that they might be Witnesses c. and the promise of the Holy Ghost which Christ received from the Father Acts 2.23 peculiarly concerned the miraculous Gifts which were bestowed after Christs Ascension and this as I conceive the Doctor acknowledgeth by saying that Christ shed forth what they saw and heard in the miraculous operations and effects of it Now saith he In this promise viz. Acts 1. vers 4 8. the Lord Christ founded the Church it self and by it he builded it up And this is the Hinge whereon the whole weight of it doth turn and depend unto this day It is indeed certain that the faith of the Church is at this day founded upon the extraordinary testimonies that were given to the Gospel by the Spirit in the first ages of the Church But that which follows is absolutely false Take away this promise suppose it to cease as unto a continual Accomplishment and there will be an absolute end of the Church of Christ in this world For as he elsewhere confesses himself Miracles are ceased and yet there is a Church He proceeds thus No Dispensation of the Spirit no Church he that would utterly separate the Spirit from the Word had as good burn his Bible Be not so hasty for although this happens to be a truth yet 't is more than you have proved The Operations of the Spirit may now be utterly separated from the Word for all Acts 1.4 And although you very truely tell us that the bare Letter of the New Testament cannot ingenerate Faith and Obedience in the hearts of men yet for any thing you have here said it may For those Texts upon which you ground your confidence speak onely of the miraculous Gifts whereby the Gospel was confirmed Now these being recorded in the New Testament together with that Doctrine which was proved by them may be as able to assure men of the truth of the Gospel and make them obedient to the Law of Christ as they were when they were seen and heard and that of themselves too for any thing you have shewn to the contrary from Acts 1. though the contrary may well be shewn from other Scriptures Now I cannot see to what end these men when they are speaking of the Promise of the Spirit which will in all ages be accomplished should fly so often as they do to those Texts which mention those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit that were bestowed in the first unless it be to make their followers believe that the true Ministers of the Gospel are inspired as the Apostles were and that they preach in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power as the Apostles did Which because we do not pretend to it is left to them who do so to be sole owners of the Priviledge Just as the Papists support their pretence to Miracles and Infallibility by drawing the promises peculiarly made to the Apostles and first Believers into consequence for the Church of Rome in every age And I fear by the like device our Author hath laid his Plot to unchurch us quite and clean who conform to the Laws For saith he Let men cast themselves into what order they please institute what forms of Government and religious Worship they please let them do it by an attendance according to the best of their Vnderstandings unto the Letter of the Scripture i. e. let their Government and Worship be as neer the rule of the Scripture as they can possibly frame it yet if the work of the Spirit of God be disowned or disclaimed by them if they disown those extravagant pretences to the Spirit which you set up to magnifie your selves withal If there be not in them and upon them such a work of his as is promised by our Lord Jesus Christ there is no Church-state amongst them nor as such is it to be owned and esteemed And is this that you have been driving at all this while you have now found out a new colour for your Schism and it seems the separation from the Church of England must go forward upon this pretence that the work of the Spirit promised by our Lord Jesus Christ is not in us and upon us which in many places of your Book also you spare not to say we reproach and disavow But I beseech you dare you say that you have that work of the Spirit in you and upon you which is signified by the fore-mentioned Texts If you say so we shall presently desire you to convince us of it by Miracles and such signes as the Apostles did If you dare not say it then it seems that work of the Spirit is no more in you and upon you than 't is in us and then I hope we are not unchurched for not pretending to it nor fit to be accounted Reprobates because we are not Liars I acknowledge that promise of our Saviour mentioned by you in your next Section Matth. 28.20 I am with you always even unto the end of the world proves the constant presence of Christ in his Church by his Spirit but then Sir it doth not prove nor I think are you able to prove that the fore-mentioned promise made to the Apostles is the same promise with that which is here made Now as to that work of the Spirit which will indeed continue through all ages of the Church God forbid that we should disown and disclaim it But we disown the proving it from such places of Scripture as you lay the great stress of your proof upon lest we should seem to pretend to those influences of the Holy Spirit which were poured forth upon the Church at her first appearance in the world to confirm the Christian Faith by signes and wonders and not being able to make good our pretence be laughed at for our pains It would not avail us to say that we pretend not to those measures of the Spirit those extraordinary Gifts which the Apostles and first Believers had for it would be unanswerably returned upon us that these Texts cannot be proved to speak of any but these and thus we should disparage a good cause by arguing no better for it Therefore Doctor if the whole work of the Spirit in and towards the Church it self be openly derided as you complain you may I doubt in great part thank your self and such as you who by imprudent Discourses upon this subject have given profane persons occasion to make a question whether now-a-days there be any work at all of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of men I shall now endeavour to shew that there is and that by laying together what the Holy Scriptures say concerning it All which I suppose may be reduced to these three heads 1. What those effects are for the producing of which in the mindes of men God will give the Holy Spirit in all ages of the Church 2. To whom this promise of the Holy Spirit is made 3. What is the manner and measure of his Operations By
in believing his Gospel so as to yield a sincere obedience to his Laws This is that Regeneration which is necessary to Adult persons as Nicodemus was and as you may remember is one of those needful effects for the producing of which in our mindes God will give the Holy Spirit to us if we ask him Thus have I shewn what those Qualifications are for the effecting of which the Holy Spirit is promised in St. Luke 11.13 Now though I have not pretended to prove from this place that God will give the Holy Spirit to work faith and the beginnings of a good minde and good desires in us and there was good reason for it since the Spirit is here promised to Believers and such as desire to do the will of God yet I intended not to exclude them from being the effects of the Holy Spirit and I shall immediately prove that they are for I now proceed to shew what those several Graces are which the Scriptures particularly ascribe to the Operations of the Holy Spirit which was the second way propounded for the resolving of the first Question and will not onely confirm what has been offered for that end from St. Luke but fully satisfie the Question we are upon CHAP. IV. Concerning the several Graces of the Holy Spirit SECT I. IN the first place Faith it self as that signifies a firm perswasion of the truth of our Saviour's Doctrine is an effect in our Mindes which the Scripture frequently ascribes to the Operations of the Holy Spirit This is the first Grace of the Holy Spirit which I mention because an hearty belief of the Gospel is the foundation of all other Christian Virtues And I shall now shew that the Spirit of God is given to prepare our mindes as they ought to be prepared that we may become the true Disciples of Christ. To speak clearly to this matter we are to consider 1. That the Revelations of the Doctrines of the Gospel and sufficient testimonies that they are divinely revealed are presupposed to our obligation of believing them and 2. That teachableness and due attention is necessarily required to Faith or actual believing of those Doctrines Now that which I shall take upon me to prove is this That the Teachableness of Minde which is necessary to actual Believing is from the Holy Spirit And I onely say that Faith in this sence is an effect of his Operations upon the Mindes of men But I do not say that the Holy Spirit doth now reveal the Doctrines of the Gospel to men by immediate Inspiration or that he