On the Holy Spirit

(Pneumatologia)

by

John Owen

(1616-1683)

A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT

IN WHICH

AN ACCOUNT IS GIVEN OF HIS NAME, NATURE, PERSONALITY, OPERATIONS, AND EFFECTS; HIS WHOLE WORK IN THE OLD AND NEW CREATION IS EXPLAINED; THE DOCTRINE CONCERNING IT IS VINDICATED FROM OPPOSITION AND REPROACH.

THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF GOSPEL HOLINESS; THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GRACE AND MORALITY — OR A SPIRITUAL LIFE LIVED TO GOD IN EVANGELICAL OBEDIENCE,

AND A COURSE OF MORAL VIRTUES — ARE STATED AND DECLARED.

PART I

BOOKS I THROUGH V

"Search the Scriptures…" — John 5.39

Ἐκ τῶν θείων γραφᾶν θεολογοῦμεν, καὶ θέλωσιν οἱ ἐχθροὶ, καὶ μή.

Out of the written word of God come Divine teachings, though His enemies may not wish it.

— CHRYSOSTOM

London:

1674.

from

THE WORKS OF JOHN OWEN

EDITED BY

WILLIAM H. GOOLD

VOLUME 3

This Edition of

THE WORKS OF JOHN OWEN

first published by Johnstone & Hunter, 1850-53

Books I through V

were published in 1674.

Books VI through IX

were published in 1677

In this edition, book VI began again at page 1.

Modernized, formatted, corrected, and annotated (in blue)

© by William H. Gross www.onthewing.org Mar 2011

Except where indicated,

Scripture in the footnotes is taken from the New King James version,

Thomas Nelson, Publishers, 1982.

Last updated 11/10/2015

CONTENTS

Editor's Note

Prefatory note.

Analysis.

To the Readers.

Book I.

Chapter I.  General principles concerning the Holy Spirit and his work.

Chapter II.  The name and titles of the Holy Spirit.

Chapter III.  Divine nature and personality of the Holy Spirit proved and vindicated.

Chapter IV.  Particular works of the Holy Spirit in the first or old creation.

Chapter V.  Way and manner of the divine dispensation of the Holy Spirit.

Book II.

Chapter I.  Particular operations of the Holy Spirit under the Old Testament  preparatory for the New.

I. Extraordinary Works of the Spirit.

1. Prophecy

2. The Writing of Scripture

3. Miracles

II. Ordinary Works of the Spirit.

1. In respect to political things.

2. In respect to moral virtues.

3. In respect to natural abilities.

4. In respect to the intellect.

Chapter II.  General dispensation of the Holy Spirit with respect to the new creation.

Chapter III.  Work of the Holy Spirit with respect to the head of the new creation - the human nature of Christ.

Christ as Head of the Church

I. Respecting the Person of Jesus Christ

Chapter IV.  Work of the Holy Spirit in and on the human nature of Christ.

II. Respecting Others on behalf of Christ

Chapter V.  The general work of the Holy Spirit in the new creation with respect to  the members of that body of which Christ is the head.

Book III.

Chapter I.  Work of the Holy Spirit in the new creation by regeneration.

Chapter II.  Works of the Holy Spirit preparatory to regeneration.

Chapter III.  Corruption or depravation of the mind by sin.

Chapter IV.  Life and death, natural and spiritual, compared.

Chapter V.  The nature, causes, and means of regeneration.

Chapter VI.  The manner of conversion explained in the instance of Augustine.

Book IV.

Chapter I.  The nature of sanctification and gospel holiness explained.

Chapter II.  Sanctification is a progressive work.

Chapter III. Believers are the only object of sanctification, and subject of gospel holiness.

Chapter IV.  The defilement of sin, what it consists in, with its purification.

Chapter V.  The filth of sin is purged by the Spirit, and the blood of Christ.

Chapter VI.  The positive work of the Spirit in the sanctification of believers.

Chapter VII.  Of the acts and duties of holiness.

Chapter VIII.  Mortification of sin, the nature and causes of it.

Book V.

Chapter I.  Necessity of holiness from the consideration of the nature of God.

Chapter II.  Eternal election is a cause of and motive for holiness.

Chapter III.  Holiness is necessary from the commands of God.

Chapter IV.  Necessity of holiness from God's sending Jesus Christ.

Chapter V.  Necessity of holiness from our condition in this world.

Editor's Note

This is a restatement and simplification of John Owen's original work, but not a paraphrase. Its purpose is to make it more accessible to a modern audience of believers, not just theologians. You may reproduce the text so long as you do not change it or sell it to anyone. This restriction is placed on it so that the propagation of any errors in the modernized language is limited. If someone rephrases my rephrasing, the treatise will quickly degenerate into a misstatement rather than a restatement of Owen's work.

What changes have been made?

The old English wording has been modernized, so that "thee" and "thou" are now "you" and "yours." American spelling has been largely employed (labor instead of labour). Inline scripture references may be superscripted to aid readability. Additional references are superscripted in blue. Roman numerals were changed to Arabic and corrected as needed. The difficult structure and syntax were simplified. Sentences in many cases were split into several sentences for ease of reading. Parallelism has been employed to maintain rhythm and clarity. The word "peculiar" is variously rendered "particular", "unique", "special," or "specific," depending on the context. Unreferenced pronouns and "understood" words have been made explicit. Now, Owen may have left personal pronouns ambiguous to reflect the mystery of the Godhead; but it was more obscure than mysterious. The passive voice is often changed to active. Duplicated texts, digressions not affecting the content, and alternate phrasings within the same sentence, have been removed for easier comprehension. Little-used words have either been annotated or replaced with simpler ones. Owen's wordiness has been reduced where possible. Formatting has also been revised (paragraph and page breaks, bullet points, etc.).

There are two unusual uses of language that have been retained in the text. The first is Owen's repeated use of "afterward" — "it will be fully explained afterward." He doesn't mean at some unspecified time later in the book. He means it in a sequential and orderly sense. He will first handle the topic at hand, and then get to the other aspect immediately "afterward."

The second unusual use of language involves the words "act, actings, actual, and actually." He uses the transitive form; we tend to use the intransitive prepositional form. We say that we "act in faith," or we "act under grace," and the Spirit imparts the grace that we act under. But Owen says that the Holy Spirit "acts grace" in us, and we "act faith" (rather than "act out our faith"). Actings are repeated acts of this kind; actual and actually are the proper adjectival and adverb forms of "act" (whereas today we use those forms to mean real and really). Owen describes a God-given "principle" – not a value, but an ability or a compelling power in us — that we act, or actuate, according to its purposes. We act the graces that He communicates to us by this principle. So, the Spirit imparts this principle to us, employing it to effect its purposes, using its real power in and through us, to produce its intended effects. And we freely participate by acting it — i.e., by putting that principle into gracious and holy action using our regenerated faculties. But in some instances, "acted" was changed to "moved," to be less distracting.

Language today continues to deteriorate as visual and auditory media replace written media. So Goold's mid-19th century prefatory and analytical notes, have also been modernized a bit to ensure they are more readily understood. ORIGINAL NOTES are in black, some ending with "— Ed." My notes are in blue, some ending with "— WHG." All page number references are the original page numbers of the 1850-53 edition, which are displayed intra-text.

Latin, Greek, and Hebrew phrases have either been removed from the body of the text (where they were more of a distraction than a help), or Anglicized with the Strong's number (NT:xxxx or OT:xxxxx). Some required clarifying text to make the point explicit. But Owen's full argument, supporting text, and style remain, as do William Goold's footnotes in their original languages. If you would like the digitized 1853 edition, with appendices cross-referencing both the Scriptures and original language used in the text, please consult CCEL's edition here:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/owen/pneum.html.

My aim is not to preserve Owen's text, but his teaching. It would be a shame if a modern audience didn't benefit from his labors because his language was too complex, archaic, or arcane to grasp. As with each of these restatements, I hope this one makes it more accessible to you, bringing home the wonder and importance of the doctrines of the Holy Spirit that Dr. Owen drew from Scripture, and vividly explains here.

There are few works on the Holy Spirit that have not been influenced by the Holiness movement of the 1800s, or the Charismatic movement of the 1920s. And there are few if any scholarly works outside those movements, that haven't drawn on this particular work of Dr. Owen to bring balance back to our view of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Please read William Goold's Prefatory Note to understand where this treatise fits with regard to Quakers and Quietism, which was just then arising. See also the note on p. 527, and Owen's caustic description on p. 556.

In Owen's introduction, "To the Readers," you'll see the same objections to dry rationalism that Jonathan Edwards later expressed in his treatise on Religious Affections (1746). Yet both men objected as well to the unfounded emotionalism that was rampant in their day — the term used then was "enthusiastic" or "enthusiasm." They weren't decrying passionate belief. Rather, they insisted that our passion must be born, provoked, and enlarged only by God's truth. Both extremes, cold intellectualism and wild enthusiasm, remain evident in our own day; and so the balance that Owen provides here is still greatly needed, and it will be useful to every believer.

Over the past 350 years, scholars have improved little upon Dr. Owen's labors. He gave glory to God by relying solely on the authority of Scripture for the things which he taught, as the contents of this treatise will amply demonstrate. It is a profound and wonderful work: I pray that you may enjoy and be edified by it. It has such a repetition and rhythm to it — of the doctrines, principles, and text of Scripture concerning God's Spirit — that you needn't worry if you don't get it all at the first reading of a portion. He will so drive it, drive it, drive it throughout, that it becomes fixed in your heart and soul — at least, it has mine.

William H. Gross

www.onthewing.org Mar 2011

Prefatory note.

The year 1674 saw, issuing from the press, some of the most elaborate productions of our author. Besides his own share in the Communion controversy, he published in the course of that year the second volume of his "Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews," and another folio of equal extent and importance: the first part of his work on the Holy Spirit. For what is generally known under the title of "Owen on the Holy Spirit," is but the first half of a treatise on that subject. The treatise was completed in successive publications: "The Reason of Faith," in 1677; "The Causes, Ways, and Means of Understanding the Mind of God," etc., in 1678; "The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer," in 1682; and in 1693 two posthumous discourses appeared, "On the Work of the Spirit as a Comforter, and as the Author of Spiritual Gifts." From the statements of Owen himself in various parts of these works, as well as on the authority of Nathaniel Mather, who wrote the preface to the last of them, we learn that they were all included in one design, and must be regarded as one entire and uniform work.

In Owen's preface to the "Reason of Faith," he expressly states,

About three years ago I published a book about the dispensation and operations of the Spirit of God. That book was only one part of what I designed on that subject. The consideration of the work of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of illumination, of supplication, of consolation, and as the immediate author of all spiritual offices and gifts, extraordinary and ordinary, is designed for the second part of it.

Uncertain, as he advanced in years, whether he would be spared to finish it, Owen was induced to separately issue the treatises belonging to the second part, according to his ability under the pressure of other duties, to overtake the preparation and completion of them. They are now collected for the first time, and arranged into the order which, it is believed, the author would have had them if he lived to publish an edition comprehending all his treatises on the Holy Spirit in the form and under the title of one work. No other liberty, however, has been taken with these treatises than simply to number the four of them which were published separately, and to include the contents of the next volume as so many additional books; thus it continues and completes the discussion of the subject which had begun and was prosecuted in the five previous books that are embraced in this volume. To all of them, the general designation pneumatologia is equally applicable. Thus arranged and seen in its full proportions, the work amply vindicates the commendation bestowed on it, as the most complete exhibition of the doctrine of Scripture on the person and agency of the Spirit "to be found in any language." No author had previously attempted to address "the whole economy of the Holy Spirit, with all his adjuncts,[1] operations, and effects," Owen pleads extenuating circumstances for any lack of system and lucid order in his work. If such an attempt had never previously been made, it is equally true that no successor has been found in this walk of theology who has ventured to compete with Owen in the laying down and systematic discussion of this great theme. Treatises of eminent ability and value have appeared on separate departments of it. But in the wide range embraced in this work of Owen, as well as in the power, depth, and resources conspicuous in every chapter, it is not merely first, but single and alone in all our religious literature.

The work, as we may gather from various allusions in it, was written in opposition to the rationalism of the early Socinians,[2] especially as represented by Crellius; to the mysticism of the Quakers,[3] a sect which had grown into notoriety within thirty years before the publication of this work; and to the irreligion of a time when the derision of all true piety was the passport to royal favor. That fanaticism of various kinds should appear during the religious fervors of the commonwealth, is no more strange than, when genuine coin is in circulation, attempts are made to replace it with what is counterfeit and base. Against such fanaticism it was natural that a reaction would ensue. Certain divines pandered to the blind prejudice of the times succeeding the Restoration, by sarcastic invective against all that was evangelical in the creed of the Puritans and vital in personal godliness. Samuel Parker[4] was infamous in his subservience to the malice of the Court against dissent, and even against the common interests of Protestantism. He distinguished himself in his assault upon the doctrines of grace and the distinctive principles of the Christian faith. Owen accordingly administers a rebuke to him in terms as severe as the calm dignity of his temper ever allowed him to employ in controversy. But the prominent aim in his whole work is to distinguish the gracious operations of the Spirit in the hearts of believers, from the excesses of fanaticism. On the one hand, whether as it appeared in the ruder sects of the age or in the more genial mysticism of the Quaker, Owen elevated his subjective experience of a spiritual light to co-ordinate authority with the objective revelation of God in the word. On the other hand, he distinguished it from the morality which, having no gracious principle to guide it, scarcely tolerated an appeal to the only divine code there is for the regulation of human conduct.

This comprehensive treatise abounds in more than Owen's usual wordiness. That feature of the work may, perhaps, be explained by the consciousness under which the author always seems to labor when he is prosecuting an argument with opponents, rather than dealing with the conscience in a treatise on practical religion. He moves heavily, as if he were armored for conflict rather than girded for useful work. As he proceeds, however, the interest deepens; weighty questions receive clear elucidation; practical difficulties are judiciously resolved; and momentous distinctions, such as those between gospel holiness and common morality, and between natural and moral inability, are skillfully given. Indeed, many points which he brings out with sufficient precision, when stripped of the wordiness which encumbers them, are found to be identical with certain modes in the presentation of divine truth which have been deemed the discoveries and improvements of a later theology. No work of the author supplies better evidence of his pre-eminent skill in what may be termed spiritual ethics. He traces the effect of religious truth on the conscience, and the varied phases of human feeling as modified by divine grace and tested by the divine word. His reasonings would have been reputed highly philosophical if they had not been so very scriptural.

It is in reference to the following work that Cecil, an acute and rather severe judge of books and authors, has observed, "Owen stands at the head of his class of divines. His scholars will be more profound and enlarged, and better furnished, than those of most other writers. His work on the Spirit has been my treasure-house, and one of my very first-rate books." A good abridgment of it by the Rev G. Burder has appeared in more than one edition.

In 1678, Dr. Clagett, preacher to the Honorable Society of Gray's Inn, and one of his Majesty's chaplains in ordinary, in "A Discourse concerning the Operation of the Holy Spirit," etc., attempted "a confutation of some part of Dr. Owen's work on that subject." Mr. John Humfrey, in his "Peaceable Disquisitions," criticized the spirit in which Clagett had dealt with Owen. Clagett published another volume, and promised a third on the opinions of the Fathers respecting the points at issue. The manuscript of this last volume was lost in a fire which consumed the house of a friend with whom it had been lodged. Henry Stebbing published in 1719 an abridgment of the first two volumes. The principles of the work are not evangelical; a tone of cold pedantry pervades it; and the author seems as much influenced by a desire to differ from Owen as to discover the truth in regard to the points on which they differed.

Analysis.

The FIRST BOOK of the treatise is devoted to considerations of a general and preliminary nature. The promise of spiritual gifts contained in Scripture is examined; and from this occasion is taken to illustrate in chapter 1 the importance of sound views on the doctrine of the Spirit,

- from the place it holds in Scripture;

- from the abuses practiced under His name;

- from certain pretenses that were urged toward an inward light, that were inconsistent with the claims of the Spirit of God;

- from many dangerous opinions which had become prevalent respecting His work and influence; and

- from the opposition directly offered to the Spirit and His work in the world.

In chapter 2 the name and titles of the Holy Spirit are considered. The evidence of his divine nature and personality follows,

- from the formula of our initiation into the covenant; Mat 28.19

- from the visible sign of His personal existence; Mat 3.16

- from the personal properties ascribed to Him;

- from the personal acts He performs; and

- from those acts towards Him on the part of men which imply his personality.

In chapter 3, we have a short proof of his Godhead, from the divine names he receives, and the divine properties ascribed to him; it is appended to the argument in illustration of his personality. In chapter 4, the work of the Spirit in the old creation in reference to the heavens, to the earth, to man, and to the continued sustentation of the universe, is fully explained. In chapter 5, the dispensation of the Spirit is illustrated in reference to the Father as giving, sending him, etc., and in reference to His own voluntary and personal agency as proceeding, coming, etc.

4

In the SECOND BOOK, the particular operations of the Holy Spirit under the Old Testament, and in preparation for the new, are considered, such as prophecy, inspiration, miracles, and other gifts (ch. 1); the importance of the Holy Spirit in the new creation is proved by the fact that he is the subject of the great promise in sacred Scripture respecting new testament times (ch. 2). His work in reference to Christ is unfolded under a twofold aspect —

1. As it bore on Himself, in framing Christ's human nature; sanctifying it in the instant of conception, filling it with the needful[5] grace, anointing it with extraordinary gifts, conveying to it miraculous powers, guiding, comforting, and supporting Christ, enabling him to offer himself without spot to God, preserving his human nature in the state of the dead, raising it from the grave, and finally glorifying it (ch. 3); and,

2. As He secures, throughout successive ages, a sound and explicit testimony to the person and work of Christ (ch. 4). General considerations are urged regarding the work of the Spirit in the new creation, as it relates to the mystical body of Christ — to all believers (ch. 5).

The THIRD BOOK is occupied with the subject of regeneration as the special work of the Spirit. It is shown not to consist in baptism merely, or external reformation, or enthusiastic raptures (ch. 1). The operations of the Spirit preparatory to regeneration are exhibited, such as illumination, conviction, etc. (ch. 2). Two important chapters of a digressive character follow, in which the condition of man by nature is stated, as spiritually blind and impotent (ch. 3), and as spiritually dead (ch. 4). The true nature of regeneration is next illustrated — first negatively, in which it is proved not to consist in any result of moral persuasion (moral persuasion being defined and the extent of its efficacy being fixed). No change which it can effect can be viewed as tantamount to regeneration, because,

1. It leaves the will undetermined;

2. It imparts no supernatural strength;

3. It is not all we pray for when we pray for efficient grace (ch. 4); and

4. It does not actually produce regeneration or conversion.

Regeneration is then considered positively, as implying all the moral operation which means can effect; and not only a moral but a physical and immediate operation of the Spirit; and the irresistibility of this internal efficiency on the minds of men. Explanations are given as to the effect that, in regeneration, the Holy Ghost acts according to our mental nature; He does not act upon us by an influence such as inspiration; and He offers no violence to the will. Then three arguments are given in support of this view of regeneration — from the conferring of faith by the power of God, from the victorious efficacy of internal grace as attested by Scripture, and from the nature of the work itself as described in various terms of Scripture, "quickening," "regeneration," etc.; and also from the terms in which the effect of grace on the different faculties of the soul is represented (ch. 5). The manner of conversion is then explained in the instance of Augustine, the account by that eminent father of his own conversion being selected to illustrate both the outward means of conversion, and the various degrees and effects of spiritual influence on the human mind (ch. 6).

The FOURTH BOOK discusses the doctrine of sanctification, which is presented as the process completing what the act of regeneration has begun. A general view is then given of the nature of sanctification, as consisting in 1. external dedication; and 2. internal purification (ch. 1). Its progressive character is unfolded (ch. 2); and it is proved that it is a gracious process, extending to believers only (ch. 3). Sanctification is illustrated as it relates to the removal of spiritual defilement; and it is proved that man cannot purge himself from his natural depravity (ch. 4). It is shown how the Spirit and blood of Christ are effectual to purge the heart and conscience — the Spirit efficaciously, the blood of Christ meritoriously, faith as the instrumental cause, and afflictions as a subordinate instrumentality (ch. 5). The positive work of sanctification follows, embracing evidence of two propositions:

1. That the Spirit implants a supernatural habit and principle enabling believers to obey the divine will, and differing from all natural habits, both intellectual or moral; and,

2. That grace is requisite for every act of acceptable obedience.

Under the first proposition, four things are considered — 1) the reality of the principle asserted; 2) its nature in inclining the will; 3) the power as well as the inclination that it imparts; and lastly, 4) its specific difference from all other habits (ch. 6). Under the second proposition the acts and duties of holiness are reviewed, and proof is supplied of the necessity of grace for them (ch. 7). The nature of the mortification of sin, as a special part of sanctification, is considered; directions for this spiritual exercise are given; particular means for the mortification of sin are specified; and certain errors respecting this duty are corrected (ch. 8).

The FIFTH BOOK simply contains arguments for the necessity of holiness — from the nature of God (ch. 1); from eternal election (ch. 2); from the divine commands (ch. 3); from the mission of Christ (ch. 4); and from our condition in this world (ch. 5). — Ed.

5

To the Readers.

An account in general of the nature and design of the ensuing discourse, with the reasons why it is made public at this time, is given in the first chapter of the treatise itself. Therefore I will not detain the readers long at its introduction. But a few things are necessary to acquaint them with, both as to the matter contained in it and as to the manner of its handling. The subject-matter of the whole, as the title and almost every page of the book declares, is the Holy Spirit of God and his operations. There are two things to be addressed, either of which are sufficient to render any subject either difficult on the one hand, or unpleasant on the other. We have both to conflict with in this treatise: for where the matter itself is abstruse and mysterious, it cannot be handled without its difficulties; and where it has fallen under public contempt and scorn by any means whatever, there is an abatement of satisfaction in its consideration and defense. Now, all the concerns of the Holy Spirit are an eminent part of the "mystery" or "deep things of God;" for just as the knowledge of them wholly depends on and is regulated by divine revelation, so they are divine and heavenly in their own nature. They are distant and remote from all things that the heart of man can rise up to in the mere exercise of its own reason or understanding. Yet, on the other hand, there is nothing in the world that is more generally despised as foolish and contemptible than the things that are spoken of and ascribed to the Spirit of God. If a fanatic dares to avow an interest in the work of the Spirit, or if he takes upon himself its defense, he needs no help to forfeit his reputation with many, as being estranged from the conduct of reason and all generous principles of conversation. Therefore these things must be spoken of a little, if only to manifest where relief may be had against the discouragements which attend them.

For the first thing proposed, it must be granted that the things addressed here are in themselves mysterious and abstruse. Yet the way by which we may endeavor to acquaint ourselves with them, "according to the measure of the gift of Christ to every one," Eph 4.7 is made plain in the Scriptures of truth. If this way is neglected or despised, then all other ways of attempting the same end, however vigorous or promising they may be, will prove ineffectual. It is not my present work to declare or be diverted by what belongs to the inward frame and disposition of mind in those who search to understand these things, or what belongs to the outward use of means, or to the performance of spiritual duties, and the conformity of the soul to each discovery of truth that is attained. If God gives an opportunity to address the work of the Holy Spirit in enabling us to understand the Scriptures, or to understand the mind of God in them, then the whole of this will be declared at large.

At present, it may suffice to observe that God, who in himself is the eternal original spring and fountain of all truth, is also the only sovereign cause and author of its revelation to us. The truth, which originally is one in God, is of various sorts and kinds according to the variety of things respectively communicated to us.

6

The ways and means of that communication are suited to the distinct nature of each truth in particular. So the truth of natural things is made known from God by the exercise of reason or the due application of the understanding that is in man for their investigation; for "the spirit of the man knows the things of a man." 1Cor 2.11 Ordinarily there is nothing more required for that degree of certainty of knowledge in things of that nature of which our minds are capable, than the diligent application of the faculties of our souls; the due use of proper means will attain this. Yet there is a secret work of the Spirit of God in this, even in the communication of skill and ability in natural things, in civil things, in moral, political, and artificial things, as fully manifested in our ensuing discourse. But because these things belong to the work of the old creation and its preservation, or to the rule and government of mankind in this world as rational creatures, no use of means, and no communication of aids, whether spiritual or supernatural, is absolutely necessary to be exercised or granted about them. Therefore, knowledge and wisdom in things of this nature are distributed promiscuously among all sorts of persons, according to the foundation of their natural abilities. Their diligent exercise may be enhanced without any specific application to God for special grace or assistance — yet still reserving liberty for the sovereignty of divine Providence in the disposal of all men and their concerns.

But as to supernatural things — the knowledge and truth of them — the teachings of God are of another nature. And in like manner, a specific appeal to God for instruction is required of us. In these things also there are degrees as they approach, on the one hand, the infinite abyss of the divine essence and existence — such as the eternal generation and incarnation of the Son, or the procession and mission of the Holy Spirit — and on the other hand, those divine effects which are produced in our souls, and which we experience. According to these degrees, as the divine condescension is exerted in their revelation, so our attention in the exercise of faith, humility, and prayer, ought to be increased as we inquire into them. All that diligence in the use of outward means — which is necessary to attain the knowledge of any other useful truth — is indispensably required in becoming acquainted with these things. Yet if we do not add spiritual ways and means, suited in their own nature and appointed by God for receiving supernatural light, and the understanding of the deep things of God, then our labor about them will be fruitless and unprofitable in great measure. The letter of the Scripture and the sense of the propositions are equally exposed to the reason of all mankind; yet the real spiritual knowledge of the things themselves is not communicated to anyone except by the special operation of the Holy Spirit. Nor is any considerable degree of insight into the doctrine of their mysteries attainable except by duly waiting on Him who alone gives "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of them;" Eph 1.17 for "no man knows the things of God, except the Spirit of God," 1Cor 2.11 and those to whom they are revealed by him. Nor can the Scriptures be rightly interpreted except by the aid of that Spirit by which they were penned, as Hierom[6] affirms, and as I will afterward fully prove. But we do not need to despond in the use of the means mentioned; rather, seeing that these things are revealed so that we may know God in a due manner, and live for him as we should, we may attain such a measure of spiritual understanding of them as to be useful for our own and others' edification. Those who are not slothful in hearing or learning may do this, I say, and "by reason of use, they will have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Heb 5.14

7

Therefore, the subject of the ensuing discourses being entirely things of this nature, in their several degrees of access to God or ourselves, I will give no account of any particular endeavors in my inquiries into them. Instead, I leave the judgment of it to the evidence of the effects produced by it. Only, I do not know of anyone who has gone before me in this design of representing the whole economy of the Holy Spirit, with all his adjuncts, operations, and effects — of which this is the first part (the attempt of Crellius in this effort only corrupted the truth in a few instances). Just as the difficulty of my work was increased by this, so it may plead my excuse if anything is found not to answer so regular a projection, or so just a method, as the nature of the subject requires and was aimed at.

In the FIRST PART of the whole work, which concerns the name, divine nature, personality, and mission of the Holy Spirit, I merely declare and defend the faith of the catholic church against the Socinian.[7] Whatever advantage there is in contribution of light or evidence, strength or order, as to what has been pleaded before by others, is left to the learned readers to judge and determine. As to the adjuncts and properties of the Spirit's mission and operation, some may (I hope) judge themselves not unbeholden to me for giving them an occasion for deeper and better thoughts about them.

The SECOND PART of our endeavor concerns the work of the Holy Spirit in the old creation, in its production, preservation, and rule. Because I did not have the advantage of any ancient or modern author to beat out the paths of truth before me in this, I have confined myself to express testimonies of Scripture, with such expositions of them as to sufficiently evidence their own truth; although they do not lack such an allowance from others as to give them some authority.

The same may be said of what succeeds in the next section concerning His work under the New Testament, preparatory for the new creation in communicating all sorts of gifts, both ordinary and extraordinary, and all kinds of skill and ability in spiritual, natural, moral, artificial, and political things; and the instances by which these operations are confirmed. All these things, many of which are handled by others separately and apart, are proposed here in their order with respect to their proper end and design.

For what concerns His work on the head of the new creation,Eph 1.22 or the human nature in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, I have been careful to keep severely under the bounds of sobriety, and not to indulge in any elaborate or unwarrantable speculations. In this I have therefore not only diligently attended to the doctrine of the Scripture (our only infallible rule and guide), but also expressly considered what was taught and believed in the ancient church in this matter, and from which I know that I have not departed.

I will not add more as to the first difficulty which attends an endeavor of this kind; it arises from the very nature of the subject addressed. But the other, concerning the contempt cast by many on all these things, must be further dealt with.

In all the dispensations of God towards his people under the Old Testament, there was nothing of good communicated to them, nothing of worth or excellence worked in them or by them, except what is expressly assigned to the Holy Spirit as its author and cause. Yet, next to that promise of the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, of all the other promises given to them concerning a better and more glorious state of the church to be introduced afterward, the most eminent are those which concern an enlargement and fuller communication of the Spirit. This was beyond what they were or could be made partakers of in their imperfect state. Accordingly, we find in the New Testament that whatever concerns the conversion of the elect, the edification of the church, the sanctification and consolation of believers,

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the performance of those duties of obedience that we owe to God, along with our conduct in all the ways of these things — is so appropriated to the Holy Spirit in general and particular instances, that it is declared that nothing of it can be enjoyed or performed without his special operation, aid, and assistance. God was careful to fully instruct and secure the faith of the church in this matter, because he knew its eternal concerns lie in it. Yet notwithstanding all the evidence given for this, the church of God in most ages has been agitated by oppositions either to the Spirit's person, or his work, or the manner of it — all of this being contrary to what is promised and declared concerning these things in the word of truth; and it has not yet ceased.

Indeed, though the contradictions of some in former ages have been fierce and clamorous, yet the only thing that has come of it has been far short of what has come to pass in the days in which we live. The Socinians, for example, have gathered into one head, or rather one ulcerous abscess, all the virulent oppositions made to His deity or grace by the Photinians,[8] Macedonians, and Pelagians[9] of old. But there are others who profess no enmity toward his divine person; indeed, they admit and accept the doctrine of the church concerning it; and yet they are ready on all occasions to despise and reproach that whole work for which he was promised under the Old Testament, and which is expressly assigned to him in the New. Hence, among many, it has grown to be a matter of reproach and scorn for anyone to mention his grace, or profess an interest in that work of his, as his work, without which no man will see God Heb 12.14 (if the Scripture is a faithful testimony). Some have taken pains to prove that various things which are expressly assigned to him in the gospel, as effects of his power and grace, are only filthy exuberances, or at least they are the weak imaginations of untempered minds. Nor is there any end of defamatory accusations by those in whom his work is avowed and his grace is professed.

Indeed, the deportment of many in this is such as that, if it were not known how profane the corrupted minds of men are, their behavior would seem ridiculous and dismissible, rather than deserving any serious notice. For if anyone avows or pleads for the known work of the Spirit of God, it is immediately seen as a sufficient ground to charge them with leaving the rule of the word to attend to revelations and inspirations, foregoing all thoughts of the necessity of the duties of obedience. But, in fact, no other work of the Spirit is pleaded for except that work without which no man can either attend to the rule of the Scripture as he should, or perform any duty of obedience to God in a proper manner. And there are none in this conspiracy, so weak or unlearned, that they do not scoff at the mention of the Spirit, and cast on others the very naming of him as a reproach. Indeed, it would not be surprising if some begin to deal in the same way with the person of Christ himself — for once error and profaneness are countenanced, they are fruitful and progressive at all times. They will be so while darkness and corruption abide on the minds of men, and the great adversary is able to make impressions on them by his subtle malice. But in these things, not a few please themselves, despise others, and would count themselves injured, if their Christianity were called into question. But what value is there in that name or title, where the whole mystery of the gospel is excluded from our religion? Take away the dispensation of the Spirit, and his effectual operations in all the intercourse that is between God and man — be ashamed to avow or profess the work attributed to him in the gospel — and Christianity is plucked up by the roots. Indeed, this practical contempt for the work of the Holy Spirit, having grown into a plausible defiance of religion, is also the most pernicious; it is beyond all conceptual mistakes and errors about these things, because it is constantly accompanied by profaneness, and it commonly results in atheism.

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In this lies the rise and spring of that stated apostasy from the power of evangelical truth, 2Tim 4.3-4 in which the world takes liberty to merge itself with all licentiousness in life and conduct, the end of which can only be expected with dread and terror.

The principal design of the ensuing discourses is,

- to obviate these evils in some measure;

- to vindicate the truth and reality of divine spiritual operations in the church;

- to avow what is believed and taught concerning the Holy Spirit and his work by those who are most charged with and turned to for their profession of this truth, and thereby to show the iniquity of these slanders under the darkness and shades of which some seek to countenance themselves in their profane scoffing at His whole dispensation;

- to manifest in all instances, that what is ascribed to the Spirit is not only consistent with religion, but that religion cannot consist without it, nor can its power be preserved.

Now, because the effectual operation of the blessed Spirit in the regeneration or conversion of sinners, of all other parts in this work, is most violently opposed and poisonously maligned lately, I have more largely emphasized it. And because it can neither be well understood nor duly explained without the consideration of the state of a lapsed or corrupted nature, I have also included that at large, judging it necessary to do so. For, because the knowledge of it lies at the bottom of all our obedience to God by Christ, it has always been (and continues to be) the design of some to either wholly deny it, or else to minimize it to the depression and almost annihilation of the grace of the gospel by which alone our nature can be repaired. Therefore, designing to expressly address the reparation of our nature by grace, it was on all accounts necessary to also address the depravation[10] of our nature by sin.

Moreover, what is discussed on these things is suited to edify those who believe; it is directed to further their true spiritual obedience and holiness (the obedience of faith).Rom 16.26 Hence, it may be that some will judge that our discourses on these subjects are drawn out to a greater length than needed or convenient, because practical applications have been intermixed throughout. But they should consider that my design was not to handle these things in a controversial way, but to declare and confirm the truth concerning these doctrines with a view toward practice. And I dare not address things of this nature in any other way except as may promote the edification of believers generally; they will either be of my mind, or it may be that, without much difficulty, they will admit my excuse. However, if these things are neglected or despised by some, no matter how many, there are still others who will judge their principal concern lies in those discourses that may direct and encourage them in the holy practice of their duty. The way, manner, and method of the Holy Spirit in his operations, as to his work of translating sinners from death to life, and from a state of nature to that of grace, have been variously handled by some, and scornfully reflected on by others. I therefore endeavored to declare and assert what the Scripture manifestly teaches about them, confirming it with the testimonies of some of the ancient writers of the church, so that I have no doubt that it is suited to the experience of those who, in their own souls, have been made partakers of that blessed work of the Holy Ghost.

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In the substance of what is delivered, I rest upon the plain testimonies of the Scripture, the witness of the ancient church, and the experience of those who sincerely believe. Thus I will not be greatly disturbed by the censures and opposition of those who are other-minded.

I will add no more on this topic except to say that the only inconsistency with which our doctrine is pressed, is the pretended difficulty in reconciling the nature and necessity of our duty, with the efficacy of the grace of the Spirit. Because of that, I have not waived the consideration of it; rather, I have embraced every opportunity to examine it in all particular instances in which it may be urged with the most apparent probability. And I hope at length it becomes clear that not only is the necessity of our duty consistent with the efficacy of God's grace, but also that we can perform no duty to God as we should without grace's aid and assistance — nor may we have any encouragement to attempt a course of obedience without a just expectation of grace. On the other hand, so that the work of grace itself will be effectual in our compliance, done by way of duty, we give the pre-eminence in all of it to grace, and not to ourselves — though some may or may not give it. The command of God is the measure and rule of our industry and diligence by way of duty; I cannot understand why anyone should be discouraged from exercising that industry which God requires of him, considering the aid and assistance which God has promised him. The work of obedience is difficult and of the highest importance; so that if anyone can be negligent in this — because God will help and assist him — it is because he hates it. Let others do what they please, I will endeavor to comply with the apostle's advice on the forcefulness which he gives to this labor: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do by his own good pleasure." Phi 2.12-13

These things, with others of similar nature, falling unavoidably under consideration, have drawn out these discourses to a length far beyond my first design; which is also the reason I refrained for the present from adding to them those other parts of the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer or supplication, in illumination with respect to the belief of the Scriptures, and right understanding of the mind of God in them, in the communication of gifts to the church, and in the consolation of believers. These must now wait for another opportunity, if God in his goodness and patience is pleased to grant it to us.[11]

Another part of the work of the Holy Spirit consists in our sanctification, on which our evangelical obedience (our holiness) depends. It is not unknown to anyone who thinks it is their duty to inquire into these things, how much all of the Spirit's operations in this are also despised by some, and what endeavors have been made to debase the nature of gospel obedience — indeed, to throw it out of the hearts and lives of Christians, and to substitute at best a heathenish honesty for it. Hence I thought it necessary, on the occasion of addressing the work of the Holy Spirit in our sanctification, to make a diligent and full inquiry into the true nature of evangelical holiness, and into that spiritual life to God which all believers are created for in Christ Jesus. And in this, following the conduct of the Scriptures from first to last, what so evidently manifested itself was the difference between those things, and that exercise of moral virtue which some plead for in their stead; it takes no great effort to represent this to anyone of impartial judgment. Only in handling these things, I thought it fitting to pursue my former method and design, and principally to reduce the doctrines insisted on to the practice and improvement of holiness. This also occasioned lengthening these discourses. I do not doubt that all these things will be despised by some.

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They are what they are, and my declaration of these things will not make them any more acceptable to them. Let them please themselves while they see good in their own imaginations. So long as the Scripture is admitted to be an infallible declaration of the will of God and of the nature of spiritual things, and so long as Christians remain in the world who endeavor to live to God and come to enjoy him by Jesus Christ, we will not lack sufficient testimony against that putrid figment that moral virtue is the extent of our gospel holiness, or that the reparation of our natures and of our life to God consists in this alone.

In the last place follows a discourse concerning the necessity of holiness and obedience. I confess that in this I had some regard (though not much) to the ridiculous clamors of malevolent and ignorant persons, charging that those who plead for the efficacy of the grace of God, and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, had thereby removed the need for a holy life. Who would trouble himself about such an accusation which is widely seen as counterfeit by those who believe those doctrines, and which common light testifies against in the conduct of those by whom they are received, and those by whom they are despised? It was the importance of the thing itself, made particularly opportune by the manifold temptations of the days in which we live, which occasioned what was added to the nature of evangelical holiness; seeing "if we know these things, happy we are if we do them." Joh 13.17 Yet, because the principal arguments and demonstrations of that need are drawn from those doctrines of the gospel which some malign as having no value, the slanders mentioned are also obviated.[12] And we have proceeded thus far in declaring and vindicating the New Testament work of the Spirit of God, which is despised by some, and referring the remaining instances to another occasion.

The oppositions to all that we believe and maintain in this are of two sorts: First, those which consist in particular exceptions against and objections to each particular work of the Spirit, whether in the communication of gifts or in the operation of grace. Secondly, those which consist in reflections cast on the whole work ascribed to him in general. Those of the first sort will all be considered in their proper places, where we address those special acts of the Spirit to which they are opposed. The other sort, at least the main ones which some make the loudest noise about, may be briefly spoken of here:

The first and chief pretense of this nature is that all those who plead for the effectual operations of the Holy Spirit in the illumination of the minds of men, the reparation of their natures, the sanctification of their persons, and their endowment with spiritual gifts, are thereby enemies to reason, and they impugn the use of reason in religion, or at least they do not allow its due place and exercise in religion. Hence, some of those who are other-minded say it is a reproach to be a rational divine; although, as far as I can discern, if that were so, it would be like Hierom[13] being undeservedly beaten by an angel for being a Ciceronian (in the judgment of some).[14] But the grounds on which this charge would be made good have not yet been made apparent; nor has it been evinced that anything is ascribed by us to the efficacy of God's grace that would in the least be derogatory to reason, to its use, or to any duty of man depending on it. I suppose we are agreed that the reason of man, in our current state, is not sufficient in itself to discover or frame a religion by which we may please God and be accepted by him. Or if we are not agreed in this, I will not admit, as part of our present controversy, that we may imagine a religion proceeding from and resolved into supernatural revelation. Nor is it yet pleaded by anyone I know of, that reason is able to comprehend all things in their nature and being.

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Nor is reason able to search out to perfection those things that are revealed to us. We are not directly dealing with those by whom the principal mysteries of the gospel are rejected — they cannot comprehend them, under a pretense that what is above reason, is against reason. And maybe it will be granted that natural reason cannot enable the mind of a man to have a saving perception of spiritual things, as revealed, without the special aid of the Spirit of God to illuminate them. If this is denied by any, then as we acknowledge our dissent from them; we know that we are doing no injury to reason by it. We would rather suffer the imputation of doing so, than become infidels by renouncing the Scripture in order to be esteemed rational. But we cannot conceive how reason is prejudiced by advancing the rational faculties of our souls with respect to their exercise towards their proper objects — which is all we assign to the work of the Holy Spirit in this matter. And there are none in the world who more freely grant that, to us, our reason is the only judge of the sense and truth of the propositions drawn from the Scripture or proposed in it. We wish that all men might be left in peace under that determination where we know they must abide, whether they will or not.

But the inquiry in this matter is how reasonable the mysteries of our religion appear when revealed to our reason, and what ability we have to receive, believe, and obey them as such? The latter part of this inquiry is so fully spoken to in the ensuing discourses that I will not emphasize it here again; the former may be spoken to in a few words. It cannot be (and to my knowledge it is not denied by any) that Christian religion is highly reasonable; for it is the effect of the infinite reason, understanding, and wisdom of God. But the question is not what it is in itself, but what it is in relation to our reason, or how it appears to our reason. And there is no doubt that everything in Christian religion appears highly reasonable to the enlightened reason, or to the mind of man affected by that work of grace in its renovation, which is so expressly ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Scripture. For there is a suitableness between an enlightened mind, and spiritual mysteries as they are revealed. Seeing these mysteries in their proper light, the mind finds by experience their necessity, use, goodness, and benefit with respect to our highest good and supreme end. It only remains, therefore, that we inquire how reasonable the mysteries of Christian religion are to the minds of corrupted men; for we have proved in the ensuing treatise that they are corrupted by the entrance of sin, as we believe. And thus it is in vain to dispute with anyone about the reasonableness of evangelical faith and obedience until the state and condition of our reason is agreed upon. Thus, to speak plainly, we acknowledge that reason in its corrupted state is all that any man has in that state, by which to understand and judge the sense and truth of the doctrines revealed in the Scripture. And in the use of such aids and means as it is capable of, reason is more and better suited to the corrupted man than any judge or interpreter, who would impose a sense upon him that is unsuitable, considering his state. So, as to the spiritual things of the gospel, in their own nature, the natural mind is enmity against them;Rom 8.7 they are foolishness to it.1Cor 2.14 Therefore, if it is a crime, and if it impeaches and disadvantages reason to affirm that our minds need the renovation of the Holy Ghost to enable them to understand spiritual things in a spiritual manner, then we acknowledge that we are guilty of this. Otherwise, it is unduly charged against us that, by asserting the efficacious operations of the Spirit of God, and their necessity to discharge every spiritual duty towards God in an acceptable manner, we somehow deny the use and exercise of our own reason in religious and spiritual things — things of which our reason is capable, and for which it is appointed by God. This will be fully manifested afterward.

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But moreover, it is pretended that, by the operations which we ascribe to the Holy Spirit, we expose men to being deceived by satanical delusions, and open a door to emotionalism; that we are directing them to be guided by unaccountable impulses and revelations, and thus make way for all manner of folly and villainy. By what means this charge can be affixed to those who professedly avow that nothing is good, nothing is our duty, nothing is acceptable to God, except what is warranted by the Scripture — directed by it and suited to it — has not yet been made manifest; only ungrounded clamors. Scripture is the only perfect rule of all that God requires of us in the way of obedience. All things of this nature are not only condemned by the Scriptures, but all things they teach concerning the Holy Spirit of God are the principal ways and means to secure us from the danger of such things. It is true that there were formerly, and unfortunately there still are among some, satanical delusions, diabolical suggestions, and foul emotionalism, which are pretended to come from the Spirit of God and to be of divine origin. These aberrations are plainly described in the Scripture, both under the Old Testament and the New; directions are given for their discovery and disprovement. But if we must therefore reject the true and real operations of the Spirit of God, the principal preservative against being deceived by these things, then we may as well reject the owning of God himself, because the devil has imposed himself on mankind as the object of their worship. This is why, as to emotionalism of any kind which might countenance any diabolical suggestions, we deny that any operations of the Holy Ghost consist in them, or in anything like them. And we have a sure rule by which to test all these things. We are bound in all such cases to precisely attend to them. God has promised the assistance of his Spirit, so that those who do this in sincerity are not deceived.

What some men mean by impulses, I do not know. If it is special aids, assistance, and inclination toward their duties, acknowledged as such, and these duties are specifically incumbent on them in their present circumstances, then it requires no small caution that, under an invidious name, we do not reject those supplies of grace which are promised to us, and which we are bound to pray for. But if what is meant are irrational impressions, or violent inclinations toward things or actions which are not acknowledged duties, as evidenced by the word of truth and by their present condition and circumstances, then we utterly abandon them. No pretense is given to them from anything which we believe concerning the Holy Spirit and his operations. For the whole work which we assign to the Spirit is only that by which we are enabled to perform that obedience to God which is required in the Scripture, in the way and manner in which it is required. It is probably more out of enmity toward him than us where the contrary is pretended.

The same may be said concerning revelations. They are of two sorts — objective and subjective. Those of the former sort, whether they contain doctrines contrary to that of Scripture, or they are additions to it, or speciously[15] confirm it, they are all to be universally rejected — the former being absolutely false, and the latter absolutely useless. Nor do any of the operations of the Spirit pleaded for, have the least respect to these things — for the Spirit having finished the whole work of external revelation, and closed it in the Scripture, his whole internal spiritual work is suited and commensurate to that end. By subjective revelations, we only mean that work of spiritual illumination by which we are enabled to discern and understand the mind of God in the Scripture. This is what the apostle prays for on behalf of all believers, Eph 1.16-19.[16] Its nature, with God's assistance, will be fully explained afterward. Therefore, there is little pretense for this charge — on those by whom the efficacious operations of the Spirit of God are asserted — such that, without these operations, we have no absolute security that we will be preserved from being imposed on by them, or by some of them.[17]

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But maybe it will be said in the end, that our whole labor in declaring the work of the Spirit of God in us and towards us, as well as our brief vindication of it, is altogether vain — because it is empty talk with unintelligible expressions. That is indeed what some say, before they have produced their charter in which they are made the sole judges of what words, expressions, and ways of teaching are proper in things of this nature. But by all appearances, they seem to be as unfit for the exercise of that dictatorship as any who ever undertook to declare sacred and spiritual things. For this reason, unless they come up with better authority than they yet pretend to have, and give a better example of their own way and manner of teaching such things than they have yet given, we will continue to make the phraseology of Scripture our rule and pattern in the declaration of spiritual things. And we will endeavor to accommodate all our expressions to that rule, whether it is intelligible to them or not. We do that for reasons that are so easy to be conceived, that they do not need to be pleaded here.

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DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT

Book I.

Chapter I.

General principles concerning the Holy Spirit and his work.

1Cor 12.1 explained — pneumatica, spiritual gifts — Their grant to, use and abuse in, that church — Jesus, how he is called "anathema" — Impiety of the Jews — How he is called "Lord" — The foundation of church order and worship — In what sense we are enabled by the Spirit to call Jesus "Lord" — The Holy Spirit the author of all gifts — why he is called "God," and "The Lord" — General distribution of spiritual gifts — Proper end of their communication — Nine sorts of gifts — Abuse of them in the church — Their tendency toward peace and order — General design of the ensuing discourse concerning the Spirit and his dispensation — Importance of the doctrine concerning the Spirit of God and his operations — Reasons for this — Promise of the Spirit to supply the absence of Christ, as to his human nature — The concern of this — The work of the Spirit in the ministration of the gospel — All saving good is communicated to us and worked in us by him — Sin against the Holy Ghost is irremissible — False pretenses to the Spirit are dangerous — Pretenses to the spirit of prophecy under the Old Testament — Two sorts of false prophets: the first and second sorts — Pretenders under the New Testament — The rule for the trial of such pretenders, 1John 4.1-3 — Rules to this purpose under the Old and New Testaments are compared — A false spirit, set up against the Spirit of God, is examined — False and noxious opinions concerning the Spirit, and how to obviate them — Reproaches of the Spirit and his work — Principles and occasions of the apostasy of churches under the law and gospel — Dispensation of the Spirit is not confined to the first ages of the church — The great necessity of a diligent inquiry into the things taught concerning the Spirit of God and his work.

The apostle Paul, in the 12th chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, directs their exercise of spiritual gifts which they had asked him about (among other things and emergencies). Here are the fixed words with which he prefaces his whole discourse: Verse 1, "Now, concerning spiritual gifts," — pneumatika, or charismata as his ensuing declaration shows. The imagination of some, that spiritual persons are meant here — contrary to the sense understood by all the ancients — is inconsistent with the context.[18]

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Because the church had consulted with Paul about spiritual gifts and their exercise, the whole series of his ensuing discourse is directed toward this. Therefore, at its close, he summarizes the design of the whole as he advises, "Covet earnestly the best gifts," — namely, among those which he proposed to address, and had done so accordingly, verse 31. The ta pneumatika of verse 1 are the ta charismata of verse 31; as it is expressed in 1Cor 14.1, "'Desire spiritual gifts,' whose nature and use you are now instructed in, as first proposed." That church had received an abundant measure of these gifts, especially those that were extraordinary, and tended to convict unbelievers. For the Lord having "many people in that city," whom he intended to call to the faith, Acts 18.9-10 encouraged our apostle, against all fears and dangers, to begin and carry on the work of preaching there; he continued in this "a year and six months," verse 11. But the Lord also furnished the first converts with such eminent, and for some of them, such miraculous gifts, that they might be a prevalent means to the conversion of many others. For the Lord will never fail to provide instruments and suitable means to effectively attain any end that he aims at. In the use, exercise, and management of these "spiritual gifts," that church (or a number of its principal members) had fallen into multiple disorders. They had abused their gifts, using them for their own aspirations and ambition. And from these, other evils ensued — just as the best of God's gifts may be abused by the lusts of men, and the purest water may be tainted by the earthen vessel into which it is poured. Upon receiving this information, some who loved truth, peace, and order, were troubled at these miscarriages.1Cor 1.11 In answer to a letter from the whole church, written to Paul about these and other occurrences,1Cor 7.1 he gave them counsel and advice to rectify these abuses. First, he advised them to rightly prepare themselves with humility and thankfulness, which becomes those who were entrusted with such excellent privileges as they had abused (and without which they could not receive the instruction which he intended for them). To do that, he reminded them of their former state and condition before their calling and conversion to Christ. "You know that you were Gentiles, carried away with dumb idols, even as you were led." 1Cor 12.2

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With violent impressions from the devil, they were hurried into the service of idols. Paul does not mention this to reproach them, but to let them know what frame of mind, and what fruit of life, might be justly expected of those who received such an alteration in their condition. Particularly (as he tells them elsewhere), if they did not make themselves different from others, and if they only had what they received from another, then they could not boast or exalt themselves above others, as though they had not received it.1Cor 4.7 For it is a vain thing for a man to boast in himself of what he freely received from another, and never deserved to receive, just as it is with all those who have received either gifts or grace from God.

He further declares to them this alteration of their state and condition by their effects and author:

"For this reason I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed; and no man can say that Jesus is the Lord except by the Holy Ghost." 1Cor 12.3

The great argument that was then in the world, concerned Jesus, who was preached to them all. Unbelievers, who were still carried by an impetus of their mind and by their affections for "dumb idols," were led and moved by the spirit of the devil to blaspheme. They said Jesus was anathema, or "one accursed." They looked at him as a person to be detested and abominated as the common odium[19] of their gods and men. Hence, at his mention they used to say, "Jesus anathema." He is, or let him be, "accursed, detested, destroyed." And the Jews continue in this blasphemy to this day, hiding their cursed sentiments under a corrupt pronunciation of his name. For instead of Yeshua, they write and call him Yeshu (ysv), the initial letters of yimmach shemo vezikhro — that is, "Let his name and memory be blotted out;" the same as "Jesus anathema." And this blasphemy of pronouncing Jesus accursed was what the first persecutors of the church tested the faith of Christians with, as Pliny said in his epistle to Trajan; Justin Martyr with other apologists agree. As the apostle says, those who did this did not do it "by the Spirit of God;" and so he means they did it by the action and instigation of the devil, the unclean spirit, which ruled in those children of disobedience. And this was the condition of those Corinthians themselves to whom he wrote when they were carried away with "dumb idols."

On the other side were those who believed. They called Jesus "Lord," or professed that he was the Lord. Thereby they avowed their faith in him and obedience to him. Principally, they admitted that he is Jehovah, the Lord over all, God blessed forever.

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For the name Yahweh is expressed everywhere in the New Testament by Kurios, which is used here. The one who thus professes Jesus to be the Lord, in the first place acknowledges him to be the true God. Thus, with this they professed him to be their Lord, the Lord of their souls and consciences to whom they owed all subjection and performed all obedience. Thomas did this in his great confession, "My Lord and my God." John 20.28 Now, Paul intimated before, that those who disowned him, and called him "accursed," spoke by the instinct and instigation of the devil by whom they were moved. So he lets them know, on the other hand, that no man can thus own and confess Jesus to be the "Lord" except by the Holy Ghost.

But it may be argued that some confessed Christ to be the Lord, because they were moved by an unclean spirit. The man in the synagogue did so; he cried out, "I know who you are, the Holy One of God." Mar 1.23-24 Jesus "did not allow the devils to speak, because they knew him." Mar 1.34 And the young woman possessed with a spirit of divination shouted at the apostle and his companions, "These men are the servants of the most high God." Act 16.17 The man who lived in the tombs also did this. Possessed by an unclean spirit, he cried out to Jesus, "What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the most high God?" Mark 5.7 Other similar testimonies might be produced among the heathen, and from their oracles.

Ans. 1. Our apostle writes that saying "Jesus is Lord" is accompanied by faith in him, and by subjecting our soul to him; which are from the Holy Ghost alone. Thus, none who are moved by an unclean spirit can call Jesus "Lord" [in this way].

Ans. 2. These acknowledgments were either (1) wrested[20] from the devil, and were no small part of his punishment and torment;[21] or (2) they were intentionally designed by the devil, who was a liar from the beginning, to prejudice the glory of Christ by his testimony: "a bad man is worst when he pretends to be a saint."[22]

These things, therefore, have no application here. By this, then, the apostle informs them what the foundation of all church relation, order, and worship consisted of. For because they had complete respect for the Lordship of Christ and acknowledged it, this was not from themselves; rather it was a pure effect of the operation of the Holy Ghost in them and towards them. Anything of a similar kind, which does not proceed from the same cause and fountain, is of no use to the glory of God; nor is it of any advantage to the souls of men.

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Some think that saying "Jesus is the Lord" is restricted to the way of speaking that is used afterward;[23] for the apostle in the following verses addresses those extraordinary gifts with which many in that church were then endowed. He says, "None can say 'Jesus is the Lord,' in an extraordinary manner, with various tongues, and in prophecy, except by the Holy Ghost;" — without his special assistance, none can eminently and miraculously declare Jesus to be so. And if this is true, it is likely that those mentioned before, who said Jesus was accursed, were persons pretending to be moved, or were really moved, by an extraordinary spirit, which the apostle declares is not the Spirit of God. Chrysostom interprets those words as speaking of those who were visibly and violently stirred by the devil. Satan stirred up many such instruments of his malice in those days, to preserve, if it were possible, his tottering kingdom from ruin. But there is no need to restrain the words this way, or affix this meaning to them. Indeed, it seems to me to be inconsistent with the design of the apostle and scope of the passage. For, as said earlier, intending to instruct the Corinthians in the nature, use, and exercise of spiritual gifts, Paul first lays down the spring and fountain of all saving professions of the gospel, which those gifts were designed to further and improve. Upon doing that, and having reminded them of their previous heathen state and condition, he lets them know by what means they were brought into the profession of the gospel, and into admitting that Jesus is the Lord, in opposition to the dumb idols whom they had served. And this was by done the Author of those gifts, the consideration of whom Paul was now addressing.

The great change worked 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, except by him — though some think he has 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 Savior. He was declared so, and preached by the angels, "A Savior, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2.11 And this word "Lord" includes not only the dignity of his person, but his investiture with those offices which this Lord exercised and discharged for our good.

Secondly, the profession of that faith.

These two things, where they are sincere, always accompany each other.Rom 10.10 For just as saying Jesus is anathema comprised an open disclaimer and renunciation of him, so calling him Lord expresses the profession of our faith in him, and of our subjection to him. And both these professions are meant here to be sincere and saving; for it is that faith and profession by which the church is built upon the rock.

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It is the same as when Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," Mat 16.16 And God assisting, it will afterward be abundantly declared that these are the works of the Holy Ghost, which none are sufficient for, of themselves.

Having thus stated the origin and foundation of the church in its faith, profession, order, and worship, Paul further informs them that the same Spirit is likewise the author of all those gifts by which it was to be built up and established, and by which its profession might be enlarged: "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit," 1Cor 12.4. These are the things about which he intends to speak, and which he enlarges upon in the whole ensuing chapter. Now, because the particulars he emphasizes here in the beginning of his discourse, will be encountered and recalled in their proper places, I will only point to the topics of the discourse in the verses that precede 1Cor 12.11, which is what we principally aim at.

Addressing, therefore, these spiritual things or gifts in the church,

First he declares their author from whom they come, and by whom they are worked and bestowed. He calls him the "Spirit," verse 4; the "Lord," verse 5; "God," verse 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. These words may be understood two ways:

First, that the whole Trinity, and each person distinctly, are meant by these terms — for consider the immediate operator of these gifts, and it is the "Spirit" or the Holy Ghost, verse 4; consider them as to their procurement and immediate authoritative conferring, and so they are from Christ, the Son, the "Lord," verse 5.

But [secondly], as to their first origin and source, they are from "God" the Father, verse 6: and all of these are one and the same. The Spirit alone is meant; and yet he has this threefold designation given to him. For just as he is particularly denoted by the name "Spirit," which Paul uses so that we may know whom it is that he eminently means, so Paul calls him both "Lord" and "God," to manifest his sovereign authority in all his works and administrations. It generates a due reverence in their hearts towards the one with whom they dealt in this matter.

Yet no more is meant in these three verses than what is summed up in verse 11: "But one and the same Spirit works all these, distributing to every man separately as he will."

Secondly, With respect to their general nature, the apostle divides them into "gifts," verse 4; "administrations," verse 5; and "operations," verse 6; — this division, along with the reasons for it, will be further clarified as we progress.

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Thirdly, Paul declares the general end of the Spirit of God in His communication of these gifts, and their use in the church: Verse 7, "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with." That is, "the revelation of the Spirit" is seen in the exercise of the gifts by which the Spirit manifests and reveals his own presence, power, and effectual operation. And the Spirit of God has no other aim in granting these enlightening gifts, in which he manifests his care of the church, and declares the things of the gospel to anyone, except that they be used to the profit, advantage, and edification of others. They are not bestowed on men for secular gain or advantage in riches, honor, or reputation — these are ends for which Simon the magician would have purchased them with his money.Act 8.18-19 Nor are they merely for the good and benefit of the souls of those who receive them. Rather, they are for the edification of the church, and the furtherance of faith and profession in others: "For that which is expedient, useful, profitable," — namely, to the church.[24] Thus the foundation of the first churches of the gospel was laid by the Holy Ghost; and the work of building toward their perfection was carried on by him. How far our present churches do or ought to stand on the same ground, and how far they are carried out on the same principles, is worth our inquiry; and it will be considered in its proper place.

Fourthly, the apostle categorizes the spiritual gifts then bestowed on the church, or some members of it, into nine particular heads or instances: 1. Wisdom; 2. Knowledge, or the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge;1Cor 7.8 3. Faith; 4. Healing;v. 9 5. Working miracles; 6. Prophecy; 7. Discerning spirits; 8. Kinds of tongues; 9. Interpretation of tongues.v. 10 And all these were extraordinary gifts in the manner of their communication and exercise, which related to the state of the church then. What still continues that is analogous to them, or proportional to them, must be further inquired into, when their special nature will also be unfolded. But for now, if there is that great diversity of gifts in the church, and if there is so much difference in their administrations, then how can it possibly be prevented that differences and divisions will arise among those on whom they are bestowed, and those among whom they are exercised? It is true that this may and sometimes does occur; and de facto, it did so in this church of Corinth. One admired one gift, a second another of a different kind, and so the third.

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Accordingly, among those who had received these gifts, one boasted of this or that particular gift and ability, and he would continually exercise it to the exclusion and contempt of others, even though it was bestowed no less for the edification of the church, than for his own. And they were so far transported with vain-glory, and a desire for self-advancement, that they preferred the use of those gifts in the church which tended principally to produce astonishment and admiration in those who heard or beheld them, above those gifts which were particularly useful for the edification of the church itself. It is this evil in particular that the apostle rebukes at large in chapter 14. By this means, the church came to be divided in itself, and almost broken in pieces, chap. 1.11-12. The minds of men are so often foolish, and so liable to be imposed upon; it is so common for their lusts — seduced and principled by the craft of Satan — to turn judgment into wormwood,[25] and to abuse the most useful effects of divine grace and bounty! In order to prevent all these evils for the future, the apostle declares both the author of these gifts and the rule he proceeds by in their dispensation, chap. 12.11: "All these," he says, "are worked by that one and self-same Spirit, distributing them to every man severally as he will." He does this to manifest how perfect a harmony there is in all these diverse gifts and different administrations; and what agreement there is among them in their tendency to bring about the same ends of the union and edification of the church; and from what a fountain of wisdom they proceed; and with what care they ought to be used and improved.

I will not at present further explain or insist on these words. Frequent recourse must be had to them in our progress, in which they will be fully explicated as to what concerns the person of the Spirit, his will, and his operations, which are all asserted in them. For my purpose is, through the permission and assistance of God, to address from this the name, nature, existence, and whole work of the Holy Spirit, along with the grace of God through Jesus Christ in the communication of the Spirit to the sons of men. This is a work that, in itself, is too great and difficult for me to undertake; it is beyond my ability to manage to the glory of God or the edification of the souls of those who believe, for "who is sufficient for these things?" 2Cor 2.16 Yet I dare not utterly faint in it, nor under it, while I look to Him whose work it is, who gives wisdom to those who lack it, and does not upbraid them. Jas 1.5 Our eyes, therefore, are toward him alone who both supplies seed to the sower, and when he has sown them, blesses it with an increase. The present necessity, importance, and usefulness of this work, are the only things which engaged me to undertake it. Therefore, I will briefly represent these in some general considerations, before I emphasize the things themselves, whose special explanation is designed.

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First then, we may consider that the doctrine of the Spirit of God, his work and grace, is the second great head or principle of those gospel truths in which the glory of God and the good of the souls of men are most eminently concerned. And it is such that, without it — without the knowledge of it in its truth, and the improvement of it in its power — the other will be useless to those ends. For when God designed the great and glorious work of recovering fallen man and saving sinners, to the praise of the glory of his grace, he appointed, in his infinite wisdom, two great means to do this. The one was giving his Son for them, and the other was giving his Spirit to them. And by this, a way was made to manifest the glory of the whole blessed Trinity; which is the utmost end of all the works of God. By this, the love, grace, and wisdom of the Father, in the design and projection of the whole, were made gloriously conspicuous. So too were the love, grace, and condescension of the Son, in the execution, purchase, and procurement of grace and salvation for sinners; along with the love, grace, and power of the Holy Spirit, in the effectual application of all these to the souls of men. Hence, from the first entrance of sin, there were two general heads of the promise of God to men concerning the means of their recovery and salvation. The one concerned sending his Son to be incarnate — to take our nature upon himself, to suffer for us in this. The other concerns giving his Spirit to make the effects and fruits of the incarnation, obedience, and suffering of his Son effectual in us and towards us. All the promises of God may be reduced to these two heads.

Now, because the incarnation was to be the foundation of the gift of the Spirit, that was the first to be laid down, and to be most insisted on, until it was actually accomplished. Hence, the great promise of the Old Testament, the principal object of the faith, hope, and expectation of believers, concerned the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, and the work which he was to perform. Yet we will see as we progress, that this was also accompanied with a great intermixture of promises concerning the Holy Spirit, to render the Son's coming and work effectual to us. But once that first work was fully accomplished, when the Son of God had come, and had destroyed the works of the devil, the principal remaining promise of the New Testament, the spring of all the rest, concerns sending the Holy Spirit to accomplish his part of that great work which God designed. Hence, the Holy Ghost — the doctrine concerning his person, work, and grace — is the most special and principal subject of the Scriptures of the New Testament, and it is a most eminent and immediate object of the faith of those who believe.

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This must be further clarified, seeing that we have to deal with some who will scarcely allow the Spirit to be at all considered in these matters. But I will be brief in these previous testimonies to this, because the whole ensuing discourse is designed to demonstrate the truth of this assertion.

1. It is of great moment, and sufficient of itself, to maintain the cause as proposed, that when our Lord Jesus Christ was to leave the world, he promised to send his Holy Spirit to his disciples to supply them his absence. We may in some measure conceive of what use the presence of Christ was to his disciples. They knew full well of his leaving them; their hearts were filled with sorrow at the mention of it, John 16.5-6. Intending to relieve them in this great distress — which drew out the highest expressions of love, tenderness, compassion, and care towards them — Jesus principally by this promise, assures them it will be to their advantage, greater than any they could receive by his continued bodily presence among them. And to secure them about this, as well as to inform them of its great importance, he frequently repeats this to them, and inculcates it upon them. Consider what he says to this purpose in his last discourse with them, John 14.16-18,

"I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him or know him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you;" that is, in and by this Holy Spirit.

And verses 25-27,

"These things have I spoken to you while still present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you. Peace I leave with you," etc.

And chap. 15.26,

"But when the Comforter has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me."

And chap. 16.5-15,

"Now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asks me, Where do you go? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you — but if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in me — of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you will see me no more — of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Yet when the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth: for he will not speak of himself;

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but whatever he hears, that he will speak: and he will show you things to come. He will glorify me: for he will take of what is mine, and show it to you. All things that the Father has are mine: therefore I said that he will take of mine, and show it to you."

This was the great legacy which our Lord Jesus Christ, departing out of this world, bequeathed to his sorrowful disciples. This he promises to them as a sufficient relief against all their troubles, and a faithful guide in all their ways. And because of the importance of it to them, he frequently repeats it, and enlarges upon the benefits that they would receive by it, giving them a particular account of why it would be more advantageous to them than his own bodily presence. And therefore, after his resurrection, he minds them again of this promise, commanding them to do nothing towards building the church until this promise was accomplished for them, Acts 1.4-5, 8.

They would have again embraced his human nature, and rejoiced in it; but as he said to Mary, "Do not touch me," John 20.17, to wean her from any carnal consideration of him — so he instructs them all to now look for and trust the promise of the Holy Ghost. From this, our apostle says, "Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet from now on we know him no more," 2Cor 5.16; for although it was a great privilege to have known Christ in this world after the flesh, yet it was much greater to enjoy him in the dispensation of the Spirit. And this was spoken by the apostle, as the ancients judge it, to rebuke the boasting of some about their seeing the Lord in the flesh, who for that reason were called δεσπόσυνοι (desposunoi),[26] whom he directs to a more excellent knowledge of him. It is pretended in vain that it was only the apostles, and maybe some of the primitive Christians, who were concerned in this promise — for although the Holy Ghost was bestowed on them in a particular manner and for special ends, yet the promise in general belongs to all believers, to the end of the world.[27]

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For as to what concerns his gracious operations, whatever the Lord Christ prayed for them, and thus promised to them (as the Spirit was procured for them by his prayer, John 14.16-17), he "did not pray for for them alone, but also for those who would believe in him through their word," chap. 17.20. His promise is to be "with his own always, even to the end of the world," Mat 28.20; as he also promises "wherever two or three are gathered together in his name, there he would be in the midst of them," chap. 18.20; — he is only in their midst by his Spirit; for as to his human nature, "heaven must receive him until the times of restoration of all things," Acts 3.21. This one consideration is sufficient to show the importance of the doctrine and of the things which concern the Holy Spirit. For is it possible that any Christian would be so supinely negligent and careless — so unconcerned about the things on which his present comforts and future happiness absolutely depend — as not to think it is his duty to inquire with the greatest care and diligence, into what our Lord Jesus Christ has left to supply us with in his absence, and at length to bring us to himself? The one who despises these things has neither part nor lot in Christ himself; for "if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his," Rom 8.9.

2. The great work of the Holy Ghost in the dispensation and ministration of the gospel, to all its ends, is another evidence of having the same purpose.[28] Hence, the gospel itself is called "The ministration of the Spirit," 2Cor 3.8 in opposition to that of the law, which is called the ministration of the letter and of condemnation. Διακονία τοῦ Πνεύματος, (diakonia tou Pneumatos) the "ministry of the Spirit," is either that ministry which the Spirit makes effectual, or that ministry by which the Spirit, in his gifts and graces, is communicated to men. And this is what gives the ministry of the gospel both its glory and its efficacy. Take away the Spirit from the gospel, and you render it a dead letter; you make the New Testament as useless to Christians as the Old Testament is to Jews. It is therefore a mischievous imagination, proceeding from ignorance, blindness, and unbelief, that there is no more in the gospel than what is contained under any other doctrine or declaration of truth — that it is nothing but a book in and upon which men may exercise their reason, and prove its contents by the same faculty. For this is to separate from it the Spirit, or from the dispensation of the Spirit, which in truth, is to destroy it and thereby reject the covenant of God: which is that his word and Spirit will go together.[29] God assisting, we will therefore show, as we progress, that the whole ministry of the gospel, its whole use and efficacy, depend on that ministration of the Spirit with which it is accompanied, according to the promise of God. Therefore, if we have any concern in the gospel, or have ever received any benefit from it, or from its ministration, then we have a signal duty lying before us in the matter in hand.

3. There is no spiritual good, or saving good, from first to last, that has been communicated to us, or that we are made partakers of, from and by the grace of God, that has not been revealed to us and bestowed on us by the Holy Ghost. The one who does not have an immediate and special work of the Spirit of God on and towards him, never received any special love, grace, or mercy from God. For how could he? Whatever God works in and upon us, he does by his Spirit. Therefore, whoever has no work of the Spirit of God upon his heart, never received either mercy or grace from God, for God gives them only by his Spirit. Therefore, a disclaimer of any work of the Spirit of God in or upon us, is a disclaimer of all interest in his grace and mercy. Those for whom the work of the Spirit of God is a reproach, may do well to consider that. When they can tell us of any other way by which a man may partake of mercy and grace, we will attend to it; in the meantime we will prove from the Scripture that this is the way of God.

4. There is nothing done in us or by us that is holy and acceptable to God, unless it is an effect of the Holy Spirit — unless it is from his operation in us and by us. Without him we can do nothing; for without Christ we cannot; John 15.5 the grace of Christ is communicated to us and worked in us by him alone. By him we are regenerated;[30] by him we are sanctified; by him we are cleansed;[31] by him we are assisted in and for every good work.[32] Particular instances to this purpose will be asserted and proved after. It is our unquestionable concern to inquire into the cause and spring of all that is good in us, in which we will also have a true discovery of the spring and cause of all that is evil. Without a competent knowledge of both, we can do nothing as we should.

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5. God lets us know that the only uniquely remediless sin, and way of sinning under the gospel, is to sin in a special manner against the Holy Ghost. And this of itself is sufficient to convince us how needful it is for us to be well-instructed in what concerns him; for there is something in this which is accompanied with irrecoverable and eternal ruin, as nothing else in the world is. So it says in Mark 3.28, 29: "All sins will be forgiven for the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter: but he that blasphemes against the Holy Ghost never has forgiveness." Or, "Whoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it will not be forgiven him, either in this world, or in the world to come," Mat 12.32. There remains nothing for him who despises the Spirit of grace, but a "certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation, which will devour the adversaries," Heb 10.27, 29. This is that "sin unto death" whose remission is not to be prayed for, John 5.16. Having taken it upon himself to make effectual to us the great remedy provided in the blood of Christ for the pardon of our sins, if he is despised in the prosecution of that work — if he is blasphemed and spitefully used — then there is neither relief nor pardon for that sin. For from where, in that case, would relief and pardon arise or spring? God does not have another Son to offer another sacrifice for sin. So one who despises his sacrifice can have no other sacrifice remaining for him, nor is there another Spirit to make that sacrifice effectual to him, if the Holy Ghost is despised and rejected in his work. This therefore is a tender place.[33] We cannot use too much holy diligence in our inquiries after what God has revealed in his word concerning his Spirit and his work, seeing that there is so fatal a miscarriage in opposing him — one which the nature of man is incapable of making in any other instance.

These considerations belong to the first head of reasons for the importance, use, and necessity of the doctrine proposed to be inquired into. They are enough to manifest what is the concern of all believers in this. For on account of these things, as the Scripture plainly declares and we observed before, that "he who does not have the Spirit of Christ is none of his," — their portion is not in him; they will have no benefit by his mediation.

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Men may please themselves with a profession of being Christians, and owning the gospel, while they despise the Spirit of God in both name and thing. We will examine and judge their condition by the Scripture before we come to the end of this discourse. And for the Scripture itself, whoever reads the books of the New Testament, besides the great and precious promises that are given concerning the Spirit in the Old Testament, will find and conclude (unless he is prejudiced) that the whole of what is declared in those writings turns on this solitary hinge. Remove from them the consideration of the Spirit of God and his work, and it will be hard to discover what they aim at or tend towards.

Secondly, the great deceit and abuse that, in all ages of the church, has been under the pretense of the name and work of the Spirit, make the thorough consideration of what we are taught concerning them exceeding necessary. If these things had not been excellent in themselves, and acknowledged as such by all Christians, they would never have been falsely pretended to by so many. Men do not seek to adorn themselves with rags, or to boast of what, on its own account, is under just contempt. They are liable to abuse according to the worth of things; the more excellent anything is, the more vile and pernicious is an undue pretense to it. Such have been the false pretenses of some in all ages toward the Spirit of God and his work, whose real excellencies in themselves have made those pretenses abominable and unspeakably dangerous. For the better the things are that are counterfeited, the worse the ends always are which they are employed for. In the whole world, there is nothing so vile as that which pretends to be God, and is not; nor is anything else capable of so pernicious an abuse. I will give some instances of this, out of both the Old and New Testaments.

The most signal gift of the Spirit of God, for the use of the church under the Old Testament, was that of prophecy. This was therefore deservedly held in honor and reputation, as having a great impression of the authority of God upon it, and of his nearness to man in it. Besides, those with this gift had the conduct of the minds and consciences of others justly surrendered to them — for they spoke in the name of God, and they had his warranty for what they proposed; this is the highest security of obedience. These things caused many to pretend to this gift who were, indeed, never inspired by the Holy Spirit; but on the contrary, they were moved by a spirit of lying and uncleanness. For it is probable that when men falsely and in mere pretense took it upon themselves to be divinely inspired prophets, without any antecedent diabolical enthusiasm, the devil made use of them to compass[34] his own designs Being given up by the righteous judgment of God to all delusions Lam 2.14 — for belying his Spirit and holy inspirations — they were quickly possessed with a spirit of lying and unclean divination.

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So the false prophets of Ahab, who encouraged him to go up to Ramoth-gilead, foretelling his prosperous success,1Kng 22.6 seemed only to comply deceitfully with the inclinations of their master, and out-acted his other courtiers in flattery by gilding it with a pretense of prophecy. 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 much as they deceived others, verses 19-23. They were justly given up to this, pretending falsely to the inspiration of that Holy Spirit which they had not received. And it has similarly fallen out with some in our days, whom we have seen visibly moved by an extraordinary power. Unduly pretending to supernatural agitations from God, they were really moved by the devil; a thing they neither desired nor looked for. But being surprised by it, they were pleased with it for a while, as with various Quakers at their first appearance.

Now, these false prophets of old were of two sorts; both are mentioned in Deu 18.20:[35]

First, Those who professedly served other gods, directing all their prophetic acts to the promotion of their worship. Such were the prophets of Baal, in whose name they expressly prophesied, and whose assistance they invoked: "They called on the name of Baal, saying, O Baal, hear us," 1Kng 18.26-29. Many of these were slain by Elijah; and the whole race of them were afterward extirpated[36] by Jehu, 2Kng 10.18-28. This put an end to Baal's deity, for it is said, "he destroyed Baal out of Israel;" false gods have no existence except in the deceived minds of their worshippers. It may be asked, Why are these called "prophets?" and so it may be asked in general about all the false prophets mentioned in the Scripture. Was it because they merely pretended and counterfeited a spirit of prophecy? Or was it that they really had any such spirit? I answer that in no way do I doubt that they were of both sorts. These prophets of Baal were those who worshipped the sun, in the manner of the Tyrians. In this they invented many hellish mysteries, ceremonies, and sacrifices; they taught these things to the people by whom they were hired. Being thus engaged in the service of the devil, he actually possessed their minds "as a spirit of divination," Act 16.16 and enabled them to declare things that were unknown to other men. In the meantime, finding themselves really moved by a power superior to them, they took and accepted it as the power of their god; and thereby they became immediate worshippers of the devil. Our apostle declares this in 1Cor 10.20.[37] Whatever those who left the true God aimed at to worship, the devil interposed himself between that and them, as the object of their adoration. Thereby he became the "god of this world," 2Cor 4.4 — the one whom they worshipped and adored in all their idols.

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With a spirit of divination from him, many of the false prophets were moved, which they thought to be the spirit of their god; for they found themselves moved by a superior power, which they could neither excuse nor resist.[38] Others were mere pretenders and counterfeits, who deceived the foolish multitude with vain, false predictions. More will be spoken of these afterward.

Secondly, there were others who spoke in the name of, and as they falsely professed, by the inspiration of, the Spirit of the holy God. Jeremiah had great contests with this sort. For in that apostatizing age of the church, they had such an interest and reputation among the rulers and people, that they not only confronted Jeremiah's prophecies with contrary predictions,Jer 28.1-4 but also maligned him as a false prophet, and urged his punishment according to the law.Jer 29.25-27 Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah carried this contrariety with like confidence towards Micaiah, 1Kng 22.24. For he scornfully asks him, "Which way did the Spirit of the Lord go from me to speak to you?" That is, "Assuredly he speaks in me; therefore how did he come to inspire you with a contrary revelation?" Ezekiel, at the same time as Jeremiah, was exercised and perplexed with these false prophets (chap. 13, 14). For this sort — namely, false pretenders to divine extraordinary revelations — usually abounded in times of danger and approaching desolations. The devil stirred them up to fill men with vain hopes, to keep them in sin and security so that destruction might seize them unawares. And whoever takes the same course in times of deserved, threatened, and impending judgments, even though they may not use the same means, they likewise do the work of the devil. For whatever encourages men to be secure in their sins, is a false divination.[39] And this sort of man is characterized by the prophet in chapter 23, from verse 9 to 33; where anyone may read about their sin and judgment. Yet this false pretending to the spirit of prophecy was far from casting any contempt on the real gift of the Holy Ghost in this — indeed, it gave it greater glory and luster. God never more honored his true prophets, than when there were most false ones about; nor will any false pretense to the Spirit of grace ever render Him less dear to those who are partakers of the Spirit; nor will His gifts ever be of less use to the church.

It was also this way under the New Testament, at the first preaching of the gospel. Its doctrine at first was declared from the immediate revelation of the Spirit, preached by the assistance of the Spirit, and made effectual by his work and power; it was accompanied in many by outward miraculous works and effects of the Spirit.

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From the whole of this, what uniquely belonged to it, in opposition to the law, was called "The ministration of the Spirit." 2Cor 3.8 These things being admitted and acknowledged by all, those who had any false opinions or dotages[40] of their own to broach,[41] or any other deceit to put upon Christians, could think of no more expeditious means to compass their ends than by pretending to have immediate revelations from the Spirit. For without some kind of credibility given to them from that, they knew that their fantasies would not be taken into the least consideration. Hence the apostle Peter addressed the revelation of God by his Spirit in prophecy, under the Old Testament and the New (2Pet.1.19-21). And he adds as an inference from that discourse, a comparison between the false prophets under the Old Testament and false teachers under the New, 2Pet 2.1: "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you." And the reason is because, just as they pretended to the Spirit of the Lord in their prophecies — saying, "Thus says the Lord," when he did not send them — so these false pretenders ascribed all their abominable heresies to the inspiration of the Spirit, by whom they were not assisted.

Hence comes that blessed caution and rule given to us by the apostle John, who lived to see great mischief done in the church by this pretense:

1Joh. 4.1-3, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God: because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is of God: and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is not of God."

The apostle gives a twofold direction here to all believers;

The first is by way of caution: that they should not believe every spirit — that is, they should not receive or give credit to every doctrine proposed to them, as being of immediate revelation and inspiration of the Spirit. He intends the same as the apostle Paul with Eph 4.14, who would not have us "carried about by every wind of doctrine." We are not to be like vessels at sea without anchors or helms, by the "sleight[42] of men, and cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive." For the crafts and sleights intended, are those which men use when they cast a mist, as it were, before the eyes of others whom they intend to cheat and defraud. So false teachers dealt with their disciples by their pretenses of immediate revelations.

John's next direction informs us how we may observe this caution to our advantage; and this is by testing the spirits themselves. This is the duty of all believers on any such pretenses.

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They are to test these spirits, and examine whether they are of God or not. The church of Ephesus is commended by our Lord Jesus Christ for observing this rule and discharging this duty: Rev 2.2, "You have tested those who say they are apostles, and are not, and have found them liars;" for those who said they were apostles pretended to apostolic authority and infallibility by that, on account of the immediate inspirations which they received by the Holy Ghost. In testing them, they tested the spirits that came to them; and by this warrant we may test the spirit of the church of Rome, which in like manner pretends to apostolic authority and infallibility.

To these two directions, the apostle John subjoins the reason for the present watchfulness required to discharge this duty: "Because," he says, "many false prophets have gone out into the world." It is "false teachers," as Peter calls them, "bringing in damnable heresies," concerning whom he speaks. He calls them "false prophets," partly as an allusion to the false prophets under the Old Testament, with whom they are ranked and compared by Peter; and partly because, just as they fostered[43] their prejudices on divine revelation, so these men falsely ascribed their doctrines to immediate divine inspiration. And on this account also, he calls them spirits: "Test the spirits;" for just as they pretended to the Spirit of God, so indeed for the most part they were moved by a spirit of error, lying, and delusion — that is, the devil himself. And therefore I in no way doubt that most of those who made use of this plea — that the doctrines which they taught were by immediate inspiration — also effected other extraordinary operations or disguised appearances of them (such as lying miracles), by the power of that spirit which moved them, as in Mat 24.24.[44] Hence the apostle does not direct us to test their pretensions to inspiration by using extraordinary works for their confirmation — for they also made a show and appearance of these, and did it in such a manner that they were not to be detected by most Christians. But he gives to all a blessed and stable rule which, in such a case, will never fail those who diligently attend to it. And this rule is to test them by the doctrine that they teach, 1John 4.2-3.[45] Let their doctrine be examined by the Scriptures; and if it is found consistent with this, it may be received without danger to the hearers — whatever corrupt affections the teachers may be influenced by. But if it is not consistent with this, if it does not keep in harmony with the analogy of faith,[46] then whatever inspiration or revelation is pleaded for its justification, is to be rejected, just as those by whom it is declared are also to be rejected. The apostle Paul confirms this rule by the highest instance imaginable:

Gal 1.8, "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed."

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And the apostle shows that, for our advantage in this testing that we make of spirits, it is good to have a clear conviction of, and a constant adherence to, some fundamental principles, especially those we have reason to think will be the most cunningly attacked by seducers.

Thus, because in those days the principal design of Satan was to broach strange and false imaginations about the person and mediation of Christ, endeavoring to overthrow both by it, the apostle advises believers to test the spirits by this one fundamental principle of truth: namely, that "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh;" which contains a confession of both his person and his mediation.[47] Believers were therefore to demand this of all new teachers and pretenders to spiritual revelations, in the first place, "Do you confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh?" And if they did not immediately make this confession, they never stood to consider their other pretenses, but turned from them, not bidding them God speed, 2John 7, 10-11.[48] I could easily manifest how many pernicious heresies were obviated in those days by this short confession of faith. For some of late (like Grotius, who follows Socinus and Schlichtingius) openly corrupt the text by interpreting this coming of Christ in the flesh as his outward lowly estate and condition, and not the pomp and glory of an earthly king. His coming in the flesh is the same as the "Word's being made flesh," John 1.14; or "God being manifest in the flesh," 1Tim 3.16 — that is, he is the Son of God being made "partaker of flesh and blood," Heb 2.14; or "taking on him the seed of Abraham," verse 16; that is, being "made of a woman," Gal 4.4; or being "made of the seed of David according to the flesh," Rom 1.3; or "being of the fathers as to the flesh," Rom 9.5.[49]

And this was directly opposed to those heresies which had then arisen, whose broachers contended that Jesus Christ was but a fantasy, an appearance, a manifestation of divine love and power, denying that the Son of God was really incarnate, as the ancients generally testify. And it would have been well for many in our days, if they attended to such rules as this. But through neglecting it, accompanied by an ungrounded boldness and curiosity, they have listened to deceiving spirits in other things, and have been engaged beyond recovery. They did this before considering that, by their sly [50] deceits, they have cheated themselves of all the principal articles of their faith — those by which, if they had steadily tested and examined them at first, they might have been preserved from their snares.

The Jews well say that there was a double testing of prophets under the Old Testament — the one by their doctrine, and the other by their predictions. Trial by their doctrine — namely, whether they seduced men from the worship of the true God into idolatry — belongs to all individual persons of the church.[51]

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Direction for this is given in Deu 13.1-3, "If there arises among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, who gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you" (if he effects anything by a seeming presence of an extraordinary power), saying, "Let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them; you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams." Whatever his signs and wonders might be, the people were to test these men by what they taught. The judgment on predictions was left to the Sanhedrin, for which directions are given in Deu 18.20-22.[52] And by virtue of this test, they falsely and cruelly endeavored to take away Jeremiah's life, because he foretold the ruin of both them and their city, Jer 26.11. In the former case, even though a prophet's sign, wonder, or prediction came to pass, if the doctrine he sought to confirm by it was false, then he was to be rejected. In the latter case, the fulfilling of his sign acquitted him, because he taught nothing with it that was false as to doctrine.

The first kind of trial of the spirits of prophets (by doctrine), is the duty of all believers under the gospel. Those who would deprive them of this liberty would make brutes of them instead of Christians — unless it is a property of a Christian to believe he knows not what, and obey he knows not why.[53] See Rom 12.2; Eph 5.8-12; Phi 1.10; 1Thes 5.21.[54] The other kind of trial (by predictions), so far as was necessary to preserve the church in truth and peace, was provided for in those primitive times by a specific gift of discerning, which was bestowed on some among them. This was while there was a real communication of extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, and thus there were more occasions for a false pretense of them, and more danger in being deceived by them. In 1Cor 12.10, "discerning of spirits" is reckoned among the gifts of the Spirit — so the Lord graciously provided for his churches, that some among them would be enabled in an extraordinary manner to discern and judge those who pretended to have extraordinary actings of the Spirit. And upon the ceasing of such extraordinary gifts really given from God, the gift of discerning spirits also ceased, and we are left to the word alone [55] for testing anyone who pretends to them.

Now, this kind of pretense was so common in those days that the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians to caution them not to let themselves be deceived in their expectation and calculations about the time of the coming of Christ. In the first place, he warns them not to be moved in it "by spirit," 2Thes 2.2; that is, by persons pretending to spiritual revelations. Something also of this nature has continued and broken out in succeeding ages, and that has been in abominable and dreadful instances. The more eminent that the real effusions of the Holy Spirit are in any season, upon the ministers of the gospel and the disciples of Christ, the more diligence and watchfulness are necessary against these delusions.

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For it is upon such opportunities — when the use and reputation of spiritual gifts is eminent — that Satan intrudes his own deceitful suggestions under their color.[56]

In the dark times of the Papacy, all stories were full of satanic delusions, in fantastic apparitions, horrors, spectrums, and like effects of darkness. It was seldom if ever that anyone falsely 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 really renew a fresh communication of spiritual gifts and graces to men, in and upon the Reformation, the old dreads and terrors, nightly appearances that inclined to deeds of darkness, vanished. And everywhere, by Satan's instigation, false pretenders arose to the Spirit of God. Satan will be ever more active and industrious by this way of delusion, as God increases the gifts and graces of his Spirit in his churches — though as yet, in these latter ages, Satan has not attained what he arrived at in the primitive times of the gospel. A full and clear declaration from the Scripture, of the nature of the Holy Spirit and of his operations, may be of use by God's blessing, to fortify the minds of believers against satanic delusions that counterfeit his actings and inspirations. Directions to this purpose are given to us by the holy apostle, who lived to see great havoc made in the churches by deluding spirits. Knowledge of the truth; testing the spirits that go abroad, using the doctrines of the Scriptures; dependence on the Holy Spirit for his teachings according to the word — these are the things which he commends to us for this purpose.

Thirdly, In the days in which we live, there is an anti-spirit set up and advanced against the Spirit of God — in his being and in all his operations, in his whole work and use towards the church of God. For this new spirit takes upon himself, whatever is promised to be effected by the "good Spirit of God." This is what some men call "the light within them," though indeed it is nothing but a dark product of Satan upon their own imaginations. Or at best, it is the natural light of conscience, which some of the heathens also call "a spirit."[57] But they trust this to do everything for them, leaving no room for the "promise of the Spirit of God," nor anything for Him to do. This spirit teaches them, instructs them, and enlightens them. They attend to it as the Samaritans attended to Simon Magus. As they put it, they yield obedience to it; and from this and its fruits, they expect acceptance with God now, with justification and blessedness hereafter. These deluded souls must fix on one of these two things — namely, that this light of which they speak is either the Holy Spirit of God, or it is not.

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If they say it is the Spirit, it will be easy to demonstrate how, by saying so, 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 by it, then it will be no less manifest, on the other hand, that they utterly exclude him from his whole work; and that they substitute another in his place; indeed, an enemy. For another God is a false god; another Christ is a false Christ; and another Spirit is a false spirit — it is the spirit of antichrist.

Now, because this is a growing evil among us — many being led away and seduced by it — our duty to Jesus Christ, and our compassion for the souls of men, require that our utmost endeavor in the ways of Christ's appointment, should be used to obviate this evil, which eats like a canker. Also, it is propagated by profane and vain babblings, increasing to still more ungodliness. Some, I confess, unduly rage against those who have imbibed these imaginations, falling upon them with violence and fury, as they also do upon others; — may the Lord not lay it to their charge! Yet this does not keep us from attempting the destruction of their errors, and the breaking of the snares of Satan by which these men have been captured alive at his pleasure. But we do it using the "weapons of our warfare, which are not carnal, but mighty through God for pulling down strongholds, casting down such imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,"2Cor 10.5

The course of opposing errors and false spirits — by praying, preaching, and writing — is indeed despised by those in whose furious and haughty minds alone ure, seca, occide — "burn, cut, kill" —have any meaning. They think that, "Arise, Peter, kill and eat," Act 10.13 is a precept of more use and advantage to them than all the commands of Jesus Christ besides. But the way proposed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the way walked in by his holy apostles, and by all the ancient, holy, learned writers of the church, is that way we must and will attend to in these matters. And that course which is particularly suited to obviate the evil mentioned, is to give a full, plain, and evident declaration from the Scripture of the nature and operations of the Holy Spirit of God. Hence it will be undeniably manifest what a stranger this pretended light is to the true Spirit of Christ; how far it is from being of any real use to the souls of men; indeed, how it is set up in opposition to him and his work — by whom and by which alone we become accepted by God, and are brought to the enjoyment of him.

Fourthly, There are, moreover, many hurtful and noxious opinions concerning the Holy Ghost that have gone abroad in the world, and are entertained by many, to the subversion of the faith which they have professed.[58]

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Such are those by which his deity and personality are denied. There have been many contests about these in the world — some endeavoring with diligence and subtlety to promote the perverse opinions mentioned; others "contending" according to their duty, "for the faith once delivered to the saints." Jude 1.3 But these disputations are so managed for the most part, that although the truth is strenuously vindicated in some of them, yet the minds of believers generally are but little edified by them. For most are unacquainted with the ways and terms of arguing, which are better suited to convince or "stop the mouths of gainsayers,[59]" Tit 1.11 than to direct the faith of others. Besides, our knowledge of things is more by their operations and proper effects, than from their own nature and formal reason. It is especially so in divine things, and particularly with respect to God himself. In his own glorious being, God dwells in light to which no creature can approach.

We are to seek after him in the revelation he has made of himself by the effects of his will — in his word and works. By these, the otherwise invisible things of God are made known, his attributes are declared, and we come to a better acquaintance with him than by any we can attain by our most diligent speculations about his nature directly. So it is with the Holy Ghost and his personality. In the Scripture,[60] He is proposed to be known by his properties and works, his adjuncts and operations — by our duty towards him, and our offenses against him. The due consideration of these things will lead us into that assured knowledge of his being and subsistence, which is necessary to guide our faith and obedience; and which is the end of all these inquiries, Col 2.2.[61] This is why, although I will along the way explain, confirm, and vindicate the testimonies that are given in the Scripture (or some of them) as to his deity and personality, yet the principal means that I will assert for establishing our faith in him, is the due and just exposition and declaration of the administrations and operations that are ascribed to him in the Scriptures. These will also give great light into the whole mystery and economy of God in the work of our salvation by Jesus Christ.

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Fifthly, The principal cause and occasion of our present undertaking is the open and horrible opposition that is made to the Spirit of God and his work in the world. There is no concern of his that is not derided, exploded,[62] and blasphemed by many. The very name of the Spirit has grown to be a reproach; nor do some think they can more despitefully expose anyone to scorn than by ascribing to them a "concern in the Spirit of God." This, indeed, is a thing which I have often wondered at, and continue to do so (1) because in the gospel, everything that is good, holy, and praiseworthy in any man, is expressly assigned to the Spirit, as the immediate efficient cause and operator of it; and (2) because the condition of men without him — those who are not made partakers of him — is described as being reprobate or rejected by God, and foreign to any interest in Christ. Yet many who pretend to the belief and profession of the gospel are so far from owning or desiring a participation of this Spirit in their own persons, that they deride and contemn those who dare to plead or avow any concern in him or his works. Only, I must grant that some have gone before them in this — namely, the old scoffing heathens. For so Lucian speaks in his Philopatris,[63] imitating a Christian by way of scorn — "Speak out now, receiving power or ability in speaking from the Spirit," or "by the Spirit." Certainly attending to the old caution, Si non castè, tamen cautè,[64] would have been needful for some in this. Even if they could not bring their own hearts to a due reverence for the Spirit of God, nor endeavor to participate in his fruits and effects, yet the things that are spoken concerning him and his work — in the whole New Testament, and also in countless places in the Old — might have checked their public contemptuous reproaches and scornful mockings (at least while they owned that those writings were from God). But this is how the Spirit was treated in the world upon his first effusion, Acts 2.13.[65] There are many pretenses, I know, that will be pleaded to countenance this abomination.

First they will say, 'It is not the Spirit of God himself and his works,' which they so reproach and scorn. 'but the pretense of others to him and his works.' I fear that this plea, or excuse, will prove too short and narrow to make a covering for their profaneness. It is dangerous to venture upon holy things with rudeness and petulance, and then frame excuses for it. But men will not lack for pretenses in their reproaches of the Lord Christ and his Spirit, John 10.32-33.[66] The things of the Spirit of God, which they thus reproach and scorn in anyone, are either those that are truly and really ascribed to the Spirit, and worked by him in the disciples of Jesus Christ, or else they are not. What if indeed they are not effects of the Spirit of grace, nor things for which he is promised, nor attested to work in believers (such as vain emotionalism or ecstatic raptures and revelations)?

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Then certainly it would be more becoming for Christians — those who profess or at least pretend to a reverence for God, his Spirit, and his word — to demonstrate and convince those whom they address, that such things are not "fruits of the Spirit," but of their own imaginations. That would be better than deriding them under the name of the Spirit, or deriding His gifts and operations. Do men consider with whom, and with what, they are so bold in these things? But if they are indeed things that are real effects of the Spirit of Christ in those who believe, or things which are undeniably assigned to him in the Scripture — these things which they despise — then what remains to countenance this daring profanity?

Indeed, secondly they will say, "It is not the real true operations of the Spirit themselves, but the false pretensions to them by others, which they denounce and expose." But will this warrant the course which it is manifest they steer, in both matter and manner? These same persons pretend to believe in Christ and the gospel, and to be made partakers of the benefits of his mediation. And yet, if they do not have the Spirit of Christ, they have no saving interest in these things — for "if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Rom 8.9 If it is only the false pretending to the Spirit of God and his works, that these persons so revile and scorn, then why do they not deal with them in a similar way with respect to Christ and the profession of the gospel? Why do they not say to them, "You believe in Christ, you believe in the gospel," and on that basis expose them to derision? So the Jews plainly dealt with our Lord Jesus Christ, Psa 22.7, 8; Mat 27.42.[67] It is, therefore, the things themselves, and not the pretenses pretended, that are the objects of this contempt and reproach.

Besides, suppose that those whom they hate or despise on other occasions, are not at present partakers of the Spirit of God, but are really strangers to the things which they hypocritically profess. Will they grant and allow that there are any other Christians in the world, who do really partake of the Spirit so as to be led, guided, and directed by him? So as to be quickened,[68] sanctified, and purified by him? So as to be enabled by him to communion with God and to all duties of holy obedience, along with those other effects and operations for which the Spirit is promised by Jesus Christ to his disciples? If they grant that these things are really effected and accomplished in anyone, then let them not be offended by those who desire that these things should be evident in themselves, and declare themselves to that purpose. Then men would have more charity for them under their petulant scoffing, than they are otherwise able to exercise.

Thirdly, it will yet be pleaded that, "They grant as fully as anyone, the being of the Holy Ghost, the promise of him, and his real operations — only, they differ from others as to the sense and exposition of those phrases and expressions that are used concerning these things in the Scripture, which those others abuse in an unintelligible manner, such as making proper (literal) those things which indeed are metaphorical."

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But is this the way which they like and choose to express their notions and apprehensions — namely, to openly revile and scorn the very naming and asserting of the work of the Spirit of God in the words which He himself has taught? This is a boldness which the former ages have not given a precedent for; we hope the future will not afford an instance of anyone following that example. Their sense and grasp of these things will afterward be examined, so far as they have dared to reveal them. In the meantime, we know that the Socinians acknowledge a Trinity, the sacrifice of Christ, and the expiation of sin made by it; yet we have some differences with them about these things. And so too we have differences with these men about the Spirit of God and his dispensation under the gospel, even though, like the Socinians, they would grant that the things said about them are true, as metaphorically interpreted. But we must address these things more fully afterward.

I say it has so come to pass, among many who profess that they believe the gospel is true, that the name or naming of the Spirit of God has become a reproach; so has his whole work also. And thereby the promise of him, made by Jesus Christ to his church, is rendered useless and frustrated. It was the main, and on this matter, the only support which he left to the church in his bodily absence — the only means of rendering the work of his mediation effectual in them and among them. For without the Spirit, all other things, such as the word, ministry, and ordinances of worship, are lifeless and useless. God is not glorified by them, nor are the souls of men advantaged by them. But it is now uncertain with some, of what use the Spirit is to the church; indeed, as far as I can discern, they are uncertain whether he is of any use, or no use at all. Some have not trembled to say and contend that some things — which are as plainly ascribed to him in the Scripture as words can make an assignment of anything — are the cause of all the troubles and confusions in the world! They say that they have the word or tradition outwardly revealing the will of God, and what God would have them do (just as the Jews have both of these to this day). These things being made use of by their own reason, and improved by their natural abilities, make up the whole of man — all that is required to render the persons or duties of anyone acceptable with God! Of what use then, they ask, is the Spirit of God in these things? Maybe none at all; nor is the doctrine concerning him of any use, they say, except "to fill the world with a buzz and noise, and to trouble the minds of men with unintelligible notions." If these things had not been spoken, they would not have been repeated; for death lies at the door in them. So then, they claim, men may pray without the Spirit, and preach without him, and turn to God without him, and perform all their duties well enough without him. For if anyone pleads the necessity of his assistance for the due performance of these things, and ascribes to Him all that is good and well done in them, he will hardly escape from being notably derided.

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And all this, while we would be esteemed Christians! And what do such persons think of the ancient church and of Christians who prayed to Him, for working all good in them, and in their ascribing every good thing to Him?

And in what, then, do we have any advantage over the Jews, or in what does the pre-eminence of the gospel consist? They have the word of God, that part of it which was committed to their church, and which in its kind is sufficient to direct their faith and obedience — for such is the "sure word of prophecy" if diligently attended to, 2Pet 1.19.[69] And if traditions are of any use, Jews can out vie the whole world. Nor is this sort lacking in their wits and the exercise of them. Those who converse with them in the things of this world, do not usually say they are all fools. And for their diligence in the consideration of the letter of the Scripture, and inquiring into it according to the best of their understanding, none will question it, except those to whom they and their concerns are unknown. And yet after all this, they are still Jews. If we have the New Testament in no other way than the Jews have the Old Testament — having only the letter of it to philosophize upon, according to the best of our reasons and understandings, without any dispensation of the Spirit of God accompanying it to give us a saving light into its mystery, and to make it effectual to our souls — then I will not fear to say that, just as they call themselves "Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan," Rev 2.9, so we who pretend to be Christians, as to all the saving ends of the gospel, will not be found in any better condition than they.

Yet it could be wished that even here, bounds might be fixed to the fierceness of some men's spirits. But they will not allow themselves to be so confined. In many places they are transported with rage and fury, so as to stir up persecution against those who really are anointed with the Spirit of Christ; and they do that for no other reason than because those others are so anointed, Gal 4.29.[70] Other things, indeed, are pretended by them; but all the world may see that they are not of such importance as to countenance their wrath. This is the latent cause which stirs it up, and is often openly expressed.

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These things at present are charged only as the miscarriages of private persons. When they are received in churches, they are the cause of and an entrance into a fatal defection and apostasy. From the foundation of the world, the principal revelation that God made of himself, was in the oneness of his nature and his monarchy over all.[71] And in this, the person of the Father was immediately represented with his power and authority; for he is the fountain and origin of the Deity — the other persons of the Godhead, as to their subsistence, are of him. Only, with that, He gave out promises concerning the unique exhibition of the Son in the flesh at an appointed time, and also of the Holy Spirit, to be given by him in a special manner. Their persons were to be signally glorified in the world by this; it is the will of God that "all men should honor the Son as they honored the Father," Joh 5.23 and the Holy Spirit in like manner.[72] In this state of things, the only apostasy of the church could be polytheism and idolatry. Accordingly, so it came to pass. The church of Israel was continually prone to these abominations, so that scarcely a generation passed, or very few, in which the body of the people did not more or less defile themselves with them. To wean and recover them from this sin was the principal end of the preaching of those prophets which God sent to them from time to time, 2Kng 17.13.[73] And this was also the cause of all the calamities which befell them, and of all the judgments which God inflicted on them, as testified in all the historical books of the Old Testament, and confirmed by countless instances.

To put an end to this, God at length brought a total desolation upon the whole church, and caused the people to be carried into captivity out of their own land. It was so far effected by this that, on their return, whatever other sins they fell into, they kept themselves away from idols and idolatry, Eze 16.41-43, 23.27, 48. And the reason for this was because the time was now drawing near in which they were to be tried with another dispensation of God — the Son of God was to be sent to them in the flesh. To receive and obey him was now the principal instance and trial of their faith and obedience. They were no longer to be tried merely by their faith — whether they would own only the God of Israel, in opposition to all false gods and idols — for God had now absolutely won that ground upon them. But now all was to turn upon this hinge: whether they would receive the Son of God coming in the flesh, according to the promise.

Here most of that church and its people fell by their unbelief, apostatized from God, and thereby became neither church nor people, John 8.24.[74] Having been rejected, the Son of God calls and gathers another church, founding it on his own person with faith, and the profession of faith in this, Mat 16.18-19.[75]

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In this new church, therefore, this foundation is fixed, and this ground is made good: that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is to be owned and honored as we honor the Father, 1Cor 3.11; John 5.23.[76] And in this, all who are duly called Christians agree, as the church of Israel agreed in one God after their return from the captivity of Babylon. But now the Lord Jesus Christ, having ascended to his Father, has committed all his affairs in the church and in the world, to the Holy Spirit, John 16.7-11.[77] It is upon this design of God, that the person of the Spirit may be singularly exalted in the church by those who were so much in the dark before, that some (not the worst of them) professed they had "not so much as heard whether there was any Holy Ghost," Acts 19.2 — that is, at least as to the unique dispensation of Him that was then introduced in the church.

Therefore the duty of the church now immediately respects the Spirit of God, who acts towards the church in the name of the Father and of the Son. And so it is with respect to him, that the church in its present state is capable of an apostasy from God. Whatever is found of this nature among any, this is where it has its beginning. For the sin of despising his person and rejecting his work is now of the same nature as idolatry of old, and of the Jews' rejection of the person of the Son. Because there was relief provided against these sins, and a new dispensation of the grace of God was to ensue in the evangelical work of the Holy Ghost, if men then sin against him and his operations, which contain the perfection and complement of God's revelation of himself to them, their condition is deplorable.

It may be that some will say and plead, that whatever is spoken of the Holy Ghost, his graces, gifts, and operations, it belonged entirely to the first days of the gospel in which they were manifested by visible and wonderful effects — and they were confined to those times. Consequently, we have no other interest or concern in them except as in a recorded testimony given of old to the truth of the gospel. This is indeed so as to his extraordinary and miraculous operations; but to confine his whole work to this, is plainly to deny the truth of the promises of Christ, and to overthrow his church. For we will make it undeniably evident that none can believe in Jesus Christ, or yield obedience to him, or worship God in him, except by the Holy Ghost. And therefore, if the whole dispensation of the Spirit and his communications to the souls of men ceases, so does all faith in Christ, and Christianity also.

It is on these and like considerations that I have thought it necessary for myself, and for the church of God, that the Scripture should be diligently searched concerning this great matter; for none can deny that the glory of God, the honor of the gospel, the faith and obedience of the church, with the everlasting welfare of our own souls, are deeply concerned in this.

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The apostle Peter, addressing the great things of the gospel that were taught by himself and the rest of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, tells those to whom he wrote that in what was preached to them, they had not "followed cunningly-devised fables," 2Pet 1.16; for that is how the "power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" were then reported in the world. What was preached concerning them was looked at as "cunningly-devised" and artificially-framed "fables" to dupe and allure the people. The apostle gives his testimony against this, with appeals to the divine assurance which they had of the holy truths delivered to them, verses 17-21.[78] In the same way, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, having preached the doctrine of regeneration to Nicodemus, the Pharisee calls it into question as something incredible or unintelligible, John 3.4.[79] For his instruction (and to rebuke his ignorance), Jesus lets Nicodemus know that he spoke nothing except what he brought with him from heaven — from the eternal Fountain of goodness and truth, verses 11-13.[80] It has not fallen out much differently in this matter.

The doctrine concerning the Spirit of God, and his work on the souls of men, has been preached in the world. It has been preached, taught, and pressed on the minds of those who attend to the dispensation of the word of the gospel, what the Spirit does in convincing[81] men of sin; what he does in working godly sorrow and humiliation in them; what the exceeding greatness of his power is which he exerts in the regeneration and sanctification of the souls of men; what the supplies of grace are which he bestows on those who believe; and what assistance he gives them as the Spirit of grace and supplications. In answer to this, men have been urged to test, search, and examine themselves, as to what work of the Holy Ghost they have found, observed, or experienced that was effectively accomplished in or upon their own souls. And they have been taught that on this depend the great concerns of their peace, comfort, and assurance, of their communion among themselves as the saints of God, along with many other ends of their holy conduct. Indeed, it is and has been constantly taught to them, that if there is not an effectual work of the Holy Ghost upon their hearts, they "cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Joh 3.5

Now these things, and whatever is said in explicating them, are called into question by some, if not utterly rejected; indeed, some look at them as "cunningly-devised fables," — things that some invented not long ago, and which others propagated for their own advantage. Others say that what is delivered concerning them is hardly to be understood by rational men, if at all. They are only empty speculations about things in which the Christian religion is little or not at all concerned. Yet many, very many, have received these things as sacred truths, and are persuaded that they have realized them in their own souls.

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So that all their consolation and peace with God is resolved for the most part into their experience of the work of the Holy Spirit of God, in them and upon them, as it is declared in the word. This is what gives them the best evidence of their interest in Him who is their peace. And because, for the present, they believe that unless these things are so, in and with them, they have no foundation to build a hope of eternal life upon, it can only be of indispensable necessity to them to examine and search the Scripture diligently, whether these things are true or not. For if there is no such work of the Spirit of God upon the hearts of men, that is indispensably necessary to their salvation — if there are no such assistances and supplies of grace needed for every good duty as 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 still in their sins. What then is immediately concerned in this, is of no less consideration and importance than the eternal welfare of their souls can render it — that they diligently test, examine, and search into these things, by the safe and infallible touchstone and rule of the word, on which they may, must, and ought to risk their eternal condition.

I know, indeed, that most believers are so far satisfied in the truth of these things, and their own experience of them, that they will not be moved in the least by the opposition made to them and the scorn that is cast upon them. For "he that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself," 1Joh 5.10. Yet Luke wrote his Gospel to Theophilus "that he might know the certainty of those things in which he had been instructed," Luk 1.4 — that is, Luke wrote it to confirm Theophilus in the truth, by adding new degrees of assurance to him. In the same way, it is our duty to be so far excited by the clamorous oppositions made to the truths which we profess, and in which we are as much concerned as our souls are worth, to compare them diligently with the Scripture, so that we may be more fully confirmed and established in them. And on examination of the whole matter, I will leave them their option, as Elijah did of old:

1Kng 18.21 "If Jehovah is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him."

If the things which most professors[82] believe and acknowledge concerning the Spirit of God and his work on their hearts — his gifts and graces in the church, along with the manner of their communication — if these are, for their substance (in which all are generally agreed), according to the Scripture as taught and revealed there, and if they are on the same terms as they received them, then they may abide in the holy profession of them, and rejoice in the consolations they have received by them. But if these things — along with other things which, in their application to the souls of men, are directly and necessarily deduced, or may be deduced from them [83] — are all but vain and useless imaginations, then it is high time the minds of men were disburdened of them.

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Chapter II.

The name and titles of the Holy Spirit.

Of the name of the Holy Spirit — Various uses of the words ru'ach and pneuma — ru'ach for the wind or anything invisible with a sensible agitation, Amos 4.13 — Mistakes of the ancients rectified by Hierom — ru'ach used metaphorically for vanity, metonymically for the part or quarter of anything; for our vital breath, the rational soul, the affections, angels good and bad — How to remove ambiguity from the use of the word, — Rules concerning the Holy Spirit — The name "Spirit," how unique and appropriate to him — Why he is called the "Holy Spirit" — Why he is called the "Good Spirit," the "Spirit of God," the "Spirit of the Son" — Acts 2.33, 1Pet 1.10-11, explained — 1John 4.3, vindicated.

Before we engage the consideration of the things themselves which we are to address, it will be necessary to say something as to the name by which the third person in the Trinity is commonly known and particularly called in the Scripture. This is the "Spirit," or the "Holy Spirit," or the "Holy Ghost," as we usually say. And I will do this so we are not deceived by the homonymy[84] of the word, nor be at a loss in the intention of those places of Scripture where it is used for other purposes. For the name of the second person, O Logos, "the Word," and of the third person, to Pneuma, "the Spirit," are often applied to signify other things; I mean, those same words signify other things. And some take advantage of the ambiguous use of them. But the Scripture is able, of itself, to manifest its own intention and meaning to humble and diligent inquirers into it.

It is acknowledged that the use of the words ru'ach (OT:07307) in the Old Testament, and pneuma (NT:4151) in the New, is varied; yet these are the words by which alone the Holy Spirit of God is denoted. Their specific meaning in particular places, therefore, is to be collected and determined from the subject-matter addressed in them, and from their other special circumstances. This was first attempted by the most learned Didymus of Alexandria. I will cast his observations in a more perspicuous method, with such additions as are necessary to further clarify the whole matter.

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FIRST, In general, ru'ach and pneuma signify a wind or spirit — that is, anything which moves and is not seen. So the air in a violent agitation is called ru'ach: Gen 8.1 — "And God made a wind," or "spirit," that is, a strong and mighty wind, "to pass over the earth," for driving and removing the waters. So pneuma is used in John 3.8 — "The wind blows where it will, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from, nor where it goes;" which is a proper designation of this first meaning of the word. It is an agitation of the air which is unseen. So it is in Psa 1.4.[85] And in this sense, it sometimes signifies a "great and strong wind," — 1Kng 19.11; and sometimes a cool and soft wind, or a light easy agitation of the air, such as often arises in the evenings of the spring or summer. So it is in Gen 3.8, "God walked in the garden in the cool of the day;" that is, when the evening air began to breathe gently, and moderate the heat of the day. So the poet Virgil used it, "At the going down of the sun, when the cold evening tempers the heat of the air." — Geor. 3.336. And some think this is the sense in Psa 104.4, "Who makes his angels spirits," — swift, agile, and powerful as mighty winds. But the reader may consult our Exposition on Heb 1.7.

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This is one meaning of the word ru'ach, or this is one thing denoted by it in the Scripture. Among many other places, Amos 4.13 expressly says, "For, lo, he that forms the mountains, and creates the spirit," that is, "the wind." The LXX renders this text, "Who establishes the thunder, and creates the spirit;" though some copies read, "the mountains." They render the next words of the text ("And declares to man what is his thought") this way: "And declares to men his Christ," or his Anointed, or his Messiah — they mistook one word for another by inadvertency,[86] and not for lack of points or vowels as some imagine. The mistake consists in throwing out a letter. Because of this, the old Latin translation rendered the words incorrectly. Hierom rectified it, revealing in his comment the mistake of the LXX. But it is certain that, from the ambiguity of the word in this place, along with the corrupt translations using "Christ" in the next words, some of old who denied the deity of the Holy Spirit mightily insisted on it to prove that he was a creature. This may be seen in Didymus, Ambrose, Hierom, Hilary, and the ancients generally. But the context determines the meaning of the word beyond all just exceptions. It is the power of God in making and disposing of things here below, whether awesome for their greatness and height, such as the mountains; or mighty and effectual in their operations, such as the wind; or secret in their conceptions, such as the thoughts of men; or stable in their continuance, such as night and day, the evening and morning, without the least respect to Christ or the Spirit that it treats.

I can only observe from this, the great necessity to search the original text in the interpretation of the Scriptures, as might be evidenced by a thousand other instances. But we may take one instance from two great and learned men, who were contemporaries in the Latin church, in their thoughts on this passage.

The one is Ambrose, who in interpreting these words in his second book, De Spiritu Sancto, lib. ii. cap. 6, being deceived by the corrupt translation mentioned, is forced to give a very strained exposition of something 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 rendered "establishing the thunder." Yet, when he has done all, he can scarcely free himself of the objection about the creation of the Spirit, which he aims to answer. The substance of his discourse is that, in his treatment of Christ (who indeed is neither mentioned nor intended in the text), he speaks of "confirming the thunder" (which nowhere appears here), by which the sound of the Scriptures and the preaching of the word is intended — the spirit that was created, being the human soul of Jesus Christ. Nor was he alone in this interpretation.[87]

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The other person is Hierom who — consulting the original as he was well able to do — first translated the words, and declared the mistake of the LXX and its basis. Because the word means both to meditate and to speak, it means a conceived thought to be spoken afterward. It is reciprocal here, not relative.

SECONDLY, because of its unexplainable variation, inconstancy, and changes, the wind is considered vain: it is not to be observed or trusted. From this the wise man tells us that "he that observes the wind will not sow" Ecc 11.4 — the word is used metaphorically to signify vanity: "What profit does he have that has labored for the wind?" Ecc 5.16 "If a man walks with the wind and falsehood;" Mic 2.11 — that is, in vanity, pretending to a spirit of prophecy; and falsehood, vainly, foolishly, falsely boasting. "Should a wise man utter knowledge of the wind?" Job 15.2 They are vain words, with a pretense of knowledge and wisdom; and so he calls them, "words of wind." Job 16.3 "And the prophets will become wind," Jer 5.13 or be vain, foolish, uncertain, and false in their predictions. But pneuma is not used metaphorically in the New Testament.

THIRDLY, By a metonymy[88] it also signifies any part or quarter, as we say, of the world from which the wind blows; also a part of anything divided into four sides or quarters. "There were ninety-six pomegranates towards a wind;" Jer 52.23 that is, on the one side of the capital[89] that was above the pillars in the temple. "I will scatter a third part into all the winds," Eze 5.12 or all the parts of the earth. Hence, the "four quarters" of a thing, lying in the four parts of the world, are called its four winds;1Chr 9.24 and from this we get the "the four winds" in the New Testament.Mat 24.31

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This is the use of the word in general with respect to natural and inanimate things; and every place where it is used this way, has a determinate sense.

FOURTHLY, These words are used for anything that cannot be seen or touched, whether in itself it is material and corporeal, or absolutely spiritual and immaterial. So the vital breath which we and other living creatures breathe, is called spirit (ru'ach): Everything in which was "the breath[90] of the spirit of life," Gen 7.22 — that vital breath by which our lives are maintained in respiration. So it is in Psa 135.17;[91] Job 19.17;[92] this "breath" is a material or corporeal thing. But most frequently it denotes things purely spiritual and immaterial, just as in finite substances it signifies the rational soul of man: Psa 31.5, "Into your hand I commit my spirit." They are the words by which our Savior committed his departing soul into the hands of his Father, Luke 23.46. So too, in Psa 146.4, "His breath," we say, "departs; he returns to his earth." It is his soul and its departure from the body that is intended. This is, that "spirit of the sons of man that goes upward," when the "spirit of a beast goes downward to the earth," or turns to corruption, Ecc 3.21: see chap. 8.8, 12.7.[93] Hence,

FIFTHLY, By a metonymy also, it is taken for the affections of the mind or soul of a man, whether good or evil: Gen 45.27, "The spirit of Jacob revived;" he began to take heart and be of good courage. Eze 13.3, "The prophets that walk after their own spirit" — that is, their own desires and inclinations — when, indeed, they had no vision, but spoke what they had a mind to speak. In Num 14.24,[94] Caleb is said to have "another spirit" than the murmuring people — another mind, will, purpose, or resolution. It is taken for prudence in Josh 5.1; anger, or the irascible faculty in Ecc 7.9; fury in Zec 6.8. "He will cut off the spirit of princes," Psa 76.12; that is, their pride, insolence, and contempt for others. Pneuma in the New Testament frequently intends the intellectual part of the mind or soul, as it is active, or in action, Luke 1.47; Rom 1.9; and it is often taken for the mind in all its inclinations, in its whole habitual bent and design, 1Thes 5.23.

SIXTHLY, Angels also are called spirits: both good angels, Psa 104.4 (it may be that an angel is intended in 1Kng 18.12);[95] and evil angels or devils, 1Kng 22.21, 22; for that spirit who appeared before the Lord, and offered himself to be a lying spirit in the mouths of Ahab's prophets, was none other than the one who appeared before God in Job 1.6, who is called "Satan." These angels in the New Testament are called "unclean spirits," Mat 10.1; and the observation of the ancients, that Satan is not called a spirit absolutely, except with an addition or mark of distinction, holds only in the New Testament.[96]

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And because evil spirits are in the habit of tormenting the minds and bodies of men, any evil thoughts, disorders of mind, wicked purposes, disquieting and vexing of the soul, which arise from or are much furthered by melancholy distempers, are therefore sometimes called "an evil spirit." The case of Saul will be considered afterward.

These words are used and applied in such variety in the Scripture because of some very general notions in which the things intended by them agree. For the most part, there is no great difficulty in discovering their special meaning, or what it is they signify in the several places where they occur. Their design and circumstances as to the subject-matter addressed, determine the meaning. And notwithstanding the ambiguous use of these words in the Old and New Testaments, there are two things that are clear and evident for our purpose:

First, That there is in the holy Scriptures a full, distinct revelation or declaration of the Spirit, or the Spirit of God,[97] as one that is singular, and in every way distinct from everything else that is occasionally or constantly signified or denoted by that word "Spirit." And not only do a number of particular places give testimony to this, but also the whole course of the Scripture supposes it. This is such that, without acknowledging it, nothing else contained in Scripture can be understood or is of any use at all. For we will find that this doctrine is 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 Scripture, and it will prove to be but a dead letter, of no saving advantage to the souls of men. And take away the doctrine concerning him from the writing of Scripture, and the whole will be unintelligible and useless.

Secondly, That whatever is affirmed about this Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, it all relates either to his person or his operations, and these operations of his being various, they are sometimes, by a metonymy, called "spirit." I will say more about this afterward. I will not, therefore, need to prove that there is a Holy Spirit distinct from all other spirits whatsoever, and from everything else that on several occasions is signified by that name — for this is acknowledged by all who acknowledge the Scriptures. Indeed, it is acknowledged by Jews and Mohammedans, as well as all sorts of Christians. And all those false apprehensions concerning him, which have any countenance given to them at this day, may be referred to two heads:

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1. That of the modern Jews, who affirm that the Holy Ghost is the influential power of God; this conceit is entertained and diligently promoted by the Socinians.

2. That of the Mohammedans, who make him out to be an eminent angel, and sometimes say it is Gabriel; this, being passed on from the Macedonians of old, has found some defenders and promoters in our own days.

This then, being the name of the one we are concerned with, some things are to be premised concerning his name and the use of it, as specially applied to him:[98] for sometimes he is called the "Spirit" absolutely; sometimes the "Holy Spirit," or as we say, 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, "Spirit", absolutely used, denotes his person; the additions express his properties and his relation to the other persons of the Godhead.

Two things are included in the name Spirit:

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 except by ru'ach and pneuma, a spirit. Nor is this name given to the Holy Spirit firstly as an allusion to the wind in its subtlety, agility, and efficacy;[99] for these things respect only his operations in which, from some general appearances, his works and effects are likened to the wind and its effects, John 3.8. But it is his substance or being which is first intended in this name.[100] So it is said about God in John 4.24, that he is Pneuma o Theos — "God is a Spirit;" that is, he is of a pure, spiritual, immaterial nature, not confined to any place; and so it is not regarding one place more than another in his worship, which that passage is designed to evince.[101] It will therefore be said that on this account the name of "Spirit" is not unique to the third person, seeing that it contains the description of that nature which is the same in them all; for because it is said, "God is a Spirit," it is not spoken of this or that person, but of the nature of God abstractedly.

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I grant that this is so;[102] and therefore the name "Spirit" is not, in the first place, characteristic only of the third person in the Trinity, but it denotes that nature of which each person is partaker.

Moreover, as it is particularly and constantly ascribed to him, it declares his special manner and order of existence; so that wherever the "Holy Spirit" is mentioned, his relation to the Father and Son is included in this, for he is the Spirit of God. And in this there is an allusion to something created — not, as I said, referring to the wind in general (to whose agility and invisibility he is compared in his operations), but to the breath of man. For it is like the vital breath of a man: it continually emanates from him, and yet it is never utterly separated from his person; nor does it forsake him. In the same way, the Spirit of the Father and the Son proceeds from them by a continual divine emanation, and yet it still abides as one with them. All those allusions are weak and imperfect in which substantial things are compared with incidental things, infinite things with finite, and those that are eternal with those that are temporary. Hence, their disagreement is infinitely more than their agreement; yet our weakness needs instruction from and by such allusions. Thus he is called ru'ach peh, Psa 33.6, "The Spirit" or "breath of the mouth of the Lord," or "of his nostrils;" as in Psa 18.15, in which there is an eminent allusion to the breath of a man. I have addressed elsewhere the manner of this proceeding and emanation of the Spirit from the Father and the Son, so far as it is revealed, and so far as we are capable of a useful apprehension of it. And for this reason — the breath of God being the subsistence of the Holy Spirit in an eternal emanation from the Father and Son — our Savior signified his communication of his gifts to his disciples by breathing on them (emphusao): John 20.22; and because in our creation at the beginning, it is said of Adam that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," Gen 2.7. He uses the same appellation[103] with respect to God in Psa 18.15.[104] Thus he is called the "Spirit." And because the word pneuma is variously used, as we observed before, Didymus supposes in de Spiritu Sancto, lib. iii., that prefixing the Greek article τὸ, "the" Spirit, distinguishes the meaning, and confines it to the Holy Ghost in the New Testament. No doubt it often does; but not always, as it is manifest from John 3.8,[105] where τὸ ("the") is joined with pneuma, and yet it only signifies "the wind." But the subject addressed, and what is affirmed about him, will sufficiently determine the meaning of the word, where he is called absolutely "The Spirit."

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Again: He is called the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost by way of eminence.[106] This is the most usual appellation of him in the New Testament, and it is derived from the Old: Psa 51.11, qodesh ru'ach, "The Spirit of your Holiness," or "Your Holy Spirit;" Isa 63.10-11, "The Spirit of his Holiness," or "His Holy Spirit." Hence we have "The Holy Spirit," and "The Spirit of Holiness," in common use among the Jews. In the New Testament he is to pneuma to hagion, "That Holy Spirit." And we must inquire into the special reasons for this adjunct. Some suppose it is only from his peculiar work of sanctifying us, or making us holy: for this effect of sanctification is his unique work. And of whatever sort it may be — whether it consists in a separation from things that are profane and common, to holy uses and services; or whether it is the real infusion and operation of holiness in men — it comes from him in a special manner. And this also manifests that he is God; for it is God alone who sanctifies his people: Lev 20.8, "I am Jehovah who sanctifies you." And God in that work ascribes to himself the title of Holy in a special manner; he would have us consider him as holy: Lev 21.8, "I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy." And this may be one reason for the frequent use of this property with reference to the Spirit.

But this is not the whole reason for this name and appellation: for where he is first so mentioned, he is called "The Spirit of God's Holiness," Psa 51.11, Isa 63.10-11; and in the New Testament he is called absolutely "The Spirit of Holiness," Rom 1.4. And this respects his nature in the first place, and not merely his operations. God, then, is absolutely called "Holy," "The Holy One," and "The Holy One of Israel;" and in this, he is described by that glorious property of his nature by which he is "glorious in holiness," Exo 15.11, and by which he is distinguished from all false gods ("Who is like you, O Jehovah, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness?"). So too the Spirit is called "Holy" to denote the holiness of his nature. And on this account, an opposition is made between him and the unholy or unclean spirit:

Mark 3.29, 30, "He that blasphemes against the Holy Ghost never has forgiveness: because they said, He has an unclean spirit."

And in this, first, his personality is asserted, for the unclean spirit is a person; and if the Spirit of God were only a quality, or incidental (as some fancy and dream), no comparative opposition could be made between him and this unclean spirit — that is, the devil. So also they are opposed with respect to their natures. His nature is holy, because that of the unclean spirit is evil and perverse. This is the foundation of his being called "Holy": the eternal glorious holiness of his nature. And on this account he is also styled as holy with respect to all his operations — for he is termed holy not only with regard to the particular work of regeneration and sanctification, or of making us holy — but also to all his works and operations.

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For being the immediate operator of all divine works that outwardly are of God, and those works being in themselves entirely holy (of whatever kind they are), he is called the "Holy Spirit." Indeed, he is so called to attest and witness that all his works, all the works of God, are holy, even though they may be great and terrible, and may have another appearance to a corrupt reason. In all of this, we are to acquiesce that the "Holy One in the midst of us will do no iniquity," Zeph. 3.5. So then, the Spirit of God is thus frequently and almost constantly called "Holy," to attest to the fact that all the works of God — of which the Spirit is the immediate operator — are holy. For it is the work of the Spirit to harden and blind obstinate sinners, as well as to sanctify the elect; and his acting in the one is no less holy than in the other, even though holiness is not its effect in the objects of his work. So, when he came to declare his dreadful work of the final hardening and rejection of the Jews, he was signally proclaimed Holy by the seraphims that attended his throne, Isa 6.3, 9-12; John 12.40; Acts 28.25-26. This was one of the most tremendous effects of divine Providence — a work which, for its strangeness, men "would in no way believe even if it was declared to them," Acts 13.41.

There are, indeed, some actions on men and in the world that are worked (by God's permission and in his righteous judgment) by evil spirits, whose persons and actings are placed in opposition to the Spirit of God. So it is in 1Sam 16.14-15, "The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's servants said to him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubles you." So also verse 23, "The evil spirit from God was upon Saul." So it is in 1Sam 18.10 and 19.9. This spirit is called, "an evil spirit of God," chap. 16.15; and absolutely "a spirit of God" in verse 23, where we have "evil" supplied in the translation. But these expressions are to be regulated and explained by verse 14, where he is called "an evil spirit from the Lord;" that is, he was appointed and commissioned by the Lord for punishing and terrifying Saul. The Spirit of the Lord departed from him by withdrawing his assistance and influential operations — those by which he had worked in Saul those gifts and abilities of mind which fitted him for the discharge of his kingly office, and upon the first impressions of which he was "turned into another man" from what he was in his private condition, 1Sam 10.6-9. And as that happened, the evil spirit came upon him to excite out of his own parched melancholy, discontents, fears, and a sense of guilt, and also to impress terrifying thoughts and apprehensions on his imagination. For so it is said in 1Sam 16.14, "An evil spirit from the Lord terrified him," frightened him with dreadful agitations of mind.

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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 while I grant that he was sometimes under an immediate agitation of body and mind from the powerful impressions of the devil upon him — for it is said that under them he "prophesied in the midst of the house," 1Sam 18.10. This argues for an extraordinary and involuntary effect upon him — yet principally the devil worked by the excitation and provocation of Saul's personal distempers, both moral and natural. For these have in themselves a great efficacy in cruciating[107] the minds of guilty persons. So Tacitus observes out of Plato, Annal. lib. vi. 6,

"The most eminent wise man was not in the habit of affirming in vain, that if the minds of tyrants were laid open and revealed, it would be seen how they were cruciated and punished; seeing that, just as the body is rent and torn by lashes, so the mind is rent and torn by cruelty, lusts, evil counsels and undertakings."

I suppose he took this from Plato's de Repub. lib. ix., where Socrates argues various things to that purpose. And another Roman historian gives us a signal instance of this in Jugurtha,[108] after he contracted the guilt of many horrible wickednesses.

Yet this work, in itself, is the same kind as God sometimes employs holy angels for, because it is the execution of his righteous judgments. So it was a "watcher and a holy one" that in such a case struck Nebuchadnezzar with a sudden madness and frenzy, Dan 4.13-17.[109]

Now to return, just as he is called the Holy Spirit, so he is the Good Spirit of God: Psa 143.10, "Your Spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness" as our translation reads. Rather it is "Your good Spirit will lead me;" or as Junius [110] put it, "Lead me by your good Spirit." The Chaldee here adds, "The good Spirit of your holiness," or "Your holy good Spirit." Didymus, lib. ii. de Spir. Sanc., says that some copies here read, to hagion, a remembrance of which is in the manuscript of Thecla,[111] and not elsewhere. So it is in Neh 9.20, "You gave them Your good Spirit to instruct them." And he is called this principally from his nature, which is essentially good, as "there is none good but one, that is, God," Mat 19.17; and also from his operations, which are all good as they are holy; and to those who believe, they are full of goodness in their effects.

