviledge Preeminence Glory and Honour We were Originally Created in the Image and Likeness of God Herein consisted the Priviledge Preeminence Order and Blessedness of our first state and that for the Substance of it it was no other but our Holiness is by all confessed Wherefore without this Conformity unto God without the Impress of his Image and Likeness upon us we do not we cannot stand in that Relation unto God which was designed us in our Creation This we lost by the Entrance of sin And if there be not a way for us to acquire it again if we do not so we shall alwaies come short of the Glory of God and of the End of our Creation Now this is done in and by Holiness alone for therein consists the Renovation of the Image of God in us as our Apostle expressely declares Ephes. 4. 22 23 24. with Col. 3. 10. It is therefore to no purpose for any man to expect an Interest in God or any thing that will prove Eternally to his Advantage who doth not endeavour after Conformity unto him For such a man despiseth all the Glory that God designed unto himself in our Creation and all that was Eminent and peculiarly bestowed upon our selves Sect. 11 He therefore whose Design is not to be like unto God according to his Measure and the Capacity of a Creature alwayes misseth both of his End his Rule and his Way Our Saviour would have his Disciples to do all things so as that they may be the Children of their Heavenly Father Matth. 5. 45. that is like him representing him as Children do their Father And the truth is if this Necessity of Conformity unto God be once out of our View and Consideration we are easily turned aside by the meanest Temptation we meet withall In brief without that Likeness and Conformity unto God which consists in Holiness as we do under his Eye bear the Image of his great Adversary the Devil so we can have no especial Interest in him nor hath he any in us 2 The Force of the Argument ariseth from the Respect it bears unto our Actual Entercourse and Communion with God This we are called unto and this in all our Duties of Obedience we must endeavour to attain If there be not in them a real Entercourse between God and our Souls they are all but uncertain beatings of the Ayre When we are Accepted in them when God is Glorified by them then have we in them this Entercourse and Communion with God Now whereas God is Holy if we are not in our Measure holy according to his Mind this cannot be For God neither accepts of any Duties from unholy Persons nor is he glorified by them and therefore as unto these Ends doth he expreslely reject and condemn them It is a good Duty to Preach the Word But unto the Wicked God saith What hast thou to doe to declare my Statutes or that thou shouldest take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest Instruction and castest my Words behind thee Psal. 50. 16 17. Seeing thou art unholy To pray is a good Duty But unto them that are not washed and made clean and put not away the evil of their Doings from before his Eyes saith God When ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine Eyes from you and when ye make many Prayers I will not hear Isa. 1. 15
and prompt them unto not to endeavour after that universal Holiness which alone will be accepted with him is a deplorable Folly Such men seem to Worship an Idol all their dayes For he that doth not endeavour to be like unto God doth contrarily think wickedly that God is like unto himself It is true our Interest in God is not built upon our Holiness but it is as true that we have none without it Were this Principle once well fixed in the Minds of men that without Holiness no man shall see God and that enforced from the Consideration of the Nature of God himself it could not but influence them unto a greater Diligence about it than the most seem to be engaged in Sect. 15 There is indeed amongst us a great Plea for Morality or for Moral Vertue I wish it be more out of Love to Vertue its self and a Conviction of its Vsefulness than out of a Design to cast Contempt on the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel as it is declared by the faithfull Dispensers of it However we are bound to believe the Best of all men Where we see those who so plead for Moral Vertues to be in their own Persons and in their Lives modest sober humble patient self-denying charitable usefull towards all we are obliged to believe that their Pleas for Moral Vertue proceed from a Love and Liking of it But where men are proud furious worldly revengefull profane intemperate covetous ambitious I cannot so well understand their Declamations about Vertue Only I would for the present enquire What it is that they intend by their Morality Is it the Renovation of the Image of God in us by Grace is it our Conformity from thence unto him in his Holiness is it our being Holy in all Manner of Holiness because God is holy is it the acting of our Souls in all Duties of Obedience from a Principle of Faith and Love according to the Will of God whereby we have Communion with him here and are lead towards the Enjoyment of him If these are the things which they intend what is the matter with them why are they so afraid of the Words and Expressions of the Scripture Why will they not speak of the things of God in Words that the Holy Ghost teacheth Men never dislike the Words of God but when they dislike the Things of God Is it because these Expressions are not intelligible People do not know what they mean but this of Moral Vertue they