convinceth them of their truth by any immediate or any new testimony whatsoever that they may believe Not the First because we have them in the Scriptures As to the Doctrines of the Gospel themselves we may say with the Apostle God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit 1 Cor. 2.10 But not to us as he did to the Apostles to them by Inspiration to us by their Writings whereby we may be fully instructed in all necessary Truth Not the Second because the Doctrines of the Gospel have been sufficiently confirmed already even by the demonstration of the Spirit and Power in the Miracles and Resurrection of Christ and the supernatural Gifts which the Apostles and the primitive Believers had And there is not any one promise in the Scripture that I can finde that God will give unto us any further testimony of the Holy Ghost to the truth of the Gospel after that which was given to it by the Holy Ghost at first Wherefore we have no Warrant to look for any private Illumination and Conviction by the Holy Spirit to assure us of the truth of that Doctrine which hath been abundantly confirmed to our hands by so many divine Testimonies already It is the same light and the same evidence by which we discern the truth of the Gospel that those to whom Christ and his Apostles preached discerned it by i. e. the Testimonies by which they proved their Doctrines onely with this difference that they saw and heard them we know them by the tradition of the Scriptures Our Saviour saith Light is come into the world but men c. i. e. The Will of God was plainly revealed by him and he was clearly proved to be the Son of God by the testimony of his Works c. and yet many would not believe him Now this is that Light which still continues in the world viz. the Revelations of the Gospel and the Testimonies by which they were confirmed for we have them in the Scriptures which are delivered to us that we might believe the same Doctrines which Christ and his Apostles preached to the world and upon the same evidence whereby men were at first convinced of their truth Therefore I do not say that the Holy Spirit worketh Faith in us by illuminating our mindes with any new Revelation of the Christian Doctrine or any new Testimony of the truth thereof for this is more than needs to be done and I conceive more than any body can prove But he doth it by disposing our mindes to attention and teachableness or to that temper which whosoever is of will believe truths that are proposed to him with sufficient evidence It is true indeed that there is no more required to an understanding man's assent to a true propoâ—tion in Philosophy than to explain the meaning and represent the reasons of it to him intelligibly and clearly This ordinarily is sufficient in that case But there is more assistance required towards the belief of the Gospel though propounded with sufficient evidence of divine Revelation For there is this difference between the truths of Religion and conclusions in natural Philosophy and other Sciences that our sensual Appetites and worldly Interests are thwarted by those but not by these and therefore we are not so apt to rise up in contradiction to the latter as we are to the former though they may be both proved with equal evidence Religion is to govern our lives and bindeth us to deny the pleasures and advantages of sin under the penalty of God's high displeasure And no wonder if the Lusts of men influence their Judgements and blass their Understandings against the belief of those Doctrines which are so irreconcilable to a wicked life These are the things which do not onely so often spoil the virtue and efficacy of Faith where it is but do also cause uncertainty and unbelief where Faith is not but where in all reason it ought to be For they make men unwilling to believe and this unwillingness doth on the one hand hinder their attention to the force of those Arguments which prove the Gospel to be indeed the Word of God and inclines them on the other hand to lean to the weakest Objections that can be offered against it This was just the case of the great men amongst the Jews as is plain from that one instance in John 9. amongst many For when our Saviour had
not able to please thee mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our Hearts through Jesus Christ our Lord. THE END The Author's distance from London hath occasioned these Errata's which the Reader may correct PAge 33. In the Margin r. P. 260. p. 61. line 12 for these are the r. there are other p. 93. l. 18. for end r. kinde p. 105. l. 6. for to his r. to be p. 163. l. 30. for proportion r. proposition p. 191. l. 13. for there is r. there is said to be Ibid. l. 22. for inherent r. immediate p. 310. l. 28. for having by r. having p. 322. l. 10. for may r. my P. 44. P. 44. P. 52. P. 42. P. 46 47. P. 45. P. 44. P. 44. Philipp 2.12 13. Heb. 10.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or a Discourse c. J.O. Page 254. P. 228. P. 164. P. 262. P. 206. P. 206. P. 209. P. 236. P. 334. P. 401. P. 421. P. 336. P. 187. P. 432. P. 433. 1 Cor. 2.14 P. 222 223. P. 217 218. P. 224. Sect. 38. P. 218. Sect. 26. Sect. 29.30 Sect. 27. Sect. 26. Sect. 28. Sect. 42. Sect. 38 39 40 41. Sect. 31. Sect. 33. Sect. 38. Sect. 38. Thus St. Chrysostome upon the place Hom. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This happens not through the nature of the thing but their disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wisdom that is without did not only not instruct men in the Mysteries of the Gospel but also hinder them Chrysost. in loc Hom. 7. But how it hindered them St. Chrysostome plainly tells us in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For these great men who rejected the Gospel were full of Pride Hom. 5. Sect. 39. Sect. 41. * This Text our Author produces in another place P. only to show his dislike of the sense thereof given in the Friendly Debate as any one may see by the impertinence of it to his design there For this is all he saies about it Some of late have put in faint and weak exceptions against this latter clause this Slanderer should have said against his interpretation of this clause viz. Demonstration of the Spirit c. as though not an evidence of the powerful presence of the Spirit of God in the dispensation of the Gospel was intended therein but the power of working Miracles contrary to the whole scope of the place and consent of the best Expositors Now unless the Doctor supposes that the Power of working Miracles was not an evidence of the powerful presence of the Spirit of God in the c. his exception is nonsense But I leave it to the Doctor 's second thoughts to consider with what modesty he could call that Authors apprehensions of the Demonstration c. faint and weak exceptions contrary to the whole scope of the place and consent of best Expositors after that excellent person hath vindicated them against his Adversary by such clear and solid Reasons and such pregnant Authorities as neither he nor any of his friends nor the Doctor for them have been able to say a wise word to But what can that man want a forehead to say who hath a face to pretend St. Chrysostome is for his turn in an interpretation of a place of Scripture wherein he is clearly contradicted by St. Chrysostome in three or four Homilies together out of one of which too he transcribes a passage in favour of his own sense as he pretends Now whether the Doctor be not guilty of this dishonesty I shall leave the Reader and him too to judge by the following marginal Notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys. in loc Hom. 4. Who of those that are busied in Syllogismes who of those that are skilled in the Jewish matters have saved men and made known the truth to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. The Doctrine of the Cross being a discourse not about any ordinary mean things but concerning God and true Piety and the Evangelical way of living and the Judgment of the world to come hath made all Believers Philosophers even rusticks and private men themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 6. For a demonstration by miraculous works and signs is much more clear and convincing than that by Philosophical Arguments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 7. Worldly wisdom was excelled not by foolishness but by a more perfect wisdome and that so much more perfect that it seemed foolishness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. I hear that Christ was crucified and thereupon I admire his love to mankind He that calls this foolishness when he hears it thinks the death of Christ was an argument of his weakness and inability to save himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 4. The Greeks require of us Oratory and Philosophical Arguments And this is that which St. Chrysost. calls so often the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wisdom that is without which prejudiced the Philosophers against the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 6. For the Apostle said I determined to know nothing in direct opposition to the wisdome that is without I came not forming Syllogisms and Sophisms nor saying any thing in that way to you but only that Christ was crucified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For a Mystery a revealed Doctrine needs no Philosophical Argumentation but 't is enough that it be barely declared what it is Hom. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 6. What should give men assurance of the truth of these things but the Demonstration of the Spirit for this is a clear demonstration for who I pray could see the dead raised and evil Spirits cast out and not receive Those Doctrines that were confirmed by these works That which the Apostles confirmed their Preaching withal were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Signs and Testimonies out of the old Scripture Ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 4. For if we should go about to prove by natural reasons how that God was made man and entred into the Virgins womb instead of leaving these revealed matters to faith i. e. instead of proving them by testimonies of divine Revelation they would laugh at us more than they do already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 7. This Honour has God done to us that by our means others should hear his Mysteries For to those whom we make our friends we give this testimony of our friendship that we communicate our secrets to them before to any else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. If the Prophets spake of these things why saith he Ear hath not heard nor have entred into the heart of man c This is yet true for he speaks concerning humane nature for they did not hear as men but as Prophets i. e. what they knew of these matters they knew by Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 7. When a Spiritual Doubt ariseth we bring testimonies from Spiritual things for instance I say that Christ arose from the dead that he was born of a Virgin then I produce these testimonies types
not consist in a moral reformation of Life and Conversation let us suppose such a reformation to be extended to all known instances Suppose a man be changed from Sensuality unto Temperance from Rapine to Righteousness from Pride and the dominion of irregular Passions unto Humility and Moderation with all instances of the like nature which we can imagine or are prescribed in the rules of the strictest Moralists Suppose this change be laboured exact and accurate and so of great use in the world Suppose also that a man hath been brought and perswaded unto it through the preaching of the Gospel so escaping the pollutions that are in the world through Lust even by the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ or the directions of his Doctrine delivered in the Gospel yet I say ALL this and ALL this added unto Baptism accompanied with a profession of Faith and Repentance is NOT REGENERATION nor do they comprise it in them Is not ALL this Regeneration Not a change from sin in all known instances not a change to Virtue in all instances which we can imagine or are prescribed by the strictest Moralists not excepting our Saviour himself not to escape the pollutions that are in the world through Lust and to be perswaded hereunto through the faith of the Gospel What do these men make of Regeneration Where is that reverence which they pretend to have for the Word of God which they do thus openly and notoriously contradict Was it not true which I said that our difference with these men is this that we affirm Regeneration to consist in the faith and obedience of the Gospel and they deny it But let us hear Gods Word once more concerning this matter St. John saith He that believeth that Jesus is the Christ so believes it as to overcome the world is born of God Now does not this man contradict St. John when he saith Though a man hath escaped the pollutions that are in the world through Lust even by the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ he is yet not born of God St. John saith We know that every one that doth righteousness is born of God But quite contrary saith our Author Let a man be changed from Sensuality to Temperance from Rapine to Righteousness with all instances of the like nature which we can imagine he may yet not be born of God Doctor I challenge you here before your own Party and the world of contradicting the plain and express words of God and that in a matter of the highest moment to us wherein the eternal salvation of mens Souls is most nearly concerned which is enough to provoke the indignation of all good men against you Let us again suppose a man in that state which our Author hath well described but unchristianly reprobated and then I demand what lacketh he yet besides perseverance in that state Not to tarry for the Doctor 's Answer I shall prove from the words of our Blessed Saviour that he lacketh nothing else A certain Ruler asked our Saviour What shall I do to inherit eternal life Luke 18.18 And Jesus said unto him Thou knowest the Commandments Do no commit adultery c. And he said All these have I kept from my youth Jesus answered Yet lackest thou one thing sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me The Ruler then wanted nothing but a willing minde to part with his Estate when God required it and to become a follower of Jesus for had he done this we have our Saviour's word for it he should have had treasure in Heaven which none but the Renegerate shall have But our Authors moral man wants none of those Qualifications which this Ruler either had or wanted that were necessary in order to his inheriting eternal life he wants none of them which the other had being changed from Sin to Virtue in all instances he wants none of them which he lacked for he is a follower of Christ baptized professing Faith and Repentance and he is changed from Covetousness too which is one known instance of sin to a readiness of yielding up his Estate when God will have him do it which we may easily imagine to be an instance of Virtue Therefore the Doctor reprobates him whom Christ chuseth he condemneth him whom God justifieth It is the great discouragement which this Doctrine gives to true goodness and the dishonour which this Writer doth to the Gospel by pretending himself a Christian which makes it needful to prove these plain things against him SECT 7. Let him not think that he hath made himself whole by adding these words at last Whatsoever there may be of actual Righteousness in these things they do not express an inherent habitual Righteousness For this will not serve his turn since 1. Here he does no more than give a reason the best he has why he contradicts the Apostle who saith He that doth righteousness is born of God by saying that he is not born of God But then 2. His reason here is as false as his Doctrine and as contrary to Scripture Our Saviour saith An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruits but he hath the face to say that it can for he saith that a man who is not inherently and habitually righteous may bring forth all these good fruits even all instances of reformation of Life which can be imagined St. Paul likewise saith that the carnal minde is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be And that you may not think that subjection to the Law of God which consists in universal amendment of Life not here to be meant observe that in the same Chapter Rom. 8. he saith There is no condemnation to them that walk after the Spirit and if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live So that if the carnal minde can be so far subject to the Law of God as that the carnal man may walk after the Spirit and mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit then it is possible for a carnal man so continuing to be saved which again contradicts the Apostle who saith that to be carnally minded is death But now our Author's Doctrine is this that the carnal man while he is such viz. one who wants inherent habitual Righteousness who is not regenerate may be subject to the Law of God and may mortifie the deeds of the body for he saith all that actual righteousness which he had before described and which does unavoidably imply mortifying the deeds of the body and walking uprightly according to the Gospel does not express an inherent habitual righteousness which is the same with being spiritually minded And does not he contradict the holy Apostle by so saying I know not what he can possibly say to save himself