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Crellius' Prolegomena, p. 7, [112] distinguishes between this good Spirit and the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost. For he would confine this good Spirit to the Old Testament, making it the author or cause of those gifts of wisdom, courage, prudence, and government, that were granted to many of the people of old. So it is said of Bezalel that he was "filled with the Spirit of God in wisdom, and understanding, and in knowledge," Exo 31.3; so also in 35.31; — "That is," he says, "with this 'good Spirit of God.'" This also applies (it is pretended) in all those places where the Spirit of God is said to "come on" men to enable them to some great and extraordinary work, as in Judges 3.10.[113]

But this plainly contradicts the apostle, who tells us that there are, indeed, various operations, but one Spirit; and that one and the self-same Spirit works all these things as he pleases, 1Cor 12.6, 11. And if we must multiply spirits from every different or distinct effect of the Spirit of God, and assign every one of them to a distinct spirit, then no man will know what to make of the Spirit of God in the end. Probably, we will 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," Psa 143.10. Now, certainly, this was none other than that Holy Spirit which he prays in another place that the Lord would not take from him: Psa 51.11, "Do not take your Holy Spirit from me;" which is confessed to be the Holy Ghost. This he also mentions in 2Sam 23.2, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue." And Peter declares what Spirit this was, in 2Pet 1.21, "Holy men of God spoke in olden times as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." That is how vain this pretense is.

Again; the Spirit is commonly called the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of the Lord; so it is in the first mention of him, Gen 1.2, "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

And I have no doubt that the name "Elohim," which includes a plurality in the same nature, is used in the creation and the whole description of it to intimate the distinction of the divine persons. For immediately after the name Jehovah is mentioned in Gen 2.4, Elohim is joined with it.[114] But that name is not used in the account given of the work of creation, because it has respect only to the unity of the essence of God.

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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 hupostatikos [115] because of the order and nature of personal subsistence and distinction in the holy Trinity. The person of the Father being "the origin of the Trinity,"[116] the Son is from him by eternal generation, and he is therefore his Son, the Son of God — whose designation as the Father is originally from this eternal generation of the Son. So too the person of the Holy Spirit is from God by eternal procession or emanation. Hence, this is that relation to God the Father, for which the Spirit is called the "Spirit of God." And he is not only called the "Spirit of God," but "the Spirit that is of God," which proceeds from him as a distinct person. This, therefore, arising from and consisting in his proceeding from God, he is called, metaphorically, "The breath of his mouth," as proceeding from him by an eternal "spiration", or breathing.

Secondly, on this foundation and supposition, he is also called "The Spirit of God," to differentiate him from all other spirits whatsoever.

Thirdly, this is also because he is promised, given, and sent by God to accomplish his whole will and pleasure towards us. The instances of this will be considered afterward. But these appellations of him have their foundation in his eternal relation to the Father, mentioned before.

On the same account originally, he is also called the Spirit of the Son: "God has sent forth the Spirit of the Son into your hearts," Gal 4.6; — and the Spirit of Christ: "What time the Spirit of Christ which was in them signified," 1Pet 1.11. So Rom 8.9, "But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."[117] Therefore, the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are one and the same; for that hypothetical proposition, "If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his," is an inference taken from the preceding words, "If the Spirit of God dwells in you." And this Spirit of Christ, verse 11, is said to be the "Spirit of him that raised Christ from the dead." Look then, in what sense he is said to be the Spirit of God — that is, of the Father — in the same sense that he is said to be the Spirit of the Son. And this is because he proceeds from the Son also; and he can be so called for no other reason, at least not without the original and formal reason for that appellation.

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Secondarily, I confess that he is called the "Spirit of Christ" because he was promised by him, sent by him, and that was to make effectual and accomplish his work towards the church. But he could not be this, unless he had antecedently been the Spirit of the Son by his proceeding from him also: for the order of the dispensation of the divine persons towards us, arises from the order of their own subsistence in the same divine essence. And if the Spirit proceeded only from the person of the Father, he could not be promised, sent, or given by the Son. Therefore, if you consider the human nature of Christ in itself and abstractedly, the Spirit cannot be said to be the Spirit of Christ; for his human nature was anointed and endowed with gifts and graces by the Spirit, as we will show. And if he may be said to be the Spirit of Christ from this, without any respect to his proceeding from him as the Son of God, then he may also be said to be the Spirit of every believer who has received the unction, who is anointed with his gifts and graces. For although believers are, as to measure and degree, so unspeakably beneath what Christ was, who did not receive the Spirit by measure,Joh 3.34 yet as he is the head and they are the members of the same mystical body, their unction by the Spirit is of the same kind. But the Spirit of God may not be said to be the Spirit of this or that man who has received of his gifts and graces. David prays, "Do not take your Holy Spirit from me," — not "my Holy Spirit." And he is distinguished from our spirits even as they are sanctified by him: Rom 8.16, "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit." No more then, can he be said to be the Spirit of Christ merely on account of his communications to him, even though in degree they are inconceivably excellent above all others. For with respect to this, he is still called the Spirit of God or the Father, who sent him, and who anointed the human nature of Christ with him.

It will be said, perhaps, that he is called the "Spirit of Christ" because he is promised, given, and poured out by him. So Peter says, Acts 2.33, "Having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this, which you now see and hear." But in this regard, namely, as given by Christ the mediator, he is expressly called the Spirit of the Father; he was given as the promise of the Father: for so he is introduced in verse 17, "It will come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh." And so our Savior tells his disciples that he would "pray the Father, and he would give them another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth," John 14.16-17. Nor is he the Spirit of Christ, originally and formally, except as he is the Spirit of God — that is, as Christ is God also.

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On this supposition, I will grant as before, that he may consequently be called the "Spirit of Christ," because he was promised and sent by Christ, doing Christ's work, and communicating Christ's grace, image, and likeness to the elect. And this is still more plain in 1Pet 1.10-11,

"Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you: searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was signifying."

And this Spirit is said absolutely to be the "Holy Ghost," 2Pet 1.21. So, then, the Spirit that was in the prophets of old, in all ages since the world began, before the incarnation of the Son of God, is called the "Spirit of Christ" — that is, of him who is Christ. Now, this could not be because he was anointed by that Spirit, or because he gave it afterward to his disciples; for his human nature did not exist at the time of the prophesying mentioned. Those, indeed, who receive him after the unction of the human nature of Christ, may be said in some sense to receive the Spirit of Christ, because they are made partakers of the same Spirit with him, to the same ends and purposes, and according to their measure. But this cannot be so with respect to those who lived and prophesied by him, and died long before his incarnation.

This is why it is pleaded by those who oppose both the deity of Christ and the Spirit (which are undeniably attested to here), that the Spirit here — which they cannot deny intends the Holy Ghost — is called the "Spirit of Christ," only because the prophets of old, who spoke by him, principally prophesied concerning Christ and his grace, and delivered great mysteries concerning these. So in this passage, Christ is made the object of the Spirit's teaching, and not the author of his sending! So it claims in Crell. Prolegom., pp. 13, 14. But why then is he not called the "Spirit of God" here, based on this reasoning? After all, the prophets that spoke by God spoke entirely of God — of the things and the will of God. But they will not say this, for they acknowledge that the Spirit is the "virtue and power of God, inherent in God and proceeding from him." But then, if God the Father is a person, and Christ is a person — and the Spirit is said to be the "Spirit of God," and the" Spirit of Christ" — how can it be that the same expression, "Spirit," must have different interpretations, such that the Spirit is called the "Spirit of God" because he is of God, and proceeds from God, but he is the "Spirit of Christ" because he is not of Christ, but only treats him as Christ? Their answer is ready — namely, "Because the Father is God, but Christ is not, and therefore Christ could not give the Spirit when he was not God." This is an easy answer — namely, to deny a fundamental truth, and set up that denial in opposition to a clear testimony given to it. But the truth is, this pretended sense leaves no sense at all in the words.

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For if the Spirit which was in the prophets is called the "Spirit of Christ" only because he declared the things of Christ beforehand —that is, Christ's "sufferings and the glory that followed," — and that is the sole reason for that description, then the sense or importance of the words is this:

"Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit — 'not meaning the Spirit of Christ, but only that he testified of Christ and his sufferings' — who was in them was signifying when he testified beforehand of those sufferings."

According to this interpretation, the Spirit of Christ is nothing but the Spirit as testifying of Christ beforehand, and this alone is the reason he is called "the Spirit of Christ." The absurdity of this is apparent to all.

But they endeavor to countenance this wresting[118] of the Scripture using 1John 4.3, "Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God: and this is the spirit of antichrist, which you have heard was coming; and is even now already in the world;" — for some say, "The spirit of antichrist is said to be in the world, when antichrist had not as yet come." But the spirit intended here is not called "the spirit of antichrist" because it declared and foretold the things of antichrist before his coming — for it is on this account alone that they allow the Spirit of God in the prophets of old, to be called the "Spirit of Christ." They have, therefore, no countenance from this passage, which fails them in the principal thing they would prove by it.

Again, suppose these words — "which you have heard would come, and is even now already in the world" — were interpreted to be about the spirit mentioned, and not of antichrist himself. Yet no more can be intended than this: that the false teachers and seducers which were then in the world acted with the same spirit as antichrist would do at his coming; and so there is no conformity between these expressions. Besides, the spirit of antichrist was then in the world, as was antichrist himself. To the extent that his spirit was then in the world, so was he; for antichrist and his spirit cannot be separated. Both he and it were then in the world in their forerunners, who opposed the truth of the gospel about the incarnation of the Son of God and his sufferings. And, indeed, the spirit of antichrist in this passage is no more than his doctrine — antichristian doctrine — which is to be tested and rejected. Nor is any specific person intended by antichrist, but a mysterious opposition to Christ and the gospel, signally headed by a series of men in the latter days. Therefore he and his spirit began to be together in the world in the apostles' days, when the "mystery of iniquity" began to "work," 2Thes 2.7.

There is therefore no countenance to be taken from these words to pervert and wrest that other expression concerning the Spirit of Christ in the prophets of old. This is therefore the formal reason for this appellation: The Holy Spirit is called the "Spirit of the Son," and the "Spirit of Christ," on account of his procession or emanation from the person of Christ.

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Without respect to this, he could not properly be called the "Spirit of Christ;" it is on that supposition only that he may be. The Spirit is so designated from that various relation and respect that he has to Christ in his work and operations.

This is what the Spirit is called in the Scripture — these are the names by which the essence and subsistence of the third person in the Holy Trinity are declared. How he is called on account of his offices and operations, will be manifested as we progress.

Chapter III.

Divine nature and personality of the Holy Spirit proved and vindicated.

Ends of our consideration of the dispensation of the Spirit — Principles premised to this — The nature of God, the foundation of all religion — Divine revelation gives the rule and measure of religious worship — God has revealed himself as three in one — Distinct actings and operations ascribed to these distinct persons; therefore the Holy Spirit is a divine distinct person — Double opposition to the Holy Spirit —His personality granted and his deity denied by some — His personality denied by the Socinians — Proved against them — The open vanity of their pretenses — Mat 28.19, pleaded — Appearance of the Spirit under the shape of a dove explained and improved — His appearance as fire explained — His personal subsistence proved — Personal properties assigned to him — Understanding — Argument from this pleaded and vindicated — A will — John 3.8, Jas 3.4, cleared — Exceptions removed — Power — Other personal ascriptions to him, with testimonies vindicated and explained.

We will now proceed to the matter itself designed for consideration — namely, the dispensation of the Spirit of God to the church; and I will endeavor to fix what I have to offer upon its proper principles, and educe from them to the whole doctrine concerning it. And this must be so done as to manifest the interest of our faith, obedience, and holy worship, in the whole and each part of it; for these are the immediate ends of all divine revelations, according to that holy maxim of our blessed Savior, "If you know these things, happy are you if you do them." Joh 13.17 To this end the ensuing principles are to be observed:

FIRST, The nature and being of God is the foundation of all true religion and holy religious worship in the world. The great end for which we were made —for which we were born by the power of God into this world — is to worship him and give glory to him. For he "made all things for himself," or his own glory, Pro 16.4, to be rendered to him according to the abilities and capacities that he has furnished them with, Rev 4.11.

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And what makes this worship indispensably necessary to us, and from which it is holy or religious, is the nature and being of God himself. There are, indeed, many parts or acts of religious worship which immediately respect (as their reason and motive) what God is to us, or what he has done and does for us. But the principal and adequate reason for all divine worship, and what makes it divine, is what God is in himself. He is an infinitely glorious, good, wise, holy, powerful, righteous, self-subsisting, self-sufficient, all-sufficient Being, the fountain, cause, and author of life and being to all things, and of all that is good in every kind, the first cause, last end, and absolutely sovereign Lord of all, the rest and all-satisfactory reward of all other beings. Therefore he is to be adored and worshipped by us with divine and religious worship. Hence, in our hearts, minds, and souls, we are to admire, adore, and love him; we are to celebrate his praises; we are to trust and fear him, and so resign ourselves and all our concerns to his will and disposal; we are to regard him with all the acts of our minds and persons, in accord with the holy properties and excellencies of his nature. This is to glorify him as God — for seeing that "of him, and through him, and to him are all things," to him must be "glory forever," Rom 11.36. "Believing that God is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him," is the ground of all coming to God in his worship, Heb 11.6.

In this lies the sin of men: that the "invisible things of God being manifest to them, even his eternal power and Godhead," yet "they do not glorify him as God," Rom 1.19-21. And this is to honor, worship, and fear God for himself: namely, on account of what he is in himself. Where the divine nature is, there is the true, proper, formal object of religious worship; and where that is not, it is idolatry to ascribe worship to it, or to exercise worship towards any. And God instructs us in this, in all those places where he proclaims his name and describes his eternal excellencies, and that is either absolutely or in comparison with other things. All is this: that we may know him to be such a one as to be worshipped and glorified for himself, for his own sake.

SECONDLY, The revelation that God is pleased to make of himself to us gives the rule and measure of all religious worship and obedience. His being, absolutely considered, as comprehending in it all infinite, divine perfections, is the formal reason for our worship. But this worship is to be directed, guided, and regulated by the revelation he makes to us of that being and those excellencies. This is the end of divine revelation: namely, to direct us in paying that homage which is due the divine nature. I do not speak now only of positive institutions,[119] which are the free effects of the will of God, depending originally and solely on revelation, and which therefore have been various, and actually changed.[120]

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Rather, this is what I intend: — look at whatever way God manifests his being and properties to us, by his works or by his word, and our worship consists in a due application of our souls to him according to that manifestation of himself.

THIRDLY, God has revealed or manifested himself as three in one, and therefore he is to be worshipped and glorified as such by us; — that is, as three distinct persons, subsisting in the same infinitely holy, one, undivided essence. This principle might be confirmed here at large, and would have been if that labor had not been obviated; for the whole ensuing discourse presupposes and leans upon it. In truth, I fear that the failing of some men's profession begins with their relinquishment of this foundation. It is now evident to all that here has been the fatal miscarriage of those poor deluded souls among us whom they call Quakers; and it is altogether in vain to deal with them about other particulars, while they are carried away with infidelity from this foundation. Convince any of them of the doctrine of the Trinity, and all the rest of their imaginations will vanish into smoke. I wish it were so only with them. But there are others, and those are not a few, who either reject the doctrine of the Trinity as false, or else despise it as unintelligible, or neglect it as useless, or of no great importance. I know this ulcer lies hidden in the minds of many, and I can only expect a time when it will break out, and cover the whole body with its defilements of which they are members.

But these things are left to the care of Jesus Christ. The reason why I will not insist professedly on the confirmation and vindication of this fundamental truth here, is because I have done it elsewhere, having more than once publicly cast my mite into this sanctuary of the Lord. For this and similar services, in which I stand indebted to the gospel, I have met with that reward which I always expected. For the present I will only say that, on this supposition that God has revealed himself as three in one, he is to be so considered in all our worship of him. And, therefore, in our initiation into the profession and practice of the worship of God, according to the gospel, we are engaged to it in our baptism, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," Mat 28.19. This is the foundation of our doing all the things that Christ commands us, such as verse 20.[121] To this service we are solemnly dedicated; namely, the service of God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — as they are, each of them, equally participant of the same divine nature.

FOURTHLY, These persons are so distinct in their particular subsistence, that distinct actings and operations are ascribed to them. And these actings are of two sorts:

1. Ad intra (internal), which are those internal acts in one person of which another person is the object. And these acts ad invicem,[122] or intra, are natural and necessary.

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They are inseparable from the being and existence of God. So the Father knows the Son and loves him, and the Son sees, knows, and loves the Father. In these mutual actings, one person is the object of the knowledge and love of the other:

John 3.35, "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand."

John 5.20, "The Father loves the Son."

Mat 11.27, "No man knows the Son, but the Father; nor does any man know the Father, save the Son."

John 6.46, "None has seen the Father, save the one who is of God, he has seen the Father."

This mutual knowledge and love of Father and Son is expressed at large in Pro 8.22-31, which I have explained and vindicated elsewhere. And they are absolute, infinite, natural, and necessary to the being and blessedness of God. So the Spirit is the mutual love of the Father and the Son, knowing them as he is known, and "searching the deep things of God." 1Cor 2.10 And in these mutual, internal, eternal actings, consist much of the infinite blessedness of the holy God.

2. Again, there are distinct actings of the several persons ad extra (external); which are voluntary, or effects of will and choice, and not natural or necessary. And these are of two sorts:

(1.) Those which respect one another; for there are external acts of one person towards another: but then the person that is the object of these actings is not considered absolutely as a divine person, but with respect to some particular dispensation and condescension. So the Father gives, sends, and commands the Son, as he condescended to take our nature upon him, and be the mediator between God and man. So the Father and the Son send the Spirit, as he condescends in a special manner to the office of being the sanctifier and comforter of the church. Now, these are free and voluntary acts, which depend on the sovereign will, counsel, and pleasure of God — and thus they might not have been, yet without the least diminution of his eternal blessedness.

(2.) There are special acts, ad extra, towards the creatures.[123] The whole Scripture testifies to this, so that it is altogether needless to confirm it with particular instances. There are none who have learned the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, who cannot 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 afterward in all the distinct actings of the Spirit — which is sufficient for our purpose.

FIFTHLY, From this 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 to him.

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But here I must stay a little, and confirm that foundation which we build upon; for we are investigating those things which that one and self-same Spirit distributes according to his own will. And it is indispensably necessary to our present design that we inquire as to who and what that one and self-same Spirit is, seeing that all these things depend on him and his will. And we know likewise that if men prevail in the opposition they make to his person, it serves no great purpose to concern ourselves with his operations. For the foundation of any fabric being taken away, the superstructure will be of no use, nor will it abide.

The opposition that is made in the world against the Spirit of God doctrinally, may be reduced to two heads; for there are some who grant his personality, or that he is a distinct self-subsisting person, but they deny his deity — they deny that he is a participant of the divine nature; thus they will not allow him to be God. They say he is a created finite spirit, but the highest of all spirits that were created, and the head of all the good angels. They say there is such a spirit, and that he is called the "Spirit of God," or the "Holy Ghost," on account of the work in which he is employed. This is the way the Macedonian heretics of old went, and they are now followed by the Mohammedans; and some of late among ourselves have attempted to revive the same frenzy. But we will not need to trouble ourselves about this notion. The folly of it is so evident that it is utterly deserted by almost all. For the things that are affirmed about the Holy Ghost in the Scripture are such that, to assert his personality and deny his deity, is the utmost madness that anyone can fall into in spiritual things. Hence the Socinians, the present great enemies of the doctrine of the holy Trinity — who might be thought to go soberly about the work of destroying the church of God — utterly reject this plea and pretense. But what they advance in its place has no less pernicious a nature and consequence: for, while they grant that the things assigned to him are 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 exerts for various purposes. Yet this is no new invention of theirs.[124] It is not my design to professedly contend with them here about all the concerns of this difference; for there is nothing of importance in all their pretenses or exceptions that will not arise, in one place or another, for our consideration as we progress.

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I will only confirm at present the divine personality of the Holy Ghost with one argument, which I will not say is such that no man can respond to it with the pretense of an answer. For what is it that the serpentine wits of men will not pretend to give an answer to, or make an exception against, if their lusts and prejudices require them so to do? But I will boldly say that it is such that the gates of hell will never prevail against it in the hearts of true believers; the strengthening of their faith is all that I aim at in it. And if it does not evince the truth and reality of the divine personality of the Holy Ghost to all unprejudiced persons, then it must certainly convince all men that nothing which is taught or delivered in the Scripture can possibly be understood.

I will premise this with one consideration which has been proposed before in part, in order to free the subject of our argument from ambiguity. And this is, that this word or name "Spirit" is sometimes used to denote the Spirit of God[125] himself, and sometimes it denotes his gifts and graces, that is, the effects of his operations on the souls of men. Our adversaries in this cause are forced to confess this, and in all their writings, they distinguish between the Holy Spirit and his effects. This alone being supposed, I say it would be impossible to prove that the Father is a person, or that the Son is so (though both are acknowledged), in any other way than we may and do prove that the Holy Ghost is a person. For the one to whom all personal properties, attributes, adjuncts, acts, and operations, are ascribed, and to whom they belong, and to whom nothing is or can be truly and properly ascribed, except what may and does belong to a person, is a person, and we are taught to believe he is so. This is how we know the Father is a person, and also the Son; for our knowledge of things is more by their properties and operations than by their essential forms. This is especially so with respect to the nature, being, and existence of God, which are in themselves absolutely incomprehensible. Now, I will not confirm the assumption of this argument with reference to the Holy Ghost from this or that particular testimony; nor from the assignation of any single personal property to him; but from the constant, uniform tenor of the Scripture in ascribing all these properties to him. And we may add to this, 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, that is not in one place or another ascribed to the Holy Ghost.

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There is no exception that can be laid against the force of this argument, except that some things, on the one hand, are ascribed to the Spirit which do not belong to a person, nor can be spoken of a person; and on the other, that various things that properly belong to persons are figuratively ascribed in the Scripture to such things that are not persons. Thus, as to the first head of this exception, the Holy Spirit is said to be "poured out," to be "shed abroad," to be "an unction," or the like; we will address all of these expressions afterward. What then? Should we say that he is not a person, but only the power of God? Would this render those expressions concerning him proper? How then would the virtue of God, or the power of God, be said to be "poured out," or "shed abroad," and the like? This is why both they and we acknowledge that these expressions are figurative, as many things are so expressed about God in the Scripture, and that is done frequently; what their meaning is under their figurative colors will be declared afterward. Therefore, this does not in the least impeach our argument, unless this assertion were true generally, that whatever is spoken of figuratively in the Scripture is not a person — which would leave no one in heaven or on earth!

On the other side, it is confessed that there are things specific to rational subsistents or persons, which are sometimes ascribed to those that are not. Many things of this nature, such as to "hope," to "believe," to "bear," are ascribed to charity, 1Cor 13.7.[126] But everyone quickly apprehends that this expression is figurative, the abstract being put for the concrete by a metalepsis; and charity is said to do what a man endowed with that grace will do. So the Scripture is said to "see," to "foresee," to "speak," and to "judge," [127] which are personal actings — but who does not see and grant that a metonymy is and must be allowed in such assignations? What is ascribed to the effect, the Scripture, is proper to the cause, which is the Spirit of God speaking in it. So the heavens and the earth are said to "hear," and the fields, with the trees of the forest, are said to "sing" Psa 96.12 and "clap their hands," Isa 55.12 by a prosopopoeia.[128] Now concerning these things, there is no danger of mistake. The light of reason and their own nature in this, give us a sufficient understanding of them; and those figurative expressions which are used concerning them are common in all good authors. Besides, the Scripture itself in countless other places, so teaches and declares what they are, that its plain and direct proper assertions sufficiently expound its own figurative enunciations — for these and like ascriptions are only occasional; the direct description of the things themselves is given in other places. But now, with respect to the Spirit of God, all things are otherwise. The constant uniform expressions concerning him are such that they declare he is a person who is endowed with all personal properties; no description is given of him anywhere, that is inconsistent with their proper application to him.

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Say a sober, wise, and honest man were to come and tell you that in a particular country where he has been, there is one who is the governor of it, who discharges his office well — that he hears causes, discerns right, distributes justice, relieves the poor, and comforts those in distress. Supposing that you gave him that credit which honesty, wisdom, and sobriety deserve; would you not believe that he meant a righteous, wise, diligent, and intelligent person, was discharging the office of a governor? What else could any man living imagine? Now suppose there is another unknown person, or so far as he is known, he is justly suspected of deceit and forgery. If he were to come to you and tell you that all the things the first person informed you about and acquainted you with was indeed true, but the words which he spoke have quite another meaning; for it was not a man or any person that he intended, but it was the sun or the wind that he meant by all that he said about him. For the sun, by its benign influences, makes a country fruitful and temperate, suited to the relief and comfort of all who dwell in it, and disposes the minds of the inhabitants to mutual kindness and benignity. The first person merely described these things to you figuratively, under the notion of a righteous governor and his actions, even though he never gave you the least intimation of any such intention. You must certainly conclude one of two things. Either the first person, whom you know to be a wise, sober, and honest man, was a notorious trifler, and designed your ruin if you were to arrange any of your business according to his reports. Or else the latter informer, whom you have just reason to suspect of falsehood and deceit in other things, has endeavored to abuse both the former person and you, rendering his veracity suspect, and spoiling all your designs that were grounded on what he said.

And it is not otherwise in this case. The Scripture informs us that the Holy Ghost rules in and over the church of God, appointing overseers of it under him; he discerns and judges all things; he comforts those who are faint, strengthens those who are weak, and he is grieved and provoked by those who sin. It informs us that in all these, and in countless other things of like nature, he works, orders, and disposes all "according to the counsel of his own will." Upon this, it directs us to so order our conduct towards God that we do not grieve the Spirit or displease him,Eph 4.30 telling us upon this, what great things he will do for us — on which we lay the stress of our obedience and salvation. Can any man who gives credit to the testimony thus proposed in the Scripture, possibly conceive of this Spirit in any other way than as a holy, wise, and intelligent person?

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Now, while we are under the power of these apprehensions, there come to us some men, say Socinians or Quakers, whom we have just cause on many other accounts to suspect at least of deceit and falsehood. And they confidently tell us that what the Scripture says concerning the Holy Spirit is indeed true, but that in and by all the expressions which it uses concerning him, it does not intend any such person as it seems to do, but only "an appearance, a quality, an effect, or influence of the power of God," which figuratively does all the things mentioned — namely, it has a will figuratively, and understanding figuratively, discerns and judges figuratively, is sinned against figuratively, etc. with all that is said of him. Can any man who is not forsaken of all natural reason as well as spiritual light, choose now but to determine either that the Scripture is designed to draw him into errors and mistakes about the principal concerns of his soul, and thus to ruin him eternally; or that these persons, who would impose such a sense upon it, are indeed corrupt seducers who seek to overthrow his faith and comforts? They will appear to be such in the end. I will now proceed to confirm the argument proposed:

1. All things necessary to this purpose are comprised in the solemn form of our initiation into covenant with God. In Mat 28.19, our Lord Jesus Christ commands his apostles to "disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" This is the foundation we lay for all our obedience and profession, which are to be regulated by this initial engagement. Now, no man will or does deny that the Father and the Son are distinct persons. There are some indeed who deny the Son to be God; but none are so mad as to deny that he is a person, though they would have him only be a man; — all grant, whether Christ is God and man, or only man, to be a distinct person from the Father. Now, if the Holy Ghost is not a divine person as they are, then what confusion this necessarily introduces to add him to them, and join him equally with them, as to all the concerns of our faith and obedience! If as some fancy, he is a person indeed, yet not a divine person but a creature, then here the same honor is openly assigned to him, who is no more than that, as assigned to God himself. The Scripture elsewhere declares this to be idolatry, and it is to be detested, Gal 4.8, Rom 1.25.[129] And if the Spirit is not a person, but a virtue and quality in God, an emanation of power from him, concerning which our adversaries speak things that are portentous and unintelligible, then what sense can any man apprehend in the words?

Besides, whatever is ascribed to the other persons, either with respect to themselves or our duty towards them, is equally ascribed to the Holy Ghost; for whatever is intended by the "name" of the Father and of the Son, he is equally concerned with them in this.

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It is not the name "Father," and the name "Son," but the name of "God" — that is, the name of them both — that is intended. It is a name common to them all, and distinctly applied to them all; but they do not have distinct or diverse names in this sense.

And what is signified by the "name" of God, is either his being or his authority; for none have been able to invent another intention for it. Take "name" here in either sense, and it is sufficient for what we intend: if it is used in the first way, the being of the Spirit must be acknowledged as the being of the Father; and if it is taken in the second way, he has the same divine authority as the Father. One who has the nature and authority of God, is God — he is a divine person.

Our argument from this, then, is not merely from the Spirit being joined with the Father and the Son — for as to some ends and purposes, any creatures may be joined with them.[130] Rather, we argue that it is from the manner and end of his being conjoined with the Father and the Son, for which their "name" is ascribed to him — that is, their divine nature and authority.

Again, we are said to be baptized "into his name." And no sense can be affixed to these words except what unavoidably includes his personality; for these words may and do intend two things, nor is anything else intended except what may be reduced to them:

First, Our religious owning of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in all our divine worship, faith, and obedience. Now, as we own and avow the one, so we own the other; for we are baptized into their name alike,[131] equally submitting to their authority, and equally taking the profession of their name upon us. If then, we avow and acknowledge the Father as a distinct person, so we do the Holy Ghost. Again, by being baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, we are sacredly initiated and consecrated, or dedicated, to the service and worship of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We take this upon ourselves in our baptism. In this lies the foundation of all our faith and profession; it is that engagement of ourselves to God which constitutes our Christianity. This is the pledge of our entrance into covenant with God, and surrendering ourselves to Him in the solemn bond of religion. To conceive from this, that anyone who is not God as the Father is, who is not a person as he is also, and the Son likewise, is joined with them for the ends and in the manner mentioned, without taking the least notice of their differences as to deity or personality, is a strange fondness.[132]

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It is destructive of all religion, and it leads the minds of men towards polytheism. As we engage in all religious obedience to the Father and Son in this — to believe in them, trust, fear, honor, and serve them —we do the same with respect to the Holy Ghost. How we can do this, if the Holy Ghost is not as the Father and Son are, no man can understand.

We do not then, in this case, merely plead from this, that we are baptized into the "Holy Ghost," as some pretend; nor indeed are we said to be baptized in this way. Men may figuratively be said to be baptized into a doctrine, when their baptism is a pledge and token of their profession of it. So the disciples whom the apostle Paul met with at Ephesus, Acts 19.3, are said to be baptized "into the baptism of John" — that is, into the doctrine of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, of which his baptism was a pledge. So also the Israelites are said to be baptized "into Moses," 1Cor 10.2, because he led and conducted them through the sea, when they were sprinkled with its waves as a token of their initiation into the rites and ceremonies which he was to deliver to them. But we are said to be baptized into his "name," which is the same as that of the Father and Son. Certainly God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, under one and the same name, is proposed to us as the object of all our faith and worship; and our acceptance of this is required as the foundation of all our present religion and future hopes. If the doctrine of a Trinity of persons, subsisting in the same undivided essence, is not being taught and declared in these words, then we may justly despair of ever having any divine mystery manifested to us.

2. His appearance in and under a visible sign argues for his personal existence. This is related in Mat 3.16; Luke 3.22; and John 1.32.[133] Luke says first, in general, that he descended "in a bodily shape" or appearance; and they all agree that it was the shape of a dove under which he appeared. The words in Matthew are, "He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting" (or rather coming) "upon him." "He" is John the Baptist, not Christ himself. The Greek relative, autos, translated "him," refers in this verse to the more remote antecedent. For although "he," that is Christ himself, also saw the descending of the Holy Spirit, I assume it relates to that token which was to be given about Christ to John, by which he would know him, John 1.32-33. The following words are ambiguous: "like a dove;" for the expression 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.

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This sense is determined in the other evangelists to be the bodily shape in which the Spirit descended. He took the form or shape of a dove to make a visible representation of himself; for a visible pledge was to be given of the coming of the Holy Ghost on the Messiah, according to the promise; and God directed his great forerunner to know him by this dove.

Now, this was no real dove. That would have been something that was not as miraculous as this appearance of the Holy Ghost is represented. And the text will not bear any such apprehension, though it was entertained by some of the ancients — 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 for him, as it were. Moreover, the expression of the opening of the heavens is not used except with respect to some appearance or manifestation of God himself. And so (or which is the same thing) the bowing of the heavens is often used: Psa 144.5, "Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down;" 2Sam 22.10; Isa 64.1; Eze 1.1, "The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God;" as in Acts 7.56. God did not use this sign except in some manifestation of himself. If this had not been an appearance of God, there would have been no need for the bowing or opening of 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 "a bodily shape;" and that was "of a dove."

At the beginning of the old creation, the Spirit of God came and fell upon the waters, Heb. "merachepheth" (OT:07363),[134] cherishing the whole, and communicating a prolific and vivific quality to it — as a fowl, or a dove in particular, gently moves itself upon its eggs until with and by its generative warmth, it has communicated vital heat to them. So now, at the beginning of the new creation, the Spirit comes like a dove upon the one who was the immediate author of the new creation, and virtually comprised it in himself, carrying it on by virtue of the Spirit's presence with him. And so this is applied in the Syriac ritual of baptism, composed by Severinus, in the account given of the baptism of Christ:

"And the Spirit 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 to the dove that brought tidings to Noah of the ceasing of the flood waters, and of the ending of the wrath of God, who upon that act, said that he would curse the earth no more, Gen 8.11, 21. For in this there was also a significant representation of the one who visited poor, lost mankind in their cursed condition, and proclaimed peace to those who would return to God by him who is the great peace-maker, Eph 2.14-17.[135]

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And he immediately engaged in this work 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 fitting to remind us of purity and harmless innocence. Hence that direction, "Be harmless as doves," Mat 10.16. So also, it fixes on the sharpness of its sight or eyes, as in Song 1.15, 4.1,[136] to represent a quick and discerning understanding, such as that which is in Christ from the Spirit resting on him, Isa 11.2-4.[137]

The shape of what appeared was that of a dove, but the substance itself, I judge, was of a fiery nature, an ethereal substance, shaped into the form or resemblance of a dove. It had the shape of a dove, but not the appearance of feathers, colors, or the like. This also rendered the appearance more visible, conspicuous, heavenly, and glorious. The Holy Ghost is often compared to fire, because he was typified or represented by it of old; for on the first solemn offering of sacrifices fire came from the Lord for kindling them. Hence Theodotion[138] of old rendered Gen 4.4 ("The Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offering,") as "God fired the offering of Abel;" that is, he 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,

Lev 9.24, "fire came out from before the Lord, and consumed the burnt-offering and the fat upon the altar; which when all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces."

And the fire kindled by it was to be perpetuated on the altar, so that no fire was ever to be used in sacrifice except what was transmitted from it. It was for neglecting this intimation of the mind of God, that Nadab and Abihu[139] were consumed, Lev 10.1-2. So it was also, upon the dedication of the altar in the temple of Solomon:

2Chr 7.1 "Fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifices;"

And a fire kindled from this was always kept burning on the altar. In the same way, God bore testimony to the ministry of Elijah, 1Kng 18.38-39.[140] By all these, God signified that no sacrifices were accepted by 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 corresponding to this, our Lord Jesus Christ is 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 the Spirit assumed, it is expressly said that it was fiery:

Acts 2.3, "There appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire;"

This was the visible token of the coming of the Holy Ghost upon them. He chose that figure of tongues, then, to denote the assistance which he furnished them with for publishing the gospel — by the miraculous gift of speaking with diverse tongues, together with wisdom and utterance.

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And thus, also, the Lord Christ is said to "baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire," Mat 3.11. Two different things are not what is intended here; rather, the words "and with fire," are added to the expression "with the Holy Ghost" — for he is a spiritual, divine, eternal fire. So God absolutely is said to be a "consuming fire," Heb 12.29, Deu 4.24. In these words, "He will baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire," there is a prospect as to what came to pass afterward, when the apostles received the Holy Ghost with a visible pledge of fiery tongues. And there seems to be a retrospect, by way of allusion to what is recorded in 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 its guilt and filth. And this is the work of the Holy Ghost who not only sanctifies us, but — by ingenerating faith in us, and applying the promise to us — is the cause and means of our justification also (1Cor 6.11, Tit 3.4-7),[141] by which our sins on both accounts are taken away.

So also his efficacy in other places is compared to fire and burning:

Isa 4.4, 5, "When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning..."

He is compared both to fire and water, with respect to the same cleansing virtue in both. So too in Mal 3.2.[142] Hence, though this is expressed by "the Holy Ghost and fire" in two of the evangelists, (Mat 3.11 and Luke 3.16), in the other two there is mention only of the "Holy Ghost" (Mark 1.8, John 1.33) — yet the same thing is intended. I have added these things to clarify the manner of this divine appearance a little, which also belongs to the economy of the Spirit.

Now, I say that this appearance of the Holy Ghost in a bodily shape — in which he was represented by something that has a substance and subsistence of its own — manifests that he is a substance and subsistence of his own. For if he is no such thing, but a mere influential effect of the power of God, then we are not being taught right apprehensions of him, but mere mistakes by this appearance. For there can be no substantial figure or resemblance made of such an accident except what is monstrous. It is excepted by our adversaries (Crell. de Natur. Spir. Sanc.) that, "A dove is not a person, because it is not endowed with understanding, which is essentially required for the constitution of a person; and therefore," they say, "no argument can be taken from there 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 that, we will quickly evince that he is endowed with a divine understanding, and so he is completely a person.

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They further object that,

"If the Holy Ghost in his appearance, intended to manifest that he is a divine person, he would have appeared as a man, which is a person; for so God, or an angel in his name, appeared under the Old Testament."

This has no more importance than the preceding exception. The Holy Ghost manifested himself as it seemed good to him; and we declared before some reasons for the instructive use of the shape of a fiery dove. Nor did God of old appear only in a human shape. He did so sometimes in a burning fiery bush, Exo 3.2, 4; and sometimes in a pillar of fire or a cloud, Exo 14.24. Moreover, the appearances of God under the Old Testament, as I have demonstrated elsewhere, were all of the second person;[143] and he assumed a human shape as a prelude to, 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 whatever shape he pleased. Indeed, the representation of himself under a human shape would have been dangerous and unsafe for us; for it would have removed the use of those instructive appearances under the Old Testament teaching the incarnation of the Son of God. And also, with the sole reason for such appearances being removed — namely, that they all respected the incarnation of the second person — as they would have had a similar appearance to that of the third person, there would have been a danger of giving a false idea of the Deity to the minds of men. For some might have conceived from this that God has a bodily shape like us, when none of them would ever be so silly as to imagine him to be like a dove.[144] These testimonies, with similar ones in general, are given as to the divine personality of the Holy Spirit.

I will next consider those personal properties which are particularly and distinctly ascribed to the Spirit.

FIRST, Understanding or wisdom is the first inseparable property of an intelligent subsistence ascribed to him in its acts and effects: 1Cor 2.10, "The Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." The Spirit that is intended here is declared expressly in verse 12, "Now we have not received the spirit of the world" — i.e., we are not moved by the evil spirit; "but the Spirit which is of God," — a signal description of the Holy Ghost. So he is called "His Spirit," verse 10, "God has revealed these things to us by his Spirit." Now, to search is an act of understanding; and the Spirit is said to search because he knows: Verse 11, "What man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" — this is intimate knowledge, with all its own thoughts and counsels; "even so no man knows the things of God, except the Spirit of God."

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And these things are revealed to us by him, for by him "we know the things that are freely given to us by God," verse 12. These things cannot be spoken by anyone except a person endowed with understanding. And he thus "searches the deep things of God," — that is, the mysteries of God's will, counsel, and grace; — and he is therefore a divine person who has an infinite understanding; as it is said of God, Isa 40.28, "There is no end," measure, or investigation, "of his understanding;" Psa 147.5, there is "no number of his understanding," — it is endless, boundless, infinite.

It is excepted (Schlichting. de Trinitat., p. 605) that,

"The Spirit is not taken here for the Spirit himself, nor does the apostle express what the Spirit himself does, but what men are enabled to do by the assistance of the Holy Ghost. By that assistance, 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 allow it; for the apostle gives an account of how the wisdom, counsels, and deep things of God — which the world could not understand — were now preached and declared to the church. "God," says Schlichting, "has revealed them to us by his Spirit." But how does the Spirit himself, the author of these revelations, come to be acquainted with these things? He has this from his own nature, by which he knows or "searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." It is therefore the revelation made by the Spirit to the apostles and penmen of the scripture of the New Testament — who were moved by the Holy Ghost in the same way as the holy men of old were moved, 2Pet 1.21 — which is what the apostle intends in these words, and not the illumination and teaching of believers in the knowledge of the mysteries revealed by them.

But who is this Spirit? Paul tells us that the "judgments of God are unsearchable, and his ways are past finding out," Rom 11.33; and he asks, "Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?" verse 34. And yet this Spirit is said to "search all things, indeed, the deep things of God" — those things which are absolutely unsearchable and past finding out as to all creatures. This then is the Spirit of God himself, who is God also; for so it is in Isaiah, "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor, has taught him?" Isa 40.13

It will not relieve the adversaries of the Holy Ghost (even though it is pleaded by them) that the Spirit is compared with and opposed to the "spirit of a man," 1Cor 2.11 which they say is not a person. No comparisons hold in all circumstances. The spirit of a man is his rational soul, endowed with understanding and knowledge. This is an individual intelligent substance, capable of a subsistence in a separate condition. Grant that the Spirit of God is so far a person, and all their pretenses fall to the ground. It is affirmed by one among ourselves that,

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"This expression of 'searching the things of God,' cannot be applied 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 knowledge of anything." [145]

But this has no weight in this matter; for such acts are ascribed to God with respect to their effects. And searching being the means of our attaining perfect knowledge of anything, the perfection of the knowledge of God is expressed by it. So David prays that God would "search him, and know his heart," Psa 139.23. And God is often said to "search the hearts of men," by which his infinite wisdom is intimated, to which all things are open and naked. So his Spirit is said to "search the deep things of God," because of his infinite understanding and the perfection of his knowledge, before which they lie open. And just as things are said here about the Spirit in reference to God the Father, so they are spoken of the Father in reference to the Spirit: Rom 8.27, "He that searches the hearts, knows what the mind of the Spirit is." Add to this that this Spirit is the author of wisdom and understanding in and to others, and he must therefore have these things in himself; and that is not only virtually or casually, but formally also. In 1Cor 12.8, wisdom and knowledge are reckoned among the gifts bestowed by him. For those gifts of faith and tongues, it is enough that they are in him virtually; but wisdom and understanding, cannot be given by anyone who is not wise and understands what he does; thus the Spirit is expressly called a "Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and knowledge," Isa 11.2. I might confirm this by other testimonies, where other effects of understanding are ascribed to him, as in 1Tim 4.1; 1Pet 1.11; 2Pet 1.21;[146] but what has been said is sufficient for our purpose.

SECONDLY, A will is ascribed to him. This is the most eminently distinguishing character and property of a person. Whatever is endowed with an intelligent will is a person; and it cannot by any fiction, with any tolerable congruity, be ascribed to anything else, unless the reason of the metaphor is plain and obvious. So when our Savior says of the wind that it blows "as it wills," or as it lists, John 3.8, the abuse of the word is evident. All that is intended is that the wind is not accountable to us; it is not at our disposal at all; it does not act by our guidance or direction. No man is so foolish as not to apprehend the meaning of it, or once inquire whether our Savior properly ascribes a will to the wind or not.

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So it is in Jas 3.4. The words rendered by us, "Turned about with a very small helm, wherever the governor lists (or pilot wishes)," ascribe the act of willing to the impetus or inclination of the governor; yet the impetus does not have a will.[147] But the impulse or inclination in that verse (Gr. horme NT:3730) is not the motus primo-primus of the philosophers — or the first agitation or inclination of the mind — but it is the will itself, under an earnest inclination, as would be usual with those who govern a ship by the helm in storms. The act of willing is properly ascribed to this; and the one in whom it is proved to exist, is a person. Thus, a will that acts with understanding and choice, as the principle and cause of his outward actions, is ascribed to the Holy Ghost:

1Cor 12.11, "That one and the self-same Spirit works all these, distributing to every man severally as he wills."[148]

Paul had before asserted that the Spirit was the author and donor of all the spiritual gifts which he had been discussing in verses 4-6. He declares that these gifts are various, as he manifests in nine instances; and all of them are variously disposed by the Spirit, verses 8-10. If it is now inquired what rules this distribution, Paul tells us that it is the Spirit's own will, his choice and pleasure. I do not know what can be said more fully and plainly to describe an intelligent person, acting voluntarily with freedom and by choice.

We may consider what exception is taken to this. They say (Schlichting. p. 610) that,

"The Holy Ghost is here introduced as a person by a prosopopoeia — that the distribution of the gifts mentioned, is ascribed to him by a metaphor; and only by the same or another metaphor, is the Spirit said to have a will, or to act as he wills."

But is it not evident that if this course of interpreting (or rather of perverting) Scripture is allowed, then nothing of any certainty will be left in this? It is but saying that this or that is a metaphor [149] — and if one metaphor will not serve their purposes, then bring in two or three, one on top of another, and the work is done — so that the sense intended is quite changed and lost. Allow this liberty or bold licentiousness, and you may overthrow the being of God himself, and the mediation of Christ, as to any testimony given of them in the Scripture. But the words are plain, "He distributes to every man severally as he wills." And to confirm his deity, even though that is beyond question on the supposition of his personality, I will only add from this place that the one who has the sovereign disposal of all spiritual gifts, having only his own will for his rule, which is infinitely wise and holy, he is "over all, God blessed forever." Rom 9.5

THIRDLY, Another property of a living person is power. The power by which someone is able to act according to the guidance of his understanding and the determinations of his will, declares him to be a person. It is not the mere ascription of power absolutely, or an ability to do anything, that I intend; for these may signify no more than the efficacy attending such things in their proper places, as being instrumental to the effects which they produce.

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In this instrumental sense, power is ascribed to the word of God, when it is said to be "able to save our souls," Jas 1.21; and "the word of God's grace" is said to be "able to build us up, and to give us an inheritance among all those who are sanctified," Acts 20.32, if that place intends the written or preached word (which I have inquired into elsewhere). But these things are clearly interpreted in other places. The word is said to be "able," indeed, to be the "power of God unto salvation," Rom 1.16, because God is pleased to use it and make it effectual to that end by his grace.

But where power, divine power, is absolutely ascribed to anyone, and that is declared to be put forth and exercised by the understanding and according to the will of the one to whom it is so ascribed, it undeniably proves him to be a divine person; for when we say the Holy Ghost is divine, we intend no more than that he is one who, by his own divine understanding, exerts his own divine power. So it is in this case:

Job 33.4, "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life."

Creation is an act of divine power, the highest we are capable of receiving any notion of; and it is also an effect of the wisdom and will of the one that creates, as being a voluntary act, and designed for a certain end. All these, therefore, are ascribed here to the Spirit of God. It is excepted (Schlichting. pp. 613-615) that "the 'Spirit of God' mentioned here, intends no more than our own vital spirits by which we are quickened; it is called the 'Spirit of God' because he gave it." But this is too much confidence. The words are,

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

There were two distinct divine operations in and about the creation of man. The first was forming his body out of the dust of the earth; this is expressed by "he made," or "he formed." And secondly, the infusion of a living or quickening soul into him, called "the breath of life." These two acts are mentioned distinctly here; the first is ascribed to the Spirit of God, and the other to his breath — that is, the same Spirit is considered in a special way of operation in the infusion of the rational soul. Such is the sense of these figurative and enigmatic words, "God breathed into man the breath of life," — that is, by his Spirit, God effected a principle of life in man; as we will see afterward.

In Isa 11.2,[150] just as he is called a "Spirit of wisdom and understanding," so he is called a Spirit of "might" or power. And although it may be granted that the things mentioned there are effects of his operations, rather than adjuncts of his nature, yet the one who effects wisdom and power in others must first have them himself. To this purpose also is that demand in Mic 2.7, "Is the Spirit of the Lord restrained," or shortened?

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That is, is he restrained in his power so that he cannot work and operate in the prophets and his church as in former days; and the same prophet, in Mic 3.8, affirms that he is "full of power, and of judgment, and of might, by the Spirit of the Lord." These things were worked in him by the power of the Spirit, just as the apostle speaks to the same purpose in Eph 3.16.[151]

Those who oppose this truth spend all their strength and skill in exceptions, I may say quibbles,[152] against some of these particular testimonies and some expressions in them. But as to the whole argument, taken from the consideration of the design and scope of the Scripture in them all, they have nothing to take exception to.

To complete this argument, I will add the consideration of those works and operations of all sorts which are ascribed to the Spirit of God. We will find they are not capable of being assigned to him with the least congruity of speech, or design of speaking intelligibly, unless he is a distinct, singular subsistent or person, endowed with divine power and understanding. And here we must again repeat what we previously desired might be observed. It is not from a single instance of every one of the works which we will mention, that we draw and confirm our argument. For some of them, singly considered, may perhaps sometimes be metaphorically ascribed to other causes, which does not prove that they are therefore persons. This is the force of all the exceptions our adversaries make against these testimonies. But because some of them, at least, never are nor can be assigned to any but a divine person, we take our argument from their joint consideration — or the uniform, constant assignation of them all to him in the Scriptures. This renders it irrefragable.[153] I will not insist on the things themselves, because their particular nature must be unfolded afterward.

FIRST, He is said to teach us: Luke 12.12, "The Holy Ghost will teach you what you ought to say." John 14.26, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance." 1John 2.27, He is the "anointing which teaches us all things;" how and why he is so called will be declared afterward. He is the great Teacher of the church, to whom the accomplishment of that great promise is committed, "And they will be all taught by God," John 6.45. It is sad for the church of God when her teachers are removed into a corner, and her eyes do not see them; but it would be better to lose all other teachers utterly, than to lose this great Teacher only: for although he is pleased to make use of them, he can teach effectively and savingly without them if they are removed and taken away; but without him, they cannot teach to the least spiritual advantage. And those who pretend to be teachers of others, and yet despise his teaching assistance, will one day find that they undertook a work which was none of theirs.

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But as to our use of this assertion, it is excepted that, "The apostle affirms that nature also teaches us: 1Cor 11.14, 'Does not even nature itself teach you?' — now, nature is not a person."

This is the way and manner of those we have to deal with. If any word in a testimony produced by us has been used metaphorically anywhere, however evident it is that it is so used in that verse, instantly it must have the same figurative application in the testimony they take exception to, even though they can give no reason why it should so signify! If this course of excepting is allowed, there will be nothing left that is intelligible in the Scripture, nor in any other author, nor in common conversation in the world; for there is scarcely any word or name of anything that in one way or another, has not been used or abused metaphorically. In particular, "nature" in this passage of the apostle, is said to teach us objectively, as the heavens and earth teach us in what we learn from them. For nature is said to teach us what we may learn from the customs and actings of those who live, proceed, and act, according to its principles, dictates, and inclinations. Everyone sees here that there is no intimation of an active teaching by instruction, or a real communication of knowledge, but it is said to do figuratively what we do with respect to nature.

And not only in several places, but in the same sentence, a word may be used properly with respect to one thing, and abusively with respect to another:

"Learn from me what virtue is, and patient, genuine industry;

let others guide your feet to prosperous fortune.[154] (Aeneid xii, 435.)

Virtue and industry are to be learned properly; but prosperous fortune, as it is called, is not. These things are therefore very different, and their difference is obvious to all. But we do not insist merely on this or that particular instance. Let anyone who is not absolutely prepossessed with prejudice, read over that discourse of our Savior to his disciples, in which he purposely instructs them in the nature and work of the Spirit of God, on whom he then devolved, as it were, the care of them and the gospel according to the promise, John chapters 14-16 — he will need no further instruction or confirmation in this matter. The Spirit is frequently called there, "The Comforter," which is the name of a person; and that is vested with an office with respect to the work that he would do; and he is called "another Comforter," corresponding and conforming to the Lord Christ, who was one Comforter and a person, as all grant, Joh 14.16, 26. If he is not so, then the intention of this expression in these circumstances must be to deceive us, and not instruct us.

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He tells them, moreover, that the Spirit is one whom the world neither sees nor knows, but who abides with and dwells in believers, verse 17; one whom the Father would send, and who would come accordingly; and that would be to teach them, to lead and guide them, and to bring things to their remembrance, verse 26 — a Comforter who would come and testify or bear witness to him, Joh 15.26; one that would be sent by him, "to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment," Joh 16.7, 8, and to abide with his disciples, to supply his own bodily absence. So he is said to "speak," "guide," "teach," "hear," and to "receive of Christ's and show it to others," Joh14.26, 16.13-14, with various other things of the same nature and importance.

And these things are not spoken of him occasionally or in transitu,[155] but in a direct continued discourse, designed on purpose by our Lord Jesus Christ to acquaint his disciples with who the Spirit was, and what he would do for them. And if there was nothing else said about him in the whole Scripture except what is declared here by our Savior, all unprejudiced men must and would acknowledge that He is a divine person.

It is a confidence swelling above all bounds of modesty, to suppose that just because one or another of these things is (or may be) metaphorically or metaleptically ascribed to things which are not persons — when the figurativeness of such an ascription is plain and open — that therefore all of them are in like manner so ascribed to the Holy Ghost in our Savior's discourse to his disciples, in which he designed their instruction, as declared above. What we discussed before concerning the Spirit's searching of all things, from 1Cor 2.10, is of the same nature. Just as it proves him to be an understanding agent, so it undeniably denotes a personal action. So too are the things mentioned in Rom 8.16, 26: He "helps our infirmities," he "makes intercession for us," he himself "bears witness with our spirit." The particular meaning of all these expressions will be inquired into afterward. Here the only refuge of our adversaries is to protest that it is a prosopopoeia (Schlichting. p. 627). But how do they prove it? Only by saying that "these things properly belong to a person, which the Spirit is not." Now, this is nothing but to set up their own false hypothesis against our arguments — not being able to contend with the premises, they deny the conclusion.

There are two other places of this nature, both to the same purpose, sufficient of themselves to confirm our faith in the truth that is pleaded for. And these are,

Acts 13.2, 4, "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So, being sent out by the Holy Ghost, they departed."

The other is Acts 20.28,

"Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers."

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These verses correspond well to each other. What is reported in the first in an extraordinary case, as being a matter of fact, is doctrinally applied to ordinary cases in the second. And two things are remarkable in the first:

1. The Holy Ghost's designation of himself as the person to whom and whose work Barnabas and Saul were to be separated and dedicated. He does not say "Separate me," as in our translation, making the Spirit only the author of the command, but "Separate unto me;"[156] which also proposes him as the object of the duty required, and the person whose work was to be attended to. Who or what then is intended by that pronoun "me?" Some person is directed to and signified by it. Nor can any instance be given where it is figuratively used, unless it is in a professed parable. What remains to be inquired into, therefore, is this: Who is intended in that word "me?" And the words are the words of the Holy Ghost: "The Holy Ghost said, Separate unto me." Therefore, he alone is intended. The only answer which the wit and diligence of our adversaries can invent, is that "these words are ascribed to the Holy Ghost because the prophets that were in the church of Antioch said this by his instinct and inspiration." But in this evasion, there is no regard for the force of our argument; for we do not argue merely from his being said to speak, but from what is spoken by him, "Separate unto me." And we inquire whether the prophets are intended by that word or not? If they are, then which of them? For there were many by whom the Holy Ghost spoke the same thing; and some one of them must be intended in common by them all. To say that this was any of the prophets is foolish, indeed blasphemous.

2. The close of verse 2 confirms this application of the word, "For the work to which I have called them." This confessedly is the Holy Ghost speaking. 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 introduced in the Scripture more directly clothed with personal properties than the Holy Ghost is in these places. And the whole is confirmed in verse 4, "So they, being sent out 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 so that they might be blessed and owned in their work; and he sent them out, by an impression of his authority on their minds, given to them by those former acts of his. And if a divine person is not described by this, I do not know how he may be.

The other text speaks to the same purpose. In Acts 20.28, it is expressly said that the Holy Ghost made the elders of the church its overseers.[157] Here the same act of wisdom and authority is again assigned to him. And here there is no room left for the evasion insisted on.

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For these words were not spoken as a prophecy, nor in the name of the Holy Ghost, but they concerned Him directly. And they explain the other verse; for it is the Spirit that must be meant in these expressions, "Separate unto me those whom I have called" — the one by whom they are made ministers. Now, this was the Holy Ghost; for he is the one who makes the overseers of the church. And we may do well to take notice that if he did so then, he does so now. For those the apostle intends were not persons who were extraordinarily inspired or called, but the ordinary officers of the church. And if persons are not called and constituted as officers as they were at the beginning, in ordinary cases, then the church is not the same as it was. And it is the concern of those who take this work and office upon themselves, to consider what there is in their whole undertaking that they can ascribe to the Holy Ghost. Persons who are furnished with no spiritual gifts or abilities, who enter the ministry in pursuit of secular advantages, will not easily satisfy themselves in this inquiry when they are willing, or forced at last, to make it.

There still remains one sort of testimony to the same purpose which must briefly be passed through. And this is where the Spirit is spoken of as the object of such actings and actions of men as only a person can be; for if they are applied to any other object, their inconsistency will quickly appear. Thus the Spirit is said to be tempted by those who sin:

Acts 5.9, "How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?"

In whatever sense this word "tempt" is used — whether in an indifferent sense, to test, as God is said to tempt Abraham; or in that sense which is evil, to provoke or induce to sin — it is never used, and it can never be used, except with respect to a person. How can a quality, an incident, or an emanation of power from God be tempted? No one can possibly be tempted except one who has an understanding to consider what is proposed to him, and a will to make a determination on the proposal made. So Satan tempted our first parents; so men are tempted by their own lusts; so we are said to tempt God when we provoke him by our unbelief, or when we unwarrantably test his power — so those who "tempted the Holy Ghost" sinfully risked his omniscience as if he would not or could not discover their sin; or they risked his holiness, that he would somehow patronize their deceit. In like manner, Ananias is said to "lie to the Holy Ghost," Act 5.3; and no one is capable of lying to anyone who is not capable of hearing and receiving a testimony. For a lie is a false testimony given as to what is spoken or uttered. Thus the one that is lied to must be capable of judging and determining based on that testimony — without the personal properties of will and understanding, none are capable. And the Holy Ghost is not only declared to be a person here, but a divine person; for the apostle Peter declares, v. 4, "You have not lied to men, but to God."

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These things are so plain and positive that the faith of believers should not be concerned in the sophistical [158] evasions of our adversaries. In the same way, the Spirit is said to be resisted, Acts 7.51 — which is the moral reaction or opposition of one person to another. He is also said to be grieved, or we are commanded not to grieve him, Eph 4.30 — as those 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 imperfections that are inconsistent with the divine nature. But then, God is said to "repent" and to be "grieved at heart," Gen 6.6 — when he would do things corresponding to what men would do, or judge fit to be done, upon such provocations; and when he would declare what effects these would produce in a nature that was capable of such vexations. It is upon this reasoning that the Spirit of God is said to be grieved and vexed. But this can in no way be said of him if he is not one whose respect to sin may be represented (from the analogy to human persons) by this figurative expression. To speak of grieving as a virtue, or an actual emanation of power, is to speak of something that no man can understand the meaning or intention of. Surely one who is thus tempted, resisted, and grieved by sin and sinners, is one who can understand, judge, and determine concerning them. These things being absolutely said elsewhere concerning God, it declares that it is so with respect to the Spirit, about whom these things are mentioned in particular.

The whole of the truth contended for is even more evident in that discourse of our Savior in Mat 12.24. The Pharisees said, "He does not cast out devils except by Beelzebub, the prince of devils." And Jesus answered, verse 28, "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you." Verses 31, 32, "This is why I say to you, All manner of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost will not be forgiven men. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him: but whoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it will not be forgiven him." To the same purpose, see Luke 12.8-10. The Spirit is expressly distinguished here from the Son, as one person from another. They are both spoken of with respect to 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 virtue and power of God, who was then present with Jesus Christ in all that he did, Christ and that power could not be spoken against distinctly, for they were one and the same.

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The Pharisees blasphemed, saying, that "he cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils." They intended a person; and so they expressed by his name, nature, and office. Our Savior replies that he cast them out by the Spirit of God — a divine person, who is opposed to the one who is diabolical. He immediately subjoins his instruction and caution to this, that they should take heed how they blasphemed that Holy Spirit, by assigning his effects and works to the prince of devils. Blasphemy against the Spirit directly manifests both what and who he is. It is especially such a unique blasphemy, that it aggravates guilt along with it, above all that human nature in any other instance is capable of. It is presumed that blasphemy may be against the person of the Father: so it was with the one who "blasphemed the name of Jehovah and cursed" by it, Lev 24.11.[159] The Son may be blasphemed as to his distinct person; so it expressly says here — and upon that, 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.[160] To now suppose that this Holy Ghost is not a divine person, is for men to dream while they seem to be awake.

I assume by all these testimonies, that we have fully confirmed what was designed to be proved by them — namely, that the Holy Spirit is not a quality, as some put it, residing in the divine nature; not a mere emanation of virtue and power from God; not the acting of the power of God in and for our sanctification; but a holy intelligent subsistent or person. And in our passage, many instances have been given, from which it is undeniably evident that the Spirit is a divine, self-sufficient, self-subsisting person, together with the Father and the Son — an equal participant of the divine nature. Nor is this distinctly disputed much by those with whom we have to deal; for they confess that those things are ascribed to him, which none but God can effect. Therefore, by denying that he is God, they lay up all their hopes of success in denying that he is a person.

Yet, because the subject we are addressing requires it, and because it may be useful to the faith of some, I will recall a few testimonies given expressly as to his deity also.

First, the Spirit is expressly called God; and having the name of God properly and directly given to him with respect to spiritual things, or things specific to God, he must have the nature of God also. In Acts 5.3, Ananias is said to "lie to the Holy Ghost." This is repeated and interpreted in verse 4, "You have not lied to men, but to 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, pseudomai; only it is used in a distinct construction. In verse 3, it has the accusative case joined to it — that "you should deceive," or think to deceive, or attempt to deceive, "the Holy Ghost."

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How? By lying to him in making a false profession in the church in which he presides. This is explained in verse 4 by, "you have lied to God" — the nature of his sin is principally intended in verse 3, and the object of his sin in verse 4. This is why, in the progress of his discourse, the apostle calls this same sin "tempting the Spirit of the Lord," verse 9; it was the Spirit of the Lord that he lied to when he lied to God. These three expressions, "The Holy Ghost," "God," and "The Spirit of the Lord," denote the same thing and person, or else 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." This is true: because 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 our Savior tells us the same thing with respect to what was done against himself; for he says, "He that despises me despises him that sent me." Luk 10.16 But directly and immediately, both Christ and the Spirit were sinned against in their own persons. It is God that is provoked here. So he is also called "Lord" in a sense appropriate to God alone: 2Cor 3.17-18, "Now the Lord is that Spirit;" and, "We are changed from glory to glory by the Lord the Spirit," or the Spirit of the Lord — where divine operations are also ascribed to him. What is affirmed to this purpose in 1Cor 12.6-8,[161] was observed at the opening of chapter 1 at the beginning of our discourse. The same is also drawn by just consequence from comparing Scriptures together, in which what is said of God absolutely in one place, is applied directly and immediately to the Holy Ghost in another. To instance this in one or two particulars:

Lev 26.11, 12, "I will set my tabernacle among you; and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people."

The apostle declares the accomplishment of this promise,

2Cor 6.16, "You are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

How and by whom is this done?

1Cor 3.16-17, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, which you are."

So then, if it was God that of old promised to dwell in his people, and to make them his temple by doing so, is the Holy Spirit God? For the Spirit thus dwells in them according to that promise. So too in Deu 32.12, speaking of the people in the wilderness, God says, "The Lord alone led him." And yet, speaking of the same people, at the same time, it is said that "the Spirit of the Lord led them and caused them to rest," Isa 63.14. "The Spirit of the Lord," therefore, is Jehovah, or else Jehovah alone did not lead them.

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Also, in those same people, what is called "sinning against God, and provoking the Most High in the wilderness," Psa 78.17-18, is termed "rebelling against and vexing the Holy Spirit," Isa 63.10-11. Many other instances of a like nature have been pleaded and vindicated by others.

Add to this, lastly, that divine properties are assigned to him, such as eternity: Heb 9.14, he is the "eternal Spirit;" — immensity: Psa 139.7, "Where will I go from your Spirit?" — omnipotence: Mic 2.7, "The Spirit of the Lord is not restrained," compared with Isa 40.28;[162] and "The power of the Spirit of God," Rom 15.19; — prescience: Act 1.16, "This scripture must be fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas;" — omniscience: 1Cor 2.10-11, "The Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God;" — sovereign authority over the church" Acts 13.2, 4, 20.28.[163] Also, divine works which are assigned to the Spirit are usually, and to good purpose, pleaded in the vindication of that same truth. But I will have occasion to distinctly consider and inquire into these in the progress of our discourse; therefore, I will not insist on them here. What has been proposed, clarified, and confirmed, may suffice for our present purpose: that we may know the one whom we intend to treat concerning his works and grace.

I have but one more thing to add concerning the being and personality of the Holy Spirit — that in the order of subsistence, he is the third person in the holy Trinity. So it is expressed in the solemn numeration of them, where their order gives great direction to gospel worship and obedience:

Mat 28.19, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

I confess that their numeration in this order is sometimes varied, because of the equality of the persons in the same nature. So in Rev 1.4, 5, "Grace be to you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; and from Jesus Christ." The Holy Spirit is listed in order before the Son, Jesus Christ, under the name of "the seven Spirits before the throne of God." This is because of his various and perfect operations in and towards the church. And so too, in Paul's supplicatory conclusion to his epistles, the Son is placed before the Father:

2Cor 13.14, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."

Some think that the Holy Ghost is mentioned in the first place in Col 2.2, "The acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ." In this expression of them, therefore, we may use our liberty, because they are all one, "God over all, blessed forever."

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But in their true and natural order of subsistence, and consequently of their operation, the Holy Spirit is the third person — for as to his personal subsistence, he "proceeds from the Father Joh 1^4.26 and the Son,Joh 16.7" [164] being equally the Spirit of them both, as it has been declared. This constitutes the natural order between the persons, which is unalterable. On this depends the order of his operation — for his working is a consequence of the order of his subsistence. Thus the Father is said to send him, and so is the Son also, John 14.16, 26, 16.7. And he is thus said to be sent by the Father and the Son, because he is the Spirit of the Father and Son, proceeding from both, and he is the next cause[165] in the application of the Trinity to external works. But as he is thus sent, so his own will is equally in and to the work for which he is sent — just as the Father is said to send the Son, and yet it was also the Son's own love and grace to come to us and to save us.[166] And it arises from this: that in the whole economy of the Trinity, as to the works that outwardly are of God — especially the works of grace — the order of subsistence of the persons in the same nature is represented to us. And they have the same dependence on each other in their operations, as they have in their subsistence. The Father is the fountain of all: as in being and existence, so too in operation. The Son is of the Father, begotten of him, and therefore, as to his work, the Son is sent by the Father; but his own will is in and to what he is sent for. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and therefore, the Spirit is sent and given by the Father and the Son as to all the works which he immediately effects. Yet his own will is the direct principle of all that he does — "he distributes to every one according to his own will." 1Cor 12.11

And this much may suffice to be spoken about the being of the Holy Spirit, and the order of his subsistence in the blessed Trinity.

Chapter IV.

Particular works of the Holy Spirit in the first or old creation.

Things to be observed in divine operations — The works of God, how they are ascribed absolutely to God, and how distinctly to each person — The reason for this — Perfecting acts in divine works ascribed to the Holy Spirit, and why — Particular works of the Spirit with respect to the old creation — The parts of the old creation — Heaven and its host — What is the host of heaven — The host of the earth — The host of heaven completed by the Spirit — And of the earth — His moving on the old creation, Psa 104.30 — The creation of man; the work of the Spirit in this — The work of the Spirit in the preservation of all things when created, natural and moral — Further instances of this, in and out of the church — Work of the Spirit of God in the old creation, why sparingly delivered.

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Intending to address the operations of the Holy Ghost, or those which are specific to him, some things must be premised concerning the operation of the Godhead in general, and the manner of this operation; and they are needful to guide us in many passages of the Scripture, and to direct us rightly in the things in particular which now lie before us. I say, then —

1. That all divine operations are usually ascribed to God absolutely. So it is said that God made all things; and so too all other works, whether in nature or in grace. And the reason for this is because the several persons are undivided in their operations, all acting by the same will, the same wisdom, the same power. Every person of the Godhead, therefore, is the author of every work of God, because each person is God, and the divine nature is the same undivided principle of all divine operations;[167] and this arises from the unity of the persons in the same essence. But as to the manner of subsistence in this, there is distinction, relation, and order between and among them; and hence there is no divine work that is not distinctly assigned to each person, and eminently to one. As it is in the works of the old creation, so it is in the works of the new, and in all their particulars. Thus, the creation of the world is distinctly ascribed to the Father as his work, Acts 4.24; and to the Son as his work, John 1.3; and also to the Holy Spirit, Job 33.4; but it is ascribed to the Father by way of eminence, and absolutely to God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The reason, therefore, why the works of God are thus distinctly ascribed to each person is because, in the undivided operation of the divine nature, each person does the same work in the order of their subsistence; not one as the instrument of the other, or merely employed by the other, but as one common principle of authority, wisdom, love, and power. How do they come then to be eminently assigned one to one person, and another to another person? Such as, opera naturæ, the works of nature or the old creation, are assigned to the Father; opera gratiæ procuratæ, all divine operations that belong to the recovery of mankind by grace, are assigned to the Son; and, opera gratiæ applicatcæ, the works of God by which grace is made effectual to us, are assigned to the Spirit. And this is done,

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(1.) When any special impression[168] is made from the special property of any person on any work; then that work is assigned specifically to that person. So there is the impression of the power and authority of the Father on the old creation, and the grace and wisdom of the Son on the new.

(2.) Where there is a particular condescension of any person to a work, in which the others have no concurrence except by approbation[169] and consent. Such was the susception[170] of the human nature by the Son, and everything that he did in this; such was the condescension also of the Holy Ghost to his office, which entitles him particularly and by way of eminence to his own immediate works.

2. Because in every great work of God, the order[171] of operation among the distinct persons depends on the order of their subsistence in the blessed Trinity, the concluding, completing, and perfecting acts are ascribed to the Holy Ghost.[172] We will find this in each instance of them that falls under our consideration. Hence, the immediate actings of the Spirit are the most hidden, curious, and mysterious, as those which contain the perfecting part of the works of God. Some seem willing to exclude all thoughts or even mention of him from the works of God; but indeed, without him, no part of any work of God is perfect or complete.[173] The beginning of divine operations is assigned to the Father, as he is fons et origo Deitatis — "the fountain of the Deity itself:"

Rom 11.36 "Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things."

The subsisting, establishing, and "upholding of all things," is ascribed to the Son:

Col 1.17 "He is before all things, and by him all things consist."

As the Son made all things with the Father, so he gives them a consistency, a permanence, in a particular manner, because he is the power and wisdom of the Father. He "upholds all things by the word of his power," Heb 1.3. And the finishing and perfecting of all these works is ascribed to the Holy Spirit, as we will see. I do not say this as though one person succeeded another in their operation, or as though where one ceased and gave over a work, the other took it up and carried it on. For every divine work, and every part of every divine work, is the work of God — that is, of the whole Trinity, inseparably and undividedly.

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But on those divine works which outwardly are of God, there is a special impression of the order of the operation of each person, with respect to their natural and necessary subsistence, and also with regard to their internal characteristic properties, by which we are distinctly taught to know and adore them. The due consideration of this order of things will direct us in the right understanding of the proposals that are made to our faith, concerning God in his works and word.

These things being premised, we proceed to consider what the specific operations of the Holy Spirit are, as revealed to us in the Scripture. Now, all the works of God may be referred to two heads: 1. Those of nature; 2. Those of grace; — or the works of the old and new creation. And we must inquire what the special operations of the Holy Spirit are, in and about these works, which will be distinctly explained.

The work of the old creation had two parts:

1. That which concerned the inanimate part of it in general, with the influence it had into the production of animated (or living), but brute creatures.

2. The rational or intelligent part of it, with the law of its obedience to God, and the special uses and ends for which it was made. We will inquire into both these sorts, and consider the special works of the Holy Spirit.

The general parts of the creation are the heavens and the earth: Gen 1.1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." And what belongs to them is called their "host:" Gen 2.1, "The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." The host of heaven is the sun, moon, and stars, and the angels themselves. So they are called in 1Kng 22.19: "I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by him, on his right hand and on his left;" — that is, all the holy angels, as in Dan 7.10; 2Chr 18.18.[174] And the host of God: Gen 32.1-2, "And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host." The word he uses, Heb. machaneh (OT:04264), signifies a host encamped. Luke 2.13, "The heavenly host," Gr. Stratia ouranios, or army. The sun, moon, and stars, are also called the host of heaven: Deu 4.19, "Lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven." So too in Isa 34.4 and Jer 33.22. This was that host of heaven which the Jews idolatrously worshipped:

Jer 8.2, "They will spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped."

The expressions are multiplied, to show that they used all the ways of ascribing that divine honor to them, which was due to God alone. They ought to have loved, served, walked after, sought, and worshipped him only: hence the curse of Jer 19.13.[175]

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This host they called the "queen of heaven," Jer 44.17,[176] because of its beauty and adornments. The "host of the earth" is men and beasts, with all other creatures that either grow out of it or live upon it, and are nourished by it. And these things are called the host of heaven and host of earth on a double account:

1. Because of their order and beautiful disposition. A host properly is a number of men put into a certain order, for some certain end or purpose; and all their strength and power, all their terror and beauty, consists in and arises from that order. Without this, they are but a confused multitude. But a host or army with banners is beautiful and terrible, Song 6.10.[177] Before things were cast into this order, the universe was, as it were, full of confusion; it had no beauty or glory, for the "earth was without form and void," Gen 1.2. Hence the Vulgar Latin for this verse renders it "ornatus eorum," all their beauty and adorning — for the creation and beautiful disposal of these hosts gave them beauty and ornament. From this the Greeks call the world kosmos — that is, an adorned thing.

2. Because all creatures in heaven and earth are God's armies, to accomplish his irresistible will and pleasure. Hence he often styles himself "The Lord of hosts," — the Lord of both these hosts: that host above which is of the heavens, the holy angels and the celestial bodies; and that host of all creatures beneath in the earth. For he uses and applies all these at his pleasure, to do his will and execute his judgments. Thus one of those angels slew a whole host of men in one night, Isa 37.36. And it is said that the "stars in their courses fought against Sisera," Judges 5.20. God overruled the influences of heaven against him, even though it may be that angels are also intended here. And by the way, the lowliest creatures of the earth, locusts and caterpillars, he calls his host or "army," Joel 2.11, when he sends them to destroy a country for sin.

Now, forming and perfecting this host of heaven and earth is what is assigned specifically to the Spirit of God; and hereby the work of creation was completed and finished. First, for the heavens:

Job 26.13, "By his Spirit he has garnished the heavens; his hand has formed the crooked serpent;"

— or rather, "his Spirit has garnished;" for shiphrah "garnished" agrees with ru'ach,[178] the "Spirit," and not with "he;" and the word signifies to "adorn," to make fair, to render beautiful to the eye. Thus the heavens were garnished by the Spirit of God when, by the creation and disposal of the aspectable[179] host of them, he rendered them so glorious and beautiful as we behold. So the Targum renders it, "His Spirit beautified the face of the heavens," or he gave them that attractive beauty and order in which their face appears to us.

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Hence the heavens, as adorned with the moon and stars, are said to be the "work of God's fingers," Psa 8.3 — that is, they are not only those things which were powerfully made, but also elaborately worked and adorned by the Spirit of God; for the finger or fingers of God intends the Spirit of God in a special manner. Hence we have those words of our Savior in Luke 11.20, "But if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils," with those in Mat 12.28, "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God." By the Spirit, the heavens were elaborately worked, adorned, garnished, rendered beautiful and glorious, to display the praise of his power and wisdom, Psa 19.1.[180] And by the "crooked serpent," which is added to the "garnishing of the heavens," the Hebrews understand the galaxy or Milky Way — which to the eye represents the moving or writhing of a serpent in the water. This then, is specifically assigned to the Spirit with respect to the heavens and their host: the completing, finishing work is ascribed to him. We must understand this by the rules mentioned before;[181] it is not exclusively the work of the other persons of the Godhead.

And thus it was also in the earth. God first, out of nothing, created the earth, which comprised the whole inferior globe, which afterward divided itself into seas and dry land — just as the heavens contain in that expression of their creation, all that is above and over it. The whole material mass of earth and water, which probably covered the more solid and firm substance, and as it were overwhelmed it, is intended by that "earth" which was first created. For immediately there is mention made of the "deep" and the "waters," without any intimation of their production except what is contained in the creation of the earth, Gen 1.2.[182] This mass being thus framed and mixed, the "Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." This is not taken distinctly, but as containing that radical fluid [183] which was the material principle of life and being for all creatures‎.

The word "moved" or "hovered" (Heb. merachephs, OT:07363) signifies an easy, gentle motion, such as a dove, or other fowl, uses over its nest or young ones, either to communicate vital heat to its eggs, or to cherish and defend its young. This is in no way consistent with that exposition which some would give "Spirit" here (Heb. "Ru'ach" OT:07307), which they say signifies 'the wind' (as it does sometimes). But when it is called the 'wind of God,' it is because it was great and mighty: for this phrase of speech is usual in the sacred language to present the greatness and singular eminence of anything. So a great trembling is called a 'trembling of God,' 1Sam 14.15; great cedars are called the 'cedars of God,' Psa 80.10; etc." But —

1. When was this wind created? The meteors were not made before the fourth day, along with the firmament, the place of their residence. And where this wind should come from, or what this wind should be, is not to be discovered.

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2. The word as used here, signifies an "easy and gentle motion" such as we find in birds when they move themselves on their nests. It is used only three times in the Scripture — here, in Deu 32.11, and Jer 23.9. In Deuteronomy it is expressly applied to the motion of an eagle over her young, for their safety, protection, and growth: "As an eagle flutters, spreading her wings over her young." And in the other place we render it "shake:" "All my bones shake," — that is, they are in a trembling motion, like the feathers of a fowl over her nest. Therefore no such great and violent wind, so as to be called a wind of God, can be intended in this place; rather it is the Spirit of God himself and his work that is expressed.

Therefore, this was the work of the Holy Spirit of God in reference to the earth and its host: The whole matter was created from which all living creatures were to be evoked, and from which they were to be made. The Spirit then takes upon himself the cherishing and preservation of it, so that — as it had its subsistence by the power of the Word of God — it might be carried on towards that form, order, beauty, and perfection that it was designed for. To this purpose he communicated to it a quickening and prolific virtue, inlaying it with the seeds of animal life for all kinds of things. Hence, upon the command of God, it produced all sorts of creatures in abundance, according to the seeds and principles of life which were communicated to the rude, unformed chaos, by the cherishing motion of the Holy Spirit. Without him, all was a dead sea, a confused deep, with darkness upon it, able to bring forth nothing, nor prepared to bring forth any one thing more than another. But by the moving of the Spirit of God upon it, the principles of all those kinds, sorts, and forms of things which, in an inconceivable variety, make up its host and ornament, were communicated to it. And this is a better account of the origin of all things, in their several kinds, than any given by ancient or modern philosophers. From this comes the old tradition of all things being formed from water, which the apostle alludes to in 2Pet 3.5.[184] The whole is declared by Cyprian, Lib. de Spir. Sanc.

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And as it was at the first creation, so it is in the course of providence, that this work of cherishing and nourishing the creatures is assigned in a special manner to the Spirit:

Psa 104.30, "You send forth your Spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth."

The making or creation of things that is intended here, is not the first great work of the creation of all, but the daily production of creatures in and according to their kind. For in the verse preceding, the Psalmist treats the decay of all sorts of creatures in the world, by a providential cutting off and finishing of their lives:

Psa 104.29, "You hide your face, they are troubled: you take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust."

So that, under this continual decay and dying of all sorts of creatures, the world does not come to emptiness and desolation. And the only reason is because the Spirit of God, whose office and work it is to uphold and preserve all things continually, produces by his power a new supply of creatures in place of those that fall off like leaves from the trees — they return to their dust every day. The earth itself, the common nurse of them all, seems in the revolution of every year, to be at an end of its use and work — having death brought upon the face of it, often entering deep into its bowels. And so the Spirit of God, by its influential concurrence, renews it again, causing everything afresh to bring forth fruit according to its kind, by which its face receives a new beauty and adorning. And this is the substance of what the Scripture expressly asserts concerning the work of the Spirit of God towards the inanimate part of the creation.

His actings in reference to man, and that obedience which man owed to God according to the law and covenant of his creation, is next to be considered.

Man in his creation falls under a twofold notion. For he may be considered either:

1. Naturally, as to the essentially constitutive parts of his being; or

2. Morally, with reference to his principles of obedience, the law given to him, and the end proposed as his reward.

And these things are distinctly proposed for our contemplation in the Scripture. The first is expressed this way:

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Gen 2.7, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

1. There is the matter of which he was formed;

2. The quickening principle added to this; and,

3. The effect of their conjunction and union.

For the matter he was made of, it is said that he was formed of "the dust of the ground," or dust gathered together in a heap from and upon the ground: Pro 8.26, "the highest part of the dust of the world" (Heb. ro'sh aphar tebel OT:07218, 06083, 08398). So God is the great Creator, the universal framer of all, represented as an artificer, who first prepares his matter, and then forms it as it seems good to him. And this is mentioned for two ends:

First, To set forth the excellence, power, and wisdom of God, who out of such vile, contemptible matter as a heap of dust, swept together on the ground, as it were, could and did make so excellent, elaborate, and glorious a fabric as the body of man, or as the body of Adam was before the fall.

Secondly, To remind man of his origin, so that he might be kept humble and in a fit dependence on the wisdom and bounty of his Creator; for it was from that, and not the original matter from which he was made, that man became so excellent.

Abraham makes his solemn acknowledgment of this before the Lord:

Gen 18.27, "Behold now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes."

He abases himself with the remembrance of his origin. And as it were, God reproaches Adam with this upon his sin and transgression:

Gen 3.19, "You shall return to the ground; for out of it you were taken: for dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

God lets Adam know that he had now, by sin, lost that immortality which he was made in a condition to enjoy; and that his body, according to his nature and constitution, would return again into its first principles or the dust of the earth.

Secondly, into this formed dust God had breathed the "breath of life;" divinæ auræ particulam, "a vital immortal spirit." God breathed this into man, giving him something of Himself, something immediately His own, not made out of any procreated matter. This is the rational soul, or intelligent spirit. Thus man became a middle creature between the angels above and the sensitive animals below. His body was formed as the beasts were, from the matter made the first day, and digested into dry land on the third day. His soul was an immediate production of, and an emanation from, the divine power — as the angels were.

So when, in the works of the new creation, our blessed Savior bestowed the Holy Ghost on his disciples, he breathed on them, as a sign that he gave them something of his own. This celestial spirit, this heavenly breath, was a quickening principle to man.

For, Thirdly, the effect of this is that man became a "living soul" (Heb. chay nephesh OT:02416, 05315). His body was hereby animated, and capable of all vital acts.

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Hence he could move, eat, see, hear, etc.; for only the natural effects of this breath of life are intended in this expression. Thus the "first man Adam was made a living soul," 1Cor 15.45. This was the creation of man, as to the essentially constituting principles of his nature.

With respect to his moral condition and principle of obedience to God, it is expressed this way: Gen 1.26-27, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion," etc. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him." He made him "upright," Ecc 7.29, perfect in his condition, in every way complete — fit, disposed, and enabled to and for the obedience required of him; without weakness, distemper, disease, contrariety of principles, inclinations, or reasonings. The principal part of this image of God in which man was created, was a universal rectitude of nature, consisting in light, power, and order, in his understanding, mind, and affections. And this appears from the nature of the thing itself, and also from the description which the apostle gives us of the renovation of that image in us by the grace of Christ, Eph 4.24, Col 3.10.[185] Under both these considerations, we may weigh the special operations of the Spirit of God:

FIRST, As to the essential principles of the nature of man, it is not for nothing that God expresses his communication of a spirit of life by his breathing into man: "God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." Gen 2.7 The Spirit of God and the breath of God are the same; only, the one expression is proper, and the other is metaphorical. That is why this breathing is the special acting of the Spirit of God. The creation of the human soul, a vital immortal principle and being, is the immediate work of the Spirit of God:

Job 33.4, "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life."

Here indeed, the creation and production of both the essential parts of human nature — body and soul — are ascribed to the same author; for the Spirit of God and the breath of God are the same. But because several effects are mentioned, it causes a repetition of the same cause under several names. This Spirit of God first made man, or formed his body of the dust, and then gave him that breath of life by which he became a "living soul." So then, under this first consideration, the creation of man is assigned to the Holy Spirit, for man was the perfection of the inferior creation; and for the glory of God, all other things were created by the Spirit. Therefore, his operations are distinctly declared here, to whom the perfecting and completing of all divine works is specifically committed.

SECONDLY, We may consider the moral state and condition of man, with the furnishing of his mind and soul in reference to his obedience to God and his enjoyment of him.

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This was the principal part of that image of God in which he was created. Three things were required to render man idoneous, or fit for that life to God for which he was made:

First, An ability to discern the mind and will of God with respect to all the duty and obedience that God required of him — that is, to know the nature and properties of God well enough to believe that he is the only proper object of all man's acts and duties of religious obedience, and that he is an all-sufficient satisfaction and reward in this world and to eternity.

Secondly, A free, uncontrolled, unentangled disposition to every duty of the law of his creation, in order to live to God.

Thirdly, An ability of mind and will, with a readiness to comply in his affections, for a due and regular performance of all duties, and abstinence from all sin.

These things belonged to the integrity of his nature, along with the uprightness of the state and condition in which he was made. All these things were the particular effects of the immediate operation of the Holy Ghost. For although this rectitude of his nature is distinguishable and separable from the faculties of the soul of man, yet in his creation at the first, they were not actually distinguished from them, nor superadded to them, nor infused into them when created, but were co-created with them — that is, his soul was made fit and able to live to God, as his sovereign lord, his highest good, and his last end. And they were all thus from the Holy Ghost, from whom the soul was given, as it was declared. Indeed, suppose that these abilities were to be superadded to man's natural faculties, as supernatural gifts (which is not so) — they must be acknowledged in a particular manner to be from the Holy Spirit. For in the restoration of these abilities to our minds, in our renovation to the image of God in the gospel, it is plainly asserted that the Holy Ghost is the immediate operator of them. And he thereby restores his own work, and does not take the work of another out of his hand. For in the new creation, the Father (in the way of his authority) designs it, and brings all things to a head in Christ, Eph 1.10,[186] which retrieved his original special work; and he gave a new consistency to all things, which belonged to the Son from the beginning, Col 1.17.[187] So also the Holy Spirit renews in us the image of God, the original implantation of which was his special work. And thus Adam may be said to have had the Spirit of God in his innocence. He had him in these specific effects of his power and goodness; and he had him according to the tenor of that covenant by which it was possible that he could utterly lose the Spirit, as accordingly it came to pass. He did not have him by special inhabitation, for the whole world was then the temple of God. But in the covenant of grace, founded in the person and on the mediation of Christ, it is otherwise.

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On whomever the Spirit of God is bestowed for the renovation of the image of God in him, the Spirit abides with him forever. But in all men, from first to last, all goodness, righteousness, and truth, are the "fruits of the Spirit," Eph 5.9.

The works of God thus being finished, and the whole frame of nature being set upon its wheels, it is not deserted by the Spirit of God. The preservation, continuance, and acting of all things in the universe — according to their special nature and mutual application of one to another — are all from the powerful and efficacious influences of divine Providence. In the same way, there are particular operations of the Holy Spirit in and about all things, whether merely natural and animal, or also rational and moral. An instance of each kind may suffice. For the first (as we have shown), the propagation of the succeeding generations of creatures and the annual renovation of the face of the earth are ascribed to the Spirit, Psa 104.30.[188] For just as we would own the due and just powers and operations of second causes, so we abhor that atheism which ascribes to them an original and independent efficacy and causality, without a previous acting of the power of God in, by, and upon them. And this is ascribed here to the Spirit, whom God sends forth for that end and purpose. As to rational and moral actions, such as the great affairs of the world consist in and are disposed by, he also has a particular efficiency in them. Thus those great virtues of wisdom, courage, and fortitude, which have been used for producing great effects in the world, are of his special operation. So when God stirred up men to rule and govern his people of old, to fight against and subdue their enemies, it is said that the Spirit of God came upon them:

Jdg 3.10, "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel, and he judged Israel, and went out to war."

The Spirit of God endowed him with wisdom for government, and with courage and skill in conduct for war. So too in Jdg. 6.34.[189] Although the instances given of this are principally among the people of God, yet wherever men in the world have been raised up to do great and wonderful things by which God executes his judgments, and fulfills any of his promises or threatenings, they too have received special gifts and assistances of the Holy Spirit of God. For this reason, Cyrus is expressly called "God's anointed," Isa 45.1. By God's designation, Cyrus had a great and mighty work to effect. He was to utterly ruin and destroy a great, ancient, Babylonian monarchy. God's concern in this was to avenge the quarrel of his people, and to accomplish many promises and threatenings. The work itself was great, arduous, and insuperable for ordinary human abilities. Therefore God "sends his Spirit" to fill Cyrus with wisdom, courage, and skill in all military affairs, so that he might go through with the work for which, in the providence of God, he was designed.

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Hence is he called "God's anointed," because the unction of kings of old was an instituted sign of the communication to them of the gifts of the Holy Ghost for government. See Isa 45.1-4;[190] other instances of a like kind might be given.

Thus, when the church was to have a blessed restoration of the worship of God after the return of the people from their captivity, Zerubbabel is, in a special manner, called to begin and carry on this work in the building of the temple. But the difficulties he had to conflict with were great, and appeared insuperable. The people were few and poor, and the oppositions to them and their work were great and many — especially what arose from the power of the Persian monarchy whose rule and oppression they were under. For although they had permission and encouragement from Cyrus for their work, upon his death they were immediately oppressed again, and their "work caused to cease." Neh 4.11 They could in no way conflict with this power; yet God tells them that all this opposition would be removed and conquered. "Who are you," He says, "O great mountain? before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain," Zec 4.7; — "All the hindrance that arose from that great mountain of the Persian empire will be removed out of the way, and the progress of Zerubbabel in his work will be made smooth, plain, and easy." But how will this be effected and brought about? "Not by an army, nor 'by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts,'" Zec 4.6. — As if to say,

'You would suppose that it must be done by armies and open force, which you are altogether insufficient for; but this is not the way I will take in this matter. My Spirit will work in their hearts, minds, and counsels so that, contrary to your fears, they themselves will further that work which up to now they have impeded; and He will work in the minds and counsels of others, to oppose them and entangle them where they would hinder it, until they are destroyed, and that great mountain is fully removed;'

— which is what came to pass in the event. So that the providential alterations that are worked in the world, are also the effects of his power and efficacy.

And thus have we taken a short view of the dispensation and works of the Spirit of God in the first creation. But the effect of this being a state of things that quickly passed away, and being of no advantage to the church after the entrance of sin, what belonged to it is but sparingly delivered in the Scriptures. And the true sense of what is delivered depends much on the analogy of the subsequent works of God in man's renovation and recovery. But the new creation falls next under our consideration, and that alone is what we directly intend. For it is the foundation, building up, and finishing of the church of God in this, that are the things on which the principal manifestation of the glory of God depends, and in which the great concerns of all the elect lie.

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They are therefore more fully and directly declared in the Scripture. And in reference to them, we will find a full and distinct declaration of the whole dispensation and work of the Spirit of God.

Chapter V.

Way and manner of the divine dispensation of the Holy Spirit.

Dispensation of the Spirit is to be learned from the Scripture only — General adjuncts of this — The administration of the Spirit and his own application of himself to his work, how it is expressed — The Spirit, how and in what sense he is given and received — What is included in giving the Spirit — What is included in receiving him — Privilege and advantage in receiving the Spirit — How God is said to send the Spirit — What is included in sending — How God ministers the Spirit — How God is said to put his Spirit on us — What is included in that expression — The Spirit, how he is poured out — What is included and intended in this — The ways the Spirit applies himself to his work — His proceeding from Father and Son explained — How he comes to us — His falling on men — His resting — How and in what sense he is said to depart from any person — Of the distributions of the Holy Ghost, Heb 2.4 — Their exposition vindicated.

Before we address the special operations, works, and effects of the Holy Ghost in and on the new creation, the order of things requires that we should first say something about the general nature of God's dispensation of Him, and of God's own application of himself to his actings and workings in this matter. For this is the foundation of all that he does; and for our edification, we are instructed in this by the Scriptures. We must diligently attend to these things in this whole discourse, for we are exercised in a subject for which we have no rule, no guide, nor anything to assist us, except pure revelation. And what I have to offer on the matter, concerning these things, consists solely in the explication of those passages of Scripture in which they are revealed. We must, therefore, consider — 1. What we are taught on the part of God the Father with respect to the Holy Spirit and his work; and, 2. What relates immediately to the Spirit.

I. God's disposal of the Spirit to his work is expressed five ways in the Scripture. For God is said — 1. To give or bestow him; 2. To send him; 3. To minister him; 4. To pour him out; and 5. To put him on us.

II. The Spirit's own application of himself to his work is likewise expressed five ways; for he is said — 1. To proceed; 2. To come, or come upon; 3. To fall on men; 4. To rest; and 5. To depart.[191]

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I. Because they contain the general manner of his administration and dispensation, these things must be spoken to first.

1. The Spirit is said to be given by God; that is, by God the Father, who is said to give him in a special manner: Luke 11.13, "Your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to whose who ask him;" 1John 3.24, "He has given the Spirit to us." John 14.16, "The Father will give you another Comforter;" "which is the Holy Ghost," verse 26. And in answer to this act of God, those on whom he is bestowed are said to receive him: John 7.39, "This he spoke of the Spirit, which those who believe on him should receive." 1Cor 2.12, "We have received the Spirit which is of God." 2Cor 11.4, "If you receive another Spirit, which you have not received;" where receiving the Spirit is made a matter common to all believers. So also Gal 3.2; Acts 8.15, 19; John 14.17, 20.22.

For these two things, giving and receiving, are related, the one supposing the other. And this expression of the dispensation of the Holy Ghost is irreconcilable with the opinion rejected before— namely, that he is nothing but a transient accident, or an occasional emanation of the power of God. For how, or in what sense, can an act of the power of God be given by him, or received by us? [192] Indeed, it can in no sense be either the object of God's giving or our receiving, especially as this is explained in those other expressions laid down before, and that will be considered afterward. It must be something that has a subsistence of its own, to thus may be given and received. So the Lord Christ is frequently said to be given of God and received by us. It is true, we may be said in another sense to "receive the grace of God;" this is the exception of the Socinians to this consideration, and constant practice the use to evade the plain testimony of Scripture. For if they can find any words used in one verse that are used elsewhere in another sense, they suppose it is sufficient to contradict the plain design and proper meaning of those words in the other verse. Thus, they say, we are exhorted "not to receive the grace of God in vain," 2Cor 6.1.

I answer, The grace of God may be considered in two ways:

1. Objectively, for the revelation or doctrine of grace; as in Tit 2.11, 12.[193] So we are said to receive it when we believe and profess it, as opposed to those who oppose and reject it. And this is the same as receiving the word preached, so often mentioned in the Scripture (e.g., Acts 2.41, Jas 1.21).[194] This receiving is by faith — to entertain it in our hearts. This is the meaning of that word as used in 2Cor 6.1. Having taken the profession of the doctrine of grace upon us (that is, the profession of the gospel), we ought to express its power in our holiness and suitable obedience, without which it will be of no use or benefit to us. And the grace of God is sometimes taken,

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2. Subjectively, as the grace which God is pleased to communicate to us, or the gracious qualities that he works in our souls by his Spirit. In this sense also, we are sometimes said to receive it:

1Cor 4.7, "Who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive?"

Here the apostle is speaking both of the gifts and of the graces of the Spirit. The reason is because, in the communication of internal grace to us, we contribute nothing to its procurement, but we are merely capable recipients — we are subjects of that giving. And this grace is a quality or spiritual habit that is permanent and abiding in the soul. But in neither of these senses can we be said to receive the Spirit of God, nor is God said to give him, if the Spirit is only the power of God making an impression on our minds and spirits. That would be like saying a man receives the sunbeams falling on him, which cause him to be heated by their natural efficacy. Much less can giving and receiving the Spirit be interpreted that way considering what is said about his being sent and his own coming, with similar declarations of God's dispensation of him — more of this afterward.

Now, because it is the act of the one by whom the Spirit is given, this giving of the Spirit denotes the giver's authority, freedom, and bounty; and on the part of those who receive the Spirit, it denotes their privilege and advantage.

1. Authority. The one who gives anything has the authority to dispose of it. None can give what is not his own, and what in some sense, he has in his power. Now, the Father is said to give the Spirit, and that is upon our request, as in Luke 11.13.[195] I acknowledge, this has some difficulty in its explication: for if the Holy Ghost is God himself, as has been declared, how can he be said to be given by the Father by way of authority, as it were? But keeping ourselves to the sacred rule of truth, we may solve this difficulty without intricacy or danger. Therefore —

(1.) The order of the subsistence of the three persons in the divine nature is to be regarded in this matter. For the Father, as has been shown, is the fountain and origin of the Trinity — the Son being from him, and the Spirit from them both. Hence, the Father is to be considered the principal author and cause of all those works which are immediately worked by either of them; for the one from whom the Son and Spirit have their essence, as to their personality, they have life and power of operation, John 5.19, 26.[196] Therefore, when the Holy Spirit comes to anyone, the Father is said to give him, for he is the Spirit of the Father. And this authority of the Father immediately respects the work itself, and not the person who is working; but that person is said to be given for the work's sake.

(2.) The economy of the blessed Trinity in the work of our redemption and salvation is also with respect to this order of things. The fountain of this lies in the love, wisdom, grace, and counsel of the Father. Whatever is done in pursuit of this, is originally the gift of the Father, because it is designed for no other end than to make his grace effectual.

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Hence he is said to send and give his Son also. And the whole work of the Holy Ghost, as our sanctifier, guide, comforter, and advocate, is to make the love of the Father effectual to us, John 16.13, 14.[197] As the Spirit has condescended to this out of his own love and care; and the fountain of it being in the love and purpose of the Father; and also, making them effectual being their end[198] — the Spirit is rightly said to be given by the Father.

(3.) In the whole communication of the Spirit, it is with respect to his effects, or the ends for which he is given. What they are, will be declared afterward. Now, the authority of this giving principally respects the Spirit's gifts and graces, which depend on the authority of the Father.

2. This "giving of the Spirit" denotes freedom. What is given might be withheld. This is the "gift of God" (as he is called in Joh 4.10) — not the purchase of our endeavors, nor the reward of our desert.[199] Some men delight to talk of their purchasing grace and glory; but the one and the other are to be "bought without money and without price." [200] Even "eternal life" itself, the end of all our obedience, is the "gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord," Rom 6.23. The Scripture knows of no earnings that men can make, of themselves, except death. For as Austin says, "Whatever your sin is," the wages of sin is death. To whatever end or purpose the Spirit is bestowed upon us, whether it is to communicate grace or to distribute gifts, or for our consolation and refreshment, it is the mere gift of God, from his absolute and sovereign freedom.

Corresponding to this freedom, men are said to receive the Spirit; he is bestowed on them as a gift; as it is in the testimonies mentioned before. And in receiving him, two things are implied:

1. That we contribute nothing to this which would take away from the thing received being a gift. Receiving corresponds to giving, and that implies freedom in the giver.

2. That it is our privilege and advantage; for what a man receives, he receives for his own good.

First then, we have the Spirit freely, as a gift from God. For receiving him means, in general, to be made a partaker of him as to those ends for which he is given by God. Whatever those ends may be, it is in respect to them that those who receive the Spirit are said to be made partakers of him. Two things may be pleaded to take away the freedom of this gift and our reception of it, and place it on something that is necessary and required on our part: —

(1.) Our Savior tells us "that the world cannot receive him, because it does not see him, or know him," John 14.17. Now, if the "world" cannot receive him, then an ability and preparation is required in those who do, those who are "not of the world." Joh 17.16

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And so the gift and communication of the Spirit depends on that qualification in us. But all men are naturally like the world, and of it. No one man by nature has more ability or strength in spiritual things than another, for all are equally "dead in trespasses and sins;" all are equally "children of wrath." Eph 2.1 It must therefore be inquired how some come to have this ability and power to receive the Spirit of God, which others do not have.

Now, as I will fully manifest afterward, this ability and power is only from the Holy Ghost himself and his grace, with respect being had in this only to the order of his operations in us — some being preparatory for and dispositive to others; one being instituted as the means to obtain another; and the whole being the effect of the free gift of God. For we do not make ourselves differ from others, nor do we have anything that we did not receive, 1Cor 4.7. This is why receiving the Holy Ghost, as intended in that expression of our Savior with respect to which some men are able to receive him and some are not, is not absolute. Rather, it is with respect to some certain work and end; and this, as the context plainly shows, is receiving him as a comforter and a guide in spiritual truth. To this end, faith in Christ Jesus — which is also an effect and fruit of the same Spirit — is antecedently required.[201] In this sense, therefore, believers alone can receive him, and are enabled to do so by the grace which they have received from the Spirit at their initial conversion to God. But,

(2.) It will be said that we are bound to pray for him before we receive him, and therefore bestowing him depends on a condition to be fulfilled by us. The promise is that "our heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him," Luke 11.13. But this does not prove that bestowing and receiving the Spirit is not absolutely free. Indeed, it proves the contrary. It is gratia indebita, "undeserved grace," and that is the proper object of prayer. And by these encouraging promises, God does not abridge the liberty of his own will, nor derogate from the freedom of his gifts and grace; but he only directs us into the way by which we may be made partakers of them, to his glory and our own advantage. And this also belongs to the order of the communication of the grace of the Spirit to us. This very praying for the Spirit is a duty which we cannot perform without his assistance; for "no man can call Jesus Lord, except by the Holy Ghost," 1Cor 12.3. He helps us, as a Spirit of grace and supplication, to pray for him as a Spirit of joy and consolation.

3. This is such a gift that it proceeds from bounty in God; for God is said to give the Spirit to us "richly," Tit 3.6. This will be addressed in the fourth way of his communication to us.

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I will only say at present that the greatness of a gift, the free mind of the giver, and the lack of desert or merit in the receiver, are what declare that God's bounty is the spring and fountain of it; and all of these concur to the height in God's giving of the Holy Ghost.

Again, on the part of those who receive this gift, privilege and advantage are intimated. They receive a gift, and that gift is from God, and that is a great and singular gift from divine bounty. Some indeed receive him (in a way) to some ends and purposes, without any final advantage to their own souls. This is what those do who "prophesy" and "cast out devils" by his power in the name of Christ; and yet, because they continue as "workers of iniquity," they are rejected at the last day, Mat 7.22-23.[202] This is how it is with all those who receive only his gifts, without his grace to sanctify their persons and their gifts; and this is whether they are ordinary or extraordinary gifts; but this is only incidentally. There is no gift of the Holy Ghost that is not good in its own nature, tending to a good end, and proper for the good and advantage of those who receive it. The direct end of some of those gifts is not the spiritual good of those on whom they are bestowed, but the edification of others — for "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with," 1Cor 12.7. Yet there is that excellence and worth in these gifts, and that use which may be made of them, as to greatly turn to the advantage of those who receive them. For although they are not grace, yet they serve to stir up and give an edge to grace, and draw it out to be exercised, by which 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 and effectual instruments for "turning many to righteousness," who "shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars forever and ever," Dan 12.3. But the unbelief, ingratitude, and lusts of men can spoil these, and any other good things whatsoever.

These things in particular will fall under our consideration afterward. In general, to be made a partaker of the Holy Ghost is an inestimable privilege and advantage, and it is proposed as such by our Savior in John 14.17.[203]

Secondly, God is said to send him: Psa 104.30, "You send forth your Spirit;" Joh 14.26, "The Father will send the Holy Ghost in my name." This is also said of the Son: "I will send the Comforter to you from the Father," Joh 15.26, 16.7. And in the accomplishment of that promise, it is said that he "shed him forth," Acts 2.33; Gal 4.6, "God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts;" and the same expression is used in other places. Now as to sending him, it is the same as in giving him, arguing for the same authority, the same freedom, and the same bounty.

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Only, the word naturally includes in its meaning, a respect to a local motion. The one who is sent is removed from the place where he was (from where he is sent), to a place where he was not (to where he was sent). Now, this cannot properly be spoken of the Holy Ghost — for being God by nature, he is naturally omnipresent; and an omnipresence is inconsistent with a local movement.[204] So the Psalmist expressly says in Psa 139.7-8, "Where will I go from your Spirit? or to where will I flee from your presence? If I ascend up to heaven," etc. A metaphor must therefore be allowed in this expression, but it is a metaphor which the Scripture makes familiar to us by its frequent use. Thus God is said to "come out of his place," to "bow the heavens and come down;" to "come down and see what is done in the earth," Isa 26.21; Psa 144.5; Gen 18.21. All men acknowledge that these things are not properly spoken of God, who is immense. But when God begins to work in any place, in any kind, where he did not do so before, he is said to come there; for we must do the same — we must come to a place before we can work in it. Thus, sending the Holy Ghost includes two things as added to his being:

1. It is given that he was not previously in or with that person, or among those persons, for that special work and end for which he is sent. He may be in them and with them in one respect, and afterward said to be sent to them in another respect. So our Lord Jesus Christ promises to send the Holy Ghost to his disciples as a comforter, whom they had received before as a sanctifier. "I will," he says, "send him to you; and you know him, for he dwells with you," John 14.17, 16.7. He dwelt with them as a sanctifier before he came to them as a comforter. But in every coming of his, he is sent for one special work or another; and this sufficiently manifests that in his gifts and graces he is not common to all. A supposition of this would leave no place for this special act of sending him, which is done by the sender's choice, for a distinct object. Much less is the Spirit a light which is always in all men, and which all men may be in if they please; for this neither is nor can it be absent in any sense from anyone at any time.[205]

2. It denotes a special work there or on them, where and on whom there was no work of that kind before. For this reason, he is said to be sent by the Father.[206] No local motion then, is intended in this expression; there is only an allusion to this motion. For a creature cannot produce any effects where it is not present, until it is either sent there, or goes there of its own accord. So too, the Holy Ghost does not produce the blessed effects of his power and grace except in and towards those to whom he is given and sent by the Father.

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How he is yet said to come himself, will be declared afterward. And it is the person of the Spirit which is thus said to be sent; for this belongs to that holy dispensation of the several persons of the Trinity in the work of our salvation. And in this, in all his operations, the Spirit is considered as sent by the Father, for the reasons often intimated before.

Thirdly, God is said to minister the Spirit (Gr. epichoregeo NT:2023):

Gal 3.5, "He that ministers the Spirit to you."

— or, "He that gives you continual or abundant supplies of the Spirit." The word choregeo means "to give a sufficiency of anything;" but especially "a sufficiency of provision." The prefix "epi" (above or beyond) indicates an addition to this; and the communication of the Spirit is expressed by this very word:

Phi 1.19," For I know that this will turn to my salvation through your prayers, and the additional supply (epichoregeo) of the Spirit of Jesus Christ."

Paul had received the Spirit and its assistance before, yet he stood in need of a further daily supply. And so the word is constantly used for adding one thing to another, or adding one degree more of the same thing: 2Pet 1.5, "Add (epichoregeo) to your faith virtue;" or, "In your faith make an increase of virtue." Therefore, when God is thus said to "minister the Spirit," it intends his continual giving out of additional supplies of his grace by his Spirit; for the Holy Spirit is a voluntary agent, and he distributes to everyone as he will.1Cor 12.11 Therefore, when he is given and sent to anyone, his operations are limited by his own will and the will of the One who sends him. And therefore we stand in need of supplies of the Spirit, and from the Spirit — which are the principal subject-matter of our prayers in this world.

Fourthly, God is said to put his Spirit in or upon men; and this also belongs to the manner of his dispensation:

Isa 42.1, "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; I have put my Spirit upon him."

The word for "put" there, indeed, is the Heb. nathan (OT:05414 – give), "I have given my Spirit upon him." But because "upon him," is joined to it, it is rendered "put" in our translation. So in Eze 37.14, where "in you," is added to it, it is rendered, "Put my Spirit in you." The same is plainly intended in Isa 63.11, "That put his Holy Spirit in the midst of them." Hence, "I have given," or "I will give," in Isa 42.1, is rendered in Mat 12.18: "I will put my Spirit upon him." The word nathan, used in this sense, does not denote granting or donating anything, but its actual bestowing. What is intended is the effectual acting of God in this matter. He not only gives and sends his Spirit to those to whom he designs so great a benefit and privilege, but he actually confers and bestows him upon them.[207]

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He does not send the Spirit to them, and leave it in their wills and power whether they will receive him or not; but he so effectively confers and puts the Spirit in them, or upon them, that they will actually be made partakers of the Spirit. He efficaciously endows their hearts and minds with him, for the work and end for which the Spirit is designed. So Exo 31.6, "I have put wisdom in [them]" is equivalent to, "I have filled them with wisdom."

So then, where God intends the benefit of his Spirit to anyone, he will actually and effectively confer him upon them. He does not, indeed, always do this in the same manner. Sometimes he does it by surprise, as it were, when those who receive him are neither aware of it nor desire it. So the Spirit of the Lord, as a Spirit of prophecy, came upon Saul when his mind was remote and estranged from any such thoughts.1Sam 10.10 In like manner, the Spirit of God came upon Eldad and Medad in the camp, when the other elders went to the tabernacle to receive him, Num 11.27. And so the Spirit of prophecy came upon most of the prophets of old, without either expectation or preparation on their parts. So Amos gives an account of his call to his office:

Amo 7.14-15. "I was no prophet, nor was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit: and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go, prophesy."

He was not brought up with any expectation of receiving this gift, he had no preparation for it; but God surprised him with his call and his gift as he followed the flock. Such also was the call of Jeremiah, Jer 1.5-7.[208] So vain is the discourse of Maimonides [209] on this subject, in prescribing various natural and moral preparations for receiving this gift. But these things were extraordinary. Yet I in no way doubt that God still continues to work grace in many by such unexpected surprises; the manner of which will be inquired into afterward. But sometimes, as to some gifts and graces, God does bestow his Spirit where there is some preparation and cooperation on our part. But wherever he designs to put or place the Spirit, he does it effectively.

Fifthly, God is said to pour him out, and that is frequently: Pro 1.23, "Behold, I will pour out my Spirit to you." The Hebrew for "pour out" (naba, OT:05042) signifies "to bubble up like a fountain."[210]

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Hence, the words are rendered by Theodotion, "I will cause my Spirit to spring out to you like a fountain." It is frequently applied to effusive speaking, as in Psa 78.2; 145.7.[211] The Hebrew arah (OT:03332) — which some take to be the root of naba — conveys the same meaning. And that word has a double lively metaphor: for the proceeding of the Spirit from the Father is compared to the continual rising of the waters of a flowing spring; and the Spirit's communication to us is compared to the over-flowing of those waters, yet guided by the will and wisdom of God:

Isa 32.15, "Until the Spirit is poured upon us (Heb. arah) from on high, and the wilderness is a fruitful field;"

Indeed, though arah sometimes means "to pour out," more properly and commonly, it means "to uncover," "to make bare," "to reveal;" — thus, "Until the Spirit is revealed from on high." Isa 32.15 There will be such a plentiful communication of the Spirit that he and his work will be made open, revealed, and plain; or the Spirit will be bared, as God is said to make his arm bare when he works mightily and effectively, Isa 52.10.

Isa 44.3, "I will pour my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring."

The Hebrew word for "pour" here is yatsaq (OT:03332); it means to pour a thing out so that it clings to and abides on whatever it is poured out upon — just as the Spirit of God abides with those to whom he is communicated.

Eze 39.29, "I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel,"

Here, "poured out" — shaphak (OT:08210) — is another Hebrew word which properly means to pour out in a plentiful way. It is the same word used in that great promise of Joel 2.28, which is rendered in Acts 2.17, by the Gr. ekcheo (NT:1632) — "I will pour out my Spirit." And the same thing is again expressed using that same word, in Act 10.45, "On the Gentiles also was poured out (ekcheo) the gift of the Holy Ghost."

Let us, then, briefly consider the importance of this expression. One or two things may be observed concerning it in general; such as —

1. Wherever this expression is used, it directly respects the times of the gospel. Either it is a part of the promises concerning it, or part of the story of their accomplishment under it. But wherever it is mentioned, the time, state, and grace of the gospel are intended: for the Lord Christ was "in all things to have the pre-eminence," Col 1.18. Therefore, although God gave his Spirit in some measure before, he did not pour him out until Christ was first anointed with his fullness.[212]

2. There is a tacit comparison in it with some previous time and season, or some other act of God, in which, or by which, God gave his Spirit — but that was not in the same way and manner that God intended to bestow the Spirit now.

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What this word signifies is that a larger measure of the Spirit is to be given now than before, or than is signified by any other expressions of the same gift. Three things are therefore comprised in this expression of pouring:

1. An eminent act of divine bounty. Pouring forth is the way by which bounty from an all-sufficing fullness is expressed; such as "The clouds, filled with a moist vapor, pour down rain," Job 36.27, until "it waters the ridges of the earth abundantly, settling its furrows, and making it soft with showers," Psa 65.10. This, along with the things following in that passage, v. 11-13,[213] 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, which he has poured on us richly,"

— that is, on all believers who are converted to God — for the apostle is not speaking 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 by which all who believe are regenerated, renewed, and converted to God. For so men were converted of old by a rich participation of the Holy Ghost; and so men must be converted still (whatever some may pretend), or else die in their sins. And the bounty of God is expressed in other things by the same word: "The living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy," 1Tim 6.17.

2. This pouring out respects the gifts and graces of the Spirit, and not his person: for where he is given, he is given absolutely, and not just more or less (as to himself). But his gifts and graces may be more plentifully and abundantly given at one time than another, or to some persons more than others. Therefore this expression is metonymical — what is spoken of the cause is proper to the effect: the Spirit is said to be poured forth, because his graces are poured forth.

3. Respect in this is to some special works of the Spirit. Such are the purifying or sanctifying works, and the comforting or refreshing of those on whom the Spirit is poured. With respect to the purifying effects, he is compared both to fire and to water; for both fire and water have purifying qualities in them, though towards different objects, and though working in a different manner. So, metals are purified and purged by fire from their dross and mixtures; and all other unclean and defiled things are cleansed and purified by water. Hence, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his work by his Spirit, is at the same time compared to both a "refiner's fire" and to "fullers' soap," Mal 3.2-3 — this is because of the purging, purifying qualities that are in fire and water. And the Holy Ghost is expressly called a "Spirit of burning," Isa 4.4 — for the vessels of the house of God, made of gold and silver, are refined and purged by the Spirit; just as those that are made only of wood and stone are consumed.

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And when it is said about our Lord Jesus that he would "baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire," Luke 3.16, it is the same thing, but doubly expressed. And therefore mention is made only of the "Holy Ghost" in John 1.33.[214] But the Holy Ghost was, in his dispensation, to purify and cleanse them as fire purifies gold and silver.

On the same account he is compared to water, Eze 36.25, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean;" which is expounded in verse 26 by, "A new spirit I will put within you;" which God calls his Spirit in verse 27. So our Savior calls the Spirit "rivers of water," John 7.38, 39.[215] See also Isa 44.3.[216] It is with regard to the Spirit's purifying, cleansing, and sanctifying of our natures that he is thus called water. Therefore, in a special manner with respect to this, he is said to be poured out. So our apostle expressly declares in Tit 3.4-6.[217]

Again, it is with respect to his comforting and refreshing those on whom he is poured. Hence he is 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 your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring; and they will spring up as among the grass, like willows by the water courses," verse 4; see Isa 35.6-7.[218] He comes upon the dry, parched, barren ground of the hearts of men, with his refreshing, fructifying virtue and blessing, causing them to spring up and bring forth fruits in holiness and righteousness to God, Heb 6.7.[219] And with respect to the communication of his Spirit, the Lord Christ is said to "come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth," Psa 72.6. May the good Lord always give us of these waters and refreshing showers!

In general, these are the ways by which the dispensation of the Spirit from God is expressed, for whatever end or purpose it may be.

II. We come next to consider what is ascribed to the Spirit himself by way of compliance with those acts of God for which the Spirit is given and administered. Now, they are those things or actions that manifest he is a voluntary agent, not only as to what he acts out or does in men, but also as to the manner of his coming forth from God, and in his application of himself to his work. We must consider these as they are declared to us in the Scripture.

The FIRST and most general expression of this is that he proceeds from the Father. And being the Spirit of the Son, he proceeds from him also in the same way: John 15.26, "The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, will testify of me."

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There is a twofold "procession" of the Holy Ghost. The first is "natural" or "personal." This expresses his eternal relation to the persons of the Father and the Son. He is of them by an eternal emanation or procession.[220] The manner of this to us, in this life, is incomprehensible; therefore it is rejected by some who will believe no more than what they can put their hands into the sides of.[221] And yet are they forced, in things before their eyes, to admit many things which they cannot perfectly comprehend! But we live by faith, and not by sight.[222] This is enough for us, that we admit nothing in this great mystery except what is revealed. And nothing is revealed to 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; it only expresses a distinction in subsistence, by a property that is specific to the Holy Spirit. But this is not what I intend at present. Its consideration belongs to the doctrine of the Trinity in general, and it has been handled elsewhere.[223]

Secondly, There is a "procession" of the Spirit, which is "dispensatory." This is the egress of the Spirit in his application of himself to his work. It is a voluntary act of his will, and not a necessary property of his person. And he is said to thus proceed from the Father, because he goes forth or proceeds in pursuit of the counsels and purposes of the Father, as sent by him, to put those counsels and purposes into execution, or to make them effectual. And in like manner he proceeds from the Son, sent by him to apply his grace to the souls of his elect, John 15.26. It is true, this proves his eternal relation to the Father and the Son as he proceeds from them, or receives his particular 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 this expression of proceeding. And this is the general notation of the origin of the Spirit's acting in all that he does: He proceeds or comes forth from the Father. If it had only been said that he was given and sent, it could not have been known that there was anything of his own will in what he did, because he is said to "divide to every man as he wills."

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But in proceeding of his own accord to his work, his own will and condescension are also asserted. And his proceeding from the Father is in compliance with the Father's sending him to accomplish and make effectual the purposes of the Father's will and the counsels of his grace.

SECONDLY, to the same purpose he is said to come: John 15.26, "When the Comforter has come." John 16.7, "If I do not go away, the Comforter will not come." Verse 8, "And when he has come." So he is said to "come upon" persons, and so we express it: 1Chr 12.18, "The Spirit came upon Amasai" (Heb. labesh OT:03847 – clothe); or "the Spirit clothed Amasai;" he possessed his mind as a man's clothes cling to him. Acts 19.6, "The Holy Ghost came on them, and they prophesied"— "to come" is the final destination, as it were, of "going forth" or "proceeding." For in these expressions there is an allusion to a local motion, of which these two words denote the beginning and the end. The first intends his voluntary application of himself to his work, and the other his progress in it. God makes use of such condescensions in declaring his divine actings, to accommodate them to our understandings, and to give us some kind of apprehension of them. The Spirit proceeds from the Father, as given by him; and he comes to us, as sent by him. The meaning of both is that the Holy Ghost, by his own will and consent, works in pursuit of the will of the Father — there and in that, where and for what, he did not work before.[224] And because there is no local motion to be thought of in these things, it cannot in any tolerable sense be reconciled to the imagination, that the Spirit is only the inherent virtue or acting emanation and influence of the power of God. And hereby our faith and obedience are regulated in our dealing with God about the Spirit. For we may ask the Father both that he would give and send the Spirit to us, according to his promise; and we may also pray to the Spirit to come to us to sanctify and comfort us, according to the work and office that he has undertaken. This is what we are taught by this — for these revelations of God are for our instruction in the obedience of faith.Rom 16.26

THIRDLY, He is said to fall on men: Acts 10.44, "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all those who heard the word." So it is in Act 11.15 where Peter, recounting that event, says, "The Holy Ghost fell on them, as he did on us at the beginning," — that is, at Pentecost in Acts 2.4. A great and sudden surprise is intended by this word; as when fire fell down from heaven (which was a type of the Spirit) upon the altar and sacrifice of Elijah. The people that saw it were amazed; falling on their faces they cried out, "The Lord he is the God!" 1Kng 18.38-39

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When men in no way expect such a gift, or when they have a general expectation of it, but are suddenly surprised as to the particular timing, it is declared in this way. But wherever this word falling is used, some extraordinary effects evidencing the Spirit's presence and power immediately ensue, as in Act 10.44-46;[225] and it was so at the beginning of the Spirit's effusion in the New Testament, Act 2.4, 8, 16.

FOURTHLY, having come, he is said to rest on the persons to whom he is given and sent: Isa 11.2, "And the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him." This is interpreted as "abiding" and "remaining," John 1.32-33. Num 11.25-26, "The Spirit of the Lord rested upon the elders." So the "spirit of Elijah rested on Elisha," 2Kng 2.15. 1Pet 4.14, "The Spirit of glory and of God rests on you." Two things are included in this: 1. Contentment; 2. Permanency.

First, He is well-pleased in his work in which he rests. So where God is said to "rest in his love," he does it with "joy" and "singing," Zeph. 3.17. So the Spirit rejoices where he rests.

Secondly, He abides where he rests. Under this notion, this abiding of the Spirit is promised by our Savior: "He will abide with you forever," John 14.16. He came only on some men by a sudden surprise, to act some particular work and duty in them and by them. 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, he abides and continues there with contentment and delight.

FIFTHLY, He is said to depart from some persons. So it is said of Saul, 1Sam 16.14, "The Spirit of the Lord departed from him." And David prays that God would not "take his Holy Spirit from him," Psa 51.11. And this is to be understood as corresponding to what we discussed 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 he did formerly; and as far as this is penal,[226] he is said to be taken away. So he departed and was taken away from Saul when he no longer helped him with that ability for kingly government which Saul previously had by the Spirit's assistance.

And this departure of the Holy Ghost from anyone is either total or only partial. Some on whom the Spirit has been bestowed — to work various gifts in them for the good of others, or with manifold convictions, or by light and general assistance for performing duties — he utterly deserts, and gives them over to themselves and their own hearts' lusts. Examples of this are common in the world. Men have been made partakers of many "gifts of the Holy Ghost," and been enlightened in a special way; and been under the power of their convictions; and been carried out to profess the gospel, and perform many duties of religion.

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And yet, being entangled by temptations, and overcome by the power of their lusts, they relinquish all their beginnings and engagements, and turn wholly to sin and folly. The Holy Ghost utterly departs from such persons; all their gifts dry up and wither; their light goes out; and they have darkness instead of vision. The case of such persons is deplorable, for "it would have 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 to them," 2Pet 2.21. And some of these persons add despising and contempt for that whole work of the Spirit of God, of which they were made partakers, to their apostasy. The condition of such profligate[227] sinners is, for the most part, irrecoverable, Heb 6.4-6, 10.26-30.

From some, the Spirit withdraws and departs only partially, and mostly that is only for a season; and this departure respects the grace, light, and consolation which he administers to believers, as to the degrees of these graces and the sense of them in their own souls. But he never utterly or totally departs from those on whom he is bestowed to work these things in a saving way. Our blessed Savior plainly promises this, and asserts it in John 4.14: "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him, will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Christ himself declares that this well of "living water" is his sanctifying Spirit, Joh 7.37-39.[228] The one who has received him will never again thirst in total want and indigence. Besides, the Spirit is given to this end by virtue of the covenant of grace. And the promise is express in this: that he will "never depart from those" to whom he is given, Isa 59.21; Jer 31.33, 32.39, 40; Eze 11.19, 20.[229]

But now, as to the degrees and sensible effects of these operations, he may depart and withdraw from believers for a season. Hence they may be left to many spiritual decays and much weakness. The things of grace that remain in them are, as it were, "ready to die," Rev 3.2; and they may apprehend that they have been deserted and forsaken by God — so did Zion, Isa 40.27, 49.14.[230] For in this God "hides himself," or "forsakes his people for a small moment," Isa 54.7-8. He "hides himself, and is angry," Isa 57.17. These are the things which David so often and so bitterly complains of, and which with so much earnestness he contends and wrestles with God to be delivered from. These are those spiritual desertions which some of late have laden with reproach, contempt, and scorn. They would represent all the apprehensions and complaints of the people of God about them, as nothing but the idle imaginations of distempered brains, or the effects of some disorder in their blood and animal spirits.[231]

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I could easily allow that men should despise and laugh at what is declared as the experience of professors at present. Their prejudice against such professors will not allow them to entertain any thoughts about them except what is suited to folly and hypocrisy. But I acknowledge that I stand amazed at this, because (1) these experiences are so plainly, 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; and (2) the whole of God's dealings, and believers' application of themselves to God in this matter, are so graphically exemplified in various holy saints of old, such as Job, David, Heman, and others; and (3) since great and plentiful provision is made in Scripture for the direction, recovery, healing, and consolation of souls in such a condition. And yet men who profess to be Christians, and who at least believe the word of God is not a fable, dare to cast such opprobrious reproaches on the ways and works of God. The end of these attempts can be nothing other than to decry all real intercourse between God and the souls of men, leaving only an outside form or shape of religion that is not one jot better than atheism.

Nor is it only what concerns spiritual desertions, whose nature, causes, and remedies are professedly and at large handled by all the casuistic divines,[232] even of the Roman church. But it is the whole work of the Spirit of God upon the hearts of men, with all the effects produced in them with respect to sin and grace, that some men endeavor to expose to contempt and scorn, by their odious and scurrilous expressions, S. P.,[233] pp. 339-342. Whatever trouble befalls the minds of men on 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 usual influences of his grace, love, and favor 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 by these men, in most opprobrious language, to melancholy reeks and vapors, of which a certain and mechanical account may be given by those who understand the anatomy of the brain. To such a height of profane atheism has the daring pride and ignorance of some in our days arrived!

There yet remains 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 to a single consideration. This is what is mentioned in Heb 2.4: "God bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with diverse miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will."

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But the word "gifts" here (Gr. merismoi NT:3311) means "distributions" or "partitions;" and hence advantage is taken by some to argue against the Spirit's very being. Thus Crellius contends that the Holy Ghost is to be taken passively here, or that the term for Him, Pneumatos hagion, is genetivus materiæ (possessed material). From this, he supposes it follows 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. It is obvious how inconsistent this is with the truth of the Spirit's being and personality. Yet Crellius cannot give any tolerable account of the division and partition of that power of God which he calls the "Holy Ghost," unless he makes the Holy Spirit a quality in us, and not in the divine nature (as Justin Martyr affirms Plato did),[234] and so He may be divided. This interpretation of these words is wrested, perverse, and foolish; for the structure requires that the Holy Ghost be taken actively here, being the Author of the distribution mentioned. He gives out his gifts and powers to men in many parts, not all to one, not all at once, and not all in one way; rather he gives some to one, some to another, some at one time, some at another, and that is in great variety. The apostle therefore in this place declares that the Holy Spirit gave out various gifts to the first preachers of the gospel, for the confirmation of their doctrine, according to the promise of our Savior in John 15.26-27. The gifts he mentions in particular are, first, "signs;" that is, miraculous works, to signify the presence of God by his power with those who worked them, thus giving His approval of the doctrine they taught. Secondly, "prodigies" or "wonders," works that are beyond the power of nature or the energy of natural causes — worked to fill men with wonder and admiration, manifesting the divine, and surprising men with a sense of the presence of God. Thirdly, "mighty works" of several sorts, such as opening the eyes of the blind, raising the dead, and the like. These being mentioned, "gifts of the Holy Ghost" are then added in general.

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For the Holy Ghost worked and effected these and like things for the end mentioned. And these distributions are from him, just as the signs and wonders were — that is, these gifts were the effects of his power. Only, there is added an intimation of how they are all worked by him, which is by giving them power for their operation, variously dividing them among those on whom they were bestowed; and it is added that this was "according to his own will." This passage is so directly and fully expounded in 1Cor 12.7-11, that there is no room left for exception, even to the most obstinate. And that passage having been explained before, in the introduction to this discourse, I will not go over it again here. These merismoi are therefore his gifts which, as parts and parcels of his work, he gives out in great variety.[235]

His operations are described to the same purpose in Isa 11.2-3: "The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." He is first called "The Spirit of the Lord," to express his being and nature; and then he is termed "The Spirit of wisdom and of counsel," etc. — that is, the one who is the author of wisdom and counsel, and the rest of the graces mentioned, who divides and distributes them according to his own will. That variety of gifts and graces with which believers are endowed and adorned, are these merismoi, or "distributions" of the Holy Spirit. Hence, the principal respect that we immediately have to him in our worship of him under the New Testament, is as he is the author of these various gifts and graces. So John, saluting the churches of Asia, prays for grace for them from God the Father, and from "the seven Spirits which are before his throne," Rev 1.4 — that is, from the Holy Spirit of God considered in his care of the church, and in his yielding supplies to it as the author of that perfection of gifts and graces which are, and are to be, bestowed on it. This is what the number "seven" denotes. And therefore, because our Lord Jesus Christ, as the foundation of his church, was anointed with all the gifts and graces of the Spirit in their perfection, it is said that upon that one stone there should be "seven eyes," Zec 3.9 — all the gifts of the seven Spirits of God, or of the Holy Spirit who is the author of them all.

Therefore, all that is pleaded from this passage, for the division of the Holy Ghost, is built on the supposition which we rejected before— namely, that he is not a divine person, but an arbitrary emanation of divine power. And yet the division of the Holy Ghost Crellius pleads for, cannot be maintained with any tolerable sense. Indeed, he says, "All divine inspirations may be considered as one whole, just as many waters make up one sea. In this respect the Holy Ghost is one — that is, one universal made up of many species." This is totum logicum – entirely logic. And by this, the Spirit may be divided into his subordinate species!