understand well enough We appeal to the Experience of all that truely fear God in the World unto the contrary There is none of them but the Scripture Expressions of the Causes Nature Work and Effects of Holiness do convey a clear experimental Apprehension of them unto their Minds Whereas by their Moral Vertue neither themselves nor any else do know what they intend since they do or must reject the common received Notion of it for Honesty amongst men If therefore they intend that Holiness hereby which is required of us in the Scripture and that particularly on the Account of the Holiness of that God whom we serve they fall into an high Contempt of the Wisdom of God in despising of those Notices and Expressions of it which being used by the Holy Ghost are suited unto the spiritual Light and Understanding of Believers substituting their own arbitrary doubtfull uncertain Sentiments and Words in their Room and place But if it be something else which they intend as indeed evidently it is nor doth any man understand more in the Design than Sobriety and Vsefulness in the World things singularly good in their proper place then it is no otherwise to be looked on but as a Design of Sathan to undermine the true Holiness of the Gospel and to substitute a deceitfull and deceiving Cloud or Shadow in the Room of it Sect. 16 And moreover what we have already Discoursed doth abundantly evince the folly and falshood of those clamorous Accusations wherein the most important Truths of the Gospel are charged as inconsistent with and as repugnant unto Holiness The Doctrine say the Socinians of the Satisfaction of Christ ruines all Care and Endeavours after an Holy Life For when men do believe that Christ hath satisfied the Justice of God for their Sins they will be enclined to be careless about them yea to live in them But as this Supposition doth transform Believers into Monsters of Ingratitude and Folly so it is built on no other Foundation than this that if Christ take away the Guilt of Sin there is no Reason in the Nature of these things nor mentioned in the Scripture why we should need to be holy and keep our selves from the Power Filth and Dominion of Sin or any way Glorifie God in this World which is an Inference weak false and ridiculous The Papists and others with them lay the same Charge on the Doctrine of Justification through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us And it is wonderfull to consider with what virulent Railing this Charge is managed by the Papists so with what scorn and scoffing with what Stories and Tales some amongst our selves endeavour to expose this sacred Truth to Contempt as though all those by whom it is Believed must consequently be Negligent of Holiness and good Works Now although I deny not but that such men may find a great Strength of Connexion between these things in their own Minds seeing there is a Principle in the corrupt Heart of man to turn the Grace of God into Lasciviousness yet as shall in due time be proved this sacred Truth is both Doctrinally and Practically the great constraining Principle unto Holiness and Fruitfulness in Obedience For the present I shall return no other Answer unto those Objections but that the Objectors are wholly mistaken in our Thoughts and Apprehensions concerning that God whom we serve God in Christ whom we Worship hath so revealed his own Holiness unto us and what is necessary for us on the Account thereof as that we know it to be a foolish wicked and blasphemous thing for any one to think to please him to be accepted with him to come to the Enjoyment of him without that Holiness which he requireth and from his own Nature cannot but require That the Grace or Mercy or Love of this God who is our God should encourage those who indeed know him unto Sin or countenance them in a Neglect of Holy Obedience to him is a monstrous Imagination There are as I shall shew afterwards other invincible Reasons for it and Motives unto it But the owning of this one Consideration alone by them who Believe the Grace of the Gospel is sufficient to secure them from the Reproach of this Objection Sect. 17 Moreover from what hath been discoursed we may all Charge our selves with Blame for our Sloth and Negligence in this Matter It is to be feared that we have none of us endeavoured as we ought to
his Sacerdotal Hath his Blood purged your Consciences from dead works that you should serve the living God Are you cleansed and sanctified and made Holy thereby Are you redeemed out of the World by it and from your vain Conversation therein after the Customs and Traditions of men Are you by it dedicated unto God and made his peculiar Ones If you find not these Effects of the Blood-shedding of Christ in and upon your Souls and Consciences in vain will you expect those other of Attonement Peace and Reconciliation with God of Mercy Pardon Justification and Salvation which you look for The Priestly Office of Christ hath its whole Effect towards all on whom it hath any Effects Despisers of its Fruits in Holiness shall never have the least Interest in its Fruits in Righteousness Sect. 22 Is it from his Actings as the great Prophet of the Church that you expect Help and Relief Have you effectually learned of him to deny all Vngodliness and worldly Lusts to live Righteously and Soberly and Godly in this present World Hath he taught you to be humble to be meek to be patient to hate the Garment spotted with the flesh Hath he instructed you unto sincerity in all your