trusted and his Soveraign Dominion owned by a spirit of obedience and submission to it which are incomparably more effectual acknowledgments of the Divine perfections than whole Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices For this as our Saviour speaks is to worship God in spirit and in truth Such a Temple as this God is so delighted in that in comparison therewith he disregarded the Temple at Hierusalem with all the external services that belonged to it For that God dwelleth in pious mindes was not unknown to the Jews Where is the house that ye build unto me and where is the place of my rest To him will I look saith the Lord even to him that is poor and of a contrite heart and trembleth at my word Isa. 66.2 3. Thus saith the high and holy One that inhabiteth eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the spirit of the contrite ones Isa. 57.15 Let us now lay these things together and the conclusion will be that God's dwelling in men implies a plentiful communication of Divine grace to confirm and strengthen them in all goodness which was what I took upon me to shew under this head For since this expression of God's dwelling in men denotes the presence of a peculiar grace and favour to those in whom he is said to dwell which is not afforded to others Since the dwelling of the Holy Ghost in Believers is to enable them to mortifie the deeds of the body and to prevail finally against all their spiritual Enemies Since also it is true that God dwelleth in good and righteous but not in impure and unholy persons it follows in the first place that after we are regenerated it is still by the grace of God and the Operations of his Holy Spirit that we are enabled to proceed in vertue and godliness and to persevere therein to the end for God dwelleth in us that we may mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit Secondly it follows also that there is a more abundant measure of Divine Grace communicated to holy persons than to those who are not so For God's dwelling implies the presence of more than ordinary Grace And thus our Saviour also hath plainly told us To him that hath shall be given and he shall have abundantly Finally this Doctrine is very well consistent with that of attributing the beginnings of Christian Faith and goodness in us to the Operations of the Holy Spirit For although the Spirit of God dwells onely in good men yet it is by his Operations that any are made so at first and as the Apostle speaks we are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit Eph. 2.22 But his dwelling in us afterward signifies as we have shewn the more abundant grace we are made partakers of And thus although the blessings which all the World enjoyed while the Tabernacle and Temple stood flowed to Mankinde from the Divine bounty and goodness yet God was said to dwell onely among the Israelites because he had a more especial care of that people than of any other Nation in the World My designe in this Chapter was to shew that the beginnings and progress of that state whereby we are qualified for Heaven are in the Scriptures ascribed to the Operations of the Holy Spirit and that all Christian Vertues are the gifts and graces of God I might now prove by as convincing testimonies that perseverance in the Faith and obedience of the Gospel is the effect of a Divine Operation in us But this truth is so evidently consequent from what the Scripture asserts concerning God's dwelling in good men which I have largely enough discoursed of that I reckon it needless to produce any further testimonies to confirm it Thus have I discharged what I promised in the close of the last Chapter which was to prove that those Christian Vertues in which the state of Regeneration consists together with our improvement and perseverance in them are particularly ascribed in the Scriptures to the Operations of the Holy Spirit And from what hath been thus proved these things follow 1. That he who is endued with these Virtues hath the Spirit of God for they are the effects of his grace And to say that a man may be endued with them and yet be void of Grace is to contradict the Scriptures which ascribe them in whomsoever they are to the Operations of the Holy Spirit 2. And by consequence it is an idle supposition that God will be displeased with us though we be never so careful to do his Commands and to increase in Christian Virtues if all this while we have not the Spirit of God for the former cannot be without the latter 3. Wherefore also it is a vain thing to make our believing and obeying the Gospel on the one side and our having true Grace and the Spirit of God on the other distinct marks of a Regenerate state For if Faith and Obedience are the fruits of the Holy Spirit within us if they are Grace as that signifies the performance of our duty and the effects of Grace as that signifies Divine Assistance then having the Grace of God and the Spirit of God is not a mark of Regeneration distinct from believing and obeying the Gospel because this is Grace it self in the former and is it self the onely mark of Grace in the latter sence of the word i. e. of our having the Spirit of God And now I have not discoursed upon this subject out of the least suspition that there are any in this Church who deny the Qualifications of a true Disciple of Jesus to be the graces of the Holy Spirit For excepting Dr. Owen and some of his party and as those who are acquainted with them say the Quakers I do not know of any in England who may justly be suspected to use one of the Doctor 's phrases of being gone over into the Tents of the Pelagians Nor was it merely to vindicate the Ministers of this Church whose judgement in this matter I am acquainted with something better than our Author seems to be from the imputation of Pelagianism which with so much clamour and railing he hath charged them withal But principally to give those who believe what the Scripture thus plainly declares occasion to consider it again and to lay it to heart since there can hardly be a more effectual encouragement to Piety and Virtue than this that God will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him for all blessings needful for their eternal welfare And nothing will render the wilful sinner more inexcusable and more severely punishable than this that whilst he goes on in his wicked life he does despight unto the Spirit of Grace CHAP. V. Concerning pretended Gifts of the Spirit SECT I. HItherto I have shewn of what kinde those Effects are for which the Holy Spirit
was in general promised by our Saviour Luke 11.13 and proved also that they are in the Scriptures severally ascribed to his Operations Now upon the whole matter we cannot but conclude that in respect of the end of this divine Grace God hath made us a very large and bountiful promise thereof and given thereby such an abundant demonstration of his good-will towards us that indeed he desireth not the death of a sinner but had rather he should turn and live as we ought to acknowledge with our utmost Thanks and Praises But after all this it will be pretended by some men that if we say the Operations of the Holy Spirit are limited to those effects we have been speaking of we confine the Promise within too narrow a compass and do in effect deny several divine Graces and works of the Holy Spirit upon the Hearts of God's people such as darting the true sence of Scripture into their mindes suggesting words and matter to them when they pray Extempore and giving them absolute assurance that they shall be saved at last Hence it is that if we take the liberty of dissenting from their sence of a place of Scripture the next thing we hear is that we want the Illumination of the Spirit and all that we can say is at once turned off for carnal reasoning If we dare not pretend to any other than a conditional assurance of our Salvation we are those that have not the testimonies of the Spirit And if we make use of pious forms of Prayer and other exercises of Devotion we do not pray by the Spirit Therefore I think my self obliged to enquire upon what grounds they pretend to these spiritual Gifts But before I do so I shall premise by way of Caution these following things 1. That those dispositions which qualifie us for a profitable understanding of the Scriptures such as Teachableness Humility Attention and Industry are the graces of the Holy Spirit and consequently that our success in endeavouring after the knowledge of divine Truths depends upon his blessing and grace 2. That it is our duty to labour after a right understanding of our spiritual estate and that this knowledge of it is a grace of the Holy Spirit 3. That those affections which make our Prayers acceptable to God such as love to God trust in him hatred of sin zeal and fervency and the like are likewise the effects of divine Grace All these things I heartily acknowledge and they are no other things than what may be concluded easily from the foregoing discourse concerning the graces of the Holy Spirit But that which I have some reason to question is this Whether we can conclude that the Spirit will convey a right understanding of the Scripture into any mans minde by an immediate revelation of the meaning of it or that he will give to some men an absolute assurance of their