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But what ground or support is there for any such notions in the Scripture? Where is it said that all the gifts of the Holy Ghost constitute or make up one Holy Ghost? Or that the Holy Ghost is one in general, because many effects are ascribed to him? Or that the several gifts of the Spirit are so many distinct kinds of it? The contrary to all these is expressly taught in the Scripture — namely, that the one Holy Spirit works all these things as he pleases; so that all of them are external acts of his will and power. And it is pleaded by the same author, to as little purpose, that

"The Spirit is divided as a natural whole into its parts, because there is mention of a measure and portion of him: thus God is said not to give him to Jesus Christ 'by measure,' John 3.34; and to every one of us grace is given 'according to the measure of the gift of Christ,' Eph 4.7;"

— as though one measure of him were granted to one, and another measure to another! But this "measure" is plainly of his gifts and graces. These were bestowed on the Lord Christ in all their fullness, without any limitation, either as to kinds or degrees. They were poured into him according to the utmost extent and capacity of human nature, and that was done under an inconceivable advancement by its union to the Son of God. Others receive the Spirit's gifts and graces in a limited proportion, both as to their kinds and degrees. To turn this into a division of the Spirit himself, is the greatest madness. And casting aside prejudices, there is no difficulty in understanding what God said to Moses, Num 11.17, "I will take of the Spirit which is upon you, and I will put it upon the elders;" for God is evidently speaking of the gifts of the Spirit, enabling men for rule and government, and not of the Spirit himself. Without any diminution of that Spirit in Moses — that is, any diminution of the gifts he had received — God gave to the elders, as if lighting their candle by his. So also, the "double portion of the spirit of Elijah," which Elisha requested for himself, was only a large and distinct measure of prophetic light, above what other prophets which Elijah left behind him had received, 2Kng 2.9.[236] Elisha asked for "double." This expression is first used in Deu 21.17,[237] where the double portion of the first-born is intended; so that what he desired was probably such a portion among the other prophets as the first-born had among the brethren of the same family: and so it came to pass. From this, he also had the rule and government of them.

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Book II.

Chapter I.

Particular operations of the Holy Spirit under the Old Testament

preparatory for the New.

The work of the Spirit of God in the new creation; despised by some— Works under the Old Testament preparatory to the New— Distribution of the works of the Spirit — The gift of prophecy; the nature, use, and end of it — The beginning of prophecy — The Holy Spirit the only author of it — The name of a "prophet;" its meaning, and his work — Prophecy by inspiration; why it is so called — Prophets, how they are moved by the Holy Ghost — The adjuncts of prophecy, or distinct ways of its communication — Of articulate voices — Dreams — Visions — Incidental adjuncts of prophecy — Symbolic actions — Local movements — Whether unsanctified persons might have the gift of prophecy — The case of Balaam answered — Of writing the Scriptures — Three things required for this — Of miracles — Works of the Spirit of God in the improvement of the natural faculties of the minds of men in various things: political, moral, corporeal, intellectual and artificial — In preaching the word.

Having passed through those general things which were necessary prior to the consideration of the special works of the Holy Ghost, I now proceed to what is the principal subject of our present design. And that is the dispensation and work of the Holy Spirit of God with respect to the new creation, and the recovery of mankind, or the church of God, which comes by it. This is a matter of the highest importance to those who sincerely believe; but it is most violently, and of late virulently, opposed by all the enemies of the grace of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. The weight and concern of this doctrine have in part been spoken to before. I will at present add no further considerations to that same purpose, but leave all those who fear the name of God to make a judgment of it by what is revealed in the Scriptures concerning it, and the uses to which it is directed there. Many, we know, will not receive these things. But in handling them, while we keep ourselves to that word by which one day both we and they must either stand or fall, we do not need to be moved by their ignorance or pride, nor by the fruits and effects of such traits, in their reproaches, contempt, and scorn: for God has a righteous eye.[238]

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Now, the works of the Spirit, in reference to the new creation, are of two sorts: First, those that were preparatory to it under the Old Testament; for I reckon that the state of the old creation, as to living to God, ended with the entrance of sin and giving the first promise. Whatever ensued from that, by way of grace, was preparatory for and to the new creation. Secondly, those works that were actually worked under the new.

Those acts and works of his which are common to both states of the church — such as his effectual dispensation of sanctifying grace towards the elect of God — I will handle in common under the second head. Under the first, I will only consider those that were particular to that state. To make way to this I will premise two general positions:

1. There is nothing excellent among men which is not ascribed to the Holy Spirit of God, as the immediate operator and efficient cause of it — whether it is absolutely extraordinary, and in every way above the production of natural principles; or whether it consists in an eminent and particular improvement of those principles and abilities. We will confirm this afterward by various instances. Of old, the Spirit was all; now some would have him be nothing.

2. Whatever the Holy Spirit worked in an eminent manner under the Old Testament, it respected our Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel, generally and for the most part, if not absolutely and always. And so it was preparatory to completing the great work of the new creation in and by Christ.

And these works of the Holy Spirit may be referred to the two sorts mentioned, namely —

I. Those which were extraordinary, and exceeding the whole compass of the abilities of nature, however improved and advanced; and,

II. Those which consist in the improvement and exaltation of those abilities, to address the occasions of life, and the use of the church (see page 147 below).

Those of the first sort (extraordinary) may be reduced to three heads:

1. Prophecy.

2. Writing the Scripture.

3. Miracles.

Those of the other sort (ordinary) we will find in things that are:

1. Political, such as skill for government and rule among men.

2. Moral, such as fortitude and courage.

3. Natural, such as an increase of bodily strength.

4. Intellectual gifts—

(1.) For sacred things, such as preaching the word of God;

(2.) In artful things, as we see in Bezalel and Aholiab.[239]

The work of grace on the hearts of men being more fully revealed under the New Testament than before, and of the same kind and nature in every state of the church since the fall, I will address it once and for all in its most proper place.

I. EXTRAORDINARY WORKS OF THE SPIRIT.

1. PROPHECY

The first eminent gift and work of the Holy Ghost under the Old Testament, and which had the most direct and immediate respect to Jesus Christ, was prophecy: for the chief and principal end of this in the church, was to fore-signify him and his sufferings, and the glory that would ensue — or appoint those things to be observed in divine worship that might be types and representations of him. For the highest privilege of the church of old was but to hear tidings of those same things which we actually enjoy, Isa 33.17.[240]

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Just as Moses on top of Pisgah saw the land of Canaan,Num 21.20 and in spirit saw the beauties of holiness to be erected in this land (which was his highest attainment), so the best of those saints was to contemplate the King of saints in the land that was still very far from them — Christ in the flesh. And this prospect, which they obtained by faith, was their highest joy and glory, John 8.56.[241] Yet they all ended their days as Moses did, with respect to the type of the gospel state, Deu 3.24, 25.[242] This is what the disciples did see, Luke 10.23, 24.[243]

Heb 11.40 "God having provided some better thing for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us."

Peter declares that this was the principal end of the gift of prophecy,

1Pet 1.9-12: "Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them signified, when He testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that would follow. To them it was revealed that — not to themselves, but to us — they were ministering the things which are now reported to you."

Some of the ancients apprehended that some things were spoken obscurely by the prophets; and they were not to be understood without great search, especially those things which concerned the rejection of the Jews, lest they were provoked to abolish the Scripture itself. But the sum and substance of the prophetic 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 to the truth of God in the first promise, concerning the coming of the blessed Seed.[244]

This was God's method: First, he immediately gave that promise which was the foundation of the church, Gen 3.15;[245] then by revelation to the prophets, he confirmed that promise; after all of this, the Lord Christ was sent to make them all good to the church, Rom 15.8.[246] With this, they received fresh revelations concerning his person and his sufferings, along with the glory that was to ensue from that, and the grace which was to come to the church thereby. While they were thus employed and moved by the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of Christ, they diligently endeavored to become acquainted with the things, in their nature and efficacy, which were revealed to them.

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And yet as they did so, they considered that it was not themselves, but some succeeding generations who would enjoy them in their actual exhibition. And while they were intent on these things, they also searched (as far as it was intimated by the Spirit) for the time in which all these things were to be accomplished — both when it would be, and what manner of time it would be — that is, what the state and condition of the people of God would be in those days. This was the principal end of the gift of prophecy; and this was 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 carried on by the gift of prophecy.

The communication of this gift began early in the world; and it continued without any known interruption, in the possession of some one or more in the church at all times during its preparatory or subservient 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;[247] he was therefore greater than any prophet that went before him,[248] because he made the nearest approach to and clearest discovery of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the end of all prophecies. Thus God "spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began," Luke 1.70. Adam himself had many things revealed to him, without which he could not have worshipped God correctly in that fallen state and condition into which he had come. For although his natural light was sufficient to direct him to all those religious services required by the law of creation, it was not sufficient as to all the duties of that state into which he was brought, by the giving of the promise after the entrance of sin.[249] So he was guided to observe those ordinances of worship which were needful for him, and accepted by God — as were sacrifices. The prophecy of Enoch is not only remembered, but recalled and recorded in Jude 14, 15. It is something that is neither curious nor difficult to demonstrate, that all the patriarchs of old, before the flood, were guided by a prophetic spirit in the imposition of names on those children who were to succeed them in the sacred line. God expressly says of Abraham, that he was a prophet, Gen 20.7 — that is, one who received divine revelations.[250]

Now, this gift of prophecy was always the immediate effect of the operation of the Holy Spirit. This is both affirmed in general, and in all its particular instances. In the first way, we have the illustrious testimony of the apostle Peter:

2Pet 1.20-21, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy did not come in olden times by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

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This is a principle among believers; they grant and allow this, in the first place, as that into which they resolve their faith— namely, that the "sure word of prophecy," which they take heed to in all things (verse 19),[251] was not a fruit of any man's private conceptions, nor was it subject to the wills of men, so as to attain or exercise it by their own ability.[252] Rather, it was given by the "inspiration of God," 2Tim 3.16. For the Holy Ghost, by acting upon, moving, and guiding the minds of holy men, enabled them for this. This was the sole fountain and cause of all true divine prophecy that was ever given or granted for the use of the church. And in particular, the coming of the Spirit of God upon the prophets, enabling them to do their work, is frequently mentioned. Micah declares in his own instance, how it was with them all:

Mic 3.8, "But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin."

It was from the Spirit of God alone that he had all his ability to discharge that prophetic office to which he was called. And when God would endow seventy elders with a gift of prophecy, he tells Moses that he would "take from the Spirit that was upon him," and give it to them for that purpose — that is, God would communicate the same Spirit to them as was in Moses.[253] And where it is said at any time that God spoke by the prophets, or that the word of God came to them, or God spoke to them, it is always intended that this was the immediate work of the Holy Ghost. So David says of himself that, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me," or in me, "and his word was in my tongue," 2Sam 23.2. Hence our apostle,[254] repeating David's words, ascribes them directly to the Holy Ghost:

Heb 3.7, "Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost says, Today if you will hear his voice;"

And again in Heb 4.7, "Saying in David." So too, the words which are ascribed to the "Lord of hosts," Isa 6.9-10, are asserted to be the words of the Holy Ghost, Acts 28.25-27. He spoke to them, or in them, by his holy inspirations; and he spoke by them in his effectual infallible guidance of them, to utter, declare, and write what they received from him, without mistake or variation. And this prophecy, as to its exercise, is considered in two ways:

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First, precisely for the prediction or foretelling of things to come, as the Greek word and the Latin rephrased from there, both signify. So prophecy is a divine prediction of future things, proceeding from divine revelation. But the Hebrew naba "prophesy" (OT:05012) — from which we get "a prophet" (Heb. nabiy OT:05030) and "prophecy" (Heb. nebuw'ah OT:05016) — is not confined to any such meaning, even though predictions from supernatural revelation are constantly expressed by it. But in general,

Secondly, the word signifies no more than to speak out, interpret, and declare the mind or words of another. So God tells Moses that he would "make him a god to Pharaoh," Exo 7.1 — one who would deal with him in the name, stead, and power of God; and "Aaron his brother would be his prophet," Exo 7.1 — that is, one who would interpret his meaning and declare his words to Pharaoh, because Moses had complained of the defect of his own utterance.

So prophets are the "interpreters," the declarers of the word, will, mind, or oracles of God to others. Such a one is described in Job 33.23.[255] Hence, those who expounded the Scripture to the church under the New Testament were called "prophets," and their work was "prophecy," Rom 12.6, 1Cor 14.31-32. And under the Old Testament, those who celebrated the praises of God with singing in the temple, according to the institution of David, are said to "prophesy," in doing this 1Chr 25.2. This name, nabiy, a "prophet," was of ancient use; for God called Abraham a prophet, Gen 20.7.

Afterward, a prophet was commonly called "a seer" [256] because of their divine visions (and this was occasioned by God's words concerning Moses, in Num 12.6-8.[257] And this being the ordinary way of God's revealing himself — namely, by dreams and visions — prophets in those days, even from the death of Moses onward, were commonly called seers, which continued in use until the days of Samuel, 1Sam 9.9); and, "a man of God," 1Sam 2.27. This is the name Paul gives to the preachers of the gospel, 1Tim 6.11, 2Tim 3.17. What Kimchi notes is not altogether unworthy of observation, that the verb naba (prophesy) is most frequently used in the passive conjugation niphal, because it denotes receiving from God, by way of revelation, what is spoken to others by way of prophecy. And as it lies before us, as an extraordinary gift of the Holy Ghost, prophecy is neither to be confined to the strict notion of prediction and foretelling, nor is it to be extended to every true declaration of the mind of God — but only to that which is obtained by immediate revelation.[258]

We may now inquire a little more distinctly into this particular gift of the Holy Spirit. And two things concerning it may be considered:

First, Its general nature;

Secondly, The particular ways by which special revelation was granted to someone.

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FIRST, For its general nature, it consisted in inspiration.[259] The apostle speaks this way of the prophecies recorded in the Scripture, 2Tim 3.16:[260] theopneustos (NT:2315), divine inspiration, was the origin and cause of it. And the acting of the Holy Ghost in communicating his mind to the prophets was called "inspiration" on a double account:

First, Corresponding to the Spirit's name and nature. The name by which he is revealed to us signifies "breath;" and he is called the "breath of God," by which his essential relation to the Father and Son is expressed, along with his eternal natural emanation from them. And therefore, when our Savior gave the Spirit to his disciples, as a proper instructive emblem of what he gave, he breathed upon them, John 20.22. So also in the great work of the infusion of the reasonable soul into the body of man, it is said that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," Gen 2.7. I say it is from this — namely, from the nature and name of the Holy Spirit — that his immediate actings on the minds of men, in the supernatural communication of divine revelations to them, is called "inspiration" or inbreathing. And the unclean spirit, counterfeiting the actings of the Spirit of God, inspired his worshippers with a preternatural inspiration, by ways suited to his own filthy vileness.

Secondly, This holy work of the Spirit of God, just as it is expressed suitably to his name and nature, so it intends the meekness, gentleness, and facility with which he works. He gently and softly breathed into them, as it were, the knowledge and comprehension of holy things. It is a special and immediate work, in which he acts suitably to his nature as a spirit — the spirit or breath of God — and suitably to his peculiar, personal properties of meekness, gentleness, and peace.

So the Spirit's acting is inspiration, by which he came within the faculties of the souls of men, acting upon them with a power that was not their own. It is true, when he had thus inspired anyone with the mind of God, they had no rest, nor could they have, unless they declared it in its proper way and season:

Jer 20.9, "Then I said, I will not mention him, nor speak any more in his name: but his word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."

But this disturbance was from a moral sense of their duty, and not from any violent agitations of the Spirit upon their natures. And sometimes when trouble and consternation of spirit befell some of the prophets in and under the revelations they received from Him, it was on a double account:

First, From the dreadful representations of things that were made to them in visions. Things of great dread and terror were represented to their fancies and imaginations.

Secondly, From the greatness and dread of the things that were revealed, which sometimes were terrible and destructive, as in Dan 7.15, 28, 8.27; Hab 3.16; Isa 21.2-4.[261] But the Spirit's inspirations were gentle and placid.

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SECONDLY, The immediate and particular effects of this inspiration were, that those who were inspired were moved or acted by the Holy Ghost: "Holy men of God spoke," 2Pet 1.21 — "moved" or acted "by the Holy Ghost." And two things are intended by this:

First, The preparation and elevation of their intellectual faculties (their minds and understandings) in which his revelations were to be received. He prepared them to receive the impressions he made upon them, and confirmed their memories to retain them. He did not, however, so enlighten and raise their minds as to give them a distinct understanding and full comprehension of all the things that were declared to them; there was more in their inspirations than they could search to the bottom of.[262] Hence, although the prophets under the Old Testament were used to communicate the clearest revelations and predictions concerning Jesus Christ, yet in the knowledge and understanding of their meaning, they were all inferior to John Baptist, as he was inferior in this matter to the lowliest believer, or the "least in the kingdom of heaven." Mat 11.11 Therefore, for their own illumination and edification they diligently inquired, by the ordinary means of prayer and meditation, as to the meaning of the Spirit of God in those prophecies which they received by extraordinary revelation, 1Pet 1.10-11.[263] Nor did Daniel (who had those express representations and glorious visions concerning the monarchies of the world, and the providential alterations which would be worked in them) understand what and how things would be accomplished. This is the account he gives of himself at the close of his visions, Dan 12.8-9.[264] But the Spirit so raised and prepared their minds, that they might be capable of receiving and retaining those impressions of things which he communicated to them. Thus a man tunes the strings of an instrument, so that it may duly receive the impressions of his finger, and produce the sound he intends. The Spirit did not speak in them or by them, and leave it to the use of their natural faculties — their minds, or memories — to understand and remember the things spoken by him, and thus declare them to others. But the Spirit himself acted through their faculties, making use of them to express his words, and not their own conceptions.

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And this (besides other things) is the difference between the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and those so-called inspirations of the devil. The utmost that Satan can do is to make strong impressions on the imaginations of men, or influence their faculties by possessing, wresting, and distorting the organs of the body and the spirits of the blood. The Holy Spirit is in the faculties, and he uses them as his organs. Secondly, he did this with that light and evidence of himself — of his power, truth, and holiness — which left no suspicion as to whether their minds were under his conduct and influence or not. Men are subject to fall so far under the power of their own imaginations — through the prevalence of a corrupt and distempered fancy — as to suppose that these imaginings are supernatural revelations. Satan may (he did of old, and perhaps still does) impose on the minds of some, and communicate to them, such a conception of his insinuations, that for awhile they will think these are from God himself. But in the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, and in his moving of the minds of holy men of old, he gave them infallible assurance that it was he alone by whom they were moved, Jer 23.28.[265]

If anyone was to ask by which infallible tokens they might assuredly know the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, and be satisfied that such a persuasion as was not liable to mistake (that they were not imposed on), I must say plainly that I cannot tell. For these are things of which we have no experience; nor is anything of this nature pretended to — whatever some may falsely and foolishly impute to those who profess and avow an interest in the ordinary gracious workings of the Holy Ghost. What some frenetic[266] persons have boasted of in their distempers, or under their delusions, no sober or wise man esteems worthy of any sedate consideration. But I say this: it was the design of the Holy Ghost to give those whom he extraordinarily inspired in this way, an assurance that was sufficient to bear them out in the discharge of their duty, and an assurance that they were moved by him alone. For in the pursuit of their work, which they were called to by him, they were to encounter various dangers; and some of them were called to lay down their lives as a testimony to the truth of the message they delivered. They could not be engaged in this without as full an evidence of his moving them, as the nature of man is capable of in such cases. The case of Abraham fully confirms this.

It is impossible, in those extraordinary workings of the Spirit, for there not to have been such an impression left on their minds of him, and of his holiness and authority, as to secure them from all fear of delusion. Even upon the word delivered by them to others, he put those characteristics of divine truth, holiness, and power, that rendered it "worthy to be believed;"1Tim 1.15 it was not to be rejected without the highest sin by those to whom it came. To those who enjoyed its original inspiration, there was much more of such evidence in it.

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Secondly, He moved and guided them as to the very organs of their bodies, those by which they expressed the revelation which they had received by inspiration from him. They spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. He guided their tongues in the declaration of his revelations, like the mind of a man guides his hand in writing, to express its conceptions. Hence David, having received revelations from the Spirit, or being inspired by him, affirms in his expression of them, that "his tongue was the pen of a ready writer," Psa 45.1; that is, it was so guided by the Spirit of God as to express the conceptions which David received from him. For this reason, God is said to speak by their mouths: "As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets," Luke 1.70. All of them had but one mouth, on account of their absolute consent and agreement in these predictions; this is the meaning of "one voice" or "one mouth" in a multitude. "The Holy Ghost spoke by the mouth of David," Acts 1.16. For whatever they received by revelation, they were only the pipes through which its waters were conveyed, without the least mixing of any alloy from their own frailties or infirmities. David had received the pattern of the temple, and the manner of the whole worship of God in this, by the Spirit, 1Chr 28.12.[267] He says, "All this the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern,"[268] verse 19. The Spirit of God not only revealed it to him, but He so guided David in writing it down, that he might understand the mind of God from what he had written; i.e., the Spirit gave it to him so plainly and evidently, that it was as if every particular had been expressed in writing by the finger of God.

(1.) As to this first extraordinary work and gift of the Holy Ghost, prophecy, it remains for us to consider those special ways and means which he made use of in communicating his mind to the prophets, with some other incidental adjuncts of prophecy. Because one way is preferred above another in the several ways that divine revelations are communicated, some have distinguished the degrees of prophecy, or of its gift. They follow Maimonides in his "More Nebuchim." I have disproved this elsewhere, in "Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews," chap. 1. Nor indeed is there the least occasion, either from this or any other ground, to feign those eleven degrees of prophecy which he thought he had discovered. Much less may the spirit or gift of prophecy be attained by the ways he prescribes, and with Tatianus seems to countenance.[269]

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The distinct outward manners and ways of revelation mentioned in the Scriptures may be reduced to three heads: 1. Voices; 2. Dreams; and 3. Visions.

And there are two incidental adjuncts of it: 1. Symbolic actions; and 2. Local movements.

The schoolmen, following Aquinas, 22. q. 174, a. 1, commonly reduce the means of revelation to three heads, for there are three ways by which we come to know anything — 1. By our external senses; 2. By impressions on the fantasy or imagination; and 3. By pure acts of the understanding.

So God revealed his will to the prophets in three ways —

1. By objects of their senses, such as audible voices;

2. By impressions on the imagination in dreams and visions;

3. By illustration or enlightening of their minds.

But because this last way expresses divine inspiration, I cannot acknowledge it as a distinct way of revelation by itself — for it was absolutely necessary to give an infallible assurance of mind in the other ways also. Therefore setting that aside, there is none of those ways that is not liable to delusion.

1. God sometimes made use of an articulate voice, saying those things which he intended to declare in words that signified them. Thus he revealed himself or his mind to Moses, when he "spoke to him face to face, as a man speaks to his friend," Exo 33.11; Num 12.8. And as far as I can observe, the whole revelation made to Moses was by outward, audible, articulate voices, whose sense was impressed on his mind by the Holy Spirit. For an external voice without an inward elevation and disposition of mind, is not sufficient to give security and assurance of truth to the one who receives it. Thus God spoke to Elijah, 1Kng 19.12-18, to Samuel and Jeremiah, and it may be to all the rest of the prophets at their first calling and entrance into their ministry. For words formed miraculously by God, and conveyed sensibly to the outward ears of men, carry a great majesty and authority with them. This was not the usual way of God's revealing his mind, nor is it signified by that phrase of speech, "The word of the Lord came to me." No more is intended by that, than an immediate revelation by whatever way or means it was granted. Mostly this was by that secret effectual impression on their minds which we described before. And these voices were either immediately created by God himself, such as when he spoke to Moses (the eminence of the revelation made to him, principally consisted in this) — or when the ministry of angels was used in forming and pronouncing these revelations. But as we observed before, the divine certainty of the minds of those to whom these things were spoken, along with their ability to infallibly declare them to others, was an immediate internal work of the Spirit of God upon them.

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Without this, the prophets might have been imposed on by external audible voices — nor would these, by themselves, give their minds an infallible assurance.

2. Dreams were made use of under the Old Testament to the same purpose, and I also refer to all those visions which they had in their sleep, though not called dreams.[270] And these, in this case, were the immediate operation of the Holy Ghost as to the divine and infallible impressions they conveyed to the minds of men. Hence dreams are mentioned in the promise of the plentiful pouring out of the Spirit, or in the communication of his gifts:

Acts 2.17, "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams."

It is not that God intended to make much use of this way of dreams and nocturnal visions under the New Testament; rather, the intention of the words is to show that there would be a plentiful effusion of that Spirit who acted by these various ways and means under the Old Testament. Only, as to some particular directions, God sometimes continued his intimations by visions in the night. Paul had such a vision in Acts 16.9.[271] But this was more frequent of old. Thus God made a signal revelation to Abraham when the "deep sleep fell upon him, and horror of great darkness," Gen 15.12-16; and Daniel "heard the voice of the words" of the one who spoke to him "when he was in a deep sleep," Dan 10.9. But I do not look at this sleep of theirs as natural, but as that which God sent and cast them into, so that in this sleep he might represent the image of things to their imaginations. So of old, God caused a "deep sleep to fall upon Adam," Gen 2.21. The Jews distinguish between dreams, and those visions had in sleep, as distinctly considered; but I throw them together under one head: revelation in sleep. This way of revelation was so common, that someone who pretended to prophesy would cry out, "I have dreamed, I have dreamed," Jer 23.25. And by the devil's imitation of God's dealing with his church, this became a way of vaticination [272] among the heathen also: Hom. i. 63 — "A dream is from Jupiter." And when the reprobate Jews were deserted as to all divine revelations, they pretended to have a unique skill in interpreting dreams. They became sufficiently infamous on account of their deceit.

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3. God revealed himself in and by visions or representations of things to the inward or outward senses of the prophets. This way was so frequent that, for a time, the name vision applied to all prophetic revelations — for as we observed before, a prophet of old was called a "seer," and that was because, in receiving their prophecies, they saw visions also. So Isaiah terms his whole glorious prophecy, "The vision which he saw," Isa 1.1 This was partly from the special representations of things that were made to him, Isa 6.1-4;[273] and partly, it may be, from the evidence of the things revealed to him, which were as clear to his mind as if he had had an ocular inspection of them. So, from the matter contained in them, prophecies began to be commonly called "The burden of the Lord;" for he burdened their consciences with his word, and their persons with its execution. But when false prophets began to make frequent use of it, and to serve themselves by this expression, it was forbidden, Jer 23.33, 36.[274] Yet we find that this is mentioned about the same time, in Hab 1.1; and also after their return from captivity, Zec 9.1, Mal 1.1.[275] Therefore, either this respected the only time in which false prophets abounded (whom God would thus deprive of their pretense); or indeed, by contempt and scorn, the people used that expression, "the burden of the Lord," which was familiar to the prophets in their denunciation of God's judgments against them (which God rebukes them for here, and threatens to revenge). But none of the prophets had all their revelations by visions; nor does it concern the communication of the gift of prophecy, but rather its exercise. And their visions are particularly recorded. Such were those in Isa 6; Jer 1.11-16; Eze 1; and the like.

Now, these visions were of two sorts: —

1. Outward representations of things to the bodily eyes of the prophets;

2. Inward representations to their minds.

1. There were sometimes appearances of persons or things made to their outward senses; and in this, God made use of the ministry of angels. Thus three men appeared to Abraham, Gen 18.1-2, one of which was the Son of God himself (the other two were ministering angels, as was proved elsewhere). So was the burning bush that Moses saw, Exo 3.2; the appearances on Mount Sinai at the giving of the law, Exo 19,[276] that were unlike any living thing;

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the man that Joshua saw at the siege of Jericho, Jos 5.13-14; the seething-pot and almond-rod seen by Jeremiah, Jer 1.11, 13, and also his baskets of figs, Jer 24.1-3 — many more of the same kind might be instanced. In these cases, God made representations of things to their outward senses.

2. They were sometimes made only to their minds. So it is said expressly that when Peter saw his vision of a sheet that was knit at the four corners, and let down from heaven to earth, he was in a "trance," Acts 10.10. An "ecstasy seized him," by which he was deprived of the use of his bodily senses for a time. I assign Daniel's and the apocalyptic visions to this sort — especially all those in which a representation was made of God himself and his glorious throne; such as that of Micaiah, 1Kng 22.19-22; Isa 6; and Eze 1. It is evident that in all of these, there was no use of the bodily senses of the prophets; only their minds were affected with the ideas and representation of things. But this was so effectual that they did not understand that they also made use of their visual faculty. Hence Peter, when he was actually delivered out of prison, thought for a good while that he had only "seen a vision," Acts 12.9; for he knew how powerfully the mind was usually affected by them.

Now, these visions of both sorts were granted to the prophets to confirm their minds in the apprehension of the things communicated to them for the instruction of others. For they were deeply affected by them, which a clear idea and representation of things effectively tends to do. Yet two things were required to render these visions direct and complete parts of divine revelation:

1. The minds of the prophets were acted, guided, and raised in a due manner by the Holy Spirit, for receiving them. This gave them their assurance that their visions were from God.

2. He enabled them to faithfully retain and infallibly declare what was represented to them. For instance, Ezekiel receives a vision by a representation to his mind of a glorious fabric of a temple, to instruct the church in the spiritual glory and beauty of the gospel-worship which was to be introduced, chaps. 41-46. It seems utterly impossible for the mind of man to conceive and retain at once all the harmonious structure, dimensions, and laws of the fabric represented. This was the particular work of the Holy Ghost — namely, to implant and preserve the idea presented to Ezekiel on his mind, and to enable him to accurately and infallibly declare it. So David affirms that the Spirit of God made him understand the pattern of the temple built by Solomon, "in writing, by His hand upon him."

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(2.) There were some incidental adjuncts of prophecy which at some times accompanied it:

First, in the revelation of the will of God to the prophets, symbolic actions were sometimes enjoined. So Isaiah was commanded to "walk naked and barefoot," Isa 20.1-3; Jeremiah, to obtain a "linen sash," Jer 13.1-5; Ezekiel, to "lie in siege," Eze 4.1-3, and to remove the "stuff of his house," Eze 12.3-4; and Hosea was enjoined to take "a wife of harlotry, and children of harlotry," Hos 1.2. I will be brief in what is frequently spoken to. Some of these things, such as Isaiah's going naked, and Hosea's taking a wife of harlotry, contain things in them that are against the light of nature and the express law of God, and an evil example to others. None of these, therefore, can be granted to have been actually done; it was only that these things were represented to them in visions, to make a deeper impression on them. And what they saw or did in a vision, they speak of positively in seeing or doing these: see Ezekiel chap. 8. For the other instances, I know nothing except that the things reported might be really performed, and not only in the vision. It is plain that Ezekiel was commanded to do the things he did in the sight of the people, for their more evident conviction, Eze 12.4-6; and upon seeing it, they asked what those things meant to them, Eze 24.19.[277]

Secondly, their revelations were accompanied with local movements, or rather being carried and transported from one place to another. So it was with Eze 8.3, 11.24.[278] And it is expressly said that it was "in the visions of God." Falling into a trance or ecstasy by divine dispensation was effected only by a divine and efficacious representation of these things to them, done in places in which they were not really present — in which their outward senses were suspended in their operation, and their minds and understandings were (in their own apprehension) carried in a holy rapture from one place to another.

These are some of those incidentals of prophetic revelations which are recorded in the Scripture; and it is possible that some other instances of like nature may be observed. All of these belong to the manifold variety of divine revelations alluded to in Heb 1.1.[279]

But here a doubt of no small difficulty (nor of less importance) presents itself to us — namely, whether the Holy Ghost ever granted holy inspirations, and thereby the gift of prophecy, to wicked and unsanctified men.[280] For the apostle Peter tells us that "holy men spoke of old as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," 2Pet 1.21. This seems to intimate that all those who were inspired and moved by him, as to this gift of prophecy, were holy men of God.[281]

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And yet, on the other hand, we will find that true prophecies have been given out by men who seem to be utterly void of all sanctifying grace. And to increase the difficulty, it is certain that great predictions, and those with respect to Christ himself, have been given and made by men who were guided and moved for the most part by the devil. So was it with Balaam, who was a sorcerer; he gave himself to diabolical enchantments and divinations; and as such, he was destroyed by God's appointment.Num 31 8 Indeed, at or about the same time in which he uttered a most glorious prophecy concerning the Messiah (the Star of Jacob), and being left to his own spirit and inclination, he gave cursed advice and counsel for drawing the people of God into destructive and judgment-procuring sins, Num 31.16. In the whole of his enterprise, Balaam thought to satisfy his covetousness with a reward for cursing them by his enchantments. And yet this man not only professes about himself that he "heard the words of God," and "saw the vision of the Almighty," Num 24.4, but he actually foretold and prophesied glorious things concerning Christ and his kingdom.

Should we then think that the Holy Spirit of God will mix his own holy inspirations with the wicked suggestions of the devil in a soothsayer? Or should we suppose that the devil was the author of those predictions — when in fact God reproaches false gods, and their prophets, so they cannot declare the things that will happen, nor show the things to come afterward? Isa 41.22-23.[282] So it is also said of Saul that "the Spirit of the Lord departed from him, and an evil spirit terrified him," 1Sam 16.14; and yet, afterward, the "Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied," 1Sam 19.23. The old prophet at Bethel lied to the prophet that came from Judah, and he did that in the name of the Lord, seducing the Judean prophet to sin and destruction. He was probably defiled with the idolatry and false worship of Jeroboam; and yet he was esteemed a prophet, and foretold what actually came to pass, 1Kng 13.11-29. Various things may be offered as a solution to this difficulty; for —

1. As to that passage from the apostle Peter (2Pet 1.21),

(1.) It may not be taken universally that all who prophesied at any time were personally holy, but only that they were holy for the most part.

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(2.) He seems to speak particularly only of those who were penmen of the Scripture, and of those prophecies which remain in it for the instruction of the church. Concerning them, I in no way doubt that they were all sanctified and holy.

(3.) It may be that Peter does not mean real inherent holiness, but only a separation and dedication to God by special office; and this is something of another nature.

2. The gift of prophecy is not granted to be a sanctifying grace in itself and its own nature; nor is the inspiration by which the prophecy is worked a sanctifying grace. For the gift consists in affecting the mind with a transient irradiation of light in hidden things; and thus, of itself, it did not nor could it produce faith, love, or holiness in the heart. Another work of the Holy Ghost was necessary for this.

3. There is therefore no inconsistency in God granting an immediate inspiration to some who were not really sanctified. Yet I would not grant this was actually done without a just limitation; for some were established to be prophets to the church in the whole course of their lives, after their first call from God — such as Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, and the rest of the prophets mentioned in the Scripture. In the same way, I have no doubt that all of them were really sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God. But there were others who had only some occasional revelations made to them about hidden or future things; or who for a short time fell into some ecstasies or raptures, with a supernatural agitation of their minds (as it is twice said of Saul). And I see no reason why we may not grant — indeed, from Scripture testimonies we must grant — that many such persons may be so moved by the Holy Spirit of God.[283] So it was with wicked Caiaphas who is said to "prophesy," John 11.51 [284] — and it was indeed a great prophecy which his words expressed — there is none greater in the Scripture. But the wretch himself knew nothing of the importance of what he uttered. A sudden impression of the Spirit of God caused him, against his intention, to utter a sacred truth. And that was because he was high priest, and his words had great reputation with the people.[285] Just as Balaam was overruled so as to prophesy and speak good of Israel, when he really intended and desired to curse them, so Caiaphas, intending the destruction of Jesus Christ, produced those words which expressed the salvation of the world by Christ's death.

4. For the difficulty about Balaam himself, who was a sorcerer and the devil's prophet, I acknowledge it is of importance. But various things may be offered to remove it. Some contend that Balaam was a prophet of God only.

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They say that indeed he may have given himself to judicial astrology, and to conjecture about future events from natural causes — but as to his prophecies, they were all divine. Any light given about such things, affected only the speculative part of his mind, and had no influence on his will, heart, and affections, which were still corrupt. Tostatus pleads for this.[286] But because it is expressly said that Balaam "sought enchantments," Num 24.1, the whole description of his course and end reveals him to be a cursed sorcerer: and he is expressly called "the soothsayer," Josh 13.22. This word is rendered once as "prudent" — that is, one who prudently conjectures about future events according to present apparent causes, Isa 3.2 — yet it is mostly used for a diabolical diviner or soothsayer. [287] And for what he said about himself, that he "heard the words of God," and "saw the vision of the Almighty," it might be only his own boasting to procure veneration for his diabolical incantations. But we find, by reputation, that he did live in the world in those days, and he was supposed to utter divine oracles to men. God in his providence made use of this, to give a testimony to the nations concerning the coming of the Messiah, the report of which was then almost lost among 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, overruled the power of the devil, tossed out his suggestions from the man's mind, and gave Balaam such an impression of sacred truths in their place, that he could not help but utter and declare them. For that instant, the Spirit took the instrument out of the hand of Satan, as it were, and by putting his impression on it, caused it to give a sound according to His own mind. When he had finished with the instrument, he again left it to Satan's possession.

I do not know but that the Spirit might sometimes do the same with others among the Gentiles who were professedly given up to receive and give out the oracles of the devil. So the Spirit made the young woman possessed with a spirit of divination and soothsaying, acknowledge that Paul and his companions were "servants of the most high God" to "show men the way of salvation," Acts 16.16-17. And this must be acknowledged by those who suppose that the sibyls[288] gave out predictions concerning Jesus Christ, and see the whole strain of their prophetic oracles as expressly diabolical. No conspiracy of men or devils will cause the Spirit to forego his sovereignty over such prophets, and using them to his own glory.

5. The case of Saul is plain.1Sam 16.14 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 for that purpose, which he withdrew from Saul. And the evil spirit that was upon Saul proceeded no further than stirring up vexatious and disquieting affections of mind.

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Notwithstanding this molestation and punishment inflicted on Saul, the Spirit of God might for a time fall upon him, so as to throw him into a rapture or ecstasy, in which Saul's mind was moved and exercised in an extraordinary manner. And he was transported into actions that were not at all according to his own inclinations. This case is well resolved by Augustine.[289] As for the old prophet at Bethel, 1Kng 13.11-32, although he appears to have been an evil man, he was one whom God sometimes made use of to reveal His mind to that people. Nor is it probable that he was under satanic delusions like the prophets of Baal; for he is called a prophet absolutely, and the word of the Lord really did come to him, v. 20-22.

2. THE WRITING OF SCRIPTURE

The writing of the Scripture was another extraordinary effect of the Holy Ghost, which had its beginning under the Old Testament. I reckon this was a gift distinct from prophecy in general, or rather, a distinct species or kind of prophecy. For there were many prophets who were divinely inspired, who yet never wrote down any of their prophecies, nor anything else for the use of the church; and many penmen of the Scripture were not prophets in the strict sense of that name. And the apostle tells us that the scripture or writing itself, was by "inspiration of God," 2Tim 3.16 — just as David affirms that he had the pattern of the temple from the Spirit of God in writing, because the Spirit guided him in putting its description into writing, 1Chr 28.19.[290] Now, this ministry was first committed to Moses; besides the five books of the Law, he probably also wrote the story of Job. There were many prophets before him, but he was the first who committed the will of God to writing, following God himself who wrote the law on tablets of stone; this 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 "the first" or "former prophets." Who they were in particular is not known; but it is certain that they were of the number of those holy men of God who, of old, wrote and spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.2Pet 1.21

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Hence they are called "prophets." For although they wrote, as Moses did, in a historical way, concerning things that were past and gone in their days (or maybe that were presently happening in their own times), they did not write them either from their own memory or from tradition. Nor did they write them from the rolls or records of their time (though they might be furnished with them and were skilled in these things). Rather they wrote them by the inspiration, guidance, and direction of the Holy Ghost. Hence they are called "prophets," with such a latitude as the word permits, to signify any who are divinely inspired or receive immediate revelations from God. And it was this way with all the penmen of the holy Scripture. Just as their minds were under that full assurance of divine inspiration which we described before, so the words which they wrote were under the special care of the same Spirit; and they were of his suggestion or inditing.

There were thus three things concurring in this work:

First, The inspiration of the minds of these prophets with the knowledge and apprehension of the things communicated to them.

Secondly, The suggestion of words to them to express what their minds conceived.

Thirdly, The guidance of their hands in setting down the words suggested, or of their tongues in uttering them to those by whom they were committed to writing, just as Baruch wrote the prophecy of Jeremiah from his mouth, Jer 36.4, 18.[291]

If any of these were lacking, the Scripture could not be absolutely and in every way divine and infallible. For if its penmen were left to themselves in anything in which that writing was concerned, who can assure us that nihil humani, no human imperfection, mixed itself with it? I know some think that only the matter and substance of things was communicated to them, but the words by which it was expressed, was left to them and their own abilities. And this they suppose is evident from that variety of style which, according to their various capacities, education, and abilities, is found among them. "This argues," they say, "that the wording of their revelations was left to themselves, and it was the product of their natural abilities." I have spoken to this in general elsewhere, and manifested what mistakes various persons have run into about the style of the holy penmen of the Scripture. I will not take up here what has been argued and evinced in another place.[292] I will only say that the variety intended arises mostly from the variety of the subject-matters addressed; nor is it such that it will countenance the profaneness of this opinion. For the Holy Ghost in his work on the minds of men does not force them, or move them in any way contrary to their own natures, with their present endowments and qualifications, as fit to be acted upon and used. He leads and conducts them in those paths which they are able to walk.

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The words which he therefore suggests to them, are those they are accustomed to; and he causes them to use expressions that were familiar to them. Someone who uses various seals makes different impressions with them, even though they are all guided equally and the same; someone who skillfully touches several musical instruments, variously tuned, will make differing notes of music. We may also grant, and do grant, that they used their own abilities of mind and understanding in the choice of words and expressions: so the Preacher "sought to find acceptable words," Ecc 12.10. But the Holy Spirit, who is more intimate with the minds and skill of men than they are themselves, so guided, acted, and operated in them, that the words they fixed upon were as directly and certainly from him as if they had been spoken to the writers by an audible voice. Hence "what was written was upright, even words of truth," as in Ecc 12.10. This must be so, or they could not speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, nor could their writing be said to be of divine inspiration. Hence often in the original, great senses and meanings depend on a single letter; as for instance, in the change of the name of Abraham.[293] And our Savior affirms that every apex and iota of the law is under the care of God, given by inspiration from him, Mat 5.18.[294] But I have addressed these things on other occasions, and I will not, therefore, enlarge upon them here.[295]

3. MIRACLES

The third sort of immediate[296] extraordinary operations of the Holy Ghost, which absolutely exceed the actings and compliance of human faculties, are miracles of all sorts; these were frequent under the Old Testament. Many of the things worked by Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, with some others, were miracles. Those done by Moses — if the Jews are correct — exceeded 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 we understand "miracles" to mean such effects that are really beyond and above the power of natural causes, however applied to their operation. Now, it is expressly said that our Lord Jesus Christ worked miracles by the Holy Ghost (for instance, casting out devils from possessed persons).[297] And if they were immediately produced by the human nature of Jesus Christ, personally united to the Son of God, then how much more it must be granted that it was the Spirit alone by whose power they were worked in those who had no such relation to the divine nature! And, therefore, where they are said to be worked by the "hand" or "finger of God," it is the person of the Holy Spirit which is precisely intended, as we have declared before.

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The persons by whom they were worked were never the real subjects of the power by which they were worked, as if that power were inherent and residing in them as a quality, Acts 3.12, 16.[298] It was only that they were infallibly directed by the Holy Ghost, by word or action, to pre-signify their operation. So it was with Joshua when he commanded the sun and moon to stand still.[299] There was no power in Joshua, not even extraordinarily communicated to him, to have such a real influence on the whole frame of his nature that it would effect so great an alteration in it. It was only that he had a divine warranty to speak what God himself would effect; from which it is said that in this "the Lord listened to the voice of a man," Jos 10.14.[300] It is a vanity of the greatest magnitude in some of the Jews, such as Maimonides, ("More Nebuch.," page 2, cap. 35), Levi B. Gerson, and others on that passage, who deny that the sun and moon were fixed, and judge that it was only the speed of Joshua in subduing his enemies before the close of that day, which is intended there. They contend for this, lest Joshua be thought to have worked a greater miracle than Moses! But the prophet Habakkuk expressly says the contrary, Hab 3.11,[301] and their own Sirachides,[302] chaps. 45, 46. So it is no small prevarication in some Christians to give countenance to such a putid [303] fiction (See Grot. in loc). This is true in all other miraculous operations, even where parts of the bodies of men were made instrumental to the miracle itself, as in the gift of tongues. Those who had that gift did not speak from any skill or ability residing in themselves, but were merely organs of the Holy Ghost, those whom He moved at his pleasure. Now, the end of all these miraculous operations was to give esteem to those persons, and to confirm the ministry of those by whom the miracles were worked. For though at first they were the occasion for wonder and astonishment, yet upon consideration, these miracles evidenced the respect and regard of God toward such persons and their work. Thus when God sent Moses to declare his will in an extraordinary manner to the people of Israel, He commands him to work several miracles or signs before them, so they might believe he was sent by God, Exo 4.8-9. Such works were called signs, because they were tokens and pledges of the presence of the Spirit of God with those by whom they were worked. Nor was this gift ever bestowed on any man for its own sake; it was always subordinate to the work of revealing or declaring the mind of God.[304]

These are the general heads of the extraordinary operations of the Holy Spirit of God in works that exceed all human or natural abilities, in their whole kind.

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II. ORDINARY WORKS OF THE SPIRIT.

The next sort of operations of the Holy Ghost under the Old Testament (those which I intended to explain), were those by which He improved, through immediate impressions of his own power, the natural faculties and abilities of the minds of men. And these, as intimated, respected things that were political, moral, natural, and intellectual, with some of a mixed nature:

1. IN RESPECT TO POLITICAL THINGS.

Such were his gifts by which he enabled various persons for rule and for civil government among men. Government, or supreme rule, is of great concern to the glory of God in the world, and it is of the highest usefulness to mankind. Without it, the whole world would be filled with violence, and become a stage for all wickedness to visibly and openly act itself out into disorder and chaos. All men confess that to duly manage this to its proper ends, various and specific gifts and abilities of mind are required and needful for those who are called to rule. They are to endeavor after these things themselves, and to sedulously[305] improve the measure which they have attained of them — where this is neglected by any, the world and they themselves will quickly feed on the fruits of that negligence. Yet, the utmost of what men may obtain of this kind of ability by their ordinary endeavors, and by an ordinary blessing upon it, is not sufficient for some special ends which God aimed at, in and by their rule and government. So the Holy Ghost often gave a special improvement to their abilities of mind, by his own immediate and extraordinary operation. And in some cases, he manifested the effects of his power by some external, visible signs of his coming upon those in whom he so worked. It was so in the first institution of the Sanhedrin, or court of seventy elders, which would 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 it is said that "the Spirit rested on them:" Num 11.16-17. "And the Lord said to Moses, Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them. And I will take of the Spirit which is upon you, and I will put it upon them; and they will bear the burden of the people with you." Verse 25, "And the Lord took of the Spirit that was upon Moses, and gave it to the seventy elders, and the Spirit rested upon them." What these elders were called to, was a share in the supreme role and government of the people, which was previously in the hand of Moses alone. The occasion of their calling declares this, verses 11-15. And those who influenced the people by their counsel and arbitration were previously "inferior officers" in Egypt, Exo 3.16; 5.6; 24.1, 9. Now they had a supreme power in judgment committed to them, and were therefore called elohiym, or "gods."[306]

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For these were those "to whom the word of God came," who were thereby called gods, John 10.34-36, Psa 82.6,[307] and not the prophets, who had neither power nor rule. The Spirit of God that was in Moses rested on them; that is, the Spirit worked the same abilities for government in them that Moses had received — wisdom, righteousness, diligence, courage, and the like — so that they might judge the people wisely, and look to execute the law impartially. Now when the Spirit of God rested on them, it is said "They prophesied, and did not cease," Num 11.25-26; that is, they sang or spoke the praises of God in such a way and manner, that it was evident to all that they were extraordinarily moved by the Holy Ghost. That word "prophesied" is used this way in 1Sam 10.10 and elsewhere. But this gift and work of prophecy was not the special end for which they were endowed by the Spirit. For they were now called to rule and to government, as was declared. But because their authority and rule was new among the people, God gave that visible sign and pledge of calling them to their office, so they might be duly venerated, and acquiesced to in their authority. That word yacaph, "did not cease" (Num 11.25), is ambiguous; it may signify to "add" as well as to "cease." And from this, many of the Jews assert that they prophesied no more, except that day only: "They prophesied then, and added not," — that is, to do so anymore.

So when God erected a kingdom among them, which was a new kind of government to them, and designed Saul to be the person who would reign, it is said that he "gave Saul another heart," 1Sam 10.9 — that is, "the Spirit of God came upon him," as it is expressed elsewhere, to endow him with that wisdom and magnanimity that might make him fit for kingly rule. And because he was newly called from a low condition to royal dignity, the communication to him of the Spirit of God, was accompanied with a visible sign and token, so that those people who were ready to despise him, might acquiesce in his government; for he also had an extraordinary inspiration of the Spirit, expressing itself in a "visible rapture," verses 10-11. God dealt with others in the same manner. For this reason also, he instituted the ceremony of anointing them at their inauguration; for it was a token of the communication of the gifts of the Holy Ghost to them — though this was with respect to Jesus Christ, who was to be anointed with all the fullness of the Spirit, of whom these men were types to that people. Now, these gifts for government are natural and moral abilities of the minds of men, such as prudence, righteousness, courage, zeal, clemency, and the like. And when the Holy Ghost fell upon anyone, to enable them for political rule and the administration of civil power, he did not communicate gifts and abilities to them of quite another kind, but he only gave them an extraordinary improvement of their own ordinary abilities.

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And indeed, so great is the burden with which 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 special assistance of the Holy Spirit of God, men have no choice but either to sink under the weight of it, or wretchedly miscarry in its exercise and management. This made Solomon, in the beginning of his reign, when God gave him his option of any earthly desirable thing, prefer wisdom and knowledge for ruling, above them all, 2Chron 1.7-12. He received this from the one who is the "Spirit of wisdom and understanding," Isa 11.2. If the rulers of the earth would follow this example, and be earnest with God for those supplies of his Spirit which might enable them for a 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 the state of things are such as described in Hos 7.3-5.[308]

Now God, of old, carried this dispensation out of the pale of the church, to effect some special ends of his own; and I in no way question that he still continues to do so. Thus he anointed Cyrus, and accordingly calls him his "anointed", Isa 45.1; for Cyrus had a double work to do for God, in both parts of which he stood in need of God's special assistance. He was to execute God's judgments and vengeance on Babylon, and also deliver God's people, so that they might rebuild the temple. For both these, he stood in need of and he received special aid from the Spirit of God, even though he was in himself but a "ravenous bird" of prey, Isa 46.11 — for the gifts of this Holy One, in this kind, worked no real holiness in those on whom they were bestowed. They were only given to them for the good and benefit of others, with their own success in what they attempted to that purpose. Yes, and many on whom these gifts are bestowed never consider the author of them, but sacrifice to their own nets and drags,[309] and look at themselves as the springs of their own wisdom and ability. But it is no wonder that all regard for the gifts of the Holy Ghost in the government of the world is despised, when his whole work in and towards the church itself is openly derided.

2. IN RESPECT TO MORAL VIRTUES.

We may add to this those special endowments, with some moral virtues, which the Spirit granted to various persons to accomplish some special design. So he came upon Gideon and upon Jephthah, to anoint them for the work of delivering the people from their adversaries in battle, Jdg 6.34, 11.29. It was said of them both, beforehand, that they were "men of valor," Jdg 6.12, 11.1. Therefore, the Spirit of God coming upon them, and clothing them, was his special excitation of their existing courage, and his fortifying their minds against those dangers they were to encounter.

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He did this by such an efficacious impression of his power upon them, that both of them received a confirmation of their call by it, so that others might discern the presence of God with them. Hence it is said that the "Spirit of the Lord clothed them;" [310] By the Spirit's gifts to them, and acting in them, they were impassioned in themselves, and they were known to others.

3. IN RESPECT TO NATURAL ABILITIES.

There are various instances of his adding to the gifts of the mind by which he qualified persons for their duties, even bodily strength, when that also was needed for the work to which he called them. Such was his gift to Samson. His bodily strength was supernatural, a mere effect of the power of the Spirit of God; and therefore, when he exercised it in his calling, it is said that "the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him," Judges 14.6, 15.14, or it worked powerfully in him. And the Spirit gave him this strength in the way of an ordinance, appointing the growing of his hair as the sign and pledge of it — the care of it being violated by Samson, he lost for a time the gift itself.

4. IN RESPECT TO THE INTELLECT.

He also communicated intellectual gifts, to be exercised in and about things that are natural and artful. So he endowed Bezalel and Aholiab with wisdom and skill in all manner of elaborate workmanship, about all sorts of things, for building and beautifying the tabernacle, Exo 31.2-3. Whether Bezalel was a man who had previously given himself to the acquisition of those arts and sciences is altogether uncertain; but it is certain that his present endowments were extraordinary. The Spirit of God heightened, and improved, and strengthened the natural faculties of his mind to perceive and understand all the elaborate works mentioned in that place, and the skill to contrive and dispose of them into the order designed by God himself. And therefore, although the skill and wisdom mentioned did not differ in kind from what others attained by industry, he received it by an immediate afflatus or inspiration of the Holy Ghost, as to that degree, at least, which he was made a partaker of.

Lastly, The Spirit gave assistance to holy men for publishing and preaching the word of God to others — such as Noah, "a preacher of righteousness," 2Pet 2.5. This was to convict the world and convert the elect, in which the Spirit of God strove with men, Gen 6.3, and preached to those who were disobedient, 1Pet 3.19-20.[311] While this might be considered here, the explanation of his whole work in that particular aspect will be given in a more appropriate place.

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Thus I have briefly passed through the dispensation of the Spirit of God under the Old Testament. Nor have I aimed in this to gather up his whole work and all his actings, for then everything that is praiseworthy in the church must be inquired into; for all without Him is death, and darkness, and sin. All life, light, and power are from Him alone. And those instances of things expressly assigned to 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 operations. This will be still more evident when we also consider those other effects and operations of his which, being common to both states of the church (under the Old Testament and New), are purposely omitted here. This is because their nature is more fully clarified in the gospel, where their examples are also more illustrious.

From the Spirit, therefore, was the word of promise and the gift of prophecy, on which the church was founded and by which it was built; from him was the revelation and institution of all the ordinances of religious worship; 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 worked by "that one and the self-same Spirit, who distributes to every man severally as he will." 1Cor 12.11 If this was the state of things under the Old Testament, then a judgment may be made from this, as to how it is under the New. The principal advantage of the present state, above that which is past (next to Christ coming in the flesh), consists in the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon the disciples of Christ in a larger manner than formerly. And yet I do not know how it has come to pass that some men think that neither the Spirit nor his work is of any great use to us. We find everything that is good, even under the Old Testament, was assigned to him as the sole and immediate author of it. And yet it is hard to persuade many that he now continues to do almost any good at all; and what he is admitted to have any hand in, is sure to be so stated that the principal praise of it may redound to ourselves. This is how diverse — indeed, how adverse —the thoughts of God and men are in these things, when our thoughts are not captivated to the obedience of faith! [312]

But we must close 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 finishing it. Their meaning must be that it ceased as to the gifts of ministerial prophecy, 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 afterward, special revelations of the Holy Ghost were granted to many, such as Simeon and Anna, Luke 2.25-38. And others constantly receive his gifts and graces, to enable them to obedience, and to fit them for their employments — for without a continuance of these supplies, the church itself must absolutely cease.

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Chapter II.

General dispensation of the Holy Spirit with respect to the new creation.

The work of the Spirit of God in the new creation is proposed for consideration — The importance of this doctrine — The plentiful effusion of the Spirit is the great promise respecting the times of the New Testament — Ministry of the gospel founded on the promise of the Spirit — How this promise is made to all believers — Injunction to all to pray for the Spirit of God — The solemn promise of Christ to send his Spirit when he left the world — The ends for which he promised him — The work of the new creation is the principal means of the revelation of God and his glory — How this revelation is particularly made in this.

We have now arrived at that part of our work which was principally intended in the whole; and that is because our faith and obedience are principally concerned in 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 anything in the Scripture, is worthy of our most diligent inquiry and meditation; nor is there any more important principle and topic of that religion which we profess. The doctrine of the being and unity of the divine nature is common to us and the rest of mankind, and it has been from the foundation of the world, no matter how, "like brute beasts," some have "corrupted themselves" in this.Jud 1.10 The doctrine of the Trinity, or the subsistence of three persons in the one divine nature or being, was known to all who enjoyed divine revelation, even under the Old Testament — though it is manifested to us with more light and convincing evidence. The incarnation of the Son of God was promised and expected from the first entrance of sin; and it received its actual accomplishment in the fullness of time, during the continuance of the Mosaic pedagogy.[313] But this dispensation of the Holy Ghost, which we now proceed to treat, is so unique to the New Testament, that speaking of it, the evangelist says, "The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified," John 7.39; and those who were instructed in the doctrine of John the Baptist only, did not know "whether there was any Holy Ghost," Acts 19.2. Both of these statements concern His dispensation under the New Testament; for they were not ignorant of his eternal being and existence, nor did he then first begin to exist, as we fully manifested in our foregoing discourses. Therefore, to stir us up to diligence in this inquiry, I will add to what was laid down in general before, some considerations that evidence the greatness and necessity of this duty. And then I will proceed to the matter itself that we have proposed to handle and explain:

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1. The plentiful effusion of the Spirit is what was principally prophesied and foretold as the great privilege and pre-eminence of the gospel church-state; this was the good wine which was kept until the last.Joh 2.10 All the prophets bear witness to this: see Isa 35.6, 44.3; Joel 2.28; Eze 11.19, 36.27, along with countless other places.[314] The great promise of the Old Testament concerned the coming of Christ in the flesh. But he was to come so as to put an end to that whole church-state into which his coming was expected. It was the principal design of the apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews to prove this. But this promise of the Spirit, whose accomplishment was reserved for the times of the gospel, was to be the foundation of another church-state, and the means of its continuance. If therefore we have any interest in the gospel itself, or any desire to have an interest; if we have either part or lot in this matter, or a desire to be made partakers of the benefits which attend it — which are no less than our acceptance by God here, and our salvation hereafter — then it is our duty to search the Scriptures, and inquire diligently into these things. Let no man deceive us with vain words, as though the things spoken concerning the Spirit of God and his work towards those who believe, were somehow fanatical and unintelligible by rational men. For because of this contempt for the Spirit, the wrath of God will come on the children of disobedience.[315] Even if the "world in wisdom" and their reason "do not know him," 1Cor 1.21 and cannot "receive him," yet those who believe do know him; for "he dwells with them, and will be in them," John 14.17. And the present practice of the world, in despising and slighting the Spirit of God and his work, gives light and evidence into those words of our Savior, that "the world cannot receive him;" and it cannot do so, because it "neither sees him nor knows him," or has no experience of his work in them, or of his power and grace. Accordingly, that has come to pass. Therefore, not to avow the Spirit of God in his work, is to be ashamed of the gospel and of the promise of Christ, as if it were a thing not to be owned in the world.

2. The ministry of the gospel — by which we are born again to be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures to God — is from the Spirit's promised presence with the Gospel, and his work in the Gospel. This is called "the ministry of the Spirit," even "the Spirit who gives life." 2Cor 3.6, 8 And it is a "ministry of the gospel" as opposed to the "ministration of the law," in which there was still a multitude of ordinances of worship and glorious ceremonies. Someone who knows no more of the ministry of the gospel than what consists in attending to the letter of institutions, and the manner of their performance, knows nothing about it.

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Nor do we intend or attend to any extraordinary inspiration, as we are slanderously reported to do, and as some assert that we pretend to. But, the Spirit of God is present with the ministry of the gospel — in his authority, assistance, communication of gifts and abilities, guidance, and direction — without which it would be useless and unprofitable to all who would take this work upon themselves. This will be more fully declared afterward; for —

3. The promise and gift of the Spirit under the gospel is not made or granted to any particular sort of persons only, but to all believers, as their conditions and occasions require. The promise and gift are not therefore the special interest of a few, but the common concern of all Christians. The Papists grant that this promise of the Spirit is continued; but they would confine it to their pope or their councils, things that are nowhere mentioned in the Scripture, nor are they the object of any gospel promise whatsoever. It is all believers in their places and stations, churches in their order, and ministers in their office, to whom the promise of the Spirit is made, and towards whom it is accomplished, as will be shown. Others, also, grant the continuance of this gift; but they understand no more by it than an ordinary blessing upon men's rational endeavors, common and exposed to all alike. This no less than overthrows his whole work, takes his sovereignty out of his hand, and deprives the church of all its special interest in the promise of Christ concerning the Spirit. In this inquiry, therefore, we look after what at present belongs to ourselves, if we are disciples of Christ, and expect the fulfilling of his promises. For whatever men may pretend to this day,

Rom 8.9 "if they do not have the Spirit of Christ, they are none of his."

For our Lord Jesus Christ has promised the Spirit as a comforter, to abide with his disciples forever, John 14.16; and it is by him that the Spirit is present with them and among them to the end of the world, Mat 28.20, 18.20. We do not yet speak of his sanctifying work, by which we are enabled to believe, and are made partakers of that holiness without which no man will see God. This is why, without him, all religion is but a body without a soul, a carcass without an animating spirit. It is true that in the continuation of his work, the Spirit ceases from producing those extraordinary effects of his power which were necessary for laying the foundation of the church in the world. But the whole work of his grace, according to the promise of the covenant, is no less truly and really carried on today, in and towards all the elect of God, than it was on the day of Pentecost and onward — and so his communication of gifts is still needed for the edification of the church, Eph 4.11-13. Therefore, owning and avowing the work of the Holy Ghost in the hearts and on the minds of men, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, is the principal part of that profession which all believers are called to at this day.

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4. We are taught in a special manner to pray that God would give his Holy Spirit to us, so that through his aid and assistance we may live to God in that holy obedience which he requires at our hands, Luke 11.9-13.[316] In verses 9 and 10, our Savior enjoins us to be importunate in our supplications; and in verses 11 and 12 he gives us encouragement that we will succeed in our requests; in verse 13 he makes the Holy Spirit the subject-matter of these requests: "Your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him" — which are the "good things" mentioned in the other evangelist, Mat 7.11.[317] This is because the Spirit is the author of them all, in us and to us; nor does God bestow any good thing on us except by his Spirit. Hence, the promise of bestowing the Spirit is accompanied with a prescription of duty to us, that we should ask for him or pray for him; which is included in every promise where God's sending, giving, or bestowing is mentioned. The Spirit, therefore, is the great subject-matter of all our prayers. And that signal promise of our blessed Savior — to send the Spirit as a comforter, to abide with us forever — is a directory for the prayers of the church in all generations. Nor has any church in the world fallen under such total degeneracy, that in their public offices, there are not testimonies of their ancient faith and practice, in praying for the Spirit to come to them according to this promise of Christ. Therefore, in all of his most solemn prayers for the churches in his day, our apostle makes this his chief petition: that God would give to them, and increase in them, the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, with the Spirit himself, for his various special effects and operations which those churches stood in need of, as in Eph 1.17, 3.16; Col 2.2.[318] This is a full conviction of what importance the consideration of the Spirit of God and his work is to us. We must deal in this matter with that confidence which the truth instructs us to. And therefore, we may say that the one who does not pray constantly and diligently for the Spirit of God — that he may be made a partaker of the Spirit for the ends for which He is promised — is a stranger from Christ and his gospel. We are to attend to this as that on which our eternal happiness depends. 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 as to our own spiritual concerns (through the power of our corruptions and temptations) and so we "do not know what we should pray for as we ought," Rom 8.26; but our heavenly Father knows perfectly what we stand in need of.

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And therefore, whatever our present apprehensions may be concerning ourselves, which are to be examined by the word, our prayers are to be regulated by what God has enjoined us to ask for, and what he has promised to bestow.

5. What was mentioned before may be recalled here again and further improved; indeed, it is necessary that it should be. This is the solemn promise of Jesus Christ when he was about to leave this world by death, John 14.15-17.[319] And because in this promise he made and confirmed his testament, Heb 9.15-17,[320] he bequeathed his Spirit as his great legacy to his disciples. And he gave this to them as the great pledge of their future inheritance, 2Cor 1.22,[321] which they were to live upon in this world. He has indeed bequeathed all other good things to believers, as he says of peace with God in particular: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you," John 14.27. But he gives particular graces and mercies for particular ends and purposes. He bequeaths the Holy Spirit to supply his own absence, John 16.13;[322] 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 legacy left to the church by our dying Savior — or materially — as to the ends and purposes for which he is so bequeathed — and it will then be evident what value we ought to place on him and his work. How some would rejoice if they could possess a relic of anything that belonged to our Savior in the days of his flesh, even though it is of no use or benefit to them! Indeed, how many Christians boast in some pretended parcels of the tree on which he suffered! Love abused by superstition lies at the bottom of this vanity; for such people would embrace anything left them by their dying Savior. But he left them no such things; nor did he ever bless and sanctify them to any holy or sacred ends; and therefore the abuse of these things has been punished with blindness and idolatry.

But this gift of the Spirit is openly testified to in the gospel. When Christ's heart was overflowing with love to his disciples and care for them, he took a holy prospect of what their condition, work, duty, and temptations in the world would be — and on that prospect, he made provision for all they could stand in need of. He promises to give and leave with them his Holy Spirit to abide with them forever, directing us to look to the Spirit for all our comforts and supplies. Therefore our regard for the love, care, and wisdom of our blessed Savior, is to be measured according to our valuation and esteem of the Spirit, according to our satisfaction and acquiescence in him. And indeed, it is only in his word and Spirit in which we can either honor or despise Christ in this world. 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 for these that he tests our faith, love, and obedience.

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It is lamentable to consider the contempt and scorn that, on various pretenses, is cast upon this Holy Spirit, and the work for which he is sent by God the Father and by Jesus Christ — for a contempt of them is also included in this! Nor will a pretense of honoring God in their own way secure those persons who will contract the guilt of this abomination. For whatever does not work effectually [323] in the elect by the Holy Ghost, according to the Scriptures, is an idol — and not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.[324] And if we consider the ends of this promise that the Spirit is to be given to us, then —

6. He is promised and given as the sole cause and author of all the good in this world that we are or can be made partakers of;[325] for,

1). There is no good communicated to us from God, that is not bestowed on us or worked in us by the Holy Ghost. There is no gift, no grace, no mercy, no privilege, no consolation, that we receive, possess, or use, that is not worked in us, conferred on us, or manifested to us, by him alone.

2). Nor is there any good in us towards God, any faith, love, duty, or obedience, that is not effectively worked in us by him, and by him alone; for "in us, that is, in our flesh" (and by nature we are but flesh), "nothing good dwells." Rom 7.18

All these things are from him and by him, as will be made apparent (God assisting) by instances of all sorts in our ensuing discourse. I thought the following considerations were fit to premise our introduction into that work which now lies before us.

(1.) The great work by which God designed to glorify himself ultimately in this world, was the new creation, or the recovery and restoration of all things by Jesus Christ, Heb 1.1-3; Eph 1.10.[326] And because this is generally confessed by all Christians, I have insisted on its demonstration elsewhere.

(2.) What God orders and designs as the principal means of manifesting his glory, must contain the most perfect and absolute revelation and declaration of himself: his nature, his being, his existence, and his excellencies. For from their discovery and manifestation, with the duties which (as known) they require from rational creatures, the glory of God arises, and not otherwise.

(3.) Therefore this revelation was to be done in this great work of the new creation; and it was done accordingly. Hence the Lord Christ, in his work of mediation, is said to be "The image of the invisible God," Col 1.15; "The brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person," Heb 1.3; in whose face the knowledge of the glory of God shines out to us, 2Cor 4.6.[327] — because in and by him, in his work of the new creation, all the glorious properties of the nature of God are manifested and displayed incomparably above what they were in the creation of all things in the beginning.

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I therefore say, in devising, projecting, producing, carrying out, disposing, and accomplishing this great work, God has made the most eminent and glorious revelation of himself to angels and men, Eph 3.8-10, 1Pet 1.10-12 [328] — so that we may know, love, trust, honor, and obey him in all things as God, and according to his will.

(4.) In particular, in this new creation he has revealed himself in a special manner as three in one. There was no more glorious mystery brought to light in and by Jesus Christ than that of the holy Trinity, or the subsistence of the three persons in the unity of the same divine nature. And this was done not so much in express propositions or verbal testimonies to that purpose — for God does not reveal himself to us merely doctrinally and dogmatically — but by the declaration of what he does for us, and in us, and towards us, in the accomplishment of "the counsel of his own will;" see Eph 1.4-12. And yet, this was also expressed by the declaration of the mutual, divine, internal acts of the persons towards one another, and the distinct, immediate, divine, external actings of each person in the work which they did and do perform. And this revelation is made to us, not that our minds might have notions about it, but that we may rightly know how to place our trust in him, and how to obey him and live to him, and how to obtain and exercise communion with him, until we come to enjoy him.

We may apply these things, and exemplify them still further, in the work under consideration. Three things in general are proposed in it for our faith:

1. The supreme purpose, design, contriving, and disposing of it.

2. The purchasing and procuring cause and means of the effects of that design, along with its accomplishment, both in itself and with respect to God.

3. The application of the supreme design and its actual accomplishment, to make it effectual to us.

The first of these is absolutely assigned in Scripture to the Father; and that is done uniformly and everywhere. His will, counsel, love, grace, authority, purpose, and design, are constantly proposed as the foundation of the whole work, as those things which were to be pursued, effected, and accomplished. See Isa 42.1-4; Psa 40.6-8; John 3.16; Isa 53.10-12; Eph 1.4-12, and countless other places. On this account, because the Son undertook to effect whatever the Father had so designed and purposed, there were many acts of the will of the Father towards the Son — in sending, giving, and appointing him; in preparing him a body; in comforting and supporting him; in rewarding and giving a people to him — which belong to the Father, on account of the authority, love, and wisdom that were in them, though their actual operation belonged in particular to another person. And in these things, the person of the Father in the divine being is proposed to us to be known and adored.

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Secondly, The Son condescends, consents, and engages to do and accomplish in his own person the whole work which — in the authority, counsel, and wisdom of the Father — was appointed for him, Phi 2.5-8.[329] And in these divine operations, the person of the Son is revealed to us to be "honored even as we honor the Father."

Thirdly, The Holy Ghost immediately works and effects whatever was to be done in reference to the person of the Son, or the sons of men, for perfecting and accomplishing the Father's counsel and the Son's work, in a special application of both to their special effects and ends. By this, the Son is made known to us; and by this our faith concerning him, and in him, is directed.

And thus, in this great work of the new creation by Jesus Christ, God causes all his glory to pass before us, so that we may both know him, and worship him, in a due manner. And we will now declare the particular work of the Holy Ghost in this.

Chapter III.

Work of the Holy Spirit with respect to the head of the new creation -

the human nature of Christ.

Special works of the Holy Spirit in the new creation — His work on the human nature of Christ — How this work could be, considering the union of the human nature to, and in, the person of the Son of God — Assumption of the human nature into union is the only act of the person of the Son towards it — Personal union is the only necessary consequence of this assumption — All other acts of the person of the Son, in and on the human nature, are voluntary — The Holy Spirit is the immediate efficient cause of all divine operations — -He is the Spirit of the Son or of the Father — How all the works of the Trinity are undivided — The body of Christ was formed in the womb by the Holy Ghost, but it was the substance of the blessed Virgin; why this was necessary — Christ is not thereby the Son of the Holy Ghost according to the human nature — The difference between the assumption of the human nature by the Son, and its creation by the Holy Ghost — The conception of Christ, how it is ascribed to the Holy Ghost, and to the blessed Virgin — Reasons for the espousal of the blessed Virgin to Joseph before the conception of Christ — The actual purity and holiness of the soul and body of Christ from his miraculous conception.

The dispensation and work of the Holy Ghost in this new creation respect,

First, The Head of the church — the Lord Jesus Christ — in his human nature as it was to be, and as it was united to the person of the Son of God.

Secondly, The members of that mystical body, the church, in all that belongs to them as such.

We will consider them under these two heads.

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CHRIST AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH

FIRST, therefore, we are to inquire what the operations of the Holy Ghost are in reference to Jesus Christ, the Head of the church. And these were of two sorts:

I. Those operations of which the person of Christ, in his human nature, was the immediate object.

II. Those the Spirit performs towards others on Christ's behalf; that is, with direct respect to his person and office.

I. RESPECTING THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST

Yet, before we begin with the first sort of the Spirit's works, an objection of seeming weight and difficulty must be removed — though I rather do it because our answer to it will make the whole matter addressed plainer and more familiar to us. It may therefore be (and is) objected that,

"Because the human nature of Christ is assigned as the immediate object of these operations of the Holy Ghost, and that nature was immediately, inseparably, and undividedly united to the person of the Son of God, there does not seem to be any need, nor indeed any place, for such operations of the Spirit. For could not the Son of God himself, in his own person, perform all those things which are requisite to form, support, sanctify, and preserve his own nature without the special assistance of the Holy Ghost? And it is not easy to understand how an immediate work of the Holy Ghost could be interposed between the one nature and the other (divine and human), in the same person."

This seeming difficulty is vehemently pressed by the Socinians, who hope to entangle our whole doctrine of the blessed Trinity and incarnation of the Son of God thereby. But express testimonies of Scripture, with the clear and evident analogy of faith, will carry us easily and safely through this seeming difficulty. To this end we may observe that —

1. The only singular immediate act of the person of the Son on the human nature was the assumption of it into subsistence with himself. The Father and the Spirit had no interest in this nor concurrence, "but by approbation and consent," as Damascen [330] puts it. For the Father did not assume the human nature — he was not incarnate; nor did the Holy Spirit do so; but this was the unique act and work of the Son. See John 1.14; Rom 1.3; Gal 4.4; Phi 2.6, 7; Heb 2.14, 16. I have expounded these passages elsewhere, with many others to the same purpose, and vindicated them from the exceptions of the Socinians.

2. The only necessary consequence of this assumption of the human nature, or the incarnation of the Son of God, is the personal union of Christ, or the inseparable subsistence of the assumed human nature in the person of the Son. This was necessary and indissoluble, so that it was not impeached or shaken in the least by the temporary dissolution of that nature by the separation of the soul and body.

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For the union of the soul and body in Christ did not constitute him a person, such that their dissolution would destroy his personality; rather, he was a person by uniting both soul and body to the Son of God.

3. All other actings of God in the person of the Son towards the human nature were voluntary, and did not necessarily ensue from the union mentioned. For there was no transfusion of the properties of one nature into the other, nor any real physical communication of divine essential excellencies to the humanity. Those who seem to contend for any such thing, resolve it all at last into a true assignation (by way of predication [331]) as necessary on the union mentioned; but they do not contend for a real transfusion of the properties of one nature into the other. Rather, these communications were voluntary. From this come those temporary dispensations when, under his great trial, the human nature complained of its desertion and dereliction by the divine.[332] For this forsaking was not as to personal union, or necessary subsistence and support, but as to voluntary communications of light and consolation. Hence Christ himself declares that the human nature was not the resident subject of omniscience; for he says so in Mark 13.32, "But of that day and that hour no man knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." The exposition of this verse, given by some of the ancients, is that the Lord Christ does not say this absolutely, but he says only "that he did not know it to declare it to them." This is unworthy of him; for then no more did the Father know it, seeing that he has not declared it either. But this was the opinion only of some of them; the more advised thought otherwise. Rather, Christ speaks of himself with respect to his human nature only;[333] and as to that, all communications were voluntary. So after his ascension, God gave him that Revelation which he made to the apostle, Rev 1.1.[334] The human nature, therefore, however inconceivably advanced, is not the subject of infinite, essentially divine properties.[335] And the actings of the Son of God towards that nature, consequent to its assumption, and that indissoluble subsistence in its union which ensued upon that assumption, are voluntary.

4. The Holy Ghost, as we proved before, is the immediate, unique, and efficient cause of all external divine operations: for God works by his Spirit; or in his Spirit, God immediately applies the power and efficacy of the divine excellencies to the divine operations. Thus the same work is equally the work of each person.

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5. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son, no less than the Spirit of the Father. He proceeds from the Son, as from the Father. He is the "Spirit of the Son," Gal 4.6. And hence the Spirit is the immediate operator of all divine acts of the Son himself, even on his own human nature. Whatever the Son of God worked in, by, or upon the human nature, he did it by the Holy Ghost, who is his Spirit, just as he is the Spirit of the Father.

6. To clarify the whole matter, it must yet be further observed that the immediate actings of the Holy Ghost are not spoken of him absolutely, nor ascribed to him exclusively, with reference to the other persons and their concurrence in them. It is a saying that is generally admitted, that the operations of the Trinity, as to their externals, are indivisible.[336] There is no division in the external operations of God such that any one of them should be the act of one person, without the concurrence of the others. The reason for this is because the nature of God, which is the principle of all divine operations, is one and the same — undivided in them all. Therefore, because they are the effects of divine power, and that power is essentially the same in each person, the works themselves belong equally to them. It is as if three men could see by the same eye — there would be but one act of seeing, and it would equally be the act of all three. But the things we emphasize are ascribed eminently to the Holy Ghost, on account of the order of his subsistence in the holy Trinity — as he is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Because of this, in every divine act, the authority of the Father, the love and wisdom of the Son, with the immediate efficacy and power of the Holy Ghost, are to be considered. Indeed, there is such a distinction in their operations, that one divine act may produce a particular respect and relation to one person, and not to another; just as the assumption of the human nature did to the Son; for only he was incarnate.

Such are the special actings of the Holy Ghost towards the head of the church, our Lord Jesus Christ, in this work of the new creation, as we will demonstrate in various instances:

First, The framing, forming, and miraculous conception of the body of Christ in the womb of the blessed Virgin was the particular and special work of the Holy Ghost.[337]

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I acknowledge that this work is ascribed to the Father in respect to the designation, and to the authoritative disposal of things; for so the Lord Christ says to him: "A body you have prepared for me," Heb 10.5. But this preparation does not signify the actual forming and making ready of that body, but the eternal designation of it: it was prepared in the counsel and love of the Father. As to its voluntary assumption, it is ascribed to the Son himself: Heb 2.14, "Inasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same;" he took upon himself a body and soul, an entire human nature, just as the children, or all believers, have the same thing synecdochically[338] expressed by "flesh and blood." Verse 16, "He took on himself the seed of Abraham." [339] But the immediate divine efficiency in this matter was the particular work of the Holy Ghost:

Mat 1.18, "When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost."

Mat 1.20, "That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost."

Luke 1.35, "The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you: therefore also that Holy One who will be born of you will be called the Son of God."

1. The person working is the Holy Ghost. He is the wonderful operator in this glorious work. And the power of the Most High was exerted in this — for "The power of the Highest" does not explain the former expression, "The Holy Ghost," as though he were only the power of the Most High; nor does it adjoin a distinct agent or cause to him, as though the Holy Ghost and the power of the Most High were different agents in this matter. It only expresses the manner of his effecting this wonderful matter, which the blessed Virgin inquired about in verse 34, "How will this be, seeing that I have not known a man?" The angel says, "The Holy Ghost, acting the power of the Most High," or in the infinite power of God, "will accomplish it."

2. For his access to his work, it is expressed by his "coming upon her." The importance of this expression, and what it signifies, has been declared before. It is often used to declare his actings with reference to the production of miraculous works: Acts 1.8, "You will receive power, after the Holy Ghost has come upon you;" — or, "He will so come upon you as to produce the power of the Most High in you and by you, in miraculous gifts and operations." For he is said to "come" with respect to his beginning any marvellous operation, where he did not work to that same purpose before.

3. The act of the Holy Ghost in this matter was a creating act — not indeed like the first creating act, which produced the matter and substance of all things out of nothing, causing that to be which was not before, either in matter, form, or passive disposition. Rather it was like those subsequent acts of creation whereby, out of matter previously made and prepared, things were made into that which they were not before; and which, of themselves, they had no active disposition toward, nor concurrence in it.

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So man was created or formed of the dust of the earth,[340] and woman was taken from the rib of a man. There was matter previous to their creation, but it gave no assistance to, nor did it have any active disposition toward the production of that particular kind of creature into which they were formed by the creating power of God. Such was this act of the Holy Ghost in forming the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. For although it was effected by an act of infinite creating power, yet it was formed or made of the substance of the blessed Virgin. It was absolutely necessary that it should be done this way —

(1.) To accomplish the promises made to Abraham and David, that the Messiah would be of their seed, and proceed from their loins, Gen 9.9; 1Kng 2.4; Jer 33.16-18.[341]

(2.) So it was also on account of the first original promise that the "seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head:" for the Word was to be "made flesh," John 1.14; to be "made of a woman," Gal 4.4; or "made of the seed of David according to the flesh," Rom 1.3; and take upon himself "the seed of Abraham," Heb 2.16.

(3.) To confirm the truth of this, his genealogy according to the flesh is given to us by two of the evangelists; these would not be to the purpose, nor would they be true, if the Messiah was not made of the substance or flesh of the blessed Virgin.

(4.) Besides, all our cognation[342] and alliance to him depend on his being fit to be our Savior, suffering in the same nature in which we have sinned, Heb 2.14. For if he had not been made like us in all things except sin, if he had not partaken of our nature, there would have been no foundation for imputing to us what he did, suffered, and worked, Rom 8.3-4.[343]

And hence these things are accounted to us, and cannot be accounted to angels, whose nature he did not take upon himself, Heb 2.16.

This was therefore the work of the Holy Ghost in reference to the human nature of Christ, in the womb of his mother: By his omnipotent power, the Spirit formed it of the substance of the body of the holy Virgin — that is, as to Christ's body. And from this, various things ensue:

1. That the Lord Christ could not on this account (and not only with respect to his human nature) be said to be the Son of the Holy Ghost, although the Spirit supplied the position and virtue of a natural father in generation. For filiation[344] depends only on (and arises from) a perfect generation, and not on every effect of an efficient cause. When one fire is kindled by another, we would not say it is the son of the other fire (except improperly); much less when a man builds a house, would we say that the house is his son.

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There was therefore no other relation between the person of the Holy Ghost, and the human nature of Christ, except that of a creator and a creature.[345] The Lord Christ is (and is called) "The Son of God' with respect only to the Father as the fountain and origin of the Trinity, and to his eternal, ineffable[346] generation, which communicated being and subsistence to the Son. Filiation, therefore, is a personal adjunct; and it belongs to Christ as he was a divine person, and not with respect to his human nature. But that nature being assumed, the whole of Christ was the Son of God.

2. That this act of the Holy Ghost, in forming the body of Christ, differs from the act of the Son in assuming the human 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 anything by that same power to be what it was not in its own nature. Rather, it was an ineffable act of love and wisdom, taking the nature that was so formed by the Holy Ghost, and so prepared for Christ, to be his own in the instant of its formation, and thereby preventing the singular and individual subsistence of that nature in and by itself. So then, the creating act of the Holy Ghost in forming the body of our Lord Jesus Christ in the womb does not designate the Spirit to be Christ's father — indeed, not according to the human nature; but Jesus is the Son of God on account of his eternal generation only. So too, the creating act does not denote an assumption of that nature into union with the Spirit, nor was the Spirit made incarnate. The Spirit made the human nature of Christ — body and soul — with, in, and unto a subsistence in the second person of the Trinity, and not his own.

3. From this it also follows that the conception of Christ in the womb, being the effect of a creating act, was not accomplished successively and in a process of time, but was perfected in an instant.[347] For although the creating acts of infinite power may have a process or duration of time allotted to them, where the works effected have distinct parts — such as the world being created in six days — every part of it that was the object of a special creating act, was instantaneously produced. So it was with forming the body of Christ, with the infusion of a rational soul to quicken it, even though it afterwards grew in the womb up to the birth. And as it is probable that this conception was immediate upon the angelic salutation, so it was necessary that nothing of the human nature of Christ should exist of itself, antecedent to its union with the Son of God. For in the very instant of its formation, "the Word was 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.

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This is how far the Scriptures go before; and in this it is necessary to assert the forming of the body and soul of Christ by the Holy Spirit. The curious inquiries of some of the schoolmen and others are to be left to themselves, or rather, to be condemned in them. For whatever went beyond this miraculous operation of the Holy Ghost, seems purposely hidden from us in that expression, "The power of the Most High will overshadow you." Under this secret, glorious covert, we may learn to adore that holy work here, which we hope to rejoice in and bless God for, unto eternity. And I also suppose that in the word, there is an allusion to the expression of the original acting of the Holy Spirit towards the newly-produced mass of the old creation, which we spoke of before. It was said of him that he was, as it were, "hovering" and "moving" over it to form and produce all living things (p.97). For both those words include an allusion to a covering like that of a fowl over its eggs, communicating by its cognate warmth and heat, a principle of life to their seminal virtue.

Ques. It only remains to consider how the same work of the conception of Christ is assigned both to the Holy Ghost, and to the blessed Virgin; for it is expressly said of her in prophecy, Isa 7.14, "A virgin will conceive," — it is the same word that is used to express the conception of any other woman, Gen 4.1.[348] Hence she is termed by the ancients Theotokos, and Dei genetrix (mother of God), which I wish had been forborne. Compare it with the Scripture, and there will appear an unwarrantable gloss in it. Thus in Luke 1.31, the words of the angel to her are, "You shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son" — her conception of him is distinguished from bringing him forth. Thus in the ancient creed, commonly called the Apostles' Creed, generally received by all Christians as a summary of religion, it is said that Christ was "conceived by the Holy Ghost," and only "born of the Virgin Mary."

Ans. The same work is assigned to both as causes of a different kind — it is assigned to the Holy Spirit as the active, efficient cause,[349] who by his almighty power produced the effect. And the disputes managed by some of the ancients [350] 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 to the holy Virgin as the passive, material cause; for his body was formed of her substance, as declared before. And this conception of Christ was after her solemn espousals to Joseph, and that was for various reasons; for —

1. Under the covering of her marriage to him, Mary was to receive protection for her spotless innocence. And besides this,

2. God provided a covering that would take care of her and her child in his infancy. And,

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3. Hereby our blessed Savior was also freed from the imputation of an illegitimate birth, until by his own miraculous operations he would testify to his miraculous conception, concerning which, his mother could not previously have been believed.

4. That he might have one on whose account his genealogy might be recorded, to manifest the accomplishment of the promise to Abraham and David — for the genealogical line was not legally continued by the mother only.[351] Hence Matthew gives us his genealogy by Joseph, to whom his mother was legally espoused. And although Luke gives us the true, natural line of his descent, by the progenitors of the blessed Virgin, yet he does not name her — he mentions only her espousals, beginning with Heli, who was her father, Luk 3.23. This then is the first thing ascribed particularly to the Holy Spirit with respect to the head of the church, Christ Jesus.

From this miraculous creation of the body of Christ, by the immediate power of the Holy Ghost, it became a fit habitation for his holy soul, in every way ready and complying with all the actings of grace and virtue. We not only have the general depravation of our natures, but also the obliquity [352] of our particular constitutions, to conflict with. Hence one person is disposed to passion, wrath, and anger; another, to vanity and frivolity; a third, to sensuality and fleshly pleasures; and so too others to sloth and idleness. And although this disposition, so far as it is the result of our special constitutions and complexion, is not sin in itself, yet it dwells next door to sin; and because it is excited by the moral depravity of our natures, there is continual occasion for it. But the body of Christ being formed pure and exact by the Holy Ghost, there was no disposition or tendency in his constitution to the least deviation from perfect holiness in any kind. The exquisite harmony of his natural temperament made love, meekness, gentleness, patience, benignity, and goodness, both natural and familiar to him — just as he was incapable of having his motions be subservient to or compliant with anything different from them.

Hence also, secondly, although he took on himself those infirmities which belong to human nature as such, and are inseparable from it until it is glorified, he took none of our particular infirmities which cling to our persons, occasioned either by the vice of our constitutions, or by irregularity [353] in the use of our bodies. He took on himself those natural passions of our minds, which are capable of being the means of affliction and trouble (such as grief, sorrow, and the like), and also those infirmities of nature which are troublesome to the body (such as hunger, thirst, weariness, and pain). Indeed, the purity of Christ's holy constitution made him more highly aware of these things than any of the children of men. But he was absolutely free from those bodily diseases and distempers, which personally adhere to us, upon the disorder and vice of our constitutions.

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Chapter IV.

Work of the Holy Spirit in and on the human nature of Christ.

The actual sanctification of the human nature of Christ by the Holy Ghost — On what ground Christ was spotless and free from sin — Positively endowed with all grace — The origin of holiness and sanctification in Christ; how it is carried on by the Spirit — Exercise of grace in Christ by the rational faculties of his soul — Their improvement — Wisdom and knowledge, how they are increased objectively in the human nature of Christ — The anointing of Christ by the Holy Spirit, with power and gifts — Conferred eminently on him at his baptism — John 3.34 explained and vindicated — Miraculous works that were worked in Christ by the Holy Ghost — Christ guided, conducted, and supported by the Spirit in his whole work — Mark 1.12 explained — How the Lord Christ offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit — His sanctification to this — Graces acting eminently in this — Love, zeal, submission, faith, and truth, all exercised in this — The work of the Spirit of God towards Christ while he was in the state of the dead; in his resurrection and glorification — The office of the Spirit to bear witness to Christ, and its discharge — The true way and means of coming to the knowledge of Christ, with the necessity of this — Danger of mistakes in this — What it means to love Christ as we should.

Secondly,[354] the human nature of Christ being thus formed in the womb by a creative act of the Holy Spirit, it was sanctified in the instant of its conception, and filled with grace according to the measure of its receptivity. Not being begotten by natural generation, it derived no taint of original sin or corruption from Adam, which is the only way and means of its propagation. Not being in the loins of Adam morally before the fall, and the promise of his incarnation not being given until afterward, the sin of Adam could on no account be imputed to Christ. All sin was charged on Christ as our mediator and surety of the covenant; but on his own account, he was not liable to any charge of sin, original or actual. His nature, therefore, as miraculously created in the manner described, was absolutely innocent, spotless, and free from sin, as was Adam in the day in which he was created.

But this was not all; Christ's nature was positively endowed with all grace by the Holy Spirit. And of this grace, it was afterward only capable of further degrees as to its actual exercise, but not of any new kind of grace. And this work of sanctification, or the original infusion of all grace into the human nature of Christ, was the immediate work of the Holy Spirit; it was necessary for him. For if the natural faculties of the soul, the mind, will, and affections are created pure, innocent, and undefiled — as they cannot otherwise be when immediately created by God — there is still not enough to enable any rational creature to live to God; much less was it all that was in Jesus Christ.[355] There is moreover required for this, supernatural endowments of grace that are superadded to the natural faculties of our souls.

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If we live to God, there must be a principle of spiritual life in us, as well as natural life. This was the image of God in Adam, and it was worked in Christ by the Holy Spirit:

Isa 11.1-3, "There will come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch will grow out of his roots: and the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and it will make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord." [356]

It is granted that the subsequent work of the Spirit in and upon the Lord Christ, in the execution of his office as the king and head of the church, is included in these words — but the Spirit's first sanctifying work in the womb is principally intended. For these expressions, "A rod out of the stem of Jesse," and "A Branch out of his roots," with respect to which the Spirit is said to be communicated to him, plainly regard Christ's incarnation. And the soul of Christ, from the first moment of its infusion, was a subject capable of a fullness of grace, as to its habitual residence and in-being, even though its actual exercise was suspended for a while, until the organs of the body were fitted for it. Therefore, his soul received this grace by that first unction of the Spirit. Hence, from his conception he was "holy," as well as "harmless" and "undefiled," Heb 7.26; a "holy thing," Luke 1.35; radically filled with a perfection of grace and wisdom, inasmuch as the Father "did not give him the Spirit by measure," John 3.34. To this purpose, see our commentary on Heb 1.1; see also John 1.14-17.[357]

Thirdly, The Spirit carried on that work whose foundation he had thus laid. And two things are to be diligently observed here:

1. That the Lord Christ, as man, did and was to exercise all grace by the rational faculties and powers of his soul, his understanding, will, and affections; for he showed grace as a man, "made of a woman, made under the law." Gal 4.4 For him, his divine nature was not in place of a soul, nor did it immediately do the things which he performed, as some of old vainly imagined. But being a perfect man, his rational soul was the immediate principle of all his moral operations, even as it is in us. Now, in the improvement and exercise of these faculties and powers of his soul, he progressed in the manner of other men; for he was made like us "in all things," Heb 2.17 yet without sin.Heb 4.15 In their increase, enlargement, and exercise, a progression in grace was also required; and he had this continually by the Holy Ghost: Luke 2.40, "The child grew, and became strong in spirit." The first clause refers to his body, which grew and increased in the manner of other men; as in Luk 2.52, he "increased in stature."

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The other respects the confirmation of the faculties of his mind — he "became strong in spirit." So too, in verse 52, he is said to "increase in wisdom and stature."[358] He was continually "filling and filled" with new degrees "of wisdom" as to its exercise,[359] so far as the rational faculties of his mind were capable — an increase in these things accompanied his years, verse 52. And what is recorded here by the evangelist, contains a description of the accomplishment of the prophecy mentioned before in Isa 11.1-3. This growth in grace and wisdom was the particular work of the Holy Spirit; for as the faculties of Christ's mind were enlarged by degrees, and strengthened, so the Holy Spirit filled them up with grace for actual obedience.

2. The human nature of Christ was capable of having new objects proposed to its mind and understanding, of which it had a simple nescience before.[360] This is as inseparable an adjunct of human nature as it is to be weary or hungry; it is not a vice or a blamable defect. Some have made a great outcry against some protestant divines who ascribe ignorance to the human soul of Christ.[361] If we take" ignorance" to mean a moral defect of any kind, or being unacquainted with what anyone ought to know, or what is necessary to the perfection of Christ's condition or duty, then it is false that any of them ever ascribed that sort of ignorance to him. If we take it merely as a nescience of some things, there is no more in that than a denial of infinite omniscience — nothing is inconsistent with the highest holiness and purity of his human nature. Thus the Lord Christ says of himself that he did not know the day and hour of the end of all things, Mark 13.32; and our apostle says of him that he "learned obedience by the things that he suffered," Heb 5.8. In the representation, then, of things that were new to the human nature of Christ, the wisdom and knowledge of it was objectively increased; and in new trials and temptations he experientially learned the new exercise of grace. And this was the constant work of the Holy Spirit in the human nature of Christ. He dwelt in him in fullness; for Christ did not receive the Spirit by measure. And continually, on all occasions, the Spirit gave out of his unsearchable treasures grace for Christ's exercise in all duties and instances of it. From this, Christ was habitually holy; and from this he exercised holiness entirely and universally in all things.

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Fourthly, The Holy Spirit, in a particular manner, anointed Christ with all those extraordinary powers and gifts which were necessary for the exercise and discharging of his office on the earth:

Isa 61.1, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound."

It is the prophetic office of Christ, and his discharge of this office in his ministry on the earth, which is intended here. He applies these words to himself with respect to his preaching of the gospel, Luke 4.18-19; for this was the office which he principally attended to here in the world, and by which he instructed men in the nature and use of his other offices.

He exercised his kingly power only sparingly in his human nature on the earth. Indeed, to this office belonged his sending out the apostles and evangelists to preach with authority. And towards the end of his ministry he instituted ordinances of gospel worship, and appointed the order of his church in its founding and building up — these were acts of kingly power.

Nor did he perform any act of his priestly office except at his death, when he "gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor," Eph 5.2; in this, God "smelled a savor of rest," and he was appeased towards us. But the whole course of Christ's life and ministry was the discharge of his prophetic office to the Jews, Rom 15.8.[362] This he was to do according to the great promise in Deu 18.18-19;[363] and the life and death of the church of Israel depended on the acceptance or refusal of him in this office, verse 19; Act 3.23; Heb 2.3; John 8.24. [364] He was fitted to this by this unction of the Spirit. And here also is a distinction between the "Spirit that was upon him," and his being "anointed to preach," which contains the communication of the gifts of that Spirit to him; as it is said in Isa 11.2-3, "The Spirit rested upon him as a Spirit of wisdom," to make him "of quick understanding[365] in the fear of the Lord." Now, this was in a singular manner and in an inexpressible measure, for which he is said to be "anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows," or those who were partakers with him of the same Spirit, Psa 45.7; Heb 1.8-9 [366] — though I acknowledge that there was in that expression a particular respect to his glorious exaltation which afterward ensued, as has been declared on that passage.

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And this conferring of extraordinary gifts for the discharge of his prophetic office occurred at his baptism, Mat 3.17.[367] These were not bestowed on the Head of the church, nor are any gifts of the same nature in general bestowed on any of his members, except for their use, exercise, and improvement. It is apparent that they were then conferred; for —

1. Then he received the visible pledge which confirmed him in, and testified to others his calling by God to the exercise of his office; for then "the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and lighted upon him: and behold, a voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Mat 3.16, 17. Hereby he was "sealed by God the Father," John 6.27, in that visible pledge of his vocation, setting the great seal of heaven to his commission. And this was also to be a testimony to others, so that they might accept him in his office, now that he had undertaken to discharge it, Joh 1.33.[368]

2. He now entered upon his public ministry, and wholly gave himself up to his work. For before, he only occasionally manifested the presence of God with him, to somewhat prepare the minds of men to attend to his ministry, such as when he filled them with astonishment at his discourses with the teachers in the temple, Luke 2.46, 47.[369] And although it is probable that he might be moved by the Spirit in and to many such extraordinary actions during the course of his private life, yet he did not receive the fullness of gifts for his work until the time of his baptism; and therefore he did not wholly give himself to his public ministry before that.

3. Immediately upon this, it is said that he was "full of the Holy Ghost," Luke 4.1. Before, he was said to "become strong in spirit," Luk 2.40, "continually filling;" [370] but now he is "full of the Holy Ghost." He was actually possessed of and furnished with all that fullness of spiritual gifts which were in any way needful for him or useful to him, or which human nature is capable of receiving. With respect to this, the Baptist uses this expression in John 3.34 — "For God does not give the Spirit by measure." It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is intended here, to whom the Spirit is thus given. This is evident from the context, although it is not expressed in the text. He is the one spoken of, and the subject of the whole discourse: Joh 3.31, "He that comes from above is above all: he that comes from heaven is above all." No one doubts that this is a description of the person of Christ. And in the beginning of this verse, "He whom God has sent speaks the words of God;" which is the usual periphrasis[371] of the Lord Christ, used at least twenty times in this Gospel. This account is given about him: that he "testifies to what he has seen and heard," verse 32; and that he "speaks the words of God," verse 34.

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Different events are also marked upon his testimony, for many refused it, verse 32; but some received it, who "set their seal to it that God is true," verse 33; for he that "does not believe the record that he gave of his Son has made him a liar," 1John 5.10. As a reason for all this, it is added that "God did not give the Spirit by measure to him;" so that he was fully enabled to "speak the words of God;" and those by whom his testimony was rejected were justly liable to "wrath," Joh 3.36. Therefore, Crellius' attempt is in vain, de Spir. Sanc. — followed by Schlichtingius in his comment on this passage — who would exclude the Lord Christ from being intended in these words. They would have them signify only that God is not bound in general to give a measure in the dispensation of the Spirit, but gives to one according to one measure, and to another according to another measure. But this gloss overthrows the coherence of the words, disturbing the context; and so it contradicts the text itself. For God giving the Spirit ek metron, "by measure," [372] is giving the Spirit "immeasurably," without known bounds or limits — and the Spirit was so given only to the Lord Christ. For "to every one of us grace is given according to the measure of the gift of Christ," Eph 4.7 — that is, in whatever measure he pleases to communicate and distribute it. But the effects of this giving of the Spirit to the Lord Christ not by measure, belonged to that fullness from which we "receive grace for grace," John 1.16. For the Father accomplished his will by this, when "it pleased the Father that in him all fullness should dwell," so that "in all things he might have the pre-eminence," Col 1.18-19. Nor can any weight be given to the difficulty placed on this interpretation from the use of the word in the present tense, which Crellius insisted on — "he gives:"

"For Christ," they say, "had received the Spirit before; for this is spoken of him after his baptism. If therefore he had been intended, it should rather have been, 'he has given,' or 'he has not given to him by measure."

But — (1.) This was immediately upon his baptism, and therefore the conferring of the fullness of the Spirit might be spoken of as a present thing, because it was only newly past; this is an ordinary way of speaking on all occasions. And besides that, (2.) The conferring of the Spirit is a continued act, in that the Spirit was given to Christ to abide with him, to rest upon him. In this there was a continuance of the love of God towards him, and his care over Christ in his work. Hence the Lord Christ says of himself, or the prophet Isaiah says of him, that the Spirit sent him: "Now the Lord God, and his Spirit, has sent me," Isa 48.16.[373] The same work in sending Christ is ascribed to the "Lord God," that is, the Father, and to the "Spirit," but in a different manner. He was sent by the Father authoritatively; and the furnishing that he received by the Spirit — of gifts for his work and office — is called sending him, because the same work is assigned to different persons in the Trinity on different accounts.

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Fifthly, It was in a special manner by the power of the Holy Spirit that Christ worked those great and miraculous works by which his ministry was attested to and confirmed. Hence it is said that God worked miracles by him: Acts 2.22, "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 Christ cast out devils with a word of command, he affirms that he did it by the "finger of God," Luke 11.20 — that is, he did it by the infinite divine power of God. But it is the power of God acted in a special manner by the Holy Spirit, as expressly declared in Mat 12.28.[374] And therefore, upon ascribing his mighty works to Beelzebub, the prince of devils, Christ lets the Jews know that in this they blasphemed the Holy Spirit, whose works they were indeed, verses 31, 32.[375] Hence these mighty works are called "powers," because the power of the Spirit of God produced their working and effecting: see Mark 6.5, 9.39; Luke 4.36, 5.17, 6.19, 8.46, 9.1.[376] In the exercise of this power, consisted the testimony given about him by the Spirit: that he was the Son of God; for this was necessary to convict the Jews to whom Christ was sent, Joh 10.37-38.[377]

Sixthly, By the Spirit, Christ was guided, directed, comforted, and supported, in the whole course of his ministry, temptations, obedience, and sufferings. A few instances on this topic may suffice. Shortly after his baptism, when he was full of the Holy Ghost, he was "led by the Spirit into the wilderness," Luke 4.1.

1. The Holy Spirit guided him to begin his contest and conquest with the devil. Christ made an entrance into his ministry by this; and it teaches us all what we must look for if we solemnly engage ourselves to follow him in the work of preaching the gospel. The word used in Mark to this purpose has occasioned some doubt as to what spirit is intended in these words,

Mar 1.12, "The spirit drives him into the wilderness."

It is evident that the same spirit and the same act are intended in all the evangelists, whether here in Mat 4.1, or in Luke 4.1. But why the Holy Spirit is said to "drive him," (ekballo NT:1544) is not so easily apprehended. But the word in Luke is ageto (NT:71), which denotes a guiding and rational conduct — and this cannot be ascribed to any other spirit with respect to our Lord Jesus, but only to the Spirit of God. Matthew expresses the same effect by anago (NT:321), Mat 4.1 — he was "carried," or "carried up," or "taken away," from the midst of the people. And this was "of that Spirit," — namely, of the Spirit which descended on him and rested on him immediately before, Mat 3.16.

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The continuation of the discourse in Luke will not allow for any other spirit to be intended:

Luk 4.1,"And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,"

— namely, by that Spirit which he was full of. Therefore the word ekballo or "drives" in Mark, intends no more than sending him out by a high and strong impression of the Holy Spirit on his mind. Hence the same word is used with respect to sending others to the work of preaching the gospel, by the powerful impression of the Spirit of God on their hearts:

Mat 9.38, "Pray therefore that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers into his harvest." [378]

— namely, by furnishing them with the gifts of his Spirit, and by the power of his grace, to constrain them to their duty. So Christ entered his preparation for his work under the Spirit's conduct; it would be good if others endeavored to conform to the Spirit within the rules of their calling.

2. By the assistance of the Spirit, Christ was carried triumphantly through the course of his temptations to a perfect conquest of his adversary as to the present conflict. Satan sought in this to divert Christ from his work, which afterward he endeavored by all ways and means to oppose and hinder.

3. The temptation being finished, Christ returned from the wilderness to preach the gospel "in the power of the Spirit," Luk 4.14. He returned to Galilee "in the power of the Spirit" — that is, he was powerfully enabled by the Holy Spirit to discharge his work. And hence, in his first sermon at Nazareth, he took these words of the prophet for his text, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor," Luk 4.18. The result was that they "all bore him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth," verse 22. Just as he began his ministry in the power of the Spirit, having received Him not by measure, so Christ continually, on all occasions, displayed His wisdom, power, grace, and knowledge, to the astonishment of all — stopping the mouths of his adversaries, and shutting them up in their rage and unbelief.

4. Christ was directed, strengthened, and comforted by the Spirit 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 these things upon him in his whole way and work — a great part of that to which he humbled himself for our sakes, consisted in these things. Christ stood in need of mighty support and strong consolation in and under them. God promised this to him, and Christ expected it, Isa 42.4, 6, 49.5-8, 50.7-8.[379] So then, all the voluntary communications of the divine nature to the human nature were by the Holy Spirit, as we have shown.

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Seventhly, He offered himself up to God through the eternal Spirit, Heb 9.14.[380] I know many learned men judge that the "eternal Spirit" in that verse does not intend the third person, but the divine nature of the Son himself — and there is no doubt, that too may be properly called the eternal Spirit. There is also a reason in the words themselves, which strongly inclines towards that sense. For the apostle shows why it was that the sacrifice of the Lord Christ had an efficacy above and beyond the sacrifices of the law, and from which it would certainly produce that great effect of "purging our consciences from dead works" — and this was from the dignity of his person on account of his divine nature. It arose, I say, from the dignity of his person, his deity sustaining his human nature in the sacrifice of himself. For because of the indissoluble union of both his natures, his person became the principle of all his mediatory acts, and they had their dignity and efficacy from there; nor will I oppose this exposition of the words. But on the other side, many learned divines, both ancient and modern, judge that it is the person of the Holy Spirit that is intended.

And because this is a matter of great importance — namely, how the Lord Christ offered himself up to God as a sacrifice, by the eternal Spirit — I will further explain it, though only briefly. Those who look only at the outward death of Christ, can see nothing but suffering in it. The Jews took him, and with the soldiers, both scourged and slew him, hanging him on the tree. But the principal consideration, is his own offering of himself, a sacrifice to God, as the great high priest of the church, to make atonement and reconciliation for sinners. This was hidden from the world by those outward acts of violence which were upon him; and he did this by the eternal Spirit, which we may note in the ensuing instances:

1. Christ sanctified, consecrated, or dedicated himself to God to be an offering or sacrifice: John 17.19, "For their sakes," — that is, the elect — "I sanctify myself." Before this, the Lord Christ was perfectly sanctified as to all inherent holiness, so that he could not speak of sanctifying himself afresh in that sense.[381] Nor was it the consecration of himself to his office of a priest; for this was the act of the one who called him to that office: "Christ did not glorify himself to be made a high priest; but it was He who said to him, you are my Son," Heb 5.5. God the Father made him a priest by his death, "according to the power of an endless life," Heb 7.16, 20, 21.[382] He consecrated himself to be a sacrifice, just as the sacrificial beast of old was first devoted to that purpose.

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Therefore it is said that he thus sanctified or consecrated himself, so that we might be sanctified. Now, "we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all," Heb 10.10. This was his first priestly act. He dedicated himself to be an offering to God; and he did this through the effectual operation of the eternal Spirit in him.

2. He went voluntarily and of his own accord to the garden; which corresponded to drawing or bringing the beast to be sacrificed, to the door of the tabernacle, according to the law. For in the garden Christ not only gave himself into the hands of those who were to shed his blood, but he actually entered into offering himself to God in his agony, when he "offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears," Heb 5.7 — this does not declare the matter, but the manner of his offering.

3. In all that ensued, in all that followed on this — to his giving up the ghost Joh 19.30 — he offered himself to God in and by those actings of the grace of the Holy Spirit in him, which accompanied him to the last. And these are to be diligently considered, because the efficacy of the death of Christ depends on them as to its atonement and merit, as they were enhanced and rendered excellent by the worth and dignity of his person. For the means of our deliverance is not the death of Christ merely as it was penal and undergone by suffering; rather, the obedience of Christ in this — which consisted in offering himself to God through the eternal Spirit — gave it its efficacy and success.

We may therefore inquire what those principal graces of the Spirit were, which Christ exercised in offering himself to God. And they were —

(1.) Love to mankind, and compassion towards sinners. This is what the holy soul of the Lord Jesus was then in the highest and most inconceivable exercise of. Therefore, this is frequently expressed where mention is made of this offering of Christ: Gal 2.20, "Who loved me, and gave himself for me." Rev 1.5, "Who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood."

And compassion is the first grace required in a high priest or sacrificer, Heb 5.2.[383] God now being on a design of love (for it was in the pursuit of eternal love that Christ was sent into the world, John 3.16; Tit 3.4-6), this love — that was now in its most inconceivable advancement in the heart of Christ — was most gracious and acceptable to him. And this intense love also supported the mind of Christ under all his sufferings; just as Jacob, through the greatness of his love for Rachel, made light of the seven years' service that he endured for her, Gen 29.20. And so the Lord Christ "endured the cross and despised the shame for the joy" of saving his elect, "the joy which was set before him," Heb 12.2. And this was one grace of the eternal Spirit by which Christ offered himself to God.

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(2.) What principally moved him in the whole was his unspeakable zeal and ardent affection for the glory of God. These were the coals which, with a vehement flame, as it were, consumed the sacrifice. And there were two things that he aimed at with respect to the glory of God:

[1.] The manifestation of his righteousness, holiness, and severity against sin. His design was to repair the glory of God, which seemed to have suffered by sin, Psa 40.6-8, Heb 10.5-7.[384] With a full desire of his soul (expressed in these words, "Behold, I come") He came to do what legal sacrifices could not do — namely, to make satisfaction to the justice of God for sin, to be "a propitiation... to declare his righteousness," Rom 3.25. And he does this, as to its manner, with inexpressible zeal and ardent affections: Psa 40.8, "I delight to do your will, O my God: yes, your law is in the midst of my heart." He doubles the expression of the intenseness of his mind on this. And therefore, in his last Passover when he was to prepare himself for his suffering, he expresses the highest engagement of his heart and affections to this, in the same way: Luke 22.15, "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer" — just as he had previously expressed it with respect to the same work, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am restrained," or pained, "till it is accomplished!" Luk 12.50. His zeal to advance the glory of God, in manifesting his righteousness and holiness by offering himself up as a sin-offering to make atonement, gave him no rest and ease until he was engaged in it, from which it worked to the utmost.

[2.] The exercise of his grace and love. This he knew was the way to open the treasures of grace and love, that they might be poured out on sinners, to the everlasting glory of God; for this was the design of God in the whole, Rom 3.24-26.[385] This zeal and affection for the glory of God's righteousness, faithfulness, and grace — which was worked in the heart of Christ by the eternal Spirit — was that in which Christ principally offered himself up to God.

(3.) His holy submission and obedience to the will of God were now at the height of their exercise, and grace advanced to the utmost in them. They were another special part of offering himself up; and as declared before, this was worked in him by the holy or eternal Spirit. It is frequently expressed as that which had a special influence on the efficacy and merit of his sacrifice: Phi 2.8, "He humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross." And when he "offered up prayers and supplications ...though he was a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered," Heb 5.7-8 — that is, he experienced obedience in suffering. It is true that the Lord Christ, during the whole course of his life, yielded obedience to God, as he was "made of a woman, made under the law," Gal 4.4 — but now he came to the great trial of it, with respect to the special command of the Father "to lay down his life," and to "make his soul an offering for sin," Isa 53.10.

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This was the highest act of obedience to God that ever was, or ever will be, to all eternity. And so God therefore expresses his satisfaction in this, and his acceptance of it, Isa 53.11-12; Phi 2.9-10.[386] This was worked in Christ, and he was worked towards this, by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Christ offered himself to God, by the Spirit.

(4.) There also belongs to this, that faith and trust in God which — with fervent prayers, cries, and supplications — Christ now acted on God and his promises, both with respect to himself and to the covenant which he was sealing with his blood. Our apostle represents this as a special work of Christ, testified to in the Old Testament: Heb 2.13, "I will put my trust in him."[387]

[1.] This was in respect to himself: namely, that he would be supported, assisted, and carried through the work he had undertaken, to a blessed result. In this, I confess, he was horribly assaulted until he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Psa 22.1. Yet after and all through his dreadful trial, his faith and trust in God were victorious. He expressed this in the depth and extremity of his trials, verses 9-11.[388] He made such an open profession of it that his enemies, when they supposed he was lost and defeated, reproached him with it, verse 8; Mat 27.43.[389] To this purpose, he declares himself at large, Isa 50.7-9.[390] So his faith and trust in God — as to his own support and deliverance, with accomplishing all the promises made to him upon his engagement to the work of mediation — were victorious.

[2.] This was in respect to the covenant, and all the benefits of which the church of the elect were to be made partakers of. The blood that he now shed was the "blood of the covenant," and it was shed for his church: namely, so that the blessings of the covenant might be communicated to them, Gal 3.13-14.[391] With respect to this, he also exercised faith in God, as it fully appears in the prayer which he made when he entered into his oblation,[392] John 17.

Now, concerning these instances, we may observe three things for our present purpose:

(1.) These and similar gracious actings of the soul of Christ, were the ways and means by which, in his death and blood-shedding (which was violent and inflicted on him by force as to the outward instruments, and penal as to the sentence of the law), he voluntarily and freely offered himself up as a sacrifice to God to make atonement. And these were the things which, from the dignity of his person, became efficacious and victorious. Without these, his death and blood-shedding would not have been an oblation.

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(2.) These were the things which rendered his offering a "sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savor," Eph 5.2. God was so absolutely delighted and pleased with these high and glorious acts of grace and obedience in Jesus Christ that he smelled, as it were, a "savor of rest" towards mankind — or towards those for whom Christ offered himself — so that God would be angry with them no more, and curse them no more (as it is said of its type in the sacrifice of Noah, Gen 8.20-21).[393] God was more pleased with the obedience of Christ than he was displeased with the sin and disobedience of Adam, Rom 5.17-21.[394] God was not, then, satisfied by the outward suffering of a violent and bloody death which was inflicted on Christ by the most horrible wickedness that human nature ever broke into, Acts 2.23.[395] Nor was the means of our deliverance merely Christ's enduring the penalty of the law. Rather, it was voluntarily giving himself up to be a sacrifice in these holy acts of obedience, upon which God was reconciled to us in a special manner.

(3.) All these things were worked in the human nature by the Holy Ghost, who at the time of Christ's offering, moved all his graces to the utmost. Thereupon, Christ is said to "offer himself to God through the eternal Spirit," by whom Christ was consecrated, spirited, and moved to be our high priest.

Eighthly, There was a particular work of the Holy Spirit towards the Lord Christ while he was in the state of the dead. Here our preceding rule must be remembered: namely, that notwithstanding the union of the human nature of Christ with the divine person of the Son, the communications of God to his human nature, beyond subsistence, were voluntary. Thus in his death, the union of his natures in his person was not in the least impeached. Yet in a special manner, he commends his soul or spirit into the hands of God his Father — Psa 31.5, Luke 23.46, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit," — for the Father had engaged himself in an eternal covenant to take care of him, to preserve and protect him even in death, and to show him again the "way and path of life," Psa 16.11. Notwithstanding the union of his person, then, his soul in its separate state was in a special manner under the care, protection, and power of the Father, preserved in his love until the hour came in which he showed him again the path of life. His holy body in the grave continued under the special care of the Spirit of God. And hereby was accomplished that great promise, that "his soul should not be left in hell, nor the Holy One see corruption," Psa 16.10; Acts 2.31. It is the body of Christ which is called "The Holy One" here, because it was made a "holy thing" by its conception in the womb by the power of the Holy Ghost.

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And it is spoken of here in contradistinction to his soul, and in opposition by Peter to the body of David, which saw corruption when it died, Acts 2.29. This pure and holy substance was preserved in its integrity by the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit, without any of those accidents of change which attend the dead bodies of others. I do not deny that use was made of the ministry of angels about the dead body of Christ while it was in the grave, even those angels which were seen sitting afterward in the place where he lay, John 20.12. It was preserved by these angels from all outward force and violation; but this too was under the particular care of the Spirit of God — how he works by angels has been declared before.

Ninthly, There was a particular work of the Holy Spirit in Christ's resurrection. This was the completing act in laying the foundation of the church, by which Christ entered into his rest — the great testimony given to finishing the work of redemption, with the satisfaction of God in this, and his acceptance of the person of the Redeemer. On various accounts, it is assigned distinctly to each person in the Trinity; and this is not only because all the external works of God are undivided (each person being equally concerned in their operation), but also on account of their special respect to and interest in the work of redemption, in the manner declared before. It is ascribed to the Father on account of his authority, and in His declaration of Christ's perfect accomplishment of the work committed to him:

Acts 2.24, "God has raised him up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be held by it."

It is the Father who is spoken of, and he is said, in other places, to raise Christ from the dead. But he does this with respect to "loosing the pains of death." These are the chebel mahveth,[396] which, with a little alteration of one vowel,[397] signifies the "sorrows of death," or the "cords of death." [398] And the "sorrows of death" intended here, were the "cords" of it — that is, the power it had to bind the Lord Christ under it for a time; for the "pains of death," that is, the "tormenting pains," [399] ended in his death itself. But it is their consequents that are reckoned to these pains here, or their continuance under the power of death according to the sentence of the law. God loosed these consequents when, the law being fully satisfied, the sentence of the law was removed, and the Lord Christ was entirely acquitted from its charge.

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This was the act of God the Father, as the supreme rector and judge of all. Hence he is said to "raise him from the dead," just as the judge by his order delivers an acquitted prisoner or one who has answered the law. Christ also takes the same work to himself:

John 10.17, 18, "I lay down my life, that I might take it up again. No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again."

For although men took away his life by violence, when "with wicked hands they crucified and killed him," Acts 2.23, 3.15, yet because they had neither the authority nor the ability to do so without his consent, he says no man did, nor could, take away his life. That is, they could not do it against his will, by having power over him, as the lives of other men are taken away; for neither angels nor men could do this. So also, although the Father is said to raise him from the dead by removing the sentence of the law, which he had satisfied, yet he himself also took up his life again by an act of the love, care, and power of his divine nature — living again was an act of his person — for only his human nature died. But the unique efficiency in reuniting his most holy soul and body, was an effect of the power of the Holy Spirit:

1Pet 3.18, "He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit;" — "he was restored to life by the Spirit."

And this was that Spirit by which he preached to those who were disobedient in the days of Noah, verses 19, 20; or that Spirit of Christ which was in the prophets from the foundation of the world, 1Pet 1.11;[400] by which he preached in Noah to that disobedient generation, 2Pet 2.5,[401] and by which the Spirit of God strove for a time with those inhabitants of the old world, Gen 6.3;[402] — that is, the Holy Spirit of God. We are instructed to the same purpose by our apostle, Rom 8.11, "If the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead will also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you;" — or "God will quicken our mortal bodies also, by the same Spirit by which he raised Christ from the dead;" for so the relation of the one work to the other requires the words to be understood. And again, he expressly asserts the same thing in Eph 1.17-20.[403] He prays that God would give his Holy Spirit to them as a Spirit of wisdom and revelation, verse 17. The effects of this, in them and upon them, are described in verse 18. He desires this, so that they may be made such partakers of it, that by the work of the Spirit of God in them, renewing and quickening them, they might experience that exceeding greatness of his power which he put forth in the Lord Christ when he raised him from the dead. And the evidence or testimony given to Jesus being the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, is said to be "according to the Spirit of holiness," or the Holy Spirit, Rom 1.4.

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He was positively declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, by the "powerful working of the Holy Spirit." This is also the intent of that expression in 1Tim 3.16, "Justified in the Spirit." God was "manifest in the flesh" by Christ's incarnation and passion in this. He was "justified in the Spirit," by a declaration of his acquittal from the sentence of death, and the evils he underwent, with the reproaches by which he was contemptuously abused, by his quickening and resurrection from the dead — all through the mighty and effectual working of the Spirit of God.

Tenthly, It was the Holy Spirit that glorified Christ's human nature, and made it fit in every way for its eternal residence at the right hand of God, as a pattern of the glorification of the bodies of those who believe on him. The one who first made Christ's nature holy, now made it glorious. And as we are made conformable to him in our souls here, as his image is being renewed in us by the Spirit, so he is now glorified in his body by the effectual operation of the same Spirit, as the exemplar and pattern of that glory which we will receive in our mortal bodies by the same Spirit. For "when he will appear, we will be like him," 1John 3.2, seeing that he will "change our vile bodies so that they may be fashioned like his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself," Phi 3.21.

These are some of the principal instances of the operation of the Holy Spirit on the human nature of the Head of the church. The whole of them all, I confess, is a work that we can look but little into. We desire to receive and embrace only what is plainly revealed, considering that if we are his, we are predestinated to be made conformable in all things to him; and that is by the powerful and effectual operation of that Spirit which thus worked all things in him, to the glory of God. And just as it is a matter of unspeakable consolation to us — to consider what has been done in and upon our nature by the application to it of the love and grace of God through his Spirit— so it has great advantage, in that it directs our faith and supplications in our endeavors for conformity to him. This is our next end, beneath the enjoyment of God in glory. Therefore, whatever we apprehend in these matters, we embrace; and as for the depth of them, they are the objects of our admiration and praise.

II. RESPECTING OTHERS ON BEHALF OF CHRIST

There is yet another work of the Holy Spirit, that is not immediately in and on the person of the Lord Christ; rather, it is towards him and on his behalf with respect to his work and office. It comprises the head and fountain of the whole office of the Holy Spirit towards the church. This was his witness-bearing to the Lord Christ: namely, that he is the Son of God, the true Messiah, and that the work which he performed in the world was committed to him by God the Father to accomplish.

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And to this day, the Spirit continues to attend to this same work, and he will do so to the consummation of all things. It is known how the Lord Christ was reproached while he was in this world, and how ignominiously he was sent out of it by death. On this, a great contest ensued among mankind, in which heaven and hell were deeply engaged. Most of the world — the princes, rulers, and wise men of it — asserted that he was an impostor, a seducer, a malefactor, justly punished for his evil deeds. On the other side, he chose twelve apostles to bear testimony to the holiness of his life, the truth and purity of his doctrine, the accomplishment of the prophecies of the Old Testament in his birth, life, work, and death; and especially to his resurrection from the dead, by which he was justified and acquitted from all the reproaches of hell and the world, and their calumnies repelled. But how could the testimony of twelve poor men, however honest, prevail against the confronting intolerance[404] of the world? Which is why this work of bearing witness to the Lord Christ was committed to the Spirit, who is above and over all, who knows how, and is able, to make Christ's testimony prevalent:

John 15.26, "When the Comforter has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me."

Accordingly, the apostles plead his concurring testimony:

Acts 5.32, "We are his witnesses to these things; and so also is the Holy Ghost, whom God has given to those who obey him."

Our apostle declares how the Spirit thus gave his testimony, Heb 2.4, "God also bearing witness with them" (that is, with the apostles), "both with signs and wonders, and with diverse miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will." The first and principal end why God gave the Holy Spirit to work all those miraculous effects in those who believed in Jesus, was to bear witness that he was indeed the Son of God, owned and exalted by Him. For no man who is not utterly forsaken of all reason and understanding, who is not utterly blinded, would even once imagine that the Holy Spirit of God would work such marvellous operations in and by those who believed on him, if he did not design to justify Christ's person, work, and doctrine by it. And in a short space of time, this testimony — together with that effectual power which he put forth in and by the preaching of the word — carried not only the Spirit's vindication against all the machinations of Satan and his instruments throughout the world, but also subdued mankind generally to faith in Christ and obedience to him, 2Cor 10.4-5.[405] And it is upon this testimony that there is real faith in Christ still maintained in the world. This is what Christ promised to his disciples while he was still with them in the world, when their hearts were concerned with how they would bear up against their adversaries upon his absence.

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"I will," he says, "send the Comforter to you. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you will see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged," Joh 16.7-11. The reason the world did not believe on Christ, was because they did not believe he was sent by God, Joh 9.29.[406] By his testimony, the Spirit was to reprove the world of their infidelity, and to convince them of it by evidencing the truth of Christ's mission; for the whole issue of the controversy between him and the world depended on this. Whether Christ was righteous or a deceiver, was to be determined by his being sent or not sent by God; and consequently, by God's acceptance or disapproval of him. The Holy Spirit convinced the world by his testimony, that Christ was so sent, and so approved, manifesting that he "went to the Father," and was exalted by him — for it was upon Christ's ascension and exaltation that he received and poured out the promise of the Spirit to this purpose, Acts 2.33.[407] Moreover, while Jesus was in the world, there was an unrighteous judgment passed upon him by Satan's instigation. On this testimony of the Spirit, that judgment was reversed, and a contrary sentence was passed on its author, the prince of this world; for by the gospel that was testified to, Satan was discovered, convicted, judged, condemned, and cast out of that power and rule in the world — a rule which he had obtained and exercised by the darkness of the minds of men within, and by idolatry without. It will be declared afterward that the Holy Spirit continues to do the same work to this very day, though not absolutely by the same means.

By these considerations we may be led into that knowledge of, and acquaintance with, our Lord Jesus Christ, which is so necessary, so useful, and so much recommended to us in the Scripture. The utter neglect of learning the knowledge of Christ, and of the truth as it is in him, is no less pernicious to the souls of men, than learning it by undue means, by which false and mischievous ideas or representations of him are infused into the minds of men. The Papists would learn and teach Christ by images, the work of men's hands, and teachers of lies. For, besides the fact that they are forbidden by God himself to be used for any such purposes, and are therefore cursed with barrenness and uselessness as to any end of faith or holiness, they are in themselves suited only to ingenerate low and carnal thoughts in depraved and superstitious minds. The worshippers of such images do not know the proper cause or object of that reverence, and those affections, which they find in themselves when they approach and adore them.

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Thus, whatever apprehensions they can have by this, only tend to "knowing after the flesh," which the apostle looked at as no longer part of his duty, 2Cor 5.16.[408] Rather, the glory of the human nature, as united to the person of the Son of God, and engaged in the discharge of his office of mediator, consists only in these eminent, particular, ineffable communications of the Spirit of God to him, and his powerful operations in him. This is represented to us in the mirror of the gospel, by which we, beholding him by faith, are changed into the same image, by the same Spirit, 2Cor 3.18.[409]

Our Lord Christ himself foretold that there would be great inquiries after him, and that great deceits would be mixed with them. "If," he says, "they say to you, Behold, he is in the desert, do not go there: or behold, he is in the secret chambers, do not believe it," Mat 24.26. It is not a wilderness that our Savior intends here — meaning a lowly, persecuted, inglorious, and invisible condition as to our outward profession. For he himself foretold that his church would be driven into the wilderness and nourished there, and that would be for a long time, Rev 12.6;[410] and where his church is, there is Christ — for his promise is to be with them and among them to the end of the world, Mat 28.20. Nor do "secret chambers" mean those private meeting places for security, which all his disciples were driven to and made use of for hundreds of years, as were his apostles who sometimes met in an upper room, sometimes in the night, for fear of the Jews. It is widely known that such were all the meetings of the primitive Christians.

Rather, our Savior here foretells of the false ways by which some would pretend Christ is taught and found. For first, some would say he was "in the desert" or wilderness, and if men would go there, they would see and find him. And there is nothing intended by this except what the ancient superstitious monks did, who under a pretense of religion, retired into deserts and solitary places. For there they pretended to have great intercourse with Christ, great visions and appearances of him, being variously deluded and imposed on by Satan and their own imaginations. It is ridiculous on the one hand, and deplorable on the other, to consider the woeful follies, delusions, and superstitions that these men fell into. And yet in those days, nothing was more common than to say that Christ was "in the desert," conversing with the monks and anchorites. "Do not go to them," says our Lord Christ; "for in doing so, you will be deceived." And again he says, "If they say to you, He is in the secret chambers (Gr. tameia, NT:5009) do not believe it." There is, if I am not deceived, a deep and mysterious instruction in these words. "Tameia," signifies those secret places in a house where bread and wine and cates[411] of all sorts are laid up and stored. This is the proper meaning and use of the word.

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What pretense, then, could there be for anyone to say that Christ was in such a place? Why, there ensued such a great a pretense of this, and such a horrible a superstition, that it was of divine wisdom to foresee it, and of divine goodness to forewarn us of it; for it is nothing but the popish figment of transubstantiation that is intended. Christ must be "in the secret places" where their wafer and wine were deposited. Our Savior says concerning this, "Do not believe them." All manner of crafts, and frauds, and bloody aggressions, will be used to compel you to believe there is a Christ in the pix and repository;[412] but if you would not be seduced, "do not believe them." Such are the false ways by which some have pretended to teach Christ and to learn him,[413] which have led them away from him, into hurtful snares and perdition. The consideration that we have insisted on will guide us to a spiritual and saving knowledge of him, if attended to. And thus we are to learn to know him—

First, so that we may love him with a pure and unmixed love. It is true, the person of Christ, as God and man, is the proper and ultimate object of our love towards him. But a clear and distinct consideration of his natures and their excellencies is effectual to stir up and draw out our love towards him. So the spouse in the Canticles, giving a reason for her intense affections towards him, says that "he is white and ruddy, the best of ten thousand;" that is, perfect in the beauty of the graces of the Holy Spirit, which rendered him exceedingly attractive; so also, Psa 45.2.[414] Would you propose Christ to your affections, so your love to him may be sincere and without corruption, as it is required to be, Eph 6.24? [415] And would you avoid lavishing the acts of your soul on a false object, and thinking that you love Christ, when you love only the imaginations of your own heart? Then consider his human nature, as it was rendered beautiful and lovely by the work of the Spirit of God upon it, as described before.

Do you love him because he was and is so full of grace, so full of holiness, and because in him there was an all-fullness of the graces of the Spirit of God? Consider rightly what has been delivered concerning him, and if on account of this, you can and do delight in him and love him, then your love is genuine and spiritual. But if your love is merely from apprehending that he is now glorious in heaven, and able to do you good or evil there, then your love does not differ much from that of the Papists. Their love is greatly regulated in its actings by the good or bad painting of the images they represent him by. You, however, are often pressed in Scripture to direct your love to the person of Christ, and that is your principal duty in this world.

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But you cannot do this without a distinct idea and knowledge of him. There are therefore three things in general that you are to consider to this purpose:

1. The blessed union of his two natures in the same person. In this, Christ is singular: God took that especial state on himself, which in no other thing or way, had any consideration. This is therefore to be special in our divine love to the person of Christ.

2. The uncreaturely glories of the divine nature. From these, our love has the same object as that love which we owe to God absolutely.

3. That perfection and fullness of grace which dwelt in his human nature, as communicated to him by the Holy Spirit. This we have treated.

If we love the person of Christ, it must be upon these considerations. When some have neglected it, they were doting on their own imaginations; and when they thought they were sick of love for Christ, they were only languishing in their own fancies.

Secondly, We are to know Christ so as to labor after conformity to him. And this conformity consists solely in participating in those graces whose fullness dwells in him. Therefore, we cannot press after it regularly in any other way than by becoming acquainted with, and having a due consideration of, the work of the Spirit of God upon Christ's human nature. This, therefore, is worthy of our most diligent inquiry.

And so we have given a brief delineation of the dispensation and work of the Holy Spirit in and towards the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church. What next ensues is the Spirit's preparation of a mystical body for Christ, in his powerful and gracious work on the elect of God.

Chapter V.

The general work of the Holy Spirit in the new creation with respect to

the members of that body of which Christ is the head.