Wayes Dealings and whole Conversations among men Above all hath he taught you have you learned of him to purifie and cleanse your Hearts by Faith to subdue your inward spiritual and fleshly Lusts to endeavour after an universal Conformity unto his Image and Likeness Do you find his Doctrine Effectual unto these Ends and are your Hearts and Minds cast into the Mould of it If it be so your Interest in him by his Prophetical Office is secured unto you But if you say you hear his Voyce in his Word Read and Preached that you have Learned many Mysteries and have attained much Light or Knowledge thereby at least you know the substance of the Doctrine he hath taught so as that you can discourse of it yea and that you doe many Things or perform many Duties according unto it but cannot say that the Effects before enqured after are wrought in you by his Word and Spirit you lose the second Expectation of an Interest in Christ as Mediator or any Advantage thereby Sect. 23 Will you betake your selves to the Kingly Office of Christ and have you Expectations on him by vertue thereof You may do well to Examine how he Ruleth in you and over you Hath he subdued your Lusts those Enemies of his Kingdom which fight against your Souls Hath he strengthened aided supported assisted you by his Grace unto all Holy Obedience And have you given up your selves to be Ruled by his Word and Spirit to obey him in all things and to entrust all your Temporal and Eternal Concernments unto his Care Faithfulness and Power If it be so you have Cause to Rejoyce as those who have an Assured Concern in the blessed Things of his Kingdom But if your proud rebellious Lusts do yet bear sway in you if Sin have dominion over you if you continue to fulfill the Lusts of the Mind and of the Flesh if you walk after the Fashions of this World and not as Obedient Subjects of that Kingdom of his which is not of this World Deceive not your selves any longer Christ will be of no Advantage unto you In these things lye the summe of our present Argument If the Lord Christ act no otherwise for our Good but in and by his Blessed Offices of Priest Prophet and King and if the immediate Effect of the Grace of Christ acting in all these Offices towards us be our Holiness and Sanctification those in whom that Effect is not wrought and produced have neither Ground nor Reason to Promise themselves an Interest in Christ or any Advantage by his Mediation For men to name the Name of Christ to profess themselves Christians or his Disciples to avow an Expectation of Mercy Pardon Life and Salvation by him and in the mean time to be in themselves Worldly Proud Ambitious Envious Revengefull Haters of Good Men Covetous living in divers Lusts and Pleasures is a Scandal and Shame unto Christian Religion and unavoidably Destructive to their own Souls CHAP. V. Necessity of Holiness from our Condition in this World Necessity of Holiness further Argued from our own State and Condition in this World with what is required of us with respect unto our giving Glory to Jesus Christ. Sect. 1 ANother Argument for the Necessity of Holiness may be taken from the Consideration of our selves and our present State and Condition For it is hereby alone that the Vicious Distemper of our Natures is or can be cured That our Nature is fearfully and universally depraved by the Entrance of Sin I have before declared and sufficiently confirmed And I do not now consider it as to the Disability of Living unto God or Enmity unto him which is come upon us thereby nor yet as to the future Punishment which it renders us obnoxious unto But it is the present misery that is upon us by it unless it be cured which I intend For the Mind of man being possessed with Darkness Vanity Folly and Instability the Will under the Power of spiritual Death Stubborn and Obstinate and all the Affections Carnal Sensual and Selfish the whole Soul being hurried off from God and so out of its Way is perpetually filled with Confusion and perplexing Disorder It is not unlike that Description which Job gives of the Grave A Land of Darkness and of the shadow of Death without any Order and where the Light is as Darkness Chap. 10. 21 22. When Solomon set himself to search out the Causes of all the Vanity and Vexation that is in the World of all the Troubles that the Life of Man is filled withall he affirms that this was the summe of his Discovery God made men upright but they have found out many Inventions Eccles. 7. 29. that is cast themselves into endless Entanglements and Confusions What is Sin in its Guilt is Punishment in its Power yea the greatest that men are liable unto in this World Hence God for the Guilt of some Sins poenally gives many up to the Power of others Rom. 1. 24 26 28. 2 Thess. 2. 11. And this he doth not only to secure and aggravate their Condemnation at the last Day but to give them in this World a Recompence of their Folly in themselves For there is no greater Misery nor Slavery than to be under the Power of Sin Sect. 2 This proves the Original Depravation of our Nature the whole Soul filled with Darkness Disorder and Confusion being brought under the Power of various Lusts and Passions captivating the Mind and Will unto their Interests in the vilest Drudgeries of Servitude and Bondage No sooner doth the Mind begin to Act any thing suitably unto the small Remainders of Light in it but it is immediately controlled by impetuous Lusts and Affections which darken its Directions and silence its Commands Hence