salvation while they live here upon their trial or that he suggests to them by Inspiration what they say in their extemporary Prayers For whatever he may do in this kinde I do not finde that he hath promised any where so to do And I think we are not to promise to our selves that divine Grace which God hath no where promised to us And that he hath not promised these things I shall shew 1. By comparing the contrary pretence with that promise of our Saviour concerning the Holy Spirit in Luke 11.13 2. By considering what ground there is for it from other places of Scripture 1. By comparing the pretence with Luke 11.13 and here I shall shew that whatever countenance it may have from other Scriptures it can have none from this which as I have already proved contains a promise of such gifts as are needful to our eternal happiness 1. As to that of coming to the sence of Scripture by inherent Revelation I say that such a Revelation is not needful for us to make us wise unto salvation because those places of Scripture which are necessary to be understood by us need no infallible Interpreter for all Truths necessary to be known are plainly delivered in the Scriptures and there is no need of a new Revelation to acquaint us with the meaning of those Texts the sence whereof is plain and obvious There are indeed many passages hard to be understood in the Scriptures but there is no necessity of an Infallible guide or of New revelation to come to the sence of them unless they were themselves necessary to be understood If you say that because all Scripture is profitable the revelation of the true meaning of those Texts at least which have the greatest difficulties belonging to them must be profitable also I answer 1. It does not follow in every particular that because such a thing is profitable therefore if I ask God will give it which you know was proved in the explication of St. Luke's Text Chap. 2. Sect. 2. Wherefore if I pray onely that God may prosper my industry in endeavouring to understand such a difficult place it does not follow from the promise in St. Luke that God will grant my request in that particular For he may give me something as good or better instead of it As I may get advantage by understanding that place so I may also get advantage by finding that after all I do not understand it which may through the grace of God be improved by me into an occasion of more Humility Modesty and Charity which if St. Paul may be believed is better than Knowledge as my trying to understand did before excite me to Prayer and Industry But much less does it follow that God will grant my request if I pray yet more particularly that the meaning of the difficult place may be revealed to me by immediate Inspiration For 2. Though that be profitable yet 't is profitable also to come to the knowledge of it by study and the industrious use of means common to learned men if I am a Teacher of others or by the help of a spiritual Guide if I am merely a Learner And if I come either of these ways to the understanding of a difficult Text God hath not been less good to me for not communicating it to me by immediate revelation Especially if it be considered 3. That if God giveth me the understanding of a difficult place by blessing my industry in Reading Hearing Conferring with others Meditating and Comparing place with place this will in all probability be more useful to others not to say to my self than if he gave it to me by immediate Illumination because the knowledge which is gained the former way may be more easily imparted to another than that which might be obtained by the latter For I can lead another into my knowledge of Scripture which comes by the way of industry and study by shewing him the reason that convinced me and discovering the method of my coming to it Now Reason you know is a thing common to you and me
extemporary praying and to pass for one that hath a double measure of the Spirit with them who are apt to ascribe all Heat and Eloquence in matters of Religion to a divine Principle I do not speak this to undervalue any man's abilities in this kinde but onely to shew that they may be set too high As for them that do so they may undeceive themselves by observing the very Prayers of those persons whose gifts this way are most remarkable for although these men are sometimes pleased to decry the use of Forms as not savouring of the Spirit yet it is plain enough that their own Prayers as spiritual as they look may be as purely Humane as the Prayers of a Book are by them judged to be For it is evident that they tie up themselves to those usual Topicks of Prayer and Heads of Devotion according to which Book-prayers as they call them are framed They usually begin with the Invocation of God by the acknowledgement of his Attributes and then they run through the common places of Confession Petition and Thanksgiving which are the subjects that furnish set Forms of Prayer They confess the same Sins they beg the same Graces they praise God for the same Blessings in all their Prayers Now this is that which I suppose none of them will deny and then I think they must confess that their Prayers as to the matter of them are as formal as those of the Liturgy But further as the matter of their Prayers is confined to certain Heads so for the most part they use the same expressions onely with this condition that they are laid in with such good store of them that they need not use them all at once but may keep some against another time And thus indeed they do not tie up themselves to a form of Words because they have as many Forms to use as may be made by the shifting and transposing of those Phrases which they have in stock and so many Forms they have more or fewer according as that stock increases more or less And thus as we pray out of our Books so do they out of their Memories and the difference between their way and ours for I speak now of those that do not use to talk idly and extravagantly in their extemporary Prayers is this that ours hath the advantage of Safety and theirs of Popularity and Ostentation But I am not able to divine what that is in Extemporary praying as that is distinguish'd from using a set Form which must needs be ascribed to the immediate suggestion of the Spirit The matter of such Prayers is certainly the most considerable and the knowledge of that we see may come another way which seem'd to be the minde too of the late Assembly who although they threw aside the Book of Common-prayers to make way for Extemporary Performances yet thought fit to give the Minister a Directory for the Matter without leaving him to be guided in that by the suggestion of the Holy Ghost which made some men think they might e'ne as well have prescribed a set Form unless they intended to leave the meaner office of supplying him with words to the Holy Spirit But the words and phrases as I have shewn you may come from a more familiar Principle And then there is nothing left but that shifting and changing of places with them which makes the great show of variety But this is so unworthy to be ascribed to a divine principle that I may conclude extemporary Prayers allowing them to be never so useful and profitable need not to be dictated by Inspiration and therefore no such Inspiration was promised by our Saviour when be promised the Gift of the Holy Spirit to all his Disciples Thus have I shewn that neither of these three things come under the promise in St. Luke 11.13 For they are not Gifts of that kinde which are there promised to them that ask the Spirit And I adde it may be strongly presumed that they are promised nowhere else since they do not fall under this general promise of the Spirit which comprehends all the rest But because there are some men so vehemently perswaded that the Holy Spirit is given for these purposes that they reckon it little better than Blasphemy to gainsay it I shall proceed to those places of Scripture upon which such mighty confidence is grounded to see whether they afford any reason for it SECT 4. And first as to those testimonies which are alledged out of the Bible in favour of interpreting or understanding Scripture by the immediate revelation of the Spirit I refer the Reader wholly to Dr. Hammond's Postscript concerning New Light and divine Illumination annexed to his Paraphrase c. upon the New Testament where they are all considered and shewn to infer no such thing as is desired to be concluded from them But if after all any man should say that he knows by the Light of the Spirit that Interpretation which Dr. Hammond hath given of those Texts to be nothing better than carnal Reasoning and come over with Dr. Owen's talk of the Natural Man and the impossibility of understanding the spiritual sence of Gospel-truths without the Almighty Illumination of the Spirit I confess it will prove a matter of as great difficulty to reply to such a pretender as it is to finde out a way to convince a Quaker For what