Christ the head of the new creation — Things premised in general to the remaining work of the Spirit — Things presupposed to the work of the Spirit towards the church — The love and grace of Father and Son — The whole work of the building of the church committed to the Holy Spirit — Acts 2.33 explained — The foundation of the church in the promise of the Spirit, and its building by him alone — -Christ is present with his church only by his Spirit — Mat 28.19, 20; Acts 1.9, 10, 3.21; Mat 18.19, 20; 2Cor 6.16; 1Cor 3.16, compared — The Holy Spirit works the work of Christ — John 16.13-15 explained — The Holy Spirit is the particular author of all grace — The Holy Spirit works all this according to his own will — 1. His will and pleasure is in all his works 2. He works variously as to the kinds and degrees of his operations — How the Spirit may be resisted, how not to resist him — How the same work is ascribed to the Spirit distinctly, and to others with him — The general heads of his operations towards the church.

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We have considered the work of the Spirit of God in laying the foundation of the church of the New Testament, by his dispensations towards the head of it, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the foundation-stone of this building, with seven eyes engraven on him— that is, he is filled with an absolute perfection of all the gifts and graces of the Spirit, Zec 3.9.[416] And when he is exalted also as "the headstone of the corner," there are shouts in heaven and earth, crying, "Grace, grace unto him!" Zec 4.7.[417] Upon laying the foundation and placing the corner-stone of the earth in the old creation, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy," Job 38.6-7. So too, upon laying this foundation, and placing this corner-stone in the new creation, all things sing together and cry, "Grace, grace unto it!" The same hand which laid this foundation also finishes the building. The same Spirit which was given to Christ "not by measure," John 3.34, gives grace to every one of us, "according to the measure of the gift of Christ," Eph 4.7. And this now falls under our consideration — namely, perfecting the work of the new creation by the effectual operation and distributions of the Spirit of God. And this belongs to the establishment of our faith: that the one who prepared, sanctified, and glorified the human nature, the natural body of Jesus Christ, the head of the church, has also undertaken to prepare, sanctify, and glorify his mystical body, or all the elect given to him by the Father. Concerning this, and before we come to consider particular instances of it, some things in general must be premised, which are these that follow:

FIRST, as to the work of the Holy Spirit towards the church, some things are supposed from which the church proceeds, things which it is built on and resolved into. It is not an original but a perfecting work. Some things it supposes, and all things it brings to perfection; and these are —

1. The love, grace, counsel, and eternal purpose of the Father;

2. The whole work of the mediation of Jesus Christ (which I have handled elsewhere)[418] — for it is the particular work of the Holy Spirit to make those things of the Father and Son effectual to the souls of the elect, to the praise of the glory of the grace of God.

God does all things for himself, and his supreme end is the manifestation of his own glory. In the old or first creation, he seems principally, or firstly, to intend the demonstration and exaltation of the glorious and essential properties of his nature: his goodness, power, wisdom, and the like, as in Psa 19.1-4, Rom 1.19-21, Acts 14.15-17, 17.24-28.[419] He leaves on the works of his hands only some obscure impressions of the distinction of persons in the Godhead, subsisting in the unity of that Being whose properties he had displayed and glorified.

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But in the work of the new creation, God firstly and principally intends the special revelation of each person of the whole Trinity distinctly, in their particular distinct operations; all of which also tend ultimately to manifest the glory of his nature. And in this consists the principal advantage of the New Testament above the Old. For though the work of the new creation was begun and carried on secretly and virtually under the Old Testament, they did not have a full disclosure of the economy of the holy Trinity in it. This was not evidently manifested until the whole work was illustriously brought to light by the gospel. Hence, under the Old Testament, although a vigorous acting of faith is apparent, and there is an ardent affection in the approaches of the saints to God, we hear nothing of having clear access to the Father through the Son by the Spirit, as we do in Eph 2.18. Yet, the life and comfort of our communion with God consists in this very access. In this, therefore, God plainly declares that the foundation of the whole was laid in the counsel, will, and grace of the Father, Eph 1.3-6.[420] Then, the way that is made to accomplish his counsel, so that it might be to the praise of his glory, is by the mediation of the Son. God designed in this work, to bring things about in such a way, that "all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father," John 5.23.

There yet remains the actual application of all this to the souls of men, so they may be partakers of the grace designed in the counsel of the Father, and prepared in the mediation of the Son. And in this, the Holy Spirit is to be manifested and glorified, so that he also, together with the Father and the Son, may be known, adored, and worshipped, according to his own will. This is the work that he has undertaken. And on this, upon the solemn initiation of any person into the covenant of God, in response to this design and work, that person is baptized into "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," Mat 28.19. These things have been discussed before, but they are necessarily recalled here again.

SECONDLY, It is from the nature and order of this work of God that — after the Son was actually exhibited in the flesh according to the promise, and after he had fulfilled what he had taken upon himself to do in his own person — the great promise of carrying on and finishing the whole work of the grace of God in our salvation, concerns sending the Holy Spirit to do and perform what he too had undertaken.[421] Thus, when our Lord Jesus Christ had ascended into heaven, and began to conspicuously and gloriously carry on building his church upon himself, its rock and foundation, it is said that, "being exalted by the right hand of God, he received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit," Acts 2.33. This must be explained a little:

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1. Before he departed from his disciples, as mentioned on several occasions, he comforted and cheered their drooping spirits with the promise of sending the Spirit to them, which he often repeated and inculcated on their minds, John 14.15-17. And,

2. When he was actually leaving them, after his resurrection, he orders them to sit still, and not to engage in the public work of building the church, which he designed them to do, until that promise was actually accomplished towards them:

Acts 1.4, "Being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father;"

and verse 8,

"You will receive power, after the Holy Ghost has come upon you; and you will be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the utmost part of the earth."

He would have them look neither for assistance in their work, nor success in it, except from the promised Spirit alone. He also lets them know that, by the Spirit's aid, they would be enabled to carry their testimony of him to the uttermost parts of the earth. And in this lay, and still lies, the foundation of the ministry of the church, as well as its continuance and efficacy. The kingdom of Christ is spiritual; and in its animating principles, it is invisible. If we fix our minds only on outward order, we lose the rise and power of the whole. It is not an outward visible ordination by men — though that is necessary by rule and precept — but Christ's communication of that Spirit, the everlasting promise of which he received from the Father, that gives being, life, usefulness, and success to the ministry. This is also why,

3. Upon Christ's ascension, in accomplishing the great promises given to the church under the Old Testament, Isa 44.3, Joel 2.28-29,[422] and also his own promise, newly given to his disciples, he poured forth his Spirit on them. The apostle Peter declares this here: "Being exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out what you now see and hear," Act 2.33 in the miraculous operations and effects of the Spirit. He is said to receive the promise of the Father, because he then received the thing promised. The promise was not then first given to him, nor did he then receive it for himself — for the promise was given long before, so that he had received the fullness of the Spirit from his incarnation, as it has been declared. But now he had power given to him to actually to fulfil and accomplish the promise in the conferring of the thing promised; and he is therefore said to "receive" the promise. Thus in Heb 11.13, 39, it is said of all believers under the Old Testament, that they "died in faith, not having received the promise;"

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that is, the thing promised was not actually exhibited in their days, even though they had the promise of it, as it is expressly said of Abraham in Heb 7.6. Therefore, the promise itself was given to the Lord Christ, and actually received by him in the covenant of the mediator, when he undertook the great work of the restoration of all things, to the glory of God. For he had the engagement of the Father in this: that the Holy Spirit should be poured out on the sons of men, to make effectual to their souls the whole work of his mediation. This is why he is now said to "receive this promise," because on his account, and by him being exalted, it was now solemnly accomplished in and towards the church. The same thing is described the same way in Psa 68.18, "You have ascended on high, you have led captivity captive; you have received gifts for men." In Eph 4.8, this is rendered "You have given gifts to men;" for Christ received the promise at this time only to give out the Spirit and his gifts to men. And if any are so fond[423] as to expect strength and assistance in the work of the ministry without him, or such success in their labors that it will find acceptance with God, they only deceive their own souls and others.

Here lay the foundation of the Christian church: The Lord Christ had called his apostles to the great work of building his church and propagating his gospel in the world. By themselves, they were plainly and openly defective in all the qualifications and abilities that might contribute anything to this. But whatever is lacking in themselves — whether it is light, wisdom, authority, knowledge, utterance, or courage — he promises to supply them with. And this he would not do, nor did he do it, in any other way than by sending the Holy Spirit to them; the whole success of their ministry in the world depended on his presence and assistance alone. It was "through the Holy Ghost that he gave commandments to them," Acts 1.2. Those commandments concern the whole work in preaching the gospel and founding the church; and Christ gives these to them through the actings of divine wisdom in the human nature, by the Holy Ghost.

And on their part, without the assistance of the Spirit, Christ forbids them to attempt anything, Act 1.4, 8. In this promise, then, the Lord Christ founded the church itself, and by this promise he built it up. And this is the hinge on which the whole weight of it turns and depends to this day. Take it away, or suppose it ceases as to the continual accomplishment, and there will be an absolute end of the church of Christ in this world — there will be no dispensation of the Spirit, and no church. Whoever would utterly separate the Spirit from the word might as well burn his Bible. The bare letter of the New Testament will no more ingenerate faith and obedience in the souls of men, it will no more constitute a church-state among those who enjoy it, than the letter of the Old Testament does at this day among the Jews, 2Cor 3.6, 8.[424]

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But blessed be God, who has knit these things together towards his elect, in the bond of an everlasting covenant! Isa 59.21.[425] Let men, therefore, cast themselves into whatever order they please, institute whatever forms of government and religious worship they think is good; let them do it either by attending to or according to their best understanding of the letter of Scripture, or in an exercise of their own wills, wisdom, and invention. If the work of the Spirit of God is disowned or disclaimed by them, if there is not in them and upon them, such a work of his and for which he is promised by our Lord Jesus Christ, then there is no church-state among them;[426] nor is it to be owned or esteemed as such. All ordinary communications of grace from God depend on the ministry, and on the church.

THIRDLY, It is the Holy Spirit who supplies the bodily absence of Christ; and by him Christ accomplishes all his promises to the church. Hence, some of the ancients call the Spirit "Vicarium Christi," "The vicar of Christ,"[427] or the one who represents his person, and discharges his promised work: Operam navat Christo vicariam. When our Lord Jesus was leaving the world, he gave his disciples the command to "preach the gospel," Mark 16.15, and to "disciple all nations" into the faith and profession of this gospel, Mat 28.19. For their encouragement in this, he promises his own presence with them in their whole work, wherever any of them should be called to it; and that was all during the time he would have the gospel preached on the earth. So he says, "I am with you always, even to the end of the world," or the consummation of all things, verse 20. Immediately after he said this to them, "while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight," and they "looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up," Acts 1.9-10. Where now is the accomplishment of his promise that he would be with them to the end of all things, which was the sole encouragement that he gave them for their great undertaking? Maybe after his triumphant ascension into heaven to take possession of his kingdom and glory, he came to them again, and made his abode with them. "No," says Peter; "heaven must receive him until the times of restitution of all things," Acts 3.21. How then is this promise made good, which had such a specific respect to the ministry and ministers of the gospel — so that without it, none can ever honestly or conscientiously engage in its dispensation, or expect the least success in doing so? Besides, he promised the church itself that "wherever two or three were gathered together in his name, he would be in the midst of them," Mat 18.19-20. All their comforts and all their acceptance by God depend on this.

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I say, all these promises are perfectly fulfilled by his sending the Holy Spirit. In and by the Spirit, Christ is present with his disciples in their ministry and their assemblies. And whenever Christ leaves the world, the church must leave too; for it is his presence alone which puts men into that condition, or invests them with that privilege. For he says, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people," 2Cor 6.16; Lev 26.12. Being the "people of God," so as to be "the temple of the living God" — that is, to be brought into a sacred church-state for his worship — depends on his "dwelling in them and walking in them." And he does this by his Spirit alone: for "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 1Cor 3.16. The Spirit therefore so far represents the person, and supplies the bodily absence of Christ, that the being of the church, the success of the ministry, and the edification of the whole, absolutely depend on his presence. And this, if anything in the whole gospel, deserves our serious consideration; for —

1. The Lord Jesus has told us that his presence with us by his Spirit is better and more expedient for us than the continuance of his bodily presence. Now, who is there that has any affection for Christ, who does not think that the carnal presence of the human nature of Christ would be of unspeakable advantage to him? And so it would, no doubt, if any such thing had been designed or appointed in the wisdom and love of God. But it is not so; and on the other side, we are commanded to look for more advantage and benefit by his spiritual presence with us, that is, his presence with us by the Holy Ghost. It is therefore certainly incumbent on us to inquire diligently as to what value and benefit we have by it. For if we find that we do not really receive grace, assistance, and consolation from this presence of Christ with us, then we have no benefit at all by him nor from him. For he now has no other way for these ends with anyone, except by his Spirit. And those whose profession is made up of such a senseless contradiction as to avow honoring Jesus Christ, while blaspheming his Spirit in all his holy operations, will one day find this out.

2. The Lord Christ having expressly promised to be present with us to the end of all things, there are great inquiries how that promise is accomplished. Some say he is present with us by his ministers and ordinances; but how then is he present with those ministers themselves, to whom the promise of his presence is made in a special manner? The Papists would have him carnally and bodily present in the sacrament; but he himself has told us that "the flesh," in such a sense, "profits nothing," John 6.63; it is the "Spirit alone that quickens."

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The Lutherans fancy an omnipresence, or ubiquity of his human nature, by virtue of its personal union. But this is destructive of that nature itself; for if it is made to be everywhere, as such a nature, it is truly nowhere — and the most learned among them are ashamed of this imagination.[428]

FOURTHLY, As he represents the person and supplies the stead and place of Jesus Christ, so the Spirit works and effects whatever the Lord Christ has taken upon himself to work and effect towards his disciples. This is why, just as the work of the Son was not his own work, but rather the "work of the Father who sent him," Joh 5.36 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 accomplishes it:

John 16.13-15, "However, when the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth: for he will not speak on his own; but whatever he hears, that he will speak: and he will show you things to come. He will glorify me: for he will receive of mine, and show it to you. All things that the Father has are mine: therefore I said, he will take of mine, and show it to you."

He comes to reveal and communicate truth and grace to the disciples of Christ; and in doing so, he "does not speak on his own," that is, of himself only. He does not come 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 to the disciples, and all their work and duty being suspended on the accomplishment of that promise (because 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 would pass away and be of no use to them. To prevent any such apprehension, Christ 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,1Cor 3.11 or the truth which he had revealed from the heart of the Father. And —

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1. This I take to be the meaning of that expression, "He will not speak on his own;" — "He will reveal no other truth, communicate no other grace, except what is in, from, and by myself." This is what the Holy Spirit was to do; and this is what he did. And hereby we may try every spirit, whether it is of God.1Joh 4.1 That spirit which reveals anything, or pretends to reveal anything, any doctrine, any grace, any truth, that is contrary to, that is not consistent with, indeed, that is not the doctrine, grace, or truth of Christ as now revealed in the word; that brings anything new, his own, or of himself; that spirit is not of God. And so it is added —

2. "Whatever he hears, that he will speak." What 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? This word, in its proper meaning, has 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 a participant of their counsels. So the outward act of hearing is mentioned as the sign of his infinite knowledge of the eternal counsels of the Father and Son; he is no stranger to them. And this is a general rule — that those words which (with respect to us) express the means of anything, as applied to God, intend no more than the signs of it. Hearing is the means by which 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 knowledge, not the means of it. So the Holy Spirit is said to "hear" those things, because he knows them; on that same account, he is also said to "search the deep things of God." Add to this that the counsel of these things is originally particular to the Father, and it is particularly ascribed to him everywhere. Therefore the participation of the Spirit in this, as a distinct person, is called hearing.

3. His great work is subjoined to this: "He will glorify me," says Christ. 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 glorify the Father, by whom Christ was sent. And those who stand in need of, or pray for his assistance in their work or office in the church of God, are always to bear this in mind: He is given to them, so that through him they may give and bring glory to Jesus Christ. And,

4. How the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Christ is also declared: "He will receive of mine, and will show it to you." Here the communication of spiritual things from Christ, by the Spirit, is called "his receiving" them; just as the communication of the Spirit from the Father, by the Lord Christ to his disciples, is called "his receiving the promise."Act 2.33 The Spirit cannot receive anything subjectively which he did not have, as an addition to him; it is therefore the economy of these things that is intended here.

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He is not said to receive them, as though he did not have them before; for what can the one who is God receive? Only, when he begins to give them to us, because they are particularly the things of Christ, he is said to receive them; for we can give nothing of another's except what we receive from him. Good things are given to us from Christ by the Spirit; for so it is added, "And will show them to you;" — "He will make them known to you; he will so declare and manifestly evidence them to you, and in you, that you will understand and experience them in yourselves. He will show them to you by revelation, instructing you in them, imparting them to you by communication."

And what are those things that the Spirit will so declare? They are "my things," says our Savior. The things of Christ may be referred to two heads — his truth and his grace, John 1.17.[429] The first he shows by revelation; the latter by effectual communication. He showed his truth to them by revelation, as we declared the Spirit to be the immediate author of all divine revelations. He did this to the apostles by his inspirations, enabling them to infallibly receive, understand, and declare the whole counsel of God in Christ; for according to the promise, he led them into all truth.Joh 16.13 And he showed his grace to them in pouring out both his sanctifying graces and his extraordinary gifts upon them in an abundant measure. And he still continues to show the truth and grace of Christ to all believers, though not in the same manner as the former, nor to the same degree as the latter: for he shows us the "truth of Christ," or the truth that "came by Jesus Christ," by the word as written and preached — instructing us in it, and enlightening our minds to spiritually and savingly understand the mind of God in this. And he imparts his grace to us in our sanctification, our consolation, and the communication of spiritual gifts, according to the measure of the gift of Christ to every one of us,Eph 4.7 as the present use of the church requires. These things must be declared afterward.

5. And the reason for the assertion is added in the last place: "All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said, that he will take of mine, and will show it to you." Two things may be observed in these words:

(1.) The extent of the things of Christ, to be shown to believers by the Spirit, are "All the things that the Father has." "They are mine," says our Savior. And "all things" may be taken either absolutely and personally, or as restricted to his office.

[1.] All things that the Father has absolutely were the Son's also; for receiving his personality from the Father by the communication of the whole divine nature, all the Father's things must necessarily be his. Thus, "as the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son to have life in himself," John 5.26. And the same may be said of all other essential properties of the Godhead.

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[2.] But these do not seem to be the "all things" intended here. They are not "all things" of the divine nature which he had by eternal generation, but "all things" of spiritual grace and power which he had by voluntary donation, Mat 11.27;[430] John 3.35, "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand." That is, all the effects of the love, grace, and will of the Father, whatever he had purposed in himself from eternity, and whatever his infinite power and goodness would produce in pursuit of this, were all given and committed to Jesus Christ. So all things that the Father has were his.

(2.) That these things may be rightly understood and apprehended, we must consider a twofold operation of God as three-in-one.

The first of these is absolute in all divine works whatever; the other respects the economy of the operations of God in our salvation. In those of the first sort, both the working and the work, belong to and proceed from each person in common and undividedly. And the reason for this is because they are all effects of the essential properties of the same divine nature which is in them all, or rather, which is the one nature of them all. Yet, just as they have one nature, so there is an order of subsistence in that nature; and the distinct persons work in the order of their subsistence:

John 5.19, 20, "Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise."

The Father does not work first in order of time, and then the Son seeing it, works another work like it; rather, the Son does the same work that the Father does. This is absolutely necessary, because of their union in nature. Yet in the order of their subsistence, the person of the Father is the origin of all divine works in the principle and beginning of them; and that is antecedent to the operation of the Son in order of nature. Hence the Son is said to "see" what the Father does. According to our former rule in the exposition of those expressions which are ascribed to the divine nature, seeing is the sign and evidence of his knowledge, and not the means. He sees what the Father does, as he is his eternal Wisdom. The same must be said of the Holy Spirit with respect both to the Father and Son. This order of operation in the Holy Trinity is not voluntary, but natural and necessary from the one essence and distinct subsistences of this.

Secondly, There are those operations which (with respect to our salvation) the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit graciously condescend to, which are those things addressed in this passage from John. Now, supposing that the designing of this work was absolutely voluntary, yet the order of its accomplishment was made necessary from the order of the subsistence of the distinct persons in the Deity; and that is what is declared here. Thus,

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[1.] The things to be declared to us and bestowed on us are originally the Father's things. He is the specific fountain of them all. His love, his grace, his wisdom, his goodness, his counsel, his will, are their supreme cause and spring. Hence are they said to be the "things that the Father has."

[2.] They are made the things of the Son — that is, they are given and granted in and to his disposal — on account of his mediation; for thereby they were to be prepared for us and given out to us, to the glory of God. In agreement with this, because the Lord Christ is mediator, all the things of grace are originally the Father's, and then given to him.

[3.] They are actually communicated to us by the Holy Spirit: "Therefore I said, he will take of mine and show it to you." He does not communicate them to us immediately from the Father. Thus we do not receive any grace from God — that is, the Father; nor do we thus make any return of praise or obedience to God. We have nothing to do with the person of the Father immediately. It is the Son alone by whom we have access to him, and it is by the Son alone that the Father gives out of his grace and bounty to us. He that does not have the Son, does not have the Father. With Him, the great treasurer of heavenly things, all grace and mercy are entrusted. The Holy Spirit, therefore, shows them to us, works them in us, and bestows them on us, as they are the fruits of the mediation of Christ, and not merely as effects of the divine love and bounty of the Father — and this is required from the order of subsistence mentioned before. Thus the Holy Spirit supplies the bodily absence of Jesus Christ, and he effects what he has to do and accomplish towards his own in the world. So that whatever is done by the Spirit, it is the same as if it were worked immediately by the Lord Christ himself in his own person, by which all his holy promises are fully accomplished towards those who believe.

This instructs us in the way and manner of that communion which we have with God by the gospel. For the life, power, and freedom of our evangelical state consist in this; and so an acquaintance with it gives us our translation "out of darkness into the marvellous light of God." The person of the Father, in his wisdom, will, and love, is the origin of all grace and glory. But nothing of this is communicated immediately to us from him. It is from the Son whom he loves; and he has given all things into the Son's hand. He has made way for the communication of these things to us, to the glory of God; and he does it immediately by the Spirit, as it has been declared. All our responses to God are to be regulated by this. The Father, who is the origin of all grace and glory, is ultimately intended by us in our faith, thankfulness, and obedience; yet not unless the Son and Spirit are considered as one God with him.

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But we cannot address ourselves, with any of them, immediately to him. "There is no going to the Father," says Christ, "but by me," John 14.6. "By him we believe in God," 1Pet 1.21. Yet neither can we do so unless we are enabled to do this by the Spirit, who is the author in us of faith, prayer, praise, obedience, and whatever our souls incline toward God by. Just as the descending of God towards us in love and grace issues or ends in the work of the Spirit in us and upon us, so all our ascending towards him begins in this too. And just as the first instance of the proceeding of grace and love towards us from the Father is in and by the Son, so the first step that we take towards God, specifically the Father, is in and by the Son.

These things ought to be explicitly attended to by us, if we intend that our faith, love, and duties of obedience should be evangelical.[431] Take an instance of the prayers of wicked men under their convictions, or their fears, troubles, and dangers, and the prayers of believers. The former is merely an outcry that distressed nature makes to its God [432] — and it is as such alone, that it considers him. But the other is the voice of the Spirit of adoption addressing itself in the hearts of believers, to God as a Father.[433] And a due attendance to this order of things, gives life and spirit to all that we have to do with God. Woe to professors of the gospel who would be seduced to believe that all they have to do with God, consists in attending to moral virtue! It is fitting for someone to do so, if being weary of Christianity, they have a mind to become Pagans. But "our fellowship," in the way described, "is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." It is, therefore of the highest importance to us to inquire into and secure for ourselves the promised workings of the Holy Spirit. For by them alone are the love of the Father and the fruits of the mediation of the Son communicated to us, without which we have no interest in them.[434] It is by His workings alone that we are enabled to make any acceptable returns of obedience to God.[435] It is foolish ignorance and infidelity to suppose that, under the gospel, there is no communication between God and us except what is communicated, on his part, in laws, commands, and promises; and on our part, by obedience performed in our own strength, and upon our convictions of these. To exclude from this the real internal operations of the Holy Ghost, is to destroy the gospel. And as we will see further afterward, this is the true ground and reason why there is a sin against the Holy Spirit that is irremissible: for in his coming to us to apply the love of the Father and the grace of the Son to our souls, contempt of him is contempt of the whole actings of God towards us by way of grace; for which there can be no remedy.

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FIFTHLY, Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of grace, and because he is the immediate and efficient cause of all grace and gracious effects in men, wherever mention is made of these graces or any fruits of them, it is to be looked at as part of his work, even if he is not expressly named, or it is not specifically attributed to him. I do not well know, or well understand, what some men mean when they begin to talk about moral virtue. Something that they seem to aim at (once they abandon the old Pelagian ambiguous expressions, and learn to speak clearly and intelligibly) is that such moral virtue is in their own power to attain; and so consequently, it is in the power of all other men; at least, it is so with an ordinary blessing on their own endeavors. We must inquire into these things afterward. But as for grace, I think all men will grant that, as to our participation in it, it is of the Holy Spirit, and of him alone.

Now, grace is taken two ways in the Scripture:

1. For the gracious free love and favor of God towards us; and,

2. For gracious, free, effectual operations in us and upon us by God.

In both senses, the Holy Spirit is the author of God's grace to us. In the first (God's free love and favor), it regards its manifestation and application. In the latter (God's operation in and upon us), it regards the operation itself. For although the Spirit is not the principal cause or procurer of grace in the first sense (which is the free act of the Father), its knowledge, sense, and comfort, and all its fruits, are communicated to us by him alone, as we will see afterward; and the latter is the Spirit's proper and particular work. Therefore this must be taken for granted: that wherever any gracious actings of God in or towards men are mentioned, it is the Holy Spirit who is particularly and principally intended.

SIXTHLY, It must be duly considered, with reference to the whole work of the Holy Spirit, that in whatever he does, he acts, works, and distributes according to his own will. Our apostle expressly affirms this. And various things of great moment depend on this in our walking before God; such as these —

1. That the will and pleasure of the Holy Spirit is in all the goodness, grace, love, and power, that he either communicates to us or works in us. He is not a mere instrument or servant, disposing of things in which he has no concern, or over which he has no power; but in all things he works towards us according to his own will. We are therefore, in what we receive from him and by him, no less to acknowledge his love, kindness, and sovereign grace, than we acknowledge those of the Father and the Son.

2. That he does not work, as a natural agent, ad ultimum virium, to the utmost of his power — as though in all he did, he came and did what he could. He moderates all his operations by his will and wisdom. Therefore, because some are said to "resist the Holy Ghost," Acts 7.51, and thus to frustrate his work towards them, it is not because they can do so absolutely, but only that they can do so as to some way, kind, or degree of his operations.

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Men may resist some sort or kind of means that he uses, as to some certain end and purpose; but they cannot resist him as to his purpose and the end he aims at; for he is God, and "who has resisted his will?" Rom 9.19. This is why, in any work of his, two things are to be considered: (1.) What the means which he makes use of, tend toward in their own nature; and (2.) What he intends by it. The first may be resisted and frustrated, but the latter cannot be. Sometimes in and by that word which, in its own nature, tends toward the conversion of sinners, he intends by it only their hardening, Isa 6.9-10; John 12.40-41; Acts 28.26- 27; Rom 11.8. And he can, when he pleases, exert that power and efficacy in working, which will take away all resistance. Sometimes he will only order the preaching and dispensation of the word to men; for this also is his work, Acts 13.2.[436] Men may resist his work in this, and reject his counsel concerning themselves. But when he exerts his power in and by the word, to create a new heart in men, and to open the eyes of those who are blind, he so takes away the principle of resistance in this, that he is not, and cannot be, resisted.

3. Hence it also follows that his works may be of various kinds, and that those which are of the same kind may still be carried on unequally as to their degrees. It is so in the operations of all voluntary agents, who work by choice and judgment. They are not confined to one sort of works, nor to the production of the same kind of effects; and where they design to do so, they moderate them as to degrees, according to their power and pleasure. Thus we find some of the works of the Holy Spirit are such that they may be perfect in their kind, and men may be made partakers of their whole end and intention, and yet no saving grace is worked in them. Such are his works of illumination, conviction, and various others. Men, I say, may have a work of the Holy Spirit on their hearts and minds, and yet not be sanctified and converted to God; for the nature and kind of his works are regulated by his own will and purpose. If he intends no more than their conviction and illumination, then no more will be effected — for he does not work by a necessity of nature; for then all his operations would be of the same kind, and have their special form from his nature, and not from his will. So too, where he does work the same effect in the souls of men (I mean the same kind of effect), as he does in their regeneration, he does it by various means, and he carries it on unequally to a great extent, as to the strengthening of its principle, and the increase of its fruits unto holiness. From this comes that great difference as to light, holiness, and fruitfulness which we find among believers, even though all alike are partakers of the same grace, as to this kind of effect.

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The Holy Spirit works in all these things according to his own will, of which there is not (nor can there be) any other rule than his own infinite wisdom. This is what the apostle reminds the Corinthians of, to take away all emulation and envy about their spiritual gifts, so that everyone would make use of what he received in an orderly way, to the profit and edification of others. "They are," he says, "given and distributed by the same Spirit, according to his own will, to one in one way, to another in another way;" 1Cor 12.11 so that it is unreasonable for any to contend about them.

But it may be said that, "If not only the working of grace in us, but also its effects and fruits, in all its various degrees, are to be ascribed to the Holy Spirit and his operations in us according to his own will, then we signify nothing ourselves. There is no need for us to use our endeavors and diligence; nor to take any care at all about the furtherance or growth of holiness in us; nor attend to any duties of obedience. To what end and purpose then, do all the commands, threatenings, promises, and exhortations of the Scripture serve, which are openly designed to excite and draw out our own endeavors?" This is indeed the principal difficulty with which some men seek to entangle and perplex the grace of God. But I answer —

1. Let men imagine whatever absurd consequences they please, the Spirit of God is still the author and worker of all grace in us, in all its degrees, and of all that is spiritually good in us. This is a truth which we must not forego, unless we intend to part with our Bible also. For in it we are taught that "in us, that is, in our flesh, nothing good dwells" (Rom 7.18); that "we are not sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God" (2Cor 3.5) "who is able to make all grace abound toward us, that we may always have all sufficiency in all things, abounding to every good work" (2Cor 9.8); that "without Christ we can do nothing," John 15.5, "for it is God who works in us both to will and to do for his good pleasure," Phi 2.13.

Therefore, to grant that there is any spiritual good in us, or any degree of it, that is not worked in us by the Spirit of God, is to overthrow the grace of the gospel. It is to deny that God is the only, first, supreme, and highest good, and also the immediate cause of whatever is so — which would be to deny his very being. It is therefore certain (whatever any may pretend otherwise) that nothing can ensue from this, except what is true and good and useful to the souls of men; for from truth — especially from such great and important truths — nothing else will follow.

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2. It is brutish ignorance in anyone, to argue in the things of God, from the effectual operations of the Spirit, to sloth and negligence of our own duty. Someone who does not know that God has promised to "work in us" by way of grace, that which he requires from us as our duty, has either never read the Bible or else he does not believe it; either he has never prayed or else he never took notice of what he prayed for. He is a heathen — he has nothing of the Christian in him — who does not pray that God would work in him what God requires of him. This we know: that what God commands and prescribes to us, what he encourages us to do, we ought to attend to and comply with, with all diligence and earnestness, as we value our souls and eternal welfare. We know that whatever God has promised, he will do in us, towards us, and upon us; and it is our duty to believe that he will do so. To fancy an inconsistency between these things, is to charge God foolishly.

3. If there is an opposition between these things, it is either because the nature of man is not fit to be commanded, or because it does not need to be assisted. But it will afterward be declared that both of these are false and vain suppositions. The Holy Spirit so works in us, what he works by us; and what he does in us, is done by us. It is our duty to apply ourselves to his commands, according to the conviction of our minds; and it is his work to enable us to perform them.

4. Someone who would, or can, indulge sloth and negligence in himself, on account of the promised working of the Spirit of grace, may look at it as evidence that he has no interest or concern in this [work of the Spirit] — for the Spirit does not ordinarily give his aids and assistances anywhere except where he prepares the soul with diligence in duty. And because he moves us only in and by the faculties of our own minds, it is ridiculous and it implies a contradiction, for a man to say that he will do nothing, because the Spirit of God does it all. For where he does nothing, the Spirit of God does nothing, unless it is merely in the infusion of the first habit or principle of grace, which we will treat afterward.

5. The degrees of grace and holiness which are inquired after, are unique to believers. Now, they are furnished with an ability and power to attend to and perform those duties on which the increase of grace and holiness depends. For although there is no grace (or degree of grace) or holiness in believers, that is not worked in them by the Spirit of God, yet ordinarily and regularly, the increase and growth of grace in them, and their thriving in holiness and righteousness, depend on the use and improvement of the grace received by a diligent attendance to all those duties of obedience which are required of us, 2Pet 1.5-7.[437] I think it is the most unreasonable and foolish thing in the world, for a man to be slothful and negligent in attending to those duties which God requires of him — on which all his spiritual growth depends, and with which the eternal welfare of his soul is concerned — on some pretense of the efficacious aids of the Spirit, without which he can do nothing, and which he neither has, nor can have, so long as he does do nothing.[438]

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Here lies the ground and foundation of our exercising faith in particular towards him, and of acting out our faith in supplications and thanksgivings. His participation in the divine nature is the formal reason for our yielding divine and religious worship to him in general; but his acting towards us according to the sovereignty of his own will, is the special reason for our particular addresses to the Spirit in the exercise of grace; for we are baptized into his name also.

SEVENTHLY, We may observe that in the actings and works of the Holy Spirit, some things are distinctly and separately ascribed to him, even though some things of the same kind are worked by the person in whom and by whom the Spirit acts. Or the Spirit is said to distinctly act or work the same thing, at the same time, by himself and also in and by others. So it is in John 15.26-27: "I will," our Savior says, "send the Spirit of truth, and he will testify of me, and you also will bear witness." Thus the witness of the Spirit to Christ, is proposed as distinct and separate from the witness given by the apostles: "He will testify of me, and you also will bear witness." And yet the apostles were also enabled to give their witness by the Spirit alone. This is expressly declared in Acts 1.8, "You will receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you; and you will be witnesses to me." Their witnessing to Christ was the effect of the power of the Holy Spirit upon them, and the effect of his work in them; and the Spirit himself gave no other testimony except in and by them. What then is the distinct testimony ascribed to him? It must be something that (in or by whomever it was worked, and of its own nature), revealed its relation to him as being his work.

So it was in this matter; for it was nothing else than those signs and wonders, or miraculous effects, which he worked in confirming the testimony given by the apostles, all of which clearly evidenced their origin. So our apostle says in Heb 2.3-4: the word was "confirmed — God co-witnessing by signs and wonders." He enabled the apostles to bear witness to Christ by their preaching, sufferings, holiness, and constant testimony which they gave of his resurrection. But the Spirit did not appear in this; he did not evidence himself to the world; though he did so in and by those in whom he worked. But moreover, he worked such visible, miraculous works by the apostles, that these works evidenced the effects of his power, and were his distinct witness to Christ. So our apostle tells us in Rom 8.16, "The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." The witness which our own spirits give to our adoption, is the work and effect of the Holy Spirit in us.

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If it were not, it would be a false witness, and not confirmed by the testimony of the Spirit himself, who is the Spirit of truth; none "knows the things of God but the Spirit of God," 1Cor 2.11. If he does not declare our sonship in us and to us, then we cannot know it. How then does he bear witness with our spirits? What is his distinct testimony in this matter? It must be some act of his which evidences itself to be from him, given immediately to those who are concerned in it — that is, those to whom it is given. What this is in particular, and what it consists in, we will inquire into afterward. So Rev 22.17 says, "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come." The bride is the church, and she prays for the coming of Christ. She does this by the aid and assistance of the one who is the Spirit of grace and supplications. And yet distinctly and separately the Spirit says, "Come;" that is, he displays such earnest and fervent desires, that they have an impression of his immediate efficiency upon them. Thus verse 20 carries the sense of this verse — namely, that it is Christ himself to whom she says "Come;" or they pray for the hastening of his coming; or they say "Come" to others, in inviting them to Christ, as the end of verse 17 seems to apply it.[439] So then, it is the prayers and preaching of the church for the conversion of souls that is meant; and with both, the Spirit works eminently to make them effectual. Or it may be that in this verse, "the Spirit" is taken for the Spirit in the guides and leaders of the church. Praying by his special guidance and assistance, they say, "Come;" or the preachers say to others, "Come;" and "the bride," or the body of the church, moved by the same Spirit, joins with them in this great request and supplication. And all believers are invited to this in the following words: "And let him who hears say, Come."

It was necessary to premise all these things in general, as giving some insight into the nature of the operations of the Holy Spirit in us and towards us; and hereby we have made our way plain to consider his special works, in the calling, building, and carrying on of the church to perfection. Now, all his works of this kind may be reduced to three heads:

1. Sanctifying grace;

2. Especial gifts;

3. Particular evangelical privileges.

Only, we must observe that these things are not so distinguished as to be negatively contradistinct from each other. For the same thing, under several considerations, may be all of three of these — it may be a grace, a gift, and a privilege. All I intend, is to reduce the operations of the Holy Spirit to these three heads, casting each of them under what is most eminent in it, and which is most directly proposed to us. And I will begin with his work of grace.

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Book III.

Chapter I.

Work of the Holy Spirit in the new creation by regeneration.

The new creation completed — Regeneration is the especial work of the Holy Spirit — It is worked under the Old Testament, but clearly revealed in the New; it is of the same kind in all those who are regenerate, its causes and way being the same in all — It does not consist in baptism alone, nor in a moral reformation of life; but a new creature is formed in it; its nature is declared and further explained — Denial of the original depravation of nature is the cause of many noxious opinions — Regeneration does not consist in enthusiastic raptures; their nature and danger — The whole doctrine is necessary, despised, corrupted, and vindicated.

We previously declared the work of the Holy Spirit in preparing and forming the natural body of Christ. This was the beginning of the new creation, the foundation of the gospel state and church. But this was not the whole of the work he had to do. As he had provided and prepared the natural body of Christ, so he was to prepare his mystical body also. And hereby the work of the new creation was to be completed and perfected. As it was with respect to the Spirit and his work in the old creation, so it was also in the new. All things in their first production had darkness and death upon them; for "the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep," Gen 1.2. Nor was there anything that had life in it, or a principle of life, or any disposition to this life. In this condition the Spirit moved on the prepared matter, preserving and cherishing it, and communicating a principle of life to all things, by which they were animated, as we declared. It was no different in the new creation. There was a spiritual darkness and death that came upon all mankind by sin; nor was there in any man living, the least principle of spiritual life, nor any disposition to this life. In this state of things, the Holy Spirit undertakes to create a new world — new heavens and a new earth — in which righteousness would dwell. And in the first place, this was by his effectual communication of a new principle of spiritual life to the souls of God's elect, who were the matter designed by God for this work to be wrought upon. He does this in their regeneration, as we will now manifest.

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First, Regeneration in Scripture is everywhere assigned to be the proper and particular work of the Holy Spirit:

John 3.3-6, "Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus says to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

It was an ancient knowing teacher of the church of the Jews, a "master in Israel," with whom our blessed Savior discusses this, and instructs. For on consideration of his miracles, Nicodemus concluded that "God was with him," and came to inquire of him about the kingdom of God. Our Savior, knowing how all our faith and obedience to God, and all our acceptance with God, depend on our regeneration, or being born again, he acquaints Nicodemus with the necessity of it; and at first he is surprised by this. This is why Jesus proceeds to instruct him in the nature of the work whose necessity he had declared; and he describes this both by the cause and the effect of it. For the cause of it, he tells Nicodemus that it is worked by "water and the Spirit" — by the Spirit, as the principal efficient cause; and by water, as the pledge, sign, and token[440] of it, in the initial seal of the covenant. The doctrine of this was then being preached among them by John the Baptist. Or the same thing is meant in a redoubled expression, the Spirit being signified by the water also — he is often promised under this idea.[441]

The Holy Spirit, then, is the principal and efficient cause of this work of regeneration; this is why the one in whom it is worked, is said to be "born of the Spirit:" Verse 8, "So is every one that is born of the Spirit." And this is the same as what is delivered in Joh 1.13, "Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The natural and carnal means of blood, flesh, and the will of man, are wholly rejected in this matter; and the whole efficiency of the new birth is ascribed to God alone. The Spirit's work corresponds to whatever contribution the will and nature of man makes to natural generation, for these things are compared here; and from its analogy to natural generation, this work of the Spirit is called "regeneration." So our Savior expresses the allusion and opposition between these things in this place: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," Joh 3.6. And in this we also have a further description of this work of the Holy Spirit by its effect, or product; it is "spirit" — a new spiritual being, creature, nature, or life — as will be declared.

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And because there is a communication of a new spiritual life in it, it is called a "vivification" or "quickening,"[442] with respect to the state in which all men are before this work is wrought in and on them, Eph 2.1, 5. This is the work of the Spirit alone, for "it is the Spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing," John 6.63. See Rom 8.9-10[443] where the same truth is declared and asserted. Also:

Tit 3.4-6, "But after the kindness and love of God our Savior toward 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 Savior."

What we have frequently mentioned, expressly occurs here— namely, the whole blessed Trinity, and each person in it, acting distinctly in the work of our salvation. The spring or fountain of the whole lies in the kindness and love of God, specifically the Father. It is ascribed to this everywhere in the Scripture. See John 3.16; Eph 1.3-6.[444] Whatever is done in accomplishing this work, it is done in the pursuit of his will, purpose, and counsel; and it is an effect of his love and grace. The procuring cause of the application to us of the love and kindness of God, is Jesus Christ our Savior in the whole work of his mediation (verse 6). And the immediate, efficient cause in the communication to us of the love and kindness of the Father, through the mediation of the Son, is the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit does this in the renovation of our natures, by the washing of regeneration, in which we are purged from our sins, and sanctified to God.

More testimonies to this purpose do not need to be insisted on. This truth about the Holy Spirit being the author of our regeneration is granted by all who pretend to sobriety in Christianity — in words at least, and so far as I know. The ancients considered this a cogent argument to prove his deity; that is, from the greatness and dignity of the work.[445] The occasion for this vindication of it is that it has been derided and ridiculed by some others. It must not be expected that I would handle practically the whole doctrine of regeneration here, because it may be educed by inferences from the Scripture, according to the analogy of faith, and from the experiences of those who believe — which has already been done by others.

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My present aim is only to confirm the fundamental principles of truth concerning those operations of the Holy Spirit which are, at this day, opposed with violence and virulence. And what I offer on the present subject may be reduced to the ensuing heads:

FIRST, Although the work of regeneration by the Holy Spirit was worked under the Old Testament, even from the foundation of the world, and the doctrine of it was recorded in the Scriptures, its revelation was but obscure by comparison to that light and evidence which it is brought into by the gospel. This is evident from the discourse which our blessed Savior had with Nicodemus on this subject. For when Jesus acquainted him clearly with the doctrine of regeneration, he was surprised, and fell into that inquiry which indicates some amazement, "How can these things be?" Yet the reply of our Savior makes it clear that Nicodemus might have attained a better acquaintance with it out of the Scripture than what he had: "Are you," Jesus asks, "a master in Israel, and do not know these things?" — "Do you take it upon yourself to teach others what their state and condition is, and what their duty towards God is, and yet you are ignorant yourself of so great and fundamental a doctrine as this, which you might have learned from the Scripture?" For if he could not have learned it, then there would have been no just cause for the reproof given to him by our Savior; for it was neither a crime nor negligence on his part to be ignorant of what God had not revealed. This doctrine, therefore — namely, that everyone 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 contained 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 in other ways, as it will be proved afterward.

Yet we see that it was so obscurely declared, that the principal masters and teachers of the Jewish people knew little or nothing of it. Some, indeed, would have this regeneration be nothing but a reformation of life, according to the rules of the Scripture — if they knew what they would have, and from what may be gathered from their minds, out of their "great swelling words of vanity." But Nicodemus knew the necessity of reformation of life well enough, if he ever read Moses or the Prophets. It is a blasphemous imagination to suppose that our Lord Jesus Christ proposed to Nicodemus the very thing he knew perfectly well, only under a new name or notion which Nicodemus had never heard of before, so as to charge him with being ignorant of what indeed he knew and understood full well.

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I do not know how those who look at "regeneration" as no more than a metaphorical term for an amendment of life, can free themselves from the guilt of this. And if it were so, if there is no more in regeneration than, as they love to say, becoming a new moral man — which is a thing that all the world understood, both Jews and Gentiles — then our Lord Jesus was far from bringing it into more light and giving it more perspicuity by what he taught concerning its nature, manner, causes, and effects. Rather, he thereby cast it into more darkness and obscurity than it was ever delivered in, either by Jewish masters or Gentile philosophy. The gospel really teaches all duties of morality with more exactness and clearness, and presses us to observe them on motives incomparably more cogent, than anything that ever befell the mind of man to otherwise think or apprehend. Yet, if it is supposed to intend nothing in its doctrine of the new birth or regeneration, other than those moral duties and their observance, then it is dark and unintelligible. If a secret, mysterious work of the Spirit of God in and upon the souls of men is not intended in the writings of the New Testament, but only a reformation of life — only the improvement of men's natural abilities in the exercise of moral virtue through the application of outward means to their minds and understandings, which will then conduct and persuade them to this reformation — then I say these writings must be obscure beyond those of any other writers. And some have not feared already to publish this to the world concerning the epistles of Paul. But so long as we can obtain an acknowledgment from men that these writings are true, and in any sense the word of God, then we do not doubt, but evince, that the things intended in them are clearly and properly expressed — as they ought to be, and as they are capable of being expressed. The seeming difficulties in them arise from the mysterious nature of the things contained in them, and the weakness of our minds in apprehending them, and not from any obscurity or intricacy in their declaration.

And indeed, the main contest into which things are reduced for most, consists in this. Some judge that all things are so expressed in the Scripture with a condescension to our capacity, that there is still to be conceived an inexpressible grandeur in many of them that is beyond our comprehension. Others judge that under a grandeur of words and hyperbole, things of a simpler and a lower sense are intended and are to be understood that way. Some judge that the things of the gospel are deep and mysterious, and that its words and expressions are plain and proper; others think its words and expressions are mystical and figurative, but the things intended are ordinary and obvious to the natural reason of every man. But now to return to our topic.

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Both regeneration and its doctrine were under the Old Testament. All the elect of God, in their several generations, were regenerate by the Spirit of God. But there was an amplification and enlargement of truth and grace under the gospel which came by Jesus Christ, who brought life and immortality to light. Thus, just as more persons were to be made partakers of its mercy than of old, so the nature of the work itself is far more clearly, evidently, and distinctly revealed and declared than of old. 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 he preached was the doctrine of regeneration. Previously, all things of this nature, even "from the beginning of the world, lay hidden in God" Eph 3.9. Some intimations were given of them in "parables" and "dark sayings," Psa 78.2 — in types, shadows, and ceremonies — so that the nature of the grace that was in them was not clearly discerned. But now the great Physician of our souls had come, who was to heal the wound of our natures, from which we "were dead in trespasses and sins." He laid bare the disease itself, and declared how great its extent was — the ruin that we were under from it — so that we might know and be thankful for its reparation. Hence, no doctrine is more fully and plainly declared in the gospel than this doctrine of our regeneration by the effectual and ineffable operation of the Holy Spirit. And it is a consequence and fruit of the depravity of our nature, that against the full light and evidence of truth now clearly manifested, this great and holy work is opposed and despised.

Yet few have the confidence to absolutely deny it in plain and intelligible words; rather, many tread in the steps of the one in the church of God who first undertook to undermine it.[446] This was Pelagius, whose principal artifice in introducing his heresy, was to cloud his intentions with general and ambiguous expressions, as some would also do by 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 defense of them, but reviled his adversaries as corrupting what he had in mind, and not understanding his expressions.

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By this means, he got himself acquitted in the judgment of some who were less experienced in the sleights and cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive[447] — he was juridically freed in an assembly of bishops. So in all probability he would have quickly 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 a few holy and learned persons — Austin especially — to reveal Pelagius' frauds, repel his calumnies, and confute his sophisms. These persons did so with indefatigable industry and good success. Yet these tares, once sown by the envious one, found such a suitable and fruitful soil in the darkened minds and proud hearts of men, that from that day to this, they could never be fully extirpated.[448] The same bitter root still springs up to defile many, though various new colors have been put on its leaves and fruit. Although those among us at present who have undertaken the same cause as Pelagius, do not equal him either in learning or diligence, or in an appearance of piety and devotion, yet they exactly imitate him in declaring their minds in cloudy, ambiguous expressions which are capable of various constructions — until they are fully examined. And upon that, these men reproach those who oppose them (as Arminius did) as not representing their sentiments correctly, when they judge that it is to their advantage to do so — as the scurrilous and clamorous writings of S. P.[449] sufficiently manifest.

SECONDLY, Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is the same work, as to its kind, as it has been from the beginning of the world, and as it will be to its end. And it is worked by the same power of the Spirit in all those who are, or ever were, or ever will be regenerate. There is great variety in the application of the outward means which the Holy Spirit is pleased to use and make effectual towards accomplishing this great work. Nor can the ways and manner of this be reduced to any certain order, for the Spirit works how and when he pleases, following the sole rule of his own will and wisdom.

Mostly, God makes use of the preaching of the word; this is why it is called "the ingrafted word, which is able to save our souls," Jas 1.21; and the "incorruptible seed," by which we are "born again," 1Pet 1.23. Sometimes it is worked without it — as it is in all those who are regenerate before they come to the use of reason, or who are in their infancy. Sometimes men are called and made regenerate in an extraordinary manner, as Paul was. But mostly they are regenerate in and by the use of ordinary means, instituted, blessed, and sanctified by God for that end and purpose.

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And there is also great variety in the perception and understanding of the work itself in those in whom it is worked. For in itself, regeneration is secret and hidden, and it is not discoverable in any other way than in its causes and effects; for as "the wind blows where it will, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from, and where it goes, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit," John 3.8.

In the minds and consciences of some, regeneration is made known by infallible signs and tokens. Paul knew that Christ was formed and revealed in himself, Gal 1.15-16.[450] So he declared that whoever is in Christ Jesus "is a new creature," 2Cor 5.17 — that is, is born again — whether that person knows they are born again or not. Many are in the dark all their days as to their own condition in this matter; for they "fear the Lord, and obey the voice of his servant" (Christ Jesus), and yet "walk in darkness, and have no light," Isa 50.10. They are "children of light," Luke 16.8, John 12.36, Eph 5.8, 1Thes 5.5; yet they "walk in darkness, and have no light:" recently such expressions have been well used and improved by some, and derided and blasphemed by others.

And there is great variety in carrying on this work towards perfection — in the growth of the new creature, or in the increase of grace implanted in our natures by it. For some make a great and speedy progress towards perfection through the supplies of the Spirit; and others thrive slowly and bring forth little fruit. The causes and occasions for this are not to be enumerated here. But notwithstanding all differences in previous dispositions, in the application of outward means, in the manner of it (whether it is ordinary or extraordinary), in the consequents of much or less fruit — the work itself, in its own nature, is of the same kind; it is one and the same. The elect of God were not regenerate one way, by one kind of operation of the Holy Spirit under the Old Testament, and regenerate another way under the New Testament. Those who were miraculously converted, as Paul was, or who had miraculous gifts bestowed on them at their conversion, as multitudes of primitive Christians had, were not regenerate in any other way, nor were they regenerate by any other internal efficiency of the Holy Spirit, than everyone who is really made a partaker of this grace and privilege today. Nor were those visibly miraculous operations of the Holy Spirit, any part of the work of regeneration; nor did they necessarily belong to it. For many who were never regenerate, were subjects of those operations, and received miraculous gifts by them; and many who were regenerate, were never partakers of them. It is a fruit of the highest ignorance and unacquaintedness imaginable with these things, to affirm that in the work of regeneration, the Holy Spirit worked miraculously of old, in and by outwardly visible operations — but that now he works only in a human and rational way, leading our understanding by the rules of reason (unless it is the mere external mode and sign of his operation that is intended).

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For all men ever were, and ever will be, regenerate by the same kind of operation, and by the same effect of the Holy Spirit on the faculties of their souls. This will be further manifest if we consider,

1. That the condition of all men — as unregenerate — is absolutely the same. One is not by nature more unregenerate than another. All men since the fall and the corruption of our nature by sin, are in the same state and condition towards God. They are all alike alienated from him, and are all alike under his curse.[451] There are degrees of wickedness in those who are unregenerate, but there is no difference as to state and condition between them — all are unregenerate alike; just as among those who are regenerate, there are different degrees of holiness and righteousness. One, it may be, far exceeds another; and yet between them there is no difference of state and condition — they are all equally regenerate. Indeed, some may be further forward and prepared for the work itself, and thereby further near the state of it than others; but the state itself is incapable of such degrees. Now, it must be the same work as to its kind and nature, which relieves and translates men out of the same state and condition. What gives the formal reason for the change of their state, for their translation from death to life, is and must be the same in all. If you can fix on any man from the foundation of the world, who was not equally born in sin, who was not by nature dead in trespasses and sins with all other men — the man Christ Jesus being the only exception — then I would grant that he might have another kind of regeneration than others have; but that man I know would stand in need of none at all.

2. The state into which men are brought by regeneration is the same. Nor is it, in its essence or nature, capable of degrees, so that one would be more regenerate than another. Everyone that is born of God is equally so, though one may be more beautiful than another. He may have the image of his heavenly Father more evidently impressed on him, but not more truly. Men may be more or less holy, more or less sanctified, but they cannot be more or less regenerate. All children born into the world are equally born, though some quickly outstrip others in the perfections and accomplishments of their nature. And all who are born of God are equally so, though some speedily outdo others in the accomplishments and perfections of grace. There was, then, only ever one kind of regeneration in this world; and its essential form is specifically the same in all.

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3. The efficient causes of this work are the same. The grace and power by which it is worked, along with the internal manner of the communication of that grace, is the same, as it will be declared afterward. All must come to this standard, then. Men may bear themselves high, and despise this whole work of the Spirit of God, or set up an imagination of their own in its place — but whether they will or not, they must be tried by it. No less depends on their interest in it, than their admission into the kingdom of God. Let them pretend whatever they please, the true reason why any despise the new birth is because they hate a new life. The one who cannot endure to live to God will as little endure to hear of being born of God. But we will inquire what we are taught by the Scripture concerning regeneration; we will declare both what it is not — things which falsely pretend to it — and then what it is indeed.

FIRST, Regeneration does not consist in participating in the ordinance of baptism and professing the doctrine of repentance. This is all that some will allow to it, to the utter rejection and overthrow of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the dispute in this matter is not whether the ordinances of the gospel, such as baptism, really communicate internal grace to those who are duly made partakers of them (as to the outward manner of their administration) — whether it is ex opere operato,[452] as the Papists put it, or a federal means of conveying and communicating that grace of which the ordinances are tokens and pledges. Rather, it is whether the outward reception of the ordinance, joined with a profession of repentance in those who are adult, is the whole of what is called regeneration. The vanity of this presumptuous folly will be laid open in our declaration of the nature of the work itself. It is destructive of all the grace of the gospel — an invention to countenance men in their sins. It hides from them the necessity of being born again, and in this rebirth, of turning to God.

For the present, the ensuing reasons will serve to remove it from our way:

1. Regeneration does not consist in these things, which are only outward signs and tokens of it, or at most, the instituted means of effecting it. For the nature of things is different and distinct from the means and evidences (or pledges) of them. And baptism is only this, with the profession of its doctrine, as acknowledged by all who have addressed the nature of that sacrament.[453]

2. The apostle really states this case in 1Pet 3.21: "In answer to this,[454] baptism also, now saves us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." The outward administration of this ordinance, considered materially, reaches no further than washing away "the filth of the flesh;" but more is signified by it than that.

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There is denoted in it, the pledge[455] of a "good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" from the dead, or a "conscience purged from dead works to serve the living God," Heb 9.14, i.e., a conscience quickened to holy obedience by virtue of his resurrection. See Rom 6.3-7.[456]

3. The apostle Paul plainly distinguishes between the outward ordinances, with what belongs to a due participation in them, and the work of regeneration itself: Gal 6.15, "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature;" — for just as "circumcision" intends the whole system of Mosaic ordinances, so the state of "uncircumcision" (as professing Gentiles were then uncircumcised) intends a participation in all the ordinances of the gospel. But Paul distinguishes the new creation from all those ordinances — that they may be done without a new creation; and being without the new creation, those ordinances are not able to avail anything in Christ Jesus.

4. If regeneration consisted in a participation in the ordinances, then all those who are duly baptized and upon that make a profession of its doctrine — that is, of repentance for the forgiveness of sins — they must of necessity be regenerate. But we know it to be otherwise. For instance, Simon the magician was rightly and duly baptized, for he was baptized by Philip the evangelist; and he could not be baptized without a profession of faith and repentance. Accordingly, it is said that he "believed," Acts 8.13 — that is, he made a profession of his faith in the gospel. Yet he was not regenerate; for at the same time, he had "neither part nor lot in that matter;" his "heart was not right in the sight of God;" rather, he was "in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity," verses 21, 23. This is not the description of a person who is newly regenerate and born again. Hence the cabalistic Jews, who grope in the darkness according to the old notions of truth that existed among their forefathers, say that at the same instant in which a man is made a "proselyte of righteousness," a new soul comes into him from heaven; his old pagan soul vanishes or is taken away. They understand this to mean the introduction of a new spiritual principle — this is to the soul, what the soul is to the natural body. Or they choose to express by this, the promise of taking away the "heart of stone," and giving a "heart of flesh" in its place.Eze 36.26

SECONDLY, Regeneration does not consist in a moral reformation of life and conduct. Let us suppose that such a reformation extends to all known instances. Suppose a man is changed from sensuality to temperance, from rapine to righteousness, from pride and the dominion of irregular passions to humility and moderation, with all the instances of a similar nature we can imagine, or that are prescribed in the rules of the strictest moralists — suppose that this change is labored, exact, and accurate, and of great use in the world — suppose also that a man has been brought and persuaded to it through the preaching of the gospel, thus "escaping the pollutions that are in the world through lust, by the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ;" 2Pet 2.20 or by the directions of his doctrine delivered in the gospel —

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yet I say that all this, and all this added to baptism, accompanied by a profession of faith and repentance, is not regeneration; nor do these comprise regeneration in themselves. I have extended this assertion beyond what some among us (so far as I can see) so greatly pretend to in their confused notions and sophistical expressions about morality when they equate it to grace. But whatever there may be of actual righteousness in these things, they do not express an inherent, habitual righteousness. Whoever denies this, overthrows the gospel, and the whole work of the Spirit of God, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But we must stay on this a while. This assertion of ours is not only denied by some, but it is derided. Neither is that all; but whoever maintains it, is portrayed as an enemy to morality, righteousness, and the reformation of life. All virtue, they say, is hereby excluded, to introduce I know not what imaginary godliness. Whether we are opposing or excluding moral virtue or not by the doctrine of regeneration, or by any other doctrine, God and Christ will judge and declare in due time. Indeed, if the confession of the truth were consistent with their interests, the conclusion of this doubt might be referred to their own consciences. But not being free to commit anything to that tribunal — unless we had better assurance of its freedom from corrupt principles and prejudices than we now have — we will at present leave the world to judge our doctrine by its fruits, with respect to virtue and morality, as compared with the fruits of those by whom it is denied.

In the meantime, we affirm that we aim at nothing in virtue and morality except to improve them by fixing them on a proper foundation; or by ingrafting them into that stock on which alone they will thrive and grow to the glory of God and the good of the souls of men. Nor will we be moved in this aim by the clamorous or calumnious outcries of ignorant or profligate persons. And for the assertion laid down, I desire that those who despise and reproach it, would attempt to answer the ensuing arguments by which it is confirmed, along with those others which will be insisted on in our description of the nature of the work of regeneration itself. And before they become too confident of their success, I desire that they do so on those grounds and principles which are not destructive of Christian religion, nor introductive of atheism.

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If regeneration[457] requires the infusion of a new, real, spiritual principle into the soul and its faculties, of spiritual life, light, holiness, and righteousness — one that is disposed to and suitable for the destruction or expulsion of a contrary, inbred, habitual principle of sin and enmity against God; one that enables all acts of holy obedience, and so in order of nature, it is antecedent to them — then regeneration does not consist in a mere reformation of life and moral virtue, however exact or accurate it is. Three things are to be observed to clarify this assertion before we come to its proof and confirmation; such as —

1. This reformation of life — which we say is not regeneration, or regeneration does not consist in this — is a necessary duty, indispensably required of all men. For we will take it here for the whole course of actual obedience to God, and that is according to the gospel. Those by whom obedience is urged and pressed in place of regeneration, or as what regeneration consists in, give such an account and description of it that it is (or at least it may be) foreign to true gospel-obedience; and so it does not contain in it one acceptable duty to God, as will be declared after. But I will take it in our present inquiry, as that whole course of duties which is prescribed to us in obedience to God.

2. The principle described before, in which regeneration consists as passively considered, or as worked in us, always certainly and infallibly produces the reformation of life intended. In some, it does this more completely, in others more imperfectly, and in all sincerely. For the same grace in nature and kind, is communicated to several persons in various degrees, and it is used and improved by them with more or less care and diligence. In those, therefore, who are adult, these things are inseparable. Therefore,

3. The difference in this matter comes to this head: We say and believe that regeneration consists "in a spiritual renovation of our nature." Our modern Socinians say that it consists "in a moral reformation of life." Now, just as we grant that this spiritual renovation of nature will infallibly produce a moral reformation of life; so too, if they would grant that this moral reformation of life proceeds from a spiritual renovation of our nature, then this difference would be at an end. This is what the ancients mean by first receiving the Holy Ghost, and then receiving all graces with him.[458]

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However, if they only intend to speak ambiguously, improperly, and unscripturally — confounding effects and their causes, habits and their actions, faculties or powers and occasional acts, infused principles and acquired habits, spiritual and moral, grace and nature — so that, for lack of a better advantage, they may have an opportunity to rail at others, I will not contend with them. For if we allow a new spiritual principle, an infused habit of grace, or gracious abilities, to be required in and for regeneration, or to be the product or work of the Spirit in this (that which is "born of the Spirit being spirit"), then this part of the nature of this work is sufficiently cleared.

Now, the Scripture abundantly testifies to this. 2Cor 5.17, "If any man is in Christ he is a new creature." This new creature is what is intended, and what was described before; and being born of the Spirit, it is spirit. This is produced in the souls of men by a creative act of the power of God,[459] or else it is not a creature. And it is superinduced into the essential faculties of our souls, or else it is not a new creature; for whatever is in the soul by nature — of power, disposition, ability, or inclination to God, or for any moral actions — it belongs to the old creation; it is not a new creature. And it must also be something that has a being and subsistence of its own in the soul, or else it cannot be either new or a creature. And our apostle opposes it to all outward privileges, Gal 5.6, 6.15.[460] The Scripture testifies that it is also produced by a creative act of almighty power, Psa 51.10; Eph 2.10;[461] and this can denote nothing but a new spiritual principle or nature, worked in us by the Spirit of God. "No," say some; "a new creature is no more than a changed man." It is true, we reply; but then this change is also internal. "Yes, in the purposes, designs, and inclinations of the mind." But, we ask, is it by a real infusion of a new principle of spiritual life and holiness? "No;" they say, "it denotes no more than a new course of conduct; the expression 'new creature' is only metaphorical. A new creature is a moral man who has changed his course and way; for if he was always a moral man who was never in any vicious[462] way or course, as with the rich young ruler, Mat 19.16-22,[463] then he was always a new creature."

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Oh, this is good gospel — at once overthrowing original sin and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! This doctrine, I am sure, was not learned from the fathers, of which some used to boast. Indeed, it is much more excessive than anything ever taught by Pelagius himself. Indeed, he ascribed more to grace than these men do, even though he denied this creation of a new principle of grace in us, antecedent to our acts of obedience.[464] Such a turning of all Scripture expressions of spiritual things into metaphors, is only a way to turn the whole of Scripture into a fable; or at least to render the gospel the most obscure and improper way of teaching the truth of things that was ever made use of in the world.

This new creature, therefore, does not consist in a new course of actions, but in renewed faculties, with new dispositions toward them, and power or ability for them. Hence it is called the "divine nature:"

2Pet 1.4, "He has given us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature."

This "divine nature" is not the nature of God, which we are not subjectively partakers of in our own persons; yet it is a nature which is a principle of operation; and that principle is divine or spiritual — namely, a habitual holy principle worked in us by God, and bearing his image. By the "promises," therefore, we are made partakers of a divine, supernatural principle of spiritual actions and operations, which is what we contend for. The whole of what we intend is declared in this:

Eph 4.22-24, "Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, which is created after God, in righteousness and true holiness."

What is described here is the work of regeneration, with respect both to its foundation and its progress.

1. The foundation of the whole is laid in being "renewed in the spirit of our mind;" which the same apostle calls being "transformed in the renovation of our minds," Rom 12.2. It will be declared afterward how this consists in the participation of a new, saving, supernatural light, to enable the mind to spiritual actings, and to guide it in this. In this consists our "renovation in knowledge, after the image of him who created us," Col 3.10. And,

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2. The principle itself, infused into us and created in us, is called the "new man," Eph 4.24 — that is, the new creature mentioned before; and it is called the "new man" because it consists in the universal change of the whole soul, being the principle of all spiritual and moral action. And,

(1.) It is opposed to the "old man," "Put off the old man," verse 22, and "put on the new man," verse 24. Now, this "old man" is the corruption of our nature, as that nature is the principle of all religious, spiritual, and moral actions. This is evident in Rom 6.6.[465] It is not the corrupt conduct, but the principle and root of it; for it is distinguished from both the conduct of men, and those corrupt lusts which are exercised in this conduct, as to that exercise. And,

(2.) It is called the "new man," because it is the effect and product of God's creative power, and that is by way of "a new creation," see Eph 1.19; Col 2.12-13; 2Thes 1.11.[466] And here it is said to be "created after God," Eph 4.24. Now, the object of a creating act is an instantaneous production. Whatever preparations there may be for it, and dispositions to it, the act of bringing forth a new form and being, by creation, is done in an instant. Therefore, this cannot consist in a mere reformation of life. So we are said in this to be the "workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus for good works," Eph 2.10. There is a work of God in us that precedes all our good works towards him; for before we can work any of them (in order of nature), we must first be the workmanship of God, created for them, or enabled spiritually to perform them.

Again: This new man, by which we are born again, is said to be created in righteousness and true holiness. I assume it will not be denied that in respect to man, it is created in innocence, in which he was made in the image of God. This is also expressed Col 3.10, "You have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." We must, then, look at what the image of God was in the first man, or what it consisted in; for this new man which is created by God, corresponds to this image. Now, this did not consist in reformation of life, nor in a course of virtuous actions; for Adam was created in the image of God before he had done any good thing at all, or was capable of doing so. Rather, this image of God consisted principally, as we have evinced elsewhere, in the uprightness, rectitude, and ability of his whole soul — his mind, will, and affections — in, to, and for the obedience that God required of him. He was endowed with this, antecedent to all voluntary actions by which he was to live to God. Therefore, our regeneration, or the creation of this new man in us, must be the same. It is the begetting, infusing, and creating of a new saving principle of spiritual life, light, and power in the soul, antecedent to any true evangelical reformation of life, in order of nature, enabling men to this reformation, according to the mind of God.

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This is in accord with that saying of our Savior in Luke 6.43, "A good tree does not bear corrupt fruit, nor does a corrupt tree bear good fruit;" also Mat 7.18.[467] The fruit follows the nature of the tree; and there is no way to change the nature of the fruit, except by changing the nature of the tree which bears it. Now, all amendment of life in reformation is but fruit, Mat 3.10;[468] but the changing of our nature is antecedent to this. This is the constant course and tenor of the Scripture, to distinguish between the grace of regeneration — which it declares to be an immediate supernatural work of God, in us and upon us — and all that obedience, holiness, righteousness, virtue, or whatever is good in us — which is the consequent, product, and effect of that work. Indeed, God has declared this expressly in his covenant, Eze 36.25-27; Jer 31.33; 32.39-40.[469] The method of God's proceeding with us in his covenant is that he first washes and cleanses our natures, takes away the heart of stone, gives a heart of flesh, writes his law in our hearts, and puts his Spirit in us; this is what the grace of regeneration consists in, as it will be evidenced. The effect and consequent of this, is that we will walk in his statutes, keep his judgments and do them — that is, we will reform our lives, and yield all holy obedience to God. Therefore these things are distinguished as causes and effects. To the same purpose, see Rom 6.3-6; Col 3.1-5; Eph 2.10, 4.23-25.[470] I will still insist on this, on the supposition that "reformation of life" means all actual obedience. For that kind of life which is properly called a "moral course of life," in opposition to open debaucheries and unrighteousness (which do not proceed from an internal principle of saving grace), is so far from being regeneration or grace, that it is something which has no acceptance with God absolutely, whatever use or reputation it may have in the world.

And still further: This work of regeneration is described as consisting in the sanctification of the whole spirit, soul, and body, 1Thes 5.23.[471] And if this is what some men mean by "reformation of life" and "moral virtue," they must win great esteem for their clearness and perspicuity in teaching spiritual things; for who would not admire them for such a definition of morality — namely, that it is the principal sanctification of the whole spirit, soul, and body of a believer, by the Holy Ghost? But not to dwell longer on this subject, there is no description of the work of regeneration in the Scripture — in its nature, causes, or effects, no name given to it, no promise made of it, nothing spoken of the ways, means, or power by which it is worked — that is consistent with this bold Pelagian figment, which is itself destructive of the grace of Jesus Christ.

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The ground of this imagination, that regeneration consists in a moral reformation of life, arises from a denial of original sin, or an inherent, habitual corruption of nature. For the teachers of the men of this persuasion tell us that whatever is of vice or defilement in us, is contracted by a habit of sinning only. And their conceptions of this regulate their opinions about regeneration. For if man is not originally corrupted and polluted, if his nature is not depraved, if it is not possessed by, and under the power of, evil dispositions and inclinations, then it is certain that he stands in no need of an inward spiritual renovation of that nature. It is enough for such a person that, by a change of life, he renounces his habit of sinning, and reforms his conduct according to the gospel — which he has the power to do in himself. But as it has already been manifested in part, and will be fully evinced afterward (God assisting), that in our regeneration, the native ignorance, darkness, and blindness of our minds are dispelled, as saving and spiritual light is introduced by the power of God's grace into them; that the depravity and stubbornness of our wills are removed and taken away, as a new principle of spiritual life and righteousness is 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, to the faith of the ancient church, and to the experience of all sincere believers, has lately produced among us nothing but ignorance, and a ready confidence to countenance it.

THIRDLY, The work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration does not consist in enthusiastic raptures, ecstasies, voices, or anything of the kind. It may be that such things have been apprehended or pretended by some deluded persons. But countenancing any such imaginations is falsely and injuriously charged against those who maintain the powerful and effectual work of the Holy Spirit in our regeneration. And some are prone to make such charges, whether they reveal more of their ignorance or their malice in doing it, I do not know; but nothing is more common with them. Anyone they dissent from in this matter (so far as they know what they say or affirm), is said to teach men to look for enthusiastic inspirations or unaccountable raptures, and to consider them as a conversion to God, even if these converts continue to live in neglect of holiness and righteous conduct. I answer, If there are those who teach these things, we have no doubt that without their repentance, the wrath of God will come on them, as it will upon other children of disobedience. Yet, in the meantime, we cannot but sound the alarm, so that others will reveal their diligence in attending to these things — those who, as far as I can discern, shout the names of virtue and righteousness in opposition to the grace of Jesus Christ, and to that holiness which is its fruit.

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But as for the reproach now under consideration, as applied, it is nothing else than a calumny and false accusation. And the writings and preachings of those who have most diligently labored in the declaration of the work of the Holy Spirit in our regeneration, will testify that it is so at the great day of the Lord. We may therefore observe three things as to this negative principle:

1. That the Holy Spirit in this work ordinarily exerts his power in and by the use of means. He also works on men suitable to their natures, as the faculties of their souls, minds, wills, and affections are fit to be affected and worked upon. He does not come upon them with involuntary raptures, using their faculties and powers like the evil spirit contorts the bodies of those whom he possesses. The Spirit's whole work, therefore, is to be accounted for rationally by and to those who believe the Scripture, and have received the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive. The formal efficiency of the Spirit in putting forth the exceeding greatness of his power in our quickening — which the ancient church, both in private writing and canons of councils, constantly calls his "inspiration of grace" — is not to be comprehended differently by us than any other creative act of divine power. For just as we hear the wind, but do not know where it comes from or where it goes, "so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Yet these two things are certain in this:

(1.) That he works nothing, nor in any other way, nor by any other means, than what are determined and declared in the word. Therefore, everything really belonging to, or pretended to belong to this work of regeneration, may and must be tried and examined by that.

(2.) That he does not act contrary to, and puts no force upon, any of the faculties of our souls; rather, he works in them and by them, suitable to their natures; and being more intimate unto them than they are to themselves, as Austin puts it, by an almighty facility he produces the effect which he intends.

This great work, therefore, does not consist in raptures, ecstasies, visions, or enthusiastic inspirations, whether in part or in whole; rather, it consists in the effect of the power of the Spirit of God on the souls of men, by and according to his word, both the law and the gospel. And those who charge contrary things against those who have asserted, declared, and preached it according to the Scriptures, probably do it to countenance themselves in their hatred of them, and of the work itself. Thus —

2. Where there is a diseased[472] mind, a disordered imagination, or long-term distressing fears and sorrows — and the person is under those preparatory works of the Spirit which sometimes cut men to their hearts in sensing their sin and their sinful, lost condition — if any of these should then fall into apprehensions or imaginations of anything extraordinary in the ways mentioned before,

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and if it is not quickly and strictly brought under control, and discarded by that, then it may be of great danger to their souls; it is never of any solid use or advantage. Such apprehensions, for the most part, are either conceptions of diseased minds and discomposed imaginations, or delusions of Satan transforming himself into an angel of light, which the doctrine of regeneration should not be accountable for. Yet I must say —

3. That it has so come to pass, that many of those who have really been made partakers of this gracious work of the Holy Spirit, have been looked at by the world (which does not know them) as mad, enthusiastic, and fanatical. So the captains of the army considered the prophet who came to anoint Jehu, 2Kng 9.11.[473] And the kindred of our Savior, when he began to preach the gospel, said he was "beside himself," or ecstatic, Mark 3.21,[474] and "they went out to lay hold on him." So Festus judged about Paul, Acts 26.24-25.[475] And the author of the Book of Wisdom gives us an account of what acknowledgments some will make to their own advantage, when it is too late:

Wis 5.3-5, "They will say, crying out because of the trouble of their minds,[476] This is the one whom we held in derision, and a proverb of reproach. We fools esteemed his life madness, and his 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 has been said, it appears —

FOURTHLY, That the work of the Spirit of God in regenerating the souls of men is to be diligently inquired into by the preachers of the gospel, and all to whom the word is dispensed. For preachers, there is a particular reason for their attendance to this duty: they are used and employed in the work itself by the Spirit of God, and they are made instrumental by him to effect this new birth and life. So the apostle Paul styles himself as the father of those who were converted to God or regenerated through the word of his ministry:

1Cor 4.15, "Though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have 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 he and he alone was their spiritual father, even though the work was afterward carried on by others. If men are fathers in the gospel to no more than those who are converted to God by their personal ministry, then one day it will be no advantage to anyone to assume that title, if it had no foundation in that work, as to its effectual success.[477] Thus, speaking of Onesimus who was converted by Paul in prison, he calls him "his son, whom he had begotten in his bonds," Phm 10. And he declared that this had been prescribed to him as the principal end of his ministry, in the commission he had for preaching the gospel, Acts 26.17-18. Christ said to him, "I send you to the Gentiles... to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God."

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This 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, as far as they are able, the work about which they are employed, so that they may not work in the dark and fight uncertainly, as men beating the air.1Cor 9.26 They ought to diligently inquire into what the Scripture has revealed concerning it, as to its nature and the manner of its operation, as to its causes, effects, fruits, and evidences. To be spiritually skilled in this, is one of the principal furnishings anyone can have for the work of the ministry, and without it they will never be able to rightly divide the word, nor show themselves to be workmen who need not be ashamed.2Tim 2.15 Yet it is scarcely imaginable with what rage and perversity of spirit, with what scornful expressions, this whole work is maligned and exposed to contempt. Those who have labored in this are said,

"to prescribe long and tedious trains of conversion, to set down nice and subtle processes of regeneration, to fill people's heads with countless swarms of superstitious fears and scruples[478] about the due degrees of godly sorrow, and the certain symptoms of a thorough humiliation." [479]

If any mistake could be charged to particular persons in these things, or if prescribing rules about conversion to God and regeneration are not warranted by the word of truth, then it would not be amiss to reflect upon them and refute them. But the intention of these expressions is evident, and the reproach contained in them is cast upon the work of God itself. 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 on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in these and like expressions, by those who not only profess to be ministers, but ministers of a higher degree than ordinary, will be sadly ominous to the whole state of the reformed church among us, if it is not quickly repressed and corrected.

But at present, what I affirm in this matter is —

1. That it is a duty indispensably incumbent on all ministers of the gospel, to acquaint themselves thoroughly with the nature of this work, so that they may be able to comply with the will of God and the grace of the Spirit in effecting and accomplishing it upon the souls of those to whom they dispense the word. Nor, without some competent knowledge of this, can they discharge any one part of their duty and office in a right manner. If all who hear them are born dead in trespasses and sins, and if these ministers are appointed by God to be the instruments of their regeneration, then it is a madness which must one day be accounted for, to neglect a sedulous[480] inquiry into the nature of this work, and the means by which it is worked. Ignorance of this, or negligence in this, with the lack of any 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.

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2. It is likewise the duty of all to whom the word is preached, to inquire into it also. It is these to whom the apostle speaks in 2Cor 13.5: "Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? unless you are reprobates." It is the concern of all individual Christians, or professors of Christian religion, to test and examine themselves as to what work of the Spirit of God there has been upon their hearts; and none will deter them from it, except those who have a design to hoodwink them to perdition. And —

(1.) The doctrine of it is revealed and taught to us; for "secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may do all the words of the law," Deu 29.29. And we do not speak of curious inquiries into or after hidden things, or the secret, veiled actions of the Holy Spirit; but only of an upright endeavor to search into and comprehend the doctrine concerning this work; and that is to this very end: that we might understand it.

(2.) It is of such importance to all our duties and all our comforts to have a due apprehension of the nature of this work, and of our own concern in this, that an inquiry into one and the other cannot be neglected without the greatest folly and madness. To which we may add,

(3.) There is a danger that men may be deceived in this matter, which is the hinge on which their eternal state and condition absolutely turns and depends. And it is certain that very many in the world deceive themselves in this: for they evidently live under one of these pernicious mistakes — namely, either,

[1.] That men may go to heaven, or "enter into the kingdom of God," and not be "born again," contrary to that statement of our Savior in John 3.5; or,

[2.] That men may be "born again," and yet live in sin, contrary to 1John 3.9.[481]

Chapter II.

Works of the Holy Spirit preparatory to regeneration.

Various things preparatory to the work of conversion — Material and formal dispositions, with their difference — Things in the power of our natural abilities required of us as our duty — Internal, spiritual effects worked in the souls of men by the word — Illumination — Conviction of sin — Consequents of this — These things variously taught — Power of the word and energy of the Spirit distinct — Subject of this work; mind, affections, and conscience — Nature of this whole work, and difference from saving conversion further declared.

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First, in reference to the work of regeneration itself, positively considered, we may observe that ordinarily there are certain previous and preparatory works, or workings in and upon the souls of men, that are antecedent and dispositive to regeneration. Yet regeneration does not consist in them, nor can it be educed out of them. For the substance of it, this is the position of the divines of the Church of England at the synod of Dort, two of whom died bishops, and others were dignified in the hierarchy. I mention it so that those by whom these things are despised, may consider a little whose ashes they trample on and scorn. It is doubtless lawful for any man, on just grounds, to dissent from their judgments and determinations;[482] but to do it with an imputation of folly, with derision, contempt, scorn, and scoffing at what these men believed and taught, becomes only a generation of new divines among us.

But to return; I speak in this position only about those who are adult, and not converted until they have made use of the means of grace in and by their own reasons and understandings; and the dispositions I intend are only materially so, not those which contain grace of the same nature as regeneration itself. A material disposition is that which disposes and in some way makes a subject fit to receive what will be communicated, added, or infused into it as its form. So wood is made fit and ready for firing, or continual fire, by dryness and a due composure. A formal disposition is where one degree of the same kind disposes the subject to further degrees of it; just as the morning light, which is of the same kind, disposes the air to receive the full light of the [noon] sun. The former we allow here; not the latter. Thus, in natural generation there are various dispositions of the matter before the form is introduced. So the body of Adam was formed before the rational soul was breathed into it; and Ezekiel's bones came together with a noise and shaking before the breath of life entered into them.Eze 37.7-10

I will give here only a summary account of this preparatory work, because at the close of these discourses I will handle it practically and more at large. Therefore, what I have to offer here concerning this work, will be reduced to the ensuing observations:

FIRST, There are some things required of us by way of duty in order for our regeneration, which are so much in the power of our own natural abilities, that nothing but corrupt prejudices and stubbornness in sinning, keep or hinder men from performing them. We may reduce these to two headings:

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1. An outward attendance to the dispensation of the word of God, with those other external means of grace which accompany it, or are appointed in this. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God," Rom 10.17; that is, it is hearing the word of God which is the ordinary means of ingenerating faith in the souls of men. This is required of all those to whom the gospel comes; and they are able to do this of themselves, as well as any other natural or civil action. And where men don't do it, where they despise the word at a distance — indeed, where they don't do it with diligence and choice — it is merely from supine[483] negligence of spiritual things, from carnal security and contempt of God, which they must answer for.

2. A diligent intension of mind, using the means of grace, in order to understand and receive the things that are revealed and declared as the mind and will of God. For this end, God has given men their reasons and understandings: so that they may use and exercise them about their duty towards him, according to the revelation of his mind and will. To this purpose, God calls upon them to remember that they are men, and to turn to him. And there is nothing in this that is not in the liberty and power of the rational faculties of our souls, assisted by those common aids which God affords to all men in general.

And great advantages may be, and are, daily attained by this. Persons, I say, who diligently apply their rational abilities in and about spiritual things, as externally revealed in the word and in its preaching, usually attain great advantages by it. And they excel their equals in other things, as Paul did when he was instructed at the feet of Gamaliel. If men would only be as intent and diligent in their endeavors after knowledge in spiritual things, suitable to our capacities and understandings, as they are to get skill in crafts, sciences, and other mysteries of life, it would be far different with many than it is. Neglect in this is also the fruit of sensuality, spiritual sloth, love of sin, and contempt of God — all of which are the voluntary frames and actings of the minds of men. These things are required of us for our regeneration; and it is in the power of our own wills to comply with them. We may observe concerning them that —

1. Their omission, men's neglect in them, is the principal occasion and cause of the eternal ruin of the souls of most of those to whom, or among whom, the gospel is preached:

John 3.19 "This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

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Most men know full well in this matter, that they no more do what they are able to do, than what they should do. All pleadable pretenses of inability and weakness are far from them. They can only know here, and be forced to confess hereafter, that it was merely from their own cursed sloth, along with love of the world and sin, that they were diverted from a diligent attendance to the means of conversion, and the sedulous[484] exercise of their minds about them. Complaints of this against them, will make up a great part of their last dreadful cry.

2. In the most diligent use of outward means, men are not able to attain regeneration, or a complete conversion to God, by themselves — not without an especial, effectual, internal work of the Holy Spirit of grace on their whole soul. The substance of what is principally proposed in the ensuing discourses to confirm this, need not be asserted here.

3. Ordinarily in the effectual dispensation of his grace, God meets with those who attend with diligence to the outward administration of the means of grace. He ordinarily does so, I say, in comparison to those who despise and neglect them. Yes, sometimes he goes out of his way, as it were, to meet with and bring home to himself a persecuting Saul,Act 9.3-5 taking him in, and taking him away from a course of open sin and rebellion. But ordinarily he dispenses his particular and special grace among those who attend to the common means of that grace. For he will both glorify his word by that, and give out pledges of his approbation[485] of our obedience to his commands and institutions.

SECONDLY, There are certain internal spiritual effects worked in and upon the souls of men, of which the word preached is the immediate and instrumental cause; these ordinarily precede the work of regeneration, or our real conversion to God. And they are reducible to three heads:

1. Illumination;

2. Conviction;

3. Reformation.

The first of these respects the mind only; the second, the mind, conscience, and affections; and the third, the life and conduct:

1. The first is illumination. We must distinctly address its nature and causes afterward. At present, I will only consider it as it is ordinarily previous to regeneration, and as it materially disposes the mind to this regeneration. Now, all the light which we attain to by any means, or any knowledge that we have in or about spiritual things — things of supernatural revelation — come under this designation of illumination. And there are three degrees of this:

(1.) That which arises merely from an industrious application of the rational faculties of our souls to know, perceive, and understand the doctrines of truth as revealed to us; for hereby much knowledge of divine truth may be obtained, which others are unacquainted with through their negligence, sloth, and pride.

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And this knowledge I refer to as illumination — that is, a light superadded to the innate conceptions of men's minds, and beyond what they can extend to of themselves — this is because it concerns things that the heart of man could never conceive of by itself, but the very knowledge of them is communicated by their revelation, 1Cor 2.9-11.[486] And the reason why so very few exercise themselves to attain this knowledge according to their abilities, is because of the enmity which is naturally in the carnal minds of all men to the things that are revealed. And within the compass of this degree, I comprise all knowledge of spiritual things that is merely natural.

(2.) There is an illumination which is a special effect of the Holy Ghost on the minds of men by the word. With respect to this, some who fall totally from God and perish eternally are said to have been "once enlightened," Heb 6.4. This light variously affects the mind, and it makes a great addition to what is purely natural, or attainable by the mere exercise of our natural abilities. For,

[1.] It adds perspicuity to it, making the things discerned clearer and more perspicuous to the mind. Hence men endowed with it are said to "know the way of righteousness," 2Pet 2.21 — they clearly and distinctly apprehend the doctrine of the gospel as the way of righteousness. They know it not only or merely as true, but as a way of righteousness — namely, the way of God's righteousness which, in this illumination, is "revealed from faith to faith," Rom 1.17, and as the way of righteousness for sinners in the sight of God, Rom 10.3-4.[487]

[2.] It adds a greater assent to the truth of the things revealed than mere natural reason can rise to. Hence those who are thus illuminated are frequently said to "believe;" their faith is only the naked assent of their minds to the truth revealed to them. So it is said of Simon the magician in Acts 8.13, and of various Jews, as in John 2.23, 12.42.[488]

[3.] It adds to them some kind of vanishing joy. These "receive the word with joy," and yet they have "no root in themselves," Luke 8.13. They "rejoice in the light" of it, at least "for a season," John 5.35. Persons who are thus enlightened, will be variously affected by the word, unlike those whose natural faculties are not spiritually excited.

[4.] It often adds gifts also, of which this spiritual light is the common matter between them, as it were; yet in its exercise, it is formed and fashioned in great variety. I say, this kind of spiritual light, the effect of this illumination, is the subject-matter which contains in it the substance of all spiritual gifts. It is one sort of gift when applied and exercised in one way, or in one kind of duty; and it is another sort of gift, as it is exercised in another way or duty. And where illumination is improved into gifts, which is principally by its exercise, there it wonderfully affects the mind, and it raises its apprehensions in and of spiritual things.

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Now, concerning this degree of illumination, I say, first, That it is not regeneration, nor does regeneration consist in this, nor does it necessarily or infallibly ensue from it. A third degree is required for this, which we will explain afterward. Many, therefore, may be thus enlightened, and yet never be converted. Secondly, in order of nature, illumination is previous to a full and real conversion to God, and it is materially preparatory and dispositive to this conversion — 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 labor after participating in it, even though it is abused by many.

2. Conviction of sin is another effect of the preaching of the word antecedent to real conversion to God. The apostle describes this in general: 1Cor 14.24-25, "If all prophesy, and an unbeliever comes in, he is convicted by all: and thus the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so falling down on his face, he will worship God." Various things are included in this, or accompany it; such as —

(1.) A disquieting sense of the guilt of sin with respect to the law of God, with his threatenings and future judgment. Things that were slighted and mocked before, now become the soul's burden and constant disquietude. "Fools mock sin;" Pro 14.9 they traverse their ways, and sniff the wind like the wild ass; but in their month, when conviction has burdened them, you may find them.Jer 2.24 And hereby the minds of men are variously affected by fears and anguish, and in various degrees[489] according to the impressions made on them by the word. And these degrees are not prescribed as necessary duties to persons who are under their convictions, but are only described as they usually fall out, for the relief and direction of those concerned in them. It is like a man who gives directions to 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 does not steer very carefully, he will be in danger of [shipwreck] and being cast away. He does not prescribe it to him as his duty to sail among such rocks and into such storms; but he only directs him how to guide himself in them where he does meet with them, as he assuredly will if he misses his proper course.

(2.) Sorrow or grief for sin committed, because it is past and irrecoverable; this is the formal reason for this condemning sorrow. Scripture calls this the "sorrow of the world," 2Cor 7.10; divines usually call it legal sorrow, as that which, in conjunction with the sense of the guilt of sin mentioned, brings men into bondage under fear, Rom 8.15.

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(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, 1Kng 21.29.

(4.) Unless the soul is swallowed up in despair by these things, it cannot be filled with those thoughts, desires, inquiries, and contrivances about a deliverance from that state and condition in which it finds itself; as in Acts 2.37, 16.30.[490]

3. Oftentimes a great reformation of life, and a change in affections, ensue upon this; Mat 13.20; 2Pet 2.20; Mat 12.44.[491]

All these things [concerning illumination and conviction] may be worked in the minds of men by the dispensation of the word, and yet the work of regeneration is never perfected in them. Indeed, although they are good in themselves, and they are fruits of the kindness of God towards us, they may not only be lost as to any spiritual advantage, but they may also be abused to our great disadvantage. And this does not come to pass except by our own sin, by which we contract a new guilt upon our souls. And that commonly happens in one of these three ways; for —

1. Some are in no way careful or wise to improve this light and conviction to the end to which they tend and are designed. Their message is to turn the minds of men, and take them away from their self-confidence, and direct them to Christ. Where this is not attended to, where they are not used and improved to pursue this end, they imperceptibly wither, decay, and come to nothing.

2. In some they are overborne by the power and violence of their lusts, the love of sin, and the efficacy of temptation. They are sinned away every day, leaving the soul in ten times worse a condition than they found it.

3. Some rest in these things, as though they comprised 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, to any considerable reformation of life, and attendance to the duties of religious worship. But as was said, this happens through the abuse to which the carnal minds of men put these things, as they retain their enmity against God. Yet, in their own nature they are good, useful, and material preparations for regeneration, disposing the mind to receive the grace of God.

The doctrine concerning these things has been variously handled, distinguished, and applied, by many learned divines and faithful ministers of the gospel. They joined to that light which they received them from the infallible word of truth, those experiences which they had observed in their own hearts, and the consciences of others with whom they had to deal, which were suitable to this. And in dispensing this truth according to the "measure of the gift of the grace of Christ" which they severally received, they had a useful and fruitful ministry in the world, converting many to God.

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But we have lived to see all these things decried and rejected. And the way which some have taken in this, is as strange and uncouth[492] as the thing itself — for not once do they try to disprove by Scripture or reason, what has been taught or delivered by any sober persons to this purpose. Nor do they endeavor to declare from or by the Scriptures, what the work of regeneration is, or what its causes and effects are in opposition to this teaching.

These and like ways of teaching, made use of by all those who have addressed spiritual things from the foundation of Christianity, are despised and rejected; while horrible and contemptuous reproaches are cast upon the things themselves, in words that are heaped together on purpose to expose these teachings to scorn among persons who are ignorant of the gospel and of themselves. They call those who teach them "ecstatic and illiterate;" and those who receive them are called "superstitious, giddy, and fanatical." All conviction, sense of sin, and sorrow for it; all fear of the curse and wrath which are due for sin; all troubles and distresses of the mind because of these things — are called by some, "foolish imaginations, the effects of bodily diseases and distempers, enthusiastic notions arising from the disorders of men's brains," and I know not what unseemly "moods in their attitudes and constitutions."[493] The same or similar account is also given concerning all spiritual deserts, or joys and refreshments. And the whole doctrine concern these works of the Spirit, is branded a fad; hopes are expressed that it would suddenly vanish out of the world.

We have lived to see this contempt and scorn of the gospel, of which perhaps other ages and places have not experienced.[494] All these things are plentifully taught by some of the ancients, as expressed in their expositions of the scriptures. This was especially true of Austin, who had occasion to inquire into them particularly. So too, the doctrine concerning them is retained in great measure in the church of Rome itself. Only some among ourselves are weary of them — those who being in no way able to oppose the principles and foundations on which they are built, nor able to disprove them by Scripture or reason, take to these revilings and reproaches. And it is not enough for them to proclaim their own ignorance of and personal unacquaintedness with those things which inseparably accompany that conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment which our Lord Jesus Christ promised to send the Holy Spirit to work in all those who believe. They also make reproaching it in others a principal effect of that religion which they profess. "Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, The Lord knows those who are his," 2Tim 2.19. But we must return to our purpose.

THIRDLY, All the things mentioned as being worked instrumentally by the word, are effects of the power of the Spirit of God. The word itself, under a bare proposal to the minds of men, will not affect them this way.

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To confirm this, we need go no further than merely to consider the preaching of the prophets of old (with the effects it had on many), Isa 49.4, Jer 15.20, Eze 33.31-32; or the preaching 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 among ourselves sit all day under the preaching of the word, and yet they have none of the effects mentioned worked upon them; while others, their associates in hearing, are actually affected, convicted, and converted. It is therefore the ministration of the Spirit, in and by the word, which produces all or any of these effects on the minds of men. He is the fountain of all illumination. Hence, those who are "enlightened" are said to be made "partakers of the Holy Spirit," Heb 6.4. And the Spirit is promised by our Savior "to convict the world of sin," John 16.8. Even though in that verse it respects only one kind of sin, it is sufficient to establish a general rule that all conviction of sin is from and by the Spirit. It is no wonder then, that men can live securely in their sins, when the light which the Spirit gives, and the convictions which he works, are a scorn and a reproach to them.

There is, indeed, an objection of some moment against ascribing this work to the energy of the Holy Spirit;

Obj. – "Because it is granted that all these things may be worked in the minds and souls of men, and yet they may come short of the saving grace of God, how can he be thought to be the author of such a work? Will we say that he designs only a weak and imperfect work upon the hearts of men? Or that he deserts and abandons the work of grace which he has undertaken towards them, as if he is not able to accomplish it?"

Ans. 1. In many persons, maybe in most, who are thus affected, real conversion to God does ensue. By these preparatory actings, the Holy Spirit makes way for the introduction of the new spiritual life into the soul: so these things[495] belong to a work that is perfect in its kind.

Ans. 2. Wherever these things fail and come short of what, in their own nature, they have a tendency to, it is not from any weakness and imperfection in themselves, but from the sins of those in whom they are worked. For instance, even common illumination and conviction of sin have, in their own nature, a tendency to sincere conversion. They have this tendency in the same way that the law has a tendency to bring us to Christ. Where this end is not attained, it is always from the interposition of an act of willfulness and stubbornness in those who are enlightened and convicted. They do not sincerely improve what they have received. And they do not faint merely for lack of strength to proceed, but by a free act of their own wills, they refuse the grace which is further tendered to them in the gospel.

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In some, God is pleased to take away this will and its actual resistance to the work of the Spirit. It is therefore of sovereign grace when and where it is removed. But the sin of men and their guilt is in it wherever this resistance is continued. For no more is required for this than that it be voluntary. It is will, and not power, that gives rectitude or obliquity[496] to moral actions.

Ans. 3. As we observed before, the Holy Spirit in his whole work is a voluntary agent. He works what, when, and how he pleases. That they may suit him, no more is required for his operations than these two things:

First, That in themselves they are good and holy.

Secondly, That they are effectual for the ends to which they are designed by him.

It is not required that he should always design them to the utmost extent of what they have a moral tendency towards, though they have no real efficiency for it. And these things are found in the operations of the Holy Spirit. They are good and holy in their own nature. Illumination is good and holy; so is conviction and sorrow for sin, with a subsequent change of affections and amendment of life.

Again: What the Spirit works in any of these, effectively and infallibly accomplishes the end aimed at, which is no more than this: that men be enlightened, convicted, humbled, and reformed; and in these, he does not fail. In these things he is pleased to take on himself the management of the law, so as to bring the soul into bondage by it, so that it may be stirred up to seek deliverance. And from this, he is actively called the "Spirit of bondage to fear," Rom 8.15. And this work constitutes the third type of ground in our Savior's parable of the sower. It receives the seed which springs up hopefully, until by cares of the world, temptations, and occasions of life, it is choked and lost, Mat 13.22. Now, because this work often makes a great appearance and resemblance of regeneration, or of real conversion to God — so that neither the world nor the church is able to distinguish between them — it is of great concern to all professors of the gospel to diligently inquire whether, in their own souls, they have been made partakers of any other work of the Spirit of God or not. For although this is a good work, and it has a good subservience[497] to regeneration, yet if men attain no more, if they proceed no further, they will perish eternally. And multitudes actually deceive themselves in this, speaking peace to their souls on the effects of this work; by which it is not only insufficient to save them, as it is to all persons at all times, but it also becomes a means of their present security and future destruction. I will therefore give a few instances of what this work cannot effect, in the conjunction of all its parts, and in its utmost improvement. By this, men may judge how things stand in their own souls in respect to it:

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1. It may be observed that we have placed all the effects of this work in the mind, conscience, affections, and conduct. Hence it follows, notwithstanding all that is or may be spoken about it, that the will is neither really changed, nor is it internally renewed by regeneration. Now, the will is the ruling, governing faculty of the soul, just as the mind is the guiding, leading faculty. While this abides unchanged and unrenewed, the power and reign of sin continue in the soul; even though the will is not undisturbed, it is unruined. It is true, there are many checks and controls that are thrown on the actings of the will in this state, from the light of the mind and from the reflections of conscience, so that it cannot apply itself in and towards sin with that freedom, security, and licentiousness it was used to. Its fierceness and rage — rushing into sin like a horse into battle, or running at God and the thick bosses of his buckler — may be broken and abated by those hedges of thorns which it finds set in its way, and those buffetings it meets with from light and convictions. Its delight and greediness in sinning may be calmed and quieted by those frequent representations which are made to it of the terror of the Lord on the one hand, and the pleasure of eternal rest on the other. Yet still, setting aside all considerations that are foreign to its own principle, the bent and inclination of the will itself is toward sin and evil, always and continually. The will of sinning may be restrained upon a thousand considerations, which light and convictions will administer; but it is not taken away. And this reveals itself when the very first motions of the soul towards sinful objects have a palpable complacency, until they are controlled by light and fear. This argues for an unrenewed will: if this complacency is constant and universal.

2. The effects of this work on the mind — which is the first subject affected with it — does not proceed so far as to give it delight, contentment, and satisfaction in the lively spiritual nature and excellencies of the things revealed to it. The true nature of saving illumination consists in this: that it gives the mind such a direct intuitive insight and prospect into spiritual things, that in their own spiritual nature, they suit, please, and satisfy the mind, so that it is transformed into them, cast into their mold, and rests in them, Rom 6.17, 12.2; 1Cor 2.13-15; 2Cor 3.18, 4.6.[498] This the work to which we insist it does not reach.[499] For notwithstanding any revelation of spiritual things that is made to the mind in this, it does not find an immediate, direct, spiritual excellence in them, except with respect to some benefit or advantage to be attained by means of it. It will not give such a spiritual insight into the mystery of God's grace by Jesus Christ — which is called "his glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ," 2Cor 4.6 — that the soul should, in its first direct view of grace, admire it, delight in it, and approve it for what it is in itself, and find spiritual solace and refreshment in it. But it communicates such a light, such a knowledge, that a man may well like its effects, such as providing a way of mercy and salvation.

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3. This work extends itself to the conscience also; yet it does not purge the conscience from dead works, so that we should serve the living God. This is the effect of a real application of the blood of Christ to our souls by faith, Heb 9.14. It effects two things on the conscience:

(1.) It renders it readier, quicker, and sharper in reproving and condemning all sin, than it was before. To condemn sin, according to its light and guidance, is natural to and inseparable from the conscience of man. But its readiness and ability to exercise this condemning power may, by habit and a course of sinning in the world, be variously weakened and impeded. But when conscience is brought under the power of this work, having its directing light augmented, by which it sees more of the evil of sin than it did formerly, and having its self-reflections sharpened and multiplied, it is readier and quicker in applying its power to judge and condemn sin, than it was before.

(2.) Conscience is assisted and directed by this to condemn many things as sin, which it approved of before. For its judging power is still commensurate to its light; and by that light, many things are now revealed to be sinful, which were not seen as sinful by the mere natural guidance which the conscience was under before. Yet notwithstanding all this, it does not purge the conscience from dead works — that is, conscience is not worked by this to such an abhorrence of sin for itself, that it continually directs the soul to appeal to the blood of Christ for cleansing itself and purging it out. It contents itself to keep all things in tumult, disorder, and confusion, by its constant condemning both of sin and sinners.

4. This work operates greatly on the affections. We have given instances in the fear, sorrow, joy, and delight about spiritual things that are stirred up and moved by it. Yet it comes short of a thorough work upon the affections themselves, in two things: for (1) it does not fix them; and (2) it does not fill them.

(1.) It is required that our affections be fixed on heavenly and spiritual things, and true grace will effect this: Col 3.1, 2, "If you are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above." The joys, fears, hopes, and sorrows, with reference to spiritual and eternal things, which the work mentioned before produces, are evanid,[500] uncertain, unstable, not only as to their degrees, but as to their very being. Sometimes they are like a river ready to overflow its banks — men cannot help but pour them out on all occasions; and sometimes they are like waters that fail — not a drop comes from them.

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Sometimes they are hot, and sometimes cold; sometimes up, and sometimes down; sometimes all heaven, and sometimes all world; without equality, without stability. But true grace fixes the affections on spiritual things. As to the degrees of their exercise, there may be and is great variety in them, as they are excited, aided, and assisted by grace and the means of it, or obstructed and impeded by the interposition of temptations and diversions. But the constant bent and inclination of renewed affections is toward spiritual things, as the Scripture everywhere testifies, and as experience confirms.

(2.) The forementioned work does not fill the affections, however it may serve to expand and pacify them. It comes like so many strangers come to an inn to lodge, who take up a great deal of room, and make an appearance as if none were in the house but themselves. Yet they do not turn out the family which dwells there; but they still make their abode there. Light and conviction, with all their train and attendants, come into the mind and affections as if they would fill them, and possess them for themselves alone. Yet when they have done all, they leave the quiet rooms of the house for the world, and sin, and self. They do not throw them out of the affections, and fill their places with spiritual things. But saving grace fills up the affections with spiritual things, fills the soul with spiritual love, joy, and delight, and exercises all other affections toward their proper objects. It does not deny a place for other things (like relationships, possessions, enjoyments) as they are merely natural and content to be subordinate to God and spiritual things; but if these would be carnal, disorderly, or predominant, then it casts them out.

5. This work is often carried on very far in the reformation of life and conduct, so as to express the whole form of godliness.2Tim 3.5 But it is also subject to a threefold defect and imperfection in this:

(1.) It will coexist with and allow raging and reigning sins of ignorance. The conducting light in this work does not lead to the abhorrence of all sin as sin, nor into a pursuit of holiness out of a design to be universally conformable to Christ. But being gathered up from this and that particular command, it often leaves great sins behind, unregarded.[501] So it left persecution in Paul before his conversion; and so it leaves hatred and a desire for persecution in many at this day. And other sins of a like nature may escape its utmost search, to the ruin of the soul.

(2.) Its reformation of the conduct is seldom universal as to all known sins, unless it is only for a season, while the soul is under a flagrant pursuit of self-righteousness. Paul in that condition had preserved himself so that, according to the law, he was blameless;Phi 3.6 and the young man thought he had kept all the commandments from his youth.Luk 18.21

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But setting aside this consideration, and notwithstanding the utmost that this work can attain, after the efficacy of its first impressions begin to abate, lust will reserve some particular way of venting and revealing itself; which is much spoken about.

(3.) The conduct of persons who live and abide under the power of this work only, assuredly fades and decays. Coldness, sloth, negligence, love of the world, carnal wisdom, and security, gain ground on them every day. Hence, although by a long course of abstinence from open sensual sins, and stating a contrary interest, they are not given up to them. And yet, by the decay of the power of their convictions, and the ground that sin gains on them, they become walking and talking skeletons in religion — dry, sapless, useless worldlings. But where the soul is inlaid with real saving grace, it is in a continual state of thriving. Such a believer will go on from strength to strength,Psa 84.7 from grace to grace, from glory to glory,2Cor 3.18 and will be sumptuous and flourishing in old age.Psa 92.14

By these things we may learn to distinguish in ourselves between the preparatory work mentioned, and that of real saving conversion to God. And these are some of the heads of those operations of the Holy Spirit on the minds of men, which are often preparatory to a real conversion to God; and sometimes, by a contempt for and rejection of them, there is a great aggravation of the sin and misery of those in whom they were worked.

And till lately, the substance of these things has been acknowledged by all Christians, as they are clearly laid down in the Scripture and exemplified in various instances. Only, some of the Papists have carried them so far as to make them formally dispositive to justification, and to congruously merit it. But the ancients denied this. They would not allow that any such preparation, or any moral virtues, capacitated men for real conversion, observing that others were often called before those who were qualified in this way.[502] There are goads and nails in them,Act 26.14 which have been fastened by wise and experienced masters of the assemblies, to the great advantage of the souls of men. For they observed the usual ways and means by which these effects are worked in the minds of the hearers of the word, with their consequences in sorrow, troubles, fear, and humiliations, and the courses which these hearers take to improve them, or to extricate themselves from the perplexity of them.

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Thus they managed the rules of Scripture with their own and others' experience suitable to this, to the great benefit of the church of God. That these things are now despised and scorned, is no part of the happiness of the age in which we live, as the event will manifest.

And in the meantime, if any suppose that we will forego these truths and doctrines which are so plainly revealed in the Scripture — the knowledge of which is so useful to the souls of men, and whose publication in preaching has been of such great advantage to the church of God — merely because they do not understand them and therefore reproach them, they will be greatly mistaken. Let them lay aside that unchristian way of addressing these things which they have engaged in, and plainly prove that men do not need to be convinced of sin — that they should not be humbled for it, nor affected with sorrow with respect to it; that they should not seek remedy or deliverance from it; that all men are not born into a state of sin; that our nature is not depraved by the fall; that we are able to do all that is required of us, without the internal aids and assistance of the Spirit of God — and they will be diligently attended to.

Chapter III.

Corruption or depravation of the mind by sin.

Contempt and corruption of the doctrine of regeneration — All men in the world are regenerate or unregenerate — General description of the corrupted nature — Depravation of the mind — Darkness on it — The nature of spiritual darkness — Reduced to two heads — Of darkness objective; how removed — Of darkness subjective; its nature and power proved — Eph 4.17, 18, explained and applied — The mind "alienated from the life of God" — The" life of God," what it is — The power of the mind with respect to spiritual things examined — 1Cor 2.14 explained —the "natural man," who it is — Spiritual things, what they are — How the natural man cannot know or receive spiritual things — Difference between understanding doctrines and receiving things — A twofold power and ability of mind with respect to spiritual things explained — Reasons why a natural man cannot discern spiritual things — How and why spiritual things are foolishness to natural men — Why natural men cannot receive the things of God — A double impotency in the mind of man by nature — 1Cor 2.14 further vindicated — Power of darkness in persons who are unregenerate — The mind is filled with wills or lusts, and enmity thereby — The power and efficacy of spiritual darkness declared at large.

We have, I hope, made our way plain for the due consideration of the great work of the Spirit in the regeneration of the souls of God's elect. Regeneration is that means by which he forms the members of the mystical body of Christ, and prepares living stones for building a temple in which the living God will dwell. Now, so that we may not only declare the truth in this matter, but also vindicate it from those corruptions with which some have endeavored to debauch it,

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I will premise this with a description recently given of regeneration, done with confidence enough, but maybe without too much authority. It is given in these words:

"What is it to be born again, and to have a new spiritual life in Christ, but to become sincere proselytes to the gospel, to renounce all vicious customs and practices, and to give an upright and uniform obedience to all the laws of Christ. And therefore, if they are all but precepts of moral virtue, then to be born again, and to have a new spiritual life, is only to become a new moral man. But their account" (speaking of Nonconformist ministers[503]) "of this article is so wild and fantastic, that if I had nothing else to make good my charge against them, that alone would be more than enough to expose the prodigious folly of their spiritual divinity." [504]

I confess, these are the words of someone who does not seem to consider much what he says, so that it may serve his present turn in reviling and reproaching other men. For he does not consider that, by this description, he utterly excludes the baptismal regeneration of infants, which is so plainly professed by the church in which he is dignified. But this is publicly declared, avowed, and vended, as an allowed doctrine among us. And therefore it deserves to be noticed, even though the person who states it, is at irreconcilable feuds with this man and his church.

An account of morality and grace will be given elsewhere. At present, the work of regeneration is what is under consideration. And concerning this, those [Noneconformists] who are so severely treated, teach no other doctrine than what, for its substance, is received in all the reformed churches in Europe, and which so many learned divines of the Church of England confirmed with their suffrage at the synod of Dort.[505] Whether this deserves all the scorn which this haughty person pours on it by his swelling words of vanity will, to indifferent persons, be made apparent in the ensuing discourse. As to what is also to be thought of its description by that author, whether it savors more of ignorance and folly, or of pride and fulsome errors, is hard to determine. I know that some words in it are used with the old Pelagian trick of ambiguity, so as to be capable of having another sense and interpretation put upon them than their present use and design will allow; but that artifice will immediately be rendered useless.

There is a twofold state of men with respect to God, which comprehends all individuals in the world; for all men are either unregenerate or regenerate. There being both an affirmation and a negation concerning the state of regeneration in the Scripture, one or the other may be used concerning every capable subject; thus every man living is either regenerate, or he is not. And I suppose there is a general consent of Christians in this.

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Again, it is evident in the Scripture, and we have proved it along the way, that all men are born in an unregenerate condition. This is so positively declared by our Savior that there is no rising up against it, John 3.3-8.[506] Now, regeneration is the deliverance of men (or the means of it) from that state and condition in which they are born, or are by nature. Therefore we cannot discover what regeneration consists of, without a declaration of that state which regeneration delivers us from. And we will first insist on this at large, giving an account of the state of lapsed nature under a loss of the original grace of God. And I will handle these things practically, for the edification of all sorts of believers, not in the scholastic way and method, which will yet be done elsewhere.

In the declaration of the state of corrupted nature after the fall, and before its reparation by the grace of Jesus Christ — that is, by the effectual operation of the Holy Spirit — the Scripture principally insists on three things:[507]

1. The corruption and depravation of the mind — which it calls darkness and blindness, with the consequents of vanity, ignorance, and folly.

2. The depravation of the will and affections — which it expresses several ways, such as by weakness or impotency, and stubbornness or obstinacy.

3. By the general name of death — which is extended to the condition of the whole soul.

And these have various effects and consequences, as will appear in our explanation of them.

All men by nature — not enlightened, not renewed in their minds by the saving and effectual operation of the Holy Spirit — are in a state of darkness and blindness with respect to God and spiritual things, along with the way of pleasing him and living to him. However wise, knowing, learned, and skillful men may be in other things, in spiritual things they are dark, blind, and ignorant unless they are renewed in the spirit of their minds by the Holy Ghost. This is a matter which the world cannot endure to hear about, and is ready to break into a fight upon its mention. They think it is only an artifice which some weak men have invented to reflect on and condemn those who are wiser than themselves. On a similar occasion, the Pharisees asked a question of our Savior with pride and scorn, "Are we blind also?" John 9.40. But he lets them know that their presumption of light and knowledge would only serve to aggravate their sin and condemnation, verse 41.[508] Thus he had plainly told them that notwithstanding all their boasting, "they had neither heard the voice of God at any time, nor seen his shape," Joh 5.37.

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Some at present talk much about the power of the intellectual faculties of our souls, as though they were neither debased, corrupted, impaired, nor depraved. All that disadvantage which has befallen our nature by the entrance of sin, they say, is only in "the disorder of the affections and the inferior sensitive parts of the soul, which are apt to tumultuate and rebel against that pure untainted light which is in the mind!" And thus they speak of the mind without respect to its renovation by the Holy Spirit; for if they include that also, they are most notoriously confused triflers in their discourses. Indeed, some of them write as if they had never once deigned to consult the Scriptures, and others have plainly gone over into the tents of the Pelagians. But, setting aside their modern artifices of confident boasting, contemptuous reproaches, and scurrilous railings, it is not a difficult undertaking to demonstrate the depravity of the minds of men by nature. Consequently, their minds are impotent to discern spiritual things in a spiritual manner,[509] without a saving, effectual work of the Holy Spirit in their renovation – such that the proudest and most petulant of them will not be able to answer this with anything solid.[510] We plead for nothing in this but the known doctrine of the ancient catholic church, declared in the writings of the most learned fathers, and determinations of councils against the Pelagians, whose errors and heresies are again revived among us by a crew of Socinianized Arminians.

To this end, we may first consider the testimonies given in the Scripture to the assertion as laid down in general:

Mat 4.16; "The people which sat in darkness saw a great light; and to those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has sprung up."

What kind of darkness this was in particular will be declared afterward. For the present, it corresponds to what is proposed — that before the illumination given to them by the preaching of the gospel, the people mentioned "sat in darkness," or lived under its power. And the light by which they were relieved was such that the darkness under which they were detained was of the same kind.[511] And in the same sense, when Christ preached the gospel, "the light shined in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it," John 1.5 — it gave no place to the light of the truth declared by him, so that it might be received in the souls of men. The commission which he gave to Paul 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 to a light within them; for internal light is the eye or seeing of the soul.

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Rather, the darkness consisted in their blindness, in not having their eyes open: "To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness." Eph 5.8, "You were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord." What the change is — the alteration made in the minds of men — as intended in this expression, will be made apparent afterward; but none can doubt that a great change is proposed. Col 1.13, "Who has delivered us from the power of darkness;" also 1Pet 2.9, "Who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light." And the darkness ascribed in these testimonies to persons in an unregenerate condition, Paul compares to what 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 visual faculty; subjectively, there was darkness in all; and there was no light to see by, but all was objectively wrapped in darkness. In this state of things, God created light by an almighty act of his power: Gen 1.3, "God said, Let there be light: and there was light." And it is not otherwise in this new creation: "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shines in the hearts of men, to give them the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ," 2Cor 4.6. Spiritual darkness is in and upon all men, until God, by an almighty and effectual work of the Spirit, shines into them, or creates light in them. And this darkness is that "light" which some boast is within themselves and others!

To clarify this matter, we must consider first, the nature of this spiritual darkness — what it is, and what it consists in; and then, secondly, we must show its efficacy and power in and on the minds of men, and how they are corrupted by it.

FIRST, The term "darkness" in this case is metaphorical, and borrowed from that which is natural. What natural darkness is, and what it consists in, all men know. If they do not know it by its cause and reason, they know it by its effects. They know it is what hinders men from all regular operations which are to be guided by the outward senses. And darkness is twofold:

1. It is when men do not have light to see by, or when the usual light — the only external medium for discovering distant objects — is taken from them. So it was with the Egyptians during the three days' darkness that was on their land. They could not see for lack of light; their visual faculty continued for them, yet having "no light," they "did not see one another, nor did anyone arise from his place," Exo 10.23: for God, probably to augment the terror of his judgment, restrained the efficacy of artificial light, as well as restraining natural light.

2. There is darkness when men are blind, either born so or made so: Psa 69.23, "Let their eyes be darkened, that they do not see." So the angels struck the Sodomites with blindness, Gen 19.11; and Paul struck the sorcerer blind, Acts 13.11. Though the sun shines, it is all one perpetual night to those who are blind.

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Corresponding to this, spiritual darkness may be assigned to 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 lack of those means by which alone they may be enlightened in the knowledge of God and spiritual things. This is intended in Mat 4.16. This means is the word of God, and the preaching of it. Hence it is called a "light," Psa 119.105,[512] and it is said to "enlighten," Psa 19.8,[513] or to be "a light shining in a dark place," 2Pet 1.19.[514] And it is so termed, because it is the outward means of communicating the light of the knowledge of God to the minds of men. What the sun is to the world as to natural things, the word and preaching are to men as to spiritual things. Hence what is said about the sun in the firmament, as to enlightening the world, Psa 19.1-4,[515] our apostle applies to the gospel and preaching it, Rom 10.15, 18.[516]

And this darkness is upon many in the world, even all those to whom the gospel is not declared, or by whom it is not received, where it is or has been so. Some, I know, have entertained a vain imagination about a saving revelation of the knowledge of God by the works of creation and providence, that is objected[517] to the rational faculties of the minds of men. It is not my purpose here to divert to confuting that fancy. If it were so, it would be easy to demonstrate that there is no saving revelation of the knowledge of God to sinners, except as he is reconciling the world to himself in Christ; and he is not made known in that, except by the word of reconciliation committed to those who dispense the gospel. Therefore, whatever knowledge 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, the knowledge of him as a God in Christ, pardoning sin and saving sinners, is attainable only by the gospel. But I have proved and confirmed this elsewhere.[518]

It is the work of the Holy Spirit to remove and take away this darkness; and until this is done, no man can see the kingdom of God, or enter into it. And he does this by sending the word of the gospel into any nation, country, place, or city, as he pleases. The gospel does not gain ground in any place, nor is it restrained from any place or people, by accident or by the endeavors of men.

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Rather, it is sent and disposed of according to the sovereign will and pleasure of the Spirit of God. He gifts, calls, and sends men to the work of preaching it, Act 13.2, 4; and he disposes them to the places where they will declare it, either by express revelation, as of old, Act 16.6-10, or else he guides them by the secret operations of his providence. Thus the dispensation of the "light of the gospel," as to various times, places, and persons, depends on his sovereign pleasure, Psa 147.19-20. This is why, even though we are to take care and pray much about continuing the dispensation of the gospel in one place, and its propagation in others, yet we need not be overly concerned about it. The Holy Ghost has taken this work and care on himself, and will carry it on according to the counsel of God, and his purposes concerning the kingdom of Jesus Christ in this world. To this extent, the dispensation of the gospel is only a causa sine quâ non [519] of the regeneration of men; granting regeneration depends solely on the will of the Spirit of God.

It is subjective darkness which is a more direct and immediate consideration in this matter. Its nature, what it regards, and its influence on the minds of men, must be declared before we can rightly apprehend the work of the Holy Spirit in the removal of darkness by regeneration.

This is what the Scripture expresses as the natural depravation and corruption of the minds of men with respect to spiritual things, and the duty that we owe to God according to the tenor of the covenant. Two things must be premised to our consideration of it: —

1. I will not address the depravation or corruption of the mind of man by the fall, with respect to things that are natural, civil, political, or moral, but merely with regard to things that are spiritual, heavenly, and evangelical. It would be easy to evince that the whole rational soul of man — since the fall, and by the entrance of sin — is weakened, impaired, and vitiated[520] in all its faculties, and in all their operations about their proper and natural objects. This could be evinced not only by Scripture testimonies, but by all mankind's experience, built on reason and the observation of countless instances. Nor is there any relief against these evils, with all those unavoidable vexations with which it is possessed and actually disordered in all its workings — unless it comes by some secret and hidden operation of the Spirit of God, such as he continually exerts in the rule and government of the world. But it is only the impotency, defect, depravation, and perversity of the mind with respect to spiritual things, that we will address at present.

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I say, then —

2. Because of that vice, corruption, or depravation of the minds of all unregenerate men, which the Scripture calls darkness and blindness, they are not able of themselves, by their own reasons and understandings, however exercised and improved, to savingly discern, receive, understand, or believe spiritual things, or the mystery of the gospel, when and as they are outwardly revealed to them — not without an effectual, powerful work of the Holy Spirit, creating or inducing by his almighty power, a new saving light in them.[521] Suppose that the mind of a man is in no way hurt or impaired by any natural defect that is not common to the whole race of mankind; instead, its defect is only personal and incidental; suppose it is free from contracted habits of vice or voluntary prejudices. Yet when the doctrine and mysteries of the gospel are proposed to him, even by the most skillful masters of the assemblies, with the greatest evidence and demonstration of the truth, his mind is not able of itself, spiritually and savingly, to receive, understand, and assent to them, without the special aid, assistance, and operation of the Holy Spirit.[522]

To evince this truth, we may consider one instance in the description given in Scripture of the mind itself, and of its operations with respect to spiritual things. We have this in Eph 4.17-18, "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." The apostle speaks of the Gentiles, but he speaks of them on account of what is common to all men by nature. For he addresses their condition with respect to the faculties of their minds and souls, in which there is no natural difference among men as to the life of God or spiritual things. And their operations and effects are the same, as to their substance.

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Some, indeed, give such an account of this text, that it is as if the apostle had said, "Do not live in the manner of the heathens, in the vileness of those practices, and in their idol-worship. That long course of sin has blinded their understandings, so that they do not see what they are enabled to see by the light of nature; and because of that gross ignorance and obduration of heart, they run into all kinds of impiety; they are far removed from that life which God and nature require of them." It is supposed in this exposition —

(1.) That the apostle speaks with respect, in the first place, to the practice of the Gentiles, and not to their state and condition.

(2.) That this practice concerns only their idolatry and idol-worship.

(3.) That what is ascribed to them here, came upon them by a long course of sinning.

(4.) That the darkness mentioned here, consists in not discerning what might be seen by the light of nature.

(5.) That their alienation from the life of God consisted in running into that impiety which was distant or removed from the life that God and nature require.

But all these sentiments are so far from being contained in the text, that they are expressly contrary to it; for —

(1.) Although the apostle carries his description of this state of the Gentiles, on to the vile practices that ensued from it, Eph 4.19,[523] it is their state by nature, with respect to the "life of God," which is first intended by him. This is apparent from what he prescribes to Christians in opposition to this — namely, "The new man, which is created after God in righteousness and true holiness," Eph 4.24.

(2.) The "vanity" mentioned is subjective in their minds; thus it does not respect idol-worship, except as it was an effect of this vanity. The "vanity of their minds" is the principle of which this walking, whatever it may be, was the effect and consequent.

(3.) Here there is no mention or intimation of any long course of sinning, much less that it might be the cause of the other things ascribed to the Gentiles, of which sinning was indeed the effect. The description given is the state of all men by nature. This is plain from Eph 2.1-3.[524]

(4.) The "darkness" mentioned here is opposed to being "light in the Lord," Eph 5.8; which is not mere natural light; nor by natural light alone can anyone discern spiritual things, or the things that belong to the life of God.

(5.) The life of God here is not that life which God and nature require, but that life which God reveals, requires, and communicates by the gospel, through Jesus Christ, as all learned expositors acknowledge.

This is why the apostle addresses here the state of men by nature, with respect to spiritual and supernatural things. And he reduces all things in man to three heads. He mentions:

1. The "mind;"

2. The "understanding;" and

3. The "heart."

All of these comprise one entire principle of all our moral and spiritual operations, and they are all affected with the darkness and ignorance of which we are treating.

1. There is the "mind." This is the leading and ruling faculty of the soul. It is that in us which looks out after proper objects for the will and affections to receive and embrace.

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Hereby we have our first apprehensions of all those things from which deductions are made with regard to our practice. And vanity is ascribed to the mind: "They walk in the vanity of their mind." Things in the Scripture are said to be vain, which are useless and fruitless. The Greek word for "vain," mataios, is from the word maten, meaning "to no purpose," Mat 15.9. Hence the apostle calls the idols of the Gentiles, and the rites used in their worship, "vain things," Acts 14.15. So he expresses the Hebrew in Jonah 2.8 as "lying vanities"; this is the same as saying a thing is altogether useless and unprofitable, according to the description given of them in 1Sam 12.21, "Vain things, which cannot profit or deliver; for they are vain." There is no profit in, or use of, what is vain. When the mind is said to be vain or under the power of vanity, two things are meant:

(1.) Its natural inclination is to things that are vain — that is, those which are not a proper or useful object for the soul and its affections. The natural mind seeks to lead the soul to rest and satisfaction; but it is always to vain things, and in great variety. Sin, the world, pleasures, the satisfaction of the flesh, with pride of life, are the things which it naturally pursues. And a vain mind abounds in actings of this nature; it multiplies vain imaginations, like the sand on the seashore. These are called "The figments of the hearts of men," Gen 6.5, which are found to be only "evil continually." These it feigns and frames, abundantly bringing them forth, like the earth brings forth grass, or as a cloud pours out drops of water. And in this,

(2.) It is unstable; for what is vain is various, inconstant, unfixed, superficial, as a natural mind is, so that it is like hell itself for its confusion and disorder, or the whorish woman described by Solomon in Pro 7.11-12.[525] And this has befallen the natural mind by the loss of that fixed regularity which it was created in. There was the same cogitative or imaginative faculty in us in the state of innocence, as there remains under the power of sin; but before the fall, all its actings were orderly and regular — the mind was able to direct them all to the end for which we were made. God was, and would have been, the principal object of them, and all other things were put in order to him. But now, being turned away from him, the mind engages in these thing in all manner of confusion; and they all end in vanity or disappointment. They offer their service to the soul, as it were, to bring it satisfaction. And although they are rejected one after another, as not answering what they pretend to, yet they constantly arise under the same notion, and keep the whole soul under everlasting disappointments. And from this, the mind cannot assent to the common principles of religion in a due manner, which yet it cannot deny. This will be further clarified afterward.

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Upon this conversion to God, we are said to have our minds renewed, Rom 12.2, and to be "renewed in the spirit of our mind," Eph 4.23. By the "mind," the faculty itself is intended: the rational principle in us of apprehension, thinking, discoursing, and assenting. This is renewed by grace, or it is brought into another habit and frame by the implantation in it of a ruling, guiding, spiritual light. The "spirit" of the mind, is the inclination and disposition in its actings; these too must be regulated by grace.

2. There is the "understanding." This is the directive, discerning, judging faculty of the soul that leads it to practice. It guides the soul in the choice of the notions which it receives by the mind. And this understanding is more corrupt than the mind itself; for the nearer things come to practice, the more prevalent the power of sin is in them. This understaning is therefore said to be "darkened;" and being darkened, it is wholly in vain to pretend there is a sufficiency in it to discern spiritual things without a supernatural illumination. Light, in the dispensation of the gospel, shines, or casts out some rays of itself, into this darkened understanding of men, but the darkness does not receive it, John 1.5.[526]

3. There is the "heart." In Scripture, this is the practical principle of operation in the soul, and so it includes the will also. It is the actual compliance of the will and affections with the mind and understanding, with respect to the objects proposed by these faculties. Light is received by the mind, applied by the understanding, and used by the heart. The apostle says there is "blindness" upon this heart.[527] It is not mere ignorance or incomprehension of the notions of truth that is intended, but a stubborn resistance of light and conviction. An obstinate and obdurate hardness is upon the heart, from which it rejects all the impressions that come upon it from notions of truth. And on these considerations, before their conversion men are said to be "darkness," Eph 5.8. There may be degrees in a moral privation; but when it is expressed in the abstract, it is a sign that it is at its height, that it is total and absolute. And this is spoken with respect to spiritual and saving light only, or to a saving apprehension of spiritual truths. In such persons, there is not even so much as a disposition remaining to receive saving knowledge, any more than there is a disposition in darkness to receive light. The mind, indeed, remains a capable subject to receive light, but it has no active power or disposition in itself towards it; and therefore, when God is pleased to give us a new ability to understand and perceive spiritual things in a due manner, he is said to give us a new faculty, because of the utter disability of our minds naturally to receive them, 1John 5.20.[528] Let vain men boast as they please, of the perfection and ability of their rational faculties with respect to religion and the things of God — this disability is the state of men by nature, that upon His judgment must stand forever.

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And, by the way, it may not be amiss to divert here a little to consider that exposition which the whole world and all things in it give to this text and testimony, concerning the minds of natural men being under the power of vanity; for this is the spring and inexhaustible fountain of all that vanity with which the world is filled. There is, indeed, a vanity which is penal — namely, the vexation and disappointment which men finally meet with in the pursuit of perishing things, which the wise man addresses at large in Ecclesiastes. But I mean that sinful vanity which the mind itself produces, and that is found in all sorts of persons, ages, sexes, and conditions in the world. Some of the heathens saw this same vanity, complained of it, reproved and derided it, and yet they could never reach the cause of it, nor free themselves from being under its power — even though in a way it was peculiar and distinct from the common sort of vanity, as might easily be demonstrated. But the thing is obvious: almost all that our eyes see or our ears hear of in the world, is altogether vain. All that makes such a noise, such a business, such an appearance and show among men, may be reduced to two heads:

(1.) The vanity that they bring into the things that exist, things that are either good in themselves and of some use, or at least things that are indifferent. So men variously corrupt their buildings and habitations, their trading, their conversation, their power, their wealth, their relations. They join countless vanities to them, which render them loathsome and contemptible, and makes the meanest condition the most suitable to their rational satisfaction.

(2.) Men discover and create things, as it were, merely to support, countenance, and nourish their vanity. Such things in religion are carnal, pompous ceremonies, like those of the church of Rome. They have no purpose except to make some kind of provision for the satisfaction of vain minds — stage-players, mimics, with countless other things of the same nature, which are nothing but theatres for vanity to act upon. It would be endless just 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 do not rush into the "same compass of excess and riot with themselves, speaking evil of them," 1Pet 4.4. They wonder at the perverse, stubborn, and froward humour which befalls other men, that they do not delight in or approve of those things and ways which they themselves find so suitable to their own minds. Others, again, are readily amazed that the world is mad about those vain and foolish things which it is almost wholly surrendered to.

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The consideration we have insisted on, gives us a satisfactory account of the grounds and reasons for this. The mind of man is wholly vain by nature; it is under the power of vanity, and it is an endless, fruitful womb of all monstrous births. The world is now growing towards six thousand years old, and yet it is no nearer the bottom of the springs of its vanity, or running out of its supplies, than it was on the first day that sin entered into it. New sins, new vices, new vanities, break forth continually; and all of it is from this: that the mind of man by nature is altogether vain. Nor is there any way or means to put a stop to this in persons, families, cities, or nations, except 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 predominates in the minds of men; and this will sufficiently secure them from attaining any saving acquaintance with spiritual things.

Again: It is one of the principal duties incumbent on us, to be acquainted with and to diligently watch over the remainders of this vanity in our own minds. The sinful distempers of our natures are not quickly cured at once; rather, healing and removing them is carried on by degrees to 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, that are still to be found among believers:

(1.) An instability in holy duties, such as meditation, prayer, and hearing the word. How ready the mind is to wander in them, and to entertain vain and absurd imaginations, at least as to thoughts and apprehensions of things that are unsuited to the duties in which we are engaged! How difficult is it to keep it to an even, fixed, stable frame of acting spiritually in spiritual things! How the mind is ready at every breath to unbend, and to let down its intension! All we experience or complain of in this, is from the uncured relics of this vanity.

(2.) This is what inclines and leads men towards conformity to a vain world in its customs, habits, and ordinary converse, which are all vain and foolish. It is so prevalent in this, and has possessed itself with such arguments to countenance it, that in many instances of vanity, it is hard to distinguish between them and the whole world that lies under its power. It may be that professors will not comply with the world in the things mentioned before, that have no other use or end than merely to support, act, and nourish vanity. But from other things which are indifferent in themselves, yet filled with vanity in their use, how ready many are to comply with the course of the world which lies in evil, and passes away!

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(3.) The mind itself acts in absurd and foolish imaginations, by which it secretly makes provision for the flesh and its lusts; for they all generally lead to self-exaltation and satisfaction.

If not carefully checked, these will proceed to such an excess that they will greatly taint the whole soul. In these things lie the principal cause and occasion of all other sins and miscarriages. We therefore have no more important duty incumbent on us than to mightily oppose this radical disease, and also to attend diligently to its remedy. And this consists,

(1.) In a holy, fixed mind, and a habitual inclination to spiritual things; this is communicated to us by the Holy Ghost, as will be declared afterward, Eph 4.23-24.[529]

(2.) In the due and constant improvement of that gracious principle —

[1.] By constant watchfulness against the mind acting in vain, foolish, and unprofitable imaginations, at least to the extent that vain thoughts may not lodge in us;

[2.] By exercising it continually toward holy, spiritual meditations, "minding always the things that are above," Col 3.2;

[3.] By a constant, conscientious humbling of our souls, for all the vain actings of our minds that we observe.

All of these might be usefully enlarged on, but we must return.[530]

SECONDLY, The minds of unregenerate men thus being depraved and corrupted, thus being affected with darkness, and thereby being brought under the power of vanity, we may further consider what other effects and consequents are ascribed to it on the same account.

The mind of man in this state may be considered either — 1. As to its dispositions and inclinations; or 2. As to its power and actings, with respect to spiritual, supernatural things:

1. As to its dispositions, it is (from the darkness described) perverse and depraved, by which men are "alienated from the life of God," Eph 4.18; for this alienation of men from the divine life is from the depravation of their minds. Hence are they said to be "alienated and enemies in their mind by wicked works," or by their mind in wicked works, being fixed on them and under their power, Col 1.21. And that we may better understand what is intended by this, we may consider both what this "life of God" is, and how the unregenerate mind is alienated from it:

(1.) All life is from God. The life which we have in common with all other living creatures is from him, Acts 17.28; Psa 104.30[531]. And,

(2.) That particular vital life which we have by the union of the rational soul with the body, is from God also, given to us in a special manner, Gen 2.7; Job 10.12.[532]

But neither of these is anywhere called the "life of God." And it is a special life to God which is intended. Various things belong to this life, or various things are applied to its description:

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(1.) It is the life which God requires of us, so that we may please him here, and come to enjoy him hereafter; it is the life of faith and spiritual obedience by Jesus Christ, Rom 1.17;[533] Gal 2.19, "I live by the faith of the Son of God;" Rom 6, 7.

(2.) It is that life which God works in us, not naturally by his power, but spiritually by his grace; and that is both as to its principle, and all its vital acts, Eph 2.1, 5; Phi 2.13.[534]

(3.) It is that life by which God lives in us — that is, in and by his Spirit through Jesus Christ: Gal 2.20, "Christ lives in me." And where the Son is, there the Father is;Joh 14.3 from which this life is also said to be "hidden with him in God," Col 3.3.

(4.) It is the life by which we live to God, Rom 6, 7, of which God is the supreme and absolute end, as he is the principal and efficient cause of it. Two things are contained in this:

[1.] That we do all things to his glory. This is the proper end of all the acts and actings of this life, Rom 14.7-8.[535]

[2.] That we design in and by it to come to the eternal enjoyment of him as our blessedness and reward, Gen 15.1.[536]

(5.) It is the life of which the gospel is the law and rule, John 6.68; Acts 5.20.[537]

(6.) It is a life in which all of its fruits are holiness, and spiritual, evangelical obedience, Rom 6.22; Phi 1.11.[538]

(7) Lastly, It is a life that does not die, that is not exposed to death — "eternal life," John 17.3.

These things contain the chief concerns of that particular spiritual, heavenly life, which is called the "life of God."

The carnal mind is alienated from this life. It has no liking of it, and no inclination to it, but carries away the whole soul with an aversion to it. And this alienation or aversion appears in two things:

(1.) In its unreadiness and unaptness to receive instruction in and about its concerns. Hence men are dull and "slow of heart to believe," Luke 24.25; "heavy in hearing," Heb 5.11, 12; and slow in the apprehension of what they hear. So are all men towards what they do not like, but have an aversion to. God complains of this in his people of old: "My people are foolish, they have not known me; they are senseless children, and they have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good, they have no knowledge," Jer 4.22.

(2.) In choosing and preferring any other life before this one. The first choice a natural mind makes is to have a life of sin and pleasure, which is but death: a death to God, 1Tim 5.6, Jas 5.5[539] — a life "without the law," and before it comes, Rom 7.9.[540]

This is the life which is suited to the carnal mind, the life which it desires, delights in, and would never willingly depart from. Again, if by afflictions or convictions it were forced to forsake and give up this life, in whole or in part, it would choose, magnify, and extol a moral life — a life in, by, and under the law — even though at the Last Day, this will put it in no better stead than the life of sin and pleasure which it had been forced to forego, Rom 9.32, 10.3.[541] It cannot do away with thoughts of this spiritual life, this "life of God."

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[Yet in the carnal mind], the notions of this life are uncouth, the description of it is unintelligible, and the practice of it is either odious folly, or needless superstition. This is the disposition and inclination of the mind towards spiritual things, as it is corrupt and depraved.

2. The power of the mind with respect to its actings towards spiritual things may also be considered. And this, in short, is none at all — the sense of this will be explained immediately, Rom 5.6.[542] For this is what we will prove concerning the mind of a natural man, or of a man in the state of nature: however his mind may be excited and improved under those advantages of education, and the allocations it may have received, it is still not able, it has no power of its own to spiritually and savingly, or in a due manner, receive, embrace, and assent to spiritual things when they are proposed to it in the dispensation and preaching of the gospel — not unless it is renewed, enlightened, and moved by the Holy Ghost. The apostle plainly asserts this: 1Cor 2.14, "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

(1.) The subject spoken of is a "natural man," This epithet in the Scripture is opposed to "spiritual," 1Cor 15.44, Jude 19,[543] where natural men are described as those who do not have the Spirit of God. The foundation of this distinction, and the distribution of men into these two sorts, is laid down in that saying of our apostle, 1Cor 15.45, "The first Adam was made a living soul." Hence every man who has no more than what is passed on from Adam is called a "living soul," as the first Adam was. And, "The last Adam was made a quickening spirit." Hence someone who is of the last Adam, of Christ, who partakes of his nature, derives from him a "spiritual man." Therefore the person spoken of here, a natural man, is someone who has all that is or can be derived from the first Adam; he is someone endowed with a "rational soul," and who has the use and exercise of all its rational faculties.

Some who look at themselves as almost so advanced as to countenance their magisterial dictates and scornful reflections upon others, tell us that what is intended by this "natural man," is "a man given up to his pleasures, and guided by brutish affections," and none other — "one who gives himself up to the government of his inferior faculties." But no rational man, they say, no one who attends to the dictates of reason, is at all concerned in this description. Yet, how is this proved? If we are not content with such bare affirmations, then we must at length be satisfied with their railing and lying, and all sorts of reproaches.

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But the apostle in this chapter distributes all living men into "spiritual" and "natural." The one who is not a spiritual man, whoever and whatever he is, whether he is as rational as some presume they are, or would beg the world to believe they are, is still a natural man. The supposition of a middle state of men is absolutely destructive of the whole discourse of the apostle as to its proper design. Besides, "natural" is the best and softest term that is given in the Scripture to unregenerate men, with respect to the things of God; and there is no reason why it should be thought only to express the worst sorts of men. The Scripture does not call men who are particularly captivated by brutish affections, "natural men," but rather, as in 2Pet 2.12, "natural brute beasts." Austin gives us a better account of this expression:

"The natural man is the one who ascribes all things to the power of the reasonings of the mind, and does not think that he stands in need of aid from above: which is madness. For God has given the soul so that it should learn and receive what he bestows, what is from him, and not suppose that it is sufficient of itself or to itself. Eyes are beautiful and profitable; but if they would see without light, this beauty and power will not profit but hurt them. And the mind, if it would see [spiritual things] without the Spirit of God, only ensnares itself." [544]

It is a senseless supposition that there is a sort of unregenerate, rational men, who are not under the power of corrupt affections in and about spiritual things, seeing that the "carnal mind is enmity against God." This, therefore, is the subject of the apostle's proposition —

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namely, everyone that is "a natural man," is no more than natural; that is, everyone who is not "a spiritual man," is one who has not received the Spirit of God, 1Cor 2.11-12;[545] he has only the spirit of a man, enabling him to search and know only the things of a man, or to attain wisdom only in things that are natural, civil, or political.

(2.) There is in these words,[546] a supposition of the proposal of some things to the mind of this "natural man;" for the apostle speaks with respect to the dispensation and preaching of the gospel by which that proposal is made, verses 4-7. And these things are, verse 14, "the things of the Spirit of God," which are variously expressed in this chapter. In verse 2, they are called "Jesus Christ, and him crucified;" in verse 7, the "wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God has ordained;" verse 12, "the things that are freely given to us of God;" verse 16, "the mind of Christ;" and various other ways to the same purpose. There are countless precepts in the gospel, and they belong to the preaching of it, concerning moral duties to be observed towards God, ourselves, and other men. And all these are coincidental and suitable to the inbred light of nature, because their principles are all indelibly ingrafted in this nature. These things being in some sense the "things of a man," they may be known by the "spirit of a man that is in him," verse 11. Nevertheless, they cannot be observed and practiced according to the mind of God without the aid and assistance of the Holy Ghost. But these are not the things particularly intended here; rather, it is the mysteries, which wholly depend on mere sovereign supernatural revelation; things that "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man" to conceive, verse 9; things of God's sovereign counsel, of which there were no impressions in the mind of man in his first creation: see Eph 3.8-11.[547]

(3.) What is affirmed about the natural man with respect to these spiritual things, is doubly expressed: [1.] "He does not receive them;" [2.] "He cannot know them." In this double assertion,

1st. A power to receive spiritual things is denied: "He cannot know them; he cannot receive them;" as in Rom 8.7, "The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." And the reason for this is subjoined: "Because they are spiritually discerned;" a thing which such a person has no power to effect.

2dly. A will to reject them is implied: "He does not receive them;" and the reason for this is, "For they are foolishness to him." They are represented to him under such a notion that he will have nothing to do with them.

3dly. He does not actually receive them (and that is both because he cannot, and because he will not). The natural man neither can, nor will, nor does receive the things of the Spirit of God; — he is altogether incapable of giving them admission in the sense to be explained.

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To clarify and free this assertion from objections, it must be observed —

(1.) That it is not the mere literal sense of doctrines or propositions of truth that is intended.[548] For instance, "Jesus Christ was crucified," is mentioned by the apostle in 1Cor 2.2. It is a proposition whose sense and importance any natural man may understand; and he may assent to its truth; and so he may be said to receive it. And all the doctrines of the gospel may be taught and declared in propositions and discourses, the sense and meaning of which a natural man may understand. And in the due investigation of its sense, and in judging its truth and falsehood, lay that use of reason in religious things which some would ignorantly confound with an ability to discern spiritual things in themselves, in their own proper nature. This reasoning is therefore granted; but it is denied that a natural man can receive the things themselves. There is a wide difference between the mind's receiving doctrines notionally, and receiving the things taught in them really. A natural man can do the first. It is done by all those who, by the use of outward means, know the doctrine of the Scripture, in distinction from ignorance, falsehood, and error. Hence, unregenerate men are said to "know the way of righteousness," 2Pet 2.21 — that is, they know it notionally and doctrinally; for, our apostle says, they cannot really know it. Upon this, "they profess that they know God," — that is, the things which they are taught concerning him and his will — while "in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient," Tit 1.16; also Rom 2.23-24.[549] To know them really, applies only to those who receive spiritual things in their minds that are so implanted as to produce their real and proper effects, Rom 12.2; Eph 4.22-24.[550] And there are two things required for receiving spiritual things really, and as they are in themselves:

[1.] That we discern, assent to, and receive them, under an apprehension of their conformity and agreeableness to the wisdom, holiness, and righteousness of God, 1Cor 1.23- 24. The reason why men do not receive Christ crucified, as preached in the gospel, is because they do not see a consonance in it to the divine perfections of the nature of God. Nor can any receive it until they see in it an expression of divine power and wisdom.

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Therefore, this is required for receiving the things of the Spirit of God in a due manner — namely, that we spiritually see and discern their correspondence to the wisdom, goodness, and holiness of God; in this lies the principal rest and satisfaction of those who really believe. A natural man cannot do this.

[2.] That we discern their suitableness for accomplishing the great ends for which they are proposed as the means. Unless we see this clearly and distinctly, we can only judge them to be weak and foolish. These ends are the glory of God in Christ, with our deliverance from a state of sin and misery, and our translation into a state of grace and glory. Unless we are acquainted with these things, and the aptness, fitness, and power of the things of the Spirit of God to effect them, we cannot receive them as we should; and a natural man cannot do this at all. From these considerations, to which various others of a like nature might be added, it appears how and why it is, that a natural man is not capable of receiving the things of the Spirit of God.

(2.) It must be observed that there is, or may be, a twofold capacity or ability to receive, know, or understand spiritual things in the mind of a man:

[1.] There is a natural power, consisting in the suitableness and proportionality of the faculties of the soul to receive spiritual things in the way that they are proposed to us. This is supposed in all the exhortations, promises, precepts, and threatenings of the gospel. For they would be proposed to us in vain if we did not have rational minds and understandings to apprehend their sense, use, and importance; and if we were not also fit subjects for the faith, grace, and obedience which are required of us. No one pretends that men are, in their conversion to God, like stocks and stones, or brute beasts, which have no understanding. For although the work of our conversion is called "turning stones into children of Abraham," (Luk 3.8) — because of the greatness of the change, and because we contribute nothing to this of ourselves — even if we were in every way filled to the capacity of our natures, it would not suit the wisdom of God to apply the natural means mentioned for effecting that work. Indeed, God is said in this to "give us an understanding," 1John 5.20; but the natural faculty of the understanding is not intended by this, but only the renovation of it by grace, and the actual exercise of that grace in apprehending spiritual things. There are two adjuncts of the commands of God:

1st. That they are equal [i.e., equitable];

2dly. That they are easy, or not grievous.

They have the former equality from the nature of the things commanded, and the fitness of our minds to receive such commands, Eze 18.25;[551] they have the latter from the dispensation of the Spirit and grace of Christ, which renders them not only possible for us, but easy for us.

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Some pretend that whatever is required of us or prescribed to us as our duty, we have a power in and of ourselves to perform it.[552] If by this power, they mean no more than that our minds, and the other rational faculties of our souls, are fit and suited as to their natural capacity, to perform the acts in which those duties consist, then it is freely granted. For God requires nothing of us except what must be acted in our minds and wills, and which they are naturally fit and suited for. But if they mean such an active power and ability, excited by the motives proposed to us, that it can of itself respond to God's commands in a due manner, then they deny the corruption of our nature by the entrance of sin, and they render the grace of Christ useless, as will be demonstrated.

[2.] There is, or may be, a power in the mind to discern spiritual things, by which it can immediately exercise that power in spiritually discerning them when they are duly proposed to his mind — that is, spiritually — just as a man whose visual faculty is sound and entire, can discern and see visible objects when they are duly presented to him. But this power must be spiritual and supernatural, because to receive spiritual things spiritually, is to receive them in such a way as to really believe them with divine and supernatural faith, to love them with divine love, and to conform the whole soul and affections to them, Rom 6.17, 2Cor 3.18.[553] No natural man has the power to do so. This [natural power] is what the apostle denies in this passage. This is why, between the natural capacity of the mind, and the act of spiritually discerning, an effectual work of the Holy Ghost must be interposed to enable it to do this, 1John 5.20; 2Cor 4.6.[554]

The apostle gives a double reason for the assertion thus laid down and explained: the first is taken from the nature of the things to be known, with respect to the mind and understanding of a natural man; the other is taken from the way or manner by which alone spiritual things may be acceptably discerned:

(1.) The first reason, taken from the nature of spiritual things with respect to the natural mind, is that "they are foolishness" to it. Yet, in themselves, they are the "wisdom of God," 1Cor 2.7; — they are the effects of the wisdom of God, and they have the impress of the wisdom of God upon them. And when their dispensation was said to be "foolishness," the apostle does not contend about it, but he tells them that it is the "foolishness of God," 1Cor 1.25.[555]

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He does this to cast contempt on all the wisdom of men, by which the gospel is despised. These things are the "hidden wisdom" of God; they are such an effect of divine wisdom, that no creature could discover them, Eph 3.9-10; Job 28.20-22.[556] And they are the "wisdom of God in a mystery," or full of deep, mysterious wisdom. But to the natural man, they are "foolishness," not only in spite of the fact that they are the wisdom of God, but particularly because they are so, and as they are so — for "the carnal mind is enmity against God." Now, what is esteemed foolishness is looked at either as weak and impertinent; or as what contains or expresses disproportionate means and ends; or as that which is undesirable in comparison to what competes with it; or on any other consideration, it is not eligible or to be complied with on the terms for which it is proposed. And for one or other or all of these reasons, they are spiritual things — namely, those things intended here, in which the wisdom of God in the mystery of the gospel consists — and so they are foolishness to a natural man; which we will demonstrate by some instances:

[1.] Our apostle testifies that they were foolishness to the learned philosophers of old, and the known experience of the first ages of the church makes it evident, 1Cor 1.22-23, 26-28.[557] If spiritual things had been suited to the minds or reasons of natural men, it could only be that those who had most improved their minds, and were raised to the highest exercise of their reasons, must more readily have received and embraced the mysteries of the gospel than those who were poor, illiterate, and many degrees behind them in the exercise and improvement of their mind. So we see that natural wisdom refers to the reception of anything in nature or in morality which, being of any worth, is proposed to the minds of men — and it is embraced soonest by those who are wisest and know the most. But things fall out quite otherwise with spiritual things. It was the wise, the knowing, the rational, the learned men of the world, who made the greatest and longest opposition to spiritual things; and they did that expressly and avowedly because they were "foolishness to them;" and that was for all the reasons mentioned before. They managed their opposition to them with pride, scorn, and contempt, as they thought "foolish things" ought to be handled.

Some of late are not ashamed to preach and print that it was the learned, rational, wise part of mankind (as esteemed or professed by themselves) who first embraced the gospel — that is, the philosophers and those whose conduct pretended to a life according to the dictates of reason — and it is claimed that they embraced the gospel, because they were more disposed to receive it than others. The profound ignorance and confidence from which this comes, cannot be sufficiently marvelled at or despised.

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If they had even once considered what is spoken to this purpose in the New Testament, or if they had known anything of the entrance, growth, or progress of Christian religion in the world, they would be ashamed of their own folly. But every day in this matter, new spokesmen are produced, foolish young men,[558] who talk confidently while they know neither what they say nor what they affirm.

[2.] The principal mysteries of the gospel, or the spiritual things intended by it, are looked at and rejected by many as foolish, because they think it is false and untrue; though, indeed, they have no reason to think them false, beyond supposing they are foolish. They fix on charging them with being false, to countenance their judgment that they are folly. Whatever concerns the incarnation of the Son of God, the satisfaction that he made for sin and sinners, the imputation of his righteousness to those who believe, the effectual working of his grace in the conversion of the souls of men — which, with related things, comprise the greatest part of the spiritual things of the gospel — are not received by many, because they judge they are false; and what induces them to determine they are false, is because they look at them as foolish, and unsuited to the rational principles of their minds.

[3.] Many plainly scoff at them, and despise them as the most contemptible notions that mankind can exercise their reasons about. Such was prophesied of old, 2Pet 3.3-4;[559] and things at this day have come to that pass. The world swarms with those who scoff at spiritual things, as being unfit for rational, noble, generous spirits to come under a sense or power of them, because they are so foolish. But we were foretold these things, so that when they came to pass we would not be troubled or shaken in our minds; indeed, the atheism of some is made a means to confirm the faith of others!

[4.] It is not much different with some, who yet dare not engage in open opposition to the gospel with those mentioned before; for they profess the faith, and vow subjection to its rules and laws. But the things declared in the gospel may be reduced to two headings, as observed before:

1st. Those which consist in the confirmation, direction, and improvement of the moral principles and precepts of the law of nature.

2dly. Those which flow immediately from the sovereign will and wisdom of God, and are not communicated to us except by supernatural revelation. Such include all the effects of the wisdom and grace of God, as he was in Christ reconciling the world to himself; the offices of Christ, his administration of them, and the dispensation of the Spirit; with the especial, evangelical, supernatural graces and duties which are required in us with respect to this.

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Many will greatly praise and highly extol the first sort of these things; they will declare how consonant they are with reason, and what expressions suitable to them may be found in the ancient philosophers. But it is evident that they fall under a double inconsistency in this:

1st. Mostly, they visibly transgress what they boast of as their rule, and do so more than others; for where will we meet with any of this sort, or at least with many of them, who comply in any measure with that modesty, humility, meekness, patience, self-denial, abstinence, temperance, contempt of the world, love of mankind, charity, and purity, which the gospel requires under this heading of "duties"? Pride, ambition, insatiable desires after earthly advantages and promotions, scoffing, scorn and contempt of others, vanity of lifestyle, envy, wrath, revenge, railing — none of these are the moral duties required in the gospel. And —

2dly. No pretense of esteeming any one part of the gospel, will shelter men from the punishment due for the rejection of the whole, when they refuse any essential part of it. And this is the condition of many. The things which most properly belong to the mysteries of the gospel, or the unsearchable riches of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, are foolishness to them; and preaching them is called "canting and folly." Although they do not go so far as the friar at Rome, who said that "St. Paul fell into great excesses in these things," yet some have dared to accuse Paul's writings of darkness and obscurity; doing so for no other reason (so far as I can understand) than he insists on the declaration of these spiritual mysteries. It is not easy to express what contempt and reproach is cast on these mysteries by some preachers. But it is not amiss that some have proclaimed their own shame in this, and have left it on record, to the abhorrence of posterity.

[5.] The event of the dispensation of the gospel, manifests that its spiritual things are foolishness to most; for they are rejected as such by them, Isa 53.1-3.[560] Suppose a man with a good reputation for wisdom and sobriety, were to go to others to inform them of something, and did it with earnestness, evidence of love toward them, and care for them, with all kinds of motives to obtain their belief in what he proposes. He tells them that by those ways which he prescribes, they may exceedingly increase their substance in this world, until they exceed the wealth of kings — which is something that the minds of men in their contrivances and designs are intent upon. If they do not follow his advice in this case, it can be for no other reason than they judge that the things he proposed are in no way suited or expedient to the ends he promised — that is, they are judged to be foolish things. This is the state of things with respect to the mysteries of the gospel. Men are informed, in and by the ways of God's appointment, how great and glorious these mysteries are, and what blessed consequents there will be from spiritually receiving them.

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The beauty and excellence of Christ, the inestimable privilege of divine adoption, the great and precious promises made to those who believe, the glory of the world to come, the necessity and excellence of holiness and gospel obedience to attain everlasting blessedness — all are preached to men, and pressed on them with arguments and motives filled with divine authority and wisdom. And yet after all this, we see how few eventually apply themselves with any industry to receive them, or at least actually do receive them: for "many are called, but few are chosen." Mat 22.14 And the reason is because these things are indeed foolishness to their darkened minds, whatever they pretend to the contrary.

(2.) As the foregoing instance comprises the reasons why a natural man will never receive the things of the Spirit of God, so the apostle adds a reason why he cannot receive them; and that is taken from the manner by which alone they may be usefully and savingly received, which the natural man cannot attain: "Because they are spiritually discerned." In this whole chapter, Paul insists on an opposition between a natural man and spiritual man, natural things and spiritual things, natural light and knowledge and spiritual light and knowledge. The natural man, he informs us, will, by a natural light, discern natural things: "The things of a man knows the spirit of a man." And the spiritual man, by a spiritual light received from Jesus Christ, discerns spiritual things; for "none knows the things of God, but the Spirit of God, and he to whom he will reveal them." The apostle denies this ability exists in a natural man; and he proves this —

[1.] Because it is the work of the Spirit of God to endow the minds of men with that ability, which there would be no need of if men had it of themselves by nature; and,

[2.] (as he plentifully shows elsewhere), The light itself by which alone spiritual things can be spiritually discerned, is worked, effected, and created in us, by an almighty act of the power of God, 2Cor 4.6.[561]

From these things that have been premised, it is evident that there is a twofold impotency in the minds of men with respect to spiritual things:

(1.) That which immediately affects the mind, a natural impotency, from which it cannot receive them for lack of light in itself.

(2.) That which affects the mind by the will and affections, a moral impotency, by which it cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, because unalterably it will not; and that is because they are foolishness to the mind — from the unsuitableness of the objects to its will and affections, and from the will and affections to the mind.

(1.) There is a natural impotency in unregenerate men, through the immediate depravation of the faculties of the mind or understanding, by which a natural man is absolutely unable, without a special renovation by the Holy Ghost, to discern spiritual things in a saving manner.[562]

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Nor is this impotency any excuse or alleviation for the sin of men when they do not receive spiritual things as proposed to them, even though that impotency is absolutely and naturally insuperable, and even though it also has in it the nature of a punishment. For even though it is our misery, it is also our sin; — it is the misery of our persons, and the sin of our natures. As it is an unconformity in our minds to the mind of God, it is our sin; as it is a consequence of the corruption of our nature by the fall, it is an effect of sin; and as it exposes us to all the ensuing evil of sin and unbelief, it is both the punishment and the cause of sin. And no man can plead his sin or fault as an excuse for another sin of any kind. This impotency is natural, because it consists in the deprivation of the light and power that were originally in the faculties of our minds or understandings; and it can never be taken away or cured except by an immediate communication of a new spiritual power and ability to the mind itself by the Holy Ghost in its renovation, thus curing the depravation of the faculty itself. And this is consistent with what was declared before concerning the natural power of the mind to receive spiritual things: for that power respects the natural capacity of the faculties of our minds — their impotency, their depravation with respect to spiritual things.

(2.) There is in the minds of unregenerate persons a moral impotency, which is greatly reflected on them from the will and affections. This is why the mind will never receive spiritual things — that is, it will always and unchangeably reject and refuse them — and that is because of various lusts, corruptions, and prejudices invincibly fixed in them, causing them to look at them as foolishness. Hence it will come to pass that no man will be judged and perish at the last day merely on account of his natural impotency. Everyone to whom the gospel has been preached, and by whom it is refused, will be convicted of positive actings in their minds, that reject the gospel from the love of self, sin, and the world. Thus our Savior tells the Jews that "no man can come to him, unless the Father draws him," John 6.44. Such is their natural impotency that they cannot come to him. Nor is this impotency to be cured except by an immediate divine instruction or illumination. As it is written, "They will be all taught by God," Joh 6.45. But this is not all; he tells them elsewhere, "You will not come to me, that you might have life," Joh 5.40. [563]

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The present thing in question was not the power or impotency of their minds, but the obstinacy of their wills and affections, for which men will principally be judged at the last day; for "this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil," Joh 3.19.

Hence it follows that the will and affections are more corrupted than the understanding — which is evident from their opposition to and defeat of its manifold convictions. Thus no man actively applies his mind to receiving the things of the Spirit of God to the utmost of that ability which he has. For all unregenerate men are invincibly impeded in this by the corrupt stubbornness and perverseness of their wills and affections. There is not, in any of them, a due improvement of the capacity of their natural faculties in the use of means to discharge their duty towards God in this. What has been pleaded may suffice to vindicate this divine testimony concerning the disability of the mind of man, in the state of nature, to understand and receive the things of the Spirit of God in a spiritual and saving manner, no matter how they are proposed to it. Those who are otherwise minded may despise this as they please, but they are in no way able to answer or evade it.

And by this we may judge that paraphrase and exposition of this passage which someone[564] has given recently: "But such things as these are absolutely despised by those who are led only by the light of human reason, the learned philosophers, etc., and so they do not heed the doctrine of the gospel; for it seems folly to them. Nor can they, by any study of their own, come to know them; for these are only to be had by understanding the prophecies of the Scripture, and other such means which depend on divine revelation, the voice from heaven, descent of the Holy Ghost, miracles," etc.

(1.) The natural man is here granted to be the rational man, the learned philosopher, someone walking by the light of human reason; which does not comply with the exception taken to this testimony by those who would have it intend only someone who is sensual and given up to brutish affections. Yet neither is there any ground (though some countenance is given to it by Hierom) to fix this interpretation to that expression. If the apostle may be allowed to declare his own mind, he tells us that he intends everyone, of whatever sort and condition, "who has not received the Spirit of Christ."

(2.) Ou dechomai (does not receive)[565] is paraphrased as, "absolutely despised;" which neither the word here nor elsewhere, nor its application in the present connection, will allow for or countenance. The apostle in the discourse as a whole, accounts for why so few received the gospel — especially those who seemed most likely to do so, being wise and learned men, and the gospel being no less than the wisdom of God. He gives the reason for this as their disability to receive the things of God, and their hatred of them, or opposition to them — neither of which can be cured except by the Spirit of Christ.

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(3.) The apostle does not address what men could find out by any study of their own, but what they did and would do, and could not do otherwise, when the gospel was proposed, declared, and preached to them. They did not, they could not, receive, assent to, or believe, the spiritual mysteries revealed in this.

(4.) Preaching the gospel to them was accompanied with and managed by those evidences mentioned — namely, the testimonies of the prophecies of Scripture, miracles, and the like — in the same way and manner, and to the same degree, that it was proposed to those by whom it was received and believed. In the outward means of revelation and its proposition, there was no difference.

(5.) The proper meaning of "does not receive," is given to us in the ensuing reason and explanation of it: "He cannot know them," — that is, unless he is spiritually enabled to do this by the Holy Ghost. And this is further confirmed in the reason subjoined to it, "Because they are spiritually discerned." To twist this to mean the outward means of revelation, which is directly designed to express the internal manner of the mind's reception of revealed things, is to twist the Scripture at pleasure. Chrysostom's description of a natural and spiritual man, far better gives light to and determines the sense of this place: "A natural man is the one who lives in or by the flesh, and does not as yet have his mind enlightened by the Spirit, but only has that inbred human understanding which the Creator has endowed the minds of all men with." And, "The spiritual man is the one who lives by the Spirit, having his mind enlightened by him; having not only an inbred human understanding, but moreover a spiritual understanding, bestowed on him graciously, which the Holy Ghost endues the minds of believers with."

But we must proceed.

3. Having clarified the impotency to discern spiritual things spiritually, that is, in the minds of natural men by reason of their spiritual blindness, or that darkness which is in them, it remains that we consider what the power and efficacy of this darkness is to keep them in a constant and unconquerable aversion to God and the gospel. To this purpose, some testimonies of Scripture must also be considered. For notwithstanding all other notions and arguments in this matter — which for the most part comply with the inclinations and affections of corrupted nature — our judgments must be determined by the testimonies of Scripture, and our faith is to be resolved into them.

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I say then that this spiritual darkness has a power over the minds of men to alienate them from God. That is, what the Scripture calls darkness is not a mere privation, with an impotency in the faculty ensuing from that darkness; rather, it is a depraved habit, which powerfully and —for those in whom it abides — unavoidably influences their wills and affections into an opposition to spiritual things, the effects of which the world is visibly filled with at this day. And I will manifest this first in general, and then in particular instances. And by the whole, it will be made apparent that not only is the act of believing and turning to God the sole work and effect of grace (which the Pelagians did not openly deny, and semi-Pelagians openly granted), but also all power and ability for it, properly so-called, is from grace also.

In Col 1.13, we are said to be delivered from "the power of darkness." The word signifies a power that consists in authority or rule that bears sway, and commands those who are exposed to it. Hence the sins of men, especially those of a greater guilt than ordinary, are called "works of darkness," Eph 5.11. Not only are these such works as are usually perpetrated in the dark, but also such works as the darkness of men's minds inclines them to and naturally produces. Also, what is called "the power of darkness" here, is called "the power of Satan" in Acts 26.18. For I acknowledge that it is not only or merely the internal darkness or blindness of the minds of men in the state of nature that is meant here, but the whole state of darkness, with what is contributed to it by Satan and the world. The prophet speaks of this in Isa 60.2: "Behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the people: but the Lord will arise upon you." It is such a darkness that nothing can dispel it but the light of the Lord arising on and in the souls of men. But all is resolved into internal darkness: for Satan has no power in men, nor authority over them, except what he has by means of this darkness. For by this alone, that "prince of the power of the air" works effectively in "the children of disobedience," Eph 2.2. By this darkness he seduces, perverts, and corrupts them; nor does he have any way to fortify and confirm their minds against the gospel except by increasing this blindness or darkness in them, 2Cor 4.4.[566]

We may find evidence of the power and efficacy of this darkness in the devil himself. The apostle Peter tells us that the angels who sinned are "reserved for judgment" under "chains of darkness," 2Pet 2.4. It is plain that there is an allusion to men dealing with stubborn and heinous malefactors.

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They do not quickly execute these angels at their offenses, nor when they are first apprehended; they must be kept till a solemn day of trial and judgment. Yet, to secure them so that they make no escape, they are bound with chains which they cannot deliver themselves from. This is how God deals with fallen angels. For even though they still "go to and fro in the earth, and walk up and down in it," Job 1.7 and also in the air,Eph 2.2 in seeming liberty and at their pleasure, yet they are under chains that will securely hold them till the great day of their judgment and execution. And so that they may not escape their appointed doom, they are held in "chains of darkness." They are always so absolutely and universally under the power of God, that they are not capable of the vanity of a thought that they can get out from under it. But why is it that, in all their wisdom, experience, and the long-continued prospect which they have had of their future eternal misery, none of them have ever attempted, nor ever will attempt to mitigate their punishment or obtain deliverance from it, by repentance and compliance with the will of God? This is only from their own darkness, in the chains of which they are so bound that although they believe their own everlasting ruin, and tremble at the vengeance of God in this, they cannot help but continue in their course of mischief, disobedience, and rebellion. And even though natural men are not as obdurate[567] as these fallen angels — having a way of escape and deliverance provided for them and proposed to them, which these angels do not have — without the powerful illumination of the Holy Ghost, this darkness is no less effectual to bind them in a state of sin than it is in the devils themselves. And this may be further manifested by considering the instances in which this darkness exerts its efficacy in men:

(1.) It fills the mind with enmity against God, and all the things of God: Col 1.21, "You were enemies in your mind." Rom 8.7, "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." And the carnal mind intended there, is present in every man who has not received, who is not made a partaker of the Spirit of God, in a unique saving manner — as the apostle declares at large in the whole discourse, Rom 8.5-6, 9-11.[568] So that it is a vain pretense, and directly contradictory to the apostle, to say that it is only one sort of fleshly, sensual, unregenerate men whom he intends. This confidence in not only perverting, but openly opposing the Scripture, is only recent; few of the ancient enemies of the grace of God rose up to it. Now, God in himself is infinitely good and desirable. "How great is his goodness and how great is his beauty!" Zec 9.17.

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There is nothing in him except what is suited to draw out, respond to, and fill the affections of the soul. To those who know him, he is the only delight, rest, and satisfaction. Why then does it come to pass that the minds of men should be filled and possessed with enmity against him? Enmity against and hatred of Him who is absolute and infinite goodness, seem incompatible with our human affections; but they arise from this darkness, which is the corruption and depravation of our nature, by ways that will be declared.

It is pretended and pleaded by some in these days, that upon apprehending the goodness of the nature of God, as manifested in the works and light of nature, without any other advantages, men may love God above all, and be accepted by him. But this would render Christ and the gospel, as objectively proposed, if not useless, yet not indispensably necessary. And so I desire to know how this enmity against God, which the minds of all natural men are filled with (if we may believe the apostle) comes to be removed and taken away, so that they may love God above all, seeing that these things are absolute extremes and utterly irreconcilable? This must be either by the power of the mind itself upon the proposal of God's goodness to it, or else by the effectual operation of the Spirit of God, in and upon the mind. Any other way is not pretended; and the operation of the Spirit is what we contend for. As to the former, the apostle assumes the goodness of God, and he assumes that this goodness is proposed to the minds of men, not only as revealed in the works of nature, but also in the law and gospel. And yet he affirms that "the carnal mind" which is in every man, "is enmity against him" — and in enmity, there is neither disposition nor inclination to love. In such persons, there can be no more true love of God than is consistent with enmity toward and against Him.

Therefore, all discourses about the acceptance we can find with God, if we love him above all for his goodness, but without any further communications of Christ or the Holy Spirit to us, are vain and empty discourses. This is because there never was, nor ever will be, even one dram of such love for God in the world. For whatever men may fancy concerning the love of God, where this enmity arising from darkness is unremoved by the Spirit of grace and love, it is nothing but self-pleasing with those false notions of God which this darkness suggests to them. With these notions, they either please themselves, or they are terrified, whichever way they represent things to their corrupt reason and fancies. Men in this state, destitute of divine revelation, of old sought after God like men groping in the dark, Acts 17.27. And even though in some measure they found him and knew him from the things that were made, and came to be acquainted with "his eternal power and Godhead," Rom 1.20, yet he was still absolutely "the unknown God" to them, Acts 17.23 — they "ignorantly worshipped" Him.

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That is, they directed some worship to him in the dedication of their altars, but they did not know him. And it is evident that all of them entertained false notions of God, from this: that none of them freed themselves from gross idolatry, which is the greatest enmity to God, by virtue of their knowledge of him; nor did they [convict] themselves of their many impieties or sins, from those notions they received of God and his goodness, Rom 1.20-21.[569] The result of their dissertations on the nature of God was that "they did not glorify him, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened." Based on the common principles of the first Being and the highest good, their fancy or imaginations raised whatever notions of God pleased and delighted them, and drew out their affections. This was not, indeed, to God and his goodness, but to the effect and product of their own imaginations. And hence, those with the most raised apprehensions concerning the nature, being, and goodness of God, with the highest expressions of a constant admiration of him and love for him— these great admirers and lovers of divine goodness — were constantly His greatest opposers and enemies. For indeed, they rejected the true God as he was declared to them by any means, and as he has revealed himself, and as he would be known. This is an uncontrollable[570] evidence that the love of divine goodness, which some fancy in those who are destitute of supernatural revelation and other aids of grace, was, in the best of them, based on the products of their own imaginations, and not on God himself.

But omitting them, we may consider the effects of this darkness working by enmity in the minds of those who have the word preached to them. Darkness exerts itself even in these, until it is effectively prevailed on by victorious grace, either closely[571] or openly. And however they may be doctrinally instructed in true notions concerning God and his attributes, in applying them to themselves, or in considering their own concern in them, they "always err in their hearts." Psa 95.10 All the practical notions they have of God tend to alienate their hearts from him; and that occurs either by contempt or by an undue dread and terror. For some apprehend that God is slow to act and does not regard what they do; or at least, he is not so severely displeased with them as to make it necessary for them to seek a change of their state and condition. They think that God is "such a one as themselves," Psa 50.21; or at least, that he approves them, and will accept them, even though they continue in their sins. Now, this is a fruit of the highest enmity against God, though palliated[572] with the pretense of the most raised notions and apprehensions of his goodness.

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For just as it is a heinous crime to imagine an outward shape of the divine nature, and that God is like men or beasts — which is the height of the sin of the most gross idolaters, Rom 1.23, Psa 106.20 [573] — so it is a sin of a higher provocation, to conceive that he is so much like bestial men, that he would approve and accept them in their sins. Yet this darkness does and will maintain this false notion of God in the minds of men, even when his nature and will are objectively revealed in the word. By this darkness, they are made obstinate in their sin to the uttermost. And where this fails, it will, on the other hand, represent God as being all fire and fury, inexorable and untractable. See Mic. 6.6-7; Isa 33.14; Gen 4.13.[574]

Moreover, this darkness fills the mind with enmity against all the ways of God. For just as "the carnal mind is enmity against God," so "it is not subject to his law, nor indeed can be." So the apostle informs us that men are "alienated from the life of God," or they dislike the whole way and work of living to him, because of the ignorance and blindness that is in them, Eph 4.18; and the carnal mind considers the whole rule and measure of it to be "foolishness," 1Cor 1.18, 21. But I must not emphasize these particulars too long, even though some are so apt these days to boast in proud swelling words of vanity concerning the power and sufficiency of the mind, even with respect to religion and spiritual things. Yet it cannot be untimely to declare the judgment of the Holy Ghost in this matter, plainly expressed in the Scriptures. One testimony of this be of more weight with the disciples of Jesus Christ, than a thousand declamations to the contrary.

(2.) This darkness fills the mind with wills or perverse lusts that are directly contrary to the will of God, Eph 2.3. There are wills or "lusts of the mind," — that is, habitual inclinations of the mind toward sensual objects; it "minds earthly things," Phi 3.19. And hence the mind itself is said to be "fleshly," Col 2.18. As to spiritual things, it is "born of the flesh," and it "is flesh." It likes, savors, and approves of nothing except what is carnal, sensual, and vain. Nothing is suited to it except what is either curious,[575] or needless, or superstitious, or sensual and earthly. And therefore men are said to "walk in the vanity of their minds." In the whole course of their lives, they are influenced by a predominant principle of vanity. In this state, the thoughts and imaginations of the mind are always set to work to provide sensual objects for this vain and fleshly frame; hence they are said to be "evil continually," Gen 6.5. This is the course of a darkened mind. Its vain frame or inclination, its fleshly will, stirs up vain thoughts and imaginations; it "minds the things of the flesh," Rom 8.5. These thoughts fix on and present to the mind, objects that are suited to satisfy its vanity and lust. With these, the mind commits folly and lewdness, and its fleshly habit is thereby heightened and confirmed.

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This multiplies imaginations of its own kind, by which men "inflame themselves," Isa 57.5, growing worse and worse. And the particular bent of these imaginations relates to the predominance of any special lust in the heart or mind.

It will be objected that,

"These things may be so in many persons, especially in those who have become profligate in sin.[576] Yet, because they proceed from their wills, and from corrupt, sensual affections, they do not argue for an impotency in the mind to discern and receive spiritual things. Notwithstanding these enormities in some, the faculty of the mind is still endowed with a power to discern, judge, and believe spiritual things in a due manner."

Ans. 1. We will not now discuss the weakness and disability of the mind in and about these things, which is a natural impotency, as it were, like blindness in the eyes, which has both been explained and confirmed before. Rather, what we intend is a moral disability — and that is a disability as to all the powers of invincible nature, as to rightly receiving spiritual things. This ensues from that corrupt depravation of the mind in the state of nature, that the Scripture calls "darkness" or "blindness."

Ans. 2. Our present testimonies have sufficiently confirmed that all the instances mentioned, proceed from the depravation of the mind. And because this is common and equal in all unregenerate men, if it does not produce the same degree of enormity in all effects, it is from some beams of light and secret convictions from the Holy Spirit, as we will declare afterward.

Ans. 3. Our only aim is to prove the indispensable necessity of a saving work of illumination on the mind, to enable it to receive spiritual things spiritually; this is sufficiently apparent from the efficacy of this darkness, from which a man has no ability to disentangle or save himself; for also —

(3.) It fills the mind with prejudices against spiritual things, as proposed to it in the gospel; and from these prejudices, it has neither light nor power to extricate itself. No small part of its depravation consists in its readiness to embrace these prejudices, and its tenacious adherence to them. A few of these prejudices may be instanced:

[1.] The mind, from the darkness that is in it, apprehends that spiritual things — the things of the gospel, as they are proposed — have an utter inconsistency with true contentment and satisfaction. Contentment and satisfaction are the things which all men seek by various ways. This is the scent and chase which they so eagerly pursue in different tracks and countless paths — it is something they would attain or arrive at, which would satisfy their minds and fill their desires.

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And commonly, before they have hardly considered the proposals of the gospel, they suppose they are at least on the way to such contentment, by those little tastes of satisfaction for their lusts which they have obtained in the ways of the world. And they will not forego these hopeful beginnings: Isa 57.10, "You are wearied in the length of your way; yet you did not say, There is no hope: you have found the life of your hand; therefore you were not grieved." [577] They are often ready to faint in the pursuit of their lusts, because of the disappointments which they find in them, or the evils that attend them. For whichever way they turn in their course, they cannot help but see or shrewdly suspect that their end is, or will be, vanity and a troubled spirit. Yet they do not give up the pursuit in which they are engaged; they do not say, "There is no hope." And the reason for this is because they "find the life of their hand." Something or other comes to them daily, either from the work they do, or the company they keep, or the expectation they have, which preserves their hope, and makes them unwilling to forego their present condition. They find it is not the best, but they do not think there can be anything better; and therefore, their only design is to improve or thrive in what they have. If they might obtain more mirth, more wealth, more strength and health, more assurance of their lives, more power, more honor, more suitable objects for their sensual desires, then they suppose it would be better than it is. But they can entertain no regard for for anything which differs entirely from these in kind.

It is in this state and condition that spiritual things are proposed to them — the spiritual, mysterious things of the gospel. At first view, they judge that these things will not assist them in the pursuit or improvement of their carnal satisfactions. And so far, they are in the right; they do not judge amiss. The things of the gospel will give neither countenance nor help to the lusts of men. No, it is not hard for them to discover that the gospel, if they admit its power, will crucify and mortify those corrupt affections which previously they were given up to and in pursuit of; for it plainly declares this in Col 3.1-5 and Tit 2.11-12.[578]

There are only two things which concern men seeking contentment and satisfaction: first, the objects of their lusts or desires, and secondly, those lusts and desires themselves. The former may be considered in their own nature, as they are indifferent, or as they are capable of being abused for corrupt and sinful ends. In the first way, just as the gospel does not condemn these objects, so it adds nothing to them for those by whom the gospel is received. It does not give men more riches, wealth, or honor than they had before in the world. It promises no such thing to those who receive the gospel, but rather the contrary.

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The latter consideration, of the abuse of these objects, the gospel condemns and takes away. As for the lusts and desires themselves, the avowed work of the gospel is to mortify them. And hereby the naturally corrupt relation which exists between these desires and their objects is broken and dissolved. Except on extraordinary occasions, the gospel leaves men their names, their reputations, their wealth, and their honors, if lawfully obtained and possessed; but the league that exists between the mind and these things in all natural men must be broken. They must no longer be looked at as the highest good, or in place of that good, nor as the matter of satisfaction; rather, they must give way to spiritual, unseen, eternal things. This secretly alienates the carnal mind, and a prejudice is raised against the gospel, as that which would deprive the soul of all its present satisfactions, and offer nothing in their place that is suitable to any of its desires or affections. For because of the power of the darkness that the soul is under, it can neither discern the excellence of the spiritual and heavenly things which are proposed to it, nor have any affections to which these things are proper and suited, so that the soul should pursue them. Hereby this prejudice becomes invincible in their souls. They neither do, nor can, nor will accept spiritual things, because they are utterly inconsistent with all those things in which they hope, or look for satisfaction.

Men are only pleasing themselves with dreams and fancies, who talk of such a reasonableness and excellence in gospel truths, that the mind of a natural man will discern their suitableness so as to receive and embrace them. Nor does anyone, for the most part, give greater evidence of the prevalence of the darkness and enmity in the carnal mind against the spiritual things of the gospel, as to their life and power, than those who most pride and please themselves in such discourses.

[2.] By this darkness, the mind is filled with prejudices against the mystery of the gospel in a particular manner. Because natural men cannot receive the hidden spiritual wisdom of God in it, they despise it. They look at all the parts of its declaration as empty and unintelligible notions. And this is that prejudice by which this darkness prevails in the minds of men who are otherwise knowing and learned. It has done so in all ages, and in none more effectively than in this present age. But there is a sacred, mysterious, spiritual wisdom in the gospel and its doctrine. This is fanatical, chimerical, and foolish to the wisest in the world while they are under the power of this darkness. It is the design of the apostle Paul, in 1Cor 1 and 2, to demonstrate the truth of this. For he directly affirms that the doctrine of the gospel is the wisdom of God in a mystery; that this wisdom cannot be discerned nor understood by the wise and learned men of the world, who have not received the Spirit of Christ.

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And therefore, the things of the gospel are weakness and foolishness to them. And what is foolish, is to be despised; indeed, folly is the only object of contempt. And hence we see that some with the greatest pride, scorn, and contempt imaginable, despise the purity, simplicity, and whole mystery of the gospel, and yet they profess to believe it. But to clarify the whole nature of this prejudice, a few things may be distinctly observed.

There are two sorts of things declared in the gospel:

1st. Those which are absolutely its own, that are proper and particular to it — those which have no footsteps in the law or in the light of nature, but are of pure revelation and unique to the gospel. Of this nature are all things concerning the love and will of God in Christ Jesus. The mystery of his incarnation, of his offices and whole mediation, of the dispensation of the Spirit, and our participation in it, and our union with Christ by it; our adoption, justification, and effectual sanctification, all proceeding from that — in brief, everything that belongs to the purchase and application of saving grace, is of this sort. These things are purely and properly evangelical and unique to the gospel alone. Hence the apostle Paul, to whom its dispensation was committed, puts that eminence on these things such that, by comparison, he resolved to emphasize nothing else in his preaching, 1Cor 2.2;[579] and he describes his ministry to that purpose, Eph 3.7-11.[580]

2dly. There are things declared and enjoined in the gospel that have their foundation in the law and light of nature. Such are all the moral duties which are taught in this. And two things may be observed concerning them:

(1st.) That they are in some measure known to men aliunde, i.e., from other principles. The inbred concreated[581] light of nature, teaches and confirms them, though obscurely. So the apostle, speaking of mankind in general, says in Rom 1.19; "That which may be known of God is manifested in them." The essential properties of God, rendering our moral duty to him necessary, are known by the light of nature; and by that same light men are able to make a judgment about their actions, whether they are good or evil, Rom 2.14-15.[582] And this is all the light which some boast of, as they will one day find to their disappointment.

(2dly.) There is an obligation to obedience on all men, according to their light concerning these things. The same law and light which reveals these things, also enjoins their observance. Thus it is with all men prior to the gospel being preached to them.

In this estate the gospel superadds two things to the minds of men:

(1st.) It directs us to a right performance of these things, from a right principle, by a right rule, and to a right end and purpose; so that they, and we in them, may obtain acceptance with God. By this the gospel gives moral duties a new nature, and turns them into evangelical obedience.

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(2dly.) By a communication of that Spirit which is annexed to its dispensation, it supplies us with strength for their performance in the manner it prescribes.

Hence it follows that this is the method of the gospel: first, it proposes and declares things which are properly and uniquely its own. So the apostle sets down the constant entrance of his preaching, 1Cor 15.3.[583] It reveals its own mysteries, to lay them as the foundation of faith and obedience. It inlays them in the mind, and thereby conforms the whole soul to them. See Rom 6.17; Gal 4.19; Tit 2.11-12; 1Cor 3.11; 2Cor 3.18.[584]— Without this foundation, the gospel will have nothing to do with the souls of men, nor will it proceed to any other thing with those by whom this first work is refused. But this foundation being laid, it then grafts all duties of moral obedience on this stock of faith in Christ Jesus. This is the method of the gospel which the apostle Paul observes in all his epistles: first, he declares the mysteries of faith that are unique to the gospel; and then he descends to those moral duties which are regulated by it.

But the prejudice we mentioned inverts the order of these things. Those who are under its power when, on various accounts, they are open to the gospel in general, still fix their minds first and principally on the things which have their foundation in the law and light of nature. These they know and have some acquaintance with themselves; and therefore they extol them, although not in their proper place, nor to their proper end. They make them the foundation, according to the place which they held in the law of nature and covenant of works, because the gospel only allows them to be necessary superstructures on the foundation. But resolving to give moral duties the pre-eminence in their minds, they consider afterward the particular doctrines of the gospel, with one or the other of these effects:

First, some wholly despise them in a way, reproaching those by whom these doctrines are singularly professed. What is contained in them is of no importance, in their judgment, compared with the more necessary duties of morality, which they pretend to embrace. And to acquit themselves of the trouble of searching into these doctrines, they reject them as unintelligible or unnecessary. Or,

Secondly, by forced interpretations, enervating[585] the spirit and perverting the mystery of them, they will square and fit them to their own low and carnal apprehensions. They would reduce the gospel and all its mysteries to their own light, as some do; reduce it to reason, as others do; reduce it to philosophy, as the rest do — and let those who do not comply with their weak and carnal notions of things, expect all the contemptuous reproaches which the proud pretenders to science and wisdom, cast of old upon the apostles and first preachers of the gospel.

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In advancing morality above the mystery and grace of the gospel, they at once reject the gospel and also destroy morality; for removing it from its proper foundation, it falls into the dirt — of which the conduct of the men of this persuasion, is no small evidence.

It is from this prejudice that the spiritual things of the gospel are despised and condemned by many. Thus God spoke of Ephraim, Hos 8.12, "I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were considered a strange thing." The strange things intended here were the "great, manifold, various things of the law." What the law was to that people then, the gospel is to us now. The "torah" was the entire means of God's communicating his mind and will to them, just as his whole counsel is revealed to us by the gospel. These things that he wrote to them, or that he made, were in themselves and in their revelation, plain and clear. But when all was done, they were esteemed "strange" by them, just as the gospel is. It is "a foreign thing" and alien to the minds of men, something they do not intend to concern themselves with. They will heed the things that are cognate to the principles of their nature, things that are morally good or evil; but as for the hidden wisdom of God in the mystery of the gospel, it is esteemed "a strange thing" by them.

And this darkness fills the minds of men with countless other prejudices of the same nature, by which they are powerfully and, as to any light or strength of their own, invincibly kept away from receiving spiritual things in a spiritual manner.

4. Again; the power and efficacy of this darkness in and upon the souls of unregenerate men will be further evidenced by considering its special subject, or the nature and use of that faculty which is affected with it. This is the mind or understanding. Light and knowledge are intellectual virtues or perfections of the mind; and that is in every kind whatsoever, whether in things that are natural, moral, or spiritual. The darkness which we treat here is the privation of spiritual light, or the lack of it; and therefore darkness and light are opposed to one another: "You were sometimes darkness, but now you are light in the Lord," Eph 5.8. It is, therefore, the mind or understanding which is affected with this darkness, which is vitiated and depraved by it.[586]

Now, the mind may be considered two ways:

(1.) As it is theoretical or contemplative, discerning and judging the things proposed to it. So its office is to discover, consider, discern, and apprehend the truth of things. In the case before us, it is the duty of the mind to apprehend, understand, and receive the truths of the gospel as they are proposed to it, in the manner of and to the end of their proposal.

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As we have manifested, because of its depravation, the mind neither does nor is able to do this, John 1.5; 1Cor 2.14.[587]

(2.) The mind may be considered as it is practical, as to its power to direct the whole soul, and determine the will to actual operation, according to its light. I will not inquire at present whether the will, as to the specification of its acts, necessarily follows the determination of the mind or practical understanding. I aim at no more than to say the mind is the directive faculty of the soul as to all moral and spiritual operations.

Hence it follows:

(1.) That nothing in the soul — nor in the will and affections — can will, desire, or cling to any good, except what is presented to them by the mind, and as it is presented. That good which the mind cannot discover, whatever it is, the will cannot choose; nor can the affections cling to it. All their actions about and concerning them, are not such that they will answer their duty. Our Savior directs us to consider this,

Mat 6.22-23, "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"

Just as the eye is naturally the light of the body, or the means of light, so the mind is light to the soul. And if darkness is in the eye, then not only the eye but the whole body is in darkness, because the light of the whole is in the eye alone. So if the mind is under darkness, the whole soul is also under darkness, because it has no light except by the mind. And hence illumination is sometimes taken for the whole work of conversion to God; and also the spiritual actings of the mind by the renovation of the Holy Ghost. Both are constantly proposed as those things which precede any gracious actings in the will, heart, and life, as we will show afterward.

(2.) The soul can in no way, by any other of its faculties, receive, embrace, or adhere to that good in a saving manner, which the mind does not savingly apprehend. So too, where the mind is practically deceived, or is in any way captivated under the power of prejudices, the will and the affections can in no way free themselves from entertaining that evil which the mind has perversely assented to. Thus, where the mind is so reprobate or void of sound judgment, as to call good evil, and evil good,[588] the heart, affections, and conduct will conform to this, Rom 1.28-32.[589] And in the Scripture, the deceiving of the mind is commonly laid down as the principle of all sin whatsoever, 1Tim 2.14; Heb 3.12-13; 2Cor 11.3.[590]

This is a brief delineation of the state of the mind of man while unregenerate, with respect to spiritual things. And from what has been said, we conclude that the mind in the state of nature is so depraved, vitiated, and corrupted, that upon spiritual things being proposed to it in the dispensation and preaching of the gospel, it is not able to understand, receive, and embrace them in a spiritual and saving manner, so as to have their sanctifying power thereby brought into and fixed in the soul —

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not without an internal, especial, immediate, supernatural, effectual, enlightening act of the Holy Ghost. What that is, and what it consists in, will be declared.

Chapter IV.

Life and death, natural and spiritual, compared.

Of death in sin — All unregenerate men are spiritually dead — Spiritual death is twofold: legal; metaphorical — Natural Life, what it is, and what it consists in — Natural Death, with its necessary consequents — The supernatural life of Adam in innocence, in its principle, acts, and power — Differences between that life and our spiritual life in Christ — Spiritual Death is a privation of the life we had in Adam; a negation of the life of Christ — It is privation of a principle of all life to God — Spiritual impotence in this — Differences between natural and spiritual death — The use of precepts, promises, and threatenings — No man perishes merely for lack of power — No vital acts in a state of death — The way of the communication of spiritual life — The nature of the best works of unregenerate persons— There is no disposition to spiritual life under the power of spiritual death.

Another description that the Scripture gives of unregenerate men as to their state and condition, is that they are spiritually dead; and hence, in like manner, it follows that there is a necessity for an internal, powerful, effectual work of the Holy Ghost on the souls of men, to deliver them out of this state and condition by regeneration. And this principally respects their wills and affections, just as the darkness and blindness described before, respects their minds and understandings. There is a spiritual life by which men live to God; being strangers to and alienated from this spiritual life, men are spiritually dead. The Scripture declares this concerning all unregenerate persons, partly in direct words, and partly in other assertions of the same importance. The testimonies of the first sort are many and express: Eph 2.1, "You were dead in trespasses and sins;" Eph 2.5, "When we were dead in sins;" Col 2.13, "And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh;" 2Cor 5.14, "If one died for all, then were all dead;" Rom 5.15, "Through the offense of one, many are dead;" Rom 5.12, "Death passed upon all men, for all have sinned." And the same thing is asserted in the second way, where the recovery and restoration of men by the grace of Christ is called their "quickening," or the bestowing of a new life upon them: for this supposes that they were dead, or destitute of that life which is communicated to them in this revivification; for only that which was dead before, can be said to be quickened. See Eph 2.5; John 5.21, 6.63.[591]

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This death that unregenerate persons are under, is twofold:

1. Legal death, with reference to the sentence of the law. The sanction of the law was that, upon sinning, a man should die: "In the day that you eat of this you shall die the death," Gen 2.17. And upon this sentence Adam and all his posterity became dead in law, morally dead, or liable to death penally, and adjudged to it. This death is intended in some of the places mentioned before, such as Rom 5.12, and also 2Cor 5.14: For as Christ died, so all were dead. He died penally under the sentence of the law, and all were liable to death, or dead on that account. But this is not the death which I intend. Nor are we delivered from it by regeneration; rather, we are delivered by justification, Rom 5.1.[592]

2. Spiritual death, so called metaphorically, from the analogy and proportion that it bears to natural death. It is of great importance to know the true nature of this spiritual death, and because of it, how unregenerate men are utterly disabled from doing anything that is spiritually good, until they are quickened by the almighty power and irresistible efficacy of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, to declare this rightly, we must consider the nature of natural life and death, to which the spiritual estate of unregenerate men is an allusion.

Life in general, or the life of a living creature, is "The act of a quickening principle on a subject to be quickened, by virtue of their union." [593] And three things are to be considered in it:

1. The principle of life itself; in man this is the rational, "living soul," Heb. nephesh chayyah: Gen 2.7, "God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Having formed the body of man from the dust of the earth, he designed for him a principle of life superior to that of brute creatures. Theirs is but the expression and spirit of their temperature and composition, even though particularly educed by the formative virtue and power of the Holy Ghost, as declared before. He creates for man, therefore, a separate, distinct, animating soul, and he infuses it into the matter prepared for its reception. As the Spirit did in the beginning in the creation of the species or kind of the human race in its first individuals, so he continues to do in the ordinary course of the works of his providence for continuing the human race. For having ordained the preparation of the body by generation, he immediately infuses into it the "living soul," the "breath of life," Heb. neshamah chayyah.

2. There is the "actus primus," [594] or the quickening act of this principle, on the principle quickened, in and by virtue of the union. Hereby the whole man becomes a "living soul;" Gr. psuchikos anthropos — a person quickened by a vital principle, and enabled for all naturally vital actions.

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3. There are the acts of this life itself; and they are of two sorts:

(1.) Those which flow from life as life.

(2.) Those which proceed from life as such a life, from the principle of a rational soul.

The first sort are natural and necessary, such as all the actings and energies of the senses, and of the locomotive faculty, and also what belongs to receiving and making use of nutriment. These are acts of life, from which the psalmist proves that idols are dead things: from the lack of such acts. They are so far from having a divine life, as to have no life at all, Psa 115.4-7.[595] These are acts of life as life; they are inseparable from it; and their end is to preserve the union of the whole between the quickening and quickened principles.

The second sort are acts of life that proceed from the special nature of this quickening principle. Such are all the elicit[596] and imperate[597] acts of our understandings and wills; all actions that are voluntary, rational, and uniquely human. These proceed from that special kind of life which is given by the special quickening principle of a rational soul.

Hence it is evident what natural death consists in; and three things may be considered in it:

1. The separation of the soul from the body. By this separation, the act of infusing the living soul ceases as to all its ends; for as a principle of life to the whole, it operates only by virtue of its union with the subject that is quickened by it.

2. A cessation of all vital actings in the quickened subject; for that union from which they proceeded is dissolved.

3. As a consequence of these, the body is impotent and inept as to all its vital operations. Not only do all operations of life actually cease, but the body is no longer able to effect them. There does indeed remain in it "potentia obedientialis,"[598] a "passive power" to receive life again, if that life is communicated to it by an external efficient cause. Thus the body of Lazarus, though dead, had the receptive power of a living soul; but it did not have an active power to dispose itself to life again, nor to vital actions.

From these things we may gather, by a just analogy, what spiritual life and death consist of. And to that end, some things must be observed beforehand; such as —

1. Adam in the state of innocency, besides having his natural life by which he was a living soul, likewise had a supernatural life with respect to its end, by which he lived to God. This is called the "life of God," Eph 4.18. This is the life which men who are now in the state of nature, are alienated from — it is the life which God requires, and which has God for its object and end. And this life was in Adam supernaturally.

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For although this life was concreated in and with the rational soul, as a perfection due to it in the state in which it was, and with respect to the end for which it was made, yet it did not naturally flow from the principles of the rational soul. Nor were its principles, faculties, or abilities inseparable from those of the soul itself, being only incidental perfections of them, inlaid in them by special grace. This life was necessary for him with respect to the state in which he was, and the end for which he was made. He was made to live to the living God, and that was in a particular manner: — he was to live to God's glory in this world by discharging the rational and moral obedience required of him; and he was to live afterward in God's glory and in the eternal enjoyment of Him, as his highest good and highest reward. He was enabled for this end by that life of God, which we are alienated from in the state of nature.

2. In this life, as in life in general, three things are to be considered: (1.) Its principle; (2.) Its operation; (3.) Its virtue; or its habit, act, and power.

(1.) There was a quickening principle belonging to it. For every life is an act of a quickening principle.[599] In Adam, this was the image of God, or a habitual conformity to God, his mind and will, in which the holiness and righteousness of God himself was represented, Gen 1.26-27.[600] He was created in this image, or it was concreated with him, as a perfection due to his nature in the condition in which he was made. This gave him a habitual disposition toward all duties of that obedience which was required of him; it was the rectitude of all the faculties of his soul with respect to his supernatural end, Ecc 7.29.[601]

(2.) There were continual actions belonging to it from this principle, or by virtue of it and suited to it. All the acts of Adam's life should have been subordinate to his great moral end. In all that he did, he should have lived to God, according to the law of that covenant in which he walked before Him. And living to God was Adam's acting in in all things suitably to the light in his mind, to the righteousness and holiness in his will and affections, and to that uprightness, or integrity, or order, that was in his soul.

(3.) Along with this, he had the power or ability to continue the principle of life in suitable acts of such a life, with respect to the whole obedience required of him. That is, Adam had sufficient ability to perform any duty, or all duties, that the covenant required.

The supernatural life of Adam in his innocence consisted in these three things; and this is what the life to which we are restored by Christ corresponds. It corresponds to it, I say, and it supplies its absence with respect to the end of living to God according to the new covenant that we are taken into. For the life of Adam would not be sufficient for us to live to God according to the terms of the new covenant; nor is the life of grace we now enjoy suited to the covenant in which Adam stood before God.

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This is why there are some differences between these two lives,[602] the principal difference of which may be reduced to two heads:

1. The principle of this life was wholly and entirely in man himself. It was the effect of another cause, which was outside himself — namely, the good-will and power of God; but it was left to grow on no other root than what was in man himself. It was wholly implanted in his nature, and its springs lie in this. It should have had actual excitations by the influence of power from God; for no principle of operation can subsist in independence from God, nor can it apply itself to operate without His concurrence. But in the life to which we are renewed by Jesus Christ, the fountain and principle of it is not in ourselves, but in Christ, as one common head to all those who are made partakers of him. He is "our life;" and our life (as to its spring and fountain) is hidden with him in God, Col 3.3-4; for he quickens us by his Spirit, Rom 8.11. And our spiritual life, as it exists in us, consists in the vital actings of this Spirit of his in us — for "without him we can do nothing," John 15.5. By virtue of this, we "walk in newness of life," Rom 6.4. We live by this, therefore; yet not so much we live, as "Christ lives in us," Gal 2.20.

2. There is a difference between these lives with respect to the object of their vital acts. For the life which we now lead by the faith of the Son of God has various objects of its actings, which the other life did not have. For all the actings of our faith and love (that is, all our obedience) respects the revelation that God makes of himself and his will to us. Because of this, there are now new revelations of God in Christ; and consequently there are new duties of obedience required of us; as will be apparent afterward.

And there are other such differences between them. The life we had in Adam at the beginning, and that life we are renewed to in Christ Jesus, are so much of the same nature and kind (as our apostle manifests in various places, Eph 4.23-24; Col 3.10),[603] that they serve the same end and purpose.

There being, therefore, this twofold spiritual life, or ability of living to God — that which we had in Adam and that which we have in Christ — we must inquire with reference to which of these it is that unregenerate men are said to be spiritually dead, or dead in trespasses and sins. Now, in the first place, this respects the life we had in Adam; for that life was deprived in the sanction of the law, "You shall die the death." This spiritual death is comprised in the privation of that spiritual life, or life to God, which unregenerate men never had — neither de facto nor de jure [604]— in any state or condition. This is why, with respect to this life, they are dead only negatively — they do not have it. But with respect to the life they had in Adam [prior to the fall], they are dead privatively — they have lost that power of living to God which they once had.

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From what has been discussed, we may discover the nature of this spiritual death, under the power of which all unregenerate persons abide: for there are three things in it:

1. A privation of a principle of spiritual life enabling us to live to God;

2. A negation of all spiritual, vital acts — that is, of all acts and duties of holy obedience that are acceptable to God, and tend toward enjoying him;

3. A total defect and lack of power for any such acts whatsoever.

All of these are in that death which is a privation of life, which this spiritual death is.

FIRST, There is a privation of a principle of spiritual life in it, namely, of that which we had before the entrance of sin, or a power of living to God according to the covenant of works; and there is a negation of that which we have by Christ, or a power of living to God according to the tenor of the covenant of grace. Therefore, those who are thus dead, have no principle or first power of living to God, or performing any duty which would be accepted by him, or enjoying him according to either covenant. It is with the spiritually dead as to all the acts and ends of spiritual life, as it is with the body as to all the acts and ends of natural life when the soul has departed from it. Why else are they said to be "dead"?

It is objected that, "There is a wide difference between natural and spiritual death. In natural death, the soul itself is utterly removed and taken from the body; but in spiritual death it continues. A man is still, notwithstanding this spiritual death, endowed with an understanding, will, and affections; and men are enabled by these to perform their duty to God, and yield the obedience required of them."

Ans. 1. In spiritual life, the soul is to the principle of that life, as the body is to the soul in natural life. For in natural life, the soul is the quickening principle, and the body is the principle quickened. When the soul departs, it leaves the body with all its own natural properties; but the body is utterly deprived of those properties which it had by virtue of its union with the soul. So too in spiritual life, the soul is not (in and by its essential properties) the quickening principle of that life, but it is the principle that is quickened. And when the quickening principle of spiritual life departs, it leaves the soul with all its natural properties entire as to their essence, even though they are morally corrupted; but it is deprived of all the power and abilities which it had by virtue of its union with a quickening principle of spiritual life. To deny such a quickening principle of spiritual life — superadded to us by the grace of Christ, distinct and separate from the natural faculties of the soul — is to renounce the whole gospel on this matter. It is the same as denying that Adam was created in the image of God, that he lost that image, and that we are renewed to the image of God by Jesus Christ. Hence,

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Ans. 2. Whatever the soul acts in spiritual things by its understanding, will, and affections, as it is deprived of or not quickened by this principle of spiritual life, it does it naturally, not spiritually, as will instantly be made apparent.

There is, therefore, in the first place, a disability or impotence as to all spiritual things that are to be performed in a spiritual manner, in all persons who are not born again by the Spirit. This is because they are spiritually dead. Whatever they can do, or whatever men may call what they do, they can perform no spiritually vital act, no act of life by which we live to God, or that is absolutely accepted by Him, unless they are endowed with a quickening principle of grace. Hence it is said, "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be," Rom 8.7. So then, "those who are in the flesh cannot please God," verse 8. Men may quibble as they please about this carnal mind, and contend that it is only the sensitive part of the soul,[605] or the affections as corrupted by prejudices and depraved habits of vice. Two things are plain in the text:

First, That this carnal mind is in all mankind, whoever they are — those who are not partakers of the Spirit of God and his quickening power;

Secondly, That where this carnal mind is, there is a disability to do anything that would please God.

This is the sum of what we contend for, and which men may deny with as little a disparagement of their modesty, as to reject the authority of the apostle. So our Savior, for instance, tells us that "no man can come to him unless the Father draws him," John 6.44. Thus it is affirmed about all men where their nature is figuratively compared to evil trees, that they cannot bring forth good fruit unless their nature is changed, Mat 7.18, 12.33.[606] This disability to good is also compared by the prophet to those effects which are naturally impossible to accomplish, Jer 13.23.[607] We do not contend about expressions. This is what the Scripture abundantly instructs us in.

With respect to our spiritual life to God, according to his will and our future enjoyment of him, there is no power in men by nature and of themselves, by which they are able to perceive, know, will, or do anything in such a way or manner that it should be accepted by God. And so, upon the mere proposal from the word of God that they have a duty of spiritual obedience — and despite receiving its exhortations to perform it, accompanied with all the motives that are fit and suited to prevail with them to perform it — there must yet be an efficacious infusion into them, or a creation in them, of a new gracious principle or habit enabling them to this duty. And this is accordingly wrought by the Holy Ghost in all those who believe, as we will afterward declare.

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But it will be objected to this doctrine, as it has been since the days of Pelagius, that

"Supposing this is so, it would render vain and useless all exhortations, commands, promises, and threatenings, which comprise the whole way by which God's will is externally communicated to us. For to what purpose is it to exhort blind men to see, or dead men to live, or to promise rewards to them upon doing so? If men were to deal this way with stones, would it not be vain and ludicrous? For they are impotent to comply with any such proposals; and the same is supposed here in men, as to any ability in spiritual things."

Ans. 1. In the highest wisdom, there is nothing required in applying any means to produce an effect, unless they are suited to it in their own nature, and the subject on which they work is capable of being affected by them, as their nature requires.[608] And thus exhortations, with the promises and threatenings, acting as moral instruments, are suited and proper in their kind to produce the effects of faith and obedience in the minds of men. And the faculties of their souls — their understandings, wills, and affections — are fit to be worked on by them to that end. For it is by men's rational abilities that they are able to discern their nature, and judge their tendency. And because these faculties are the principle and subject of all actual obedience, it is granted that in man there is a natural, remote, passive power to yield obedience to God, which nonetheless can never actually exert itself, without the effectual working of the grace of God, which not only enables but works in them to will and to do.Phi 2.13

Ans. 2. Exhortations, promises, and threatenings do not primarily respect our present ability, but our duty. Their end is to declare to us, not what we can do, but what we ought to do; and this is done fully in them. On the other hand, if you make it a general rule that we have power in and of ourselves to do what God commands or exhorts us to do, or we are able to do it ourselves — with promises made for our obedience, and threatenings for our disobedience — then you quite evacuate the grace of God.

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Or at least you make grace only useful to more easily discharge our duty, but not necessary for the duty itself, This is the Pelagianism anathematized by so many councils of old. But up to now in the church, it has been believed that the command directs our duty, and the promise gives strength for its performance.

Ans. 3. God is pleased to make these exhortations and promises "means of grace" [609] — the means of communicating spiritual life and strength to men; and he has appointed them to this end because they are suited to this, considering the moral and intellectual faculties of the minds of men. Hence, these effects are ascribed to the word, but they are really worked by the grace communicated by it, Jas 1.18; 1Pet 1.23.[610] And in their dispensation under the covenant of grace, this is their proper end. God may therefore wisely make use of them, and command them to be used towards men, notwithstanding men's disability to savingly comply with them — because He can, will, and does make them effectual to the end aimed at.

But it will be further objected that,

"If men are thus utterly devoid of a principle of spiritual life, of all power to live to God — that is, to repent, believe, and yield obedience — then is it righteous that men should perish eternally merely for their disability, for not doing what they are not able to do? This would be to require brick and to give no straw, indeed, to require much where nothing is given. But the Scripture everywhere charges the destruction of men to their willful sin, not their weakness or disability."

Ans. 1. Men's disability to live to God is their sin. Whatever therefore ensues from that, may be justly charged against them. It is what came upon us by the sin of our nature in our first parents; all their consequents are our sin and our misery, Rom 5.12. If this had befallen us without a guilt that is truly our own, according to the law of our creation and the covenant of our obedience, the case would have been otherwise; but on this supposition (sufficiently confirmed elsewhere), those who perish are only feeding on the fruit of their own ways.

Ans. 2. In the transactions between God and the souls of men, with respect to their obedience and salvation, none of them is without some degree and measures of power in various things to comply with His mind and will — things which they voluntarily neglect; and this of itself is sufficient to bear the charge of their eternal ruin. But —

Ans.3. No man is so unable to live to God, to do anything for him, that he is also unable to do anything against him.[611] There is a depraved nature in all men, a vicious habit of mind in which they are alienated from the life of God. There is no command given to men for evangelical faith or obedience, that they cannot (and do) put forth a free positive act of their wills in rejecting it, either directly or interpretatively, and in preferring something else before it.

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Just as "they cannot come to Christ unless the Father draws them," Joh 6.44 so "they will not come that they may have life." Joh 5.40 This is why their destruction is just, and of themselves.

This is the description which the Scripture gives us concerning the power, ability, or disability of men in the state of nature as to the performance of spiritual things. It is maligned by some as fanatical and senseless, which the Lord Christ must answer for. But it is not maligned by us, for we do nothing but plainly represent what he has expressed in his word. And if it is "foolishness" to anyone, the day will determine where the blame must lie.

SECONDLY, in this death there is an actual cessation of all vital acts. It is because of this defect of power, or the lack of a principle of spiritual life, that men in the state of nature can perform no vital act of spiritual obedience — nothing that is spiritually good, or saving, or acceptable with God, according to the tenor of the new covenant. We will explain this a little here.

The whole course of our obedience to God in Christ is the "life of God," Eph 4.18. Our end is that life which comes from him in a particular manner, and of which He is the special author, and by which we live to him. And the gospel, which is the rule of our obedience, is called "The words of this life," Acts 5.20 — it is what guides and directs us how to live to God. Hence all the duties of this life are vital acts, spiritually vital acts, acts of that life by which we live to God.

Therefore, where this life is not found, all the works of men are dead works. Where persons are dead in sin, their works are "dead works." All of them are dead, either in their own nature, or with respect to those who perform them, Heb 9.14.[612] They are dead works because they do not proceed from a principle of life; they are unprofitable as dead things, Eph 5.11;[613] and they end in eternal death, Jas 1.15.[614]

We may, then, consider how this spiritual life, which enables us for these vital acts, is derived and communicated to us:

1. The original spring and fountain of this life is with God: Psa 36.9, "With you is the fountain of life." The sole spring of our spiritual life is, in a special way and manner, in God. And hence our life is said to be "hidden with Christ in God," Col 3.3; that is, it is hidden as to its internal producing and preserving cause. But it is also hidden with respect to all life whatsoever. God is the "living God." All other things, in themselves, are but dead things. Their life, whatever it is, is efficiently and eminently in him, and it is purely derivative in them. This is why —

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2. Our spiritual life, as to its special nature, is distinguished and discerned from a life of any other kind, in that its fulness is communicated to the Lord Christ as mediator, Col 1.19; and we receive it from his fullness, John 1.16. There is a principle of spiritual life communicated to us from his fullness of life, which is why he quickens whom he pleases. Hence he is said to be "our life," Col 3.4. And in our life, it is not so much we who live, as "Christ that lives in us," Gal 2.20; because we do nothing except as we are moved by virtue and power from him, 1Cor 15.10.[615]

3. Because the fountain of this life is in God, and the fullness of it is laid up in Christ for us, he communicates the power and principle of it to us by the Holy Ghost, Rom 8.11.[616] We will afterward fully evince and declare that he is the immediate and efficient cause of this. Yet he does it so as to derive this life from Jesus Christ, and impart it to us, Eph 4.15-16.[617] For he is "the life," and "without him," or the power communicated from him, "we can do nothing," John 15.5.

4. This spiritual life is communicated to us by the Holy Ghost, according to and in order for the ends of the new covenant; for this is the promise of it: that God will first write his law in our hearts, and then we will walk in his statutes.[618] That is, the principle of life must precede all vital acts. From this principle of life, thus derived and conveyed to us, come all those vital acts by which we live to God. Where this is not found — as it is not found in any of those who are "dead in sins" (for, from the lack of this principle, they are designated "dead") — no act of obedience to God can be so performed that it will be an act of the "life of God." This is the way the Scripture expresses it. The same thing is intended when we say, in other words, that without an infused habit of internal inherent grace, received from Christ by an efficacious work of the Spirit, no man can believe or obey God, or perform any duty in a saving manner, that it should be accepted by him. And if we do not abide in this principle, then we let the whole poisonous flood of Pelagianism into the church. It overthrows the gospel and the faith of the catholic church in all ages to say that we have such a sufficiency in ourselves to think a good thought, or to do anything as we should — or to say that we have any power, any ability that is our own, or that is in us by nature, so as to believe or obey the gospel savingly in any one instance, however it may be externally excited and guided by motives, directions, reasons, or encouragements of whatever sort.

But it may be objected that,

"Because many unregenerate persons may and do perform many duties of religious obedience, if there is nothing of spiritual life in them, then are they all sins; and so they do not differ from the worst things that they can do in this world, which are clearly sins. And if this is so, then to what end should they take pains[619] about them?

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Would it not be as good for them to indulge their lusts and pleasures, seeing that it all comes to the same end? It is all sin, and nothing else. Why do the dispensers of the gospel press any duties upon those whom they know are in that estate? What advantage will they have by complying with them? Would it not be better to leave them to themselves, and wait for their conversion, than to spend time and labor on them to no purpose?"

Ans. 1. It must be granted that all the duties of such persons are in some sense sins. It was the saying of Austin[620] that the virtues of unbelievers are splendida peccata, "grand sins." Some are now displeased with this; but it is easier to censure Austin than to confute him. Two things attend every duty that is properly a duty:

(1.) That it is accepted by God; and,

(2.) That it is sanctified in those who do it.

But neither of these is found in the duties of unregenerate men; for they lack faith, and "without faith it is impossible to please God," Heb 11.6. And the apostle also assures us that to the defiled and unbelieving — that is, to all unsanctified persons who are not purified by the Spirit of grace — all things are unclean, because their consciences and minds are defiled, Titus 1.15. So their praying is said to be an "abomination," Pro 28.9 and their plowing is called "sin." Pro 21.4 Therefore, it is not apparent what else is in them, or to them. But just as there are good duties which have sin adhering to them, Isa 64.6,[621] so there are sins which have good in them; for "an action is good when it is good in every respect; it is wrong when it is wrong in any respect."[622] Such are the duties of unregenerate men. Formally, and to them, these acts are sin; but materially, and in themselves, they are good. This makes them different from, and preferred above, those sins which are sinful in every way. As they are duties, they are good; as they are the duties of such persons, they are evil — because they are necessarily defective in what should preserve them from being evil. And on this ground, the unregenerate ought to attend to good duties, and they may be pressed to do so.

Ans.2. That which is good materially and in itself, even though vitiated[623] from the relation which it has to the person who performs it, is approved, and it has its acceptance in its proper place; for duties may be performed in two ways:

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(1.) In hypocrisy and pretense. So they are utterly abhorred by God, in matter and manner. That is such a poisonous ingredient as to vitiate the whole, Isa 1.11-15; Hos 1.4.[624]

(2.) In integrity, according to present light and conviction; these are approved as to their substance. And no man is to be exhorted to do anything in hypocrisy: see Mat 6.16.[625]

And also on this account (i.e., that the duties themselves are acceptable), men may be pressed to perform them. But —

Ans.3. It must be granted that the same duty, as to its substance in general, and performed according to the same rule as to its outward manner, may be accepted in or from one person, and rejected in or from another. So it was with the sacrifices of Cain and Abel.[626] And not only so, but the same rejected duty may have degrees of evil for which it is rejected; and be more sinful in and for one person, than another. But we must observe that the difference does not relate merely to the different states of the persons by whom such duties are performed — the duties of one are not accepted because he is in the state of grace, and those of another rejected because he is in the state of nature. For although the acceptance of our persons is a necessary condition for the acceptance of our duties — as God first regarded Abel, and then his offering[627] —there is always a real and specific difference between the duties themselves for which the one is accepted and the other rejected, even though it may be imperceptible to us in every way. In the offerings of Cain and Abel, Abel's was offered in faith, and that was the defect which caused the other to be refused. Therefore, suppose that duties are in every way the same as to their principles, rule, and ends, or whatever is necessary to render them good in their kind — they would all be equally accepted by God, by whomever they are performed, for he is "no respecter of persons." Act 10.34 But, this can only be where those who perform these duties are partakers of the same grace. It is therefore the wills of men alone that vitiate those duties which are required of them as good; and if they are good, they may justly be required of them. The defect is not immediately in their state, but in their wills and perversity.[628]

Ans.4. The will of God is the rule of all men's obedience. They are all bound to attend to it; and if what they do, through their own defect, eventually proves to be sin to them, yet the commandment itself is just and holy, and its observance is justly prescribed to them. The law is the moral cause of the performance of the duties that it requires; but it is not the cause of the sinful manner of their performance. God has not lost his right to command men, just because by their sin they have lost their power to fulfil his command. If the equity of the command arises from the proportion of strength that men have to respond to it, then the one who contracts the highest moral disability that depraved habits of mind can introduce, or that a course of sinning can produce in him, is freed from owing obedience to any of God's commands — seeing that everyone admits that such a habit of sin may be contracted, that it will deprive those in whom it is found, of all power to obey! Thus,

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Ans.5. Preachers of the gospel and others have a sufficient warrant to press upon all men the duties of faith, repentance, and obedience, even though they know that these men, in themselves, do not have a sufficient ability for their due performance; for —

(1.) It is the will and command of God that they should duly perform them, and that is the rule of all our duties. They are not to consider what a man can do, or will do, but what God requires. To make a judgment about men's ability, and to accommodate the commands of God to them accordingly, is not committed to any of the sons of men.[629]

(2.) Preachers have a double end in pressing on men the observance of duties, even supposing there is the state of impotency described:

[1.] To prevent men from those courses of sin which would harden them, and so render their conversion more difficult, if not desperate.

[2.] To exercise a means appointed by God for their conversion, or the communication of saving grace to them.

Such are God's commands, and such are the duties required in them. God communicates his grace to the souls of men in and by these duties — not with respect to them as their duties, but as they are the ways that God has appointed and sanctified to attain such ends. And hence it follows that even those duties which are vitiated in their performance, are still an advantage to those who perform them; for —

1st. By attending to them, men are preserved from many sins.

2d. They are preserved in a special way from the great sin of despising God, which commonly ends in what is unpardonable.

3d. They are hereby made useful to others, and to many ends of God's glory in the world.

4th. They are kept in God's way, in which they may gradually be brought to a real conversion to him.

THIRDLY, In this state of spiritual death, there is not found in those who are under its power, any active and inclining disposition to spiritual life. There is no such disposition in a dead carcass to natural life. It is a subject that is fit for an external power to introduce a living principle into it. So the dead body of Lazarus was quickened and animated again by the introduction of his soul; but in itself, it did not have the least active disposition nor inclination to this quickening. And it is no different with a soul that is dead in trespasses and sins. There is potentia obedientialis in it,[630] a power rendering it fit to receive the communications of grace and spiritual life; but it does not have a disposition to this of itself. There is a remote power in it, in the nature of its faculties, that is fit to be worked on by the Spirit and grace of God; but it does not have a direct power, disposing and enabling it to spiritual acts.

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And the reason is because natural corruption clings to it as an invincible, unmovable habit, constantly inducing it to evil, which is not consistent with the least disposition to spiritual good. In the soul there is, in the language of Scripture, "the body of the sins of the flesh," Col 2.11,[631] (which some call "canting").[632] Unless it is taken away by spiritual circumcision through the virtue of the death of Christ, that body will lie dead into eternity. Therefore, there is in us what may be quickened and saved; and this is all we have to boast of by nature. Though man by sin is made like the beasts that perish, being brutish and foolish in his mind and affections, yet he is not absolutely so. He retains that living soul, those intellectual faculties, which were the subject of original righteousness; and they are fit to receive again the renovation of the image of God by Jesus Christ.

But this also seems liable to an objection from instances given in Scripture, and which we have experienced, concerning various good duties performed by unregenerate men, indicating a tendency to live to God; this argues for a disposition to spiritual good. So Balaam desired to "die the death of the righteous;" Num 23.10 and Herod "heard John the Baptist gladly, and did many things willingly." Mar 6.20

"We find great endeavors in pursuit of conversion to God, in many of those who never attain to it. So to say that there is no disposition to spiritual life in any unregenerate person, is to make them all equal, which is contrary to experience."

Ans. 1. There is no doubt but that unregenerate men may perform many external duties which are good in themselves, and lie in the order of the outward disposition of the means of conversion. Nor is it questioned that they may have real designs, desires, and endeavors after that which is presented to them as their highest good. But to the extent that these desires or actings are merely natural, there is no disposition in them to spiritual life, or to what is spiritually good. And to the extent that they are supernatural, they are not of themselves; for —

Ans.2. Although there are no preparatory inclinations in men, there are preparatory works upon them. Those who do not have the word, may yet have convictions of good and evil from the authority of God in their consciences, Rom 2.14-15.[633] In the dispensation of the law, men may be worked toward many duties of obedience, and much more may the gospel do so. But whatever effects are produced by that, they are worked by the power of God, exerted in the dispensation of the word. They are not drawn out of the natural faculties of the minds of men; rather, they are the effects of the power of God in them and upon them. For we know that "in the flesh there dwells no good thing;" Rom 7.18 and all unregenerate men are no more than flesh, for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Joh 3.6

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Ans.3. The actings thus effected and produced in unregenerate men are neither fruits of, nor dispositions to, spiritual life. Men who are spiritually dead may have designs and desires to free themselves from dying eternally, but such a desire to be saved is not a saving disposition to life.

Chapter V.

The nature, causes, and means of regeneration.

Description of the state of nature necessary to a right understanding of the work of the Spirit in regeneration — No possibility of salvation to persons living and dying in a state of sin — Deliverance from it by regeneration only — The Holy Ghost is the unique author of this work — Differences about the manner and nature of it — Way of the ancients in explaining the doctrine of grace — The present method proposed — Conversion not worked by moral suasion only — The nature and efficacy of moral suasion, in which they consist — Illumination is preparatory to conversion — The nature of grace morally effective only, explained; not sufficient for conversion — The first argument, disproving the working of grace in conversion to be by moral suasion only — The second — The third — The fourth — what the work of the Spirit in regeneration positively consists in — The use and end of outward means — Real internal efficiency of the Spirit in this work — Grace is victorious and irresistible — The nature of it explained; proved — The manner of God's working by grace on our wills further explained — Testimonies concerning the actual conferring of faith by the power of God — Victorious efficacy of internal grace proved by various testimonies of Scripture — From the nature of the work wrought by it, in vivification and regeneration — Regeneration considered with respect to the distinct faculties of the soul; the mind, the will, and the affections.

For the description we are about to give of the work of regeneration, the preceding account of the subject of it, or the state and condition of those who are to be regenerated, was a necessary premise. For a due apprehension of the nature of that work depends on knowledge of it. The occasion for all the mistakes and errors about it, either of old or of late, has been a misunderstanding of the true state of men in their lapsed condition, or of their nature as depraved. Indeed, those by whom this whole work is derided now countenance themselves in this misunderstanding, by their ignorance of that state, which they will not learn either from the Scripture or experience. For as Austin puts it, it is evidence of the corruption of nature, that it disenables the minds of men to discern their own corruption.[634] We have previously discharged this work as far as necessary for our present purpose. Many other things might be added in the explication of it, if that were our direct design.

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Particularly, having confined myself to address only the depravation of the mind and will, I have not insisted on the depravation of the affections, which yet is effectual to retain unregenerate men under the power of sin — though it is far enough from truth that the whole corruption of nature consists in this, as some weakly and atheologically have imagined. Much less have I addressed that increase and heightening of the depravation of nature which is contracted by a custom of sinning, as to all its perverse ends. Yet the Scripture much insists on this also, as what naturally and necessarily ensues in all those in whom it is not prevented by the effectual transforming grace of the Spirit of God; and it is what seals the impossibility of turning themselves to God, Jer 13.23; Rom 3.10-19.[635] But it is false and openly contradictory to the Scripture, to say that the whole difficulty of conversion arises from men's contracting a habit or a custom of sinning. These things are personal evils; and they befall individuals through their own default, in various degrees. We see that among men, under the same use of means, some are converted to God who have been deeply immersed in a habitual course of open sins, while others, kept from them by the influence of their education upon their inclinations and affections, remain unconverted. So it was of old between the publicans and harlots on the one hand, and the Pharisees on the other. But my design was only to mention what is common to all, or what all men universally are equally concerned in, who are partakers of the same human nature in its lapsed condition. And what we have declared in this from the Scriptures will guide us in our inquiry about the work of the Holy Spirit of grace in our deliverance from it.

It is evident, and it needs no further confirmation, that persons living and dying in this estate cannot be saved. Up to now this has been admitted by all who are called Christians; nor are we to be moved that some who call themselves Christians begin to laugh at the disease, and despise the remedy of our nature. Among those who lay any serious and real claim to Christianity, there is nothing more certain nor more acknowledged than this: that there is no deliverance from a state of misery for those who are not delivered from a state of sin. And anyone who denies the necessary perishing of all those who live and die 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, then there was no need or use for the new creation of all things by Jesus Christ, which principally consists in this. And if men may be saved while still under all the evils that came upon us by the fall, then Christ died in vain. Besides, it is frequently said that men in that state are "enemies to God," "alienated from him," "children of wrath," "under the curse;" and if such as these may be saved without regeneration, then so may devils.

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In brief, it is not consistent with the nature of God — with his holiness, righteousness, or truth — nor with the law or gospel, nor is it possible in the nature of the thing itself, that such persons should enter into or be made possessors of glory, and rest with God. Therefore a deliverance out of and from this condition is indispensably necessary to make us fit for the inheritance of the saints in light.

This deliverance must be and is by regeneration. The determination of our Savior is positive, both in this and the necessity of it, as asserted before: John 3.3, "Unless a man is born again," or from above, "he cannot see the kingdom of God." In whatever sense the "kingdom of God" is taken, either for that kingdom of grace here, or the kingdom of glory hereafter, it is all the same for our present purpose. There is no interest to be obtained in it, no participation in its benefits, unless a man is born again, unless he is regenerate. And this determination of our Savior, as it is absolute and decretory,[636] so it is applicable to and equally comprises every individual of mankind. And the work intended by their regeneration, or in being born again, which is the spiritual conversion and quickening of the souls of men, is everywhere ascribed to those who will be saved. And although, through their ignorance and prejudices, men may have false apprehensions about regeneration and its nature, or what it consists of, 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, it is our deliverance itself — for the express testimonies of Scripture, and the nature of the thing itself, put this beyond contradiction, Tit 3.3-5.[637] Those who expose it to scorn — who consider it ridiculous for anyone to inquire whether he is regenerate or not — will one day understand the necessity of it, though maybe not before it is too late to obtain any advantage by it.

The Holy Ghost is the immediate author and cause of this work of regeneration. And in this again, I suppose we have in general the consent of all. Nothing is more acknowledged in words than this: 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 comprising the whole in itself, as will be made apparent afterward. However, it is not to be denied that regeneration is a part of this. Besides, I suppose it is equally confessed to be an effect or work of grace, the actual dispensation of which is solely in the hand of the Holy Spirit. I say this is verbally acknowledged by all, although I do not know how some can reconcile this profession with other notions and sentiments which they declare concerning it.

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Setting aside what men do in this regeneration themselves, and what others do towards them in the ministry of the word, I cannot see what remains (as they express their loose imaginations) to be ascribed to the Spirit of God. But at present we will 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 to do so, but we may avoid contesting about those things in which men may shroud their false opinions under general, ambiguous expressions. This was the constant practice of Pelagius and those who followed him of old.

But the Scripture has express testimonies to our purpose. What our Savior calls being "born again," John 3.3, he calls being "born of the Spirit," verses 5, 6, because he is the sole, principal, and efficient cause of this new birth; for "it is the Spirit that quickens," John 6.63; Rom 8.11. And God saves us "according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost," Tit 3.5. Therefore, because we are said to be "born of God," or to be "begotten again of his own will," John 1.13, Jas 1.18, 1John 3.9, it is with respect to the special and particular operation of the Holy Spirit.

These things are confessed even by the Pelagians themselves, both those of old and those at present (at least in general). Nor has anyone yet been so hardy as to deny that regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit in us, except those deluded souls who deny both him and his work. Our sole inquiry, therefore, must involve the manner and nature of this work; for its nature depends on the manner of the working of the Spirit of God in regeneration. This, I acknowledge, was variously contended about of old; and the truth concerning it has scarcely escaped opposition in any age of the church. At present, this is the great ball of contention between the Jesuits and the Jansenists;[638] the latter keeping close to the doctrine of the principal ancient writers of the church. The former, under new notions, expressions, and distinctions, endeavor to reinforce Pelagianism, to which some of the elder schoolmen led the way — and which our Bradwardine[639] so long ago complained of. But never was it maligned and reviled with so much impudence and ignorance as it is by some among ourselves. For we have the sort of men who, by stories of wandering Jews, rhetorical declamations, pert quibblings, and proud revilings of those who dissent from them, think to scorn and banish truth out of the world, though they never dare attempt to deal openly and plainly with any single argument that is pleaded in its defense and confirmation.

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The ancient writers of the church, who looked into these things with most diligence, and labored in them with most success — such as Austin, Hilary, Prosper, and Fulgentius[640] — represent the whole work of the Spirit of God towards the souls of men under certain heads or distinctions of grace. And they were followed in this by many of the more sober schoolmen, and others of late, without number. They frequently mention grace as "preparing, preventing, working, co-working, and confirming." Under these heads they handle the whole work of our regeneration or conversion to God. And although there may be some alteration in method and ways of expressing it — which may be varied as they are found advantageous to those who are to be instructed — yet, for the substance of the doctrine, they taught the same things which have been preached among us since the Reformation, which some have ignorantly maligned as novel. The whole of it is nobly and elegantly exemplified by Austin in his Confessions; in which he gives us the experience of the truth he was taught in his own soul.

I might follow in their footsteps in this; and perhaps, for some reasons, I should have chosen to do so. But there have been so many differences raised about the explication and application of these terms and distinctions, and about the declaration of the nature of the acts and effects of the spirit of grace that are intended in them, that carrying the truth through the intricate perplexities which have been cast upon regeneration under these notions, would be a longer work than I will engage in here. And it would divert me too much from my principal intention. I will therefore, in general, refer the whole work of the Spirit of God, with respect to the regeneration of sinners, to two heads:

First, That which is preparatory for it; and,

Secondly, That which is effective for it.

What is preparatory for regeneration is the conviction of sin. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit, John 16.8. Also, conviction may be distinctly referred to three heads:

1. A discovery of the true nature of sin by the ministry of the law, Rom 7.7.

2. An application of that discovery made in the mind or understanding, to the conscience of the sinner.

3. The excitation of affections suitable to that discovery and application, Acts 2.37.

But these things have been asserted before, so far as they belong to our present design. Our principal inquiry at present is about the work itself, or the nature and manner of the working of the Spirit of God in and on the souls of men in their regeneration; and this must be both negatively and positively declared:

First, The work of the Spirit of God in the regeneration of sinners, or the quickening of those who are dead in trespasses and sins, or in their first saving conversion to God, does not consist in a moral suasion only. By suasion we mean such a persuasion that it may or may not be effectual; so in an absolute sense, we only call it persuasion when a man is actually persuaded. Concerning this we must consider —

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1. What is meant by that expression "moral suasion," and what its efficacy consists in; and,

2. Proof that the whole work of the Spirit of God in the conversion of sinners does not consist in this moral suasion.

I will handle this matter under the notion that it is something which is known to those who are conversant in these things from the writings of the ancient and modern divines. For it serves no purpose to endeavor to reduce the extravagant, confused discourses of some present writers to a certain and determinate statement of the differences among us. What they seem to aim at and conclude, may be reduced to these heads:

(1.) That God administers grace to all in the declaration of the doctrine of the law and gospel.

(2.) That the reception of this doctrine — in the belief and practice of it — is enforced by promises and threatenings.

(3.) That the things revealed, taught, and commanded in it are not only good in themselves, but they are so suited to the reason and interest of mankind, that the mind cannot help but be disposed and inclined to receive and obey them, unless overpowered by prejudices and a course of sin.

(4.) That the consideration of the promises and threatenings of the gospel is sufficient to remove these prejudices and reform that course.

(5.) That upon a compliance with the doctrine of the gospel and obedience to it, men are made partakers of the Spirit, along with other privileges of the New Testament, and they have a right to all the promises of the present and future life.

Now, this being a perfect system of PELAGIANISM, which was condemned in the ancient church as absolutely exclusive of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, it will be fully removed from our way in our present discourse, even though the loose, confused expressions of some are not considered in particular. For if the work of our regeneration does not consist entirely in a moral suasion — which, as we will see, is all that these men will allow to grace — their whole fabric falls to the ground of its own accord:

1. As to the nature of this moral suasion, two things may be considered:

(1.) The means, instrument, and matter of it, which is the word of God — specifically, the word of God or Scripture in its doctrinal instructions, precepts, promises, and threatenings. By that word alone, we are commanded, pressed, and persuaded to turn ourselves and live to God. And in this we comprise the whole — both the law and the gospel, with all the divine truths contained in them — as severally respecting the special ends for which they are designed. For although they are distinctly and particularly suited to produce distinct effects on the minds of men, yet they all jointly tend to the general end of guiding men in how to live to God, and to obtain enjoyment of him. I will not take into consideration here, those documents and instructions which men have concerning the will of God, and the obedience which he requires of them from the light of nature, with the works of creation and providence.

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For either they are solitary, or without any superaddition of instructive light by revelation, in which case I utterly deny they are a sufficient outward means of conversion for any soul; or else they may be considered as improved[641] by the written word dispensed to men, and so they are comprised under it, and do not need to be considered apart from it. We will therefore suppose that those to whom the word is declared, antecedently have all the help which the light of nature will afford.

(2.) The principal way of applying this means to produce its effect on the souls of men is the ministry of the church. God has appointed that ministry for the application of the word to the minds and consciences of men, for their instruction and conversion. And concerning this, we may observe two things:

[1.] That the word of God thus dispensed by the ministry of the church, is the only ordinary outward means which the Holy Ghost makes use of in the regeneration of the adult to whom it is preached.

[2.] That in its kind, the word is sufficient in every way — that is, as an outward means. For the revelation which is made of God and his mind by this means is sufficient to teach men all that is needed for them to believe and do, so that they may be converted to God, and yield to him the obedience that he requires. Hence two things ensue:

1st. That the use of those means by men in the state of sin, if not complied with, is sufficient on the grounds laid down before, to leave inexcusable those by whom these means are rejected: Isa 5.3-5; Pro 29.1; 2Chr 36.14-16.[642]

2d. That the effect of regeneration, or conversion to God, is assigned to the preaching of the word because of its efficacy to this end, in its own kind and way, as the outward means of it, 1Cor 4.15; Jas 1.18; 1Pet 1.23.[643]

2. We may now consider what the nature of this moral work is, and what its efficacy consists in. To this purpose we may observe —

(1.) That in the use of this means for the conversion of men, there is, preparatory to what this moral persuasion consists in, an instruction of the mind in the knowledge of the will of God and its duty towards him. The first regard to men in the dispensation of the word to them, is their darkness and ignorance by which 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 to us: see Mat 4.15-16; Luke 4.18-19; Acts 26.16-18, 20.20-21, 26-27.[644] By the preaching of the law and the gospel, men are instructed in the whole counsel of God and what he requires of them; and the illumination of their minds consists in their apprehension of this, which we must treat distinctly afterward.

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Without a supposition of this illumination, there is no use of the persuasive power of the word; for it consists in affecting the mind with its concern in the things that it knows, or in which the mind is instructed. This is why we suppose, in this case, that a man is taught by the word both the necessity of regeneration, and what is required of him for this.

(2.) On this supposition — that a man is instructed in the knowledge of the will of God, as revealed in the law and the gospel — there is a powerful persuasive efficacy accompanying the word of God in its dispensation, to comply with and observe it. For instance, suppose a man is convinced by the word of God of the nature of sin. He is convinced of his own sinful condition, of his danger with respect to the sin of his nature, for which he is a child of wrath; of his actual sin, which further renders him liable to the curse of the law and the indignation of God; of his duty on this account to turn to God, and the way by which he may so do. In the precepts, exhortations, expostulations, promises, and threatenings of the word, especially as dispensed in the ministry of the church, there are powerful motives to affect and arguments to prevail with the mind and will of such a man to endeavor after his own regeneration or conversion to God. — all are rational and cogent above all that can be objected to the contrary.

It is acknowledged that these things have no effect on some; they are not moved by them; they do not care for them; they despise them; and they 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 — even though it is true that indeed they are not powerful towards us of themselves, but only as the Holy Spirit is pleased to act them towards us. But in these motives, reasons, and arguments, in and from the word and its ministry to them, men are urged and pressed to conversion to God. This is what the moral persuasion which we are speaking about consists of. And its efficacy to the end proposed, arises from the things which ensue from it, which are all resolved into God himself:

[1.] From an evidence of the truth of the things from which 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," 2Pet 1.16. Where this is not admitted, where it is not firmly assented to, there can be no persuasive efficacy in it. But where there is a prevalent persuasion of the truth of the things proposed, there the mind is disposed[645] to the things to which it is persuaded. And on this the whole efficacy of the word in and upon the souls of men is resolved into the truth and veracity of God himself. For the things contained in the Scripture are not proposed to us merely as true, but as divine truths, as immediate revelations from God, which require not only a rational but a sacred religious respect for them. They are things that the "mouth of the Lord has spoken." Isa 1.20

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[2.] The things so assented to are proposed to the wills and affections of men, on the one hand, as good, amiable, and excellent — things in which the highest good, happiness, and utmost end of our natures are comprised; and they are to be pursued and attained. And on the other hand, things are proposed that are evil and terrible, the utmost evil that our nature is liable to, and they are 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 to this gospel, to do what God requires, to turn from sin to Him, is good for men; it is best for them — assuredly attended with present satisfaction and future glory. And in this is also proposed the noblest object for our affections, even God himself, as a friend, as reconciled to us in Christ; and that reconciliation has been done in a way that is suited to God's holiness, righteousness, wisdom, and goodness, to which we have nothing to oppose or lay in the balance against it. Also, the way sinners are reconciled to God by Jesus Christ is set out as that which has such an impress of divine wisdom and goodness upon it, that it can be refused by none, except out of direct enmity against God himself. To enforce these things on the minds of men, the Scripture abounds with reasons, motives, and arguments — and rendering these means 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 ruin of our souls, the only evil in the world in its guilt and punishment; and continuing in a state of sin, and rejecting the invitation of the gospel to conversion to God, is a foolish thing, unworthy of a rational creature, and it will be everlastingly pernicious.[646]

Because, therefore, in the judgment of every rational creature, spiritual things are to be preferred before natural things, eternal things before temporal things, and these things are thus dispensed in infinite goodness, love, and wisdom, they must necessarily be apt to affect the wills and capture the affections of men. And in this, the efficacy of the word on the minds and consciences of men is resolved into the authority of God. These precepts, these promises, these threatenings are His, the one who has the right to give them, and the power to execute them. And with his authority, his glorious greatness and his infinite power also come under consideration; so does his goodness and love in a special manner, with many other things, even all the known properties of his holy nature — all of which concur in giving weight, power, and efficacy to these motives and arguments.

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(3.) Great power and efficacy are added to this from the management of these motives in the preaching of the word. With some, in this preaching of the word, the rhetorical faculty of those by whom the word is dispensed, is of great consideration; for hereby they are able to prevail very much on the minds of men. Preachers are acquainted with the inclinations and dispositions of all sorts of persons, the nature of their affections and prejudices, with the topics or kinds and heads of arguments fit to affect and prevail with them, and also the ways of insinuating persuasive motives into their minds. They express the whole of this in words that are elegant, proper, expressive, and suited to allure, draw, and engage men in the ways and duties proposed to them.[647]

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 utterly rejects it from having any place in his ministry: 1Cor 2.4. "My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Lately, some have put faint and weak exceptions into the latter clause, as though no evidence of the powerful presence of the Spirit of God in the dispensation of the gospel were intended by it, but instead, the power of working miracles. This is contrary to the whole scope of the passage, and the consent of the best expositors. Rather, the first clause excludes the persuasive art of human oratory from use and efficacy in preaching the gospel, and no one has yet had the impudence to deny this. But let this art also be esteemed to be as useful and efficacious in this work as anyone can imagine, as to the role of preaching in the conversion of the souls of men, and it will be granted.[648]

Only, I will take leave to resolve the efficacy of preaching into two other causes:

[1.] The institution of God. He has appointed the preaching of the word to be the means, the only outward ordinary means, for the conversion of the souls of men, 1Cor 1.17-20; Mark 16.15-16; Rom 1.16.[649] And the power or efficacy of anything that is used toward an end in spiritual matters, depends solely on its divine appointment to that end.

[2.] The special gifts that the Spirit of God furnishes the preachers of the gospel to enable them to effectually discharge their work, Eph 4.11-13.[650] We will address this afterward. All the power, therefore, that these things are accompanied with, is resolved into the sovereignty of God. For he has chosen this means of preaching, for this end; and he bestows these gifts on whomever he pleases. It is from these things that the persuasive motives which the word abounds with to conversion, or turning to God from sin, have that particular efficacy on the minds of men which is proper to them.

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(4.) We do not therefore, in this case, suppose that the motivations of the word are left to a mere natural operation, with respect to the ability of those by whom the word is dispensed. But far more than that, the preaching of the word is blessed by God, and accompanied with the power of the Holy Spirit for producing 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 presumed to extend no further than to motives, arguments, reasons, and considerations that are proposed to the mind, so as to influence the will and the affections. Hence the operation of the Spirit in this is moral; and so it is indirect,[651] not real, proper, and physical.[652]

Now, concerning this whole work I affirm these two things:

1. That the Holy Spirit makes use of it in the regeneration or conversion of all who are adult, and that is either immediately in and by the preaching of the word, or by some other application of light and truth to the mind that is derived from the word. For by the reasons, motives, and persuasive arguments which the word affords, our minds are affected, and our souls are worked on in our conversion to God, from which it becomes our reasonable obedience. And there are none who are ordinarily converted, who are not able to give some account by what considerations they were prevailed upon to this end. But —

2. We say that the whole work, or the whole of the work of the Holy Ghost in our conversion, does not consist in this; but there is a real physical work, by which he infuses a gracious principle of spiritual life into all those who are effectively converted and really regenerated. And without this, there is no deliverance from the state of sin and death which we have described. This, among other things, may be proved by the ensuing arguments.

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. The ensuing reasons sufficiently evince that all he does, does not consist in this moral suasion:

FIRST, If the Holy Spirit does not work on men in their regeneration or conversion, except by proposing to them and urging upon them, reasons, arguments, and motives to that purpose,[653]

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then after his whole work is done, and notwithstanding that work, the will of man would remain absolutely indifferent, whether it admits those reasons, arguments, and motives or not. It would remain indifferent whether it converts itself to God based upon them or not. For the whole of this work, it is said, consists in proposing objects to the will with respect to which it is left undetermined whether it will choose and accept them or not. And indeed, this is what some plead for. They say that "in all men, at least all to 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 they may believe, repent, or do any act of obedience to 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 where men have this power and ability from, is not declared by some. Nor is it much to be doubted that many imagine it is purely natural; they only allow it to be called grace, because it is from God who made us. Others acknowledge that it is the work or effect of internal grace, which is part of the difference that lies 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 anything worked in us or upon us by this grace, the will is still left various, flexible, and undetermined. It is true that notwithstanding the grace thus administered, the will has power to refuse it and to abide in sin. But it is false that there is no more grace worked in us than what may be refused; or that the will can make use of that grace for conversion which it can still refuse; for —

1. This ascribes the whole glory of our regeneration and conversion to ourselves, and not to the grace of God; for on this supposition, that act of our wills by which we convert to God, is merely an act of our own, and not an act of the grace of God. This is evident; for if the act itself 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 anyone in the world would ever be converted to God or not; for when the whole work of grace is over, it is absolutely in the power of the will of man whether it will be effectual or not, and so it is absolutely uncertain. This is contrary to the covenant, promise, and oath of God to and with Jesus Christ.

3. It is contrary to express and countless testimonies of Scripture, in which actual conversion to God is ascribed to his grace as the immediate effect of it. This will be further apparent afterward.

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"God works in us both to will and to do," Phi 2.13. Therefore, the act itself of willing in our conversion, is of God's operation — even though we ourselves will it, he is the one who causes us to will, by working in us to will and to do. And if the act of our will in our conversion to God, in believing and in obedience, is not the effect of his grace in us, then he does not "work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

SECONDLY, This moral persuasion, however advanced or improved, and supposedly effectual, confers no new real supernatural strength to the soul. Because this persuasion indeed works the Spirit or grace of God in and by reasons, motives, arguments, and objective considerations, and not otherwise, it is able only to excite and draw out the strength which we already have, delivering the mind and affections from prejudices and other moral impediments. But real aid and internal spiritual strength are not, nor can they be, conferred by it.[654] And the one who would acknowledge that there is any such internal spiritual strength communicated to us, must also acknowledge that there is another work of the Spirit of God in us and upon us, than can be effected by these persuasions. But as some suppose, this is how it would be:

"The mind of man is affected with much ignorance, and is usually under the power of many prejudices which, by the corrupt course of things in the world, possess the mind from its first actings in the state of infancy. The will and the affections are likewise vitiated with depraved habits which are contracted by the same means. But when the gospel is proposed and preached to them, the things contained in it, the duties it requires, the promises it gives, are so rational, or so suited to the principles of our reason, and their subject-matter is so good, desirable, and beautiful to an intellectual appetite, that being well conveyed to the mind, they are able to discard all the prejudices and disadvantages of a corrupt course under which that mind has suffered, and to prevail with the soul to desist from sin — that is, from a course of sinning — and to become a new man in all virtuous conduct."

That this is in the liberty and power of the will, is somehow "irrefragably proved" by that sophism[655] of Biel,[656] taken from Scotus and Occam,[657] which contains the substance of what they plead in this cause. Indeed,

"To do thus, is so suitable to the rational principles of a well-disposed mind, that to do otherwise is the greatest folly and madness in the world."

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"This work of conversion will be unquestionably worked, especially if the application of these means is so disposed in the providence of God, that they may be timely with respect to the frame and condition of the mind to which they are applied. Just as various things are necessary to render the means of grace timely and congruous to the present frame, temper, and disposition of the mind, so too, much of its efficacy consists in such a congruity.

"And this," it is said, "is the work of the Holy Ghost, and an effect of the grace of God. For if the Spirit of God, by the word, did not prevent, excite, stir up, and provoke the minds of men, if he did not help and assist them when they are endeavoring 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 endeavors after deliverance would be weak and fruitless."

This is all the grace, all the work of the Spirit of God, in our regeneration and conversion, which some will acknowledge as far as I can learn from their writings and discourses.[658] But I have declared before that there is more required to this work; and it has also been manifested what is the true and proper use and efficacy of these means in this work. But to place the whole of it in this persuasion is what Pelagius contended for of old. Indeed, he granted a greater use and efficacy of grace than I can find is allowed in the present confused discourses of some on this subject.[659] Therefore it is a preposterous thing to endeavor to impose such rotten errors on the minds of men, and do so by such crude assertions, without any pretense of proof; and yet it is the way of many.

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The sole foundation of all their harangues — namely, the suitableness of gospel principles and promises to our wisdom and reason, antecedent to any saving work of the Spirit on our minds — is directly contradictory to the doctrine of our apostle, as it will be declared afterward. But maybe it will be said that what is to be inquired about is not so much what Pelagian is and is not, as what truth is and is not. And it is granted that this is and ought to be our first and principal inquiry. But it is not unuseful to know in whose steps they tread — those who at this day oppose the doctrine of the effectual grace of Christ — and to know what judgment the ancient church made about their principles and opinions.

It is pretended still further, that

"Grace in the dispensation of the word, works really and efficiently (especially by illumination) internal excitations of the mind and affections; and if the will acts upon that, and thereby determines itself in the choice of what is good, in believing and repenting, then the grace thus administered concurs with it; it helps and aids the will in perfecting its act; so that the whole work is of grace."

So pleaded the semi-Pelagians, and others continue to do so. But all this while, the way by which grace or the Spirit of God works this illumination, how he excites the affections and aids the will, is by moral persuasion only — there is no real strength being communicated or infused except what the will is at perfect liberty to make use of, or to refuse, at its pleasure. Now, in effect this is no less than to overthrow the whole grace of Jesus Christ and to render it useless. For it ascribes to man the honor of his own conversion, his will being the principal cause of it. It makes a man to beget himself anew, or to be born again of himself — to make himself differ from others by what he has not received in a special manner. It takes away the analogy that exists between forming the natural body of Christ in the womb, and forming his mystical body in regeneration. It makes the act of living to God by faith and obedience, a mere natural act, and not a fruit of the mediation or purchase of Christ. And it allows the Spirit of God no more power or efficacy in or towards our regeneration than is found in a minister who preaches the word, or in an orator who eloquently and passionately persuades men to virtue and dehorts them from vice. And all these consequences, it may be, will be granted by some among us, and allowed to be true. Things in the world have come to this pass through the confident pride and ignorance of men. And not only maybe, but plainly and directly, the whole gospel and grace of Christ are renounced where these things are admitted.

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THIRDLY, This is not all that we pray for,[660] either for ourselves or others, when we beg effectual grace for them or ourselves. There was no argument that the ancients pressed more against the Pelagians, than that the grace which they acknowledged did not answer the prayers of the church, nor what we are taught in the Scripture to pray for. We are to pray only for what God has promised, and that it be communicated to us in that way by which He will work it and effect it. Now, the one who only prays that God would persuade him or others to believe and obey or be converted, or to convert himself, is at great variance in this. The church of God has always prayed that God would work these things in us; and those who have a real concern in them, pray continually that God would effectively work them in their hearts. They pray that he would convert them; that he would create a clean heart and renew a right spirit in them; that he would give them faith for Christ's sake, and increase it in them; and that in all these things, he would work in them by the exceeding greatness of his power both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. And there is not a Pelagian in the world who ever once prayed for grace, or for gracious assistance against sin and temptation, with a sense of his lack of that grace, that his prayers did not contradict his profession.

It is contrary to all Christian experience to think that what we desire by all these petitions — with countless others dictated to us in the Scripture, and which a spiritual sense of our wants will engage us in — is only that God would persuade, excite, and stir us up, to exert a power and ability of our own in the performance of what we desire. Indeed, for a man to lie praying with importunity, earnestness, and fervency, for what is already in his own power, and can never be effected except by his own power, is absurd and ridiculous. Those mock God, who pray to him to do for them what they can do for themselves, and what God cannot do for them, except when and how they do it for themselves.

Suppose that a man had a power in himself to believe and repent; suppose these are such acts of his will that God does not, indeed cannot work them in the man by His grace, but can only persuade him, and show him sufficient reason why he should believe and repent. To what purpose would this man, or with what congruity could he, pray that God would give him faith and repentance? Some of late, it seems, wisely observing this, begin to scoff at and reproach the prayers of Christians. This is because, in all their supplications for grace, Christians lay the foundation of them in a humble acknowledgment of their own vileness and impotency to do anything that is spiritually good. Indeed, they have a natural aversion to it; and they have a sense of the power and working of the remainder of indwelling sin in them. By this, they excite themselves to that earnestness and importunity in their requests for grace, which their condition makes necessary.[661] This has been the constant practice of Christians since there was one in the world. And yet, this is derided by some, and exposed to contempt.

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Therefore, in place of such despised prayers, I will supply them with an ancient form that is better suited to their principles.[662] The preface to it is this:

"He lifts up his hands to God in a worthy manner, and pours out his prayer with a good conscience, who is able to say..." [663]

This prayer then follows:

You know, O Lord, how holy and pure, and how free from all wickedness, and iniquity, and violence are the hands I stretch out to You; how just, and clean, and free from all deceit, are the lips by which I offer You my petition, so that You would have pity on me.[664]

Pelagius taught a widow to make this prayer, as objected to in the Diospolitan Synod (415) held at Lydda in Palestine, chap. 6. The only thing he did not teach her to say is that she had no deceit in her heart. One among us "wisely and humbly" vaunts that he knows of none in his own heart, and so in every way the man is perfect! Just to balance this prayer of Pelagius, I will give these men another prayer, but in the margin,[665] not declaring whose it is, lest they censure him to the gallows. Because it seems to be the doctrine of some that we have no grace from Christ except the gospel teaching us our duty, and proposing a reward. I do not know what they have to pray for, unless it is riches, wealth, and preferments, with those things that depend on them.

FOURTHLY, This kind of operation of grace, where it is solitary — that is, where it excludes an internal physical work of the Holy Spirit — is not suited to effect and produce the work of regeneration or conversion to God in persons who are really in that state of nature which we have described before. The most effectual persuasions cannot prevail with such men to convert themselves, any 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.

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This is why the whole description given before from the Scripture, of the state of lapsed nature, must be disproved and removed out of the way before this grace can be thought to be sufficient 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 to him, which are demonstrable by the light of reason; and certain abilities of mind to make use of them to their proper end."

But they grant (at least some of them do), that

"however these principles may be improved and motivated by those abilities, they are not sufficient, or will not eventually be effectual, to bring men to the life of God, nor enable them to so believe in him, love him, and obey him, that at length they may come to enjoy him; at least, they will not do this safely and easily, but only through much danger and confusion. This is why God, out of his goodness and love to mankind, has made a further revelation of himself by Jesus Christ in the gospel, with the special way by which his anger against sin is averted, and peace is made for sinners — men had only a confused apprehension and hope about this before. Now, the things received, proposed, and prescribed in the gospel, are so good, so rational, and in every way so suited to the principles of our being, the nature of our intellectual constitutions, or the reason of men — and those are fortified with such rational and powerful motives, in the promises and threatenings of the gospel, representing to us on the one hand the highest good which our nature is capable of, and on the other hand the highest evil to be avoided, and that we are liable to — that they can be refused or rejected by none, except out of a brutish love of sin, or the efficacy of depraved habits, contracted by a vicious course of living. And the grace of God towards men consists in this, 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 so excited by these means as to cast off prejudices, and enabled by them to make a right judgment about what is proposed to it, it prevails with them to convert to God, to change their lives, and to yield obedience according to the rule of the gospel, so that they may be saved."

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No doubt this would be a notable system of Christian doctrine, especially as it is rhetorically blended or theatrically presented by some in feigned stories and apologues, if it were not defective in one or two things. For, first, it excludes a supposition of the fall of man, at least as to the depravity of our nature which ensued from that. And, secondly, it excludes all real effective grace dispensed by Jesus Christ;[666] which renders it a fantastic dream, alien to the design and doctrine of the gospel. But it is absurd to discuss either regeneration or conversion to God, with men who deny these things.

We must therefore inquire about such a work of the Holy Spirit that thereby the mind is effectively renewed, the heart is changed, and the affections are sanctified, all actually and effectively; or else no deliverance will be worked, obtained, or ensue from 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, the MIND of man in the state of nature is not able to apprehend them in such a way that its apprehension will be spiritual, saving, or proper to the things apprehended — not without a supernatural elevation by grace. And notwithstanding the perception which the mind may attain to in the truth of gospel proposals, and the conviction it may have of the necessity of obedience, the WILL is not able to apply itself to any spiritual act of obedience without an ability that is worked immediately in it by the power of the Spirit of God — or rather, unless the Spirit of God effects by his grace the act of willing in it. This is why, not to multiply arguments, we conclude that the most effectual use of outward means alone is not all the grace that is necessary to, nor all the grace that is actually exerted in, the regeneration of the souls of men.

Having thus evidenced what the work of the Holy Spirit does not consist in, in the regeneration of the souls of men — namely, in a supposed congruous persuasion of their minds, and that alone — I will secondly proceed to show what it does consist in, and what its true nature is. And to this purpose, I say —

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1. There is an efficacy in that moral operation which accompanies the preaching of the word, as blessed and used by the Holy Spirit, in and towards those who are unregenerate. Whatever it comes from, or whatever it is the effect of, or whatever it may be supposed or is possible to be from — we willingly ascribe to it. We grant that in the work of regeneration towards adults, the Holy Spirit makes use of the word, both the law and the gospel, and also the ministry of the church in the dispensation of the word, as the ordinary means of regeneration. Indeed, this is ordinarily the whole external means that is made use of in this work; and it is accompanied with an efficacy that is proper to it. Some contend that nothing more is needed for the conversion of sinners than preaching the word to those who are congruously disposed to receive it; and that the whole of the grace of God consists in the effectual application of the word to the minds and affections of men. By this means, they say, sinners are enabled to comply with it, and turn to God by faith and repentance. In contending for this, they do not ascribe a greater power to the word than we do; yet we deny that this administration of the word is the total cause of conversion. For we assign the same power to the word as they do, and more as well — only, we affirm that there is an effect to be wrought in this work, which all this power is insufficient for, if it is alone. But in its own kind, it is sufficient and effectual so far as the effect of regeneration or conversion to God is ascribed to it.[667] We declared this before.

2. There is not only a moral but a direct physical operation of the Spirit, by his power and grace, or by his powerful grace, on the minds or souls of men in their regeneration.[668] This is what we must cling to or all the glory of God's grace is lost, and the grace administered by Christ is neglected.

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So is it asserted in Eph 1.18-20, "That you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead." The power mentioned here has an "exceeding greatness" ascribed to it, with respect to the effect produced by it. The power of God in itself, as to all His acts, is equally infinite — He is omnipotent. But some effects are greater than others, and they carry in them more than ordinary impressions of that power. That is what is meant here: it is the power by which God makes men believers, and preserves them when they are. And there is an actual operation or efficiency ascribed to this power of God — the "working of his mighty power." And the nature of this operation or efficiency is the same kind of power exerted in raising Christ from the dead; this was by a real physical efficiency of divine power. This, therefore, is what is testified to here: that the work of God towards believers, either to make them believers, or to preserve them as such (it is all the same for our present purpose) consists in the acting of his divine power by a real internal efficiency. So God is said to "fulfil in us all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power," 2Thes 1.11; 2Pet 1.3.

Hence the work of grace in conversion is constantly expressed by words denoting a real internal efficiency — such as creating, quickening, forming, or giving a new heart; more of this afterward. Wherever this word is spoken with respect to an active efficiency, it is ascribed to God — he creates us anew, he quickens us, he begets us of his own will. But where it is spoken with respect to us, it is passively expressed; we are created in Christ Jesus, we are new creatures, we are born again, and the like. This one observation is sufficient to evert the whole hypothesis of Arminian grace. Unless a work wrought by power is intended in this — a real and immediate power — such a work may neither be supposed possible, nor can it be expressed as "a work." This is why it is plain in the Scripture that the Spirit of God works internally, immediately, and efficiently, in and upon the minds of men in their regeneration. The new birth is the effect of an act of his power and grace; or, no man is born again except by the inward efficiency of the Spirit.

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3. This internal efficiency of the Holy Spirit on the minds of men, as to the event, is infallible,[669] victorious, irresistible, or always efficacious. But in this assertion we suppose that the measure of the efficacy of grace and the end to be attained, are fixed by the will of God. As to that end to which it is designed by God, it is always prevalent or effectual, and cannot be resisted; or, it will effectively work what God designs it to work: for in what he "will work, none will thwart him;"[670] and "who has resisted his will?" Rom 9.19 There are many motions of grace, even in the hearts of believers, which are so far resisted that they do not attain the effect which they have a tendency to in their own nature. If it were otherwise, all believers would be perfect. But it is obvious in experience that we do not always respond to the inclinations of grace, at least as to the degree to which it moves us. Yet even such motions — if they are of and from saving grace — are effectual to the extent, and for all those ends, which they are designed for in the purpose of God; for his will, will not be frustrated in any instance. And where any work of grace is not effectual, God never intended that it should be, nor did he exert that power of grace which was necessary to make it so. This is why, in or to whomever the Holy Spirit exerts his power, or acts his grace for their regeneration, he removes all obstacles, overcomes all oppositions, and infallibly produces the effect intended.[671] Because this proposition is of great importance to the glory of God's grace, and it is most signally opposed by the patrons of corrupted nature and man's free-will in the state of this corruption, it must be both explained and confirmed. We say, therefore —

(1.) The power which the Holy Ghost exerts in our regeneration, in its acting or exercise, is such that our minds, wills, and affections are suited to be worked on and by it, according to their natures and natural operations: "Turn me, and I will be turned;" Jer 31.18 "draw me, and I will run after you." Song 1.4 He does not act in them in any way other than they themselves are fit to be moved and move, to be acted and act, according to their own nature, power, and ability. He draws us with "the cords of a man." Hos 11.4 And the work itself is expressed by persuading — "God will persuade Japheth;" Gen 9.27 and alluring — "I will allure her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her." Hos 2.14 For as it is certainly effectual, so it carries no more repugnance to our faculties than a prevalent persuasion does. So that —

(2.) In our regeneration, He does not possess the mind with any enthusiastic impressions. Nor does he act on us absolutely as he did in extraordinary prophetic inspirations of old, where the minds and organs of the bodies of men were merely passive instruments, moved by him above their own natural capacity and activity — not only as to the principle of working, but as to the manner of operation.

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Rather, he works on the minds of men in and by their own natural actings, through an immediate influence and impression of his power: "Create in me a clean heart, O God." Psa 51.10 He "works both to will and to do." Phi 2.13

(3.) He therefore offers no coercion or compulsion to the will.[672] That faculty is not naturally capable of opening itself to this. If it is compelled, then it is destroyed. And the mention that is made in the Scripture of compelling ("Compel them to come in" Luk 14.23), is with respect to the certainty of the event, not the manner of its operation on them. But the will, in the depraved condition of its fallen nature, is not only habitually filled and possessed with an aversion to what is spiritually good ("Alienated from the life of God" Eph 4.18), but it also continually acts in opposition to it. It is under the power of the "carnal mind" which is "enmity against God." Rom 8.7 And this grace of the Spirit in conversion, prevails against all this opposition, and it is effectual and victorious over it. Because of this, it will be asked,

"How can this be done except by a kind of coercion and compulsion, seeing that we evinced already that moral persuasion and objective allurement is not sufficient to do it?"

Ans. It is acknowledged that in the work of conversion to God (though not in the very act of it), there is a reaction between grace and the will, their acts being contrary to one another; grace is victorious in this, and yet no coercion or compulsion is offered to the will; for —

[1.] The opposition is not ad idem.[673] The enmity and opposition that is moved by the will against grace, is against what is objectively proposed to it. So men "resist the Holy Ghost," — that is, they resist him in the external dispensation of grace by the word. And if that is alone, they may always resist it; the enmity in them will prevail against it: "You always resist the Holy Ghost." Act 7.51 The will, therefore, is not forced by any power exerted in grace, in any way by which it is capable of opposing it; rather, the prevalence of grace is internal, working really and physically; and this is not the object of the will's opposition, for grace is not proposed to it as something it may accept or refuse; rather, it works effectively in the will.

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[2.] The will, in the first act of conversion (as even various schoolmen acknowledge), acts only as it is acted, and moves only as it is moved; and therefore it is passive in conversion, in the sense immediately to be explained. And if this is not so, conversion cannot be avoided unless the act of turning to God is a mere natural act, and not spiritual or gracious; for it would be an act of the will, not enabled to conversion antecedently by grace. From this it must be granted (and it will be proved) that in order of nature, the acting of grace in the will in our conversion, is antecedent to its own acting; though in the same instant of time in which the will is moved, it moves, and when it is acted, it acts itself; and thus the will preserves its own liberty in its exercise.

In this there is therefore an inward almighty secret act of the power of the Holy Ghost, producing or effecting in us the will to be converted to God, and so acting our wills that they also act themselves, and do so freely.[674] The Holy Spirit, who in his power and operation is more intimate, as it were, with the principles of our souls than they are with themselves, effectively works our regeneration and conversion to God, with the preservation and exercise of the liberty of our wills.

This is the substance of what we plead for in this cause, and it declares the nature of this work of regeneration, as it is an inward spiritual work. I will, therefore, confirm the truth proposed with evident testimonies of Scripture, and the reasons contained in them, or educed from them.

FIRST, The work of conversion itself, and especially the act of believing, or faith itself, is expressly said to be of God — to be worked in us by him, or to be given to us from him. The Scripture does not say that God gives us the ability or power only to believe— namely, such a power that we may make use of if we will, or do otherwise — but it says that faith, repentance, and conversion themselves are the work and effect of God. Indeed, there is nothing mentioned in the Scriptures concerning the communicating of power, remotely or next to the mind of man, to enable him to believe antecedent to actual believing. We have given an account concerning "remote power," if it may be called that, in the capacities of the faculties of the soul, in the reason of the mind, and in the liberty of the will.