success can any man promise himself by replying to a confident Enthusiast who perpetually appeals from the most evident reasons the plainest testimonies of Scripture and the most rational inferences from them to the testimony of the Spirit However this I will venture to say that if it were granted impossible to understand these Texts without that New Light which the Papists call an Infallible Spirit and Dr. Owen and his party an Almighty work of the Holy Ghost for in effect they are both the same thing then it must be granted withal that these Texts are impertinently produced to convince us who do not pretend to this Infallible Spirit that there are a sort of men upon whom God bestows that priviledge For that theirs is the true sence cannot be proved to us but by rational means i. e. either by arguing from the original words or the Context or parallel places or the like or else by some clear divine testimony proper to convince us that they in particular are inspired such as real and undoubted Miracles This latter way is pretended to onely by the Papists and though the frauds they have been deprehended in sufficiently shew those amongst them that have raised the noise of their Miracles to be Impostors yet it is to be acknowledged that they pretend to offer a rational means of Conviction that their Church interprets the Scripture by an infallible Spirit which the men I am at present speaking of do not offer in the least As for the former way of convincing us by rational evidence from the Text it self it is that which we are
unquainted withal And by this he shews that the practice of despising his opinions concerning Grace has not been taken up of late Now I will not say how old the practice has been of making every quarrel a man is concerned in equal to the Cause of those godly men whose sufferings are mentioned in the Scripture but 't is well enough known that 't is at least as old as that Faction which our Author hath espoused and whether this be not one branch of a proud inclination let sober men judge It has been often observed of these men how dear They and their Opinions are to themselves and the Doctor has here given you a good ordinary instance of it For if he had not been bewitch'd with self-conceit he had never made this absurd parallel for what had Abel or Isaac to do with his Cause If he had onely called us the seed of Cain and Ishmael without saying why who would have thought the reason had been our questioning whether men are snatch'd into a state of Grace by an irresistible power And yet this is his great quarrel against us concerning the manner of Conversion which here he pretends to explain I know he does more than insinuate and that more than once that we disown the very assistances of the Holy Spirit as I shall convince you in a fitter place but this you are to look upon as an effect of his rage which makes him foam out Calumnies against us without any discretion for he knows well enough that his Adversaries are not guilty of it as I shall shew you too from his own words and then I shall desire him to consider whether the Father of Lyes be not the Representative of such shameless Writers as he is an example of As to what he saith that such a work of God upon men as he contends for is exposed to derision if upon that account he compares his Adversaries to scoffing Ishmael I think he does them great wrong For let him if he can name any of his opinion in this matter who has debated the point with any appearance of Modesty and Sobriety and was answered with the least shew of Contempt But as for those of whom Dr. Owen is one that instead of answering the Arguments of their Adversaries complain that they are laughed at and do themselves fall upon them with the foulest reproaches as upon the Enemies of Christ it may be sometimes good to take down their haughty spirits and to render their arrogance contemptible lest others be encouraged to hope that any Cause may be carried by vapouring In my opinion it is a difficult undertaking to define in particular what is the manner and measure of the Holy Spirit 's Operations because I think the Scriptures have not particularly acquainted us what it is Let others who have better considered the thing enjoy the liberty of thinking otherwise and for my own part I shall with all thankfulness submit to further instruction But as for Dr. Owen I hope to make it appear that the Scriptures do not favour his determination of the Question which I shall the rather endeavour because I conceive this opinion that the Spirit worketh upon our mindes in an irresistible manner especially as he hath advanced it to be of dangerous consequence to the Souls of men In the mean time I shall lay down some Propositions the truth of which will I think be easily granted by all sober Christians from whence we may in general conclude what is the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations and the measure of their power not that I think even this were needful if our Author and those of his way had not fallen into a dangerous Mistake by venturing too far For that which has been already said seems to me to afford a sufficient foundation of Godliness and Comfort if all be not subverted again by their opinion of the Manner wherein we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit Now I think it will appear that those general Propositions wherein they agree with us concerning the Manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations on our mindes are inconsistent with their particular definition of it And the first of them is this That 1. Faith and Repentance or Conversion to God together with Perseverance in Holiness are truely and properly the effects of God's Word revealed to us in the Doctrines of the Gospel Wherefore such is the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operation in producing these Qualifications in our mindes that it hinders them not from being the Genuine effects of the Revelation of the Gospel but they ought still to be ascribed to that force and efficacy of those divine Truths which are contained in it whereby the Gospel is in it self a fit and proper means of working the Grace of God in the mindâ— of men Now it is very plain that the proper and natural power of the Gospel to produce these effects consists in the evidence of its Truth in the authority and excellency of its Laws and in the weightiness of its Promises and Threatnings and other motives to obedience Wherefore if Conversion be the proper effect of God's Word it follows that the Holy Spirit does 1. Onely co-operate to the producing of that effect and 2. In that manner as it may truely be affirmed to be an effect of those considerations which are propounded to us in the Gospel The truth of the Supposition is manifest from divers places of Scripture As for Faith St. Paul plainly tells us it comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10.17 Thus upon the conversion of many Unbelievers it is said that the Word of God grew mightily and prevailed Acts 19.20 i. e. the testimonies which God gave to the truth of the Gospel convinced many that were in all appearance most likely to oppose it Hence St. Paul tells the Corinthians that in Christ Jesus he had begotten them through the Gospel i. e. by the preaching of the Gospel he had first brought them over to the faith of Christ. Furthermore our obedience is by St. Peter ascribed to the power of God's Word where he saith that we have great and precious promises given to us that by These we might be partakers of the divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1.4 To the same purpose the Word of God is said to work effectually in those that believed 1 Thess. 2.13 i. e. by the force of those promises mentioned by St. Peter and other weighty considerations moving to holiness Finally our Regeneration is expresly ascribed to the Word of God for we are said to be born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 and our Spiritual improvement is attributed not long after to the same cause As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 Thus the increase of