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But the Scripture is silent about what some call a "next power," or an ability to believe, in order of nature, antecedent to believing itself, worked in us by the grace of God. The apostle Paul says of himself, Phi 4.13 — "I can do all things," or prevail in all things, "through Christ who enables me;" here a power or ability seems to be spoken of antecedent to acting. But this is not a power for the first act of faith; it is a power in those who believe. I acknowledge such a power, which is acted by the co-operation of the Spirit and the grace of Christ, with the grace which believers have received to perform all acts of holy obedience. I must address this elsewhere. Believers have a stock of habitual grace; which may be called indwelling grace in the same sense in which original corruption is called indwelling sin. And this grace, though it is necessary to every act of spiritual obedience, is not able or sufficient of itself to produce any spiritual act, without the renewed co-working of the Spirit of Christ. This working of Christ upon and with the grace we have received, is called enabling us; but it is not so with unregenerate persons, as to the first act of faith.

But it will be objected that,

"Everything which is actually accomplished was in potentia before;[675] there must therefore be a power in us to believe before we actually do so."

Ans. The act of God working faith in us is a creating act: "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus," Eph 2.10; and the one who is in Christ Jesus "is a new creature," 2Cor 5.17. Now, the effects of creating acts are not in potentia anywhere except in the active power of God; so the world itself was in potentia before its actual existence. This is termed potentia logica,[676] which is no more than a negation of any contradiction to existence — not potentia physica,[677] which includes a disposition to actual existence. Therefore, notwithstanding all these preparatory works of the Spirit of God which we allow in this matter, they do not work in the minds and wills of men such a next power, as they call it, that it would enable them to believe without actual grace further working faith itself. This is why, with respect to believing, the first act of God is to work in us "to will:" Phi 2.13, "He works in us to will." Now, to will to believe, is to believe. God works this in us by that grace which Austin and the schoolmen call gratia operans,[678] because it works in us without us, the will being merely moved and passive in this.

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Some pretend that there is a power or faculty of believing given to all men to whom the gospel is preached,[679] or who are called by the outward dispensation of it; and that is,

"because those to whom the word is so preached, if they do not actually believe, will perish eternally, as positively declared in the gospel, Mark 16.16; but they could not justly perish if they had not received a power or faculty of believing."

Ans. 1. Upon the proposal of Christ in the gospel, those who do not believe are left without remedy in the guilt of those other sins for which they must perish eternally. "If you do not believe," says Christ, "that I am he, you will die in your sins," John 8.24.

Ans.2. The impotency that is in men, as to the act of believing, is contracted by their own fault, both as it arises from the original depravity of nature, and as it is increased by corrupt prejudices and contracted habits of sin. Therefore they justly perished, of whom it is said that "they could not believe," John 12.39.

Ans.3. There are none who refuse the gospel, who do not exert an act of the will in its rejection, which all men are free and able to do: "I would have gathered you, but you would not," Mat 23.37. "You will not come to me, that you may have life," (John 5.40).

But the Scripture positively affirms that some to whom the gospel was preached, "could not believe," John 12.39; and that all natural men "cannot receive the things of God," 1Cor 2.14. Nor is it "given" to all to "know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven," but only to some, Mat 11.25, 13.11; and those to whom it is not given, do not have the power that is referred to there. Besides, faith is not of all, or "all do not have faith," 2Thes 3.2; it is unique to the "elect of God," Tit 1.1; Acts 13.48; and these elect are only some of those who are called, Mat 20.16.[680]

To further clarify this, it may be observed that this first act of willing may be considered two ways:

1. As it is worked in the will subjectively, and so formally it is only in that faculty; and in this sense the will is merely passive, and it is only the subject moved or acted. In this respect, the act of God's grace in the will is an act of the will itself. But,

2. It may be considered as it is worked efficiently also in the will; being acted, it acts itself. So it is from the will as its principle, and it is a vital act of the will, which gives it the nature of obedience. Thus the will in its own nature is mobilis (moveable), fit and prepared to be worked upon by the grace of the Spirit to faith and obedience; with respect to the creating act of grace working faith in us, it is mota, moved and acted by it; and in respect to its own elicit act, as it so acted and moved, it is movens, the next efficient cause of that act.

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These things being premised to clarify the nature of the operation of the Spirit in the first communication of grace to us, and the will's compliance with it, we return to our arguments or testimonies given for to the actual conferring of faith[681] upon us by the Spirit and grace of God, which must necessarily be effectual and irresistible; for the contrary implies a contradiction — namely, that God should "work what is not worked:" — Phi 1.29, "To you it is given in behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake," To "believe on Christ" expresses saving faith itself. This is "given" to us. And how is it given us? By the power of God "working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure," Phi 2.13. Our faith is our coming to Christ. "And no man," he says, "can come to me, unless it is given to him by my Father," John 6.65. All power in ourselves for this end is utterly taken away: "No man can come to me."[682] However, we may suppose that men are prepared or disposed — whatever arguments may be proposed to them, and in whatever season — to render things congruous and agreeable to their inclinations. And yet, no man of himself can believe, none can come to Christ, unless faith itself is "given to him" — that is, unless it is worked in him by the grace of the Father, Phi 1.29.

So it is again asserted, both negatively and positively, in Eph 2.8, "By grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Our own ability — whatever it may be, and however it may be assisted and excited — and God's gift, are contradistinguished. If it is "of ourselves," then it is not "the gift of God;" and if it is "the gift of God," then it is not "of ourselves." And the way God bestows this gift on us is declared in Eph 2.10, "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." Good works, or gospel obedience, are the things intended. These must proceed from faith, or else they are not acceptable with God, Heb 11.6. And the way by which this is worked in us, as a principle of obedience, is by a creating act of God: "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." In like manner, God is said to "give us repentance," 2Tim 2.25; Acts 11.18.

This is the whole of what we plead: In our conversion, by the exceeding greatness of his power, as he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead, God actually works faith and repentance in us; he gives them to us, bestows them on us, so that they are mere effects of his grace in us.

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And his working in us infallibly produces the effect intended, because it is actual faith[683] that he works, and not just a power to believe — not just a power which we may either exert and make use of, or allow to be fruitless, according to the pleasure of our own wills.

SECONDLY, As God gives and works faith and repentance in us, so the way by which he does it, or the manner of how he is said to effect them in us, makes it evident that he does it by a power that is infallibly efficacious, and which the will of man never resists; for this way is such that he thereby takes away all repugnance, all resistance, all opposition, everything that lies in the way of the effect intended: Deu 30.6, "The Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live." A denial of the work intended here is expressed Deu 29.4, "The Lord has not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, up to this day." In Col 2.11, the apostle declares what it means to have the heart circumcised. It is "putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" — that is, by our conversion to God. It is giving "a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear" — that is, spiritual light and obedience — by the removal of all obstacles and hindrances. This is the immediate work of the Spirit of God himself. No man ever circumcised his own heart. No man can say he began to do it by the power of his own will, and then God only helped him by his grace. The act of outward circumcision on the body of a child was the act of another, and not the act of the child who was only passive in this; but the effect was in the body of the child only. So it is in spiritual circumcision — it is the act of God, of which our hearts are the subject. And because it is the blindness, obstinacy, and stubbornness in sin that is in us by nature, along with the prejudices which possess our minds and affections, which hinder us from conversion to God, they are taken away by this circumcision; for by it, the "body of the sins of the flesh is put off." And how will the heart resist the work of grace, when what resists it is effectively taken away?

Eze 36.26, 27, "A new heart also I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments, and do them." To which may be added, Jer 24.7, "I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they will be my people, and I will be their God: so they will return to me with their whole heart."

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And also, Isa 44.3-5, "I will pour water upon the one who is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring: and they will spring up among the grass, like willows by the water-courses. One will say, I am the Lord's," etc. So too, Jer 31.33, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts."

I will first ask two things about these concurrent testimonies:

1. Is it lawful for us, is it our duty, to pray that God would do and effect what he has promised to do, and pray that for both ourselves and others? —

Ans. We may pray for ourselves, that the work of our conversion may be renewed, carried on, and consummated in the way, and using the means by which it was begun, so that "he who has begun the good work in us may perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ," Phi 1.6. And for those who are converted and regenerated, and are persuaded on good and infallible grounds that they are, we may still pray for those things which God promises to work upon their conversion. And this is because the same work is to be preserved and carried on in them, by the same means, the same power, and the same grace, with which it was begun. And the reason is this: even though this work, as it is merely the work of conversion, is immediately perfected and completed at its start — yet as it is the beginning of a work of sanctification, it is to be continually renewed and gone over again, because of the remainder of sin in us, and the imperfection of our grace. And we may pray for others, that sanctification may begin and also be finished in them. And in all such prayers, do we not desire that God would really, powerfully, effectively, and by the internal efficiency of his Spirit, take away all hindrances, oppositions, and repugnance in our minds and wills, and actually confer upon us, give to us, and work in us, a new principle of obedience, so that we may assuredly love, fear, and trust in God always? Or do we only desire that God would so help us as to leave us absolutely undetermined whether we will make use of his help or not? Did any pious soul ever couch such an intention in his supplications? He does not know how to pray, who does not pray that God would, by his own immediate power, work those things in him which he thus prays for. And also for this prayer, effectual grace is antecedently required.[684] This is why I ask —

2. Does God really effect and work in anyone the things which he promises here that he will work and effect? If he does not, then where is his truth and faithfulness? It is said by some that "he does so, and will do so, provided that men do not refuse his tender of grace nor resist his operations, but comply with them." But this yields no relief, for —

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(1.) What does it mean to "not refuse" the grace of conversion, but "comply" with it? Is it not to believe, to obey — to convert ourselves? So, then, God would be promising to convert us, on condition that we convert ourselves; to work faith in us, on condition that we believe; and to give a new heart, on condition that we make our hearts new ourselves! All the adversaries of the grace of God are brought to this, by those conditions which they invent about its efficacy, in order to preserve the sovereignty of free-will in our conversion — that is, they are brought to plain and open contradictions which have been sufficiently charged upon them by others, and from which they could never extricate themselves.

(2.) Where God thus promises[685] to work, as these testimonies witness, and he does not effectively do so, then it must be either because he cannot do so, or because he will not do so. If it is said that he does it not because he will not, then this is what is ascribed to God: that he promises to take away our stony heart, and to give us a new heart with his law written in it, but indeed he will not do so; this is to overthrow his faithfulness, and make him a liar. If they say it is because he cannot do so, seeing that men oppose and resist the grace by which he would work this effect, then where is the wisdom of promising to work in us what he knew he could not effect without our compliance, and which he knew we would not comply with?

It may be said that God promises to work and effect these things, but in such a way that he has appointed — that is, by giving such supplies of grace that may enable us to do this — and if we refuse to make use of that grace, then the fault is merely our own.

Ans. As the consideration of the passage makes manifest, it is the things themselves that are promised, and not a communication of the means to effect them (in which case it may or may not produce them); about this, observe —

[1.] The subject spoken of in these promises is the heart. And the heart in the Scripture is taken for the whole rational soul, not absolutely, but as all the faculties of the soul are one common principle of all our moral operations. Hence the heart has properties assigned to it that are specific to the mind or understanding, such as to see, to perceive, to be wise, and to understand; and on the contrary, to be blind and foolish; and sometimes properties that properly belong to the will and affections, such as to obey, to love, to fear, and to trust in God. This is why the principle of all our spiritual and moral operations is intended by it.

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[2.] There is a description of this heart, as it is antecedent to the effectual working of the grace of God in us: it is said to be stony — "The heart of stone." It is not said to be stony absolutely, but with respect to some certain end. This end is declared to be our walking in the ways of God, or fearing Him. This is why our hearts by nature — as to living to God or fearing Him — are a stone, or stony; and who has not experienced this from the remainders of sin still abiding in him? Two things are included in this expression:

1st. An ineptitude to any actings towards that end. Whatever else the heart can do of itself — in natural things, civil things, or outward things — when it comes to the end of living to God, the heart cannot of itself, without God's grace, do any more than a stone can do of itself toward any end to which it may be applied.

2dly. An obstinate, stubborn opposition to all things conducive to that end. Its hardness or obstinacy, in opposition to the pliableness of a heart of flesh, is principally intended in this expression. And in this stubbornness of heart, consists all that repugnance to the grace of God which is in us by nature. And from this, all that resistance arises which some say is always sufficient to render fruitless, any operation of the Spirit of God by his grace.

[3.] This heart — that is, this impotence and enmity which is in our natures, to conversion and spiritual obedience — God says he will take away; that is, he will do so in those who are to be converted according to the purpose of his will, and whom he will turn to himself.[686] He does not say that he will endeavor to take it away, nor that he will use such and such means to take it away, but that he will absolutely take it away. He does not say that he will persuade men to remove it or do away with it, nor that he will aid and help them in doing so, and do it only so far that it will be wholly their own fault if it is not done — no doubt, it will not be done if it is not removed. Bur rather, positively, God says that he himself will take it away. This is why the act of taking it away is the act of God by his grace, and not the act of our wills except as they are moved by His grace; and it is such an act that its effect is necessary. It is impossible that God should take away the stony heart, and yet the stony heart is not taken away. What God promises in this, therefore, in removing our natural corruption, is infallible as to the event, and it is irresistible as to the manner of its operation.

[4.] What God takes from us in the cure of our original disease, so he bestows on us or works in us; this is also expressed here; and this is a new heart and a new spirit: "I will give you a new heart." And along with this, it is declared what benefit we receive by it:

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for by virtue of this, those who have this new heart bestowed on them, or worked in them, actually "fear the Lord and walk in his ways;" for so it is affirmed in the testimonies that were produced from Scripture: and nothing further is required for this, because nothing less will effect it. In this new heart that is thus given to us, there must therefore be a principle of all holy obedience to God. And the creation of this principle in us is our conversion to him; for God does convert us, and we are converted. And how is this new heart communicated to us? "I will," says God, "give them a new heart."

Some will say, "It may be that he will do what is to be done on his part, so that they may have it; but we may refuse his assistance, and go without it." No; God says, "I will put a new spirit within them;" this expression is capable of no such limitation or condition. And to make it plainer still, God affirms that he "will write his law in our hearts." It is admitted that this was spoken with respect to his writing of the law of old on the tablets of stone. As then, he wrote the letter of the law on the tablets of stone, so that thereon and thereby they were actually engraven on them, so too, by writing the law, that is, the matter and substance of it, in our hearts, it is as really fixed in this as the letter of the law was fixed of old on the tablets of stone. And this can be only in a principle of obedience and love for it, which is actually worked by God in us.

And the aids or assistances which some men grant are left to the power of our own wills to use or not to use, have no analogy with the writing of the law on tablets of stone. And the end of the work of God that is described, is not a power to obey, which may be exerted or not; but it is actual obedience in conversion, and all the fruits of it. If God does not declare in these promises a real efficiency of internal grace, taking away all the repugnance of our nature to conversion, curing its depravity actually and effectively, and communicating infallibly a principle of scriptural obedience, then I do not know in what words such a work may be expressed. And whatever is excepted as to suspending the efficacy of this work on conditions in ourselves, it falls immediately into gross and sensible contradictions. We have a special instance of this work in Acts 16.14.[687]

A THIRD argument is taken from the state and condition of men by nature, described before. For it is such that no man can be delivered from it, except by that powerful, internal, effectual grace which we plead for, in which the mind and will of men can do nothing in or towards conversion to God except as they are moved by grace. The reason why some despise, some oppose, some deride the work of the Spirit of God in our regeneration or conversion, or fancy it to be only an outward ceremony, or a moral change of life and conduct, is their ignorance of the corrupted and depraved estate of the souls of men, in their minds, wills, and affections, by nature.

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For if it is as we described — that is, as it is represented in the Scripture — they cannot be so brutish as to once imagine that it may be cured, or that men may be delivered from it, without any other aid than those rational considerations which some would have as the only means of our conversion to God. We will, therefore, inquire what that grace is, and what it must be, by which we are delivered from this estate:

1. It is called a vivification or quickening. We are by nature "dead in trespasses and sins," as it has been proved, and as the nature of that death has been explained at large. In our deliverance from there, we are said to be "quickened," Eph 2.5. Though dead, we "hear the voice of the Son of God, and live," John 5.25; being made "alive to God through Jesus Christ," Rom 6.11. Now, no such work can be wrought in us except by an effectual communication of a principle of spiritual life — nothing else will deliver us. Some think to evade the power of this argument by saying that "all these expressions are metaphorical, and arguments made from them are only excessive metaphors." It would be well if the whole gospel were not a metaphor to them. But if there is no impotence in us by nature to all acts of spiritual life, like the impotence of a dead man to the acts of natural life — if the same power of God is not required for our deliverance from that condition (or working in us a principle of spiritual obedience), as there is to raise someone who is dead — then they may as well say that the Scripture does not speak truly, but only metaphorically. We have proved from Eph 1.19-20; Col 2.12-13; 2Thes 1.11; and 2Pet 1.3 that it is almighty power — the "exceeding greatness of God's power" — that is put forth and exercised in this. And what do these men mean by this quickening, this raising us from the dead by the power of God? They mean the persuasion of our minds by rational motives taken from the word, and the things contained in it! But was there ever such a monstrous expression heard, if there is nothing else in it? What could the holy writers have meant by calling such a work as this, a "quickening of those who were dead in trespasses and sins through the mighty power of God," unless it was to draw us away from a right understanding of what is meant, by the clanging of insignificant words? It would be well if some are not of that mind.

2. The work itself that is worked 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, the will, and the affections, by the power of the Holy Spirit, disposing and enabling those in whom it is found, to spiritual, supernatural, and vital acts of faith and obedience.

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Some men seem inclined to deny all habits born of grace. But on that supposition, a man is a believer no longer than he actually exercises faith; for there is nothing in him from which he should be called a believer. But this would plainly overthrow the covenant of God and all its grace.[688]

Others expressly deny all gracious, supernatural, infused habits, even though they may grant those habits which are or may be acquired by frequent acts of those graces or virtues of which these acts are the habits. But the Scripture gives another description of this work of regeneration, for it consists in the renovation of the image of God in us:

Eph 4.23, 24, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which is created after God in righteousness and true holiness."

In his innocence, Adam had a supernatural ability of living to God habitually residing in him. This is generally acknowledged. And because he was made for a super-natural end — namely, to live to God, and to come to the enjoyment him — it would be easy for us to prove that it was utterly impossible for Adam to respond to or comply with it by the mere strength of his natural faculties, unless those faculties had been endowed with a supernatural ability. And this ability, with respect to that end, was created with and in those faculties. Yet we will not contend about the terms used. Let it be granted that Adam was created in the image of God, and that he had an ability to fulfil all God's commands, and that ability was in himself, and no more will be desired. This ability was lost by the fall. When this is denied by anyone, it will be proved.

In our regeneration, there is a renovation of this image of God in us: "Renewed in the spirit of your mind." And it is renewed in us by a creating act of almighty power "after God," or according to his likeness: "Which is created after God in righteousness and true holiness." Therefore a new principle of spiritual life is implanted in this image, a life lived to God in repentance, faith, and obedience, in universal holiness according to gospel truth, or the truth which came by Jesus Christ, John 1.17. And the effect of this work is called "spirit." John 3.6, "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 worked in us by his efficiency. And what is born in us of him, is spirit; this is not the natural faculties of our souls — they are once created, once born, and no more — but what is born in us is a new principle of spiritual obedience by which we live to God. And this is the product of the internal and immediate efficiency of grace.

This will be more apparent if we consider the faculties of the soul distinctly, and what is the special work of the Holy Spirit on 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 it was declared before how it continues depraved in the state of nature.

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The sum of it is that the mind is not able to discern spiritual things in a spiritual manner; for it is possessed with spiritual blindness or darkness; and it is filled with enmity against God and his law, esteeming the things of the gospel to be foolishness. This is because the mind is alienated from the life of God through its ignorance. We must therefore inquire what the work of the Holy Spirit is on our minds in turning us to God, by which this depravation is removed and this vicious state is cured, and by which we come to see and discern spiritual things in a spiritual manner, so that we may savingly know God and his mind as revealed in and by Jesus Christ. And this is declared in the Scripture in several ways:

[1.] He is said to give us an understanding: 1John 5.20, "The Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true;" he does this by his Spirit. By sin, man has become like the "beasts that perish, which have no understanding," Psa 49.12, 20. Men have not absolutely lost their natural intellectual faculty or reason; it continues in them, with the free though impaired use of it in natural and civil things. And it advances them in sin; men are "wise to do evil:"[689] but its special use in acquiring the saving knowledge of God and his will, is lost: "To do good they have no knowledge," Jer 4.22; for by nature, "there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God," Rom 3.11. It is corrupted not so much in the root and principle of its actings, but with respect to their proper object, term, and end. This is why, even though we are given an understanding, it does not create in us a new natural faculty. And yet there is such a gracious work in it, that without that work, and this faculty being depraved, it will no more enable us to know God savingly than if we had no such faculty at all. Therefore, the grace asserted here in giving us an understanding, causes our natural understandings to understand savingly.

David prays for this in Psa 119.34, "Give me understanding, and I will keep your law." The whole work is expressed by the apostle,

Eph 1.17-18, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being opened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling," etc.

We evinced before that "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation" is the Spirit of God working those effects in us. And it is plain that the "revelation" intended here is subjective, in enabling us to apprehend what is revealed; it is not objective, in new revelations, which the apostle did not pray for them to receive. This is further evidenced by the ensuing description of it: "The eyes of your understanding being opened."

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There is an eye in the understanding of man — that is, the natural power and ability that is in it to discern spiritual things. But this eye is sometimes said to be "blind," sometimes to be "darkness," sometimes to be "shut" or closed. Nothing can be intended by this, but the impotence of our minds to know God savingly, or to discern things spiritually when they are proposed to us. It is the work of the Spirit of grace to open this eye,[690] Luke 4.18; Acts 26.18.[691] And this is done by the powerful, effectual removal of that depravation of our minds, with all its effects, which we described before. And how are we made partakers of this? It is from the gift of God, freely and effectively working it. For first, he "gives us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation" to that end; and secondly, he works the thing itself in us. He "gives us a heart to know him," Jer 24.7, without which we cannot do so; or else he would not undertake to work it in us for that end. There is therefore an effectual, powerful, creating act of the Holy Spirit exerted in the minds of men in their conversion to God, enabling them to spiritually discern Spiritual things; the seed and substance of divine faith is contained in this.

[2.] This is called the renovation of our minds: "Renewed in the spirit of your mind," Eph 4.23; which is the same as being "renewed in knowledge," Col 3.10. And this renovation of our minds has in it a transforming power to change the whole soul into an obediential frame towards God, Rom 12.2. And the work of renewing our minds is specifically ascribed to the Holy Spirit: Tit 3.5, "The renewing of the Holy Ghost." Some men seem to fancy, indeed they declare, that there is no such depravation in or of the mind of man, but that he is able, by the use of his reason, to apprehend, receive, and discern those truths of the gospel which are objectively proposed to it. But we will address afterward the use of reason in these matters, and its ability to discern and judge the sense of propositions, and the force of inferences, in the things of religion. At present, I only inquire whether unregenerate men are, of themselves, able to spiritually discern spiritual things when they are proposed to them in the dispensation of the gospel. Are they able to do that in such a way, that their knowledge is saving, in and to themselves, and acceptable to God in Christ, without any especial, internal, effectual work of the Holy Spirit of grace in them and upon them?

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If they say they are, as they plainly plead them to be, and they will not content themselves with ascribing to them that notional, doctrinal knowledge which none deny they are capable of, then I desire to know to what purpose they are said to be "renewed by the Holy Ghost?" To what purpose are all those gracious actings of God in them that were recounted before? Consider, on the one hand, what the Scripture teaches us concerning the blindness, darkness, and impotence of our minds with respect to spiritual things when they are proposed to us, and as we are in the state of nature. If you consider, on the other hand, what it affirms concerning the work of the Holy Ghost in the renovation and change in our minds, in giving them new power, new ability, and a new, active understanding, then you will not be greatly moved by the groundless, confident, unproved dictates of some, concerning the power of reason in itself, to apprehend and discern religious things, so far as we are required by way of duty. This is the same as saying that if the sun shines clear and bright, every blind man is able to see.

God is said in this, to communicate a light to our minds so we will see by it, or perceive by it, the things proposed to us in the gospel, usefully and savingly:

2Cor 4.6, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

If God did not otherwise work on the minds of men, than by an external, objective proposal of truth to them, then to what purpose does the apostle mention the almighty act of creating power which he put forth and exercised in the first production of natural light out of darkness? What allusion is there between that work and the doctrinal proposal of truth to the minds of men?

It is therefore not to be denied that the act of God in the spiritual illumination of our minds is of the same nature, as to its efficacy and efficiency, as that by which he created light at the beginning of all things. And because the effect produced in us is called "light," the act itself is described by "shining:" "God has shone in our hearts," — that is, in our minds. So he conveys light to them by an act of omnipotent efficiency. And because what is so worked in our minds is called "light," so the apostle, leaving his metaphor, plainly declares what he intends by it — namely, the actual "knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ;" that is, as God is revealed in Christ by the gospel. He declares this in verse4.[692] Having first compared the mind of man by nature, with respect to a power of discerning spiritual things, to the state of all things under darkness before the creation of light; and secondly, having compared the powerful working of God in illumination to the act of his omnipotence in the production or creation of natural light— he ascribes our ability to know, and our actual knowledge of God in Christ, to his real efficiency and operation.

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These things in part direct us towards an apprehension of that work of the Holy Spirit upon the minds of men in their conversion to God, by which their depravation is cured, and without which it will not be cured. By this means, and not otherwise, we who were "darkness" become "light in the Lord," or we come to know God in Christ savingly, looking into and discerning spiritual things with a proper intuitive sight, by which all the other faculties of our souls are guided and influenced to the obedience of faith.

(2.) It is principally with respect to the will and its depravation by nature, that we are said to be dead in sin. And in this is seated that particular obstinacy for which it is, that no unregenerate person does or can respond to his own convictions, or walk into His light in obedience. For the will may be considered in two ways: first, as a rational, vital faculty of our souls; and secondly, as a free principle,[693] freedom being of its essence or nature. Therefore, in our conversion to God, this is renewed by the Holy Ghost, by an effectual implantation in the will of a principle of spiritual life and holiness in place of that original righteousness which it lost by the fall. That the Spirit does so, is proved by all the testimonies insisted on before. First, this is its renovation as it is a rational, vital faculty; and of this vivification, see above. Secondly, as it is a free principle, it is determined to its acts in this case, by the powerful operation of the Holy Ghost, without the least impeachment of its liberty or freedom — as declared earlier.

And it might be fully evinced that this is so, as by other arguments, so too by the ensuing arguments. For if the Holy Ghost does not work immediately and effectively upon the will, producing and creating in it a principle of faith and obedience, infallibly determining it in its free acts, then all the glory of our conversion is to be ascribed to ourselves. And by the obediential actings of our own free will, we make ourselves differ from others, who do not so comply with the grace of God — but this is denied by the apostle in 1Cor 4.7.[694] Nor can any purpose of God concerning the conversion of any one soul be certain and determinate, seeing that after God has done all that is or can be done towards conversion, the will, remaining undetermined, may not be converted. This is contrary to the testimonies of our Savior in Mat 19.25-26; John 6.37; and Rom 8.29.[695] Nor can there be infallibility in the promises of God made to Jesus Christ concerning the multitudes who would believe in him, seeing that it is possible that no one may believe in him, if it depends on the undetermined liberty of their wills whether they will or not.

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And then too, salvation must of necessity be "of him that wills, and of him that runs," and not "of God, who shows mercy on whom he will have mercy," which would be contrary to the apostle, Rom 9.15-16. And thereby the whole efficacy of the grace of God is made to depend on the wills of men; which is not consistent with our being the "workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus for good works," Eph 2.10. Nor, on this supposition, would men know what they pray for, when they pray for their own or other men's conversion to God; as declared before.

Therefore, such a work of the Holy Spirit is necessary upon our wills, that it may cure and take away their depravation, described before — thus freeing us from the state of spiritual death, causing us to live to God, and determining our wills in and toward acts of faith and obedience. And he does this while and as he makes us new creatures; as he quickens us who are dead in trespasses and sins; as he gives us a new heart and puts a new spirit within us; as he writes his law in our hearts, so that we may do the mind of God and walk in his ways; as he works in us to will and to do, making those who were unwilling and obstinate to be willing and obedient — and that is freely and of our own choice.

(3.) In like manner, a prevailing love is implanted upon the affections by the Spirit of grace, causing the soul to cling to God and his ways with delight and contentment. This removes and takes away the enmity described before, along with its effects: Deu 30.6, "The Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live." This circumcision of the heart consists in "putting off the body of the sins of the flesh," as the apostle puts it in Col 2.11. He "crucifies the flesh, with its affections and lusts." Some men are inclined to think that all the depravation of our nature consists in the depravation of the sensitive part of the soul, or our affections; the vanity and folly of this opinion has been uncovered before. Yet it is not denied that the affections are signally depraved, so that principally the mind and will act those lusts that are particularly seated in them, or that the mind and will act according to the affections' perverse and corrupt inclinations, Gal 5.24; Jas 1.14-15.[696] This is why, in the circumcision of our hearts — in which the flesh, with its lusts, affections, and deeds, is crucified by the Spirit — he takes from them their enmity, carnal prejudices, and depraved inclinations; and this is really, even though it is not absolutely and perfectly. In their stead, he fills us with holy spiritual love, joy, fear, and delight, not changing the being of our affections, but sanctifying and guiding them by the principle of saving light and knowledge described before, and uniting them to their proper object in a due manner.

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From what has been said in this third argument, it is evident that the Holy Spirit, designing the regeneration or conversion of the souls of men, works effectively, powerfully, and irresistibly in this; which was proposed here for confirmation.

From the whole it appears that our regeneration is a work of the Spirit of God, and not any act of our own, which is all that was intended.[697] I say it is not our own, and cannot by outward helps and assistance, be educed out of the principles of our natures. The Scripture is express in this; for in mentioning this work directly with respect to its cause, and the manner of its operation in effecting it, Scripture assigns it positively to God or his Spirit 1Pet 1.3, "God, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again." Jas 1.18, "Of his own will he brought us forth with the word of truth." John 3.5, 6, 8, "Born of the Spirit." 1John 3.9, "Born of God."

And on the other hand, it excludes the will of man from any active interest in this; I mean, as to its beginning: 1Pet 1.23, "Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever." John 1.13, "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." See Mat 16.17; Tit 3.5; Eph 2.9-10.[698] It is therefore incumbent on those who plead for the active interest of the will of man in regeneration, to produce some testimonies of Scripture where it is assigned to his will, as the effect follows its proper cause. Where is it said that a man is born again or begotten anew by himself? And if it is granted — as it must be, unless violence is offered not only to the Scripture but to reason and common sense — that whatever our duty and power may be in this, these expressions must yet denote an act of God, and not ours, then the substance of what we contend for is granted, as we will be ready to demonstrate at any time. It is true, God does command us to circumcise our hearts and make them new: but he declares our duty in this, not our power; for he himself promises to work in us what he requires of us.Eze 36.27

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The power which we have and exercise in the progress of this work — in sanctification and holiness — proceeds from the infused principle which we receive in our regeneration. We ought to pray for all these ends from God, according to the example of holy men of old.[699]

Chapter VI.

The manner of conversion explained in the instance of Augustine. [700]

The outward means and manner of conversion to God, or regeneration, along with the degrees of spiritual operations on the minds of men and their effects, is exemplified in the conversion of Augustine, as the account is given of it by himself.

Among all the doctrines of the gospel, there is none opposed with more violence and subtlety than the doctrine concerning our regeneration by the immediate, powerful, effectual operation of the Holy Spirit of grace. So too, there is scarcely anything that is not more despised or scorned by many in the world, than for someone to profess that there has been such a work of God upon themselves; or on any occasion to declare anything about the way and manner by which it was worked. The very mention of it has led to derision by some who call themselves Christians. To plead an interest or a concern in this grace, is to forfeit a man's whole reputation with many of those who would be thought wise, and boast that they are rational. Nor is this practice something that has begun recently, in these declining times of the world. Rather, it seems to have been started and followed from days of old — possibly from the beginning.

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Indeed, the enmity of Cain against Abel was only a branch of this proud and perverse inclination. The instance of Ishmael in the Scripture is representative of all those who, under an outward profession of the true religion, did or do scoff at those like Isaac, who being children of the promise, profess and evidence an interest in the internal power of regeneration, which these scoffers are unacquainted with. And the same practice may be traced in succeeding ages.

Hence, holy Austin, entering upon the confession of his greater sins, and designing thereby to magnify the glory and efficacy of the grace of God in his conversion, makes provision against this scorn of men, which he knew he would meet with. — "Let arrogant men deride or scorn me, who were never savingly thrown down nor broken in pieces by you, my God, yet I will (rather, let me) confess my own shame, to your praise." [701] Let none be offended by these expressions, of being "savingly or wholesomely cast down and broken by God;" for in the judgment of this great person, they are not fanatical. We may not therefore think it strange if the same truth, and the same practice and profession of it, still meet with the same response. Let them deride and scorn it, who were never humbled savingly, nor broken with a sense of their sin, nor relieved by grace; the holy work of God's Spirit is to be owned, and the truth is to be avowed, as it is in Jesus.

We have treated the original depravation of our nature as far as needed for our present purpose. Yet some things must be added concerning the effects of that depravation, which will conduce to the right understanding of the way and manner by which the Spirit of God proceeds for healing and removing it, which we now have under special consideration. And we may observe —

FIRST, That the corrupt principle of sin, the native habitual inclination to evil that is in us, works early in our natures; and for the most part, it prevents all the actings of grace in us. Though some may be sanctified in or from the womb, yet in order of nature, this native corruption has first place in them. For a clean thing cannot be brought out of an unclean thing, but "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Joh 3.6 "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies," Psa 58.3. It is to no purpose to say that he speaks only of wicked men here — that is, of those who are habitually and profligately wicked — for whatever any man may afterward run into by a course of sin, all men are morally alike from the womb. It is an aggravation of the wickedness of men that it begins so early, and holds an uninterrupted course.

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Children are not able to speak from the womb, or as soon as they are born; yet here they are said to speak lies. It is therefore the perverse acting of depraved nature in infancy that is meant; for everything that is irregular, that does not correspond to the law of our creation and the rule of our obedience, is a lie. And among the many instances collected by Austin of such irregular actings of nature in its infant state, one is particularly remarkable.[702]

Then, little by little, I realized where I was and wished to tell my wishes to those who might satisfy them, but I could not! For my wants were inside me, and they were outside, and they could not by any power of theirs come into my soul. And so I would fling my arms and legs about and cry, making the few and feeble gestures that I could, though indeed the signs were not much like what I inwardly desired; and when I was not satisfied – either from not being understood or because what I got was not good for me – I grew indignant that my elders were not subject to me, and that those on whom I actually had no claim did not wait on me as slaves – and I avenged myself on them by crying.

He repeats this in chapter 7.

Nor was it good, even in that time, to strive to get by crying what, if it had been given me, would have been hurtful; or to be bitterly indignant at those who, because they were older and wiser than I – not slaves, either, but free – would not indulge my capricious desires. Was it a good thing for me to try, by struggling as hard as I could, to harm them for not obeying me, even when it would have done me harm to have been obeyed? Thus, the infant's innocence lies in the weakness of his body and not in the infant mind.

Those irregular and perverse agitations of mind and of the will or appetite, which appear in infants, are not yet under the conduct of reason. Indignation and little self-revenges accompany them in their disappointments, when all those about them do not subject themselves to their inclinations, for it may be to their hurt. All these are from the obliquity of our nature, and the effects of that depraved habit of sin with which it is wholly possessed. By the frequency of these lesser actings, the mind and will are prepared for those more violent and impetuous motions which they are exposed to and filled with, by improving their natural capacities, and by the incitement of new objects that are presented to their corruptions. God did not originally create our nature this way — it is a condition worse than and inferior to that of other creatures, in whose young ones there are none of these disorders; rather, a regular compliance with their natural instinct prevails in them. The dying of multitudes of infants, notwithstanding the utmost care for their preservation — because the young ones of other creatures all generally live if they have that by which their nature may be sustained — argues for the imputation of sin to them. "For death entered by sin, and passed upon all, for all have sinned" Rom 5.12 — so those irregular actings, particular to them, prove the inherent sin in them, or the corruption of their nature from the moment of their conceptions.

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SECONDLY, With the growth of our natural faculties, and the strengthening of the members of our bodies, which by nature have become ready "instruments of unrighteousness to sin," Rom 6.13, this perverse principle acts with even more evidence, frequency, and success in the production of actual sin, or in the inordinate actings of the mind, will, and affections. So the wise man tells us that "childhood and youth are vanity," Ecc 11.10. The mind of man, in the state of childhood and youth, exerts itself in all kinds of vain actings, in foolish imaginations, perverse and froward appetites, falseness in words, with tangible effects of corrupt inclinations in every kind.

Austin's first book of Confessions is an excellent comment on that text, in which the "vanity of childhood and youth" are graphically described, with passionate self-reflecting complaints concerning the guilt of sin which is contracted in them. Some perhaps may think lightly about those ways of folly and vanity in which childhood consumes itself, or would if left alone; they may think there is no moral evil in such childish innocence. That good man was of another mind.

Is this the innocence of childhood? It is not, O Lord, it is not. I entreat your mercy, O my God, for these same sins as we grow older are transferred from tutors and masters; they pass from nuts and balls and sparrows, to magistrates and kings, to gold and lands and slaves, just as the rod is succeeded by more severe chastisements." [703]

This is not innocence; it is not so. The same principle and habit of mind, carried over to riper age and greater occasions, bring forth those greater sins which the lives of men are filled with in this world. And who is there that has a serious reverence for God, with any due apprehension of His holiness and a clear conviction of the nature of sin, who is not able to recall such actions in childhood which most think fit to wink at, in which they may remember that perversity of which they are now ashamed? By this means, the heart is prepared for a further obduration[704] in sin by the confirmation of its native obstinacy.

THIRDLY, From those more general irregularities, actual sins follow —I mean, those which are against the remaining light of nature, or committed in rebellion to the dictates and guidance of our minds and consciences — in rebellion to the influence of those intelligences of moral good and evil which are inseparable from the faculties of our souls. For although they may be stifled and overcome in some, yet they can never be utterly obliterated or extinguished, but will accompany the nature of man to eternity, even in that condition in which they will be of no other use than to add to and increase its misery.

Among those, we may recall one or two instances. Lying is such a sin by which the depravation of nature in youth is prone to exert itself; and that is done for various reasons, not to be inquired into now: "They go astray from the womb, speaking lies." The first inducement of our nature to sin was by a lie, and we fell in Adam by giving it credit; in every sin there is a particular lie.

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But speaking falsely, contrary to what they know to be true, is what children are prone to — though some moreso than others, according to other vicious habits that prevail in them. They foolishly think to thatch over and cover the actings of these habits by lying. That holy person whom we instance, acknowledges and bewails this in himself:

"I did not see (O God) into what a gulf of filth I was cast out from before you. For what was more filthy than I was, while out of a love for plays, and a desire for looking after vanities, I deceived teachers and parents with countless lies?" [705]

And the good man was afterward exceedingly humbled for this, and learned much of the vileness of his own nature from it. And we find by experience that a sense of this sin often accompanies the first real convictions that befall the souls of men. For when they seriously reflect upon themselves, or view themselves in the mirror of the law, they are not only made aware of the nature of this sin, but also how much they indulged in it. This is partly because they remember how the least occasion surprised them into it, and yet they neglected to watch against it; and partly in their understanding of how sometimes they made it their business, by premeditated falsehoods, to cover other sins so as to escape rebuke and correction.

The mention of these things will probably be received with contempt and scorn in this age, in which the most prodigious wickednesses of men are made sport of. But God in his holiness and his truth are still the same, whatever alterations there may be in the world. And the holy psalmist seems to have reflected on this vice of youth, when he prays that God would take from him the "way of lying." Of the same nature are those lesser thefts, in stealing from their parents and governors those things which they are not allowed to take and make use of for themselves: "They rob their father or mother, and say, It is not a transgression," Pro 28.24. So Austin says he sometimes stole from his parents, either to gratify his own sensual appetite, or to give to his companions.[706] In such instances original depravity exerts itself in youth or childhood, and thereby it both increases its own power and fortifies the mind and affections against the light and efficacy of conviction.

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FOURTHLY, As men grow up in the state of nature, sin gains ground in them and upon them, subjectively and objectively. Concupiscence[707] gains strength with age, and grows in force as persons become able to exercise it; the instruments of it in the faculties of the soul, the organs of the senses, and the members of the body, grow more serviceable for it every day, and more apt to receive impressions from it or to comply with its motions. Hence some charge the sins of youth on the heat of blood and the restlessness of the animal spirits, which prompt men to irregularities and extravagances; — but these are only vehicula concupiscentiæ,[708] things which it makes use of to exert its poison. For sin turns everything in this state to its own advantage, and it abuses even "the commandment" itself, to "work in us all manner of concupiscence,"[709] Rom 7.8.

Again, the objects of lust, by the occasions of life, are now multiplied. Temptations increase with years and the business of the world, but especially by that corruption of conduct which is among most men. Hence, in this part of their youth, one way or another, various persons are overtaken with some gross actual sin or sins. That everyone is not, is a mere effect of preventing grace, and not at all from themselves. The apostle refers to this in his charge to Timothy, 2Tim 2.22, "Flee youthful lusts" — those lusts which work effectively and prevail mightily in those who are young, if they are not subdued by the grace of God. David, from his sense and experience of this, prays that God would not remember "the sins of his youth," Psa 25.7. And reflecting on them is sometimes the torment of age, Job 20.11.[710]

So it was in Austin,[711] the one in whom we have chosen to exemplify the instances of such a course. He humbly confesses to God his falling into and being overtaken with great sins in his younger days, such as fornication and uncleanness; he was long detained in the mire of these. To this purpose, he discourses at large about them in book 2, chapters 1-3. And he gives this holy account of the reason for this humble and public acknowledgment:

"I declare these things, O my God, not to you, but before you" (or in your presence), "to my own race, to human kind, to whatever portion of them may fall upon these writings of mine. And to what end? Namely, that I and everyone who reads these things may consider out of what great depths we are to cry unto you." [712]

So said the one who did not live to see the days in which a humble confession of sin was made a matter of contempt and scorn.

Now, there is commonly a twofold event of men's falling under the power of temptations, and thereby into great actual sins:

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1. God sometimes uses their occasion to awaken men's consciences to a deep sense not only of that sin in particular whose guilt they have contracted, but of their other sins also. The great Physician of their souls turns this poison into a medicine, and makes that wound which they have given themselves, to lance a festered sore. For because their oscitancy,[713] prejudices, and custom of sinning have taken away their sense of lesser sins, and these secure them from reflecting on them, the strike on their consciences from those greater provocations, pierces so deep that they are forced to entertain thoughts of looking for a release or remedy. So those of old did at Peter's sermon when he charged them with the guilt of consenting to the crucifying of Jesus Christ: "They were pricked in their heart, and said, Men and brethren, what will we do?" Acts 2.36-37.

2. With others it proves a violent entrance into a further pursuit of sin. The bounds of restraints, with the influence of natural light, having been broken up and rejected, and men's lusts being let loose, they break through all remaining obstacles, and run out into the greatest compass of excess and riot. Observing no present evil ensuing from what they have done, as they first feared it would, they are emboldened to greater wickedness, Ecc 8.11.[714] And by this means, their conversion to God is rendered more difficult; men thus wander away more and more from him to the greatest distance that is recoverable by grace;[715] for —

FIFTHLY, With many, a course and custom of sinning ensues upon this. The apostle speaks of such men in Eph 4.18-19, "Being past feeling, they have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." A custom of sinning takes away the sense of it; the course of the world takes away the shame of it; and love for it makes men greedy in the pursuit of it. See Confess. lib. 2. cap. 6. And this last effect of sin, as incited, provoked, and assisted by temptations, has great variety in its effects and degrees. From this come the various courses of unhumbled sinners in the world, in which the outrage and excess of some seems to justify others in their more sedate irregularities and less conspicuous provocations. Indeed, some who are not in any better state and condition than others are, as to their interest in the covenant of God, will not only startle at, but really abhor those outrages of sin and wickedness which they fall into. Now, this difference does not arise from this: that the nature of all men is not equally corrupt and depraved; but it arises from the fact that God is pleased to make his restraining grace effectual only towards some. He keeps them within those bounds of sinning which they will not go past; and he permits others to fall under a conjunction of their lusts and temptations, such that they proceed to all manner of evil.

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Moreover, for some there are particular inclinations to some sins; if these are not inlaid in them, they are greatly enhanced and made liable to incitement by bodily passions. Some are more exposed to temptations in the world from their outward circumstances and occasions of life. Some are even precipitated to all manner of evil by this. But still "the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts," is the same naturally in all. All differences as to good from evil is from the will of God — I do not mean as to the nature of the things themselves, but as to men's interest in them, so as to adhere to the one and avoid the other. Thus God secretly prepares for some a more temperate nature; they are docile and pliable to take notice of things that may entertain their minds, and satisfy them above sensual delights. And some he disposes, in their education, callings, societies, aims, and designs in the world, into ways that are inconsistent with open lewdness, ways that will greatly balance their inclinations. And this is besides his secret internal actings on their hearts and minds; more about this later. This is excellently expressed by Austin —

"I will love you, O Lord, and thank you, and confess to your name, because you have forgiven me my evil and nefarious deeds. I impute it to your grace and mercy that you have made my sins melt away like ice; and I impute it to your grace as to all the evils which I have not done; for what could I not have done, who loved wickedness for itself? All that I acknowledge are forgiven me, both the evils that I have done of my own accord, and what through your guidance I have not done. Who is there who, considering his own weakness, dares to ascribe his chastity or innocence to his own strength, that he may less love you, as though your mercy were less necessary to him, by which you forgive the sins of those who are converted to you.

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For let not the one who, being called by you and having heard your voice, has thereby avoided the evils which I have confessed, deride me who, being sick, was healed by that same physician from whom he received the mercy not to be sick, or not to be as sick. [And therefore let him love you all the more, as he sees himself prevented from having fallen into the great maladies of sin, through that God by whom he sees me delivered from the great maladies of the sin into which I had actually fallen.]"[716]

This brief account of the actings of corrupted nature, coming to the limit of a recoverable alienation from God, may somewhat illustrate and set off the work of his grace towards us. And thus far, whatever habit is contracted in a course of sin, the state of men is still absolutely recoverable by the grace of Jesus Christ administered in the gospel, 1Cor 6.9-11.[717] No state of sin is absolutely unhealable until God has variously dealt with men by his Spirit. His word must be rejected and he must be sinned against in a singular manner, before remission is impossible. All sins and blasphemies antecedent to that may be forgiven men, and that is done before their conversion to God, Mat 12.31-32; Luke 12.10.[718] Therefore the manner and degrees of the operations of this Spirit of God on the minds of men, towards and in their conversion, is what we will now inquire into, reducing what we have to offer concerning it, to certain heads or instances:

FIRST, Under the ashes of our collapsed nature there yet remain certain sparks of celestial fire, consisting in inbred notices of good and evil, of rewards and punishments, of the presence and all-seeing eye of God, of help and assistance to be had from him, with a dread of his excellencies where anything is apprehended that is unworthy of Him or provoking to Him. And where there are any means of instruction from supernatural revelation, by the preaching of the word or from the care of parents in private, these notices are intangibly improved and increased by them. Hereby men obtain an objective, distinct knowledge of what they subjectively and radically had before, though very imperfectly. Therefore God often excites and quickens these notices, even in those who are young, so they will work in them some real regard for and appeals to Him. And those great workings about the things of God, and towards him, which are sometimes found in children, are not mere effects of nature — for that nature would not act this way if it were not effectively excited, by one occasion or other, for that end administered by the providence of God. Many can recall such divine visitations in their youth, which they now understand were so. Austin speaks to this purpose:[719]

"Thus as a boy I began to pray to you, my Help and my Refuge, and, in calling on you, broke the bands of my tongue. Small as I was, I prayed with no slight earnestness that I might not be beaten at school."

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He prayed earnestly to God as a refuge, when he was afraid to be beaten at school. And he resolves this into instruction, or what he had observed in others:

"I observed men praying to you, and I learned from them to conceive of you – after my capacity for understanding as it was then – to be some great Being who, though not visible to our senses, was able to hear and help us."

And to this he adds, in chapter 11, some general instruction which he had from the word. And from the same principles, when he was surprised a little later with a fit of sickness, he cried out with all earnestness to be baptized, so that he might (as he thought) go to heaven; for his father was not yet a Christian, which is why he was not baptized in his infancy. Such affections and occasional actings of the soul towards God, are worked in many by the Spirit. With most, they wear off and perish, as they did with him. For after this, he threw himself into many flagitious sins.[720] But in some, in and by the use of these means, God inlays their hearts with those seeds of faith and grace which he gradually cherishes and increases.

SECONDLY, God works on men by his Spirit in outward means, to cause them to take some real and steady consideration of him, of their own distance from him, and their obnoxiousness to his righteousness on account of sin. It is almost incredible to apprehend, but it is attested to by daily experience, how men will live even where the word is read and preached; how they will get a form of speaking about God, and indeed of performing some duties of religion, and yet never come to have any steady thoughts of God, or of their relation to him, or of their concern in his will. Whatever they speak about God, "he is not in all their thoughts," Psa 10.4. Whatever they do in religion, they do not do it to him, Amos 5.25. They have "neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape," John 5.37; they know nothing for themselves, which is their duty, Job 5.27. And yet it is hard to convince them that this is 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. They will then acknowledge that in truth they never had serious, steady thoughts of God, but only occasional and transient ones. Therefore God begins here with them. And thereby he brings them out from under the absolute power of the vanity of their minds. By one means or other, He fixes steady thoughts in them concerning himself, and their relation to him. And there are several ways in which he proceeds to effect this; such as —

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1. By some sudden awful judgments, by which he "reveals his wrath from heaven against the ungodliness of men," Rom 1.18. This is how Waldo[721] was affected when his companion was struck dead as he walked with him in the fields; this proved to be the occasion for his conversion to God. So the psalmist describes the affections and thoughts of men when they are surprised by a storm at sea, Psa 107.25-28. We have an instance of this in the mariners of Jonah's ship, Jon 1.4-7; and that of Pharaoh who despised the Lord one day, saying, "Who is the Lord, that I should regard him?" The next day, terrified by thunder and lightning, he cries out, "Entreat the Lord for me that there may be no more of this," Exo 9.28. And most men, at one time or other, have experienced such impressions from divine power.

2. By personal afflictions, Job 33.19-20; Psa 78.34-35; Hos 5.15. Affliction naturally indicates anger, and anger respects sin. It indicates it is God's messenger to call sin to remembrance, 1Kng 17.18; Gen 42.21-22. The time of affliction is a time of consideration, Ecc 7.14; and if men are not obdurate and hardened almost to practical atheism by a course of sinning, they cannot help but think to themselves who it is that sends affliction, and for what end it is sent. Hence great thoughts of the holiness of God and of his hatred of sin will arise, with some sense of a man's own guilt and special crimes; and these effects many times prove preparatory and materially dispositive to conversion. It is not what these things are able to operate in themselves that is to be considered, but what they are designed for, and made effectual for, by the Holy Ghost.

3. By remarkable deliverances and mercies: so it was with Naaman the Syrian, 2Kng 5.15-17.[722] 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 produces a sense and acknowledgment of their own unworthiness of what they have received. From this will also proceed some temporary effects of submission to the divine will, and gratitude.

4. An observation of the conduct of others has affected many to seek into the causes and ends of it; and this inclines them to imitation, 1Pet 3.1-2.[723]

5. The word, in the reading or preaching of it, is the principal means of this. The Holy Spirit employs and makes use of this in his entrance into this work, 1Cor 14.24-25;[724] for those convictions do not befall men from the word universally or promiscuously, but only as the Holy Spirit wills and designs. It is by the law that men have the knowledge of sin, Rom 7.7.

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And yet we see by experience that the doctrine of the law is despised by most who hear it. This is why it does not have a force or virtue in itself to always work conviction of sin in those to whom it is outwardly proposed; only towards some whom the Spirit of God is pleased to put forth a special energy in the dispensation of this word.

By these and like means God often brings the wildness of corrupted nature to a standstill, and stirs up the faculties of the soul by an effectual (though not saving) impression on them, to seriously consider the soul, and its relation to God and his will. And hereby men are often incited and engaged to many duties of religion, such as prayer for the pardon of sin, with resolutions to amend their life. And although these things are subordinated in some to a further and more effectual work of the Spirit of God upon them, yet with many they prove evanid[725] and fading; the goodness in them is "like a morning cloud, and like the early dew which passes away," Hos 6.4. And the reasons why men disregard these warnings of God, and pursue their own intentions despite them, and ignore what they lead to, are obvious; for —

(1.) The darkness of their minds being still uncured, they are not able to discern the true nature of these divine intimations and instructions; and so after awhile they do not regard them; or they reject them as occasions of needless scruples[726] and fears.

(2.) Presumption about their present condition, that it is as good or as convenient as it needs to be in their present circumstances and occasions; and this makes them neglect the improvement to be had from these warnings.

(3.) Profane societies and relationships with those who may scoff at and deride all tremblings at divine warnings; or with ignorant ministers who undertake to teach what they have not learned. These are great means of hardening men in their sins, and forfeiting the benefit of these divine intimations.

(4.) They will — as to all their efficacy, and the motions they bring on the affections of men — decay and expire by themselves, if they are not diligently improved. This is why they perish in many: through mere sloth and negligence.

(5.) Satan applies all his engines[727] to defeat these beginnings of any good in the souls of men.

(6.) What effectively and utterly overthrows this work, and what causes men to disregard these heavenly warnings, is mere love of lusts and pleasures, or the unconquered adherence of a corrupted heart to sensual and sinful objects which offer present satisfaction for its carnal desires.

By these means, this work of the Spirit of God in the hearts and minds of many is utterly defeated. It leads to the increase of their guilt, an addition to their natural hardness, and the ruin of their souls. But in some of them, the Spirit is graciously pleased to renew his work, and to carry it on to perfection by more effectual means, as will be declared afterward.

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Now, there is scarcely any of these instances of the care and watchfulness of God over the souls of those whom he designs either to convince or convert for the ends of his own glory, that Austin does not give an account of them in and towards himself. He declares in like manner how, by the ways and means mentioned, these were frustrated, and came to nothing. Such were the warnings which he acknowledged that God gave him by the persuasions and exhortations of his mother, lib. 2. cap. 3; such were those which he had in his own sicknesses, and in the death of his dear friend and companion, lib. 4. cap. 5-7. And in all these several warnings he had from God, he charges the lack and the guilt of their non-improvement on his natural blindness. His mind had not been illuminated, and the corruption of his nature had not yet been cured; and there was the efficacy of the evil society he kept, and the course of the world in the places where he lived. But it would be tedious to transcribe the particular accounts that he gives of these things, though all of them are singularly worthy of consideration. For I must say that, in my judgment, there is none among the ancient or modem divines to this day, who either in the declarations of their own experiences, or in their directions to others, have equalled him in giving an accurate search and observation of all the secret actings of the Spirit of God on the minds and souls of men, both towards and in their recovery or conversion. And to this end, scarcely anyone who was not divinely inspired, has so traced the way of the serpent, or the effectual working of original sin in and on the hearts of men, along with the efficacy communicated to them by various temptations and occasions of life in this world. Also exceedingly revealed to him were the ways by which the deceitfulness of sin — in compliance with objective temptations — seeks to elude and frustrate the work of God's grace when it begins to tempt the strongholds of sin in the heart. Nor has any man more lively and expressly laid open the power of effectual and victorious grace, with the manner of its operation and prevalence. And he exemplified all these things — by the guidance of the good Spirit of God, and his attendance to the word — from his own experience in the whole work of God towards him. Only, it must be acknowledged that he declares these things in such a way and manner, and also with such expressions, that many in our days would decry it as excessive and fanatical.

THIRDLY, In the way to calling men to the saving knowledge of God, the Holy Spirit convinces them of sin, or he brings them under the power of a work of conviction.

It is not my design here, nor on my way, to handle the nature of the work of conviction, the means, causes, and effects of it. Besides, it has been done at large by others.

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It is sufficient for my purpose — 1. To show the nature of it in general; 2. The causes of it; 3. The ways by which men lose their convictions, and so become more and more hardened in sin; and 4. How the Holy Spirit carries on the work in some to complete conversion to God:

1. For the nature of conviction in general, it consists in fixing the vain mind of a sinner upon a due consideration of sin, its nature, tendency, and end, with his own concern in this, and fixing a due sense of sin on the secure mind of the sinner, with suitable affections for its apprehension. The warnings insisted on before, by which God excites men to some steady notices of him and of themselves, are like calling to a man who is in a profound sleep. Being startled at the call, he lifts himself up for a moment, but oppressed by the power of his deep slumber, he quickly lays down again, as Austin expresses it. But this work of conviction abides with men, and they are in no way able to speedily disentangle themselves from it.

Now, the mind of man, which is the subject of this work of conviction, has two things to be distinctly considered in it: first, the understanding, which is the active, noetical or contemplative power and faculty of it; second, the affections, in which its passive and sensitive power consists.

With respect to this, there are two parts of the work of conviction:

(1.) fixing the mind — the rational, contemplative power of it — on a due consideration of sin;

(2.) fixing a due sense of sin on the practical, passive, sensible part of the mind — that is, on the conscience and affections, as said before:

(1.) It is a great work, to fix the vain mind of unregenerate sinners on a due consideration of sin, as to its nature and tendency. The darkness of their own mind and their inexpressible vanity — which I put as the principal effect of our apostasy from God — disenables, hinders, and diverts them from such apprehensions. This is why God so often complains of the foolishness of the people, that they would not consider their latter end, that they would not be wise so as to consider it. By experience, we find this astonishing folly and vanity in many. No reasons, arguments, entreaties by all that is naturally dear to them, no necessities, can prevail with them to fix their minds on a due consideration of sin. Moreover, Satan now employs all his engines to beat off the efficacy and power of this work. And when his temptations and delusions are mixed with men's natural darkness and vanity, the mind seems to be impregnably fortified against the power of conviction. For although only real conversion to God overthrows the kingdom of Satan in us, this work of conviction raises such a combustion in it, that Satan must fear it will be its end. And this armed strong man would, if possible, keep his goods and house in peace.Luk 1^1.2^1

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Hence all sorts of persons daily experience — in their children, servants, and relations — how difficult, indeed how impossible, it is to fix their minds on a due consideration of sin, until it is worked in them by the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit of God. Therefore, the first part of this work of conviction consists in this: it fixes the mind on a due consideration of sin. So it is expressed in Psa 51.3, "My sin is ever before me." God "reproves men," and "sets their sins in order before their eyes," Psa 50.21.[728] Hence they are required, as it were, to behold them always, whichever way they turn. They would gladly toss them behind their backs, or throw out any thoughts of them, but the arrows of God stick in them, and they cannot take their minds off their consideration. And this is because there are three things in sin —

1st. The origin of it, and its native inherence in us, as in Psa 51.5;[729]

2dly. The state of it, or the liability of men to the wrath of God on account of it, Eph 2.1-3;[730]

3dly. The particular sins of men's lives; — in the first part of the work of conviction, the minds of men are variously exercised with respect to them, as the Spirit of God is pleased to engage and fix them.

(2.) As the mind is hereby fixed on the consideration of sin, so a sense of sin must also be fixed on the mind — that is, on the conscience and affections. A bare contemplation of the concerns of sin is of little use in this matter. The Scripture principally evidences this work of conviction, or places it in this effect of a sense of sin: in trouble, sorrow, a disquieted mind, fear of ruin and the like (see Acts 2.37, 24.25).[731] But I must not enlarge on this.

Here, therefore, is the second thing which we observe in God's gracious actings towards the recovery of the souls of men from their apostasy and from under the power of sin:

2. The principal efficient cause of this work is the Holy Ghost; the preaching of the word, especially the law, is the instrument which he makes use of in this. The knowledge of sin comes by the law, including the nature, guilt, and curse belonging to it, Rom 7.7.[732] There is therefore no conviction of sin except what consists in an emanation of light and knowledge from the doctrine of the law, with an evidence of its power, and a sense of its curse. Other means, such as afflictions, dangers, sicknesses, fears, disappointments, may be used to excite, stir up, and put an edge on the minds and affections of men; yet by one means or other, it is from the law of God that such a revealing of sin is made to them, and such a sense of it is wrought upon them, as belong to this work of conviction. But it is the Spirit of God alone that is the principal efficient cause of it, for 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," Psa 50.21.

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And it is expressly declared that this same work is done immediately by the Spirit, John 16.8.[733] He alone makes all means effectual to this end and purpose. Without his special and immediate actings on us to this end, we may hear the law preached all the days of our lives, and yet not once be affected by it. And by the way, it may be worth our observation to consider how God, in his holy, wise providence, and designing the calling or conversion of the souls of men, overrules all their outward concerns, so that they will be disposed into those circumstances which are conducive to that end. Either by their own inclinations and choice, or by intervening accidents that oppose their inclinations and frustrate their designs, he will lead them into such societies, acquaintances, relationships, places, and means, as he has ordained to be useful to them for the great ends of their conviction and conversion.

So in particular, Austin abounds in his contemplation on the holy, wise providence of God, in carrying him from Carthage to Rome, and from there to Milan, where he heard Ambrose preach every Lord's day; at length, this proved to be the means of his thorough conversion to God. And in that whole course, by his discourse on it, he reveals excellently on the one hand, the variety of his own projects and designs, his aims and ends, which were often perverse and froward; and on the other hand, he reveals the constant guidance of divine Providence, working powerfully through all occurrences, towards the blessed end designed for him. I in no way doubt that God exercised Austin to those distinct experiences of sin and grace in his own heart and ways, because He designed him to be the great champion of the doctrine of His grace, against all its enemies. And that was not only in his own age, in which this doctrine met with fierce opposition, but also in all succeeding ages — preserved by his excellent labors for the use of the church:

"You who are my hope [and my portion] in the land of the living, that I might move from one country to another for the salvation of my soul, both applied goads to me at Carthage, by which I might be driven from there, and also proposed allurements to me at Rome, by which I might be drawn there. And you did this by men who love the dead life in sin — here doing outrageous things, there promising things desirable to vain minds — while You, to correct and reform my ways, secretly made use of their frowardness and mine." [734] Confess. cap. 8

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3. It must be granted that many on whom this work has been wrought, producing great resolutions to amend and reform their life, lose all the power and efficacy of it, with all the impressions it made on their affections. And some of these grow worse and more profligate in sinning than they ever were before. For having broken down the dam of their restraints, they pour out their lusts like a flood, and are more senseless than ever of those checks and fears with which they were bridled and awed before, 2Pet 2.20-22.[735] So Austin declares that after many convictions which he had digested and neglected, he had grown so obdurate and senseless, that falling into a fever, in which he thought he would die and go immediately to hell, he did not have that same endeavor for deliverance and mercy which he had many years before, upon lesser dangers. And this perverse effect is variously brought about:

(1.) With most, it is an immediate product of the power of their own lust. It is especially so with those who receive no gifts with their convictions by the Holy Ghost. For as we observed, their lusts being only checked and controlled, but not subdued, they gain new strength by their restraint, and rebel with success against conviction. Persons like these will suddenly fall away from what they attained, Mat 13.5, 21.[736] One day they seem to lie in hell by the terror of their convictions, and the next they seem to be hastening towards it by their sins and pollutions: see Luke 11.24-26; Hos 6.4.[737]

(2.) This apostasy is promoted and hastened by others; such as —

[1.] Those who undertake to be spiritual guides and instructors of men in their way towards rest, who being unskillful in the word of righteousness, heal their wounds only slightly, or turn them out of the way. Seducers also, it may be, interpose their crafty deceits by which they lie in wait to deceive, and so they turn men off from those good ways of God into which they would otherwise enter. So it fell out with Austin who, beginning somewhat to inquire after God, fell into the society and heresy of the Manichees, which frustrated all the convictions which by any means he had received.

[2.] Those who directly, and perhaps with importunity and violence, endeavor to draw men back into the ways of the world and the pursuit of their lusts, Pro 1.11-14. So Austin declares with what earnestness and restless importunities some of his companions endeavored to draw him to the spectacles and plays at Rome. And it is not easily imagined with what subtlety some persons will entice others into sinful courses, nor what forcefulness they use in their temptations, under a pretense of love and friendship.

[3.] The awe put on the minds of men in their convictions, arising from a dread of the terror of the law, and the judgments of God threatened in it, is apt to wear off once the soul is accustomed to it a little, and sees that no evil actually ensues, Ecc 8.11; 2Pet 3.4.[738]

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In some, the Holy Spirit of God is pleased to carry on this work of conviction towards a further blessed issue; and then two things ensue upon that in the minds of those who are so convicted:

(1.) There will follow great and strange conflicts between their corruptions and their convictions. And this especially manifests itself in those who have been accustomed to a course of sinning, or who have any particular sin in which they delight, and by which they have given satisfaction to their lusts. For the law, coming with power and terror on the conscience, requires a relinquishment of all sins, at the eternal peril of the soul. Sin is hereby incited and provoked,[739] and the soul begins to see its disability to oppose what before it thought was absolutely in its own power. For men who indulge themselves in their sins have no doubt that they can leave them at their pleasure; but when they begin to make headway against them upon the command of the law, they find themselves in the power of what they imagined was in theirs. So sin uses the commandment to work all manner of concupiscence in men; and those who previously thought they were alive, find that it is sin which lives, and they themselves are dead, Rom 7.7-9.[740] Sin rising up in rebellion against the law, reveals its own power, and the utter impotence of those in whom it is found, to contest with or destroy it.

Yet men's convictions in this condition reveal themselves; and they operate in two ways, or in a twofold degree:

[1.] They will produce some endeavors and promises to amend and reform their life. These men are unavoidably thrown or worked into pacifying the voice of the law in their consciences, which bids them to do so, or perish. But such endeavors or promises, for the most part, hold only until the next occasion for sinning or temptation. The least outward advantage or provocation, gaining access to the internal power of sin, slights all such resolutions; and the soul surrenders itself to the power of its old ruler. Such effects are described in the word, Hos 6.4. And so Austin expresses his own experience, after his great convictions and before his full conversion.[741]

"For this was what I was longing to do; but as yet I was bound by the iron chain of my own will. The enemy held fast my will, and made a chain of it, and bound me tight with it. For out of the perverse will, came lust; and the service of lust ended in habit; and habit, not resisted, became necessity. By these links being forged together, as it were — which is why I called it "a chain" — a hard bondage held me in slavery."

And he shows how faint and languid his endeavors were for reformation and amendment:

"Thus with the baggage of the world I was sweetly burdened, as one in slumber, and my musings on You were like the efforts of those who desire to awake, but who are still overpowered with drowsiness and fall back into deep slumber."

And he confesses that although, through the urgency of his convictions, he could not but pray that he might be freed from the power of sin; yet, through the prevalence of that power in him, he had a secret reserve and desire not to part with that sin which he prayed against,

"I had entreated chastity of you and had prayed, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet." For I was afraid lest you should hear me too soon, and too soon cure me of my disease of lust which I desired to have satisfied rather than extinguished."

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[2.] These endeavors arise to great perplexities and distresses; for after awhile, the soul of a sinner is torn and divided between the power of corruption and the terror of conviction.[742] And this happens on a double account:

1st. Upon some occasional sharpening of former convictions, when the sense of them has been ready to wear off.

2dly. From the secret insinuation of a principle of spiritual life and strength into the will, whose nature and power the soul is as yet unacquainted with.

We have signal instances of both of these in Austin. For after all the means which God had used towards him for his conversion, and while he was yet detained under the power of sin, and ready upon every temptation to revert to his former courses, he occasionally heard one Pontitianus[743] giving an account of the conversion of two eminent courtiers, who immediately renounced the world, and took themselves wholly to the service of God. God was pleased to make use of this discourse to further awaken Austin, and even to shock him.[744]

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The substance of what he says is that, in and by that discourse of Pontitianus, God held him to consider himself; he caused Austin to see and behold his own filth and vileness, until he was horribly perplexed and confounded in himself. So it often happens in this work of the Spirit of God. When his first warnings are not complied with, when the light he communicates is not improved, then upon the return of these warnings, they will be mixed with some sense of severity.

This effect, I say, proceeds from this: that under this work, God is pleased to secretly communicate a principle of grace or spiritual life to the will. This, therefore, being designed to rule and bear sway in the soul, begins its conflict to effectively eject sin from its throne and dominion. This is because, when we come under the power of grace, sin can no longer have dominion over us, Rom 6.14; so the Spirit begins now to "lust against the flesh," Gal 5.17, aiming at and intending a complete victory or conquest. There was, upon the bare conviction, a contest before in the soul; but it was merely between the mind and conscience on the one hand, and the will on the other. The will was still absolutely bent on sin; only a little headway was made against its inclinations by the light of the mind before sin, and the rebukes of conscience after it; but the conflict now begins in the will itself. A new principle of grace being infused in the will, it opposes those habitual inclinations to evil which were predominant in it before. This fills the mind with astonishment, and in some it brings them to the very door of despair, because they do not see how or when they will be delivered. So was it with Austin:

"The new will which began to be in me, by which I would love you, O my God, the only certain sweetness, was not yet able to overcome my former will, confirmed by long continuance. So my two wills — the one old, the other new; the one carnal, the other spiritual — conflicted between themselves, and tore my soul by their disagreement.

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Then I understood by experience in myself what I had read, how 'the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.' I was myself on both sides, but more in what I approved of in myself, than in what I condemned in myself. I was not more in what I condemned, because for the most part I allowed it unwillingly, rather than did it willingly."[745]

He most excellently expresses this conflict between grace and sin in the will in chapters 9-11, delivering those things which are more or less evident in the experience of those who have gone through this work. His fluctuations, his promises, his hopes and fears, the ground he gained and lost, the pangs of conscience and the travail of soul which he underwent in the new birth, are all graphically represented by him.

In this tumult and distress of the soul, God often quiets it by some suitable word of truth administered to the soul either in the preaching of the gospel, or by some other means disposed in his providence for the same end. In the midst of this storm and disorder, He comes and says, "Peace, be still;" Mar 4.39 for together with his word, he communicates some influence of his grace that will break the rebellious strength, and subdue the power of sin, and give the mind satisfaction in a full resolution for its everlasting relinquishment. So it was with Austin. When in the condition described, he was hurried up and down almost like a distracted person, while he suffered the terrors of the Lord, sometimes praying, sometimes weeping, sometimes alone, sometimes in the company of his friends, sometimes walking, and sometimes lying on the ground, he was, by an unusual occurrence, warned to take up a book and read.

The book next to him was that of Paul's Epistle. Taking and opening it up, the first place he fixed his eyes upon was Rom 13.13-14, "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not make provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts." Immediately upon reading these words, an end was put to his perplexing conflict. He found his whole soul, by the power of almighty grace, subdued wholly to the will of God, and fixed to a prevalent resolution to adhere to God with a relinquishment of sin, and with an assured composure on account of the success he would have in this through Jesus Christ. Immediately he declared what he had done, what had befallen him, first to his friend, and then to his mother; this proved to be the occasion of conversion to the one, and of inexpressible joy to the other. The end of the story deserves to be reported in his own words: [746]

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"Having read these verses, I would read no more, nor was there any need for me to do so; for at the end of that sentence — as if a light of peace or security had been infused into my heart — all darkness of doubts fled away. Marking the book with my finger in it, or by some other way, I shut it; and with a quiet countenance I declared to Alypius what was done. And upon this he also declared what was at work in him, of which I was ignorant. He desired to see what I had read. When I showed him, he looked further than I had read, nor did I know what followed. But it was this: 'Him that is weak in the faith, receive;' Rom 14.1 which he applied to himself, and declared it to me. Confirmed by this admonition, with a firm purpose, and suitable to his manners (in which he formerly excelled me greatly), he was joined to me without any turbulent delay. Upon this, we go in to my mother, and declare what was done — she rejoices. We make known the manner of it, how it was done — she exults and triumphs, and blesses you, O God, who are able to do for us more than we know how to ask or understand." Eph 3.20

The holy man expresses these things to bear witness, as he says, to "repress the swelling pride of mankind." And in the example of Alypius we have an instance of how variously God is pleased to effect this work in men, carrying some through strong convictions, deep humiliations, great distresses, and perplexing terrors of mind, before they come to peace and rest. He leads others gently and quietly, without any visible disturbances, to the saving knowledge of Himself by Jesus Christ.

(2.) A second thing which befalls men under this work of conviction, is a dread and fear as to their eternal condition. There is an apprehension of that wrath which is due for their sins, and threatened in the curse of the law to be inflicted on them.

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This fills them with afflicting anxieties of the mind, with dread and terror, consternation, and a humbling of their souls because of it. And what befalls the minds of men on this account is handled by some under the distinct names or titles of "legal sorrow," "servile fear," "attrition of mind," "compunction," "humiliation," and the like. Most of these things have been handled by modern divines. They have been thrown into a certain series and dependence on one another, with a disclosure of their nature and degrees, and how far they are required for sincere conversion and sound believing. So too, all of them are addressed by the schoolmen in their way, as they also were by many of the fathers before them. Therefore, the charge of "novelty" laid by some against the doctrine of these things, arises from an excessive mixture of ignorance and confidence. Therefore, whether all things that are delivered concerning these things is right or not, I am sure enough that the whole doctrine about them, as to its substance, is no newer than the gospel; and I am sure that it has been taught in all ages of the church. I will reduce what is needed to be received concerning conviction, to the ensuing heads:

[1.] Conviction of sin ordinarily comes by the law, either immediately, or by the light and truth derived from it; and so ordinarily accompanying it is a deep sense and apprehension of the eternal danger which the soul is liable to on account of the guilt of the sin of which it is convinced; for the law comes with its whole power upon the mind and conscience. Men may be partial in the law; but the law will not be partial. It not only convinces by its light, but at the same time, it also condemns by its authority; for what the law speaks, "it speaks to those who are under the law." Rom 3.19 It takes men under its power, and then, silencing them under sin, it speaks to them in great severity. This is called the coming of the commandment, and the slaying of a sinner, Rom 7.9.[747]

[2.] This apprehension will ordinarily ingenerate disquieting and perplexing affections in the minds of men; nor can it be otherwise where it is fixed and prevalent; such as —

1st. Sorrow for and shame about what they have done. Shame was the first thing in which conviction of sin revealed itself, Gen 3.7.[748] And sorrow always accompanies it. Hearing these things, "they were pierced with perplexing grief in their heart," Acts 2.37. Their eyes were opened to see the guilt and sense of sin, which pierced them through with dividing sorrow.

2dly. Fear of eternal wrath. This keeps the soul in bondage, Heb 2.15;[749] it is accompanied with torment. The person convinced in this way, believes the threatening of the law is true, and trembles at it. We have an eminent instance of it in our first parents, Gen 3.8-10.[750]

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3dly. Perplexing unsatisfactory inquiries after means and ways for deliverance out of this present distress, and from future misery. "What shall we do? What shall we do to be saved?" is the restless inquiry of such persons, Mic. 6.6-7; Acts 2.37, 16.30.

[3.] These things will assuredly put the soul to doing many duties, such as prayer for deliverance, abstinence from sin, or endeavors for a general change of life; in all of these and the like, this conviction produces and variously exercises its power.

[4.] We do not ascribe the effects that are meant, to the mere working of the passions of the minds of men upon the rational consideration of their state and condition; and yet these cannot be but grievous and afflictive. These things may be so proposed to men, and so pressed on them, that they will not be able to avoid their consideration and the conclusions which naturally follow from them. Yet they may not be in the least affected by them, as we see by experience. This is why we say, moreover, that the law or its doctrine, when the consciences of men are effectively brought under its power, is accompanied by a secret virtue from God. This is called a "spirit of bondage;" it causes a sense of the curse of the law to make a deep impression on the soul, to fill it with fear and dread, indeed, sometimes with horror and despair. The apostle calls this the "spirit of bondage to fear," Rom 8.15, and he declares at large how all those who are under the law — that is, under its convicting and condemning power — are in bondage; nor does the administration of the law lead to or engender anything but bondage, Gal 4.22-24.[751]

[5.] The substance of these things is ordinarily found in those who are converted to God when grown in the use of reason, and capable of impressions from external administrations. They are especially evident in the minds and consciences of those who have been engaged in any openly sinful course or practice. Yet no certain rule or measure of them can be prescribed as necessary in or to anyone prior to conversion. To evince the truth of this, two things may be observed:

1st. That anxieties, sorrows, dejections, dread, or fears, are not a duty for anyone; they are only those things which sometimes ensue or are immitted[752] into the mind upon that which is an indispensable duty: namely, a conviction of sin. They do not belong to the precept of the law, but to its curse. They are not part of what is required of us, but what is inflicted on us. There is a gospel sorrow and humiliation, after believing, that is a duty; and it is both commanded and has promises annexed to it; but legal sorrow is an effect of the curse of the law, and not of its command.

2dly. God is pleased to exercise a prerogative and sovereignty in this whole matter, and he deals with the souls of men in untold variety.

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Some he leads, by the gates of death and hell, to rest in his love — like the people of old were led through the waste and howling wilderness into Canaan. And he makes the paths of others plain and easy for them. Some walk or wander long in darkness; and in the souls of others, Christ is formed in the first gracious visitation.

[6.] There is, as was said, no certain measure or degree of these accidents or consequents of conviction to be prescribed to anyone as antecedently necessary to sincere conversion and sound believing; but these two things in general are certain:

1st. There is such a conviction of sin — that is, such a conviction of a state of sin, of a course of sin, of actual sins, against the light of natural conscience — that the soul is satisfied it is thereby liable to the curse of the law and the wrath of God. This much at least, God concludes and shuts up everyone under sin, on whom he will have mercy; for "every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God," Rom 3.19; Gal 3.22. Without this conviction, no man ever did, nor ever will, sincerely believe in Jesus Christ; for he calls none to him but those who in some measure are weary or thirsty, or in one way or other seek after deliverance. "The healthy," he tells us — that is, those who so conceive of themselves — "have no need of a physician;" they will neither inquire after him, nor care to go to him when they are invited to do so. See Isa 32.1-3.[753]

2dly. A due apprehension and resolved judgment that there is no way within the compass of a man's own contrivance to find out, no ability to make use of and walk in, no other way by God's appointment or approval, which will deliver the soul in or from its state and condition and from what it fears, except what is proposed in the gospel by Jesus Christ.

[7.] Where these things exist, the duty of a convinced person is —

1st, To inquire after and receive the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the righteousness of God in him, John 1.12. And in order to do this, he ought to —

(1st.) Own up to the sentence of the law under which he suffers, thus justifying God in his righteousness, and the law in its holiness, whatever the result of this dispensation may be for himself, Rom 3.19-20, 7.12-13;[754] for in this work, God intends to break the stubbornness of men's hearts, and to hide pride from them, Rom 3.4.[755]

(2dly.) Not hastily believe everything that proposes itself to him as a remedy or a means of relief, Mic. 6.6-7. The things which will present themselves in such a case, as means of relief, are of two sorts:

[1st.] That sort which the fears and superstitions of men have suggested, or will suggest. That which has given rise to all the false religions in the world, is nothing but a contrivance to satisfy men's consciences under conviction. To pass by Gentilism, this is the very life and soul of Popery.

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What is the meaning of the sacrifice of the mass, of purgatory, of pardons, penances, indulgences, abstinences, and countless similar things, if it is not to satisfy conscience of those who are perplexed with a sense of sin? Hence many among them, after great and outrageous wickednesses, take themselves to their highest monastic severity. The life and soul of superstition consists in endeavors to quiet and charm the consciences of men who are convicted of their own sin.

[2dly.] That sort which is pressed with great vehemence and plausibility, as suggested by the law itself, to seek legal righteousness by amending their life, as a way to escape the danger of its sentence. This is the sense of what the law says, as represented to a natural conscience. It proposes itself to the soul not only with great importunity, but with great advantages, to further its acceptance; for —

First, The matter of righteousness is unquestionably necessary; for without it, in its proper place and with respect to its proper end, there is no sincere conversion to God.

Secondly, It is looked at as the sense of the law, or as what will satisfy it.

But there is a deceit in all these things as to the proposed end. If any amendment of life is leaned on to that purpose, it will prove to be a broken reed, and it will pierce the hand of the one who rests on it.Isa 36.6 For although the law requires an abstinence from sin at all times, and so for the future (in a sinner, this is the amendment of life), it does not propose itself as something that will deliver any soul from the guilt of sin already contracted; and this is the state under consideration. Even if it wins the mind to accept its terms to that end or purpose, it can do no more, nor will it do less, than shut up the person under its curse.

2dly. It is the duty of persons in such a condition to beware of entangling temptations; such as,

(1st.) That they have not attained such a degree of sorrow for sin and humiliation as needed for those who are called to believe in Jesus Christ. There was, indeed, more reason to caution against temptations of this kind in former days, when preachers of the gospel dealt more severely — if not more sincerely — with the consciences of convinced sinners, than it is the manner of most now. But it is still possible that a mistake may lie in this: seeing that no such degrees of these things (as some may be troubled about) are prescribed for any such end, either in the law or in the gospel.

(2dly.) That those who persuade them to believe, do not know how great a sinner they are. Yet they know that Christ called the greatest sinners; and it is an undervaluation of the grace of Christ to suppose that the greatest sins should negate the effects of grace in anyone who sincerely comes to him.

FOURTHLY, The last thing, by which this work of conversion to God is completed, as to its outward means, is the ingenerating and acting of faith in God by Jesus Christ. This alone remains to be considered, in which all possible brevity and plainness will be employed; and I will comprise what I have to offer on this heading, in the ensuing observations:

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1. This is the proper and unique work of the gospel, and it has been so from the first giving of the promise. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," John 1.17; Rom 1.16; 1Pet 1.23; Jas 1.18; Eph 3.8-10.[756]

2. To this purpose it is necessary that the gospel — that is, its doctrine concerning redemption, righteousness, and salvation by Jesus Christ — be declared and made known to convinced sinners. And this is also an effect of sovereign wisdom and grace, Rom 10.13-15.[757]

3. The declaration of the gospel is accompanied by a revelation of the will of God with respect to the faith and obedience of those to whom it is declared. "This is the work of God" — the work which he requires at our hands — "that we believe on him whom he has sent," John 6.29. And this command of God to sinners, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for life and salvation, the gospel teaches us to press from the manifold aggravations which attend the sin of not complying with it: for as declared in this gospel, it is —

(1.) A rejection of the testimony of God, which he gives to his wisdom, love, and grace, with the excellence and certainty of the way of salvation for sinners by Jesus Christ — which is to make God a liar,1John 5.10; John 3.33.[758]

(2.) A contempt for love and grace, along with the way and means of their communication to lost sinners by the blood of the Son of God — which is the highest provocation that can be offered to the divine Majesty.

4. In the declaration of the gospel, the Lord Christ, in a special manner, is proposed as crucified and lifted up for the special object of our faith, John 3.14-15; Gal 3.1.[759] And this proposing of Christ includes in it an invitation to all convinced sinners to come to him for life and salvation, Isa 55.1-3, 65.1.[760]

5. The Lord Christ being proposed to sinners in the gospel, and their accepting or receiving him being urged on them, the end for which he is proposed is also declared. In general, this is to "save them from their sins," Mat 1.21, or from "the wrath to come," of which they are afraid, 1Thes 1.10. For the evangelical proposition of Christ includes —

(1.) That there is a way yet remaining for sinners by which they may escape the curse of the law and the wrath of God, which they have deserved, Psa 130.4; Job 33.24; Acts 4.12.[761]

(2.) That the foundation of these ways lies in an atonement made by Jesus Christ to the justice of God, and in the satisfaction made to His law for sin, Rom 3.25; 2Cor 5.21; Gal 3.13.[762]

(3.) That God is well pleased with this atonement, and His will is that we should accept and acquiesce in it, 2Cor 5.18-20; Isa 53.11-12; Rom 5.10-11.[763]

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6. It is proposed, and promised that through and upon their believing — that is, upon believing on Christ as proposed in the gospel, as the only way of redemption and salvation — convinced sinners will be pardoned, justified, and acquitted before God, discharged from the law against them, through the imputation to them of what the Lord Christ has done for them and suffered in their stead, Rom 8.1-4, 10.3-4; 1Cor 1.30-31; 2Cor 5.21; Eph 2.8-10.[764]

7. To prevail with and win over the souls of men so as to consent to receive Christ on the terms in which he is proposed — that is, to believe in him and trust to him as to what he is, and has done and suffered, and continues to do, for the pardon of sin, for life, and for salvation — the gospel is filled with arguments, invitations, encouragements, exhortations, and promises, all of which are designed to explain and declare the love, grace, faithfulness, and good-will of God in this. And the principal wisdom and skill of the ministers of the New Testament consists in the due management and improvement of these parts of the gospel.

8. Among these various ways or means of declaring himself and his will, God frequently causes some special word, promise, or passage to fix itself in the mind of a sinner; as we saw in the instance given before. By this, the soul is first excited to exert and act out the faith with which it is endowed by the effectual working of the Spirit of God, as described earlier. By this means, men are directed towards rest, peace, and consolation, in that variety of degrees which God is pleased to communicate these things.

9. This acting of faith in Christ, through the promise of the gospel, for pardon, righteousness, and salvation, is inseparably accompanied with — and faith is the root and infallible cause of — a universal engagement of the heart to all holy obedience to God in Christ. Along with this is a relinquishing of all known sin, necessarily producing a thorough change and reformation of life, and fruitfulness in obedience. For upon discovering the love of God in Christ, the promises by which it is exhibited to us are mixed with faith, and the soul of a poor sinner are filled with godly sorrow and shame for its former sins, and deeply humbled for them. So too, all of its faculties now being renewed and inwardly changed, it can no more refrain from the love of holiness — or from being engaged in a watchful course of universal obedience to God by those free acts which are proper to it — than a newborn can refrain from all acts of a natural life in movement, in a desire for food, and the like. The reproaches of some are therefore vain and foolish, who, living a worldly and profane life themselves, charge others with preaching a justification by faith alone in Christ Jesus, that leads to a neglect of holiness, righteousness, and obedience to God. It is such scoffers and fierce despisers of all that is good, who so earnestly plead this.

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Those of us[765] whom they openly attack, unanimously teach that any faith which does not purify the heart and reform the life — faith which is not fruitful in good works, which is not an effectual cause and means of repentance and newness of life — is not genuine; nor can it be pleaded for justification. Rather, it is an empty, dead faith;Jas 2.17 and if trusted to, it will eternally deceive the souls of men. All of us press the indispensable need for universal holiness, godliness, righteousness, or obedience to all the commands of God, on surer principles, with more cogent arguments, more clearly complying with the will, grace, and love of God in Christ, than any pretended to by those who ignorantly and falsely malign us as those who disregard them. And because we urge an obediential holiness which is not defective in any duty, either towards God or man, it contains in it that which is more sublime, spiritual, and heavenly than what they are either acquainted with or regard. This, in its proper place, will be made more fully apparent.

10. Those who were thus converted to God in the primitive times of the church, upon their confession or profession of faith in Christ, were admitted into church-society and participation in all its mysteries. And this being the common way by which any were added to the fellowship of the faithful, it was an effectual means of intense love among them all, without dissimulation,[766] on account of their joint interest in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I will close this discourse with one instance of this, given to us by Austin, in the conversion and admission into church-society of Victorinus, a Platonic philosopher, as he received the story from Simplicianus, by whom he was baptized:

"Finally, when the hour arrived for him to make a public profession of his faith – which at Rome those who are about to enter into your grace make from a platform in the full sight of the faithful people, in a set form of words learned by heart – the presbyters offered Victorinus the chance to make his profession more privately, for this was the custom for some who were likely to be afraid through bashfulness. But Victorinus chose rather to profess his salvation in the presence of the holy congregation. For there was no salvation in the rhetoric which he taught: yet he had professed that openly. Why, then, should he shrink from naming your Word before the sheep of your flock, when he had not shrunk from uttering his own words before the mad multitude? So then, when he ascended the platform to make his profession, everyone, as they recognized him, whispered his name one to the other, in tones of jubilation. Who was there among them that did not know him? And a low murmur ran through the mouths of all the rejoicing multitude: "Victorinus! Victorinus!" There was a sudden burst of exaltation at the sight of him, and suddenly they were hushed so that they might hear him. He pronounced the true faith with an excellent boldness, and all desired to take him to their very heart – indeed, by their love and joy they did take him to their heart. And they received him with loving and joyful hands." (lib. 8, cap. 2, par. 5).[767]

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. I will not reflect on them here.

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And this is the second great work of the Spirit of God in the new creation. This has been 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 to God, with the gradual preparation for it, and the accomplishment of it in the souls of men, is that subject which many practical divines of this nation have greatly insisted on and improved in their preaching and writings, to the great profit and edification of the church of God. But this whole doctrine, with all its declarations and applications, is now derided and exposed to scorn by some among us, even though it is known to have been the constant doctrine of the most learned prelates of the Church of England. And just as the doctrine is exploded[768] by them, so all experience of the work itself in the souls of men is decried as fanatical and enthusiastic.

To obviate the pride and wantonness of this filthy spirit, in the summary representation of Austin's work now given, I have confirmed the several instances of it, along with the experience of this great and holy man. Some of those by whom this doctrine and work are despised, are puffed up with a conceit of their excellence in the theatrical, skeptical faculty of these days. This moves them to a contempt for those who contradict them in the most importune [769] of their dictates. Yet if they were to swell themselves until they break, like the frog in the fable,[770] they would never prevail with their fondest admirers to be allowed to compete with the immortal wit, grace, and learning of that eminent champion of the truth and light of the age in which he lived.

Book IV.

Chapter I.

The nature of sanctification and gospel holiness explained.

Regeneration is the way by which the Spirit forms living members for the mystical body of Christ — It is carried on by sanctification — 1Thes 5.23 explained — God is the only author of our sanctification and holiness, as the God of peace —Sanctification described — A diligent inquiry into the nature of it, and of holiness, proved necessary — Sanctification is twofold: 1. By external dedication; 2. By internal purification — Holiness particular to the gospel and its truth — Not discernible to the eye of carnal reason — Hardly understood by believers themselves — It passes over into eternity — has a present glory in it — Is all that God requires of us, and in what sense — Promised to us — How we are to improve the command for holiness.

The second part of the work of the Holy Spirit, in order to complete and perfect the new creation, consists in the regeneration or conversion of God's elect, the nature and manner of which we described before.

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In the former work, the Spirit prepared a natural body for the Son of God, in which he was to obey and suffer according to God's will. So too in this latter work, he prepares for Christ a mystical body, or members who are spiritually living, by uniting them to the one who is their head and their life, Col 3.4. "For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ," 1Cor 12.12. Nor does the Spirit leave this work after beginning it, which we have addressed; but it also belongs to him to continue it, to preserve it, and to carry it on to perfection. And he does this in our sanctification, whose nature and effects we will inquire into next.

In his First Epistle to the Thessalonians, chap. 5, having closely compiled a great number of weighty, particular, evangelical duties, and annexed various motives and enforcements to them, our apostle closes all his holy prescriptions with a fervent prayer for them: 1Thes 5.23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and let your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ;" — or, as I would rather read the words, "And God himself, even the God of peace, sanctify you throughout, that your whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless." The reason for this is because all the graces and duties which he had enjoined them to, belonged to their sanctification which was their own duty, but it was not absolutely in their own power — it was a work of God in them and upon them. Therefore, so that they might be enabled for this, and might actually comply with his commands, he prays that God would thus sanctify them throughout.

He gives them assurance that this will be accomplished in them and for them, from the faithfulness (and consequently from the power and unchangeableness included in this) of the one who had undertaken to effect it: 1Thes 5.24, "Faithful is he that calls you, who also will do it." Now, because this assurance did not arise, nor was it taken, from anything that was peculiar to them, but merely from the consideration of the faithfulness of God himself, it is equal with respect to all those who are effectively called. They will all be infallibly sanctified throughout, and preserved blameless to the coming of Jesus Christ. This, therefore, being the great privilege of believers, and because their eternal safety absolutely depends on it, it requires our utmost diligence to search into the nature and necessity of it. This may be done from this and similar places in Scripture.

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And in this place —

1. The author of our sanctification, who alone is the author, is asserted to be "God." He is the eternal spring and only fountain of all holiness; there is nothing of sanctification in any creature except what is directly and immediately from him — there was not in our first creation. He made us in his own image. To suppose we can now sanctify or make ourselves holy is proudly to renounce and cast off our principal dependence upon him. We may as wisely and rationally contend that we do not have our being and our lives from God, as to contend that we do not have our holiness from him, when we have any. The proud opinions that educe holiness out of the principles of nature, are reduced to this. I know all men will pretend that holiness is from God; it was never denied by Pelagius himself. But many, with him, would have holiness be from God by way of nature, and not by special grace. It is this latter way which we plead for — and that which is from ourselves, or educed by any means outside our natural abilities, is not from God in that way. For as the author of grace, God and the best of corrupted nature, are opposed to each other, as we will further see afterward.

2. And therefore the author of our sanctification is emphatically expressed here as, "Even God himself." If he does not do it, no other can do it; it is not otherwise to be worked or effected. There is no other way by which it may be brought about, nor does it absolutely fall under the power or efficacy of any means whatsoever; rather, it must be worked by God himself. He does it of himself, from his own grace; by himself, or his own power; for himself, or his own glory.

3. And that is under this special consideration: that he is the "God of peace."

This title is ascribed to God, only by our apostle, and frequently: Rom 15.33, 16.20; 2Cor 13.11; Phi 4.9; Heb 13.20. If it were our present purpose to discourse concerning the general nature of peace, I might show how it comprehends all order, rest, and blessedness, and all that is in them. On this account, enclosing peace in this title for God, as its only possessor and author, is part of the glory of his sovereign diadem. Everything that is contrary to it is evil and of the evil one. Indeed, all that is evil is so, because of its contrariety to peace. Therefore, God may well be styled "The God of peace." But I may not stay to explain these things here, even though the words are so comprehensive and expressive of the whole work of sanctification, and of that holiness which is its effect. If I did, my whole discourse concerning sanctification would be founded on these things. What offers itself to our present design from this title, is the particular respect that this special property of God has to the work of our sanctification.

This is why he is said to sanctify us as the God of peace:

1. Because sanctification is a fruit and effect of that peace with himself which he has made and prepared for us by Jesus Christ; for he was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,2Cor 5.19

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destroying the enmity which entered by sin, and laying the foundation of eternal peace. It is from this that he will sanctify us, or make us holy — and without respect to this peace, God would no more sanctify us than he would sanctify the angels that have sinned, for whom there is no peace nor atonement made.

2. By the sanctification of our natures and persons, God preserves that peace with himself in its exercise, which he made and procured by the mediation of Christ; without this, peace could not be kept or continued. For in sanctification's duties and fruits, consist all those actings towards God which a state of reconciliation, peace, and friendship 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, sanctifies us. How this is done immediately by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of love and peace, and what the nature of this work consists in, are the things which must be more fully declared afterward. He is said here to sanctify us "universally and completely,"[771] carrying on the work until it comes to perfection; for two things are intended in that expression:

First, That our whole nature is the subject of this work, and not any one faculty or part of it.

Second, That just as the work itself is sincere and universal, communicating all parts of real holiness to our whole nature, so it is carried on to completeness and perfection.

The apostle expresses both of these in the ensuing words, as the end and design of his prayer for them, and as the effect of the work of grace which he prayed for. For first, he makes the subject of this sanctification our whole nature, which he distributes into our entire spirits, souls, and bodies; and second, the end of the whole is preserving us blameless in the peace of God to the coming of Christ — both of these will, immediately, be more fully spoken to. This is why —

SANCTIFICATION, as described here, is the immediate work of God by his Spirit upon our whole nature, proceeding from the peace made for us by Jesus Christ, by which, being changed into his likeness, we are kept entirely in peace with God, and are preserved unblamable, or in a state of gracious acceptance with him, according to the terms of the covenant, to the end.[772]

We must on many accounts, with utmost diligence, inquire and search into the nature of this work and its effect, which is our holiness, along with the necessity of them both. Both the importance of the truth itself, and the opposition that is made to it, render this necessary. Besides, we are declaring the special operations of the Holy Ghost.

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He is not originally designated "holy" from this particular work — as though He should be called "holy" merely because he is the author of holiness in all those who are made partakers of it (which we disproved before). And 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 those who believe. So I will take this for granted, even though some among us — who not only make a pretense of preaching holiness (whatever their practice may be), but reproach others as weakening its necessity — talk as if he had nothing in particular to do in the holiness which they plead for. For it is not news to encounter quaint and gilded discourses about holiness, intermixed with scoffing reflections on the work of the Holy Ghost in this. Therefore, in a special way, we are to attend to this work of his, lest we be found among the number of those who admit themselves, and teach their children, that "the Holy Ghost sanctifies all the elect of God," while they not only despise the work of holiness in themselves, but deride those who plead there is an interest in this holiness as an effect of the sanctification of the Spirit. For the world abounds with such fruits of secret atheism. But our principal duty in this world is to know correctly what it means to be holy, and to be holy indeed.

One thing we must premise to keep our ensuing discourse from ambiguity. And this is, that there is mention made in the Scripture of a twofold sanctification, and consequently of a twofold holiness.

The first is common to both persons and things, and it consists in their specific dedication, consecration, or separation to the service of God by His appointment, whereby they become holy. Thus the priests and Levites of old, the ark, the altar, the tabernacle, and the temple, were sanctified and made holy; indeed in all holiness whatsoever, there is a specific dedication and separation to God. But in the sense mentioned, this was solitary and alone. No more belonged to it than this sacred separation; nor was there any other effect of this sanctification.

There is a second kind of sanctification and holiness, in which this separation to God is not the first thing done or intended, but it is a consequence and effect of this separation. It is real and internal sanctification, by communicating a principle of holiness to our natures, attended with its exercise in acts and duties of holy obedience to God. This is what we will inquire after first; and how far believers are specifically separated and dedicated to God in this and by this, will be declared afterward.

As to what we must deliver concerning this, we will make way by the ensuing observations:

1. This whole matter of sanctification and holiness is specifically joined with and limited to the doctrine, truth, and grace of the gospel; for holiness is nothing but the implanting, writing, and realizing of the gospel in our souls.

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Hence it is termed in Eph 4.24, "The holiness of truth;" it is what the truth of the gospel ingenerates, and it consists in conformity to this truth. And the gospel itself is termed, Tit 1.1 "The truth which is according to godliness;" it is what declares the godliness and holiness which God requires. The prayer of our Savior for our sanctification also conforms to this: John 17.17, "Sanctify them in" (or by) "Your truth: your word is truth." And he sanctified himself for us, to be a sacrifice, so that "we might be sanctified in the truth." This alone is that truth which makes us free, John 8.32 — that is, free from sin and the law, and free for righteousness in holiness. It belongs neither to nature nor to the law, so as to proceed from them or be effected by them. Nature is wholly corrupted and contrary to holiness. The "law," indeed, for certain ends, "was given by Moses," but all "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." There neither is nor ever was in the world, nor ever will be, the least dram of holiness, except what, flowing from Jesus Christ, is communicated to us by the Spirit, according to the truth and promise of the gospel. There may be something like it, as to its outward acts and effects (at least some of them), something that may wear its livery[773] in the world, that is only the fruit of men's own endeavors in compliance with their convictions; but it is not holiness, nor is it of the same kind or nature as holiness.

And men are very apt to deceive themselves with this. It is the design of corrupted reason to debase all the glorious mysteries of the gospel, and all their concerns. There is nothing in the whole mystery of godliness — from its highest crown (which is the person of Christ, "God manifested in the flesh"), to the lowest and nearest effect of this grace— that corrupted reason does not labor to deprave, dishonor, and debase it. It would have the Lord Christ in his person, to be but a mere man; in his obedience and suffering, to be but an example; in his doctrine, to be confined to the capacity and comprehension of carnal reason; and in the holiness which he communicates by the sanctification of his Spirit, to be but that moral virtue which is common among men, as the fruit of their own endeavors.

In this, some will acknowledge that men are guided and directed to great advantage by the doctrine of the gospel, and excited to this by the motions of the Holy Ghost in the dispensation of that truth; but they will not allow anything else that is more excellent, or more mysterious. But these low and carnal imaginations are exceedingly unworthy of the grace of Christ, the glory of the gospel, the mystery of the recovery of our nature, and the healing of the wound that our nature received by the entrance of sin, along with the whole design of God in our restoration to a state of communion with himself.

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Moral virtue is indeed the best thing among men, of men. It far exceeds in worth, use, and satisfaction, all that the honors, powers, profits, and pleasures of the world can extend to. And it is admirable to consider what instructions are given by learned contemplative men among the heathen, concerning moral virtue: what expressions are made of its excellence, what praises of its use and beauty. The wisest of such men acknowledged that there was still something in virtue which they could only admire, and not comprehend. Very eminent instances of its practice were given in the lives and conduct of some of these men. Examples of their righteousness, moderation, temperance, and equanimity in all conditions, rise up at present to the shame and reproach of many who are called Christians. Yet as laudable as they are, they will be recalled at the last day as an aggravation of their condemnation. But to suppose that this moral virtue — whatever it is really in its own nature, or however advanced it is in the imaginations of men — is the same as that holiness of truth which believers receive by the Spirit of Christ, is to debase [evangelical holiness], overthrow it, and drive the souls of men from seeking an interest in it. Hence some Christians, who make a great pretense of friendship and respect for moral virtue, nonetheless hate, despise, and reproach what is really moral, pleasing themselves with an empty name or a withered carcass of virtue. It is in every way inferior to the righteousness of heathens as interpreted from their practice. And this, in the first place, should stir up our diligence in our inquiries after its true and real nature, so that we do not deceive ourselves with a false appearance of it, to our ruin.

2. It is our duty to inquire into the nature of evangelical holiness, as it is a fruit or effect in us of the Spirit of sanctification, because it is abstruse and mysterious, and indiscernible to the eye of carnal reason. We may speak of it in some sense as Job spoke of wisdom:

"Where does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept away from the fowls of heaven. Destruction and death say, 'We have heard the fame of this with our ears. God understands the way of this, and he knows its place...' And to man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding," Job 28.20-23, 28.

This is that wisdom whose ways, residence, and paths, are so hidden from the natural reason and understandings of men. No man, I say, by his mere sight and conduct, can rightly know and understand the true nature of evangelical holiness. And it is therefore no wonder that its doctrine is despised by many as an enthusiastic fancy. Wisdom is about the things of the Spirit of God; indeed, it is the principal effect of all his operations in us and towards us; and these "things of God no man knows, but the Spirit of God," 1Cor 2.11.

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It is by the Spirit alone that we are enabled to "know the things that are freely given to us by God," verse 12, as this is, if we ever receive anything from him in this world, or will do so to eternity. "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him." Comprehending these things is not the work of any of our natural faculties, but "God reveals them to us by his Spirit," verses 9, 10. Hence it often happens, as it did in the Jews and Pharisees of old, that those who are most zealous and industrious for a legal righteousness — walking in strict attendance to duties, in proportion to their light and convictions, pretending to be righteous, and bearing some resemblance to it — are the most fierce and implacable enemies of true evangelical holiness. They do not know it, and therefore they hate it; they have embraced something else in its place and stead, and therefore they despise and persecute it; as it befalls those who embrace error for truth in any kind.

3. Believers themselves are often greatly unacquainted with holiness, either as to their apprehension of its true nature, causes, and effects, or at least as to their own interest and concern in it. Just as, of ourselves, we do not know the things worked in us by the Spirit of God, so we seldom attend as we should to his instructing us in them. It may seem strange indeed, that because all believers are sanctified and made holy, they would not understand or apprehend what is worked in them and for them, and what abides with them. But, alas! How little we know of ourselves, of what we are, and where our powers and faculties come from, even in natural things! Do we know how the members of the body are fashioned in the womb? We are apt to seek after and give reasons for all things, and to describe the progress of the production of our natures from first to last, if not to satisfy ourselves, then to please and amuse others. For "vain man would be wise, though he is born like the wild ass's colt." Job 11.12 The best results of our consideration of this, is that of the psalmist:

"You, O Lord, have possessed my inward parts: you have covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are your works; and my soul knows that right well. My substance was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, and skillfully worked in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet imperfect, and in your book were written all my members,[774] which in continuance were fashioned when there was as yet none of them," Psa 139.13-16.

By diligent consideration of these things, we may obtain a firm foundation to stand on, in a holy admiration of the infinite wisdom and goodness of that sovereign Architect who has raised this fabric to his own glory; and whatever we attempt beyond that, is vanity and curiosity.

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How little we know of these souls of ours! Everything we do is by their powers and operations, which are consequential to their being. Now, these things are our own naturally — they dwell and abide with us; they are we, and we are they, and nothing else. Yet it is no easy thing for us to have a reflexive and intimate acquaintance with them. And is it strange if we are as much in the dark as to this new nature, this new creature, which comes from above, from God in heaven, and with which our natural reason has no acquaintance? It is new, it is wonderful; it is a supernatural work, and it is known only by supernatural revelation.

Besides, there are other things which pretend to be this gospel holiness and are not, by which unspeakable multitudes are deluded and deceived. With some, any reformation of life and abstinence from flagitious sins,[775] along with the performance of the common duties of religion, is all they suppose is required for this part of their duty. Others contend with vehemence to substitute moral virtues for it, though they do not know what they mean by it. And there is a work of the law which, in its internal and external fruits, in the works of righteousness and duties, is hardly to be distinguished from it, and then only by spiritual light and measures. This also adds to the difficulty of rightly understanding it, and should add to our diligent inquiry into it.

4. We must also consider that holiness is not confined to this life, but passes over into eternity and glory. Death has no power over it, to destroy it or divest us of it; for —

(1.) Its acts are indeed transient, but its fruits abide forever in their reward. Those who "die in the Lord rest from their labors, and their works follow them," Rev 14.13. "God is not unrighteous to forget their labor of love," Heb 6.10. There is no effect or fruit of holiness, not the least, not even giving a cup of cold water to a disciple of Christ in the name of a disciple, that will not be held in everlasting remembrance, and abide forever in its eternal reward. Nothing will be lost, but all its fragments will be gathered up and kept safe forever. Everything else, however specious[776] it is in this world, will be burnt up and consumed, as hay and stubble;1Cor 3.12 — when the least, the lowliest, the most secret fruit of holiness, will be gathered as gold and silver, durable substance, into God's treasury, and become a part of the riches of the inheritance of the saints in glory. Let no soul fear the loss of any labor, in any of the duties of holiness, in the most secret contest against sin, for inward purity, for outward fruitfulness; in the mortification of sin, resistance of temptations, improvement of grace; in patience, moderation, self-denial, contentment — all that you know and what you do not know, will be revived, recalled, and abide eternally in your reward.

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Our Father, who now "sees in secret," will one day reward openly; and the more we abound in these things, the more God will be glorified in the recompense of reward. But this is not all that I intend.

(2.) It abides forever, and passes over into glory in its principle or nature. The love with which we now adhere to God, and by which we act the obedience of faith towards the saints, does not fail; it does not end when glory comes on, but is part of it, 1Cor 13.8.[777] It is true, some gifts will be done away as useless in a state of perfection and glory, as the apostle discusses there; and some graces will cease, as to some special acts and particular exercise of them, such as faith and hope, so far as they respect things that are unseen and future; — but all those graces by which holiness is constituted, and in which it consists, as to the substance of them, as they contain the image of God, as we are united and adhere to God in Christ by them, will abide forever in their present nature, improved into perfection. In our knowledge of them, therefore, we have our principal insight into our eternal condition in glory; and just as this is a firm foundation of our consolation, so it is a part of our highest joy in this world. Is it not a matter of unspeakable joy and refreshment, that these poor bodies we carry about us, after they have been made a prey to death, dust, worms, and corruption, will be raised and restored to life and immortality, freed from pain, sickness, weakness and weariness, and vested with those qualities, in conformity to Christ's glorious body, which we do not yet understand? It is also true, that these souls which now animate and rule in us, will be delivered from all their darkness, ignorance, vanity, instability, and alienation from spiritual and heavenly things. But this is not all. Those poor low graces, which now live and are acting in us, will be continued, preserved, purified, and perfected; but in their nature, they will be the same as they are now, as our souls and bodies will be.

That love by which we now adhere to God as our highest good; that faith by which we are united to Christ, our everlasting head; that delight in any of the ways or ordinances of God in which he is enjoyed, as he has promised his presence in them; that love and good will which we have for all those in whom the Spirit resides, and on whom the image of Christ abides; with the entire principle of spiritual life and holiness, which has now begun in any of us — will be completely purified, enhanced, perfected, and pass into glory. That very holiness which we attain here, those inclinations and dispositions, those frames of mind, those powers and abilities in obedience and adherence to God, which contend here with the weight of their own weakness and imperfection, and with the opposition that is continually made against them by the body of death that is utterly to be abolished, will be gloriously perfected into immutable habits, unchangeably acting our souls in the enjoyment of God.

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And this also manifests of how much concern it is to us to be acquainted with its doctrine, and how much more we are to be really interested in it. Indeed —

5. There is spiritual and heavenly glory in it in this world. From this, the church (the "King's daughter") is said to be "all glorious within," Psa 45.13. Her inward adorning with the graces of the Spirit, making her beautiful in holiness, is called "glory;" and so it is. So also the progress and increase of believers in it, is called being "changed from glory to glory," by our apostle (2Cor 3.18) — from one degree of glorious grace to another. This holiness is put upon us by the free grace of God; and as such, it is our only beauty in his sight, next to the loveliness of the righteousness of Christ — thus it has a real spiritual glory in it. It is the first-fruits of heaven. And as the apostle argues concerning the Jews, that if the "first-fruits" were holy, then the whole lump is holy, so too on the other side, if the whole "weight" (as he calls it) and fullness of our future enjoyment is glory, then we are the first-fruits in their measure also.

There is in this holiness, as we will see afterward, a ray of eternal light, a principle of eternal life, and the entire nature of that love by which we will eternally adhere to God. The divine nature, the new immortal creature, the life of God, the life of Christ, are all comprised in it. It represents to God the glory of his own image renewed in us; and it represents to the Lord Christ the fruits of his Spirit and the effect of his mediation, in which he sees the travail of his soul, and is satisfied.Isa 53.11 There is therefore nothing more to be abhorred than those carnal, low, and unworthy thoughts which some men vent about this glorious work of the Holy Spirit, who would have it consist entirely in a legal righteousness or moral virtue.

6. This is what God indispensably requires of us. We must put off the full prosecution of this consideration until our arguments for the necessity of it, which will ensue in their proper place. At present I will show that God not only indispensably requires holiness in all believers, but also that this is all that he requires or expects from them; for it comprises the whole duty of man. And this surely renders it necessary for us to know both what it is, and also to diligently apply ourselves to obtaining an assured participation in it. For what servant who has any sense of his relationship and duty, if he is satisfied that his master requires only one thing of him, would not endeavor to be acquainted with it and perform it? Some indeed say that their holiness (such as it is) is the chief or only design of the gospel. If they mean that it is the first and principal design of God in and by the gospel, not only as to its preceptive part, but also as to its doctrinal and promissory parts — those from which it is principally and emphatically designated — then it is a fantasy.

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God's great and first design, in and by the gospel, is to eternally glorify himself, his wisdom, goodness, love, grace, righteousness, and holiness, by Jesus Christ, Eph 1.5-6.[778] And in order to attain this great and supreme end, God has designed the gospel; and he designs by the gospel (which gives the gospel its design) —

(1.) To reveal his love and grace for lost sinners, with the way it is communicated through the mediation of his Son incarnate, as the only means by which He will be glorified, and by which they may be saved, Acts 26.18.

(2.) To prevail with men — in and by the dispensation of its truth, and the encouragement of its promises — to renounce their sins and all other expectations of relief or satisfaction; and to take themselves by faith to that way of life and salvation which it declares to them, 2Cor 5.18-21; Col 1.25-28.[779]

(3.) To be the means and instrument of conveying to them, and giving them a title to and right in, that grace and mercy, that life and righteousness, which is revealed and tendered to them by the gospel, Mark 16.16.[780]

(4.) To be the way and means of communicating to the elect the Spirit of Christ, with grace and strength, enabling them to believe and receive the atonement, Gal 3.2.[781]

(5.) Hereby to give them union with Christ as their spiritual and mystical head; and also to fix their hearts and souls, in their choicest acts — in their faith, trust, confidence, and love — immediately upon the Son of God, as incarnate, and as their mediator, John 14.1.[782]

Therefore, the first and principal end of the gospel towards us is to invite and encourage lost sinners to faith in, and approval of, the way of grace, life, and salvation by Jesus Christ. Without first complying with this, the gospel has nothing more to do with sinners, but leaves them to justice, the law, and themselves. But now, upon supposing these things, and giving glory to God by faith in them, the whole of what God requires of us in the gospel by way of duty is this: that we should be holy, and abide in the use of those means by which holiness may be attained and improved in us. For if he requires anything else of us, it must be on one of these other accounts:

(1.) To make atonement for our sins; or,

(2.) To be our righteousness before him; or,

(3.) To merit life and salvation by it; or,

(4.) To supererogate[783] on behalf of others.

No other end can be thought of which God would require of us, besides the true ends of holiness. And so, all false religion in the world leans on a supposition that God requires something of us with respect to these other ends.

But —

(1.) He requires nothing of us (which we had all the reason in the world to expect that he would) to make atonement or satisfaction for our sins, that might compensate the injuries we have done him by our apostasy and rebellion.

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For we had multiplied sins against him, lived in enmity and opposition to him, and contracted inexcusable and immeasurable debts upon our own souls. Terms of peace now being proposed to us, who would not think that the first thing required of us would be that we should make some kind of satisfaction to divine justice for all our enormous and heinous provocations? Indeed, who is there that naturally thinks otherwise? So this man apprehended, who was contriving a way in his own mind, how he might come to an agreement with God:

Mic. 6.6-7, "With what will I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Will I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Will I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"

This or something of its nature seems to be a very reasonable inquiry for a guilty self-condemned sinner, when he first entertains thoughts of reaching an agreement with the holy sin-avenging God. This was the foundation of all that cruel and expensive superstition which the world was in bondage to for so many ages. Mankind generally thought that the principal thing required of them in religion was to atone and pacify the wrath of the divine Power, and to compensate for what had been done against Him. From this came their sacrifices of hecatombs[784] of beasts, of mankind, of their children and of themselves, as I declared elsewhere. And the same principle is still deep-rooted in the minds of convinced sinners. And this has founded many an abbey, monastery, college, and alms-house. For the priests who set it to work, always shared deeply in the fruits of this superstition. But it is quite otherwise in the gospel. There is declared and tendered to sinners an absolute free pardon of all their sins, without any satisfaction or compensation made on their part, that is, by themselves — rather, it is on account of the atonement made for them by Jesus Christ. And all attempts or endeavors after works or duties of obedience that are in any respect done to satisfy God for sin, or to be meritorious for pardon, subvert and overthrow the whole gospel.[785] This is why, in answer to the inquiry mentioned, the reply in the prophet is that God looks for none of these things. All such contrivances were wholly vain: "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" Mic. 6.8. This last expression comprises the whole of our covenant obedience, Gen 17.1, just as the two former expressions are eminent and particular instances of it.

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(2.) God requires nothing of us by way of righteousness for our justification for the future. We might also have justly expected that he would require this of us; for we must have righteousness, or we cannot be accepted by him. And here also, many are at a loss. They resolve that it is absurd and inconsistent to think of peace with God without some righteousness of their own, for which they may be justified before him. Rather than forego that understanding, they let go of all other thoughts of peace and acceptance. "Being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they go about to establish their own righteousness, and do not submit themselves to the righteousness of God." Nor will they acquiesce in it, "that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes," Rom 10.4. But so it is: God does not require this of us in the gospel, for we are "justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," Rom 3.24. We "therefore conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law," Rom 3.28. So also, Rom 8.3-4.[786] Nor is there any mention in the whole gospel of God's requiring a righteousness in us on account of which we should be justified before him, or in his sight. For the justification by works mentioned in James, consists in evidencing and declaring our faith by them.Jas 2.21-23

(3.) God does not require anything of us by which we should purchase or merit for ourselves life and salvation: for "by grace are we saved through faith; not of works, lest any man should boast," Eph 2.8-9. God saves us neither by nor for the" works of righteousness which we have done," but "according to his mercy," Tit 3.5. So that even though, on the one side, the "wages of sin is death" — justice being proportionate between sin and punishment —there is none between our obedience and our salvation. And therefore "eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord," Rom 6.23. God therefore requires nothing at our hands under this notion or consideration, nor is it possible that in our condition any such thing should be required of us. For whatever we can do, is due beforehand and on other accounts; and so it can have no prospect to merit what is to come. Who can merit anything by simply doing his duty? Our Savior so plainly proves the contrary, that none can doubt it any more than they can doubt his truth and authority, Luke 17.10.[787]

Nor can we do anything that is acceptable to Him except what is worked in us by his grace. This overthrows the whole nature of merit, which requires that whatever we would do to deserve something from another, it must in every way be our own, and not his more than ours. Nor is there any proportionality between our duties and the reward of the eternal enjoyment of God. For these duties are entirely weak, imperfect, and tainted with sin, so that none of them is able to make good its own station for any end or purpose. And besides this, in the strictness of divine justice, they come altogether infinitely short of the desert of an eternal reward by any rule of divine justice.

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And if anyone says,

"This merit for our works does not depend on, nor is it measured by, strict justice, but wholly by the gracious condescension of God, who has appointed and promised to reward them,"

I answer, first, that this perfectly overthrows the whole nature of merit; for the nature of merit consists entirely and absolutely in this: that "to him that works, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt," Rom 4.4. And these two are contrary and inconsistent; for what is "by grace is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace;" and what is "of works is no more of grace, otherwise work is no more work," Rom 11.6. Those who would found our merit in the grace of God, endeavor to unite and reconcile those things which God has everlastingly separated and opposed.

And I say, secondly, That although God freely, graciously, and bountifully rewards our duties of obedience, and on account of his covenant and promise he is said to be (and he is) righteous in doing so, yet he declares everywhere in Scripture that what he does is an act of mere grace in himself, which has no respect to anything except the interposition and mediation of Jesus Christ. In this sense, in the gospel God requires nothing at all of us.

(4.) Much less does God require anyone to do something that is unnecessary to the obedience they personally owe Him, which may yet somehow, by their supererogation in this, redound to the advantage and benefit of others. This monstrous fiction, which has outdone all the Pharisaism of the Jews, is engaged by the church of Rome, as a pretense for the piety, or rather covering the impiety, of their votaries.[788] But seeing that those who pretend to these works are but flesh, they cannot on their own account be "justified in the sight of God." Gal 3.11 And so it is extreme pride and cursed self-confidence for them to undertake to help others by the merit of those works, whose worth they are not in need of.[789] Concerning these works, it will be said to them one day, "Who has required these things at your hands?" Isa 1.12

But now, because God requires none of these four things from us, nothing with respect to any of these ends, the perverseness of our minds by nature is such that many think God requires nothing else of us, or nothing except with respect to one of these ends. Nor can they conceive in their hearts why they should perform any duty towards God unless it is with regard to these things.

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If they can do anything by which to make some recompense for their past sins (at least in their own minds and consciences), anything by which to procure acceptance with God and his approval of their state and condition, then they suppose they have something which may quicken and animate their endeavors.[790] Without these considerations, holy obedience is a lifeless and useless thing to them.

Others will labor and take pains, both in outward mortification of sin, and profuse munificence[791] in the way of superstitious charity, if they are persuaded, or they can persuade themselves, that these will merit eternal life and salvation for them without being much beholden to the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Indeed, all that has the face or pretense of religion in the Papacy consists in a supposition that everything which God requires of us, is with respect to these ends of atonement, justification, merit, and supererogation. They apply to this all that remains of the ordinances of God among them; and all their own inventions are managed with the same design.

But by these things, the gospel and the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, is made of no effect. In this, I say then, lies the express opposition that exists between the "wisdom of God" in the mystery of the gospel, and the "wisdom of the flesh," or our carnal reason. God, in dealing with us by the gospel, takes it upon his own grace and wisdom to provide an atonement for our sins, and a righteousness by which we may be justified before him, and the bestowing of eternal life upon us — all in and by the one who, of God, is "made to us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption." 1Cor 1.30 But along with this, he still indispensably requires holiness and universal obedience from us for the ends that will be declared afterward.

This way of salvation, thinks the wisdom of the flesh, or our carnal reason, is mere "foolishness;" as our apostle testifies in 1Cor 1.18, 23; but it is such a foolishness that it is "wiser than men," verse 25 — that is, it is a way that is so excellent and full of divine wisdom, that men are not able to comprehend it. This is why, in opposition to this way, carnal reason concludes either that what God requires of us is to be done with respect to the ends mentioned (some one or other of them, or all of them together), or else it is no great matter whether it is done or not. Nor can the flesh discern what use our holiness or obedience to God would be, if it does not serve these purposes. It has no regard for the need to conform to God, to have his image renovated in us before we are brought to enjoy him in glory, no regard for the authority of his commands or for his wisdom, no thought that he has appointed the way of holiness and obedience as the means of expressing our thankfulness, and of glorifying him in the world, and of coming to eternal life.

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But the first true saving light that shines into our souls by the gospel from Jesus Christ, begins to undeceive us in this matter. There is no greater evidence of our receiving an evangelical baptism, or of being baptized into the spirit of the gospel, than the clear compliance of our minds with the wisdom of God in this. When we find such constraining motives for holiness upon us, that they will not allow the least disregard of our souls for universally attending to it, based purely on the ends of the gospel, without respect to those ends now discarded, it is an evidence that the wisdom of God has prevailed against the wisdom of the flesh in our minds.

This is why holiness and its fruits, with respect to their proper ends (to be declared afterward), is all that God requires of us. He declares this in the tenor of his covenant with Abraham,

Gen 17.1, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be perfect;"

In other words, "This is all that I require of you, namely, your holy obedience; for all other things in which you are concerned, I take it upon my own almighty power or all-sufficiency." As he says elsewhere, the "whole of man is to fear God and keep his commandments." Ecc 12.13 And the consideration of this, taken singly and by itself, is sufficient for all those who have any regard for God, or their own eternal welfare, to convince them of what importance these things are to them.

7. Yet we are not left in this matter merely under the authority of God's command, with an expectation of our compliance with it from our own ability and power. For God has moreover promised to sanctify us, or to work this holiness in us, the consideration of which will give us yet a nearer look into its nature. God who requires sanctification of us, knows that we do not have it of ourselves. When we were in our best condition by nature, in the state of original holiness, vested with the image of God, we did not preserve it. And so, is it likely that now, in the state of lapsed and depraved nature, it is in our own power to restore ourselves, to re-introduce the image of God into our souls, and do it in a far more eminent manner than it was created by God at first? What was the need for all that contrivance of infinite wisdom and grace, for the reparation of our nature by Jesus Christ, if holiness (in which our reparation consists) is in our own power, and can be educed out of the natural faculties of our souls? No greater fantasy can befall the minds of men than to think that defiled nature is able to cleanse itself; or that depraved nature is able to rectify itself; or that we who have lost that image of God which he created in us, could create it again in ourselves by our own endeavors. This is why, when God commands and requires us to be holy, he commands us to be what we are not by nature and of ourselves; and not only so, but what we do not have the power to attain to of ourselves. Therefore, whatever is absolutely in our own power is not of that holiness which God requires of us. For if we can do it ourselves, there is neither necessity nor reason why God should promise to work it in us by his grace.

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And to say that what God promises to work, he will not actually work or effect himself, but will only persuade and prevail with us to do it ourselves, is (through the pride of unbelief) to defy the truth and grace of God, and to adorn our own righteousness and power with their spoils. Now, God has multiplied his promises to this purpose. And so we will need to recall only some of them for instance: Jer 31.33, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be my people." Jer 32.39-40, "I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they will not depart from me." Eze 36.26, 27, "I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments, and do them." Eze 36.25, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness." Verse 29, "I will also save you from all your uncleannesses."

The whole of our sanctification and holiness is comprised in these promises. To be sanctified, or to be holy, is to be cleansed from the defilements of sin, whatever they are. It is to have a heart that is inclined, disposed, and enabled to fear the Lord always; and to walk in all his ways and statutes accordingly; with an internal habitual conformity of the whole soul to the law of God. And God promises to directly work all this in us, and to accomplish it himself. It is with faith in these promises, and for their fulfillment, that the apostle prays for the Thessalonians as we observed at our introduction, that "the God of peace himself would sanctify them throughout," by which "their whole spirits, souls, and bodies, might be preserved blameless to the coming of Jesus Christ." And hence, what we observed before is evident: that what is absolutely in our own power is not of the nature of, nor does it necessarily belong to holiness, whatever it may be. The best of the intellectual or moral habits of our minds, which are but the natural improvement and exercise of our faculties, are not nor can they be our holiness; nor do the best of our moral duties, as merely and only moral, belong to this. We understand these moral habits and duties to be the powers, faculties, or abilities of our souls as they are exercised with respect and in obedience to the commands of God; and as they are excited, persuaded, and guided by outward motives, rules, arguments, and considerations. Plainly, what this refers to is all the power that we have of ourselves to obey the law of God, and all that we do in the pursuit and exercise of that power, for any reasons, motives, or considerations whatsoever. And all of these may be reduced to the fear of punishment and the hope of reward, along with some present satisfaction of mind on account of the ease of our conscience within, or our enhanced reputation without, whether in abstinence from sin, or the performance of our moral duties. But these are not that holiness which we inquire after.

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And the reason is plain: because those things are not worked in us by the power of the special grace of God in the pursuit of the special promise of the covenant, as all true holiness is. If any would say that these are so worked in us that they expressly change their nature: and thereby those powers would no longer be natural, but supernatural; and those duties would no longer be merely moral, but evangelical and spiritual — that would be to grant all that we contend for. Thus, what men call "moral virtue" is so far from being the whole of internal grace or holiness, that if it is no more than this, it does not belong to holiness at all. And this is because it is not being effected in us by the special grace of God, according to the tenor and promise of the covenant.

We may divert here a little, to consider what the frame of our minds ought to be in the pursuit of holiness with respect to these things — namely, what regard we ought to have to the command on the one hand, and to the promise on the other — to our own duty, and to the grace of God. Some would separate these things as inconsistent with each other. A command, they suppose, leaves no room for a promise, at least not such a promise that God would take it upon himself to work in us what the command requires of us. And a promise, they think, removes all the influencing authority of the command. "If holiness is our duty, then there is no room for grace in this matter; and if it is an effect of grace, then there is no place for duty." But all these arguments are a fruit of the wisdom of the flesh mentioned before; and we have disproved them before. The "wisdom that is from above" teaches us other things. It is true, our works and grace are opposed in the matter of justification, as utterly inconsistent with each other: if it is of works then it is not of grace; and if it is of grace, then it is not of works, as our apostle argues in Rom 11.6. But our duty and God's grace are nowhere opposed in the matter of sanctification; indeed, the one absolutely supposes the other. Nor can we perform our duty in this without the grace of God; nor does God give us this grace for any other end than to rightly perform our duty. The person who would deny either that God commands us to be holy by way of duty, or that he promises to work holiness in us by way of grace, may reject the whole Bible with as much modesty. We are therefore to have a due regard for both of these if we intend to be holy. And,

(1.) Our regard for the command consists in three things —

[1.] That our consciences always get affected with the authority of it, as it is the command of God. This must be enlarged on afterward. Where this is not so, there is no holiness. Our holiness is our obedience; and the formal nature of obedience arises from its respect for the authority of the command.

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[2.] That we see and understand the reasonableness, the equity, the advantage of the command. Our service is a reasonable service; the ways of God are equitable, and there is great reward in keeping his commands. If we do not judge this way, if we do not rest in this, and are not filled by it with indignation against everything within or without us that opposes it or rises up against it, then whatever we may do to comply with it in the way of duty, we are not holy.

[3.] That upon this, we love and delight in it, because it is holy, just, and good; because the things it requires are upright, equitable, easy, and pleasant to the new nature, without any regard to the false ends uncovered before. And,

(2.) We have a due regard for the promise to the same end,

[1.] When, we walk in a constant sense of our own inability to comply with the command even once from any power in ourselves, for we have no sufficiency in ourselves; our sufficiency is of God. As for someone who is otherwise minded, his heart is lifted up.

[2.] When we adore that grace which has provided help and relief for us. Seeing that without the grace promised, we could never have attained the least part or degree of holiness, and seeing that we could never deserve the least dram of that grace, how we should then adore and continually praise that infinite bounty which has freely provided us this supply!

[3.] When we exercise faith in prayer and in expectation on the promise for supplies of grace, enabling us to holy obedience. And,

[4.] When we have special regard for this with respect to special temptations and particular duties. When on all such occasions we do not satisfy ourselves only with a general regard for the promise, but we exercise faith in particular on it for aid and assistance, then we regard it in a due manner.

8. To come still nearer to our principal design, I say it is the Holy Ghost who is the immediate and particular sanctifier of all believers, and the author of all holiness in them. I suppose I do not need to insist on the confirmation of this assertion in general. I have proved before that the Spirit is the immediate dispenser of all divine grace, or the immediate operator of all divine gracious effects in us, of which this is the chief effect. Besides, it is such an avowed and admitted principle among all those who are called Christians — namely, that the Holy Ghost is the sanctifier of all God's elect — that it is not questioned; and so it need not be further proved in general. Those who are less experienced in these things may consult Psa 51.10-12; Eze 11.19, 36.25-27; Rom 8.9-14; 1Cor 6.11; 1Pet 1.2; Isa 4.4, 44.3-4; Tit 3.4-5.[792] But we are to inquire into the nature and manner of the Spirit's work in this sanctification, with the effect produced by it. And because this belongs to our general design of declaring the nature, power, and efficacy of all the gracious, divine operations of the Holy Spirit, it will acquaint us in particular with that work and its fruits, in which we are so highly concerned.

Chapter II.

Sanctification is a progressive work.

Sanctification described, with the nature of the work of the Holy Spirit in this; which is progressive — The way and means by which holiness is increased in believers, especially by faith and love, whose exercise is required in all duties of obedience; and also those graces whose exercise is occasional — The growth of holiness expressed in an allusion to that of plants, with an insensible progress — Renders grace in this to be greatly admired; and is discerned in the corresponding work of the Spirit in sanctification and supplication — Objections against the progressive nature of holiness are removed.

Having passed through the consideration of the general concerns of the work of sanctification, I will, in the next place, give a description of it, and then explain it more particularly in its principal parts. And I will do this only under this express caution: that I do not hope or design at the same time to represent the life, glory, and beauty of it, nor to comprise all things that eminently belong to it; I will only set up some way-marks that may guide us in our progress, or future inquiry into the nature and glory of it. And so I say that —

SANCTIFICATION is an immediate work of the Spirit of God on the souls of believers, purifying and cleansing 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 to God, according to the tenor and terms of the new covenant, by virtue of the life and death of Jesus Christ.[793]

Or more briefly: It is the universal renovation of our natures by the Holy Spirit into the image of God, through Jesus Christ.

Hence it follows that our holiness, which is the fruit and effect of this work as terminated in us, comprises the renewed principle or image of God worked in us; and thus it consists in a holy obedience to God by Jesus Christ, according to the terms of the covenant of grace, from the principle of a renewed nature. Our apostle expresses the whole more briefly yet — namely, He that is in Christ Jesus is a new creature, 2Cor 5.17; for he expresses in this both the renovation of our natures, the endowment of our natures with a new spiritual principle of life and operation, with actings towards God that are suitable to this new creature. I will take up the first general description of it, and in the consideration of its parts, I will give some account of the nature of the work and its effects. And then I will distinctly prove and confirm the true nature of it, in which it is opposed or called into question.

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1. It is, as proven before and confessed by all, the work in us of the Spirit of God. It is our renovation by the Holy Ghost, by which we are saved. And it is a real, internal, powerful, physical work, as we abundantly proved before, and will more fully confirm afterward. He does not make us holy only by persuading us to be holy. He does not just require us to be holy, propose motives for holiness, convict us of the necessity of holiness, and thereby excite us to pursue and attain it — though he does this also, by the word and its ministration. It is too high an impudence for anyone to pretend to own the gospel, and yet 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 the Holy Ghost in this. But what is it that they really ascribe to him? They ascribe merely the exciting our own abilities, aiding and assisting us in and to the exercise of our own native power. When all is done, this leaves the work our own and not his, and the glory and praise of it must be ascribed to us. But we already sufficiently proved that the things promised by God, and effected, are really worked by the exceeding greatness of the power of the Spirit of God; and this will be made still more particularly apparent afterward.

2. This work of sanctification differs from the work of regeneration, just as it does on other accounts, but especially on account of the way it is worked. 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; everyone in the world is absolutely so, or not so, and that is equally, even though there are degrees in their state for other reasons. But this work of sanctification is progressive, and it allows for degrees. One may be more sanctified and more holy than another, who is yet truly sanctified and truly holy. It is begun at once, and carried on gradually. This observation is of great importance, and if rightly weighed, it will contribute much light to the nature of the whole work of sanctification and holiness. And so, I will divert in this chapter to such an explanation and confirmation of it, that it may give an understanding and furtherance in this.

In the Scripture, an increase and growth in sanctification or holiness is frequently enjoined of us, and frequently promised to us. So the apostle Peter says by way of command, 2Pet 3.17-18, "Do not fall," do not be thrown down, "from your own steadfastness; but grow," or increase, "in grace." It is not enough to not decay in our spiritual condition, or to not be diverted and carried away from a steady course in obedience by the power of temptations; but what is required of us is an endeavor after improvement, an increase, a thriving in grace — that is, in holiness.

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And compliance with this command is what our apostle commends in 2Thes 1.3 [794] — namely, the exceeding growth of their faith, and the abounding in their love; that is, the thriving and increasing of those graces in them, which is called "increasing with the increase of God," Col 2.19;[795] or with the increase in holiness which God requires, accepts, and approves, by supplies of spiritual strength from Jesus Christ our head.

The work of holiness, at its beginning, is like a seed cast into the earth — namely, the seed of God, by which we are born again. And we know how seed that is cast into the earth grows and increases. Being variously cherished and nourished, its nature is to take root and spring up, bringing forth fruit. So it is 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 nourished and cherished there — it takes root and produces fruit. And both of these — the first planting and the increase of it — are equally from God by his Spirit. "He that begins this good work also performs it until the day of Jesus Christ," Phi 1.6. And he does this in two ways:

FIRST, By increasing and strengthening those graces of holiness which we have received and have been engaged in exercising. There are some graces whose exercise does not depend on any outward occasions; but in their actual exercise, they are absolutely necessary to the least degree of the life of God: such are faith and love. No man does or can live to God, except in the exercise of these graces. Whatever duties men may perform towards God, if they are not enlivened by faith and love, then they do not belong to that spiritual life by which we live to God. And these graces are capable of degrees, and so they are capable of increase. For so we read expressly about little faith Mat 14.31 and great faith,Mat 8.10 weak faithRom 14.1 and strong faith.Rom 4.20 Both are true faith and they are the same in their substance, but they differ in degrees. So also there is fervent love,1Pet 4.8 and love that is comparatively cold.Mat 24.12 These graces, therefore, in carrying on the work of sanctification, are gradually increased. So the disciples asked our Savior to increase their faith, Luke 17.5 — that is, to add to its light, confirm it in its assent, multiply its acts, and make it strong against assaults, so that it might work more effectively in difficult duties of obedience. They had a special regard for this, as evident from the context, for they pray for this increase of faith on the occasion of our Savior's enjoining them to frequently forgive their offending brethren — it is a duty that is not at all easy, nor pleasing to our flesh and blood. And the apostle prays for the Ephesians, that they may be "rooted and grounded in love," Eph 3.17. That is, that by the increase and strengthening of their love, they may be more established in all the duties of love.[796]

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Because these graces are the springs and spirit of our holiness, it is in their increase in us that the work of sanctification is carried on, and universal holiness is increased. And this is done by the Holy Spirit in several ways:

First, By exciting these graces to frequent actings. Frequency of acts naturally increases and strengthens the habits from which they proceed; and these spiritual habits of faith and love are, moreover, by God's appointment. They grow and thrive, in and by their exercise, Hos 6.3.[797] The lack of this exercise is the principal means of their decay. And there are two ways by which the Holy Spirit excites the graces of faith and love to frequent acts:

(1.) He does it morally, by proposing suitable and seasonable objects for them. He does this by his ordinances of worship, especially by the preaching of the word. In proposing to us God in Christ, the promises of the covenant, and other proper objects of our faith and love, these graces are drawn out into their exercise. This is one principal advantage we have by attending to the dispensation of the word in a due manner — namely, that by presenting to our minds those spiritual truths which are the object of our faith, and by presenting to our affections those spiritual good things which are the object of our love, both of these graces are drawn out into frequent actual exercise. We are greatly mistaken if we suppose that we have no benefit by the word beyond what we retain in our memories, even though we should labor for that also. Our chief advantage lies in the excitation which is given to our faith and love by it, to their proper exercise. These graces are kept alive by this; for without preaching, they would decay and wither.

In this, the Holy Spirit "takes the things of Christ, and shows them to us," Joh 16.14-15. He represents them to us in the preaching of the word as the proper objects of our faith and love, and so he brings to remembrance the things spoken by Christ, Joh 14.26. That is, in the dispensation of the word, the Spirit reminds us of the gracious words and truths of Christ, proposing them to our faith and love. And in this lies the secret profiting and thriving of believers under the preaching of the gospel, which maybe they are not aware of themselves. By this means, many thousands of acts of faith and love are drawn out whereby these graces are exercised and strengthened; and consequently holiness is increased. And the word, by the actings of faith being mixed with it, as in Heb 4.2,[798] increases holiness by its incorporation.

(2.) The Spirit does it really and internally. He dwells 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 has planted in the heart.

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And we cannot act any one grace without his effectual operation in this: "God works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure," Phi 2.13; — that is, there is no part of our wills, singly and separately from Him in obedience, that is not the operation of the Spirit of God in us, so far as it is spiritual and holy. The Spirit is the immediate author of every good or gracious acting in us; for "in us, that is, in our flesh" (and of ourselves, we are but flesh), "there dwells no good." This is why the Spirit of God, dwelling in believers, effectively excites and stirs up their graces to frequent exercise and actings, by which they are increased and strengthened. There is nothing in the whole course of our walking before God that we ought to be more careful about, than not grieving, not provoking, this good and holy Spirit, for which he should withhold his gracious aids and assistance from us. Therefore, this is the first way by which the work of sanctification is gradually carried on: by the Holy Ghost exciting our graces to frequent actings, by which these graces are increased and strengthened.

Secondly, The Spirit [increases holiness in us] by supplying believers with experiences of the truth, and of the reality and excellence of the things that are believed. Experience is the food of all grace, which it grows and thrives upon. Every taste that faith obtains of divine love and grace, or of how gracious the Lord is, adds to its measure and stature. Two things, therefore, must briefly be declared: (1.) That the experience of the reality, excellence, power, and efficacy of the things that are believed, is an effectual means of increasing faith and love; and (2.) That it is the Holy Ghost which gives us this experience.

(1.) For the first, God himself expostulates[799] with the church how its faith came to be so weak, when it had so great an experience of him, or of his power and faithfulness: Isa 40.27-28, "Have you not known? Have you not heard? How, then, can you say that God has forsaken you?" And our apostle affirms that the consolations which he experientially received from God, enabled him to discharge his duty towards others in trouble, 2Cor 1.4.[800] For in this we prove, or really approve of (as being satisfied in), "the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God," Rom 12.2. And this is what the apostle prays for on behalf of the Colossians, 2.2.[801]

I may say that someone who does not know how faith is encouraged and strengthened by special experiences of the reality, power, and spiritual efficacy upon the soul, of the things believed, was never made a partaker of any of them. How often David encourages his own faith and the faith of others from his former experiences! These were also pleaded by our Lord Jesus Christ to the same purpose, in his great distress, Psa 22.9-10.[802]

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(2.) No other consideration is needed to evince that the Holy Ghost gives us all our spiritual experiences, but this: that all our consolation consists in these experiences. It is his work and office to administer consolation to believers, because he is the only Comforter of the church. Now, he administers comfort in no other way than by giving to the minds and souls of believers a spiritual, sensible experience of the reality and power of the things we believe. He does not comfort us by words, but by things. I know of no other means of spiritual consolation; and I am sure that this one never fails. Give a soul an experience, a taste, of the love and grace of God in Christ Jesus, and whatever that soul's condition may be, it cannot refuse to be comforted. And hereby the Spirit "sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts," Rom 5.5, by which all graces are cherished and increased.

Thirdly, He does it by working immediately an actual increase of these graces in us. I have shown that these are capable of improvement, and of an addition of degrees to them. Now, they are originally the immediate work and product of the Spirit of God in us, as has been abundantly evinced. And as he first works and creates them, so he increases them. Hereby those who are "feeble become as David," Zec 12.8; that is, those whose graces were weak, whose faith was infirm, and whose love was languid, will become strong and vigorous by the supplies of the Spirit, and the increase given by him. Promises are multiplied to this purpose in the Scripture, which we principally consider in our constant supplications. The schoolmen, after Austin, call this "Gratiam corroborantem;" that is, the working of the Holy Spirit in the increasing and strengthening of grace received. See Eph 3.16-17; Col 1.10-11; Isa 40.29.[803] And this is the principal cause and means of the gradual increase of holiness in us, or of carrying on the work of sanctification, Psa 138.8.[804]

SECONDLY, There are graces whose exercise is more occasional, and not always actually necessary to the life of God; that is, it is not necessary that they always be in actual exercise, as faith and love are to be constantly exercised. With respect to these graces, holiness is increased by the addition of one to another, until we are brought on several occasions to the practice and exercise of them all. For the addition of the new exercise of any grace, belongs to the gradual carrying on of the work of sanctification. And all things that befall us in this world, all our circumstances, are laid in subservience to this work by the wisdom of God. All our relations, all our afflictions, all our temptations, all our mercies, all our enjoyments, all occurrences, are suited to a continual adding of the exercise of one grace to another, in which holiness is increased. And if we do not make use of them for that purpose, we miss all the benefit and advantage we might have had from them; and we disappoint (as much as it lies in us) the design of divine love and wisdom in them.

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We are given this charge in 2Pet 1.5-7:

"Besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly-kindness; and to brotherly-kindness charity."

The end given to us for this injunction is this: that we may "escape the corruption that is in the world through lust," verse 4; that is, that we may have all our corruptions thoroughly subdued, and our souls thoroughly sanctified. To this end, the promises are given to us, and a divine, spiritual nature is bestowed upon us. But will that suffice? Is no more required of us to that end? "Yes," the apostle says in essence, "this great work will not be effected unless you use your utmost diligence and endeavor to add the exercise of all the graces of the Spirit, one to another, as occasion requires." There is a method in this concatenation of graces from first to last, and a special reason for each particular one, or why the apostle requires that one particular grace should be added to another in the order laid down here; at present I will not inquire into this. But in general, Peter intends that every grace is to be exercised according to its proper season and special occasion. Hereby also, the work of sanctification is gradually carried on, and holiness is increased. And this addition of one grace to another, with the progress of holiness gained by it, is also from the Holy Ghost. There are three ways by which he accomplishes his work in this:

1. By so ordering things towards us, and bringing us into those conditions in which the exercise of these graces will be required and necessary. All the afflictions and trials which he brings the church into, have no other end or design. So the apostle James expresses it:

Jas 1.2-4 "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing."

These temptations are trials based upon afflictions, troubles, persecutions, and the like. But if we take them in any other sense, it is the same for our purpose. These are all guided to us by Christ and his Spirit, for he is the one who rebukes and chastens us.Joh 16.8 But what is his end in this? It is that faith may be exercised and patience employed, and one grace be added to another, so that these may carry us on towards perfection. So he brings us into that condition in which we will assuredly miscarry,[805] if we do not add the exercise of one grace to another.

2. In this state of things, the Spirit effectively reminds us of our duty, and what graces ought to be exercised. We may dispute whether it is better to act faith, or to despond; to add patience under the continuance of our trials, or to trust to ourselves and irregularly seek deliverance, diverting ourselves to other satisfactions.

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Then he causes us to "hear a word behind us, saying, This is the way, walk in it, when we turn to the right hand, and when we turn to the left," Isa 30.21. When we are at a loss, and do not know what to do, and are ready, it may be, to consult with flesh and blood, and to divert to irregular courses, the Spirit effectively speaks to us, saying, "No; that is not your proper way, but this is it," — namely, to act faith, patience, and submission to God, adding one grace to another, thereby binding our hearts to our duty.

3. He actually excites and sets all needful graces to work in the way and manner said before.

This then is to be fixed, so that all this increase of holiness is immediately the work of the Holy Ghost; and in this he gradually carries on his design of sanctifying us throughout, in our whole spirits, souls, and bodies. In our regeneration and habitual grace we receive a nature bestowed on us that is capable of growth and increase, and that is all; if left to itself, it will not thrive; it will decay and die. The actual supplies of the Spirit are the waterings that are the immediate cause of its increase. It wholly depends on continual influences from God. He cherishes and improves the work he has begun, with new and fresh supplies of grace every moment: Isa 27.3, "I the Lord will water it every moment." And it is the Spirit which is this water, as the Scripture declares everywhere. God the Father places on Him the care of this matter; "He watches over his vineyard to keep it."[806] The Lord Christ is the head, fountain, and treasure of all actual supplies; and the Spirit is the efficient cause of them, communicating them to us from Christ. It is from this that any grace in us is kept alive one moment, that it is ever moved in one single duty, and that it ever receives the least measure of increase or strengthening. It is with respect to all these that our apostle says, "Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me," Gal 2.20. Spiritual life and living by it, in all its acts, are immediately from Christ.

I do not concern myself much with how moral virtue, that is no more, is preserved and sustained in the minds and lives of men; though I am not ignorant of the precepts, directions, and instructions which are given to that end by some of old and some of late. But for grace and holiness, we have infallible assurance that the being, life, continuance, and all the actings of grace, in any of the sons of men, depend merely and only upon their relation to that spring and fountain of all grace which is in Christ, and the continual supplies of it by the Holy Spirit, whose work it is to communicate them, Col 3.3; John 15.5; Col 2.19.[807]

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There is no man who has any grace that is true and saving, who has any seed, any beginning of sanctification or holiness, that the Holy Spirit, by his watchful care over it,[808] and his supplies of it, is not able to preserve it, to extricate it from difficulties, to free it from opposition, and to increase it to its full measure and perfection. Therefore, "let the hands that hang down be lifted up, and the feeble knees be strengthened." Heb 12.12 We deal with Him who "will not quench the smoking flax nor break the bruised reed." And on the other side, there is none who has received grace in such a measure, nor has so confirmed that grace by constant, uninterrupted exercise, that he can preserve it even one moment, or act it out in any one instance or duty, without continual supplies of new, actual grace and help from the one who works in us to will and to do. For our Lord Christ says to his apostles, and through them to all believers — even the best and strongest of them — "Without me you can do nothing," John 15.5. And those who of themselves can do nothing — that is, in a way of living to God — cannot of themselves preserve grace, act it, or increase it; these are the greatest things we do, or that are worked in us in this world. Therefore God in infinite wisdom has so ordered the dispensation of his love and grace to believers, that of all those living on the continual supplies of his Spirit, none may have cause on the one hand to faint or despond; nor occasion on the other for self-confidence or elation of mind — that "no flesh may glory in itself, but he that glories may glory in the Lord."1Cor 1.29,31 Therefore, he greatly encourages the weak, the fearful, the faint, the disconsolate and dejected; and he does this by engaging all the holy properties of his nature in and for their assistance.[809] And so too, he warns those who suppose they are strong, steadfast, and immovable, "not to be high-minded, but to fear," Rom 11.20 — because the whole outcome of things depends on his sovereign supplies of grace. And seeing that he promised in the covenant to faithfully continue these supplies to us, there is ground for the faith given to all, and occasion for presumption is administered to none. But it will be said that,

"If not only the beginning of grace, sanctification, and holiness is from God, but the carrying on and the increase of it are also from him, not only in general, but if all the actings of grace, and every act of it, is an immediate effect of the Holy Spirit — then what need is there for us to take any pains in this ourselves, or to use our own endeavors to grow in grace or holiness as we are commanded to do? If God works all of this in us, and if we can do nothing without his effectual operation in us, then there is no place left for our diligence, duty, or obedience."

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Ans. 1. We must expect to meet this objection at every turn. Men will not believe there is a consistency between God's effectual grace and our diligent obedience; that is, they will not believe what is plainly, clearly, and distinctly revealed in the Scripture, and matches the experience of all those who truly believe, because they cannot, it may be, comprehend it within the compass of carnal reason.

Ans. 2. Let the apostle answer this objection for this once:

2Pet 1.3, "His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

If all things that pertain to life and godliness are given to us by the power of God — among which, doubtless, is the preservation and increase of grace —— and if we receive from him that divine nature by virtue of which our corruptions are subdued, then it may be objected, "What need is there for any endeavors of our own?" The whole work of sanctification is worked in us, it seems, and that is by the power of God; we may therefore let it alone, and leave it to the one it belongs to, while we are negligent, secure, and at ease. "No," says the apostle; "this is not the use to which the grace of God is to be put. The consideration of it is, or ought to be, the principal motive and encouragement to all diligence for the increase of holiness in us." For he quickly adds, verse 5 — "But also for this cause," or, because of the gracious operations of the divine power in us, "giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue," as stated before.

These objectors and this apostle were very differently minded in these matters. What they make an insuperable discouragement to diligence in obedience, he makes the greatest motive and encouragement for it.

3. I say, it will unavoidably follow from this consideration, that we ought to continually wait and depend on God for supplies of his Spirit and grace, without which we can do nothing. These things, I say, will unavoidably follow from the doctrine declared before: that by his grace, God is more the author of the good we do than we are ourselves ("Not I, but the grace of God which was with me"); 1Cor 15.10 that we ought to be careful not to provoke the Holy Spirit to withhold his aids and assistances by our negligence and sin, and so leave us to ourselves; in that condition we can do nothing that is spiritually good. If any are offended by these things, it is not in our power to render them relief.

I will close the discourse on this subject with some considerations of that similitude by which the Scripture so frequently represents the gradual improvement of grace and holiness; and this is the growth of trees and plants: Hos 14.5-6, "I will be as the dew unto Israel: he will grow as the lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon. His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive-tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon."

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Isa 44.3, 4, "I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring: and they will spring up as among the grass like willows by the water-courses." And so it is echoed in many other places. We may know that this similitude is singularly instructive, or it would not have been so frequently made use of to this purpose. I will briefly reflect on a few instances tending to give light in this matter:

1. These trees and plants have the principle of their growth in themselves. They do not grow from direct, external, adventitious aid and furtherance; they grow from their own seminal virtue and radical moisture. It is not otherwise in the progress of sanctification and holiness. It has a root, a seed, a principle of growth and increase in the soul of the one who is sanctified. All grace is immortal seed; and it contains in it a living, growing principle. That which does not have in itself a life and power to grow, is not grace; therefore, whatever duties men perform, to which they are either guided by natural light, or which they are urged to by convictions from the word, if they do not proceed from a principle of spiritual life in the heart, they are not fruits of holiness, nor do they belong to it. The water of grace which comes from Christ, is a "well of water springing up into everlasting life" in those on whom it is bestowed, John 4.14. It is therefore the nature of holiness to thrive and to grow, just as it is the nature of trees or plants to grow, which have their seminal virtue in themselves, after their kind.

2. A tree or a plant must be watered from above, or it will not thrive and grow by virtue of its own seminal power. If a drought comes, it will wither or decay. Thus, where God mentions this growth, he ascribes it to his watering: "I will be as the dew," and "I will pour water." This watering is the special cause of growth; so it is in carrying on holiness. There is a nature received that is capable of increase and growth; but if it is left to itself, it will not thrive; it will decay and die. Therefore, God is like the dew to it, and he pours water on it by the actual supplies of the Spirit, as we showed before.

3. The growth of trees and plants is secret and imperceptible; nor is it discerned except in the effects and consequences of that growth. The most watchful eye can discern little of its motion. "As a tree through the ages, it grows secretly."[810] It is not otherwise in the progress of holiness. It is not immediately discernible either by those in whom it progresses, or by others who observe it. It lies only under the eye of Him by whom it is worked; only by its fruits and effects is it made manifest. And some, indeed, especially in some seasons, plainly and evidently thrive and grow, springing up like the willows by the water-courses.

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Though their growth in itself is indiscernible, yet it is plain that they have grown. We all ought to be so. The growth of some, I say, is manifest upon every trial, on every occasion; their profiting is visible to all. Some say that the growth of plants does not happen by a constant insensible progress, but they increase by sudden bursts and motions; these may sometimes be discerned in the opening of buds and flowers. So too, the growth of believers may consist principally in some intense vigorous actings of grace on great occasions, such as faith, love, humility, self-denial, or bounty; the one who has not experienced such actings of grace in special instances, can have little evidence of his growth. Again, there are trees and plants that have the principle of life and growth in them, yet they are so withering and wasted that you can barely discern they are alive. So it is with too many believers. They are all "trees planted in the garden of God;" Eze 31.9 some thrive, some decay for a season, but the growth of the best is secret.

From what has been proved, it is evident that the work of sanctification is a progressive work, that it gradually carries holiness on towards perfection in us. It is neither worked nor completed at once in us, as regeneration is; nor does it cease upon any attainments or condition of life, but is thriving and carried on. A river continually fed by a living fountain could as soon end its streams before it comes to the ocean, as a stop could be put to the course and progress of grace before it ends in glory. For "the path of the just is like the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day," Pro 4.18. So too their path is like the morning light, the way in which they are led and conducted by the Holy Spirit: once it appears, even though it may sometimes be clouded, it does not fail until it arrives at its perfection. And just as the wisdom, patience, faithfulness, and power which the Holy Spirit of God exercises in this are inexpressible, so these are constantly admired by all those who have an interest in them, as described by the psalmist, Psa 66.8-9, 31.19.[811]

Who is there that has made any diligent observation of his own heart and ways, and what the workings of the grace of God have been in and towards him to bring him to the stature and measure to which he has arrived, that does not admire the watchful care and powerful workings of the Spirit of God in this? If the principle of our holiness is weak and infirm in us, it is nonetheless in us. In some, it is to so low a degree, it is often imperceptible to them. The Spirit preserves and cherishes even this, so that it will not be overpowered by corruptions and temptations. Among all the glorious works of God, next to that of redemption by Jesus Christ, my soul most admires this about the Spirit: His preserving of the seed and principle of holiness in us, like a spark of living fire in the midst of the ocean, against all corruptions and temptations with which it is impugned.

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Many breaches are made in our course of obedience by the incursions of actual sins; the Spirit cures and fixes these, healing our backslidings and repairing our decays. And he acts the grace that is received by constant fresh supplies. The one who does not diligently observe the ways and means by which grace is preserved and promoted, lacks much of the comfort and joy of a spiritual life; and it is no small part of our sin and folly when we are negligent in this.

No doubt, all believers are convinced of this in some measure, not only from the testimonies given of it in the Scripture, but also from their own experience. There is nothing they may more distinctly learn it from than the nature and course of their prayers, with the workings of their hearts, minds, and affections in them. Let profane persons deride it while they please, it is the Spirit of God, as a Spirit of grace, that enables believers to pray and make intercession according to the mind of God. And in this, because he is the Spirit of supplications, he copies out and expresses what he works in them as the Spirit of sanctification. In teaching us to pray, he teaches us what and how he works in us; and if we wisely consider his working in our hearts by prayer, we may understand much of his working upon our hearts by grace. It is said that "he who searches the hearts" (that is, God himself) "knows the mind of the Spirit," in the intercessions he makes in us, Rom 8.27. There are secret powerful operations of the Spirit in prayer that are discernible only to the great Searcher of hearts. But we should also inquire and observe, so far as we may, what he leads us to and guides us about — which is plainly his work in us. I do not think that the Spirit works supplications in us by an immediate, supernatural, divine afflatus, as he inspired the prophets of old; they often did not understand the things they uttered, but diligently inquired into them afterward. But I do say (let the proud carnal world despise it while they please, and at their peril) that the Spirit of God, in the prayers of believers, graciously carries out and acts their souls and minds in desires and requests which, as to their subject matter, are far above their natural contrivances and invention. The one who has not experienced this, is a greater stranger to these things than it will, at length, be to his advantage. By a diligent observance of this, we may know what kind and nature the work of the Holy Ghost is in us, and how it is carried on.

For how, in general, does the Holy Spirit teach us and enable us to pray? It is by these three things:

1. By giving us a spiritual insight into the promises of God and the grace of the covenant, by which we know what to ask upon a spiritual view of the mercy and grace that God has prepared for us.

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2. By acquainting us with and giving us an experience of our wants, with a deep sense of them, such that we cannot bear it without relief.

3. By creating and stirring up desires in the new creature for its own preservation, increase, and improvement.

And corresponding to these things, consists the Spirit's whole work of sanctification in us; for it is his effectual communication to us of the grace and mercy prepared in the promises of the covenant, through Jesus Christ. Hereby he supplies our spiritual wants, and sets the new creature in life and vigor. So our prayers are an extract and copy of the work of the Holy Spirit in us, given to us by the Spirit himself. And therefore, by whomever he is despised as a Spirit of supplication, he is despised as a Spirit of sanctification also. Now consider, what is it that you most labor about in your prayers? Is it not that the body, the power, the whole interest of sin in you may be weakened, subdued, and at length destroyed? Is it not that all the graces of the Spirit may be daily renewed, increased, and strengthened, so that you may be more ready and prepared for all the duties of obedience? And what is all this for, if not that holiness may be gradually progressive in your souls, that it may be carried on by new supplies and additions of grace, until it comes to perfection?

It will be said by some, perhaps, that by their best observation, they do not find in themselves or in others, that the work of sanctification is constantly progressive, or that holiness grows and thrives this way wherever it is found in sincerity. For themselves, they have found grace more vigorous, active, and flourishing in their former days than recently; its streams were fresher and stronger at the spring of their conversion than since they have found their course. From this come those complaints among many about their leanness, their weakness, their deadness, their barrenness. Nor were many of the saints in the Scripture without such complaints. And many may cry, "Oh if only it was the same as in our former days, in the days of our youth!" Complaints of this nature abound everywhere. Some are ready to conclude from this, that either sincere holiness is not as growing and progressive as pretended, or that in fact they have no interest in it. The same may be said by a diligent observation of others, both churches and single professors. What evidence do they give that the work of holiness is thriving in them? Does grace not appear instead, to be retrograding and under constant decay?

I will consider and remove this objection as far as needed, so that the truth we asserted does not suffer from it and we are left with an empty theory; and also that those who do not fully comply with holiness, are not altogether discouraged. I will do this in the ensuing rules and observations.

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1. It is one thing to consider what grace or holiness is suited to in its own nature, and what the Spirit's ordinary or regular way of proceeding is in the work of sanctification, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace. It is another thing to consider what may occasionally fall out by indisposition and irregularity, or by any other obstructing interposition in those persons in whom the work is wrought. Under the first consideration, the work is thriving and progressive; in the latter, the rule is liable to various exceptions. A child that has a principle of life, a good natural constitution, and suitable food, will grow and thrive; but if that child has obstructions from within, or distempers and diseases, or falls and bruises, it may be weak and wasted.

When we are regenerated, we are like newborn babes, and ordinarily, if we have the sincere milk of the word, we will grow by it. But if we give way to temptations, corruptions, negligences, or conformity to the world, is it any wonder if we are lifeless and wasted? It suffices to confirm the truth of what we asserted, that everyone in whom there is a principle of spiritual life, who is born of God, and in whom the work of sanctification has begun — if it is not gradually carried on in him, if he does not thrive in grace and holiness, if he does not go from strength to strength — it is ordinarily from his own sinful negligence and indulgence of carnal lusts, or from his love of this present world. Considering the time we have had and the means we have enjoyed, what full-grown, what flourishing plants many of us might have been — in faith, love, purity, self-denial, and universal conformity to Christ — who are now weak, withering, fruitless, and sapless, and scarcely to be distinguished from the thorns and briers of the world! It is time for us to cast off every weight and the sin that so easily besets us,Heb 12.1 to stir ourselves up by all means to a vigorous recovery of our first faith and love, with an abundant growth in them, rather than complain that the work of holiness does not go on. And we should do this before our wounds become incurable.

2. It is one thing to have holiness really thriving in any soul; and it is another for that soul to know it and be satisfied in it; these two things may be separated. There are many reasons for this. But before I name them, I must premise one necessary observation —

This rule is proposed for the relief of those who are at a loss about their own condition, and do not know whether holiness is thriving in them or not; or for those who have no concern in this, who may at some point, if they please, give themselves an account of how these matters are going with them and on what grounds. For if men indulge any predominant lust; if they live in the neglect of any known duty or in the practice of any way of deceit; if they allow the world to devour the choicest increase of their souls; if they allow formality to eat out the spirit, vigor, and life of holy duties; or if any of these persist in a remarkable manner — I have nothing to offer them to manifest that holiness may thrive in them although they do not discern it; for undoubtedly it does not.

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Nor are they to entertain any hope but this: that while they abide in such a condition, holiness will decay more and more. Such men are to be awakened violently, like men falling into a deadly lethargy, to be snatched like brands out of the fire,Zec 3.2 to be warned to recover their first faith and love, to repent and do their first works, Rev 2.4-5 lest their end be darkness and sorrow forevermore.

But as for those who walk with God humbly and in sincerity, there may be various reasons why holiness may be thriving in them, and yet they do not discern it. Therefore, though holiness is worked within ourselves, and only there, there may yet be seasons in which sincere, humble believers may be obliged to believe there is an increase and growth of holiness in them, when they do not perceive it in such a way as to be aware of it; for —

(1.) Because it is the subject of so many gospel promises, it is a proper object of our faith, or a thing that is to be believed. The promises are God's explanations of the grace of the covenant, both as to its nature and the manner of its operation. And these promises do not abound in anything more than this: that those who partake of grace will thrive and grow by it. It will be declared afterward what limitations these promises are bounded with, and what is required on our part so that we may have them fulfilled towards us. But their accomplishment depends on God's faithfulness, and not on our sense of it. Therefore, where we do not openly lay an obstruction against it, as in the case just mentioned, we may, we ought to believe that they are fulfilled towards us, even though we are not continually aware of it. And,

(2.) It is our duty to grow and thrive in holiness; and we are to believe that God will help us in what he requires of us; and he does so, whatever our present sense and apprehension of it may be. On these grounds, in my judgment, the one who can believe the growth of holiness in himself, even though he has no sensible experience of it, is in as good and perhaps a safer condition than the one who, through the vigorous working of spiritual affections, is most aware of this. For it is certain that such a person does not by any willful neglect or indulgence of any sin, obstruct the growth of holiness — for the one who does obstruct it cannot believe that holiness thrives in him or that it is carried on, whatever his presumptions may be; — and thus the life of faith, of which this holiness is a part, is in every way a safe life. Besides, such a person is not in danger of a vain elation of mind and carelessness on that account, as others may be. For when we live by faith, and not at all by sense,2Cor 5.7 we will be humble and fear always. Not finding in himself the evidence of what he most desires, a believer will be continually careful not to drive it farther from him. But the reasons for this difficulty are:

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[1.] The work itself, as declared at large before, is secret and mysterious. And therefore, there is in some (I hope in many), the reality and essence of holiness, who can yet find nothing of it in themselves nor perhaps in anyone else, but only in Jesus Christ; those who have a lively understanding of the fear of the Lord. And so holiness may in the same secret manner, thrive in its degrees in those who yet do not perceive it. There is nothing in our whole course that we should be more awake to than a diligent observation of the progress and decays of grace. For just as knowledge of them has the same importance to us as our duties and comforts, so they are hard and difficult to discern; nor will they be as truly for our good and advantage without our utmost diligence and spiritual wisdom in observing them.

Hence, as we observed before, it is frequently compared in the Scripture to the growth of plants and trees (Hos 14.5-6, Isa 44.3-4). Now, we know that in those which are the most thriving and flourishing, though we may perceive that they are grown, we cannot discern their growing. And so the apostle tells us that as the "outward man perishes, so the inward man is renewed day by day," 2Cor 4.16. The outward man perishes by those same natural decays by which it continually tends toward death and dissolution; and many of us know how these insensible decays are hardly discerned unless some great and violent disease befalls us. We know that we are enfeebled and weakened by age and infirmities, rather than perceiving when or how it happens. This too is how the inward man is renewed in grace. It is by such secret ways and means as that its growth and decay are hardly apprehended. And yet someone who is negligent in this inquiry, who walks at all uncertainly with God, does not know where he is along his way, whether he is nearer or farther away from his journey's end than he was before. Write that man down as a fruitless and wasted Christian, who does not call himself to account for his increases and decays in grace. David knew this work was of such great importance that he would not trust himself and ordinary assistances to discharge it; but he earnestly calls on God to undertake it for him, and to acquaint him with it, Psa 139.23-24.[812]

[2.] There may be some perplexing temptations that befall the mind of a believer, or some corruption may take advantage to break loose for a season (maybe for a long season), which may gall the soul greatly with its suggestions, and thus trouble, disturb, and disquiet it so much that it will not be able to make a right judgment about its grace and progress in holiness.

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A ship may be so tossed in a storm at sea, that the most skillful mariners may not be able to discern whether they are making any headway in their intended course and voyage, even while they are carried onward with success and speed. So too, grace in its exercise is principally engaged in opposition to its enemy which it conflicts with; and so its thriving in other ways is not discernible. If it were asked how we may discern when grace is exercised and thrives in opposition to corruptions and temptations, I say that just as great winds and storms sometimes contribute to the fruit-bearing of trees and plants, so corruptions and temptations contribute to the fruitfulness of grace and holiness. The wind comes upon the tree violently, ruffles its boughs, maybe breaks some of them, beats off its buds, loosens and shakes its roots, and threatens to cast the whole tree to the ground — but by this means the earth is opened and loosed around it, and the tree gets its roots deeper into the earth, by which it receives more and fresher nourishment. This renders it fruitful, even though perhaps it does not bring forth fruit visibly till a good while later. In the assaults of temptations and corruptions, the soul is woefully ruffled and disordered; its leaves of profession are greatly blasted, and its beginnings of fruit-bearing are greatly broken and retarded. But, in the meantime, it secretly and invisibly spreads out its roots of humility, self-abasement, and mourning, in a hidden and continual laboring of faith and love after that grace. Holiness increases by this really, and a way is made for future visible fruitfulness: for —

[3.] God, in his infinite wisdom, manages the new creature, or the whole life of grace, by his Spirit. He so turns its streams, and so renews and changes the special kinds of its operations, that we cannot easily trace his paths in this. And therefore we may often be at a loss about it, not knowing well what he is doing with us. For instance, it may be that the work of grace and holiness has greatly exerted and evidenced itself in the affections, which are renewed by it. Hence persons have a great experience of readiness for, and delight and cheerfulness in, holy duties — especially those affections of having immediate communication with God. For the affections are (for the most part) quick and vigorous in the youth of our profession; and their operations are sensible to those in whom they blossom, and whose fruits are visible; these make young believers seem always fresh and green in the ways of holiness. But it may be that after awhile it seems good to the sovereign Disposer of this affair, to turn the streams of grace and holiness into another channel, as it were. The Spirit sees that the exercise of humility, godly sorrow, fear, and diligent conflicting with temptations, perhaps strike at the very root of faith and love, and are more needed for them. He will therefore so order his dispensations towards these believers — by afflictions, temptations, and the occasions of life in the world — that they will have new work to do; and all the grace they have is turned into a new exercise.

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On this turn, it may be that they do not find that sensible vigor in their spiritual affections, nor that delight in their spiritual duties, which they found formerly. This sometimes makes them ready to conclude that grace has decayed in them, that the springs of holiness are drying up, and they know neither where they are nor what they are. And yet, it may be, the real work of sanctification is still thriving and effectively carried on in them.

3. It is acknowledged that there may be, that there are in many, great decays in grace and holiness; that the work of sanctification goes backward in them, and that may be universally and for a long season. Many actings of grace are lost in such persons, and the things that remain are ready to die. The Scripture abundantly testifies to this, and it gives us instances of it. How often God charges his people with backsliding, barrenness, and decays in faith and love! And the experience of the days in which we live, sufficiently confirms the truth of it. Are there not open and visible decays in many as to the whole spirit of holiness, as to all its duties and fruits? Can the best among us not contribute something to evidence this from our own experience? What shall we say, then? Is there no sincere holiness where such decays are found? God forbid! But we must ask the reasons why this comes to pass, seeing that this is contrary to the gradual progress of holiness in those who are sanctified, which we asserted. I answer, two things:

(1.) That these decays are occasional and preternatural [813] as to the true nature and constitution of the new creature, and they are a disturbance of the ordinary work of grace. They are diseases in our spiritual state, which it is not to be measured by. Are you dead and cold in duties, backward in good works, careless of your heart and thoughts, addicted to the world? — these things do not belong to the state of sanctification, but are enemies to it; they are sicknesses and diseases in the spiritual constitution of the persons in whom they are found.

(2.) Although our sanctification and growth in holiness is a work of the Holy Spirit, as the efficient cause of it, yet it is also our own work, by way of duty. He has prescribed for us what our part will be, what he expects from us and requires of us, so that the work may be regularly carried on to perfection, as declared before. And there are two sorts of things which will, if we do not properly attend to them, obstruct and retard the orderly progress of holiness; for —

[1.] The power and growth of any lust or corruption, from a compliance with its temptations, is inseparable from the prevalence of any sin in us; and it lies directly against this progress. If we allow or approve of any such thing in us; if we indulge any actings of sin, especially when they are known and have grown frequent in any one kind; if we neglect the use of the best means for the constant mortification of sin — which every enlightened soul understands is necessary to this orderly progress in holiness — there is, and there will be increased, a universal decay in holiness.

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And this power and growth is not only in that particular corruption which has been spared and indulged. A disease in any one of the vital organs or principal parts of the body, does not weaken only the part in which it acts, but the whole body; it vitiates[814] the whole constitution by the sympathy of its parts. Indulging any particular lust, vitiates the whole of our spiritual health, and it weakens the soul in all its duties of obedience.

[2.] There are some things required of us to attain this end, that holiness may thrive and be carried on in us. These include the constant use of all ordinances and means appointed for that end; a due observance of commanded duties in their season; with a readiness to exercise every special grace in its proper circumstances. Now, if we neglect these things, if we walk at all uncertainly with God, attending neither to the means nor to our duties, nor exercising grace as we should, then we should not wonder if we find ourselves decaying and, indeed, ready to die.Rev 3.2 Does anyone wonder at seeing someone formerly of a sound constitution, who has grown weak and sickly, if he openly neglects all the means of health, and contracts all sorts of diseases by his intemperance? Is it strange that a nation should be sick and faint at heart, that grey hairs should be sprinkled upon it, that it should be poor and decaying, while consuming lusts and a neglect of all invigorating means prevail in it? It is no more strange that a professing people should decay in their holy obedience, while they abide in the neglect just described.

Having vindicated this assertion, I will yet add a little further improvement of it. If the work of holiness is such a progressive, thriving work in its own nature; and if the design of the Holy Ghost in the use of means, is to carry on holiness in us, and to increase it more and more to a perfect measure; then our diligence is to continue to that same end and purpose; for our growth and thriving depend on it. It is required that we give all diligence to the increase of grace, 2Pet 1.5-7,[815] and that we abound in it, 2Cor 8.7: "abounding in all diligence." And not only so, but that we "show the same diligence to the end," Heb 6.11. Whatever diligence we have used in attaining or improving holiness, we must abide in it to the end, or else we put ourselves under decays and we endanger our souls. If we slacken or give up as to our duty, the work of sanctification will not be carried on in a way of grace. And so this is required of us, this is expected from us: that our whole lives be spent in a course of diligent compliance with the progressive work of grace in us.

There are three grounds on which men may, or do, neglect this duty on which the life of their obedience and all their comforts depend:

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(1.) A presumption or groundless persuasion that they are already perfect. Some pretend to this in a proud and foolish conceit, destructive of the whole nature and duty of evangelical holiness or obedience. For on our part, this consists in our willing compliance with the work of grace, gradually carried on to the measure appointed for us. If this is already attained, there is an end to all evangelical obedience, and men return again to the law, to their ruin. See Phi 3.12-14.[816] It is an excellent description of the nature of our obedience which the apostle gives us in that passage. All absolute perfection in this life is rejected as unattainable. The end proposed is blessedness and glory, with the eternal enjoyment of God. And the way by which we press towards it, which comprises the whole of our obedience, is by continual, uninterrupted following after, pressing toward, and reaching out — a constant progress in and by our utmost diligence.

(2.) A foolish supposition that, because we have an interest in a state of grace, we no longer need to be so concerned about exact holiness and obedience in all things as we were formerly, when our minds hung in suspense about our condition. But to the extent that anyone has this apprehension or persuasion prevailing in or influencing him, he has cause to deeply question whether he still has anything of grace or holiness in him; for this persuasion is not from Him who called us. There is no more effectual engine in the hand of Satan than this: either to keep us away from holiness, or to stifle it when it is attained. Nor can any thoughts arise in the hearts of men that are more opposite to the nature of grace; for this reason, the apostle rejects it with detestation, Rom 6.1-2.[817]

(3.) Weariness and despondencies that arise from opposition. Some find such great difficulty in, and opposition to, the work of holiness and its progress — coming from the power of corruptions, from temptations, and from the circumstances of life in this world — that they are ready to faint and give up this diligence in their duties, and in contending against sin. But the Scripture so abounds with encouragements to this sort of person, that we do not need to insist on it here.

Chapter III.

Believers are the only object of sanctification, and subject of gospel holiness.

Believers are the only subject of the work of sanctification — How men come to believe, if believers alone receive the Spirit of sanctification — The principal ends for which the Spirit is promised, with their order in their accomplishment — Rules to be observed in praying for the Spirit of God, and his operations in this — It is proved and confirmed that only believers are sanctified or made holy — Mistakes about holiness, both notional and practical, revealed — The proper subject of holiness in believers.

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What we will next inquire into is this: the personal subject of this work of sanctification; or who, and of what sort, those persons are that are made holy. Now, these are all and only believers. All who unfeignedly believe in God through Jesus Christ are sanctified, and no others. Evangelical holiness is confined to them. It is for them and them only that our Savior prays for this mercy, grace, or privilege: John 17.17, "Sanctify them by your truth." And concerning them, he affirms, "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth," verse 19. And in the foregoing verses, he directly meant his apostles and present disciples. But we may know that neither his prayer nor his grace is confined or limited to them, because he adds, "Neither do I pray for these alone," — that is, in this way and for these ends — "but also for those who will believe on me through their word," verse 20. It was therefore the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ that all believers should be sanctified; and this was also his promise:

Joh 7.38-39, "'He that believes on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.' But he spoke this of the Spirit, which those who believe on him would receive."

And it is with respect principally to this work of sanctification that the Spirit is compared to flowing and living water, as declared before. Our apostle prays for believers, the "church that is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ," 1Thes 1.1 — that is, by faith — that "the God of peace would sanctify them throughout," 1Thes 5.23.

But before we proceed to further confirm this assertion, an objection of some importance is to be removed out of our way. For on the supposition that the Spirit of sanctification is given only to believers, it may be asked how men come to be believers; for if we do not have the Spirit until after we believe, then faith is of ourselves. And this is what some plead for — namely, "That the gift of the Holy Ghost, for all ends and purposes for which he is promised, is consequential to faith, with the profession and obedience of it being its reward, as it were." See Crell. de Spir. Sanc., cap. 5.[818] To this purpose it is pleaded that,

"The apostle Peter encourages men to faith and repentance with the promise that thereupon they would 'receive the gift of the Holy Ghost,' Acts 2.38. The statement of our Savior in John 14.17 is the same: that 'the world,' — that is, unbelievers — 'cannot receive the Spirit of truth:' so that our faith and obedience are required as a necessary qualification for receiving the Holy Ghost; and if these are required absolutely, then they are worked by us, and not worked in us by the grace of God;"

This is expressly Pelagianism.

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Ans. I could dwell long on this inquiry concerning the special subject of the Holy Spirit, seeing that the right understanding of many passages of Scripture depends on it; but because I still have much work before me, I will reduce what I have on this to as narrow a compass as I possibly may. In answer to this objection, therefore, I say —

1. That the Holy Spirit is said to be promised and received with respect to the ends for which he is promised, and the effects which he works when he is received. For although he is but one, "the one and the self-same Spirit," and he is promised, given, and received, as we declared, yet he has many and diverse operations. And as his operations are diverse or of several sorts and kinds, so also receiving him is diverse as to its manner, and it is suited to the ends of his communications to us. Thus, in one sense the Spirit is promised to and received by believers; and in another sense he is promised and received to make men believe. In the first way, there may be some activity of faith by way of our duty; because in the latter way, we are passive, and receive him only by grace.

2. The chief and principal ends for which the Holy Spirit is promised and received may be reduced to these four heads: (1.) Regeneration; (2.) Sanctification; (3.) Consolation; and (4.) Edification. There are, indeed, very many distinct operations and distributions of the Spirit, as I have already revealed in part, and I will go over them still further in particular instances. But they may be reduced to these general heads, or at least these will suffice to exemplify the different manner and ends of receiving the Spirit. And this is the plain order and method of these things, as the Scripture both plainly and plentifully testifies:

(1.) He is promised and received as to the work of REGENERATION, for the elect;

(2.) As to the work of SANCTIFICATION, for the regenerate;

(3.) As to the work of CONSOLATION, for the sanctified; and,

(4.) As to gifts for EDIFICATION, to professors;

— all according to His sovereign will and pleasure.

(1.) He is promised to the elect, and received by them as to his work of regeneration. I proved at large before that this is wholly and entirely his work in us. The qualifications of faith and obedience are in no way required for this as previously necessary in us. In order of nature, receiving the Spirit is antecedent to the very seed and principle of faith in us, just as the cause is antecedent to the effect, seeing that it is worked in us by him alone; the promises concerning the communication of the Spirit for this end have been explained and vindicated before. Hereby the Holy Ghost prepares a habitation for himself, and makes way for all the following work which he has to do in us and towards us, to the glory of God and the perfecting of our salvation, or in making us "fit for the inheritance of the saints in light," Col 1.12.

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(2.) He is promised to and received as a Spirit of sanctification by those who are regenerate — that is, he is promised to believers, and only to them. This will be fully confirmed immediately. And this puts at issue the principal difficulty of the foregoing objection. It is not inconsistent in any way, that faith is required prior to receiving the Spirit as a Spirit of sanctification; but this is not so, as he is the author of regeneration. The same Spirit first works faith in us, and then he preserves it once it is worked. Only, to clarify the manner of it, we may observe —

FIRST, That sanctification may be considered in two ways:

First, As to the original and essential work of it, which consists in the preservation of the principle of spiritual life and holiness communicated to us in our regeneration.

Secondly, As to those renewed actual operations by which it is carried on, and is gradually progressive, as it has been declared.

SECONDLY, Faith (or believing) may also be considered in this matter in two ways:

First, As to its original communication, infusion, or creation in the soul; for it is the gift or work of God. In this respect — that is, as to its seed, principle, and habit — it is worked in us, as all other grace is, in regeneration.

Secondly, As to its actings in us, or as to actual believing or the exercise of faith and its fruits, it is worked in a constant profession and holy obedience.

Sanctification in the first sense also respects faith — that is, the preservation of the seed, principle, grace, or habit of faith in us, belongs to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit; and so only believers are sanctified. And sanctification in the second sense also respects faith — that is, the progress of the work of sanctification in us is accompanied with the actings and exercise of faith. But in both ways, faith is a necessary qualification in those who are sanctified. Believers, therefore, are the adequate subject of the work of sanctification; and this is all that is under our consideration at present.

(3.) The Spirit is also promised as a comforter, or a Spirit of consolation. In this sense, or for this end and work, he is not promised to those who are regenerate merely as such; for many may be regenerate who are not capable of consolation, nor do they need it, such as infants, many of whom may be, and are, sanctified from the womb. Nor is the Spirit promised as a comforter to those who are believers absolutely, who have the grace or habit of faith worked in them; for many have not yet exercised or been brought into that condition in which spiritual consolations are either proper or needful for them. The Spirit is promised as a comforter to believers who are engaged in the profession of the gospel, and who meet with inward and outward conflicts on account of this. The first promise of the Holy Ghost as a comforter was made to the disciples when their hearts were filled with sorrow on the departure of Christ; and this is the measure of all others,[819] John 16.6-7.[820]

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This is evident both from the nature of the thing itself, and from all the promises which are given concerning him to this end and purpose. It would be wholly in vain at any time to apply spiritual consolations to any other sort of persons. All men who have any interest in Christian religion, when they fall into troubles and distresses of whatever sort, are ready to ask for the things that may relieve and refresh them. And because there are many things in the word suited to the relief and consolation of the distressed, they are apt to apply those things to themselves; and others too are ready to comply with them in the same charitable office, as they presume to do. But no true spiritual consolation was ever administered by the word to anyone except exercised believers,[821] however the minds of men may for the present be relieved a little, and their affections be refreshed, by the things that are spoken to them out of the word. For the word is the instrument of the Holy Ghost, and it does not have any efficacy except as he is pleased to use it and apply it. And he uses it for this end and no other: He is promised as a Spirit of consolation only to sanctified believers. And therefore, when persons fall under spiritual convictions and trouble of mind or conscience on account of sin and guilt, it is not our first work to tender consolation to them; by doing so, many in that sinful condition are deluded. Rather, our first work is to lead them to believe that, "being justified by faith, they may have peace with God;" this is their proper relief. And in that state, God is abundantly willing for them to receive "strong consolation" — as many as "flee for refuge to the hope that is set before them." Heb 6.18

(4.) The Spirit of God is promised and received as to gifts for the edification of the church. This is what is intended in Acts 2.38-39.[822] And we will consider his whole work in this in its proper place.

The rule and measure of the communication of the Spirit for regeneration, is election; the rule and measure of the communication of the Spirit for sanctification, is regeneration; and the rule and measure of his communication as a Spirit of consolation, is sanctification, with the afflictions, temptations, and troubles of those who are sanctified.

Q1. What then is the rule and measure of his communication as a Spirit of edification?

I answer, Profession of the truth of the gospel, and gospel worship, with a call to benefit others, 1Cor 12.7.[823] And here, two rules must be observed:

[1.] That the Spirit does not carry his gifts for edification out of the pale of the church, nor outside the profession of the truth and worship of the gospel.

[2.] That the Spirit uses a sovereign and not a certain rule in this communication of these gifts, 1Cor 12.11;[824] so that he is not deficient to any true professors, in proportion to their calls and opportunities.[825]

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Q2. Because the Spirit of sanctification is promised only to those who are regenerate and believe, in our prayers and supplications for him, may we plead these qualifications as arguments and motives for further communications of the Spirit to us?

Ans. 1. We cannot properly plead any qualification in ourselves, as though God were obliged to respect them, to give a man an increase of grace ex congruo, much less ex condigno.[826] When we have done all, we are unprofitable servants.Luk 17.10 As we begin, so we must proceed with God, merely on account of sovereign grace.

Ans. 2. We may plead the faithfulness and righteousness of God as engaged in his promises. We ought to pray that he would "not forsake the work of his own hands;" Psa 138.8 that "he who has begun the good work in us would perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ;" Phi 1.6 that with respect to his covenant and promises, he would preserve that new creature, that divine nature, which he has formed and implanted in us.

Ans. 3. Upon sensing the weakness of any grace, we may humbly profess our sincerity in this, and pray for its increase. So cried the poor man with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief," Mark 9.24. And the apostles in their prayer, "Lord, increase our faith," Luke 17.5, admitted the faith that they had, and they prayed for its increase by fresh supplies of the Holy Spirit.

Q3. May believers in trouble pray for the Spirit of consolation with respect to their troubles, if it is for those ends that he is promised?

Ans. 1. They may do so directly, and ought to do so; indeed, when they do not, it is a sign they have turned aside to broken cisterns that will yield them no relief.Jer 2.13

Ans. 2. Troubles are of two sorts — spiritual and temporal. Spiritual troubles are either,

(1.) Subjective, as are all inward darknesses, and distresses on account of sin; or,

(2.) Objective, as are all persecutions for the name of Christ and the gospel. And it is principally with respect to these that the Spirit is promised as a comforter; and it is with regard to them that we are principally to pray for him as promised.

Ans. 3. In those outward troubles which are common to believers and other men, such as the death of relations, the loss of estate or liberty, they may and ought to pray for the Spirit as a comforter, so that the consolations of God, administered by Him, may outbalance their outward troubles, and sustain their hearts for other duties.

Q4. May all sincere professors of the gospel pray for the Spirit with respect to his gifts for the edification of others, seeing that he is promised to them for that end?

Ans. 1. They may do so, but with the ensuing limitations:

(1.) They must do it with express submission to the sovereignty of the Spirit himself, who "distributes to every man as he will." 1Cor 12.11

(2.) With respect to that station and condition in which they are placed in the church by the providence and call of God. Private persons[827] have no warrant to pray for ministerial gifts that would carry them outside of their stations, without a divine direction going before them.

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(3.) That their end is good and right: to use these gifts in their respective places for the edification of others. So parents and masters of families, and all members of churches, ought to pray for those gifts of the Spirit by which they may fulfill the duties of their positions and relationships.

From the consideration of this order of the dispensation of the Spirit, we may be directed how to pray for Him, which we are both commanded and encouraged to do, Luke 11.13.[828] For we are to pray for him with respect to those ends and effects for which he is promised; and these are the ones described before, along with all those particular instances which may be reduced to them. From this we might, therefore, give direction in some inquiries, which indeed deserve a larger discussion if our present design would allow for it. I will only instance one:

Q1. May a person who is still unregenerate pray for the Spirit of regeneration to effect that work in him? Being unregenerate and not knowing his election, and the Spirit being promised only to the elect, such a person seems to have no foundation to make such a request upon.

Ans. 1. Election is not a qualification on our part, which we may consider or plead in our supplications — rather, it is only the secret purpose on God's part as to what he himself will do; thus it is known to us only by its effects.

Ans. 2. Persons convinced of sin and of a state of sin may and ought to pray that God would deliver them from that condition by the effectual communication of his Spirit to them. This is one way by which we "flee from the wrath to come." Mat 3.7

Ans. 3. The special object of their supplications in this is sovereign grace, goodness, and mercy, as declared in and by Jesus Christ. Such persons cannot plead any special promise as being made to them directly; but they may indeed plead for the grace and mercy declared in those promises, as indirectly proposed to sinners. It may be that they can proceed no further in their expectations than the prophet: "Who knows if God will come and give a blessing?" Joel 2.14. Yet this is a sufficient ground and encouragement to keep them waiting at the "throne of grace."[829] So it was with Paul after he received his vision from heaven: he continued in great distress of mind, praying until he received the Holy Ghost, Acts 9.11, 17.[830]

Ans. 4. Persons under such convictions sometimes have the seeds of regeneration communicated to them really; and then, just as they should, they will continue in their supplications for the increase and manifestation of it.

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It is evident by these observations that the foregoing objection is utterly removed out of the way. No disadvantage to the doctrine of the free and effectual grace of God arises by confining this work of sanctification and holiness to believers only. None are sanctified, none are made holy, but those who truly and savingly believe in God through Jesus Christ. I will now further confirm this:

1. "Without faith it is impossible to please God," Heb 11.6. The faith described by the apostle is that faith by which the fathers "received the promises, walked with God, and obtained the inheritance." It is the faith of Abraham — that is, true, saving, justifying faith. This faith is what makes all those who have it, true believers; and without it, it is impossible to please God. Now, holiness, wherever it is present, pleases God; and therefore, without faith it is impossible for us to have any interest in holiness. "This is the will of God, even our sanctification," 1Thes 4.3; and by walking in this holiness, we please God, verse 7.[831] All that pleases God in us, is our holiness, or some part of it; and it principally consists in our opposition to all that displeases him. What he commands, pleases him; and what he forbids, displeases him; and our holiness consists in complying with the one, and opposing the other. This is why the apostle declares that it is impossible for anyone but believers to have anything which really belongs to this holiness.

Some take exception to this sense of the words, from the ensuing reason which the apostle gives for his assertion. It contains the nature of the faith intended: "For he that comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." Thus they say,

"This is what the light of nature directs us to; and therefore no other faith is necessarily required for a man to please God, except that faith which is included in the right use and exercise of natural reason."

But this exception will in no way evade the force of this testimony; for the apostle talks about such a coming to God, and such a belief in him, that it is guided, directed, and ingenerated in us by the promises which it rests upon and is resolved into. Now these promises, all and every one of them, include Jesus Christ, with respect to him and his grace. And therefore, the faith intended is that which is in God through Christ, as revealed and exhibited in the promises. And so, coming to God is a fruit and effect of this, and not the "exercise of natural reason."

2. Our Lord Jesus Christ affirms that men are sanctified by the faith[832] that is in him. Acts 26.18, "That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith that is in me." If there were any other way or means by which men might be sanctified or made holy, he would not have confined it to the "faith that is in him;" at least, there is no other way to attain that holiness which may bring them to the heavenly inheritance, or make them fit for it, Col 1.12. And that alone is what we inquire about. Indeed, no greater contempt can be cast on the Lord Jesus, and on our duty to believe in him (which he makes one of his principal motives), than to imagine that anyone can be made holy without faith in him.

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3. Faith is the instrumental cause of our sanctification; so that where there is no faith, no holiness can be worked in us. "God purifies our hearts by faith," Acts 15.9, and not otherwise — and where the heart is not purified, there is no holiness. All the duties in the world will not define someone as holy, whose heart is not purified; nor will any such duties be holy themselves, seeing that "to the unclean all things are unclean." [833] All the obedience that is accepted by God, is the "obedience of faith," Rom 1.5; it springs from faith, and it is animated by faith. So it is expressed in 1Pet 1.20-22, "You who by Christ believe in God, and have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit." It is from faith in God through Jesus Christ, acting in obedience to the gospel, that we purify or cleanse our souls; this is our sanctification. See Col 2.12-14, 3.7-11.[834]

4. All grace is originally entrusted in and with Jesus Christ. The image of God being lost in Adam, whatever was prepared or is used for the renovation of that image in our natures and persons, in which gospel holiness consists, was to be treasured up in him as the second Adam; by him many are to be made alive who died at the first. It pleased the Father that "in him all fullness should dwell." Col 1.19 As he is the fullness of the Godhead, in and for his own divine personal subsistence, so he is the fullness of all grace for our supplies, so that "of his fullness we might receive grace for grace." Joh 1.16 He is made the head for the whole new creation, not only of power and rule, but of life and influence. God has given him as a "covenant to the people," and God communicates nothing to anyone, which belongs properly to the covenant of grace — as our sanctification and holiness do — except in and through Christ. And we receive nothing by Christ except by virtue of our relation to him, or special interest in him, or union with him. Where there is a special communication, there must be a special relation on which it depends, and from which it proceeds; just as the relation of the members to the head is the cause and the means why vital spirits flow to them from the head. We must be in Christ as the branch is in the vine, or we can derive nothing from him: John 15.4, "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine; no more can you, unless you abide in me." Whatever in any way belongs to holiness, is our fruit; and nothing else is fruit, except what belongs to holiness. Now our Savior affirms this, that we can bring forth nothing unless we are in him and abide in him. Now, our being in Christ and abiding in him is by faith; without faith, we can derive nothing from him, and consequently we can never be partakers of holiness in the least degree.

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But these things must be spoken to more at large afterward. It is therefore undeniably evident that only believers are sanctified and holy. All others are unclean; nor is anything they do holy, or esteemed holy by God.

The due consideration of this reveals many pernicious mistakes that exist about this matter, both notional and practical; for —

1. There are some who would carry holiness beyond the bounds of a special relation to Christ, or would carry that relation beyond its only bond, which is faith. For they would have it be no more than moral honesty or virtue; and so they cannot with any modesty deny it to those heathens who endeavored after these virtues according to the light of nature. And what need, then, is there of Jesus Christ? I can and do commend moral virtues and honesty as much as any man ought to do, and I am sure enough that there is no grace where they are not found. I do not know what I abhor more, than making anything out to be our holiness, which is not derived from Jesus Christ. An imagination of this sort dethrones Christ from his glory, and it overthrows the whole gospel. But we have the sort of men who plead that heathens may be eternally saved, so large and indulgent is their charity. And in the meantime they endeavor by all possible means to destroy, temporally at least, all those Christians who will not stoop to comply with all their imaginations.[835]

2. There are others who proceed much further, and yet they only deceive themselves in the issue. They have notions of good and evil given by the light of nature, Rom 2.14-15.[836] As these notions come with men into the world, and grow up with them as they come to exercise their reason, so they are not stifled without offering violence to the principles of nature by the power of sin.[837] This is how it comes to pass in many, Eph 4.19; 1Tim 4.2; Rom 1.31.[838] Over time, these notions are therefore improved in many by convictions from the law; and great effects are produced by it. For once the soul is effectively convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment, it cannot help but endeavor for deliverance from the one, and to attain the other, so that it may be well with the soul at the last day. And here lie the springs or foundations of all the moral differences that we see among mankind. Some give themselves up to all abominations, lasciviousness, uncleanness, drunkenness, frauds, oppressions, blasphemies, persecutions, with no bounds fixed on their lusts except what are given them by their own impotency or dread of human laws. Others endeavor to be sober, temperate, just, honest and upright in their dealings, with a sedulous[839] performance of their religious duties. This difference arises from the differing power and efficacy of legal convictions on the minds of men. And these convictions are variously improved in many according to the light they receive in the means of knowledge they enjoy, or in the errors and superstitions which they are misguided to.

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On this latter account, these errors and superstitions grow in some into penances, vows, uncommanded abstinences, and various self-macerations, with other painful and costly duties. And where the light they receive is generally according to truth, it will engage men in a reformation of life, a multiplication of duties, abstinence from sin, a profession of Christ, zeal, and a cordial engagement into one way or another in religion. Such persons may have good hopes themselves that they are holy; they may appear to the world to be holy, and be accepted in the church of God as such; yet really they are utter strangers to true gospel holiness. And the reason is because they have missed it in its foundation — not having first obtained an interest in Christ, they have built their house on sand; this is why it will fall in time of trouble.Mat 7.26-27 If it is said that all those who perform the duties mentioned are to be esteemed believers, I would willingly grant it if, with that, they profess the true faith of the gospel. But if it is said that they are necessarily believers, and are believers in the sight of God, and therefore they are also sanctified and holy, then I must say the contrary. It is expressly denied in the gospel, and special instances are given of this.

Therefore let those who have any conviction of the necessity of holiness wisely consider these things. It may be that they have done much in pursuit of it, and have labored in the duties that materially belong to it. They have done many things and forborne many things on account of it, and continue to do so. It may be that they think that for all the world they would not be found among the number of unholy persons at the last day. This may be the condition of some, perhaps of many, who are still young in the faith; and upon their convictions, they are but newly engaged in these ways. It may be so with those who have been following after righteousness as a duty for many days and years. Yet both meet with these two evils in their path:

1. Duties of obedience seldom or never prove easier, more familiar, or pleasanter to them than they did at first; rather, they are more grievous and burdensome every day.

2. They never attain satisfaction in what they do, but still find that there is something lacking. This makes all they do, burdensome and unpleasant to them; at length this will betray them into backsliding and apostasy. Yet there is something worse behind it: all they have done, or are ever able to do, built on the foundation upon which they stand, will come to no account, but will perish with them at the great day.

Would we prevent all these fatal evils? Would we engage in a real, thriving, everlasting holiness? — then let our first business be to secure a relation to Jesus Christ, without which none of this will ever be attained.

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To close this discourse, I will only eliminate from it a putrid calumny[840] cast by the Papists, Quakers, and others of the same confederacy, against the grace of God, upon the doctrine of the free justification of a sinner through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. With shameless impudence they accuse all who assert this doctrine, as those who maintain salvation is attainable through a mere external imputation of righteousness; and those who are saved in this way are "unclean and unholy," as the Quakers put it; or "negligent of the duties of righteousness and obedience," as the Papists and others slanderously report. The obvious impudence of this calumny is sufficiently evident from this: we assert that sanctification and holiness are particular only to believing, justified persons. That is, faith and holiness are inseparable, whether habitually or actually, or in both regards. Thus, all saved persons are infallibly sanctified and made holy.[841]

Because all believers, and only believers, are sanctified and made holy, what is it that is sanctified in them, or what is the proper seat and subject of this work? That will be declared next; for it is not a mere external designation, as things were called "holy" under the Old Testament, nor is it any transient act, or any series or course of actions, that we plead about. But it is that which has a real being and existence; and so it has a constant abiding or residence in us. Hence, someone who is holy is always holy, whether he is in the actual exercise of the duties of holiness or not; though an omission of any of these duties in its proper season is contrary to and an impeachment of holiness, as to its degrees.[842] Now, the subject of this sanctification is the entire nature or whole person of a believer. It is not any one faculty of the soul, or affection of the mind, or part of the body that is sanctified, but the whole soul and body, or the entire nature, of every believing person. And the work of sanctification is really distinguished by this from any other mere common work which may represent or pretend to it; for all such works are partial. They are in the mind only, by light and notions of truth; or they are in the affections only, in zeal and devotion; or they are in the mind and conscience, in the convictions of sin and duty; but they do not proceed any further. True holiness, however, consists in the renovation of our whole persons; which must be demonstrated.

1. I proved before that our entire nature was originally created in the image of God, and this is acknowledged by all. Our whole soul bore his image in the rectitude of all its faculties and powers, in order for the life of God and his enjoyment,. Nor was it confined to the soul only. The body — not as to its shape, figure, or natural use, but as an essential part of our nature — was also interested in the image of God by its participation in original righteousness. Hence the whole person was a fit principle for communicating this image of God to others by natural propagation, which is an act of the entire person.

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For a person created and abiding in the image of God, generating another in his own image and likeness by virtue of the covenant of creation, generated him in the image of God also — that is, he communicated to him a nature that was upright and pure.

2. By the entrance of sin, this image of God, so far as it was our righteousness and holiness before him, was utterly defaced and lost. I also sufficiently evidenced this before. His image did not depart from any one power, part, or faculty of our souls, but from our whole nature. Accordingly, the Scripture describes —

(1.) The depravation of our nature distinctly, in all its powers. In particular, I previously declared and vindicated the corruption that ensued on our minds, wills, and affections upon the loss of the image of God. And —

(2.) In reference to the first actings of all these faculties in moral and spiritual things, the Scripture adds that "all the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts are evil, and that continually," Gen 6.5. All the original first actings of the powers of our souls, in or about rational and moral things, are always evil; for "an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit." That which is lame and distorted can do nothing that is straight and regular. Hence —

(3.) All the outward actions of persons in this state and condition are evil; they are the unfruitful works of darkness. And not only so, but,

(4.) The Scripture, in its description of the effects of this depravation of our nature, says the body and its members are in a partnership in all this obliquity[843] and sin: the "members" of the body are "servants of uncleanness and iniquity," Rom 6.19. And the engagement of them all in the course and actings of our depraved nature, is particularly declared by our apostle out of the psalmist, Rom 3.12-15, "They have all gone out of the way; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood," in all the ways of evil.

This being the state of our whole nature in its depravation, our sanctification — in which alone its reparation in this life consists — must equally respect the whole. Some suppose that it is only our affections that are the subject of this work, in their deliverance from corrupt lusts and prejudices, and in their direction toward heavenly objects. For they say,

"The mind, or rational, intellectual power of the soul, in itself, is pure, noble, and untainted. It needs no other aid than to be delivered from the prejudices and obstructions of its operations, which are cast upon it by the engagements and inclinations of corrupt affections, and a vicious course of life in the world, received by uninterrupted tradition from our fathers. The mind is not able to extricate or deliver itself from this without the aid of grace."

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But they have chosen their instance very unhappily. For, among all the things that belong to our nature, there is not one which the Scripture so charges with this depravation, as it does the mind. This depravation in particular is said to be "fleshly," to be "enmity against God," to be filled with "vanity, folly, and blindness," as we have evinced before at large. Nor is there anything concerning the work of sanctification and renovation, that is so expressly affirmed, as that of the mind. It is declared to be the "renovation of our mind," Rom 12.2; or "being renewed in the spirit of our mind," Eph 4.23; that we "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge," Col 3.10; with other expressions of a similar nature.

It is therefore our entire nature that is the subject of evangelical holiness.[844] To manifest this in particulars:

1. Hence it is called the new man: Eph 4.24, "Put on the new man, which is created after God in righteousness and holiness." The principle of sin and corrupted nature in us is called, "The old man," for no other reason than this: it possesses all the active powers of the whole man, so that he neither does, nor can do, anything except what is influenced by it. Likewise, this principle of holiness in us, the renovation of our natures, is called "The new man," because it possesses the whole person with respect to its proper operations and ends. And it extends itself as large as the old man extends, or the depravation of our natures, which takes in the whole person — soul and body — with all its faculties and powers.

2. The heart, in the Scripture, is taken for the whole soul, with all its faculties, as they comprise one common principle of all moral operations (as I proved before). Therefore, under this consideration, whatever is worked in and upon the heart in this, is worked upon the whole soul. Now, the heart is not only said to be affected by this work of sanctification, or to have holiness worked in it, but the principal description that is given to us about this work consists in this: that in and by sanctification, a "new heart" is given to us, or created in us, as it is expressed in the promise of the covenant. Therefore, this can be nothing but investing[845] all the powers and faculties of our souls with a new principle of holiness and obedience to God.

3. Special mention is made about effecting this work on our souls and bodies, with their powers and faculties distinctly. I already proved this in the declaration of the work of our regeneration, or conversion to God; which is only preserved, cherished, improved, and carried on to its proper end, in our sanctification. The nature of that spiritual light which is communicated to our minds, of life to our wills, of love to our affections, has also been declared.

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Therefore it unavoidably follows from this, that the whole person is the subject of this work, and that holiness has its residence in the whole soul entirely.

4. We need go no further for the proof of this than to that prayer of the apostle for the Thessalonians which we asserted at the beginning of this discourse: 1Thes 5.23, "The God of peace himself sanctify you throughout," — that is, "in your whole natures or persons, in all that you are and do, so that you may not be sanctified only in this or that part, but will be every whit clean and holy throughout." And to make this more evident — so that we may know what it is that he prays may be sanctified, and thereby preserved blameless to the coming of Christ — he divides our whole nature into the two essential parts of soul and body. And in the soul he considers two things: (1.) The spirit; (2.) The soul, specifically so-called. This distinction occurs frequently in the Scripture; in which the "spirit" is understood to be the mind or intellectual faculty, and the "soul" is understood to be the affections. This is generally acknowledged, and it may be evidently proved. Therefore, the apostle prays that these may be sanctified and preserved holy throughout and entirely.[846] And that is done by the infusion of a habit of holiness into them, with its preservation and improvement. More of this afterward.

But this is not all. Our bodies are an essential part of our natures. We are constituted individual persons by their union with our souls. Now, as we are persons, we are the principles of all our operations — that is, every moral act we do, is the act of the whole person. The body, therefore, is involved in the good and evil of it. By this concomitance and participation, the body became a subject of the depravation of our nature; it is to be considered one entire principle with the soul in communicating original defilement from parents to children.[847] Besides, in that corruption of its constitution which it has fallen under as a punishment of sin, it is now subject to many disorderly motivations that are incentives and provocations to sin. Hence sin is said to "reign in our mortal bodies," and our members are said to be "servants to unrighteousness," Rom 6.12, 19. Moreover, by its participation in the defilement and punishment of sin, the body is disposed and made liable to corruption and destruction — for death entered by sin, and not otherwise.

On the other hand, for all these same accounts, it is also necessary that the body has an interest in this work and privilege of sanctification and holiness; and so it has —

(1.) By participation: for it is our persons that are sanctified and made holy ("Sanctify them throughout"); even though our souls are the first and proper subject of the infused habit or principle of holiness, yet our bodies, as essential parts of our natures, are also partakers of this.

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(2.) By a special influence of the grace of God upon them also, as far as our bodies have any influence in moral operations; for the apostle tells us that "our bodies are members of Christ," 1Cor 6.15, and so, consequently, they have influences of grace from Him as our head.

(3.) In the work of sanctification, the Holy Ghost comes and dwells in us; and thus "our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us;" and "the temple of God is holy," 1Cor 3.16-17 — though I confess, this rather belongs to the holiness of particular dedication to God, which we will address afterward.[848] And,

[1.] Hereby the parts and members of the body are made instruments and "servants to righteousness unto holiness," Rom 6.19 — they become prepared and fit to be used in the acts and duties of holiness, such as being made clean and sanctified to God.

[2.] Hereby they are disposed and prepared for a blessed resurrection at the last day; which will be worked by the Spirit of Christ which dwelled in them and sanctified them in this life, Rom 8.10-11; Phi 3.20-21; 2Cor 4.14, 16, 17.[849]

Therefore, our whole persons, and in them our whole natures, are the subject of this work; and true holiness invests the whole of it. Now, does this universal investiture of our nature, in all its faculties and powers, by a new principle of holiness and obedience to God whereby it is renewed into his image, belong to that moral virtue which some so plead for as to substitute it for gospel holiness? Those who are patrons of that cause, may do well to consider this question. For if it does not, then whatever else it may be, it does not belong to that holiness which the gospel teaches, requires, promises, and communicates. Moreover, it is worthy of consideration for practical reasons, so that men do not deceive themselves with only a partial work in conviction, or only a change of their affections, instead of this evangelical sanctification. It is often and truly said how men may have their minds enlightened, their affections worked upon, and their lives greatly changed, and yet come short of real holiness. The best test of this work is by its universality with respect to its subject. If anything remains unsanctified in us, sin may set up its throne there, and maintain its sovereignty. But where this work is true and real, however weak and imperfect it may be as to its degrees, it possesses the whole person. It does not leave the least hold to sin, that it does not continually combat and conflict with. 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 new nature. There is nothing in us to which the power of holiness does not reach according to its measure. Men may therefore, if they please, deceive themselves by adopting some notions in their minds, or some devotions in their affections, or some good and virtuous deeds in their conduct, but holiness does not consist in these.

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Lastly, men may see from this how vainly they excuse themselves in their sins, in their passions, intemperances, and similar disorders of mind, and from their constitutions and inclinations — for true sanctification reaches to the body also. It is true that grace does not change the natural constitution so as to make the one who was sickly, to be healthy and strong; nor will it make the one who was melancholy, to be sanguine; or the like. It does not alter the course of the blood, and the animal spirits, with the impressions they make upon our minds. But if you consider these things morally, and as the whole person is a principle of spiritual and moral operations, then it works such a change and alteration on the whole person, as to cure morally sinful distempers — distempers of passion, elations of mind, and those intemperances which men were previously excessively inclined to by their tempers and constitutions. Indeed, from its efficacy upon our whole persons in curing these habitual, inordinate, and sinful distempers, comes the principal discovery of its truth and reality. Let no one therefore pretend that grace and holiness do not change men's constitutions; and thereby excuse and palliate[850] their disorderly passions before men, and keep themselves from being humbled before God because of them. For although holiness does not change them naturally and physically, it does change them morally; so that the constitution itself will be no longer be such a means[851] and incentive to disorderly passions as it has been. If grace has not cured that passion, pride, causeless anger, inveterate wrath, and intemperance, which men's constitutions particularly incline to, then for my part, I do not know what it has done, nor what a number of outward duties might signify. The Spirit and grace of Christ cause "the wolf to dwell with the lamb, and the leopard to lie down with the kid," Isa 11.6. It will change the most wild and savage nature into meekness, gentleness, and kindness; examples of this have been multiplied in the world.

Chapter IV.

The defilement of sin, what it consists in, with its purification.

Purification is the first proper notion of sanctification — The institution of baptism confirms the same apprehension — A spiritual defilement and pollution in sin — The nature of that defilement, or what it consists in — Depravations of nature and acts with respect to God's holiness, how and why it is called "filth" and "pollution" — The twofold depravity and defilement of sin — Its aggravations — We cannot purge it by ourselves, nor could it be done by the law, nor by any ways that are invented by men for that end.

These things being premised, we proceed to the consideration of sanctification itself, in a further explication of the description given before.

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The first thing we ascribe to the Spirit of God in sanctification, or what constitutes the first part of it, is the purifying and cleansing of our nature from the pollution of sin. Purification is the first proper notion of internal real sanctification. Although it does not precede the other acts and parts of this work in order of time, yet in order of nature it is the one that is first proposed and apprehended. To be unclean absolutely, and to be holy, are universally opposed to each other. Not to be purged from sin is the mark of an unholy person, just as to be cleansed is the mark of a holy one. And this purification, or effecting this work of cleansing, is ascribed to all the causes and means of sanctification; such as —

1. The Spirit, who is the principal efficient of the whole. Not that sanctification consists wholly in this, but firstly and necessarily it is required for this, Pro 30.12.[852] Eze 36.25, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, I will cleanse you." I evinced before, that sprinkling clean water upon us is the communication of the Spirit to us for the end designed. It has also been declared why he is called "water," or why he is compared to this. And the 27th verse shows expressly that it is the Spirit of God that is intended: "I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." Thus, what he is promised for in the first place, is cleansing us from the pollution of sin. In order of nature, this is placed before his enabling us to walk in God's statutes, or to yield holy obedience to him.

To the same purpose, among many others, is the promise in Isa 4.4, "When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and has purged the blood of Jerusalem from its midst by the Spirit of judgment, and by the Spirit of burning." It has also been declared on what basis the Spirit is compared to fire, and thus is called a "Spirit of burning" here. In brief, fire and water were the means by which all things were purified and cleansed typically in the law, Num 31.23.[853] And the Holy Spirit being the principal efficient cause of all spiritual cleansing, he is compared to them both (things by which his work was signified), and called by their names. See Mal 3.2-3.[854] And "judgment" is frequently taken for holiness. Therefore, "the Spirit of judgment," and "the Spirit of burning," is the Spirit of sanctification and purification. And here he is promised for the sanctification of the elect of God. How will he effect this work? He will do it, in the first place, by "washing away their filth and purging away their blood;" — that is, all their spiritual, sinful defilements.

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2. The application of the death and blood of Christ to our souls, by the Holy Ghost, for our sanctification, is said to be for our cleansing and purging: Eph 5.25-26, "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." He "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works," Tit 2.14. "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin," 1John 1.7. "He loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," Rev 1.5. "The blood of Christ purges our conscience from dead works to serve the living God," Heb 9.14. I acknowledge that some of these passages may respect the expiation of the guilt of sin by the blood of Christ as offered in sacrifice; for "by himself he purged our sins," Heb 1.3. But because they all assume a defilement in sin, most of them respect its cleansing by applying the virtue of Christ's blood to our souls and consciences in our sanctification. And —

3. Moreover, where sanctification is enjoined as our duty, it is prescribed under this notion of cleansing ourselves from sin: "Wash, make yourselves clean," Isa 1.16. "O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved," Jer 4.14. "Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God," 2Cor 7.1. "Every man who has this hope in him purifies himself," 1John 3.3; Psa 119.9; 2Tim 2.21. Similar expressions of this duty occur in other places.

4. Corresponding to these promises and precepts, and confirming them, we have the institution of the ordinance of baptism, the outward way and means of our initiation into the Lord Christ, and the profession of the gospel; it is the great representation of the inward "washing of regeneration," Tit 3.5. Now this baptism, in the first place, outwardly expresses "putting away the filth of the flesh," by externally washing with material water, 1Pet 3.21. What corresponds to this can be nothing but the inward purifying of our souls and consciences by the grace of the Spirit of God; that is, says our apostle, "putting off the body of the sins of the flesh," Col 2.11, which contains the whole defilement and corruption of sin. All the legal purifications of old were types of this for us. Therefore we will do three things in explicating this first branch of our sanctification:

1. Show that there is a spiritual pollution and defilement in sin;

2. Declare what it is, or what it consists of (p. 426); and,

3. Manifest how it is removed or washed away, and believers made holy thereby (chap. V).

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The FIRST does not need to be insisted on much. Our minds and their conceptions are to be regulated in these things by divine revelation and expressions. And in the whole representation made to us in the Scripture of the nature of sin, of our concern in this, of God's regard towards us on account of this, of the way and means by which we may be delivered from it, there is nothing so much inculcated in us, as sin's being filthy, abominable, and full of defilement and pollution; this is set forth both in plain expressions and various similitudes. On account of this, it is said to be "abhorred by God, the abominable thing which his soul hates, which he cannot behold, which he cannot but hate and detest;"[855] and it is compared to "blood, wounds, sores, leprosy, scum, and loathsome diseases."[856] With respect to this, it is frequently declared that we must be "washed, purged, purified, cleansed," as in the testimonies cited earlier, before we can be accepted by God or be brought to enjoy him. And the work of the Spirit of Christ in the application of his blood to us for taking away sin, is compared to the effects of "fire, water, soap, nitre," [857] everything that has a purifying, cleansing faculty in it. These things so frequently occur in the Scripture, and testimonies concerning them are so many, that it is altogether needless to produce particular instances. This is evident and undeniable, that the Scripture — which regulates our conceptions about spiritual things — expressly declares that all sin is "uncleanness," and every sinner is "defiled" by it, and all unsanctified persons are "wholly unclean." How far these expressions are metaphorical, or what that metaphor consists of, must be declared afterward.

Besides, there is no notion of sin and holiness of which believers have a more tangible, spiritual experience; for even though they may not (or do not) comprehend the metaphysical notion or nature of this pollution and defilement of sin, they are aware of the effects it produces in their minds and consciences. They find in sin what is attended by shame and self-abhorrence, and it requires deep abasement of their soul. They discern in sin, or in themselves because of it, an unsuitableness to the holiness of God, and an unfitness for communion with him. There is nothing they more earnestly labor after in their prayers and supplications, than a cleansing from sin by the blood of Christ; nor are there any promises that are more precious to them than those which express their purification and purging from sin. For next to their interest in the atonement made by the sacrifice of Christ, these are the things that most give them boldness in their approaches to God. So our apostle fully expresses it in Heb 10.19-22:

"Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."

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The foundation of all our confidence in our access to God, the right and title that we have to approach him, is laid in the blood of Christ, the sacrifice he offered, the atonement he made, and the remission of sins which he obtained by it. He declares its effect in verse 19, "Having boldness by the blood of Jesus." Our way of access is by pleading an interest in his death and suffering, by which an admission and acceptance is consecrated for us: Verse 20, "By a new and living way, which he has consecrated." And our encouragement to make use of this foundation, and to engage in this way, is taken from Christ's discharge of the office he has as high priest on our behalf: '"Having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near."

But besides all this, when we actually address God, so that we may make use of the boldness given to us in the full assurance of faith, it is moreover required that "our hearts be sprinkled, and our bodies washed;" — that is, that our whole persons be purified from the defilement of sin by the sanctification of the Spirit. This is the experience of believers. Not only can we oppose this to and plead it against the stupidity of those persons who deride these things, but we may conclude from it that those who are sincerely unacquainted with it, are wholly without an interest in that evangelical holiness which we inquire about. Therefore we do not need to labor any further to confirm what so many testimonies of Scripture say about it, and what we have undoubtedly experienced ourselves.

SECONDLY, The nature of this defilement of sin must be inquired into.

1. Some account it to guilt. This is because the inseparable effects of guilt are shame and fear, by which sin immediately evidenced itself in our first parents. And because shame in particular is from this filth of sin, guilt may be esteemed an adjunct of it. Hence sin was said to be "purged by sacrifices" when its guilt was expiated;[858] and Christ is said to "purge our sins by himself," — that is, when he offered himself a sacrifice for us, Heb 1.3. Therefore it is granted that so far as the filth of sin was taken away, not by actual purification, but by legal expiation, sin with its guilt is what was intended. But the Scripture, as we showed, intends more by this: it intends such an internal, inherent defilement that is taken away by real, actual sanctification, and not otherwise.

2. There are some special sins which have a particular pollution and defilement attending them; and on this account, they are usually called "uncleanness" in a specific manner. The basis for this is in the apostle's statement in 1Cor 6.18: "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body; but the one who commits fornication sins against his own body."

427

All sins of that nature have a particular defilement and filth accompanying them. And holiness is sometimes mentioned in opposition to this special pollution, 1Thes 4.3.[859] Yet this is not what we are inquiring about, even though it is included in it as one special kind of defilement. What we are now considering always inseparably attends every sin as sin, as an adjunct or effect of it. It is the uncleanness of all sin, and not just the sin of uncleanness, which we intend. To discover its proper nature, we may observe that —

(1.) The pollution of sin is that property by which it is directly opposed to the holiness of God, and to which God says his holiness is contrary. Hence he is said to be "of purer eyes than to behold evil, or to look on iniquity," Hab 1.13. It is a thing that is vile and loathsome to the eyes of his holiness, Psa 5.4-6. So concerning it, God uses that emotional dehortation, "Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate," Jer 44.4. And it is with respect to his own holiness that he sets forth the names of all those things which are vile, filthy, loathsome, and offensive — everything that is abominable. It is abominable to him, because he is infinitely pure and holy in his own nature. That consideration which ingenerates shame and self-abhorrence on account of sin's defilement, is taken specifically from the holiness of God. Hence people are so often said to "blush," to be "ashamed," to be "filled with humiliation," to be "vile," to be "abased in their own sight," under the sense and apprehension of the filth of their sin.

(2.) The holiness of God is the infinite, absolute perfection and rectitude of his nature as the eternal original cause and pattern of truth, uprightness, and rectitude in all. And just as God exerts this holiness naturally and necessarily in all he does, so he exerts it particularly in his law. The law is therefore good, holy, and perfect, because it represents the holiness of God which is impressed on it. God might not have made any creature, nor given any law — they are free acts of his will; but having done so, it was absolutely necessary from his own nature that this law of his should be holy. And therefore, whatever is contrary to or different from the law of God, is contrary to and different from the holiness of God himself. Hence it follows —

(3.) This defilement and pollution of sin is that depravity, disorder, and shameful crookedness that is in it, with respect to the holiness of God as expressed in his law. Sin is either original or actual. Original sin is the habitual nonconformity of our natures to the holiness of God, expressed in the law of creation. Actual sin is our nonconformity to God and his holiness expressed in the particular commands of the law.

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The nature of all sin, therefore, consists in its enmity, its nonconformity, to the rule. Now, this rule, which is the law, may be considered in two ways which give a twofold respect, or an inseparable consequence or adjunct, to every sin:

[1.] As it expresses the authority of God in its precepts and sanction. Hence guilt inseparably follows every sin, which is the respect it induces on the sinner as to the law, on account of the authority of the Lawgiver. The act of sin passes away, but this guilt abides on the person; and it must do so until the law is satisfied, and the sinner is absolved upon that. This naturally produces fear, which is the first expression of a sense of guilt. So Adam expressed it upon his own sin: "I heard your voice, and I was afraid," Gen 3.10.

[2.] The law may be considered as it expresses the holiness of God and his truth; and from the nature of God, it was necessary to express it. Hence in sin there is a specific nonconformity to the holiness of God. This is the "macula," the "spot," "stain," and "filth" of sin; these are inseparable from sin while God is holy, unless it is purged and done away with, as we will show. And this is inseparably attended with shame; which is the expression of a sense of this filth of sin. So Adam, upon his sin, had his eyes opened to see his nakedness, and he was filled with shame.

This is the order of these things: God, who is the object of our obedience and sin, is considered as the supreme lawgiver. He has impressed his authority and his holiness on his law. Sin, with respect to his authority, is attended with guilt; and this, in the conscience of the sinner, produces fear; and as it respects the holiness of God, it is attended with filth or uncleanness; and this produces shame. The ultimate effects of it are, on the first account, "poena sensus;" on the other, "poena damni." [860] Therefore, this is the spot, the stain, the pollution of sin, which is purged in our sanctification; it is the perverse disorder and shameful crookedness that is in sin with respect to the holiness of God.

And there is a real filthiness in this, but it is spiritual; this is compared with and opposed to things that are materially and carnally filthy. "It is not what goes into a man," food of any sort, "that defiles him," says our Savior, "but what comes out of the heart," — that is, spiritually, with respect to God, His law, and holiness. And just as men are taught the guilt of sin by their own fear, which is the inseparable adjunct of it, so they are taught the filth of sin by their own shame, which unavoidably attends it. One end of the law and of the gospel is to instruct us in this; for in the renovation of the law, which was added to the promise "because of transgressions," Gal 3.19, and in the institutions that are annexed to it, God designed to instruct us further in them both, with the ways by which we may be freed from them.

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In the doctrine of the law, with its sanction and curse, and in the institution of sacrifices to make atonement for sin, God declared the nature of guilt, and its remedy. By the same law, and by the institution of various ordinances for purification and cleansing, and also by determining various ceremonial defilements, God makes known the nature of this filth, and its remedy. To what end were so many meats and drinks, so many diseases and natural distempers, so many external fortuitous accidents, such as touching the dead and the like, made religiously unclean by the law? It was to no other end than to teach us the nature of the spiritual defilement of sin. And the ordinances of purification were instituted to the same end: to demonstrate the relief and remedy for it. As they were outward and carnal, these ordinances purged those uncleannesses which were outward and carnal also, as made so by the law. But internal and spiritual things were taught and prefigured by this. Indeed, they were worked and effected by virtue of their typical relation to Christ, as the apostle teaches:

Heb 9.13-14, "If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

And hence the whole work of sanctification is expressed by "opening a fountain for sin and for uncleanness;" that is, purging them away, Zec 13.1. So it is in the gospel, where the blood of Christ is said to "purge" our sins with respect to guilt, and to "wash" our souls with respect to filth. Indeed, so inseparable is this filth from sin, and shame from filth, that wherever there abides a sense of sin, there is a sense of this filth and shame. Even the heathen, who had only the workings of their minds and consciences for their guide, were never able to quit themselves from a sense of this pollution of sin; and from this proceeded all those ways of lustration,[861] purgation, and cleansing, by washings, sacrifices, and mysterious ceremonial observances which they had invented.

It only remains, therefore, that we inquire a little into the reasons and causes why this depravity of sin, and this discrepancy from the holiness of God, is such a defilement of our natures, and so inseparably attended with shame. For without considering this, we can never understand the true nature of sanctification and holiness. And also, as to those who pretend that all grace consists in the practice of moral virtues, it will then become further apparent how openly they betray their prodigious ignorance of these things. And to this purpose we may observe —

1. That the spiritual beauty and attractiveness of the soul consists in its conformity to God. Grace gives beauty. Hence it is said of the Lord Christ that he is "fairer," or more beautiful, "than the children of men," and that is because "grace was poured into his lips," Psa 45.2.

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When the church is furnished or adorned with his graces, he affirms she is "fair and attractive," Song 1.5, 6.4, 7.6. By washing the church, Christ takes away the "spots and wrinkles," rendering it beautiful — that is, "holy and without blemish," Eph 5.27. This beauty originally consisted in the image of God in us. It contained the whole order, harmony, and symmetry of our natures, in all their faculties and actions, with respect to God and our utmost end. Therefore, whatever is contrary to this — as all and every sin is contrary to it — it has a deformity in it; or it brings spots, stains, and wrinkles upon the soul. Sin contains all that is contrary to spiritual beauty and attractiveness, and contrary to inward order and glory; this is the filth and pollution of it.

2. Holiness and conformity to God is the honor of our souls. This alone makes them truly noble; for all honor consists in accession[862] to the one who is the only spring and absolute possessor of all that is honorable, in whom alone is the origin and perfection of all being and substance. Now, we have this by holiness alone, or by that image of God in which we are created. Whatever is contrary to this is base, vile, and unworthy. This is sin; and therefore, this is the only base thing in nature. Hence it is said of some great sinners that they had "debased themselves to hell," Isa 57.9. This belongs to the pollution of sin — that it is base, vile, unworthy; it dishonors the soul, filling it with shame in itself, and contempt from God. And any persons who are not absolutely hardened, are in their own minds and consciences, as aware of this baseness of sin as they are of the deformity that is in it. When men's eyes are opened to see their nakedness — how vile and base they have made themselves by sin — they will have a sense of this pollution that is not easily expressed. It is from this that sin has the properties and effects of uncleanness in the sight of God, and in the conscience of the sinner: God abhors it, loathes it, and considers it an abominable thing — as that which is directly contrary to his holiness. As impressed on the law, this is the rule of purity, integrity, spiritual beauty, and honor; and in the sinner's conscience, it is attended with shame, as something deformed, loathsome, vile, base, and dishonorable. See Jer 2.26.[863]

In all in whom sin occurs, I say, unless they are blind and obdurate, it fills them with shame. I do not speak of those who are little or not at all spiritually aware of sin or any of its properties — they do not fear because of its guilt, nor are they disquieted by its power, nor are they acquainted with its fomes [864] or its disposition to evil — and so they are not ashamed of its filth. Much less do I speak of those who are given over to work all kinds of uncleanness with delight and greediness, wallowing in its pollution like the sow in the mire — those who not only do the things which God abhors, but also take pleasure in those who do them.

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Rather, I intend those who have the least real conviction of the nature and tendency of sin, who are all (in one degree or other) ashamed of it as a filthy thing. Shrugging off outward shame produced by its object, or shame with respect to the conscience and judgment of human kind — as those do who "proclaim their sins like Sodom, and do not hide them," Isa 3.9 — is the highest aggravation of sinning and contempt of God. And ignoring inward shame, with respect to the divine omniscience, is the highest evidence of a reprobate mind.

But in all others, who have more light and spiritual sense, sin produces shame and self-abhorrence, which is always with respect to the holiness of God, as in Job 42.5-6.[865] They see that being in sin — which is so vile, base, and filthy, and renders them so — is like men under a loathsome disease: they are not able to bear the sight of their own sores, Psa 38.5. God detests, abhors, and turns from sin as a loathsome thing, and man is filled with shame for it — it is therefore filthy. Indeed, no tongue can express the sense which a believing soul has of the uncleanness of sin with respect to the holiness of God. And this may suffice to give a brief look into the nature of this defilement of sin, which the Scripture so abundantly insists on, and which all believers are so aware of.

This depravity or spiritual disorder with respect to the holiness of God, which is the shameful defilement of sin, is twofold:

1. That which is habitual in all the faculties of our souls by nature, as they are the principle of our spiritual and moral operations. These faculties are all shamefully and loathsomely depraved, out of order, and in no way correspondent to the holiness of God. Hence, by nature we are wholly unclean; — who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean? And this uncleanness is graphically expressed under the similitude of a wretched, polluted infant, Eze 16.3-5.[866]

2. That which is actual in all the actings of our faculties as so defiled, and as far as they are so defiled; for —

(1.) Of whatever nature a sin may be, pollution attends it. Hence the apostle advises us to "cleanse ourselves from all pollutions of the flesh and spirit," 2Cor 7.1. The sins that are internal and spiritual — such as pride, self-love, covetousness, unbelief — have pollution attending them; and so do those which are fleshly and sensual.

(2.) So far as anything of this depravity or disorder mixes itself with the best of our duties, it renders both us and them unclean: Isa 64.6, "We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags."

As this uncleanness is habitual respecting our natural defilement, it is equal in and to everyone born into the world — by nature, we are all alike polluted, and that is to the utmost of what our nature is capable.

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But this is not so with respect to actual sins; for uncleanness has various degrees and aggravations in these, even as many as sin itself:

1. The greater the sin is from its nature or circumstances, the greater the defilement which attends it. Hence there is no other sin expressed by the terms filthiness and abhorrence as idolatry is, which is the greatest of sins. See Eze 16.36-37.[867] Or,

2. There is an aggravation of uncleanness when the whole person is defiled, as it is in the case of fornication, instanced before.

3. It is heightened by a continuance in sin, by which an addition is made to its pollution every day; and this is called "wallowing in the mire," 2Pet 2.22.

In this whole discourse, I have barely touched on this consideration of sin which the Scripture so frequently mentions and inculcates. For just as all the first institutions of divine worship recorded in Scripture had some respect to this, so is the last rejection of obstinate sinners mentioned in it: "He that is filthy," or unclean, "let him be filthy still," Rev 22.11. Nor is there any notion of sin that is so frequently insisted on, by which God would convey an apprehension of its nature, and an abhorrence to our minds and consciences, as this one, of sin's pollution. And in order to use it to discover the nature of holiness, we may yet observe these five things:

1. Where this uncleanness abides unpurged, there neither is nor can there be any true holiness at all, Eph 4.22-24;[868] for it is universally opposed to it — it is our un-holiness. Therefore, where it is absolute, and it is not purified in any measure or degree, there is no work of sanctification, no holiness that has so much as begun. For in purging this uncleanness, it makes its entrance upon the soul — the effect of this purging is the first beginning of holiness in us. I acknowledge that it is not at once, absolutely and perfectly taken away in anyone in this world; for the work of purging it is a continued act, commensurate to the whole work of our sanctification. Therefore, those who are truly sanctified and holy, are still deeply aware of the remainder of it in themselves; they greatly bewail it and earnestly endeavor after its removal. But there has begun, and there is carried on, an initial, real, sincere, and (as to all the faculties of the soul) universal purging of it, which belongs to the nature and essence of holiness, even though it is not absolutely perfected in this life. Men who pretend to a grace and holiness that consists in moral virtue only, without supposing and regarding the purification of this pollution of sin, only deceive their own souls and others (so far as any are forsaken by God), by giving credit to these virtues. The virtues of men who are not purged from the uncleanness of their natures, are an abomination to the Lord, Tit 1.15.[869]

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2. Unless this uncleanness of sin is purged and washed away, we can never come to enjoy God: "Nothing that defiles will by any means enter into the new Jerusalem," Rev 21.27. To suppose that an unpurified sinner can be brought to the blessed enjoyment of God, is to overthrow both the law and the gospel, and to say that Christ died in vain. It is therefore of the same importance as the everlasting salvation of our souls, to have them purged from sin.

3. Without the special aid, assistance, and operation of the Spirit of God, we are not able to free ourselves from this pollution in any measure or degree, whether it is natural and habitual, or actual. It is true that it is frequently prescribed to us as our duty. We are frequently commanded to "wash ourselves," to "cleanse ourselves from sin," to "purge ourselves" from all our iniquities, and the like. But to suppose that we have power, of ourselves, to do whatever God requires of us, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of no effect. Our duty is our duty, constituted unalterably by the law of God, whether we have the power to perform it or not. We had that power at our first obligation by and to the law, and God is not obliged to bend the law to conform it to our warpings, nor to suit our sinful weaknesses. Therefore, whatever God works in us in a way of grace, he also prescribes to us as our duty. And that is because, even though he does it in us, yet he also does it by us, so that the same work is an act of his Spirit and of our wills, as moved by him. Of ourselves, therefore, we are not able by any endeavors of our own, nor by any ways of our own finding out, to cleanse ourselves from the defilement of sin.

"If I am wicked," says Job, "why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean, you will still plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes will abhor me," Job 9.29-31.

There may be ways and means used by which an appearance of washing and cleansing may be made; but when things come to be tested in the sight of God, all will be found filthy and unclean. It is in vain, says the prophet, to take soap and lye to yourself: you will not be purged, Jer 2.22.[870] The most probable means of cleansing, and the most effectual one in our own judgment, however multiplied, will fail in this case. Some speak a lot about "washing away their sins by the tears of repentance;" but repentance as prescribed in the Scripture is of another nature, and it is assigned to another end. For men's tears in this matter, are but "soap and lye." However multiplied, they will not produce the intended effect. And therefore, in countless places in Scripture, God reserves this to himself as the immediate effect of his Spirit and grace — namely, to "cleanse us from our sins and our iniquities." Eze 36.33

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4. The institutions of the law for this end, to purge uncleanness, could not attain it of themselves. They did indeed purify the unclean legally; and they sanctified persons as to the "purifying of the flesh," Heb 9.13. This was done so that they would not be separated from their privileges in the congregation and the worship of God on that account; but of themselves they could go no further. They only typified and signified that by which sin was really cleansed, Heb 10.1-4.[871] But the real stain is too deep to be taken away by any outward ordinances or institutions; and therefore God, rejecting them all, as it were, promises to open another fountain to that purpose, Zec 13.1. Thus,

5. There is a great emptiness and vanity in all those aids and reliefs which the papal church has invented in this case. They are aware of the spot and stain that accompanies sin, of its pollution and defilement, which none can avoid whose consciences are not utterly hardened and blinded. But they are ignorant of the true and only means and remedy for it. And therefore, in the work of justification, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they do not submit themselves to the righteousness of God, as the apostle spoke of their predecessors.Rom 10.3 So too in the work of sanctification, being ignorant of the ways of the working of the Spirit of grace, and the efficacy of the blood of Christ, they go about setting up their own imaginations, and do not submit themselves to comply with the grace of God.

Thus, in the first place, they would (at least most of them would) have the whole uncleanness of our natures be washed away by baptism, "virtute operis operati." [872] The ordinance being administered, without any more to do, nor any previous qualifications of the person, whether internal or external, the filth of original sin is washed away. Yet this is not what happened with Simon Magus. Despite being baptized by Philip the evangelist, and that was upon his visible profession and confession, he continued "in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity." Act 8.23 He was therefore certainly not cleansed from his sins. But there is a cleansing in profession and sign, and there is a cleansing in the reality of sanctification. The former accompanies baptism when it is rightly administered. With respect to this, men are said to be "purged from their old sins," — that is, they made a profession, and they had a fair representation of it in being made partakers of its outward sign — 2Pet 1.9;[873] and they are also said to have escaped the "pollutions of the world" and the "lusts of the flesh," 2Pet 2.18, 20. But all this may happen, and yet sin is not really purged; for what is required for this is not only the "outward washing of regeneration" in the pledge of it, but the "internal renovation of the Holy Ghost," Tit 3.5.

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Having thus shed themselves of the filth of original sin, as easily as a man may put off his clothes when they are foul, they have found many ways by which the ensuing defilements that attend actual sins may be purged or done away. There is the sprinkling of holy water, confession to a priest, penances, fasting, and some other abstinences that are presumed to be of wonderful virtue to this end and purpose. I acknowledge that one, the art of confession, is really the greatest invention to accommodate the inclinations of all flesh that this world was ever acquainted with. For nothing is so suited to all the carnal interests of the priests, whatever they may be, nor does anything so secure veneration for them in the midst of their looseness and worthless conduct. Nor is anything so suited for the people, who for the most part have other business to deal with than to trouble themselves for very long about their sins; or who find it uneasy to become acquainted in their minds with their guilt and its consequences. Confession is such an expedited course of absolute exoneration, freeing them for other sins or business by depositing them wholly and safely with a priest, that nothing equal to it could ever have been invented. For the real way of dealing with God by Jesus Christ in these things — with endeavors to participate in the sanctifying, cleansing work of the Holy Ghost — is long, and very irksome to flesh and blood, besides being intricate and foolish to natural darkness and unbelief.

Yet it so happens that, after all these inventions, they can come to no perfect rest or satisfaction in their own minds. They can only find by experience, and to their disturbance, that their sores sometimes break out through all these sorry coverings: their defilements still fill them with shame, and the guilt of sin still fills them with fear. Hence they resort to their sheet-anchor[874] in this storm — in the relief which they have provided in another world when, however mistaken, they cannot complain of their disappointments. This is their purgatory, to which they must trust at last to cancel all their odd scores, and purge away that filth of sin which they have been unwilling to part with in this world. But this whole business of purgatory is a groundless fable — an invention set up in competition with and in opposition to the sanctification of the Spirit and the cleansing virtue of the blood of Christ — to provide unspeakably more profit and secular advantage to those who have its management committed to them. It is as great an encouragement to unholiness and continuance in sin for those who believe it, and who at the same time love the pleasures of sin (as do most of their church), as ever was or can be discovered or made use of.

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For, to come with a plain, downright dissuasion from holiness, and an encouragement to sin, is a design that would absolutely defeat itself. Nor is it capable of making an impression on those who retain the notion of a difference between good and evil. But this side-wind pretends to relieve men from the filth of sin, while it keeps them from the only ways and means by which sin may be cleansed. It leads them unawares into a quiet pursuit of their lusts, under an expectation of relief when all is past and done. Therefore, setting aside such vain imaginations, we may inquire into the true causes and ways of our purification from the uncleanness of sin described, in which the first part of our sanctification and the foundation of our holiness consists.

Chapter V.

The filth of sin is purged by the Spirit, and the blood of Christ.

Purification of the filth of sin is the first part of sanctification — How it is effected — The work of the Spirit in this — Efficacy of the blood of Christ to that purpose — The blood of his sacrifice is intended — How that blood cleanses sin — Application to it, and the application of it by the Spirit — What that application consists in — Faith is the instrumental cause of our purification, with the use of afflictions to the same purpose — Necessity of a due consideration of the pollution of sin — Considerations of the pollution and purification of sin practically improved — Various directions for a due application to the blood of Christ for cleansing — Various degrees of shamelessness in sinning — Directions for cleansing sin, continued — Thankfulness for the cleansing of sin, with other uses of the same consideration — Union with Christ, how it is consistent with the remainders of sin — From all that, the differences between evangelical holiness and the old nature are asserted.

THIRDLY,[875] The purging of the souls of those who believe, from the defilements of sin, is assigned in the Scripture to several causes of different kinds; for the Holy Spirit, the blood of Christ, faith, and afflictions, are all said to cleanse us from our sins; but this is in several ways, and with distinct kinds of efficacy. The Holy Spirit is said to do it as the principal efficient cause; the blood of Christ as the meritorious procuring cause; faith and affliction as the instrumental causes — the one kind is direct and internal, and the other is external and occasional.[876]

I. We are purged and purified from sin by the Spirit of God communicated to us. This has been previously confirmed in general by many testimonies of the holy Scriptures. And we may also gather from what has been said, what this work of his consists in; for —

1. Because the spring and fountain of all the pollution of sin lies in the depravation of the faculties of our natures, which ensued upon the loss of the image of God, He renews them again by his grace, Tit 3.5.

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Our lack of a due response to the holiness of God, as represented in the law and exemplified in our hearts originally, is a principal part and it is the universal cause of our whole pollution and defilement by sin. For when our eyes are opened to discern it, this is what at first fills us with shame and self-abhorrence, and what makes us so unacceptable, indeed, so loathsome to God. Who can rightly consider the vanity, darkness, and ignorance of his own mind, the perverseness and stubbornness of his own will, with the disorder, irregularity, and distemper of his own affections, with respect to spiritual and heavenly things — who is not ashamed of, who does not abhor himself? This is what has given our nature its leprosy, and defiled it throughout. And I will crave leave to say that the one who has no experience of spiritual shame and self-abhorrence on account of this nonconformity of his nature and of the faculties of his soul, to the holiness of God, is a great stranger to this whole work of sanctification. Who can recount the unsteadiness of his mind in holy meditation, his low and unbecoming conceptions of God's excellencies, his proneness to foolish imaginations and vanities that do not profit, his aversion to spirituality in duty and to fixedness in communion with God, his proneness to things that are sensual and evil — all arising from the spiritual irregularity of divine purity and holiness — and yet is not aware of his own vileness and baseness, and often deeply affected with shame by it?

Now, this whole evil frame is cured by the effectual working of the Holy Ghost in rectifying and renovating our natures. He gives a new understanding, a new heart, new affections, renewing the whole soul into the image of God, Eph 4.23-24; Col 3.10.[877] The way by which he does this has been so fully declared before in our opening of the doctrine of regeneration, that it does not need to be repeated here. Indeed, our original cleansing is in this, where mention is made of the "washing of regeneration," Tit 3.5. In regeneration, the image of God is restored to our souls. But we consider the same work now, as it is the cause of our holiness. Look then, how far our minds, our hearts, and our affections, are renewed by the Holy Ghost. That is how far we are cleansed from our habitual spiritual pollution. If we would be cleansed from our sins — which it is so frequently promised that we will be cleansed, and so frequently prescribed as our duty to be cleansed, and without which we neither have nor can have anything of true holiness in us — we must labor after and endeavor to grow in this renovation of our natures by the Holy Ghost. The more we have of saving light in our minds, of heavenly love in our wills and affections, and of a constant readiness to obedience in our hearts, the purer we are, and the more cleansed we are from the pollution of sin. The old principle of a corrupted nature is unclean and defiling, shameful, and loathsome.

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But the new creature, with the principle[878] of grace implanted in the whole soul by the Holy Ghost, is pure and purifying, clean and holy.

2. The Holy Ghost purifies and cleanses us by strengthening our souls by his grace, toward all holy duties and against all actual sins. It is by actual sins that our natural and habitual pollution is increased. Some make themselves base and vile as hell by this. But this also is prevented by the gracious actings of the Spirit. Having given us a principle of purity and holiness, he so acts it in our duties of obedience and in opposition to sin, that he preserves the soul free from defilements, or pure and holy, according to the tenor of the new covenant — that is, in such a measure and to such a degree as universal sincerity requires.

But it may yet be said that, "Indeed the Spirit makes us pure by this, and prevents many future defilements. Yet how is the soul freed from those sins it has contracted before this work upon it, or those sins which it may and does unavoidably fall into afterward? For just as there is no man who does good and does not sin, so there is none who is not more or less defiled with sin while he is in the body here in this world."

The apostle answers this objection or inquiry in 1John 1.7-9: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." But if sin is in us, we are defiled; and how will 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 cleanses us from all sin."

II. It is therefore the blood of Christ, in the second place, which is the meritorious procuring, and so the effective cause, that immediately purges us from our sins, by a special application of it to our souls by the Holy Ghost. And there is no truth belonging to the mystery of the gospel which is more plainly and evidently asserted than this, as it has been made apparent in part before: "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin," 1John 1.7; "He has washed us from our sins in his own blood," Rev 1.5; "The blood of Christ purges our conscience from dead works, that we may serve the living God," Heb 9.14; "He gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it," Eph 5.25, 26; to "purify for himself a peculiar people," Tit 2.14. Besides, whatever is spoken in the whole Scripture concerning purifying the unclean, the leprous, and the defiled, by sacrifices or other instruments of the Old Testament, it is all instructive in, and directive to, the purifying nature of the blood of Christ, from which alone these institutions had their efficacy. Its virtue is promised under that notion, in Zec 13.1.[879] And the faith and experience of all believers confirms this; for they are not imaginations of their own, but being built on the truth and promises of God, they yield tangible spiritual relief and refreshment for their souls.

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This is what they believe; this is what they pray for; and they find the fruits and effects of it in themselves. It may be that some of them do not; and maybe few comprehend distinctly the way by which, and the manner of how the blood of Christ, shed and offered long ago, should cleanse them from their sins now. But they believe the thing itself, as it is revealed; and they find a use for it in all their dealings with God. And I must say (let profane and ignorant persons, while they please, deride what they do not understand and are not able to disprove) that the Holy Spirit of God — which leads believers into all truth and enables them to pray according to the mind and will of God — guides them in and by the working and experience of faith, to pray for those things whose depths of mysteries they cannot comprehend. The one who studies well the things which he is taught by the Spirit to ask of God, will find a door opened to much spiritual wisdom and knowledge. For (let the world rage on) in those prayers which believers are taught and enabled by the Holy Ghost, helping them as a Spirit of supplication, two things are inexpressible:

First, the inward laboring and spiritual working of the sanctified heart and affections towards God; in these consist those "groanings that cannot be uttered," Rom 8.26. God alone sees, and knows, and understands, the fervent workings of the new creature when moved by the Holy Ghost in supplications; and so it is added in the next words, verse 27, "And he that searches the hearts knows what the meaning of the Spirit is,"[880] — what it favors and inclines toward. 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 to him who is the Searcher of hearts, as he is that Searcher. He knows what the bent, frame, inclination, and acting of the inward man is in prayer, from the power of the Spirit; which even those in whom these are worked, do not fathom or reach the depth of. The Spirit does this in the subject of prayer: in the hearts and minds of believers. The effects of his operation in them are inexpressible.

Secondly, As to the object of prayer, or the things prayed for, the Spirit in and by the word so represents and exhibits the truth, reality, subsistence, power, and efficacy of spiritual, mysterious things, to the faith and affectations of believers, that they have a real and experiential sense of them. They mix faith with, and they are affected by, those things that are now made near, now realized by them, which they are perhaps not able to doctrinally and distinctly explain in their proper notions. And thus we often see men who are low and weak in their notional apprehension of things, who are yet led in their prayers into communion with God in the highest and holiest mysteries of his grace.

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They experience the life and power of the things themselves in their own hearts and souls; and hereby their faith, love, affiance, and adherence to God, act and exercise themselves. So it is with them in this matter of the actual present purifying of the pollutions of sin by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We will now briefly inquire into the way of this purification:

1. Therefore, the blood of Christ in this means the blood of his sacrifice, with its power, virtue, and efficacy. And the blood of a sacrifice fell under a double consideration:

(1.) As it was offered to God to make atonement and reconciliation;

(2.) As it was sprinkled on other things for their purging and sanctification.

Part of the blood in every propitiatory sacrifice[881] was to be sprinkled around the altar, Lev 1.11. And in the great sacrifice of expiation,[882] some of the blood of the bullock was to be sprinkled before the mercy-seat seven times, Lev 16.14. Our apostle fully expresses this in a great and signal instance:

Heb 9.19, 20, 22, "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 wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament which God has enjoined unto you. … And almost all things are by the law purged with blood."

From this, the blood of Christ — as it was the blood of his sacrifice — has these two effects and it falls under this double consideration:

(1.) As he offered himself to God by the eternal Spirit, to make an atonement for sin and procure eternal redemption;

(2.) As it is sprinkled by the same Spirit on the consciences of believers, to purge them from dead works, as in Heb 9.12-14. And hence, with respect to our sanctification, it is called "The blood of sprinkling," Heb 12.24; for we have the "sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ," 1Pet 1.2.

2. The blood of Christ in his sacrifice is still always and continually in the same condition — it is of the same force and efficacy as it was in that hour in which it was shed. The blood of other sacrifices was always to be used immediately upon its effusion; for if it was cold and congealed, it was of no use to be offered or sprinkled. Blood was appointed to make atonement because the life or animal spirits were in it, Lev 17.11. But the blood of the sacrifice of Christ is always hot and warm, having the same spirits of life and sanctification still moving in it. Hence we have the phrase "new and living" [883] in Heb 10.20 — always living, and yet always newly slain.

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Everyone, therefore, who at any time has a special actual interest in the blood of Christ as sacrificed, has as real a purification from the defilement of sin, as the one who stood by the priest and had blood or water sprinkled on him typically. For the Holy Ghost diligently declares that whatever was done legally, carnally, or typically, by any of the sacrifices of old at any time, as to the expiation or purification of sin, it was all done really and spiritually by that one sacrifice — that is, by the offering and sprinkling of the blood of Christ; and it abides to be done so continually. The substance of our apostle's discourse in the ninth and tenth chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews is to this purpose.

And they had various sorts of sacrifices in which the blood of those sacrifices was sprinkled to this end: they were propitiatory in their offering; such as —

(1.) There was the yowm,[884] or continual burnt-offering of a lamb or kid for the whole congregation, morning and evening, whose blood was sprinkled as it was at other times. The habitual purification of the congregation was signified and carried on by this, so that they might be holy to the Lord, and cleansed from the daily incursions of secret and unknown sins.

(2.) On the Sabbath-day this daily sacrifice was doubled, morning and evening, denoting a particular and abounding communication of mercy and purging grace, through the administration of the instituted ordinances.

(3.) There was the great annual sacrifice at the feast of expiation,[885] when by the sacrifice of the sin-offering and the scape-goat, the whole congregation was purged from all their known and great sins, and recovered to a state of legal holiness; and there were other stated sacrifices.

(4.) There were occasional sacrifices for everyone, as their condition required; for those who were clean one day, indeed, one hour, might by some miscarriage or surprise be unclean the next. But there was a way that was continually ready for any man's purification, by his bringing his offering for that purpose.

Now, the blood of Christ must continually, and on all occasions, correspond to all of these, and accomplish spiritually what they legally effected, and typically represented. Our apostle asserts and proves this in Heb 9.9-14.[886] Thereby, the gradual progression of our sanctification is habitually effected in us, as signified by the continual daily sacrifice. From there, special cleansing virtue is communicated to us by the ordinances of the gospel, as expressly affirmed in Eph 5.25-26;[887] this is denoted by doubling the daily sacrifice on the Sabbath. By the blood of Christ, we are purged from all our sins whatsoever, great or small, as was typified in the great sacrifice on the day of expiation. We have continual recourse to him on all the occasions of our spiritual defilements whatsoever. So too, as to its purifying virtue, his blood corresponds to and accomplishes all legal institutions. It especially corresponds to the "ashes of the red heifer," Num 19.2-9, which was a standing ordinance by which everyone who was in any way defiled, might immediately be cleansed; and the one who would not make use of this, was to be cut off from the people, verse 20.

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It is the same with respect to the blood of Christ in our spiritual defilements; this is why it is called "a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness," Zec 13.1. The one who neglects to make use of it will perish in his uncleanness, and do so eternally.

To further clarify this whole matter, two things are to be inquired into:

(1.) How the blood of Christ thus cleanses us from our sins, or what it is that is done by it.

(2.) How we come to be made partakers of this benefit, or come to gain an interest in it.

(1.) As to the first, what was declared before must be observed: that the uncleanness we address is not physical or corporeal, but moral and spiritual only. It is the nonconformity of sin to the holiness of God, as represented in the law, for which it is loathsome to God, and attended with shame in us. Now, wherever there is an interest obtained in the purifying virtue of the blood of Christ (by the will, law, and appointment of God), it does these two things:

[1.] It takes away all loathsomeness in the sight of God, not from sin in the abstract, but from the sinner, so that he will be as someone who is absolutely washed and purified before Him. See Isa 1.16-18; Psa 51.7; Eph 5.25-27.[888]

[2.] It removes shame from the conscience, and it gives the soul boldness in the presence of God, Heb 10.19-22. When these things are done, then sin is purged, and our souls are cleansed.

(2.) It may be inquired how we are to apply ourselves to the blood of Christ for our purification, or how we may come to continually partake of its virtue as it is sprinkled for that purpose. Now, because what we do in this is worked in us by the Spirit of God, and my principal design is to declare his work in our sanctification, I will declare both his work and our duty in the following instances:

[1.] He is the one who reveals to us, and spiritually convinces us of the pollution of sin, and of our defilement by it. Indeed, something of this kind will be worked by the power of natural conscience, awakened and excited by ordinary outward means of conviction. For wherever there is a sense of guilt, there will be some kind of sense of filth, because fear and shame are inseparable. But this sense alone will never guide us to the blood of Christ for cleansing. What is required of us, is such a sight and conviction of it, that it may fill us with self-abhorrence and abasement, that it may cause us to loathe ourselves for the abomination that is in it. And this is the work of the Holy Ghost, belonging to that particular conviction of sin which is from him alone, John 16.8.

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I mean that self-abhorrence, shame, and humiliation we have with respect to the filth of sin, which is so often mentioned in the Scripture as a gracious duty; nothing is a higher aggravation of sin than for men to carry themselves with a carnal boldness toward God and in his worship, while they are unpurged from their defilements.[889] In a sense of this shame, the publican stood far off, as one ashamed and destitute of any confidence for a nearer approach. So the holy men of old professed to God that they blushed, and were ashamed to lift up their faces to him. Without this preparation by which we come to know the plague of our own hearts, the infection of our leprosy, and the defilement of our souls, we will never appeal to the blood of Christ for cleansing in a due manner. Therefore, this is required of us as the first part of our duty, and it is the first work of the Holy Ghost in this purging.

[2.] The Holy Ghost proposes, declares, and presents to us the only true remedy, the only means of purification. "When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet he could not heal you, nor cure you of your wound," Hos 5.13. When men begin to discern their defilements, they are apt to think of many ways for their purging. It was declared before what false ways have been invented to this purpose. And everyone is ready to discover a way of his own; everyone will apply his own soap and his own nitre. Even though the only fountain for cleansing is near to us, we cannot see it until the Holy Ghost opens our eyes, as he opened the eyes of Hagar. It is the Spirit who shows it to us and leads us to it. This is an eminent part of his office and work.

The principal end of His being sent, and consequently of his whole work, was to glorify the Son; just as the end and work of the Son was to glorify the Father. And the great way by which he glorifies Christ is by showing such things to us, John 16.14. Without his revealing, we can know nothing of Christ, nor of the things of Christ; for the Spirit is not sent in vain, to show us things that we can see by ourselves. And what is more shown of Christ, than his blood and its efficacy for purging our sins? We can therefore never discern it spiritually, and in a due manner, except by the Spirit. To have a true spiritual sense of the defilement of sin, and a gracious view of the cleansing virtue of the blood of Christ, is an eminent effect of the Spirit of grace. There may be something like it in the workings of an awakened natural conscience, with some beams of outward gospel light falling on it; but there is nothing of the work of the Spirit in it. Therefore, secondly, we must endeavor after this if we intend to be cleansed by the blood of Christ.

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[3.] The Spirit is the one who works faith in us, by which we actually gain an interest in the purifying virtue of the blood of Christ. By faith we receive Christ himself, and by faith we receive all the benefits of his mediation — that is, as they are tendered to us in the promises of God. Christ is our propitiation through faith in his blood as offered; and he is our sanctification through faith in his blood as sprinkled. And particular acting of faith on the blood of Christ, for the cleansing of the soul from sin, is required of us. A renewed conscience is sensible of a pollution in every sin, and it is not freed from the shame of it without a particular appeal to the blood of Christ. The conscience comes by faith to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, just as the sick man came to the pool of healing waters and waited for a season to be cleansed in it.Joh 5.2-9 So David, upon the defilement he contracted by his great sins, addresses himself to God with this prayer, "Purge me with hyssop, and I will be clean: wash me, and I will be whiter than snow," Psa 51.7. He alludes to the purging of leprous persons, the ordinance of which is instituted in Lev 14.2-7; or to that more general institution for the purification of all legal uncleanness by the water of separation, made from the ashes of the red heifer, Num 19.4-6. This is what our apostle referred to in Heb 9.13-14; for both these purifications were made by the sprinkling of blood or water with hyssop. It is plain, I say, that he alludes to these institutions; but it is just as plain that they are not the things themselves which he intends. For there was nothing in the law to purge by hyssop, those persons who were guilty of such sins as David lay under. Therefore he professes at the close of the psalm, that "sacrifice and burnt-offering God would not accept" in his case, Psa 51.16. It was therefore what was signified by those institutions which he appealed to — he really appealed to the blood of Christ, by which he might be "justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses," Acts 13.39; and likewise be purified. In like manner, all believers make an actual appeal to the blood of Christ for purging away their sins; until this is done, they have a "conscience of sins," — that is, a conscience condemning them for sin, and filling them with shame and fear, Heb 10.1-3.[890]

And this actual appeal by faith to the blood of Christ for cleansing, the mystery of which is scorned by many as a fanatical and unintelligible thing, consists in these four things:

1st. A spiritual view and due consideration of the blood of Christ in his sacrifice, as proposed in the promises of the gospel for our cleansing and purification. "Look to me," he says, "and be saved," Isa 45.22. This respects the whole work of our salvation, and all the means of it. Our way of coming into our interest in this is by looking to him — namely, as he is proposed to us in the promise of the gospel: for just as the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, so Christ was lifted up in his sacrifice on the cross, John 3.14; and so he is represented to us in the gospel, Gal 3.1.[891] And the means by which they were healed in the wilderness was by looking to the serpent that was lifted up.

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It is in this, then, that faith first acts: by a spiritual view and due consideration of the blood of Christ, as proposed to us in the gospel, for the only means of our purification. The more we abide in this contemplation, the more effectual our success will be in our appeal to it.

2dly. Faith actually relies on his blood for the real effecting of that great work and end for which it is proposed to us. For God sets forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood as offered, Rom 3.25,[892] so as to be our sanctification through faith in his blood as sprinkled. Establishing this special faith in our souls is what the apostle aims at in his excellent reasoning in Heb 9.13-14.[893] And his conclusion to that purpose is so evident, that he encourages us, upon that, to draw near in the full assurance of faith, Heb 10.22.

3dly. Faith works in this by fervent prayer, just as it does in its whole address to God with respect to his promises; because God will be sought out by the house of Israel for all these things. By this means, the soul brings itself near to its own mercy. And we are directed to do this in Heb 4.15-16.[894]

4thly. An acquiescence in the truth and faithfulness of God for cleansing us by the blood of Christ, from which we are freed from discouraging, perplexing shame, and have boldness in the presence of God.

[4.] The Holy Ghost actually communicates the cleansing, purifying virtue of the blood of Christ to our souls and consciences, whereby we are freed from shame and have boldness towards God. For the whole work of applying to believers the benefits of Christ's mediation, is properly his.

These are the things which believers aim at and intend in all their fervent supplications for the purifying and cleansing of their souls by the sprinkling and washing of the blood of Christ. The faith and persuasion of this gives them peace and holy boldness in the presence of God, without which they can have nothing but shame and humiliation in a sense of their own pollutions.

It does not belong here, to declare how the blood of Christ was the meritorious cause of our purification as it was offered — how he thereby procured for us eternal redemption, with all that was conducive or necessary for it, and how he thereby expiated our sins. Nor will I insist on the more mysterious way of communicating cleansing virtue to us from the blood of Christ, by virtue of our union with him. What has been said may suffice to give a little insight into that influence which the blood of Christ has in this first part of our sanctification and holiness. And as for those who assert that in no way does it cleanse us from our sins except that, by believing his teachings, confirmed by his death and resurrection, we amend our lives, turning from sin to righteousness and holiness — such persons renounce the mystery of the gospel, and all the proper efficacy of the blood of Christ.

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III. Faith is the instrumental cause of our purification: "Purifying their hearts by faith," Acts 15.9. The two unfailing evidences of sincere faith are that it purifies the heart within, and it works by love without. These are the touchstones on which faith may (indeed, ought) to be tested. We "purify our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit," 1Pet 1.22; that is, by believing, which is our original obedience to the truth. And hereby our souls are purified. "Unbelievers" and "unclean" are the same, Tit 1.15; for they have nothing in them by which they might be instrumentally cleansed. And we are purified by faith; because —

1. Faith itself is the principal grace by which our nature is restored to the image of God, and thus freed from our original defilement, Col 3.10; 1John 3.3.[895]

2. It is by faith on our part by which we receive the purifying virtue and influences of the blood of Christ; we have discussed this before. Faith is the grace by which we constantly adhere and cling to Christ, Deu 4.4; Josh 23.8; Act 11.23.[896] If the woman who touched his garment in faith obtained virtue from him to heal her issue of blood,Mat 9.20f then will not those who cling to him continually derive virtue from him for healing their spiritual defilements?

3. It is principally the working of faith, by which those defiling lusts and corruptions are mortified, subdued, and gradually worked out of our minds. All actual defilements spring from the remainders of defiling lusts, and their depraved workings in us, Heb 12.15 and Jas 1.14.[897] Faith works to correct and subdue them, (1) by deriving supplies of the Spirit and grace to that end, from Jesus Christ, as being the means of our abiding in them, and on which alone those supplies depend, John 15.3-5;[898] and also (2) by the acting of all other graces which are contrary to the polluting lusts of the flesh, and destructive of them. How faith works in this way is commonly declared, and so we must not enlarge on these things too far.

4. Faith takes in all the motives which are proposed to us, to stir us up to our utmost endeavors and diligence in the use of all means and ways for preventing the defilements of sin, and for cleansing our minds and consciences from the relics of dead works. And these motives, which are great and many, may be reduced to two heads:

(1.) A participation in the excellent promises of God at the present. The consideration of this brings a singular enforcement on the souls of believers to endeavor after universal purity and holiness, 2Cor 7.1. And,

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(2.) The future enjoyment of God in glory, to which we cannot attain without being purified from sin, 1John 3.2-3.

Now, these motives, which are the springs of our duty in this matter, are received and made efficacious by faith alone.

IV. Purging from sin is likewise ascribed in the Scripture to afflictions of all sorts. Hence they are called God's "furnace," and his "refining pot," Isa 31.9, 48.10; Pro 17.3. By afflictions he takes away the dross and filth of the vessels of his house. They are also called "fire" that tries the ways and works of men, consuming their hay and stubble, and purifying their gold and silver, 1Cor 3.12-13. And they do this through an efficacy to these ends communicated to them in the design and by the Spirit of God. For, by and in the cross of Christ, men were cut off from the curse of the first covenant to which all evil and trouble belonged, and they were implanted into the covenant of grace. The tree of the cross being cast into the waters of affliction, it has rendered them wholesome and medicinal.[899] The Lord Christ being the head of the covenant, all the afflictions and persecutions that befall his members are originally his, Isa 63.9, Acts 9.5, Col 1.24.[900] In the same way, they all tend to work us toward conformity to him in purity and holiness. And they work towards this blessed end of purifying the soul in several ways; for —

1. They have in them some token of God's displeasure against sin. Those who are exercised by afflictions, by considering them, are led to a fresh view of the vileness of sin. For although afflictions are an effect of love, yet it is of love mixed with care to obviate and prevent spiritual diseases. Whatever else they are, afflictions are always chastisements; and correction is in regard to faults. It is our safest course in every affliction, to lodge the adequate cause of it in our own deserving, as the woman did in 1Kng 17.18;[901] and as God directs in Psa 89.30-32, and Lam. 3.33.[902] And this is one difference between his chastisements and those of our fleshly fathers: he does not do it "for his pleasure," Heb 12.9-10. Now a view of sin under suffering makes men loathe and abhor themselves for it, and ashamed of it. This is the first step towards purifying ourselves by any ways appointed for it. Self-pleasing is sin in the highest degree of our pollution; when we loathe ourselves for it, at least we are put on the way to seeking a remedy.

2. Afflictions take away the beauty, allurements, and comforts of all created good things which solicit the affections to commit folly and lewdness with them — to embrace and cling to them inordinately — from which many defilements ensue, Gal 6.14.[903] God designs afflictions for this: to give relief from all the flowerings of this world in the minds of men, by revealing their emptiness, vanity, and insufficiency. This intercepts the disorderly intercourse which is apt to exist between them and our affections, by which our minds are polluted.

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Pollution attends the least inordinate actings of our mind and affections towards objects that are either sinful in their own nature, or which may be rendered sinful by an excess in us towards them — for we are under the command to love the Lord our God with all our minds, souls, and strength, and to do that always.