motive included in the nature of this Operation nor does the Spirit use any motive when he thus operates for as these men say this Physical Operation is the immediate cause of Conversion And now let any man tell me in what capacity the Word of God can stand to be a means of Grace In the mean time our Author if you will believe him pays a great regard to the Scriptures which he does not onely render thus useless in general but many plain testimonies whereof he contradicts in particular and for instance that passage in our Saviour's Prayer Sanctifie them through thy truth thy Word is truth I desire him at his leisure to consider whether the Grace which our Saviour praied for in his Disciples behalf were an immediate Physical Operation if not whether we are now sanctified by another sort of Operation than that which Christ praied for Now to say in express terms that the Word of God is of no use in the conversion of a Sinner would sound so horridly in any sober Christians Ears that the Doctor himself has not ventured upon it but on the contrary he is often perswading his Reader that he attributes as much to the efficacy of the Word as any of them all For he tells us Whereas some contend that the whole of the Grace of God consists in the effectual application of it unto the mindes 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 assigne 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 After a few such sayings as these a man need not be ashamed to say any thing For 1. They who contend that the administration of the Word by the Spirit applying it to the minde is insufficient to cause Conversion and that there is another action of the Spirit wherein no use is made of the Word at all necessary to Conversion do not attribute so much power to the Word as they do who say the former is sufficient 2. Much less do they so if withal they pretend that this other Operation is the immediate cause of Conversion whereby the Word is excluded from intervening as a Means 3. And yet much less if they say this Operation produces the effect irresistibly and till this irresistible act hath taken place the Word is utterly ineffectual 4. Least of all can it be pretended that they assigne more power to the Word than their Adversaries do I wonder at this man's confidence to venture such open falshoods abroad as these are It had been enough in conscience for a modest man to say that those of our Author's opinion ascribe as much power to the Word as we do but to say they assigne more to it is too much in all reason to go for a mere mistake And therefore one may well think he saw clearly enough that he defer'd not so much to the Word as we and that because he affirmed the contrary he resolved to put on a Face for something and say withal that he ascribed more For truely he may e'ne say that as well as the other for this passage of his is but the next Page before he asserts and endeavours to prove for a great while together that till the Soul is changed by his Physical Operation the Word of God hath no more power to make a due impression on it no though the motives thereof be urged by the internal perswasion of the Spirit than you have to stir a Rock by speaking to it or to raise a dead Body from the Grave by a Syllogiâ—â—â— And yet this is the maâ— that just before would make you believe how he yields as much nay more efficacy to the Word than we who say that Mankinde is not so incapable of being converted by the Word but that when it is blessed and used as he well enough expresseth it by the Holy Spirit it is sufficient to convert a man without any such Physical Operation as they talk of But you see this man makes it to be no more than a Dead Letter even when it is quickened by the Spirit too and after all his Flourishes resolves Conversion into an irresistible Operation in which there is no use of the Word at all And this is enough to shew you what an irreverent opinion he has of it whatever he pretends to the contrary And so much for the first Proposition SECT 2. 2. The manner wherein the Holy Spirit acts upon the mindes of men is suitable to the ratioâ—nal nature of Mankinde Which is a truth so fully express'd and liberally granted by Dr. Owen that I shall need to say the less of it For he saith The power which the Holy Ghost puts forth in our Regeneration is such in its acting or exercise as 〈◊〉 Mindes Wills and Affections are suted to be wrought upon and to be affected by it according to their Natures and natural Operations Again he doth not act in them otherwise than they themselves are meet to be acted according to their own Nature Power and Ability He draws us with the Cords of a man And then he tells us the work it self is expressed by perswading and alluring and that it carries no more repugnancy to our Faculties than a prevalent perswasion doth Again that our mindes are not merely passive Instruments as formerly in Prophetical inspirations moved above their own natural Capacity and Activity as to the manner of Operation But he works on the Mindes of men in and by their own natural actings through an immediate influence and impression of his Power Lastly that he offers no violence or compulsion to the Will this he saith that Faculty is not naturally capable to give admission unto if it be compelled it is destroyed These are very fair concessions and â—â—less you have given over wondering at our Author's way of writing you would hardly believe they should drop from his Pen. But they are his own words I assure you though Light and Darkness may be assoon reconciled as they can be to that Opinion concerning the manner of the Holy Spirit 's Operations which he so eagerly contends for For if a Physical Operation immediately and irresistibly producing Faith and Holiness be utterly unsuitable and repugnant to the natural faculties and operations of the minde in which those effects are wrought then is it most evident that those Concessions are inconsistent with the Hypothesis of Conversion by that Physical Work Now let him tell me whether the minde of man is according to its Nature and natural Operations suited to be wrought upon by such a Power as makes not the least use of the Understanding of the least Thought
opened the Eyes of him that was born blinde the Pharisees would believe never the more that he was of God and yet all the pretence they could finde against him was because this cure was wrought on the Sabbath-day vers 16. For when they had strictly examined all circumstances of the Miracle and the healed person in conclusion talked such unanswerable reason against them Herein is a marvelous thing that ye know not whence he is c. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the Eyes of one that was born blinde If this man were not of God he could do nothing i. e. he could do no such works as these they were resolved to give him the hearing no longer but first bitterly reproached him and then cast him out Now our Saviour frequently told these men that their prejudice against him arose from their Lusts How saith he can ye believe who receive honour from one another and seek not the honour that cometh from God onely John 5.44 i. e. so long as your Hearts are set upon worldly greatness and the praise of men which if you can compass you care not in the mean while whether God approves of you or not it is no wonder that ye reject my Doctrine who came not to answer your ambitious and worldly expectations although I come with testimony from God and the works that I do bear witness of me vers 36. Thus the Apostle tells us That the God of this world blindeth the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4.4 where we have a plain reason given us by the Apostle why some believed not who had the light of the Gospel shining about them i. e. who had it preached to them with its proper evidence viz. because the God of this world had blinded their Mindes i. e. because they were blinded with the prejudices of prevailing Lust and Passion by which the Devil rules in the Children of disobedience Wherefore as Faith is necessary to that more perfect victory over our Lusts which includes the universal doing of God's Will So on the other hand our mindes must in some degree be disengaged from the power of our Lusts before we can heartily believe viz. so far as that we may be ready to yield to the truth how contrary sover it proves to our sensual and worldly affections and consequently that they shall not hinder our attention and consideration when the Word of God is offered to be made known to us Of this teachable disposition we have a remarkable instance in Acts 16.14 The Lord opened Lydia 's heart that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul where we may observe 1. That her being qualified to hear which is here expressed by the opening of her Heart is ascribed to a divine operation which prevented even her attention to what she heard 2. That the immediate effect of the Lords opening her Heart was not her believing but her attending to those things which were spoken of Paul i. e. she heard him diligently without prejudice and passion and was willing to embrace the truth This was the effect of God's Spirit and whoever is thus disposed will believe the Gospel when it is made known to him because it is indeed the Word of God This is that temper of minde which was all that our Saviour desired to finde among men in order to the convincing of them that he was the true Prophet If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self Joh. 7.17 i. e. If a man be willing to do whatsoever shall appear to be the Will of God and so is not prejudiced against the truth by his Lusts such a one will easily be convinced that my Doctrine is of God And because this temper comes from the divine Spirit therefore he that is thus disposed is said to be of God For it is exactly to the same purpose what our Saviour saith John 8.47 He that is of God heareth God's Words ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God For this was the Answer he made to that Question of his own If I say the truth why do ye not believe me He gives the reason himself Because ye are not of God The meaning whereof is plain from vers 44. Ye are of your Father the Devil and the lusts of your Father ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth c. So that to be of the Devil is to be wedded to our Lusts and enraged against the truth that contradicts them And therefore the contrary state or temper to be of God is plainly to be ready to perform all duty and to believe all truth and whoever was thus disposed would hear God's Words and believe them vers 47. Thus after our Saviour had appealed to the Miracles which he wrought before his Enemies Joh. 10.25 he tells them But ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep Where by Sheep cannot be meant actual Disciples for then the sence were Ye believe not because ye believe not But such as were by a teachable spirit disposed to be so and would hear his voice for such as these would follow him assoon as he called them because he was the true Shepherd Now that this preparedness of minde to embrace the truth was an effect of the divine Spirit is clearly implied in vers 29. My Father who gave them me i. e. who hath thus disposed and qualified them to hear my voice is greater than all and none is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hands to defeat them of that eternal Life which Christ had promised v. 28. All these places being compared with John 6.37 give a clear light to the true interpretation thereof All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me i. e. will believe in me and become my Disciples and then to be given of the Father is the same thing with being resolved to do the Will of God Joh. 7.17 and being of God Joh. 8.47 and being Christ's Sheep Joh. 10.26 All which Phrases signifie that humility and teachableness of minde whereby men are prepared to believe the truth Onely the Fathers giving such persons to Christ is an expression noting that divine Grace whereby their mindes are thus disposed for which reason being brought to this temper is called vers 44. being drawn by the Father No man can come to me except the Father who hath sent me draw him i. e. unless the grace of God hath so far prevailed over his Affections as to indue him with an impartial love to the truth and his Heart be thereby opened to attend to God's Word And in this sence we may use those words of the Apostle spoken upon another occasion No man can say that Jesus is the Lord
but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 This is the substance of what I can finde in the Scripture concerning this matter and I suppose it is sufficiently shewn that faith or a firm perswasion that Jesus is the Son of God and that his Doctrine is the Word of God is an effect of a divine Operation upon our mindes and that the first preparations within us towards Regeneration are from the Holy Spirit And consequently that the Semipelagian opinion introduced by the Massilienses upon occasion of the Pelagian controversie viz. that there is no necessity of preventing Grace though Grace be necessary to make our Faith fruitful of good works but that Faith and the first inclinations of the Will to that which is good are merely from our selves is contrary to the Scriptures SECT 2. Now when we are once perswaded that Jesus is the Son of God that which still remains to be done by us is to overcome the world and keep the Commandments of God Indeed if we believe in Jesus we have entertained into our mindes such forcible and prevailing considerations as will not easily suffer us to disobey him in any thing and they have so much power to lead our Affections after them and to govern our practices that I always thought the Semipelagians might with more appearance of reason have questioned the Doctrine of the Church concerning those divine Operations by which the Faith of a Believer is crowned with all other Christian Virtues than concerning those which are preparatory to Faith it self for of the two he is a more unreasonable man who believing God's Word is yet so mad as to go on still in his sins than he who believes it not and since the Lusts of men make them so unwilling to attend to those truths which are against them we might think it were an easier matter to keep the Faith of Christ from entring into their Hearts than to resist the power of it when it is once admitted But now as the evidence of those Reasons by which the Gospel is proved to be a divine Revelation is far from excluding all need of a divine Influence upon our mindes to create a firm Faith in us So neither does the power of those motives which are contained in our Faith render the concurrence of the Holy Spirit needless to move our Wills to that which is good and upon good principles but still our sufficiency is of God without whose Grace the temptations of the World and the lusts of our corrupt Nature which make us unwilling to entertain the truth would always suppress the force and vertue of it afterwards Thus our Saviour told his Disciples Without me ye can do nothing John 15.5 but he did not suppose that they were incapable of doing any thing with him too but that they had power to bring forth fruit unto God and that it was from him Now that this power imparted to them was not merely the effect of the Revelation of his Doctrine to them is plain from hence that they already believed the Revelations he had made Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you vers 3. and yet he tells them that without him they can do nothing which must needs imply some grace distinct from the bare revelation of the Gospel by which they had already bore some fruit and were capable of bringing forth more vers 2 3. But that all those dispositions and vertues wherein our obedience to the Gospel doth consist are as well the graces of the Holy Spirit as the effects of our Faith is clearly and fully affirmed in those words of the Apostle Phil. 2.13 It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do which being again spoken to Believers manifestly suppose a divine Operation distinct from the Revelation of the Gospel which enabled them to will and to do i. e. to perform that obedience from their very souls which would qualifie them for eternal happiness For this is the motive by which the Apostle encourageth them to work out their Salvation vers 12. by universal obedience as hitherto they had done Now because the motive extends to engage us to every part of our duty therefore God worketh in us that we may be every way so disposed in minde and will and obedient in life as to become meet for the Kingdom of Heaven Wherefore the fear and love of God and godly Sorrow and true Repentance and the hope of eternal Life together with all Christian Virtues such as Righteousness Mercy Patience Love Peace Joy Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance are the Graces of the Spirit Wherefore Lastly our doing that which God requires and with that fear and love of him which he requires too are the effects of his Operations in us If any thing were yet wanting to satisfie us fully in this matter our being taught to pray that we may not enter into temptation and to pray always that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil would leave no room for doubting whether of our selves we need or by promise have this great encouragement to the study of Godliness and Virtue or not For these directions were unprofitable if we either needed no strength from the divine Spirit against our Temptations or if it were not to be gained by our Prayers Much less would those Prayers of St. Paul for other Christians which we so often meet withal have signified any thing to their advantage or encouragement if there were not a divine Grace obtainable by them for the producing of those effects which he so much desired to see in their conversation And these effects were no other than all kindes of Christian Virtue and Goodness as we may learn by the following places Wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of Faith with power 2 Thess. 1.11 i. e. that God would make their Faith fruitful of all good works acceptable to him that the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified in them as he speaks in the following verse Again we do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good work Col. 1.9 10. Thus in another place For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the Inner man Now that which the Apostle prays for in these and many like places is plainly this That those Christians to whom he wrote might attain all those Qualifications which the Gospel requires in Believers And from hence it follows that God hath not left the success of the Gospel to