3. Afflictions take away the edge and put a deadness on those affections by which the corrupt lusts of the mind and flesh act, which are the spring and cause of all our defilements. They curb those vigorous and brisk affections which were always ready-pressed into the service of lust, and which sometimes carried the soul into the pursuit of sin with madness and fury, like the horse into battle. There are no longer such prepared channels for the rot of concupiscence to empty itself into the conduct, nor such vehicles for the spirits of corrupted lusts and inclinations. I say, by afflictions, God brings upon the desires and affections of the soul, a kind of death to the world and its pleasures, which renders them unserviceable to the remainder of defiling lusts and corruptions. In some, this indeed endures only for a season — as when in sickness, wants, fears, distresses, losses, or sorrows, there may be a great appearance of mortification; yet, upon the least outward relief from these afflictions, the strength of sin and the vigor of carnal affections speedily revive. But with believers it is not so; rather, by all their chastisements they are really more and more delivered from the pollution of sin, and made partakers of God's holiness.[904]

4. By afflictions, God excites, stirs up, and draws forth all the graces of the Spirit into a constant, diligent, and vigorous exercise; and in this, the work of cleansing the soul from the pollution of sin is carried on. A time of affliction is the special season for the particular exercise of all grace; for the soul can then in no other way support or relieve itself. For it is cut short or removed from other comforts and reliefs; every sweet thing is made bitter to it. It must therefore live not only by faith, and love, and delight in God, but in some sense upon them; for if support and comfort are not obtained in their exercise, then we can have none. Therefore, the afflicted soul finds it necessary to constantly abound in the exercise of grace, so that it may in any measure be able to support itself under its troubles or sufferings. Again, there is no other way by which a man may have a sanctified use of afflictions, or a good result from them, than by the assiduous exercise of grace. God calls for this; he designs it; and without it, afflictions have no other end than to make men miserable. They will either have no deliverance from them, or it will be such a deliverance that it will tend to their further misery and ruin.

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And so we have taken a view of the first part of our sanctification and holiness. I have more largely insisted on it, because the consideration of it is utterly neglected by those who frame for us a holiness that consists only in the practice of moral virtue. And it may be that what has been delivered will be looked at as fanatical and enthusiastic; yet there is no reason why this should be so, except that it is taken from Scripture. Nor does Scripture insist on any consideration of sin and sanctification so much as it does the pollution of the one, and its purifying by the other. For those to whom the words of the Holy Ghost are displeasing, we cannot give any satisfaction in these things. Yet I could easily demonstrate that they were well known to the ancient writers of the church; and as for the substance of them, they were discerned and discussed by the schoolmen, in their manner. But where men hate the practice of holiness, it is to no purpose to teach them the nature of it.

But we may not review these things without some reflections upon ourselves, and some consideration of our concern in them. And from these, we may first view our own state and condition by nature. It is useful for all of us to look back into it; but it is necessary for those who are still under it, to be fully acquainted with their state and condition. In this state, we are wholly defiled, polluted, and in every way unclean. There is a spiritual leprosy spread all over our natures, which renders us loathsome to God, and puts us in a state of separation from him. Those who were legally unclean were separated from the congregation, and from all the pledges of God's gracious presence, Num 5.2.[905] It is virtually so with all those who are spiritually defiled under their natural and universal pollution: they are abhorred by God and separated from him, which the physical separation signified. The reason why so many laws, with such great severity and exactness, were given about cleansing a leprous person, and the judgement to be made on it, was only to declare the certainty of the judgement of God that no unclean person should approach him. Thus it is with all men by nature; whatever they do of themselves to be free of it, only hides and does not cleanse it. Adam cured neither his nakedness nor the shame of it by his fig-leaves. Some have no other covering for their natural filth than outward ornaments of the flesh, which increase it and indeed, proclaim it rather than hide it. The greatest filth in the world is covered with the greatest bravery. See Isa 3.16-24.[906] Whatever we do of ourselves in response to our convictions, is a covering and not a cleansing. If we die in this condition — unwashed, uncleansed, unpurified — then it is utterly impossible for us to ever be admitted into the blessed presence of the holy God, Rev 21.27.[907] Let no man deceive you then with vain words. It is not doing a few good works, it is not an outward profession of religion, that gives you access to God with boldness and joy. Shame will cover you when it is too late.

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Unless you are washed from the pollutions of your nature, by the Spirit of God and in the blood of Christ, you will not inherit the kingdom of God, 1Cor 6.9-11.[908] Indeed, you will be a horrid spectacle to saints and angels — yes, to yourselves, and to one another — when the shame of your nakedness is made to appear, Isa 66.24.[909] Therefore, if you would not perish, and do so eternally; if you would not then perish as base, defiled creatures, abhorrent to all flesh, when your pride, your wealth, your beauty, your ornaments, and your duties will stand you in no stead — look in time for that only way of purifying and cleansing your souls which God has ordained. But if you love your defilements; if you are proud of your pollutions; if you satisfy yourselves with your outward ornaments — whether they are moral, of gifts, duties, profession, and conduct; or natural, of body, wealth, apparel, gold, and silver — there is no remedy. You must perish forever, being considered the basest and vilest part of the creation.

Seeing that this is the condition of all by nature, if anyone would now inquire and ask what they must do, what course they can take, to be cleansed according to the will of God, then in answer, I will endeavor to direct defiled sinners, by various steps and degrees, in the way to the cleansing fountain. There is a "fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness," Zec 13.1. But it happens with many, as the wise man says, that "The labor of the foolish wearies every one of them, because they do not know how to go to the city," Ecc 10.15. Men weary themselves and pine away under their pollutions, because they cannot find the way; they do not know how to go to the cleansing fountain. I will, therefore, direct them from first to last, according to the best skill I have:

1. Labor to be acquainted with sin's pollution, to know it in its nature and effects. Although the Scripture so abounds in the assertion and declaration of it, as we have shown, and believers find a sense of it in their experience, yet men ordinarily take little notice of it. They are somewhat affected with the guilt of sin, but little or not at all with its filth. So that they can escape the righteousness of God, which they have provoked, they do not regard their incompatibility with his holiness, by which they are polluted. How few, indeed, inquire into the depravity of their natures, the vileness which has come upon them by the loss of the image of God, or concern themselves much in this! How few rightly consider that fomes [910] and filthy spring which continually bubbles up crooked, perverse, defiled imaginations in their hearts, and influences their affections toward the lewdness of depraved concupiscence! Who meditates on the holiness of God in a due manner, so as to ponder what we ourselves ought to be — how holy, how upright, how clean — if we intend to please him or enjoy him?

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What appearances, what outsides of things, most men are satisfied with! [911] Indeed, how they please themselves in the shade of their own darkness and ignorance of these things, when their unacquaintedness with this pollution of sin is unavoidably ruinous to their souls! See the danger of it portrayed in Rev 3.16-18! [912] Those who would be cleansed from it, must first know it. Even though we cannot rightly do so without some convincing light of the Spirit of God, yet there are duties required of us to obtain this light; such as —

(1.) To search the Scripture, and to seriously consider what it declares concerning the condition of our nature after the loss of the image of God. Does it not declare that our nature is shamefully naked, destitute of all beauty and attractiveness, wholly polluted and defiled? And what is said about that nature which is common to all, is also said about every one who partakes of it. Every one has "gone aside," every one has become "altogether filthy," or stinking, Psa 53.3. This is the mirror in which every man ought to contemplate himself, and not in foolish, flattering reflections from his own proud imaginations. The one who will not learn from this, what his natural deformity is, will live polluted, and die accursed.

(2.) The one who has received the testimony of Scripture concerning his corrupted and polluted estate, if he will take the pains to test and examine himself by the reasons and causes that are assigned for it, he will have a further view of it. When men read, hear, or are instructed in what the Scripture teaches concerning the defilement of sin, and give some assent to what is said, but without examining their own state in particular, or bringing their own souls to that standard and measure, they will have very little advantage by it. Multitudes learn that they are polluted by nature, which they cannot doubt; yet they refuse to find any such thing in themselves. But when men bring their own souls to the mirror of the perfect law, and consider how it is with them in respect to that image of God in which they were first created, what manner of persons they ought to be with respect to the holiness of God, and what they actually are — how vain are their imaginations, how disorderly their affections, and how perverse all the actings of their minds. They will be ready to say with the leprous man, "Unclean, unclean!" There are but few who will take the pains to search their own wounds, because it is a matter of discomfort and trouble to their corrupt and carnal affections. Yet,

(3.) Prayer for light and direction in this, is required of all men as a duty. For a man to know himself was, of old, esteemed the highest attainment of human wisdom. Some men will not so much as inquire into themselves, and some men dare not. Some neglect doing it from spiritual sloth, and other deceitful imaginations.

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But the one who would ever be purged from his sins, must be bold, and dare to be wise in this, and in the use of the means prescribed before. 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 for the depravity and defilement in his nature. Without this, he will never make any great or useful discoveries. And yet, discerning this is the first evidence that a man has received the least ray of supernatural light. The light of a natural conscience will convince men of, and reprove them for actual sins, as to their guilt, Rom 2.14-15.[913] But the mere light of nature is dark and confused about its own confusion.

Some of the old philosophers discerned, in general, that our nature was disordered, and complained about it. But the principal reason for their complaints was because it would not completely serve the end of their ambition. And so they knew nothing at all of the causes and nature of it with respect to God and our eternal condition. Nor is it discerned except by a supernatural light, proceeding immediately from the Spirit of God. If any men, therefore, have a heart or wisdom to know their own pollution by sin — without which they know nothing of themselves for any purpose — let them pray for that directing light of the Spirit of God, without which they can never attain to any useful knowledge of it.

2. Those who would indeed be purged from the pollution of sin, must endeavor to be affected by it suitably enough to discover what they have made of it. And just as the proper effect of the guilt of sin is fear, so the proper effect of the filth of sin is shame. No man who has read the Scriptures can be ignorant of how frequently God calls on men to be ashamed and confounded for the pollutions and uncleannesses of their sin. So it is expressed in answer to what God requires: "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head," Ezra 9.6. And by another prophet: "We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covers us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God," Jer 3.25. And there are many other such expressions of this affecting of the mind with respect to the pollution of sin. But we must observe that there is a twofold shame with respect to it:

(1.) The shame which is legal, or the product of a mere legal conviction of sin. Such was that shame in Adam immediately after his fall; and such is that shame which God so frequently calls open and profligate sinners to — a shame accompanied by dread and terror, and from which the sinner has no relief, unless it is in such sorry evasions as our first parents made use of. And,

(2.) There is a shame which is evangelical, arising from a mixed apprehension of the vileness of sin and the riches of God's grace in the pardon and purifying of it. For even though pardon and purification of sin give relief against all terrifying, discouraging effects of shame, it increases those effects which tend to genuine self-abasement and abhorrence.

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And God still requires this to abide in us, as tending to advance his grace in our hearts. This is fully expressed by the prophet Ezekiel, chap. 16.60-63,

"I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. Then you shall remember your ways, and be ashamed. And I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall know that I am the Lord: that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame — when I am pacified toward you for all that you have done, says the Lord God."

There is a shame and humiliation for sin that is a consequent, indeed an effect of God's renewing his covenant (having been pacified), and thereby giving the full pardon of sin. The apostle asks the Romans what fruit they had in those things of which they were now ashamed, Rom 6.21. Now, after the pardon of their sins, they were still ashamed in consideration of the filth and vileness of them. But what I intend here is shame in the first sense, its legal sense, antecedent to the first purification of our natures. This shame may be thought to be in all men, but it is plainly otherwise; men are not at all ashamed of their sins, and they manifest this in various degrees:

(1.) Many are senseless and stupid. No instruction, nothing that happens to them, will fix any real shame upon them. They may be ashamed of some particular facts, but for anything in their natures, they slight and despise it. If they can just preserve themselves from the known guilt of those sins which are punishable among men, then as to all other things, they are secure. This is the condition of most men living in sin in this world. They have no inward shame for anything between God and their souls, especially not for the depravity and defilement of their natures, no matter how often they hear the doctrine of it. They are concerned with what may outwardly happen to them that is shameful; but they have no concern for any internal pollutions between God and their souls.

(2.) Some have such a boldness and confidence in their condition, that it is well and pure enough: "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, yet are they not washed from their filthiness," Pro 30.12. Although they were never sprinkled with the pure water of the covenant, or cleansed by the Holy Spirit; although their consciences were never purged from dead works by the blood of Christ, nor their hearts purified by faith, and so they are in no way "washed from their filthiness;" yet they please themselves that their condition is "pure in their own eyes;" and they do not have the least sense of any defilements. Such a generation were the Pharisees of old, who esteemed themselves to be as clean as their hands and cups that they continually washed, though within they were filled with all manner of defilements, Isa 65.4-5.

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And this generation is one that indeed despises all that is said about the pollution of sin and its purification, and derides it as enthusiastic, or an excessive metaphor not to be understood.

(3.) Others proceed further, and are so far from being shamed for what they are, or what they do, that they openly boast of it and glory in the most shameful sins that human nature can contract the guilt of. "They proclaim their sins," says the prophet, "like Sodom," where all the people consented together in the perpetration of unnatural lusts. They are not at all ashamed, but glory in the things which, because they do not humiliate them here, will hereafter fill them with humiliation, Jer 6.15, 8.12. Once sin gets this confidence in which it completes a conquest over the law, over the inbred light of nature, over the convictions of the Spirit, and in a sense, God himself, it is ripe for judgment. And yet there is a higher degree of shamelessness in sin; for —

(4.) Some do not content themselves with boasting in their own sins, but they also approve and delight in all those who surrender themselves to the same outrage in sinning as they do. The apostle describes this as the highest degree of shameless sinning: Rom 1.32, "Who knowing the judgment of God, that those who commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but approve of those who do them." When openly profligate sinners make societies for themselves, as it were, encouraging and approving of one another in their abominable courses, so that no company pleases them except those who have reached an impudence in sinning, then the greatest defiance is given to the holiness and righteousness of God.

Now, persons such as these will never seek after cleansing; for why should they, if they have no sense of spiritual pollution, nor the least touch of shame with respect to it? It is necessary, therefore, to the duty of purifying our souls, that we be affected with shame for the spiritual defilements which our nature is rolled in, under the loss of the image of God. And where this is not present, it will only be lost labor that is spent in inviting men to the cleansing fountain.

3. Let persons so affected, be fully satisfied that they can never cleanse or purify themselves by any endeavors that are merely their own, nor by any means of their own finding out. Men's endeavors after purification have and always will be according to their convictions of the defilements of sin, Hos 5.13.[914] Indeed, it is the duty of believers to purify themselves more and more in the exercise of all purifying graces, and in the use of all means appointed by God for that purpose, 2Cor 7.1;[915] and their neglect of this duty is the highest disadvantage, Psa 38.5.[916]

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But concerning men in the state of nature, whom we now treat, are in no way able to cleanse their natures or purge themselves. Only the one who can restore, repair, and renew their natures to the likeness of God, can cleanse them. But here many fall into mistakes. Because of their convictions, when men can no longer satisfy and please themselves in the pollution of sin, they set about, by vain attempts of their own, to "purify their souls," Hos 5.13; Jer 2.22; Job 9.30-31.[917] They think that their own sorrow and repentance, and their tears of contrition, and that sorry amendment of life that they attain to, will do this work for them. But every special defiling act, and every renewed sense of it, requires a special act of duty to cleanse it! Though these things are good in themselves, more wisdom is required to rightly state their causes, respects, ends, and use than they are furnished with. Thus they are frequently abused and turned into an effectual means not only to keep men away from Christ, but also away from a due and acceptable performance of the very duties that are pretended to. For trusting to legal sorrow or repentance, or mere legal convictions, will infallibly keep the soul from reaching that evangelical repentance which alone God accepts. And resting in a mere reformation of life proves opposite to endeavors to renovate our natures. However these duties are performed, in whatever manner you please, they are utterly insufficient of themselves to cleanse our natural defilements. Nor until they are fully convinced of this, will anyone duly seek that which alone is effectual to this purpose. Therefore, let sinners hear and know (whether they believe it or not) that just as they are wholly defiled and polluted by nature with those abominations of sin which render them loathsome in the sight of God, so too they have no power by any endeavors or duties of their own, to cleanse themselves. Instead, by all they do to this end, they only further plunge themselves into the ditch, and increase their own defilements. And yet, all those duties are necessary, in their proper place and to their proper end.

4. It is, therefore, their duty to acquaint themselves with the only remedy in this case, the only means of cleansing, which God has appointed, and which he makes effectual. One great end of the revelation of the will of God, from the foundation of the world, of his institutions and ordinances of worship, was to direct the souls and consciences of men in and to the way of their cleansing. Just as this argues for His infinite love and care, so it argues for the great importance of the matter itself. One principal means which from the beginning Satan made use of to keep men in their apostasy from God, and to encourage them in this, was by supplying them with countless ways of purification, suited to the imaginations of their dark, unbelieving, and superstitious minds.

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In like manner, when Satan designed under the Papacy to draw men away from Christ and from the gospel, he did it principally by suggesting those present and future purgatories of sin that might comply with their lusts and ignorance. It is therefore of great importance, that we be acquainted with the only true and real way and means of this cleansing! And there are two considerations suited to excite the diligence of sinners in this inquiry: (1.) The weight that is laid on this matter by God himself. And (2.) The difficulty of obtaining an acquaintance with it. —

(1.) The weight, as can be observed in:

[1.] The legal institutions of old; anyone considering it will see the weight that God lays on this. No sacrifice had any respect to sin that there was not something specific in it for its cleansing; there were various ceremonious ordinances which had no other end than to purify from uncleannesses.

[2.] The promises of the Old Testament; among all those concerning the establishment of the new covenant and its grace (which are many and precious), there are none more eminent than those which concern our cleansing from sin by the administration of the Spirit, through the blood of Christ. Some of them have been mentioned before; this further manifests the care that God has taken for our instruction in this.

[3.] The necessity of our purification; there is nothing more pressed upon us, nothing more frequently proposed to us in the gospel, than this and the only way to effect it.

Therefore, if instructions, promises, or precepts, or all of these concurring, may evidence the importance of a duty, then this is manifested: to partake in this duty. Those who prefer the guidance of carnal reason and vain tradition, above these heavenly directions, will live in their ignorance, and die in their sins.

(2.) The difficulty of obtaining an acquaintance with it, is to be duly considered. It is a part of the "mystery of the gospel;" and it is such a part, that those who esteem the wisdom of the world or carnal reason, esteem it "foolishness." It is not easily admitted or received, that we cannot be cleansed from our sins in any other way than by the sprinkling of that blood which was shed so long ago. Yet this, and no other way, is what the Scripture proposes to us. To fancy that there is any cleansing from sin except by the blood of Christ, is to overthrow the gospel. Persons are therefore obliged to inquire after this doctrine and come to the knowledge of it. They are to be satisfied with its truth, that this is the only way of cleansing sin, and that it is appointed and blessed by God himself — so that their minds may be exercised about it, and not rest on those vain medicines and remedies which (having nothing else to fix upon) their own hearts and others' blind devotions would suggest to them.

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5. But now the great inquiry is, How may a sinful, defiled soul come to have an interest in, or partake of, the purifying virtue and efficacy of the blood of Christ?

Ans. 1. The purifying virtue and force of the blood of Christ, with the administration of the Spirit for its application (to make it effectual to our souls and consciences), are proposed and exhibited to us in the promises of the covenant, 2Pet 1.4.[918] All the instances produced before (which do not need to be recited), testify to this.

Ans. 2. The only way to be made a partaker of the good things presented in the promises, is by faith. So Abraham is said to have "received the promises" by faith, Heb 11.17; and we also, and even to receive Christ himself. Now, this is not from the promises being proposed to us, but from our believing what is proposed, as it is said of Abraham, Rom 4.19-21, 10.6-9.[919] The whole use, benefit, and advantage of the promises absolutely depend on our mixing them with faith; as the apostle declares in Heb 4.2.[920] Where they are "mixed with faith," they profit us — we really receive the thing promised. Where they are not mixed with faith, they are of no use, except to aggravate our sins and unbelief.

I know that the whole nature and work of faith is derided by some men; they say, "It is nothing but a strong fixing of the imagination upon what is said." However, we know that if a man promises us anything seriously and solemnly which is absolutely in his power to give, then we trust his word, or believe him, considering his wisdom, honesty, and ability. We know this is not merely fixing our imagination on it, but it is a real and useful confidence or trust.

And because God has given us great and precious promises, and done that under several confirmations — especially that of his oath and covenant — if we really believe their accomplishment, and that it will be to us according to his word (on account of his veracity, divine power, righteousness, and holiness), then why would this be esteemed "a fanatical fixing of the imagination?" If it is so, then it was so in Abraham, our example, Rom 4.19-21. But this blasphemous figment, designed to overthrow the way of life and salvation by Jesus Christ, will be more fully examined elsewhere. God, as it was said, gives us great and precious promises, so that by them we might be made partakers of the divine nature. He requires us to receive these promises, and to mix them with faith — that is, to so trust and rest on his divine power and veracity (thereby ascribing the glory of these to him), as to believe that the things promised to us will be accomplished. By God's appointment, this is the means by which we will really be made partakers of them. Such was the faith of Abraham so celebrated by our apostle; and such was all the true and saving faith that was ever in the world from its foundation. Therefore,

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Ans. 3. This is the only way and means to obtain an interest in the cleansing virtue of the blood of Christ. God has given this power and efficacy to his blood, by the covenant. It is proposed and tendered to us in the promise of the gospel. Faith in that promise is what alone gives us an interest in it, makes us partakers of it, and renders it actually effectual to us, by which we are really cleansed from sin.

Ans. 4. There are two things which concur for the efficacy of faith to this purpose:

(1.) The excellence of the grace or duty itself. Despise the ignorance of those who tell you this is only a deceitful fixing of the imagination, for they do not know what they are saying. When men come to the real practice of this duty, they will find out what it is to discard all other ways and pretenses of cleansing; what it is to sincerely and really give to God the glory of his power, faithfulness, goodness, and grace, against all difficulties and oppositions; what it is to approve of the wisdom and love of God in discovering this way for us — and the infiniteness of his grace in providing it when we were lost and under the curse — and to be filled with a holy admiration of him on that account. All of these things belong to the faith mentioned, nor can it be moved in a due manner without them. When you understand these things, you will not think it so strange that God should appoint this way of believing as the only means to interest us in the purifying virtue of the blood of Christ.

(2.) Hereby, as has been shown, we are united to Christ, from whom alone is our cleansing. Anyone who declares another way, must make another gospel.

6. Faith, in this case, will act itself in and by fervent prayer. When David had brought himself by sin into that condition in which he stood in need of a new and universal purification, how earnest he was in his supplications that God would again "purge and cleanse him!" Psa 51.2. And when any soul is really coming over to the way of God, for his washing in the blood of Christ, he will not be more earnest and fervent in any supplication than he is in this. And in this, and by this, Christ communicates the purging efficacy of his blood to us.

These things may in some measure suffice to direct and guide those who are still wholly under the pollution of corrupted nature, how they may proceed to get themselves cleansed according to the mind of God. Not that this order or method is prescribed to anyone; but these are the heads of those things which, in one degree or other, are worked in the souls of those whom Christ will and does cleanse from their sins.

Secondly, instruction may also be taken from this for those about whom our apostle says, "Such were some of you; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God," 1Cor 6.9-11; — they are freed from the general pollution of nature "by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost," Tit 3.5; —they have been made partakers of that cleansing, purifying work of the Holy Ghost which we have described. Several duties are incumbent on them with respect to this; such as,

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1. Continual self-abasement in the remembrance of that woeful defiled state and condition from which they have been delivered. This consideration is one of those which principally influences the minds of believers to humility, and hides[921] pride from them — for what should creatures of such a base and defiled extraction have to boast of in themselves? It is usual, I confess, for vile men of the most contemptible beginnings, when they are greatly exalted in the world, to outdo others in pride and elation of mind, as they lag behind them in the advantages of birth and education. But this is considered a vile thing among men, even though it is only one potsherd of the earth boasting against another. Yet when believers consider what their vile and polluted state was with respect to God when he first regarded them, it will cause them to walk humbly in a deep sense of it, or I am sure it ought to do so.

God calls his people to self-abasement, not only from what they are, but from what they were, and from where they came. So he ordained this confession by the one who offered the first-fruits of his fields and possessions, "A Syrian ready to perish was my father;" or, "A Syrian" (that is, Laban) "was ready to destroy my father, a poor, helpless man, that went from one country to another for bread. It is of sovereign mercy that I am now in this state and condition of plenty and peace!" Deu 26.5. And in particular, God wonderfully binds on his people the sense of that defiled natural extraction of which we speak, Eze 16.3-5.[922]

When David, upon his great sin and his repentance, took all humbling and self-abasing considerations into account, he fixes on the head of them here: Psa 51.5, "Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin my mother conceived me." His origin in natural defilement was what first influenced him to self-abasement. So too, our apostle frequently calls the saints to remember their former condition before they were purged, Eph 2.11-13; 1Cor 6.9-11;[923] the minds of all true believers are greatly affected and greatly humbled by this. When they consider what their natural state and condition was — universally leprous and polluted — and what remainders of it still abide in them, it throws them to the ground, and causes them to put their mouths in the dust. From this proceed their great and deep humiliations of themselves, and confessions of their own vileness in their prayers and supplications. Considering the holiness of God with whom they must deal, and to whom they approach, they are in no way able to express what low thoughts and apprehensions they have of themselves.

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Even God himself teaches them to use figurative expressions by which to declare their own vileness by nature; these abound in the Scripture. It is true, all declarations of this in prayer and confession of sin are derided and scorned by some who seem to understand nothing of these things, indeed, to boast that they do not. Whatever is said to express, as they are able, the deep sense any believers have of their natural defilement with its remainder in them, their shame and self-abasement with respect to the holiness of God, is reputed either to be false and hypocritical, or to contain things for which men ought to be hanged. We have lived to see and hear of such prodigious impudence in proclaiming a senselessness of the holiness of God and of the vileness of sin! But when we have to deal with God, who puts no trust in his servants, and charges his angels with folly, what will we say? What lowliness becomes those "who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, and who are crushed before the moth!" Job 4.19

2. That initial deliverance which believers have from their original pollution of sin, is a matter and cause for everlasting thankfulness. When our Lord Jesus Christ cleansed the ten lepers, he manifests how much it was their duty to return to him with their thankful acknowledgement, though nine of them failed in this, Luke 17.17. And when of old, anyone was cleansed from carnal defilement, there was an offering enjoined to testify of his gratitude. And indeed, the consideration of this is what, in an eminent way, influences the minds of believers in all their grateful ascriptions of glory, honor, and praise to Jesus Christ. "To him," they say, "that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever," Rev 1.5-6. There are three things which concur to this duty:

(1.) A due valuation of the causes and means of our purification — namely, the sprinkling of the blood of Christ in the sanctification of the Spirit. As these alone have affected this great work, so they alone were able to do so. If we had not been washed in the blood of Christ, we would have lived and died in our pollutions, and lain under them to eternity; for the fire of hell will never purge the defilements of sin, and much less will the fictitious fire of purgatory cleanse any from them. How then we ought to prize, value, and admire both the virtue or efficacy of the blood of Christ, and the love from which it was given for us and applied to us! And because this valuation and admiration are acts of faith, the very work itself, and also of cleansing our souls, is carried on by them. For it is by the exercise of faith that we continually derive virtue from Christ to this purpose, as the woman did by touching his garment to stop her issue of blood.

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(2.) Inward joy and satisfaction in our freedom from that shame which deprived us of all boldness and confidence in God. This internal joy belongs to the duty of thankfulness; for God is glorified when we are graciously sensible of the effects of his love and kindness towards us. Every grace then glorifies God and expresses our thankfulness for his love, when a soul finds itself really affected with a sense of its being washed from all its loathsome defilements in the blood of Christ — and being freed thereby from discouraging, oppressing shame, to have filial boldness in the presence of God.

(3.) Acknowledgement in a way of actual praise.

Again; we have declared not only that there is in our natural frame and spiritual constitution a discrepancy with the holiness of God, and consequently a universal defilement, but that, from its depravity and disorder, pollution attends every actual sin — whether internal of the heart and mind only, or external in the sin perpetrated. And that pollution is averse to holiness, and contrary to carrying on the work of sanctification in us. Believers (whose concern alone this is) may learn various things from this; such as —

1. How they ought to watch against sin and all its motions, however secret. All of them defile the conscience. It is evidence of a gracious soul, to be watchful against sin on this account. Convictions make men wary where these are prevalent, by continual representations of the danger and punishment of sin. And these are an acceptable motive to believers to abstain from it in all known instances. The consideration of the terror of the Lord, the use of the threatenings both of the law and of the gospel, declare this to be our duty. Nor let anyone say that this is servile fear. That designation is taken from the frame of our minds, and not from the object that is feared. When men so fear as to be discouraged by it, and inclined to relinquish God, duty, and hope, that fear is servile, whatever its object may be. And that fear which keeps us from sin, and excites the soul to cling more firmly to God, whatever its object may be, is not servile fear, but a holy fear, or a due reverence for God and his word. This is the most genuinely gracious fear of sin: when we dread its defilement, and its contrariety to the holiness of God. This dread is a natural fruit of faith and love.

This consideration should always greatly possess our minds — and the truth is, if it does not, there is no assured preservative against sin. For an apprehension of the pollution with which sin is accompanied, together with thoughts of the holiness of God, and of the care and concern of the sanctifying Spirit, and of the blood of Christ, continually abiding in our minds — all efficaciously preserve us against sin. I think that for believers, there is no more forceful argument in the whole book of God for watchfulness against all sin, than the our apostle manages in 1Cor 3.16-17, 6.15-19.[924]

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This argument is made with special respect to one kind of sin, but it may be proportionally extended to all. Moreover, where this apprehension is not found, where the soul has no regard for the defilement of sin, but only considers how it may shift the guilt of it, countless things will interpose themselves. These partly arise from the abuse of grace, partly from carnal hopes and foolish resolutions for after-times, in order to set the soul at liberty from that watchful diligence in universal obedience which is required of us. The truth is, I do not believe that anyone who is awed only with respect to the guilt of sin and its consequents, keeps up a firm integrity with regard to the 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, the soul is always kept on its best guard and defense.

2. How we ought to walk humbly before the Lord all our days. Notwithstanding our utmost watchfulness and diligence against sin, there is still "no man who lives and does not sin." 1Kng 8.46 Those who pretend to perfection here, manifest that they are utterly ignorant of God and of themselves, and despise the blood of Christ. And so, for the most part, they visibly and in the sight of men, confute their own pride and folly in such a pretension. To what purpose is it to hide ourselves from ourselves, when we have to deal with God? God knows, and our own souls know, that we are more or less defiled in all that we do. The best of our works and duties, brought into the presence of the holiness of God, are but as filthy rags.Isa 64.6 Of himself, man — every man — "drinks in iniquity like water." Job 15.16 Our own clothes are ready to defile us every day.Lev 11.32 Who can express the motions of lusts that are in the flesh: the irregular actings of affections in their inordinate responses 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;Gen 6.5 with the vanity of our words, indeed, with a great mixture of corrupt communications?All of these are defiling, and they have defilements attending them. I confess, I do not know that my heart and soul abhor any eruption of the diabolical pride of men, like that by which men reproach and scoff at the deepest humiliations and self-abasements which poor sinners can attain to in their prayers, confessions, and supplications. Alas! that our nature should be capable of such contempt for the holiness of God, such ignorance of the infinite distance there is between Him and us — and be so senseless of our own vileness, the abominable filth and pollution that is in every sin — as not to tremble at despising 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," Hab 2.4.

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3. How we ought to continually endeavor after the wasting of sin in the root and principle of it.[925] There is a root of sin in us, which springs up and defiles us. "Every man is tempted" (that is, chiefly and principally) "by his own lust, and seduced;" and then "when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin." Jas 1.14-15 It is "the flesh that lusts against the Spirit," Gal 5.17 and which brings forth corrupted and corrupting, polluted and polluting fruits. This principle of sin — of aversion to God, of inclination to sensual and present things — however wounded, weakened, dethroned, and impaired it may be, it still abides in all believers. And it is the foundation, the spring, the root, the next cause of all sin in us, which tempts, entices, draws aside, conceives, and produces sin.[926] And in all of us, this root has more or less strength, power, and activity, as it is more or less mortified by grace, and by the application of the virtue of the death of Christ to our souls. And according to its strength and power, so it abounds in bringing forth the defiled acts of sin. While this root retains any considerable power in us, it serves no purpose to merely watch against the eruptions of actual sins in the frames of our hearts, in the thoughts of our minds, or in our outward actions. If we would preserve ourselves from multiplying our defilements, if we would continually perfect the work of holiness in the fear of the Lord,2Cor 7.1 it is this root that we must set ourselves against. The tree must be made good if we expect good fruit; and the evil root must be dug up, or else evil fruit will be produced; — that is, our main design should be to crucify and destroy the body of the sins of the flesh in us,[927] the remainders of the flesh or indwelling sin, by those ways and means which will be declared afterward.

4. Hence, what is also made manifest is the necessity for continual applications to Jesus Christ for cleansing virtue from his Spirit, and the sprinkling of his blood on our consciences, in its efficacy to purge them from dead works. We defile ourselves every day; and if we do not go every day to the "fountain that is open for sin and for uncleanness," Zec 13.1 we will quickly become leprous all over. Our consciences will be filled with dead works, such that we will in no way be able to serve the living God unless these are purged out daily. How this is done has been declared at large before. When a soul, filled with self-abasement under a sense of its own defilements, applies to Christ by faith for cleansing, and it does so constantly and continually with a fervency matching its sense and convictions, then it is in its proper course and way. I am persuaded that no true believer in the world is a stranger to this duty; and the more anyone abounds in this, the more genuine his faith is evidenced to be, and the humbler his walk will be before the Lord.

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But after all that we have discussed on this subject concerning the defilement of sin, it may justly be inquired,

If this is so, how can believers be united to Jesus Christ, or be members of that mystical body of which he is the head, or obtain fellowship with him? Because he is absolutely pure, holy, and perfect, how can he have union or communion with those who are defiled in anything? There is no fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness, and no communion between light and darkness;2Cor 6.14 so what can there be between Christ and those who are defiled with sin? And because he is "holy, harmless, and undefiled," he is said to be "separate from sinners." Heb 7.26

Many things must be replied to this objection, all concurring to take away the seeming difficulty in it; such as —

1. It must be granted that where men are wholly under the power of their original defilement, they neither have, nor can they have, union or communion with Christ. With respect to such persons, the rules mentioned before are universally true and certain. There is no more communion between them and Jesus Christ than there is between light and darkness, as the apostle expressly says in 1John 1.6. Whatever profession they may make of his name, whatever expectations they may unduly raise from him in their own minds, he will say to them at the last day, "Depart from me, I never knew you." Therefore, no person whatsoever, who has not been made a partaker of the washing of regeneration and the renovation of the Holy Ghost, can possibly have any union with Christ. I do not say this as though our purifying were, in order of time and nature, antecedent to our union with Christ — for indeed it is an effect of this. But it is such an effect that it immediately and inseparably accompanies our union; so that where the one is not true, the other is not. The act by which he unites us to himself, is the same act by which he cleanses our natures.

2. Whatever our defilements are or may be, Christ is not defiled by them. They adhere only to a capable subject, which Christ is not. He was capable of having the guilt of our sins imputed to him, but he was not capable of having the filth of even one sin adhere to him. A member of a body may have a putrefied sore; the head may be troubled by it and grieved with it, and yet it is not defiled by it. This is why, where there is a radical, original cleansing by the Spirit of regeneration and holiness, by which anyone is made fit for union and communion with Christ, however the Spirit may be affected by our partial pollutions, he is not defiled by them. He is able to sympathize, "compati, condolere;" he suffers with us in his compassion;Heb 4.15 — but he is not liable to being defiled with us or for us. The visible body of Christ may be defiled by corrupt members, Heb 12.15;[928] but the mystical body cannot be, much less the Head.

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3. The design of Christ, when he takes believers into union with himself, is to purge and cleanse them absolutely and perfectly. And therefore the present remainders of some defilements are not absolutely inconsistent with that union. "He gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish," Eph 5.25-27. This is what he aims at, and this he will perfectly accomplish, in his own way and in his own time. But it is not done all at once; it is a progressive work that has many degrees. God never sanctified any soul at once, except by death. The body must die by reason of sin. Every believer is truly and really sanctified at once, but none is perfectly sanctified at once. Therefore, it is not necessary to union that we should be completely sanctified, though it is necessary that we should be truly sanctified. Complete sanctification is a necessary effect of union in its proper time and season. See John 15.1-5.[929]

4. Where the work of sanctification and spiritual cleansing is really begun in a believer, the whole person is considered, and he is thereby designated holy. Therefore, because Christ the head is holy, so all his members are holy according to their measure; for even though there may be defilements adhering to their actions, yet their persons are sanctified: so that no unholy person has any communion with Christ, for no member of his body is unholy — that is, no member is absolutely in such a state as to thereby be designated unholy.

5. Our union with Christ is immediately in and by the new creature in us, by the divine nature which is from the Spirit of holiness, and it is pure and holy. To this and by this new creature, the Lord Christ communicates himself to our souls and consciences, and hereby we have all our intercourse with him. Other adherences that have any defilement in them, and consequently are opposite to this union, he daily works out by virtue of this union, Rom 8.10.[930] The whole body of Christ and all that belongs to it is therefore holy, though those who are members of this body are in themselves oftentimes polluted, but not in anything which belongs to their union. The apostle describes the twofold nature or principle that is in believers, the new nature by grace and the old nature of sin, as a double person, Rom 7.19-20.[931] It is the former, the renewed, which is the subject of the union with Christ, and not the other, which is to be destroyed. The latter, the old nature, he also calls "I", but he corrects that expression, as it were, calling it "sin which dwells in me."

6. Where the means of purification are duly used, no defilement ensues from any sin that believers fall into, which does or can totally obstruct communion with God in Christ. This is according to the tenor of the covenant.[932]

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There were many things under the Old Testament that typically and legally defiled men who were liable to them; but for all of them, typical and legal purifications were provided which sanctified them as to purifying the flesh. Now, no man was absolutely cut off or separated from the people of God for being so defiled; but being defiled, someone who did not take care to be purified according to the law, was to be cut off from among the people. It is the same way in spiritual and evangelical things. There are many sins by which believers are defiled; but there is a way to cleanse them that is still open to them. It is not merely the incidence of a defilement, but the neglect of purification, that is inconsistent with their state and interest in Christ. The rule of communion with God and consequently of union with Christ, in its exercise, is expressed by David in Psa 19.12-13, "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse you me from secret sins. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; do not let them have dominion over me: then will I be upright, and I will be innocent from the great transgression." The design of the psalmist is to be preserved in such a state and condition that he may be upright before God.

To be upright before God is what God requires of us in the covenant, so that we may be accepted by him and enjoy the promises of it, Gen 17.1.[933] He that is upright will be far from that great transgression, or that abundance of sin, which is inconsistent with the covenant love and favor of God. Three things are required for this:

(1.) A constant, humble acknowledgement of sin: "Who can understand his errors?"

(2.) Daily cleansing from those defilements which the least and most secret sins are accompanied with: "Cleanse me from secret sins." And —

(3.) A preservation from "presumptuous sins," or willful sins committed with a high hand.

Where these things are not found, a man is upright, and he has the covenant-ground of his communion with God. While believers are preserved within these bounds, though they are defiled by sin, there is nothing in this that is inconsistent with their union with Christ.

7. Our blessed Head is not only pure and holy, but he is also gracious and merciful, and will not quickly cut off a member of his body just because it is sick or has a sore upon it. He himself has passed through his course of temptations, and he is now above the reach of them all. Does he therefore reject and despise those who are yet tempted, and who labor and suffer under their temptations? It is quite otherwise; so that on account of his own present state, his compassions exceedingly abound towards all his who are tempted. It is no different with him as to their sins and defilements.

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He himself was absolutely free from these in all his temptations and sufferings, but we are not; and he is so far from casting us away on that account, while we endeavor after purification, that it draws out his compassion towards us. In brief, he does not unite us to himself because we are perfect, but so that in his own way and time, he may make us perfect; not because we are clean, but so that he may cleanse us: for it is the blood of Jesus Christ, with whom we have fellowship, that cleanses us from all our sins.

8. Lastly, to wind up this discourse, there is sufficiently evidenced from this a comprehensive difference between a spiritual life to God by evangelical holiness, and a life of moral virtue, even if it is pretended to God also. For the first, the original and continual purification of our nature and persons by the Spirit of God and blood of Christ, is indispensably required. Where this work is not done, there neither is, nor can there be, anything of that holiness which the gospel prescribes and which we inquire after. Unless the purification and cleansing of sin belong necessarily to the holiness of the new covenant, all that God has taught us concerning it in the Old Testament and the New — by his institution of legal purifying ordinances; by his promises to wash, purify, and cleanse us; by his precepts to get ourselves cleansed by the means of our purification, namely, by his Spirit and the blood of Christ; by his instruments and directions to us to make use of those means of our cleansing; by his declarations that believers are so washed and cleansed from all the defilements of their sins — all these would be things that are fanatical, enthusiastic notions, and unintelligible dreams. Until men can acquire a confidence enabling them to admit to such horrible blasphemies, I desire to know whether these things are required for their morality. If they say they are, then they give us a new notion of morality never yet heard of in the world. And we must expect this until they have further clarified it, because there is little or no meaning in the great swelling words of vanity which have been lavished about it up to this point. But if they do not belong to this — then their life of moral virtue is removed from all consideration in a serious discussion about evangelical holiness. If only that virtue were as real in them as, with notorious vanity, it is pretended to be.

What has been said may suffice to give us some light into the nature of this first act of our sanctification by the Spirit, which consists in cleansing our souls and consciences from the pollutions of sin, both original and actual.

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Chapter VI.

The positive work of the Spirit in the sanctification of believers.

Differences in the acts of sanctification as to their order — The manner of the communication of holiness by the Spirit — The rule and measure of this is the revealed will of God, just as the rule of its acceptance is the covenant of grace — The nature of holiness is inward — Righteousness, habitual and actual — False notions of holiness removed — The nature of a spiritual habit — applied to holiness, with its rules and limitations — proved and confirmed — illustrated and practically improved — The properties of holiness as a spiritual habit declared — 1. Spiritual dispositions to suitable acts; how they are expressed in the Scripture; with their effects — Contrary dispositions to sin and holiness; how consistent — 2. Power; the nature of it; or what power is required in believers for holy obedience; with its properties and effects in readiness and facility — Objections to this answered; and an inquiry on these principles of true holiness directed in ourselves— Gospel grace as distinct from morality, and all other habits of the mind; proved by many arguments, especially its relation to the mediation of Christ — The principal difference between evangelical holiness and all other habits of the mind, proved by the manner and way of its communication from the person of Christ as the head of the church, and the unique efficiency of the Spirit in this — Moral honesty is not gospel holiness.

The distinction we make between the acts of the Holy Ghost in the work of sanctification concerns the order of teaching and instruction more than any order of precedence that exists between the acts themselves. For what we have passed through concerning the cleansing of our natures and our persons, does not precede in order of time those other acts which leave a real and positive effect upon the soul (which is what we are about to describe); nor does it absolutely precede them in order of nature. Yes, many of the means by which the Holy Ghost purifies us, consist in this other work of his, which now lies before us. Thus we only distinguish them and put them into this order, as the Scripture does, to guide our understanding of them, and further our apprehension of them.

We therefore now proceed to that part of the work of the Holy Spirit by which he communicates the great, permanent, positive effect of holiness to the souls of believers, and by which he guides and assists them in all acts, works, and duties of holiness whatsoever. Without this guidance and assistance, whatever we do is not holy, nor does it in any way belong to holiness. We will reduce this part of His work to two heads, which we will first propose, and afterward clarify and vindicate.

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Our FIRST assertion is this:

That in the sanctification of believers, the Holy Ghost works in them, in their whole soul — their mind, will, and affections — a gracious, supernatural habit, principle, and disposition of living to God; in which the substance or essence, the life and being, of holiness consists.

This is that spirit which is born of the Spirit, that new creature, that new and divine nature which is worked in them, and of which they are made partakers. In this consists that image of God to which our natures are repaired by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by which we are made conformable to God, firmly and steadfastly adhering to him through faith and love. It has been fully proved in our assertion and description of the work of regeneration, that there is such a divine principle — such a gracious, supernatural habit — worked in all those who are born again,. It is therefore acknowledged that the first supernatural infusion or communication of this principle of spiritual light and life — preparing, fitting, and enabling all the faculties of our souls for the duties of holiness, according to the mind of God — belongs to the work of our first CONVERSION.

But the preservation, cherishing, and increase of this principle, belong to our SANCTIFICATION, because both its infusion and preservation are necessarily required for holiness. Hereby the tree is made good, so that its fruit may be good, and without which it will not be good.[934] This is our new nature. It does not arise from precedent actions of holiness; rather it is the root of them all. Habits acquired by a multitude of acts, whether in moral or artificial things, are not a "new nature," nor can they be called that; such habits are a readiness to act only from use and custom. But this new nature is from God, its parent; it is what is born in us of God. And it is common to or the same in all believers as to its kind and being, even if not as to its degrees and exercise. It is that which we cannot learn, and which cannot be taught to us except by God, just as he teaches other creatures in whom he plants a natural instinct. We have said something before about the beauty and glory of this nature, as being absolutely inexpressible. 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, all consist in this.

SECONDLY,

The matter of our holiness consists in our actual obedience to God, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace; for God promises to write his law in our hearts, so that we may fear him and walk in his statutes.

And concerning this, in general, we may observe two things:

1. There is a certain fixed rule and measure of this obedience, in conformity and correspondence to what it consists of. This is the revealed will of God in the Scripture, Mic. 6.8.[935] God's will, I say, as revealed to us in the word, is the rule of our obedience.

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Obedience must have a rule, which nothing else can pretend to be. The secret will or the hidden purposes of God are not the rule of our obedience, Deu 29.29;[936] much less are our own imaginations, inclinations, or reason. Nor does anything belong to this rule, that we do in compliance with these things, or by their direction, however plausible they may be, Col 2.18-23.[937] But the word of God is the adequate rule of all holy obedience:

(1.) It is so materially. All that is commanded in the word of God belongs to our obedience, and nothing else does. Hence we are strictly required neither to add to it, nor to diminish or take anything away from it, Deu 4.2, 12.32; Josh 1.7; Pro 30.6; Rev 22.18-19.

(2.) It is so formally; that is, not only are we to do what is commanded, and all that is commanded, and nothing else — but whatever we do, we are to do it because it is commanded, or else it is no part of our obedience or holiness, Deu 6.24-25; 29.29; Psa 119.9.[938]

I know there is an inbred light of nature 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.[939] But this light, however it may be made subservient and subordinate to the word of God, is not the rule of gospel holiness as such, nor is it any part of it. The law which God writes in our hearts by his grace, corresponds to the law that is written in the word which is given to us. And just as the first is the only principle of our evangelical obedience, so the latter is the only rule or it. For this end, God has promised that his Spirit and his word will always accompany one another — the one to quicken our souls, and the other to guide our lives, Isa 59.21.[940]

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 to God and our living to him, is enjoined of us in the word; yes, and it is worked in us by the word. The whole renovation of our nature, the whole principle of holiness described before, 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 works nothing in us except what the word first requires of us. The word is therefore the rule of the inward principle of spiritual life. And the growth of this principle is nothing but its increase in conformity to that word.

(2.) With respect to 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. Their regularity or irregularity is to be tested by it. All that holiness which is in them, consists in their conformity to the revealed will of God.

(3.) With respect to all our outward actions and duties, both private and public, of piety and of righteousness, towards ourselves or others, Tit 2.12.[941]

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This is the rule of our holiness. We are holy only so far as what we are, and what we do, correspond to the word of God. Whatever acts of devotion or duties of morality may be performed without respect to this rule, do not belong to our sanctification.

2. Just as there is a rule for our performance of this obedience, so there is a rule for the acceptance of our obedience with God; and this is the tenor of the new covenant, Gen 17.1.[942] What corresponds to this rule is accepted, and what does not correspond is rejected, both as to the universality of the whole, and the sincerity that accompanies each particular duty in it. These two things, universality and sincerity, correspond now (as to some certain ends of it) to the legal perfection required of us at the beginning.

In the estate of original righteousness, the rule of our acceptance with God in our obedience was the law and the covenant of works. And this required that our obedience should be absolutely perfect in its parts and degrees, without the least intermixture of sin with our good, nor interposition in the least instance, of anything that was inconsistent with that covenant. But now, even though we are renewed again by grace into the image of God really and truly (yet not absolutely nor perfectly, but only in part), we still have remaining in us a contrary principle of ignorance and sin, which we must always conflict with, Gal 5.16-17.[943] This is why God, in the covenant of grace, is pleased to accept that holy obedience which is universal in all its parts in all known instances of duty, and sincere as to the manner of its performance. It is not our present work to declare what in particular is required for this; I only aim to fix in general the rule of the acceptance of this holy obedience.

Now, the reason for this acceptance is not that a lower and more imperfect kind of righteousness, holiness, and obedience, will meet all the ends of God and his glory now, under the new covenant, than they would have met under the old. Nothing can be imagined that is more distant from the truth, nor more dishonorable to the gospel, or that seems nearer to making Christ the minister of sin. For what else would he be, if he had procured God's acceptance of a weak and imperfect obedience — accompanied with many failings, infirmities, and sins, being complete in nothing — in the place and stead of what he first required of us, which was complete, perfect, and absolutely sinless? Indeed, God determined to exalt and glorify the holy properties of his nature in a more eminent and glorious manner under the new covenant, than he did under the old. It is for this reason and end alone that it is so exalted and preferred above it. Thus it was necessary that there should be a righteousness and obedience required in this new covenant, that is far more complete, eminent, and glorious than what was required in the old. But the reason for this difference lies solely in this: that our evangelical obedience, which is accepted by God according to the tenor of the new covenant, does not hold the same place which our obedience held under the covenant of works.

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For in that covenant, it would have been our righteousness absolutely before God, by which we would have been justified in his sight — namely, the works of the law — and for which, in a due proportion of justice, we would have been eternally rewarded. But this place is now filled by the righteousness and obedience of Christ, our mediator. Being the obedience of the Son of God, it is far more eminent and glorious, or it tends more to manifest the properties of God's nature, and to exalt his glory in this, than all that we could have done if we had abided steadfast in the covenant of works. "What, then," some may ask, "does our holiness and obedience serve, and what is the necessity of them?" I must defer answering this inquiry to its proper place, where I will prove at large the necessity of this holiness, and demonstrate it from its proper principles and ends. In the meantime I will only say in general, that as God requires it of us, so he has appointed it as the only means by which we may express our subjection to him, our dependence on him, our fruitfulness, and our thankfulness; it is the only way of our communion and intercourse with him, of using and improving the effects of his love, and the benefits of the mediation of Christ, by which we may glorify him in this world; and it is the only orderly way by which we may be made fit for the inheritance of the saints in light. This is sufficient, in general, to manifest both its necessity and its use. These things being premised in general then, I will comprise what I further have to offer in the declaration and vindication of gospel sanctification and holiness, in the two ensuing assertions:

I. There is worked and preserved in the minds and souls of all believers, by the Spirit of God, a supernatural principle or habit of grace and holiness, by which they are made fit for and enabled to live to God, and perform that obedience which he requires and accepts through Christ in the covenant of grace. It is essentially or specifically distinct from all natural habits, both intellectual and moral, however or by whatever means they are acquired or improved.

II. There is an immediate work or effectual operation of the Holy Spirit by his grace required for every act of holy obedience, whether it is only internal in faith and love, or external also — that is, for all the holy actings of our understandings, wills, and affections, and for all our duties of obedience in walking before God.

I. I affirm that the first of these assertions is not only true, but of so great a weight and importance that our hope of life and salvation depends on it; it is the second great principle constituting our Christian profession. There are four things that are to be confirmed concerning it:

1. That there is such a supernatural habit or principle infused or created in believers by the Holy Ghost, and always abiding in them.

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2. That, according to the nature of all habits, it inclines and disposes the mind, will, and affections, to acts of holiness suitable to its own nature, and with regard to its proper end, and to make us fit to live to God.

3. That it not only inclines and disposes the mind, but it gives it power, and enables it to live to God in all holy obedience.

4. That it differs specifically from all other habits, intellectual or moral, that we may acquire or attain by any means, or spiritual gifts that may be conferred on any persons whatsoever.

In handling these things, I will manifest the difference between a spiritual, supernatural life of evangelical holiness, and a course of moral virtue — which some, to the rejection of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, endeavor to substitute in its place. We must partake of such a spiritual, heavenly, supernatural life in this world (so designated from its nature, causes, acts, and ends), if we ever intend to attain eternal life in another.

And in this we will take whatever view we are able to, of the nature, glory, and beauty of holiness; and I confess that I can comprehend but little of them. It is a matter, indeed, often spoken to; but the essence and true nature of it are greatly hidden from the eyes of all living men. It is the sense of what the Scripture proposes, what I believe, and what I desire to experience, that I will endeavor to declare. But just as we are not perfect in the duties of holiness in this life, so we are no more perfect in the knowledge of its nature.

First, therefore, I say, it is a gracious, supernatural habit, or a principle of spiritual life. And with respect to this, I will briefly do these three things:

1. Show what I mean by such a habit.

2. Prove that such a habit is required for holiness, indeed, the nature of holiness consists in it.

3. Declare in general its properties.

1. Our first inquiry is after the essence and form of holiness, from which anyone is truly and really made and designated holy; or what the formal reason is for that holiness which our nature partakes of in this world. This must be something special, something excellent and sacred, which constitutes the great and only difference between men, on their own part, in the sight of God, with respect to eternity. Everyone who has this holiness pleases God, and is accepted by him, and will come to enjoy him; and everyone who does not have it, is rejected by him, here and hereafter.

In the first place, this holiness does not consist in any single acts of obedience to God, even though they are good in their own nature, and acceptable to him. For indeed, many such acts may be performed by unholy persons, of which the Scripture abounds with examples.

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Cain's sacrifice and Ahab's repentance were signal, single acts of obedience materially; and yet they were not acts of holiness formally, nor did either make or designate these men holy. Our apostle tells us that men may "give all their goods to feed the poor, and their bodies to be burned, and yet be nothing," 1Cor 13.3; yet who can go further in single acts? Such fruits may spring from seed that has no root. Single acts may evidence holiness, as Abraham's obedience did in sacrificing his son; but none is constituted holy by them; nor will a series, a course, or a multiplication of acts and duties of obedience, either constitute or designate anyone holy, Isa 1.11-15.[944] All the duties — a series and multiplication of which, in that passage, were rejected for lack of holiness — were good in themselves, and appointed by God.

Nor does it consist in a habitual disposition of mind toward any outward duties of piety, devotion, or obedience, however obtained or acquired. There are such habits, both intellectual and moral. Intellectual habits are arts and sciences. When men, by custom, usage, and frequent acts in the exercise of any science, art, or mystery, get a ready facility in and for all its parts and duties, they have gained an intellectual habit in this. It is this way in moral things too, as to virtues and vices. There are some seeds and sparks of moral virtue remaining in the ruins of depraved nature, such as justice, temperance, fortitude, and the like. Hence God calls on profligate sinners to remember and "show themselves men," or not to act contrary to the principles and light of nature, which are inseparable from us as men, Isa 46.8. These principles may be excited in the exercise of natural light, or improved by education, instruction, and example, or by an assiduous and diligent performance of their related acts and duties. Some may thereby attain such a readiness for them, and such a facility in them, that it is not easily changed or diverted by any outward means — and this is a moral habit.

In like manner, in the duties of piety and religion — in acts of outward obedience to God — men may so accustom themselves to these duties by these same means, that they have a habitual disposition to their exercise. I do not doubt it is so, to a high degree, with many superstitious persons. But in all these things, the acts still precede the habits of the same nature and kind which are produced by them, and not otherwise. But this holiness is such a habit or principle, that it is antecedent to all acts of the same kind, as we will prove. There never was, nor ever can be, any act or duty of true holiness performed by anyone, where there was not antecedently, in order of nature, a habit of holiness in the persons by whom they were performed. Many acts and duties that are good and approvable as to their substance, may be performed without this habit of holiness; but no one that has the proper form and nature of holiness can be without this habit.

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And the reason is because every act of true holiness must have something supernatural in it from an internal renewed principle of grace; and what does not have it, whatever else it may be, is not an act or duty of true holiness.

I call this principle of holiness a habit. It is not as though it were absolutely the same as acquired habits, and would correspond in all things to our conceptions and descriptions of them. But we only call it a habit because, in its effects and manner of operation, it agrees in various things with acquired intellectual or moral habits. But it much more conforms to a natural, unchangeable instinct than to any acquired habit. That is why God charges men, that in their obedience to him, they did not act according to that instinct which other creatures have towards their lords and benefactors, Isa 1.3;[945] and which those creatures cordially observe, Jer 8.7.[946] But in this God "teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the fowls of heaven," Job 35.11.

Therefore, this is what I mean by it: a virtue, a power, a principle of spiritual life and grace, worked, created, infused into our souls, and inlaid in all our faculties, constantly abiding and unchangeably residing in them, which is antecedent to, and the next cause of, all acts of true holiness whatsoever. And as was said, this is what the nature of holiness consists in, and from which, in those who are adult, the actual discharge of all duties and works of holiness is inseparable. This always abides in and with all who are sanctified. This is why they are always holy, and not holy only when they are actually exercised in the duties of holiness. By this principle, they are prepared, disposed, and enabled to all duties of obedience, as we will show immediately; and it is by its influence in their acts and duties, that they become holy, and not otherwise.

To further explain this, I will only add three things:

(1.) That this habit or principle, thus worked and abiding in us, does not, if I may say so, firm its own station,[947] or abide and continue in us by its own natural efficacy, in adhering to the faculties of our souls. Habits that are acquired by many actions have a natural efficacy to preserve themselves, until some opposition that is too hard for them, prevails against them — which is frequently (though not easily) done. But this principle is preserved in us by the constant powerful actings and influence of the Holy Ghost. He that works it in us, also preserves it in us. And the reason for this is because the spring of it is in Christ Jesus, our Head; it is only an emanation of virtue and power from him to us, by the Holy Ghost. If this is not actually and always continued, whatever is in us would die and wither of itself. See Eph 4.15-16; Col 3.3; John 4.14.[948] It is in us like the fructifying sap is in a branch of the vine or olive. It is there really and formally, and it is the next cause of the fruit-bearing of the branch.

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Yet it does not live and abide by itself, but only by a continual emanation and communication from the root; let that communication be intercepted, and the branch quickly withers. So it is with this principle in us with respect to its root, Christ Jesus.

(2.) Though this principle or habit of holiness is of the same kind or nature in all believers, in all who are sanctified, yet there are very distinct degrees of it in them. In some it is stronger, livelier, more vigorous and flourishing; in others it is weaker, feebler, and less active; this is in such great variety, and on so many occasions, that it cannot be spoken to here.

(3.) Even though this habit and principle is not acquired by any or many acts of duty or obedience, yet it is preserved, increased, strengthened, and improved by way of duty. God has appointed that we should live in the exercise of this habit. And in and by the multiplication of its acts and duties, it is kept alive and stirred up, without which it will be weakened and decay.

2. This being what I intend as to its substance, we must next show that there is such a spiritual habit or principle of spiritual life worked in believers, and in which their holiness consists. A few of many testimonies will suffice to quickly confirm it.

Its work is expressed in Deu 30.6, "The Lord your God will circumcise your heart, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live." The end of holiness is that we may "live;" and the principal work of holiness is to "love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul." This is the effect of God's "circumcising our hearts," without which it will not occur. Every act of love and fear, and consequently every duty of holiness whatsoever, is consequential to God's circumcising of our hearts.

But it would seem that this work of God is "only a removal of hindrances," and it does not express the conferring of the principle which we assert. I answer that, even though it would be easy to demonstrate that this work of circumcising our hearts cannot be effected without implanting in them the principle pleaded for, yet it will suffice at present to evince from this that this effectual work of God upon our hearts is antecedently necessary for all acts of holiness in us. To this end, God writes his law in our hearts: Jer 31.33, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." The habit or principle which we have described, is nothing but a transcript of the law of God implanted and abiding in our hearts, by which we comply with and respond to the whole will of God in this. This is holiness in the habit and principle of it. This is more fully expressed in Eze 36.26-27, "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments, and do them."

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The whole of all that actual obedience and all those duties of holiness which God requires of us, is contained in these expressions: "You will walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments to do them." Antecedent to this, and as the principle and cause of this, God gives a "new heart" and a "new spirit." This new heart is a heart with the law of God written in it, as mentioned before; and this new spirit is the habitual inclination of that heart to the life of God, or all duties of obedience. And in this, the whole of what we have asserted is confirmed — namely, that antecedent to all duties and acts of holiness whatsoever, and as the next cause of them, there is by the Holy Ghost a new spiritual principle or habit of grace communicated to us and abiding in us, from which we are made and designated holy.

It is yet more expressly revealed and declared in the New Testament, John 3.6. There is a work of the Spirit of God upon us in our regeneration: we are "born again of the Spirit." And there is the product of this work of the Spirit of God in us, which is born in this new birth, and that is "spirit" also. It is something existing in us that is of a spiritual nature and spiritual efficacy. It is something abiding in us, acting in continual opposition against the flesh or sin (Gal 5.17), and toward all duties of obedience to God.[949] And until this spirit is formed in us — that is, until our whole soul has been furnished with spiritual power and ability — we cannot perform any one act that is spiritually good, nor any one act of vital obedience. This spirit, or spiritual nature, which is born of the Spirit, and by which alone we are enabled to live to God, is that habit of grace or principle of holiness which we intend.

And so it is also called a new creature: "If any man is in Christ he is a new creature," 2Cor 5.17. It is something that, by an almighty creating act of the power of God by his Spirit, has the nature of a living creature, produced in the souls of all who are in Christ Jesus. And just as it is called the "new creature," so it is also called a "divine nature," 2Pet 1.4 — and a nature is the principle of all operations. This is what we plead for: The Spirit of God creates a new nature in us, which is the principle and next cause of all acts of the life of God. Where this is not found, whatever else there may be, there is no evangelical holiness. This is that by which we are enabled to live to God, to fear him, to walk in his ways, and to yield obedience according to his mind and will. See Eph 4.23- 24; Col 3.10.[950] The Scripture plentifully testifies to this; but I must add that, as to the proper nature or essence of it, no mind can apprehend it, no tongue can express it, and none can perfectly understand its glory. A few things may be added to illustrate it.

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(1.) This is that by which we have union with Jesus Christ, the head of the church. Originally and efficiently the Holy Spirit dwelling in him and us, is the cause of this union; but formally this new principle of grace is the cause. It is that by which we become "members of his flesh and of his bones," Eph 5.30. Eve was of Adam — she was one with him, because she had the same nature with him, and that derived from him, which the apostle alludes to. So too, we are of Christ, partakers of the same divine nature with him. Thus, the one who is "joined to the Lord is one spirit," 1Cor 6.17; that is, he is of one and the same spiritual nature with him, Heb 2.11, 14. How excellent is this grace, which gives us our interest in and continuity unto the body of Christ, and to his person as our head! It is the same grace in its kind, which is in the holy nature of Christ, and it renders us one with him.

(2.) Our likeness and conformity to God consists in this; for it is the reparation of his image in us, Eph 4.23-24; Col 3.10. I hope that I apprehend something concerning this image of God in believers, and of their likeness to him — how great a privilege it is, what honor, safety, and security depend on it, what duties are required of us on account of it — but to perfectly conceive or express the nature and glory of it, we cannot attain to. Yet we should learn to adore the grace from which it proceeds and is bestowed on us, to admire the love of Christ and the efficacy of his mediation by which it is renewed in us — but the thing itself is ineffable.

(3.) It is our life, our spiritual life, by which we live to God. This life is the foundation and sum of all excellencies; without it, we are dead in trespasses and sins; and it has been declared how we are quickened by the Holy Ghost. But this is the internal principle of life, from which all vital acts in the life of God proceed. And just as we do not well know what the true form and essence of natural life is, and we only find it, discern it, and judge it by its effects, much less do we know the form and essence of spiritual life, which is far more excellent and glorious. This is that life which is "hidden with Christ in God," Col 3.3; in these words, the apostle draws a veil over it, knowing that we are unable to steadfastly behold its glory and beauty.

But before I proceed to a further description of this principle of holiness in its effects, as laid down before, it may not be amiss practically to recall these general considerations of its nature. And our own concern in this truth, which is no empty notion, will be declared in this. —

First, We may learn from this not to satisfy ourselves, or not to rest, in any acts or duties of obedience, in any good works, however good and useful in themselves, or however multiplied by us, unless there is a vital principle of holiness in our hearts.

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A few honest actions, a few useful duties, satisfy some persons that they are as holy as they should be, or as they need to be. And some men's religion has consisted in multiplying outward duties, so that they might be meritorious for themselves and others. But God expressly rejects not only such duties, but the greatest multitude of them, and their most frequent reiteration, if the heart is not antecedently purified and sanctified, if it is not possessed with the principle of grace and holiness asserted in Isa 1.11-15.[951] Such acts and duties may be the effects of other causes, and the fruits of other principles. Mere legal convictions will produce them, and put men on a course to do them. Fears, afflictions, terrors of conscience, dictates of reason, improved by education and confirmed by custom, will direct, and indeed compel, men to observe them. But all is lost — men only labor in the fire about them Hab 2.13 — if the soul is not prepared with this spiritual principle of habitual holiness, worked in it immediately by the Holy Ghost. Yet we must observe these two things here:

(1.) That in so far as these duties, whether of morality or religion, of piety or divine worship, are good in themselves, they ought to be approved, and men ought to be encouraged in them. There are various ways by which the best duties may be abused and misapplied, as when men rest in them as if they were meritorious, or as if they were the matter of their justification before God. For this is known to be an effectual means to divert the souls of sinners from faith in Christ for life and salvation, Rom 9.31-32, 10.3-4.[952] And there are reasons and causes that render them unacceptable before God with respect to the persons by whom they are performed — such as when they are not done in faith, for which Cain's sacrifice was rejected; and when the heart is not previously sanctified and prepared with a spiritual principle of obedience. Yet on neither of these grounds or pretenses can we, or should we, condemn or undervalue the duties themselves, which are good in their own nature; nor should we take men away from performing them. Indeed, it would be greatly desired if we were to see more of the fruits of moral virtues and duties of religious piety among unsanctified persons than we do. The world is not in a condition to spare the good acts of bad men. But we may do this, and as we are called, we should do this: When men are engaged in a course of duties and good works, on principles that will not abide and endure the trial, or for ends that will spoil and corrupt all that they do, we may tell them (as our Savior told the young man who gave that great account of his diligence in all legal duties), "One thing is still lacking for you;" — "You lack faith, or you lack Christ, or you lack a spiritual principle of evangelical holiness; without this, all that you do will be lost and come to no account at the last day."

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The due assertion of grace never was, nor ever can be, an obstruction to any duty of obedience. However, when some dedicate themselves to those works or actings under the name of "duties" and "obedience to God," which (although they make a plausible show and appearance in the world) are evil in themselves, or which God does not require of men, we may speak against them, deny them, and take men away from them.

So persecution has been looked on as a "good work." Men supposed they did God good service when they slayed the disciples of Christ;[953] and men gave their goods to "pious uses," as they were called (indeed, impious abuses), to have others pray for their souls and expiate their sins when they had left this world. These and countless other similar, pretended duties may be judged, condemned, and exploded,[954] without the least fear of deterring men from obedience.

(2.) That wherever there is this principle of holiness in the heart of those who are adult, there will be the fruits and effects of it in the life, in all duties of righteousness, godliness, and holiness; for the main work and end of this principle is to enable us to comply with that "grace of God which teaches us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world," Tit 2.11-12. What we press for is the great direction of our Savior, "Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good also." There can be no more vile and sordid hypocrisy than for anyone to pretend to an inward, habitual sanctification, while their lives are barren in the fruits of righteousness and duties of obedience. Wherever this root is found, it will assuredly bear fruit.

Secondly, It will appear from this why men propose and steer such various courses with respect to holiness. All men who profess themselves to be Christians are agreed, in words at least, that holiness is absolutely necessary for those who would be saved by Jesus Christ. To deny it is the same as openly renouncing the gospel. But when they should come to practice it, some take one false way, some another, and some actually despise and reject it. Now, all this arises from ignorance of the true nature of evangelical holiness on the one hand, and love of sin on the other. There is nothing in which we are spiritually and eternally concerned that is more frequently asserted than the true nature of sanctification and holiness. But the thing itself, as it has been declared, is deep and mysterious; it is not to be understood without the aid of spiritual light in our minds. Hence some would equate moral virtue with holiness; this (they suppose) they can understand by their own reason, and practice in their own strength; and I heartily wish that we could see more of the fruits of it from them.

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Real moral virtue will hardly be abused into an opposition to grace; but the pretense of it is so easily, and so commonly abused. Some, on the other hand, place all holiness in superstitious devotions, in the strict observance of religious duties which men, and not God, have appointed. And there is no end of their multiplication of them, nor any measure of the strictness of some in observing them. The reason why men give themselves to such soul-deceiving imaginations is their ignorance and hatred of that only true, real principle of evangelical holiness which we have discussed. For what the world does not know in these things, it always hates. They cannot discern it clearly, or in its own light and evidence; for it must be spiritually discerned. This the natural man cannot do; and in that false light of corrupted reason in which they discern and judge it, they esteem it foolishness or fancy, 1Cor 2.14. There is not a more foolish and fanatical thing in the world, for many, than this internal, habitual holiness which we are considering; hence they are led to despise and hate it. But here the love of sin secretly takes place, and influences their minds. This universal change of the soul in all its principles of operation, into the image and likeness of God, tending to extirpate all sins and vicious habits, is what men fear and abhor. This makes them take up morality and superstitious devotion — anything that will pacify a natural conscience, and please themselves or others with a reputation of religion. It is therefore highly incumbent on all who would not willfully deceive their own souls to their eternal ruin, to inquire diligently into the true nature of evangelical holiness; and above all, to take care that they do not miss the foundation of it, in the true root and principle of it, in which a mistake would be pernicious.

Thirdly, It is, moreover, evident from this that it is a greater matter to be truly and really holy than most persons are aware of. We may eminently learn how great and excellent a work this is, of sanctification and holiness, from the causes of it. How emphatically our apostle ascribes it to God, specifically the Father: 1Thes 5.23, "Even the God of peace himself sanctify you." It is so great a work that it cannot be worked by anyone but the God of peace himself. What the immediate work of the Spirit is in this, what influence the mediation and blood of Christ has in it, has already been declared in part; and we still have much more to add in our account of it. These things sufficiently manifest how great, how excellent and glorious a work it is. For it does not become divine and infinite wisdom, to engage the immediate power and efficacy of such glorious causes and means, in order to produce an ordinary or common effect.

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It must be something of great importance to the glory of God, and of an eminent nature in itself. That little introduction which we made into an inquiry after its nature, manifests how great and excellent it is. Therefore, let us not deceive ourselves with the shadows and appearances of things in a few duties of piety or righteousness, nor even with many of them, if we do not find this great work at least begun in us. It is sad to see what trifling there is in these things among men. None, indeed, is content to be without a religion, and very few are willing to admit it in its power.

Fourthly, Have we received this principle of holiness and of spiritual life by the gracious operation of the Holy Ghost? There are, among many others, three duties incumbent on us, of which we ought to be as careful as we are of our souls.

(1) And the first is to carefully and diligently, by all means, cherish and preserve it in our hearts. This sacred deposit of the new creature, of the divine nature, is entrusted to us to take care of, to cherish, and to improve.2Tim 1.14 If we willingly, or through our neglect, allow it to be wounded by temptations, weakened by corruptions, or not exercised in all the known duties of obedience, then our guilt is great, and our trouble will not be small.

(2) And then, secondly, it is equally incumbent on us to evince and manifest it by its fruits, in the mortification of corrupt lusts and affections, in all duties of holiness, righteousness, charity, and piety in the world. That God may be glorified by this, is one of the ends for which he endues our natures with it. Without these visible fruits, we expose our entire profession of holiness to reproach.

(3) And in like manner, it is required that we be thankful for what we have received.

3. Just as this principle of inherent grace or holiness has the nature of a habit, so also it has the properties of a habit. And the first property of a habit is that it inclines and disposes its subject to acts of its own kind, or that are suitable to it. It is directed to a certain end, and it inclines the person to acts or actions which tend to this end; and it does that with evenness and constancy. Indeed, moral habits are nothing but strong and firm dispositions and inclinations to moral acts and duties of their own kind, such as righteousness, or temperance, or meekness. There must be such a disposition and inclination, therefore, in this new spiritual nature or principle of holiness which we have described, with which the souls of believers are inlaid and furnished by the Holy Ghost in their sanctification; for —

(1.) It has a certain end, and it is bestowed on us to enable us to that end. Although it is a great work in itself, one in which the renovation of the image of God in us consists, yet it is not worked in anyone except with respect to a further end in this world; and this end is that we may live to God. We are made like God, that we may live to God.

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By the depravation of our natures, we are "alienated from this life of God," this divine, spiritual life, Eph 4.18. We do not like this life; instead, we have an aversion to it. Indeed, we are under the power of a death that is universally opposed to that life; for "to be carnally minded is death," Rom 8.6 — that is, it is opposed with respect to the life of God, and all the acts that belong to it. This life of God has two parts: [1.] The outward duties of it; [2.] The inward frame and actings of it.

For the first, persons under the power of corrupted nature may perform them, and they do so; but it is without delight, constancy, or permanence. The language of that principle by which they are moved is, "Behold, what a weariness it is!" Mal 1.13; and such hypocrites will not pray always.

But as to the second, or the internal actings of faith and love, by which all outward duties will be quickened and animated, they are utter strangers to them, utterly alienated from them. With respect to this life of God, a life of spiritual obedience to God, our natures are thus spiritually renewed, or furnished with this spiritual habit and principle of grace. It is worked in us, so that by virtue of it, we may "live to God." And without it, we cannot do so in any one single act or duty whatsoever; for "those who are in the flesh cannot please God," Rom 8.8.

That is why the first property and inseparable adjunct of this habit, is that it inclines and disposes the soul in which it is found, to all acts and duties that belong to the life of God, or to all the duties of holy obedience, so that it will attend to them — not from conviction or external impression only, but from an internal genuine principle that so inclines and disposes it to this. These things may be illustrated by what is contrary to them: in the state of nature, there is a "carnal mind," which is the principle of all moral and spiritual operations in those in whom it is found. And this carnal mind has an enmity, or it is "enmity against God," — "it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be," Rom 8.7. That is, its bent and inclination lies directly against spiritual things, or against the mind and will of God in all things which concern a life of obedience to Him. Now, just as this principle of holiness is that which is introduced into our souls in opposition to, and to the exclusion of, the carnal mind, so this disposition and inclination of this principle is opposite to, and contrary to, the enmity of the carnal mind, tending always toward actions that are spiritually good, according to the mind of God.

(2.) This disposition of heart and soul, which I place as the first property or effect of the principle of holiness, as declared and explained before, is what the Scripture calls fear, love, delight, and such other affections that express a constant regard and inclination toward their objects. For these things do not denote the principle of holiness itself (which is seated in the mind, or understanding and will), because they are only the names of our affections; but they signify the first way by which that principle acts itself, in a holy inclination of the heart to spiritual obedience.

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So when the people of Israel had engaged themselves by solemn covenant to hear and do whatever God commanded, God adds concerning it, "O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always!" Deu 5.29 — that is, that the bent and inclination of their hearts would always be to obedience. This is what is intended in the promise of the covenant: Jer 32.39, "I will give them one heart, that they may fear me;" this is the same as the "new spirit," Eze 11.19. The new heart, as previously declared, is the new nature, the new creature, the new, spiritual, supernatural principle of holiness. The first effect, the first fruit of this is the fear of God always, or a new spiritual bent and inclination of soul to all the will and commands of God. And this new spirit, this fear of God, is still expressed as the inseparable consequence of the new heart, or the writing of the law of God in our hearts, which are the same. So it is called, "fearing the Lord and his goodness," Hos 3.5. In like manner, it is expressed by "love," which is the inclination of the soul to all acts of obedience to God, and to communion with him, with delight and contentment. It is a regard for God and his will, with a due reverence for his nature and a delight in him, that is suited to that covenant-relation in which he stands to us.

(3.) It is, moreover, expressed by being spiritually minded: "To be spiritually minded is life and peace," Rom 8.6; — that is, the bent and inclination of the mind to spiritual things, is that by which we live to God and enjoy peace with him; it is "life and peace." By nature we savor only the things of the flesh, and we "mind earthly things," Phi 3.19; our minds or hearts are set upon them, disposed towards them, and ready for all things that lead us to the enjoyment of them and satisfaction in them. But by this new nature, we mind the things that are above, or set our affections on them, Col 3.1-2. By virtue of this, David professes that his "soul followed hard after God," Psa 63.8, or inclined earnestly to all those ways by which he might live to God, and come to the enjoyment of him. It is like the earnestness in someone in pursuit of something that is continually in his eye, as our apostle expresses it, Phi 3.13-14. It is compared by the apostle Peter to that natural inclination which is in those who are hungry for food: 1Pet 2.2, "As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby;" which is a constant unalterable inclination.

This, therefore, is what I intend: Every nature has its disposition to actings that are suitable to it. The principle of holiness is such a nature, a new or divine nature; wherever it is, it constantly inclines the soul to duties and acts of holiness; it produces a constant disposition to them.

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And by the principle itself, the contrary principle of sin and flesh is impaired and subdued. So too, by this gracious disposition, the inclination to sin which is in us, is weakened, impaired, and gradually taken away.

This is why, wherever this principle of holiness is, it disposes or inclines the whole soul to acts and duties of holiness. And it does that — (1.) Universally, or comprehensively; (2.) Constantly, or evenly; and (3.) Permanently, to the end. And where these things do not exist, no multiplication of duties will either make or designate any person holy.

(1.) There is no duty of holiness whatsoever, without a disposition to it in a sanctified heart. There is a respect to all God's commands. Some of them may be more contrary to our natural inclinations than others, some more at odds to our present secular interests, some attended with more difficulties and disadvantages than others, and some may be rendered very hazardous by the circumstances of times and seasons. But however so, if there is a gracious principle in our hearts, it will equally incline and dispose us to every one of them in its proper place and season. And the reason for this is because, being a new nature, it equally inclines to all that belongs to that nature, just as all acts of holy obedience do. For every nature has an equal propensity toward all its natural operations, in their times and seasons.

Hence our Savior tested the rich young man, who gave an account of his duties and righteousness, with a duty that lay close to his secular interests and worldly satisfactions. This immediately drove him away, and evidenced that all he had done besides, was not from an internal principle of spiritual life. Any other principle or cause of our duties and obedience will, upon solicitation, give way to a habitual reserve of one thing or another that is contrary to this. It will allow either the omission of some duties, or the commission of some sin, or the retaining of some lust. So Naaman, who vowed obedience upon his conviction of the power of the God of Israel, would nevertheless, upon the solicitation of his worldly interest, reserve to bow in the house of Rimmon. Thus the omission of duties that are dangerous in the way of profession, or the reserving of some corrupt affections, love of the world, pride of life, will be allowed on any other principle of obedience, and will do so habitually. For even those who have this real spiritual principle of holiness may be surprised[955] into actual omission of duties, commission of sins, and a temporary indulgence of corrupt affections. But habitually they cannot be so. A habitual reserving of anything that is sinful or morally evil, is eternally inconsistent with this principle of holiness — light and darkness, fire and water, may as soon be reconciled in one, as for this to be so. And hereby it is distinguished from all other principles, reasons, or causes on which men may perform any duties of obedience towards God.

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(2.) It thus disposes the heart to duties of holiness constantly and evenly. The one in whom it is found, fears always, or he is in the fear of the Lord all day long. In all instances, on all occasions, it equally disposes the mind to acts of holy obedience. It is true that the actings of grace which proceed from it are sometimes more intense and vigorous in us than at other times. It is also true that we are sometimes more watchful and diligently intent on all occasions of acting grace — whether in solemn duties, or in our general course, or on particular occasions — than we are at some other times. Moreover, there are special seasons in which we meet with greater difficulties and obstructions from our lusts and temptations than ordinarily, by which this holy disposition is intercepted and impeded. But notwithstanding all these things which are contrary to it, and which obstruct its operations, in itself and of its own nature, it constantly and evenly inclines the soul, at all times and on all occasions, to duties of holiness. Whatever happens otherwise, is incidental to it. This disposition is like a stream that arises equally from a living fountain, as our Savior expresses it: John 4.14, "A well of water springing up into everlasting life." As this stream follows its course, it may meet with oppositions that either stop or divert it for a season; but its waters still press forward continually.

Hereby too, the soul sets God always before it, and walks continually as in his sight. Men may perform duties of obedience to God — indeed, many of them are engaged in a constant course of duties as to their outward performance — but this is done on other grounds, from other principles, and by virtue of other motives. But whatever they are, they are not a new nature in and to the soul; and so they do not dispose men constantly and evenly toward what they lead to. Sometimes their impressions on the mind are strong and violent; there is no withstanding them; the duties they require must instantly be complied with. So it is when convictions are excited by dangers or afflictions, strong desires, or the like. And again, they leave the soul to its own formality and course, without the least impression from them towards any duties whatsoever. There is no cause, or principle, or reason for obedience, besides this one that is asserted, that will evenly and constantly incline us toward the acts of holiness. Men proceeding only upon the power of convictions are like men at sea who sometimes meet with storms or vehement winds; these fit them for their course, and would seem to immediately and violently drive them into their port or harbor, as it were. But suddenly, when they have an utter calm, there is no breath of air that stirs to help them forward. Then perhaps, after awhile, another gust of wind befalls them, which again they suppose will dispatch their voyage, but that also quickly fails them.

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Where this principle of holiness is, however, persons have a natural current which carries them on quickly, evenly, and constantly. And although they may sometimes meet with storms, tempests, and crosswinds, yet the stream, the current, which is natural, at length works its way, and holds its course, through all external occasional impediments.

(3.) It is also permanent in this, and it abides forever. It will never cease inclining and disposing the whole soul to acts and duties of obedience, until it comes to the end of them all in the enjoyment of God. It is "living water;" and whoever drinks of it will never thirst anymore — that is, with a total indigence of supplies of grace. Rather, it is "a well of water springing up into everlasting life," John 4.14. It springs up always, without intermission, because it is living water, from which vital acts are inseparable. And so, permanently and without ceasing, it springs up into everlasting life. It does not fail until those in whom it is inlaid, are safely lodged in the enjoyment of it. This is expressly promised in the covenant, "I will put my fear in their hearts, and they will not depart from me," Jer 32.40. Those in whom this fear exists, which is permanent and endless, will never do so. It is true that it is our duty — with all care and diligence in the use of all means — to preserve, cherish, and improve both the principle itself, and its actings in these holy dispositions. We are to "show all diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end," Heb 6.11. And it is in the use of means, and the exercise of grace, that this principle is infallibly kept and preserved, Isa 40.31[956] — and it is also true that sometimes, in some persons, upon the fierce interposition of temptations, with the violent and deceitful working of lusts, the principle itself may seem to be utterly stifled for a season, and this property of it to be destroyed, as it seems to have been with David under his sad fall and decay. Yet such is the nature of it that it is immortal, everlasting, and it will never absolutely die. Such is the relation of it to the covenant-faithfulness of God, and mediation of Christ, that it will never utterly cease or be extinguished. It abides, disposing and inclining the heart to all duties of holy obedience, to the grave. Indeed, ordinarily, and where its genuine work and tendency is not interrupted by cursed negligence or the love of the world, it thrives and grows continually to the end. Hence, some are not only fruitful, but they are sumptuous and flourishing in their old age; as their outward man decays, so in them the inward man is daily renewed in strength and power.2Cor 4.16 But as for all other principles of obedience whatsoever, it is in their nature to decay and wither; all their actings insensibly grow weaker and less efficacious. So too, for the most part, either the increase of carnal wisdom, or the love of the world, or some powerful temptation, at one time or other puts an utter end to them, and they are of no use at all.

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Hence there is not a more secure generation of sinners in the world than those who have been moved by the power of conviction, to a course of obedience in the performance of many duties. Those of them who do not openly fall into profaneness, or lasciviousness, or neglect of all duties of religion, will continue in their course from what they have been habituated to. They find it is compliant with their present circumstances and conditions in the world, having been preserved from those ways and practices which are inconsistent with their present course, by the power of their former convictions. But the power of these principles of conviction, education, impressions from afflictions, dangers, fears, all in one, dies before men. And if their eyes were open, they might see the outcome of them all.

In this manner, therefore, the new, divine nature that is in believers, disposes and inclines them — impartially, evenly, and permanently — to all acts and duties of holy obedience.

One thing yet remains to be clarified, so that there may be no mistake in this matter: that in those who are thus constantly inclined and disposed to all the acts of a heavenly, spiritual life, there still remain contrary dispositions and inclinations also. There are still inclinations and dispositions to sin, proceeding from the remainders of a contrary habitual principle. The Scripture calls this the "flesh," "lust," the "sin that dwells in us," or the "body of death." This is what still remains in believers, of that vicious, corrupted depravation of our nature which came upon us by the loss of the image of God, and which disposes the whole soul to all that is evil. This still continues in believers, inclining them to evil, and to all that is evil, according to the power and efficacy which remains of it, in various degrees. Various things are observable here; such as —

(1.) This is that which is singular in this life of God: there are, in the same mind, will, and affections of a regenerate person, contrary habits and inclinations that continually oppose one another, and that act adversely concerning the same objects and ends. And this is not from any jarrings or disorder that exists between the distinct faculties of the soul itself. In natural men, on the one hand, there are adverse actings between their wills and affections which are bent toward sin; and on the other, the light of their minds and consciences prohibit committing that sin, and condemn its commission. This disorder is discernible in the light of nature, and it is sufficiently canvassed by the old philosophers. But these contrary habits, inclinations, and actings, are at work within the same faculties.[957]

(2.) This cannot be apprehended except by virtue of a previous conviction and acknowledgment both of the total corruption of our nature by the fall, and the initial renovation of our nature by Jesus Christ, in which these contrary habits and dispositions consist.

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So too, this cannot be denied without an open rejection of the gospel, and a contradiction of the experience of all those who believe or know anything of what it means to live to God. We intend no more than what the apostle so plainly asserts in Gal 5.17: "The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh;" that is, in the mind, will, and affections of believers: "and these are contrary one to another;" they are contrary principles, attended with contrary inclinations and actings: "so that you cannot do the things that you would."

(3.) There cannot be contrary habits, merely natural or moral, in the same subject, with respect to the same object, at the same time — at least they cannot be contrary in any high degree, so as to incline and act contrary to one another with urgency or efficacy. For a violent inclination to sin, and a conscience that fiercely condemns that sin, and by which sinners are sometimes torn and even distracted, are not contrary habits in the same subject. Rather, conscience brings in from without, the judgment of God against what the will and affections are bent upon within.

But, as was said, it is otherwise in the contrary principles or habits of spirit and flesh, of grace and sin, with their adverse inclinations and actings; only they cannot be contrary in the highest degree at the same time, nor be actually prevalent or predominant in the same instances — that is, sin and grace cannot bear rule in the same heart at the same time, so that the heart should be equally under the conduct of them both. Nor can they have contrary inclinations in the same soul, that are equally efficacious; for then they would absolutely obstruct all sorts of operations whatsoever. Nor can they have the same influence into particular actions, or those actions could not be justly designated either gracious or sinful from one or the other of them. Rather, by nature, the vicious, depraved habit of sin, or the flesh, is wholly predominant and universally prevalent, constantly disposing and inclining the soul to sin. Hence "all the imaginations of men's hearts are evil, and that continually," Gen 6.5 and "those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Rom 8.8 No good thing dwells in them,Rom 7.18 nor can they do anything that is good — the flesh is generally able to subdue the rebellions of light, convictions, and conscience, that are made against it.

But upon the introduction of the new principle of grace and holiness in our sanctification, this habit of sin is weakened, impaired, and so disenabled, that it cannot nor will it incline to sin with that constancy and prevalence which it did formerly; nor ordinarily will it press with the same urgency and force. Hence the Scripture says it is dethroned by grace, so that it will not reign or lord it over us, by hurrying us into the pursuit of its uncontrollable inclinations, Rom 6.12.[958] Concerning these things, the reader may consult my treatises about the "Remainder of Indwelling Sin," and the "Mortification of Sin in Believers."[959]

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But this flesh, this principle of sin, is such that however it may be dethroned, corrected, impaired, and disenabled, it is still never wholly and absolutely dispossessed and cast out of the soul in this life. There it will remain, and there it will work, seduce, and tempt, more or less, according to its remaining strength and advantages. Because of this, and the opposition that arises from it, the principle of grace and holiness cannot, nor does it perfectly and absolutely incline the heart and soul to the life of God and its acts, such that those with this principle of holiness should not be sensible of any opposition made to it, nor of any contrary motions and inclinations to sin. For the flesh will lust against the spirit, as well as the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary.

This is the analogy that is made between these two states: in the state of nature, the principle of sin, or the flesh, is predominant and it bears rule in the soul; but there is a light remaining in the mind, and a judgment in the conscience which, being heightened with instructions and convictions, continually opposes and condemns sin both before and after its commission. In those who are regenerate, it is the principle of grace and holiness that is predominant and bears rule. But there is still a principle of lust and sin in them, which rebels against the rule of grace, much as that light and those convictions which rebel against the rule of sin in the unregenerate. For just as they hinder men from doing many evils which their ruling principle of sin strongly inclines them to, and push them to do many duties that sin does not like, they do the same on the other side, in those who are regenerate: they hinder them from doing many good things which their ruling principle of holiness inclines them to; and they carry men into many evils which it abhors.[960]

But this inseparably and necessarily belongs to the principle of holiness: that it inclines and disposes the soul in which it abides universally, to all acts of holy obedience. And these inclinations are predominant to any other, and they keep the soul pointed to holiness continually; this belongs to its nature. And where there is a cessation or an interruption in these inclinations, it is from the prevailing reaction of the principle of sin which may be advantaged by outward temptations and incentives, which a holy soul will constantly contend against. Where this is not so, there is no holiness. The performance of duties — whether of religious worship or of morality, however frequently, sedulously, and usefully they are done — will not designate a man as holy, unless his whole soul is disposed and possessed with prevalent inclinations to all that is spiritually good, proceeding from the principle of the image of God that has been renewed in him. Outward duties of whatever sort, may still be multiplied upon light and conviction, even when they do not spring from a root of grace in the heart; but what rises up in this way, will quickly wither, Mat 13.20-21.

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And this free, genuine, unforced inclination of the mind and soul, evenly and universally, to all that is spiritually good, to all acts and duties of holiness, with an inward laboring to break through and quit all opposition, is the first fruit and most pregnant evidence of the renovation of our natures by the Holy Ghost.

If the habit or inherent principle of holiness so constantly inclines the soul to all duties of holiness and obedience, it may be asked, Why does David pray that God would incline his heart to his testimonies, Psa 119.36? For it would seem from this, that a new act of grace is required for it, and it does not spring from the habit mentioned — which was then eminent in the psalmist.

Ans. 1. I will show afterward that, notwithstanding all the power and efficacy of habitual grace, there is yet required a new act of the Holy Spirit by his grace for its actual exercise in particular instances.

Ans. 2. God inclines our hearts to duties and obedience principally by strengthening, increasing, and exciting the grace we have received, and which is inherent in us; but we neither have nor ever will have in this world, such a stock of spiritual strength as to do anything as we should, without renewed co-operations of grace.

Ans. 3. There is power accompanying this habit of grace, as well as propensity or inclinations. It does not merely dispose the soul to holy obedience, but it enables it to acts and duties of holiness. Our living to God, our walking in his ways and statutes, keeping his judgments —things which express our whole actual obedience — are the effects of the new heart that is given to us, and by which we are enabled to do them, Eze 36.26-27.

But this must be somewhat further and distinctly declared. (1.) I will show that there is a power of holy obedience in all those who have the principle of holiness worked in them by the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, which is inseparable from it; and (2.) I will show what that power is, or what it consists in.

It has been sufficiently proved before that by nature we have no power to or for anything that is spiritually good, nor to any acts or duties of evangelical holiness: "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly," Rom 5.6. Until we are made partakers of the benefits of the death of Christ, in and by his sanctifying grace, we are "ungodly," and so we are "without strength" — we have no power to live to God. But, as was said, this has been fully and largely confirmed previously in our declaration about the impotency of our nature because of its death in sin; and so it does not need to be further asserted here.

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(1.) The present assertion which we are to prove is that, in and by the grace of regeneration and sanctification, there is a power and ability given to us of living to God, or performing all the duties of acceptable obedience. This is the first act of that spiritual habit, arising out of it and inseparable from it. It is called "strength" or "power": Isa 40.31, "Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength;" that is, strength for obedience or walking with God without weariness. They have strength, and it is renewed or increased in their walking with God. By the same grace, we are "strengthened with all might, according to the glorious power of God," Col 1.11; or, "strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man," Eph 3.16; by which "we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us," Phi 4.13. In our calling or conversion to God, "all things are given to" us by his "divine power," which "pertain to life and godliness," 2Pet 1.3 — everything that is needed to enable us to live a holy life. The habit and principle of grace that is worked in believers gives them new power and spiritual strength for all duties of obedience. The water of the Spirit in this habit is not only a "well of water" abiding in them, but it "springs up into everlasting life," John 4.14; i.e., it continually enables us to gracious actings that have a tendency to obedience. There is a sufficiency in the grace of God bestowed on those who believe, to enable them to the obedience that is required of them — so God told our apostle when he was ready to faint under his temptation, that "His grace was sufficient for him," 2Cor 12.9 — or there is a power in all those who are sanctified, by which they are able to yield all holy obedience to God. They are alive to God, alive to righteousness and holiness. They have a principle of spiritual life; and where there is life, there is power in its kind, and for its end. This is why there is not only a principle or inherent habit of grace bestowed on us in our sanctification, by which we really and habitually differ from all unregenerate persons as to our state and condition — but moreover, there belongs to it an active power, or an ability for spiritual, holy obedience, which none are partakers of except those who are so sanctified. And this power is in respect to all the commands or precepts of obedience that belong to the new covenant.

The commands of each covenant respect the power given in and by it. Whatever God required or does require of anyone, by virtue of the old covenant or its precepts, was on account of and proportionate to the strength given under and by that covenant. And the fact that we have lost that strength by the entrance of sin, does not exempt us from the authority of the command. This is why we are justly obliged to do what we have no power to perform. So also, the command of God under the new covenant, as to all that obedience which he requires of us, respects that power which is given and communicated to us by that covenant. And this is that power which belongs to the new creature: the habit and principle of grace and holiness which, as we have proved, is worked by the Holy Ghost in all believers.

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(2.) We may now, therefore, inquire into the nature of this spiritual power: what it is, and what it consists in. This cannot be clearly understood without a due consideration of that impotency to all spiritual good, which is in us by nature, and which this power cures and takes away. We have declared this at large before, and the reader is referred there.[961] When we know what it means to be without power or strength in spiritual things, we may learn from this what it is to have them. To this purpose, we may consider that there are three things or faculties in our souls which are the subject of all power or impotency in spiritual things — namely, our understandings, wills, and affections. It was proved earlier that our spiritual impotency arises from the depravation of these faculties. And thus, whatever power we have for holy, spiritual obedience, must consist in some special ability that is communicated distinctly to all these faculties.

Our inquiry is threefold: [1] What is this power in the mind? [2] What is it in the will? and [3] What is it in the affections? —

[1.] This power in the mind consists in a spiritual light and ability to discern spiritual things in a spiritual manner; which men in the state of nature are utterly devoid of, 1Cor 2.13-14. The Holy Spirit, in the first communication of the principle of spiritual life and holiness, "shines in our hearts, to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 2Cor 4.6. Indeed, this strengthening of the mind by saving illumination, is the most eminent act of our sanctification. Without this, there is such a veil of fear and bondage upon us, that we cannot see in spiritual things. But "where the Spirit of the Lord is," where he comes with his sanctifying grace, "there is liberty;" and thereby "we all, with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory," 2Cor 3.17-18. See Eph 1.17-18.[962]

For this reason, all sanctified believers have an ability and power in the renewed mind and understanding, to see, know, discern, and receive spiritual things, the mysteries of the gospel and the mind of Christ, in a due and spiritual manner. It is true, not all believes have this power and ability in the same degree; but every one of them has sufficient power to discern what necessarily concerns themselves and their duties. Some of them seem, indeed, to be very low in knowledge; and in comparison to others, they seem very ignorant; for there are different degrees in these things, Eph 4.7. Some of them are kept in that condition by their own negligence and sloth; they do not use or improve, as they should, those means of growing in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ which God prescribes to them, as in Heb 6.1-6.[963]

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But everyone who is truly sanctified, and who has received the least degree of saving grace by it, has enough light to understand the spiritual things of the gospel in a spiritual manner. When the mysteries of the gospel are preached to believers, some of them may be declared in such a way that those of lesser capacities and abilities may not be able to rightly comprehend the doctrine of these things. Yet it is still necessary to be proposed this way for the edification of those who are more grown in knowledge. Nevertheless, there is no one, not the least of them, who does not have a spiritual insight into the things themselves that are intended, so far as they are necessary to their faith and obedience in their present condition. The Scripture so abundantly testifies to this as to render it unquestionable. For "we have received the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God," 1Cor 2.12. By virtue of what we have received, we know or discern spiritual things; thus we "know the mind of Christ," verse 16. This is the substance of that double testimony in 1Joh 2.20, 27.[964] This abiding unction is none other than that habitual inherent grace which we plead for. And by that grace, because it is a holy light in our mind, we "know all things;" it is the understanding that is given to us, to "know him that is true," 1Joh 5.20. Only, it is their duty to continually endeavor to improve and enlarge the light they have, in the daily exercise of the spiritual power they have received, and in the use of means, Heb 5.14.[965]

[2.] This power in the will consists in its liberty, freedom, and ability to consent to, choose, and embrace spiritual things. Believers have free will to do what is spiritually good; for they are freed from that bondage and slavery to sin which they were under in the state of nature. Some may say, concerning the nature of free-will, that it consists in an indifference toward good or evil,[966] to one thing or another, with a power to apply itself to all its operations, whatever their objects may be. But as the Scripture knows nothing of this power, it is what we cannot have. And if we could, it would be of no advantage to us at all; truly, we would be much better without it. Indeed, we cannot have it; for supposing we could, it includes a rejection of all our dependence on God, making all the springs of our actions absolutely and formally in ourselves. Considering the prejudices, temptations, and corruptions we are possessed by and exercised with, rather than such a flexibility of will being of any use or advantage to us, it would instead certainly give us up to the power of sin and Satan.

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All that the Scripture knows about free-will is that, in the state of nature, antecedent to the converting, sanctifying work of the Spirit, all men whatsoever are in bondage to sin; and that bondage is in all the faculties of their souls. They are "sold under sin;" they are "not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be;" — they can neither think, nor will, nor do, nor desire, nor love anything that is spiritually good, according to the mind of God. But as for what is evil, perverse, and unclean, they are free and open to it — they are ready for, prone to, and inclined to it, and they are in every way able to do it.

On the other side, in those who are renewed by the Holy Ghost and sanctified, it acknowledges and teaches a freedom of will, not in an indifference and flexibility toward good and evil, but in a power and ability to like, love, choose, and cling to God and his will in all things. The will is now freed from its bondage to sin; and being enlarged by light and love, it freely wills and chooses the things of God, having received spiritual power and ability to do so. It is the truth — that is, faith in the gospel, which is the doctrine of the truth — which is the means of this freedom; it is the "truth that makes us free," John 8.32. And it is the Son of God by his Spirit who is the principal and efficient cause of it: for "if the Son makes us free, then we are free indeed," verse 36; otherwise we are not free, whatever we may pretend. And we do not have this freedom to spiritual good of ourselves, in the state of nature; for if we did, then we are free indeed, and there would be no need for the Son to make us free.

The difference, therefore, about free-will is reduced to these three heads:

1st. Whether there is a power in man to indifferently determine for himself his choice and all his actings, to this or that, good or evil, one thing or another, independent of the will, power, and providence of God, and of His disposal of all future events? This we deny, as inconsistent with the prescience, authority, decrees, and dominion of God, and as that which would prove certainly ruinous and destructive to ourselves.

2dly. Whether there is in unregenerate men, those not renewed by the Holy Ghost, a freedom, power, and ability to do what is spiritually good, or to believe and obey according to the mind and will of God? This we also deny, as contrary to countless testimonies of Scripture, and absolutely destructive of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

3dly. Whether the freedom of will that is in believers, consists only in an indifference and freedom from any pre-determination, with a power that is equally ready for good or evil, as the will determines for itself? Or whether it consists in a gracious freedom and ability to choose, will, and do what is spiritually good, in opposition to the bondage and slavery to sin in which we were previously detained?

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This last one is that liberty and power of the will which we assert, as does the Scripture, in persons who are sanctified. This is a liberty that is consistent in every way with all the operations of God, as the sovereign first cause of all things; it is in every way compliant with and an effect of the special grace of God, and the operations of the Holy Ghost; it is a liberty by which our obedience and salvation are secured, in answer to the promises of the covenant. Who, that understands himself,[967] would exchange this real, useful, gracious free-will, given by Jesus Christ the Son of God when he makes us free — and an effect of God's writing his law in our hearts to cause us to walk in his statutes — that property of the new heart by which it is able to consent to, choose, and freely embrace the things of God — who would exchange these for a fictitious, imaginary freedom, yes (if it were real), for an indifference to all things, and an equal power to do everything, whether good or evil? I say then, that by the habit of grace and holiness infused into us by the Spirit of sanctification, the will is freed, enlarged, and enabled to comply with the commands of God for obedience, according to the tenor of the new covenant. This is that freedom, that power of the will, which the Scripture reveals and regards, and which (by all its promises and precepts) we are obliged to use and exercise, and no other.

[3.] The affections, which naturally are the principal servants and instruments of sin, are hereby engaged to God, Deu 30.6.[968]

From what has been thus far discussed, the sense of our former assertion is evident, and the nature of the principle of holiness is also asserted. In our sanctification, the Holy Ghost works, effects, and creates in us a new, holy, spiritual, vital principle of grace. This principle resides in all the faculties of our souls, according to what their special nature is capable of. And it does so, in the manner of a permanent and prevalent habit which the Spirit cherishes, preserves, increases, and strengthens continually using effectual supplies of grace from Jesus Christ. These supplies dispose, incline, and enable the whole soul to all the ways, acts, and duties of holiness by which we live to God; and they oppose, resist, and finally conquer whatever is opposite and contrary to the principle of holiness. This belongs essentially to evangelical holiness — indeed, the nature of holiness formally and radically consists in this. It is from this that believers are designated holy; and without this, none are holy, nor can they be called holy.

The properties of this power are readiness and facility. Wherever it is, it renders the soul ready for all duties of holy obedience, and it renders all duties of holy obedience easy to the soul.

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(1.) It gives readiness by removing and taking away all those encumbrances which the mind is apt to be clogged with and hindered by: sin, the world, spiritual sloth, and unbelief. This is what we are exhorted to as our duty, Heb 12.1; Luke 12.35; 1Pet 1.13, 4.1; Eph 6.14. In this removal, the spirit is ready, though the flesh is weak, Mark 14.38. And those encumbrances which make us unready for obedience to God, may be considered in two ways:

[1.] As they are in their full power and efficacy in unregenerate persons, for which reason they are "reprobate to every good work," Tit 1.16. From this proceed all those prevalent excuses which bear sway in such persons, against complying with the will of God and their own convictions. "Yet a little slumber, a little sleep, a little folding of the hands to sleep," Pro 6.10. By these, men so often postpone the calls of God, and perniciously procrastinate from time to time in fully complying with their convictions. Whatever particular duties such persons actually perform, their hearts and minds are never prepared or ready for them. Instead, the encumbrances mentioned influence them into spiritual disorders in all they do.

[2.] These principles of sloth and unreadiness often partially influence the minds of believers themselves toward great indispositions to spiritual duties. So the spouse states her case, Song 5.2-3.[969] Because of her circumstances in the world, she was unready for that converse and communion with Christ which she was called to. And not infrequently, it is this way with the best of men in this world. A spiritual unreadiness for holy duties, arising from the power of sloth or the occasions of life, is no small part of their sin and trouble. Both these are removed by this spiritual power of the principle of life and holiness in believers. The total prevailing power of sloth and circumstance, as it is in unregenerate persons, is broken by the first infusion of spiritual power into the soul, which gives it a habitual fitness and preparation of heart for all duties of obedience to God. And by various degrees, it frees believers from the remainders of the encumbrances which they have yet to contest with. It does this three ways:

1st. It weakens and removes the bent of the soul from earthly things, so they will not possess the mind as they did formerly, Col 3.2. How it does this, was declared before. And when this is done, the mind is greatly eased of its burden, and in some way it is ready for its duty.

2dly. It gives an insight into the beauty, excellence, and glory of holiness, and all our duties of obedience. Those who are unsanctified, are under the power of their natural darkness; they see nothing of this. They can see no beauty in holiness, no form or attractiveness which make it desirable. It is no wonder they are unfree to perform its duties, and are compelled to them, as it were. But the spiritual light with which this principle of grace is accompanied, reveals an excellence in holiness and its duties, and in the communion with God which we have by it, that greatly inclines the mind to them, and prepares it for them.

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3dly. It causes the affections to cling and adhere to them with delight. "How I love your law!" says David; "my delight is in your statutes; they are sweeter to me than the honey-comb." Where these three things concur — where the mind is freed from the powerful influences of carnal lusts and love of this world; where the beauty and excellence of holiness and the duties of obedience lie clear in the eyes of the soul; and where the affections cling to spiritual things as commanded — then that readiness in obedience which we inquire after, will be found.

(2.) It gives facility or easiness in the performance of all duties of obedience. Whatever men do from a habit, they do with some kind of easiness. It is easy for those who are accustomed to it, even though it is hard and difficult in itself. And what is done from nature is done with facility. The principle of grace, as we have shown, is a new nature, an infused habit with respect to the life of God, or all duties of holy obedience. I grant that there will be opposition to them even in the mind and heart itself — opposition from sin, and Satan, and temptations of all sorts. Indeed, they may sometimes rise so high as either to defeat our purposes and intentions with regard to our duties, or to bog us down in them — to remove our chariot-wheels and make us drive heavily. But it is still in the nature of the principle of holiness to make the whole course of obedience and all its duties easy for us, and to give us a facility in their performance: for —

[1.] It introduces a suitableness between our minds and the duties we are to perform. By this principle, the law is written in our hearts; that is, there is an accountability in them to all that the law of God requires. In the state of nature, the great things of the law of God are a strange thing to us, Hos 8.12; there is enmity in our minds against them, Rom 8.7; there is no suitableness between our minds and them — but this is taken away by the principle of grace. Thereby the mind and duty answer one another, as the eye to an illumined body. Hence the "commands of Christ are not grievous" to those in whom it abides, 1John 5.3. They do not appear to contain anything uncouth,[970] unreasonable, burdensome, or in any way unsuited to that new nature by which the soul is influenced and moved. Hence "all the ways of wisdom are" to believers, as they are in themselves, "pleasantness, and all her paths are peace," Pro 3.17.

The great notion of some in these days is about the suitableness of Christian religion to reason. To make good their assertion in its principal mysteries, and because reason will not come to them, they bring them by force to their reason. But it is with respect to this renewed principle, that there is a suitableness in all the things of God to our minds and affections.

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[2.] It keeps the heart or whole person frequent in all holy acts and duties; and frequency gives facility in every kind. It pushes the soul to reiterated actings of faith and love, or renewed holy thoughts and meditations. It is a spring that continually bubbles up in them upon the frequent repetition of the daily duties of prayer, reading, and holy discourse; as it does upon making use of all opportunities and occasions for mercy, benignity,[971] charity, and bounty among men. Hereby the heart becomes so accustomed to the yoke of the Lord, and it is made so conversant in his ways, that it is natural and easy for it to bear them and to be engaged in them. It will be found by experience that the more intermissions of duties of any sort we fall under, the more difficulty we find in their performance.

[3.] It engages the assistance of Christ and his Spirit. It is the divine nature, the new creature, which the Lord Christ cares for. It is in and by its actings in all duties of obedience, that its life consists; in this, also, it is strengthened and improved. For this reason, the Lord Christ continually comes to the new creature's assistance by supplies of his Spirit. And when the strength of Christ is engaged, then and there his yoke is easy and his burden is light.Mat 11.30

Some, perhaps, will say that they do not find this facility or easiness in the course of obedience and in its duties. They encounter secret unwillingnesses in themselves, and great oppositions on other accounts. Because of these, they are apt to be faint and weary — indeed, they are almost ready to give up. It is hard for them to pray continually, and not to faint; to stand their watch night and day against the inroads of their spiritual adversaries; to keep themselves from the insinuations of the world, and to keep up those sacrifices of charity and bounty that are so well-pleasing to God. Many weights and burdens are upon them in their course, many difficulties press them, and they expect to be beset every moment. This is why they think that the principle of grace and holiness does not give the facility and easiness mentioned, or that they were never made partakers of it.

I answer —

1st. Let these persons examine themselves, and duly consider where those obstructions and difficulties which they complain about, arise from. If they are from the inward inclinations of their souls, and their unwillingness to bear the yoke of Christ, and they are only sustained in it by their convictions, which they cannot cast off, then their condition is to be bewailed. But if they are sensible and convinced that these arise from principles within themselves, which they hate and abhor and from which they long to be freed — and if they are from without, and they are looking at them as their enemies, and watch against them — then what they complain of is no more than what all believers experience in one degree or other.1Cor 10.13

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And if their impediments arise from what they know they oppose, and from that principle by which they are moved, then notwithstanding this objection, it may be in the nature of the principle of holiness, to give facility in all the duties of holiness.

2dly. Let them inquire whether they have been constant and assiduous in performing all those duties which they now complain they have so much difficulty in. The principle of grace and holiness gives facility in all duties of obedience; but it does so in the proper way and order. It first gives constancy and assiduity, and then it gives easiness. If men do not comply with its guidance and inclination in the former, then it is in vain for them to expect the latter. If we are not constant in all acts of obedience, none of them will ever be easy for us. There are those who omit proper and due seasons of meditation, prayer, hearing, charity, moderation in all things, patience, meekness, and the like; and do so at their pleasure, on the least occasions, excuses, or diversions. Let them never think or hope to have the ways of obedience smooth, its paths pleasant, or its duties easy. Let that person never think to attain any readiness, delight, or facility in any art or science, who is always beginning at it, dabbling in it occasionally. This is the way it is in all sorts of natural and spiritual things — to always be learning, and never come to the knowledge of the truth 2Tim 3.7 — so it is in the practice of holy obedience. If men are always beginning holiness, as it were — one time performing its duties, another time ceasing them; fearing or being unwilling to engage in a constant, equal, assiduous discharge of those duties — then they will always be striving after, but never come to any readiness or facility in them.

3dly. The difficulty and burdensomeness complained of, may proceed from the interposition of perplexing temptations, which weary, disquiet, and distract the mind. This may be and frequently is the case; and yet our assertion is not impeached. We only say that if we set aside extraordinary occasions and sinful neglects, this principle of grace and holiness gives that suitableness to the mind toward all duties of obedience, that constancy in them, that love for them, that makes them both easy and pleasant.

By these indicators, we may inquire about the habit or principle of holiness in our own minds, so that we are not deceived by anything that falsely pretends to it; such as —

First, Let us take heed not to deceive ourselves, as though it would suffice for gospel holiness that we occasionally have good purposes of leaving sin and living to God — except when something out of the ordinary presses upon us with the effects which such good purposes will produce. Afflictions, sicknesses, troubles, a sense of great guilt, fear of death, and the like, usually produce this frame of mind. And although it is most remote from any pretense to evangelical obedience, I could not help but give a caution against it, because it is that by which most men delude themselves into eternal ruin.

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It is rare to find any who are so stubbornly profligate, that at one time or another they do not project and design, indeed, promise and engage, a change of course and an amendment of their life — doing various things maybe, in the pursuit of those designs and purposes. For upon that, they abstain from their old sins which haunt and perplex them, and take to performing those duties from which they expect the most relief for their consciences, and whose neglect most poorly reflects on them. They will especially do so when the hand of God is upon them in afflictions and dangers, Psa 78.34-37.[972] And this produces in them that kind of goodness which God says "is like the morning cloud or the early dew" (Hos 6.4) — things that look good, but immediately vanish away.

Certainly it would not take much pains to convince any man how unspeakably this comes short of that evangelical holiness which is a fruit of the sanctification of the Spirit. It has neither its root, nor any fruit that so much as resembles it. But it is to be lamented that such multitudes of rational creatures, living under the means of light and grace, should so vainly and woefully delude their own souls. What they aim at and intend, is to have in them what may make them accepted by God. Now, not to insist on what will absolutely frustrate all the designs of such persons — namely, their lack of faith in Christ, and an interest in his righteousness by it (which they disregard) — all that they project and design is as far beneath that holiness which God requires of them, and which they think to obtain by it, as the earth is beneath the heavens. All that they do in this way is utterly lost; it will never be a righteousness to them or a holiness in them. Rather, this deceit is frequently rebuked. Only God, by his grace, can remove and take it away from the minds of men.

Secondly, We may learn from this not to be imposed on by gifts, however useful, with a plausible profession based on that. These things go a great way in the world, and many deceive both themselves and others by them. Gifts, in a special manner, are from the Holy Ghost; and therefore they are greatly to be esteemed. They are also frequently useful in and to the church; for "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to men to profit with." 1Cor 12.7 They put men upon such duties as will have a great show and appearance of holiness. Only by the help of these gifts, may men pray, and preach, and maintain spiritual communication among those with whom they converse. And as circumstances may allow, these gifts put various persons in a position to frequently perform these duties; and so they sustain an eminence in profession.

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Yet, when all is done, they are not holiness; nor are the duties performed in their strength alone, duties of evangelical obedience, accepted by God in those by whom they are performed. They may be found even where there is nothing of holiness at all. Indeed, these duties are not only consistent with holiness, but they are subservient to it; they are exceeding promoters of holiness in souls who are really gracious. Yet they may exist alone, without grace. And then they are apt to deceive the mind with a pretense of being and doing what they are not, nor can do. Let them be called to account by the nature and properties of that habit and principle of grace which is found in all true holiness, as explained before, and it will quickly appear how short they come of it. For to the extent that their subject and residence is in the mind only, and not in the will or affections as influenced or restrained by light, these duties do not renew or change the mind itself so as to transform it into the image of God. Nor do they give the soul a general inclination toward all acts and duties of obedience, but only a readiness for that duty which their exercise particularly consists of. Therefore they correspond to no one property of true holiness; and we have not seldom seen this revealed.

Morality or a course of moral duties alone cannot in the least maintain any pretense to holiness. There have been attempts to prove that there is no specific difference between common and saving grace, except that they are both of the same kind, differing only in degrees. But some, as though this ground had already been gained, and needed no more contending about, add — without any consideration of these "petty distinctions of common and saving grace" — that "morality is grace and grace is morality, and nothing else." To be a gracious, holy man, according to the gospel, and to be a moral man, is all the same thing with them. And it has not been declared as yet, whether there is any difference between evangelical holiness and philosophical morality. This is why I will proceed to the fourth thing proposed —

4. And this is to further prove that this habit or gracious principle of holiness is specifically distinct from all other habits of the mind whatsoever, whether intellectual or moral, connate[973] or acquired; and it is also distinct from all that common grace and its effects, which persons who are not really sanctified may be made partakers of.

The truth of this assertion is sufficiently evident from the description we have given of this spiritual habit, its nature and properties. But because there are also other respects giving further confirmation of that same truth, I will recall the most important of them, after a few things have been premised: such as —

(1.) A habit, of whatever sort, qualifies the subject in which it is exercised, so that it may be identified by it; and it makes the actions proceeding from that habit, suited to it, or to be of its same nature.[974]

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As Aristotle says, "Virtue is a habit which makes the one who has it good or virtuous, and his actions good." Now, all moral habits are seated in the will. Intellectual habits are not immediately effective from good or evil, but only as the will is influenced by them. These habits incline, dispose, and enable the will to act according to their nature. And in all the acts of our wills, and in all the external works which proceed from them, two things are considered: FIRST, The act itself, or the work done; and, SECONDLY, The end for which the act is done. Both these things are related to the habit itself, if not immediately, then by virtue of its acts. Moreover, it is necessary and natural that every act of the will — every work of a man — be for a certain end.

Two things, therefore, are to be considered in all of our obedience: first, the duty itself that we do; and secondly, the end for which we do it. If any habit, therefore, does not incline and dispose the will to the proper end of duty, as well as to the duty itself, then it is not of that kind from which true gospel obedience proceeds. For the end of every act of gospel obedience — which is the glory of God in Jesus Christ — is essential to it. Let us then, take all the habits of moral virtue, and we will find that however they may incline and dispose the will to such acts of virtue that materially are duties of obedience, they are not done with respect to this end. If it is said that such moral habits do incline the will to duties of obedience with respect to this end, then there is no need for the grace of Jesus Christ or the gospel, to enable men to live to God according to the tenor of the covenant of grace. This is what some seem to aim at.

(2.) Because it is the end that gives all our duties their special nature, this end is twofold: the next end; and the ultimate end — that is, the end is either particular or general.[975] And these ends may be different in the same action. Just as a man may give alms to the poor, his next and particular end may be to relieve and cherish the poor — this end is good, and so far the work or duty itself is also good. But the ultimate and general end of this action may be self, merit, reputation, praise, compensation for sin committed, and not the glory of God in Christ; which vitiates the whole.

Now, moral habits that are acquired by endeavors in accord with our light and convictions, or by the dictates of enlightened reason, with resolve and perseverance, may incline and dispose the will to actions and works that, for their substance, are duties; and they are capable of having particular ends that are good. But a lack of respect to the general end (the glory of God), does not allow them to be any part of gospel obedience. And this is applicable to all moral habits and duties whatsoever. But the difference asserted is further manifested in these —

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(1.) From the special fountain and spring of holiness, which makes its nature of another kind than any which common grace or morality can pretend to. And this fountain is electing love, or God's purpose of election: Eph 1.4, "He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." God chooses us from eternity to be holy; that is, with a design and purpose to make us holy. He sets some men apart in his eternal purpose, as those to whom he will communicate holiness. Holiness is therefore a special work of God, in the pursuit of a special and eternal purpose. This gives it its special nature and makes it, as said, of another kind than any effect of common grace whatsoever. Holiness is what God works in men by his Spirit because he has chosen them, and nothing else is so; for he "chooses us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit," 2Thes 2.13. Salvation is the end that God aims at in choosing us, in subordination to his own glory — which is, and must be, the ultimate end of all his purposes and decrees, or of all the free acts of his wisdom and love. The means which he has ordained, and by which we will be brought to salvation, and which he designed in his eternal purpose, is the "sanctification of the Spirit." Gospel holiness, therefore, is the effect of that sanctification of the Spirit, which God has designed as the special way and means, on their part, of bringing the elect to salvation. And choosing them is the cause and reason why he sanctifies the elect by his Spirit. Where our sanctification is comprised under our vocation[976] — because therein and thereby we are sanctified — by the sanctifying principle of holiness that is communicated to us, holiness is not only reckoned as an effect and consequence of our predestination, but it is so conjoined to it, as to declare that no others are partakers of it except those who are predestined, Rom 8.29-30.[977]

This consideration, of itself, is sufficient to evince that this holiness differs essentially from all other habits of the mind, and all actions proceeding from them, as having a special nature of its own. Whatever there may be in any men of virtue and piety, or whatever their endeavors may be in ways of honesty and duty towards God and men, if the power and principle of it in them is not a fruit of electing love, of the Spirit of sanctification, given by God for this certain end: — that we may attain the salvation to which we are chosen — then it does not belong to this holiness. This is why the apostle Peter, charging us to use "all diligence," by which we may make "our calling and election sure" — that is, sure to our souls, and in our own minds — prescribes as its means, the exercise and increase of those graces which are its proper effects, 2Pet 1.5-7, 10.[978] And the reason why we see so many glorious professions of faith and obedience utterly fail as we do, is because the faith professed was not "the faith of God's elect," Tit 1.1.

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And its obedience was not the fruit of that Spirit of sanctification which God gives to man to make his purpose of election infallibly effectual, so that the "purpose of God which is according to election might stand," Rom 9.11, and that "the election" ("those elected"), might obtain the grace and glory designed for them, Rom 11.5, 7.[979] It is evidence of great spiritual sloth in us, or worse, evidence that our graces and obedience are not genuine and of the true heavenly race, if we do not endeavor to satisfy ourselves that they are real effects of electing love.

If anyone inquires how we may know whether the graces of holiness (which we hope are in us), and the duties that proceed from them, are fruits and effects of election — seeing that only such fruits are genuine and durable — I answer that it may be done three ways:

[1.] By their growth and increase. In ordinary cases, setting aside the seasons of prevalent temptations and desertions, this is the best evidence of it. Waters that proceed from a living fountain increase in their progress, because of the continual supplies which they have from their spring. While those which have only occasional beginnings, from showers of rain or the like, continually decay until they are dried up. The graces that come from this eternal spring have continual supplies from it, so that, if they meet with no violent obstructions (as they may sometimes do for a season), they constantly increase and thrive. And therefore, no man can secure his spiritual comforts for even one moment, under a tangible decay of grace; for such a decay is a very sufficient reason why he should call the truth of all his grace into question. Where the Spirit of sanctification is present, as given in pursuit of the purpose of election, it is "a well of water springing up into everlasting life," John 4.14. The quietness and satisfaction of professors of Christ, under a decay of grace, is a soul-ruining security; and it has nothing in it of spiritual peace.

[2.] We may discern it when we are greatly stirred up to diligent acting and exercise of grace, out of a sense of that electing love from which all grace proceeds. It is the nature of that grace which is the fruit of election, to greatly affect the heart and mind with a sense of the love that is in this grace. So the apostle expressly says that one grace excites and stirs up another, from a sense of the love of God, which sets them all to work, Rom 5.2-5.[980] So God is said to "draw us with loving-kindness," because "he has loved us with an everlasting love," Jer 31.3. That is, He gives us such a sense of his everlasting love, as thereby to draw us after him in faith and obedience. Those principles of duties in us which are excited only by fear, awe, hope, and the jealous observances of an awakened conscience, will scarcely at any time evince this heavenly extract, unto a spiritual understanding.

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That grace which proceeds from especial love, will carry along with it a holy quickening sense of that love, and thereby be excited to its due exercise. We do what we can to famish and starve our graces, when we do not endeavor to supply them by faith, from that spring of divine love from which they proceed.

[3.] Seeing that we are chosen in Christ, and predestined to be like him, those graces of holiness which are most effectual in working us toward conformity to Him, will have the most evident and legible characters of electing love upon them. That grace which makes us like Jesus Christ is certainly from an eternal spring. Of this sort are meekness, humility, self-denial, contempt of the world, readiness to ignore wrongs, to forgive enemies, to love and do good to all — things which indeed are despised by most, and duly regarded by only a few.

But I must return.

(2.) The special procuring cause of this holiness is the mediation of Christ. We are not concerned with anything in this matter — whatever men may call it, whether virtue, godliness, or holiness — that does not have a special relation to the Lord Christ and his mediation. Evangelical holiness is purchased for us by him according to the tenor of the everlasting covenant; it is promised to us on his account; it is actually impetrated[981] for us by his intercession; and it is communicated to us by his Spirit. Hereby we not only remove all the moral virtues of the heathens from having the least concern in this, but also all the principles and duties of persons who profess Christianity, who are not really and actually implanted into Christ. For "of God he is made sanctification to us," 1Cor 1.30. And he is made this on several accounts, the heads of which are recalled here:

[1.] He is made sanctification to us of God with respect to his priestly office, because we are purified, purged, washed, and cleansed from our sins by his blood, in the oblation of it, and the application of it to our souls,[982] as declared at large earlier, Eph 5.25-27; Tit 2.14, 1John 1.7; Heb 9.14.[983] All that we have taught concerning the purification of our minds and consciences by the blood of Christ, is unique to gospel holiness, and distinguishes it essentially from all common grace or moral virtues. Those who rest in a multitude of duties — though animated with zeal, and set off with a profession of the most rigid mortification — only deceive themselves, if their hearts and consciences are not thus purged by the blood of Christ.

[2.] Because he prevails for the actual sanctification of our natures, in the communication of holiness to us by his intercession. His prayer in John 17.17, is the blessed spring of our holiness: "Sanctify them through your truth; your word is truth."

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There is nothing of this grace worked in us, bestowed on us, communicated to us, preserved in us, except what is in answer to and in compliance with the intercession of Christ. From his prayer for us, holiness is begun in us: "Sanctify them," he says, "by your truth." From this, it is kept alive and preserved in us. He says to Peter, "I have prayed for you, that your faith not fail." Luk 22.32 Through his intercession we are saved to the uttermost.Heb 7.25 Nothing belongs to this holiness except what is a unique fruit of Christ's intercession, in its actual communication; what is not so — what men may be made partakers of upon any more general account — does not belong to this. If we really design holiness or intend to be holy, it is our duty to constantly improve[984] the intercession of Christ for the increase of it. We may do this by special applications to him for that purpose. So the apostles prayed him to "increase their faith," Luke 17.5; and we may do so for the increase of our holiness. But the nature of this application to Christ for the increase of holiness, by virtue of his intercession, is to be duly considered. We are not to pray that he would intercede for us so that we may be sanctified, for he does not need our minding for the discharge of his office. Indeed, he does not intercede for us orally in heaven at all; he always does so virtually,[985] by his appearance in the presence of God with the virtue of his oblation or sacrifice. But because the Lord Christ gives no supplies of grace to us except what he receives from the Father for that end, and by virtue of his intercession, we apply to him under that consideration — namely, as the one who, upon his intercession with God for us, has all stores of grace from which to give us supplies.

[3.] He is sanctification to us, because the rule and measure of holiness for us, the instrument of working it in us, is his word and doctrine, which he taught the church as its great prophet: "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Joh 1.17 The inbred dictates of the light and law of nature, in their greatest purity, are not the rule or measure of this holiness; much less are those rules and maxims which men deduce from them, partly right and partly wrong, of any such use. Nor is the written law itself the rule of holiness. It is the rule of original holiness, but it is not the adequate rule of that holiness to which we are restored by Christ. Nor are both of these in conjunction (the dictates of nature and the written law) the instruments of working holiness in us. Rather, it is the doctrine of the gospel which is the adequate rule and immediate instrument of holiness. My meaning is that the word, the gospel, the doctrine of Christ, in its preceptive part, is so the rule of all our obedience and holiness, that all which it requires belongs to this holiness, and nothing except what it requires, does so.

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The formal reason of our holiness consists in conformity to this rule, under this consideration: that it is the word and doctrine of Christ. Nothing belongs to holiness materially except what the gospel requires; and nothing is holy in us formally, except what we do because the gospel requires it. The gospel is the instrument of holiness, because God makes use of it alone as an external means for communicating it to us, or ingenerating it in us. Principles of natural light, with the guidance of an awakened conscience, direct us to, and exact the performance of many material duties of obedience. The written law requires all duties of original obedience from us; and God uses these things variously to prepare our souls for a right receiving of the gospel. But there are some graces, some duties, belonging to evangelical holiness, which the law knows nothing of — such as the mortification of sin, godly sorrow, daily cleansing of our hearts and minds — not to mention the more sublime and spiritual acts of communion with God by Christ, along with all that faith and love which are required in us towards him. For although these things may be contained in the law radically, as it requires universal obedience to God, yet are they not contained in it formally. The law is not used as the means to generate faith and holiness in us; this is the effect of the gospel only. Hence it is said to be "the power of God unto salvation," Rom 1.16; or that by which God exerts the greatness of his power for that purpose; "the word of his grace, which is able to build us up, and to give us an inheritance among all those who are sanctified," Acts 20.32. By the preaching of the word, faith comes, Rom 10.17; and by hearing it, we receive the Spirit, Gal 3.2. It is that by which we are born again in Christ Jesus, 1Cor 4.15; Jas 1.18; 1Pet 1.23-25. All that is required of us in the way of external obedience, is that our conduct be such, that it becomes the gospel.

And this is a proper touchstone for our holiness: to test whether it is genuine, and of the right kind or not. If it is, it is nothing but the seed of the gospel quickened in our hearts, and bearing fruit in our lives. It is the delivering up of our souls into the mold of its doctrine, so that our minds and the word reflect one another, as a face in reflected in water. And we may know whether it is so with us or not, in two ways; for —

1st. If it is so, none of the commands of the gospel will be grievous to us, but easy and pleasant. A principle suited to them all, inclining to them all, connatural[986] to them, as proceeding from them, being implanted in our minds and hearts, renders the commands themselves so suited to us, so useful, and their matter so desirable, that obedience is made pleasant thereby. From this comes that satisfaction of mind, with rest and joy, which believers have in gospel duties, even in the most difficult of them; and also that trouble and sorrow which ensue upon their neglect or omission, or upon being deprived of opportunities for them. But in the strictest course of duties that proceed from any other principle, the precepts of the gospel (or at least some of them), on account of their spirituality or simplicity, are either esteemed grievous, or they are despised.

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2dly. None of the truths of the gospel will seem strange to us. This makes up the evidence of a genuine principle of gospel holiness: when its commands are not grievous, nor its truths strange or uncouth.[987] The mind that is so prepared, will receive every truth as the eye receives every increase of light — naturally and pleasantly, until it comes to its proper measure. There is a measure of light which is suited to our visual faculty. And what exceeds it, will dazzle and amaze rather than enlighten. But every degree of light which tends to increase, is connatural and pleasant to the eye. So it is with the sanctified mind and spiritual truth. There is a measure of light issuing from spiritual truths, that our minds are capable of receiving: what is beyond this measure belongs to glory, and gazing after it will dazzle rather than enlighten us — such is the issue of overstrained speculations, when the mind endeavors to excess in its measure. But all light from truth, which tends to fill up that measure, is pleasant and natural to the sanctified mind. It sees wisdom, glory, beauty, and usefulness in the most spiritual, sublime, and mysterious truths that are revealed in and by the word — laboring more and more to comprehend them because of their excellence. For lack of this light, we know how the truths of the gospel are despised, reproached, and scorned by many; its truths are no less foolishness to be believed by them, than its precepts are grievous to be obeyed by them.

[4.] Christ is sanctification to us as he is the exemplary cause of our holiness. The design of God in working grace and holiness in us is that "we may be conformed to the image of his Son, that he may be the firstborn among many brethren," Rom 8.29. And our design in attaining holiness is, first that we may be like him, and then that we may express or "show forth the virtues of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light," to his glory and honor, 1Pet 2.9. He is proposed to this very end — in the purity of his natures, the holiness of his person, the glory of his graces, the innocence and usefulness of his conduct in the world — as the great idea and exemplar, which we ought to conform ourselves to in all things. Because the nature of evangelical holiness consists in this — namely, in a universal conformity to him as he is the image of the invisible God — the proposal of his example to us, is an effectual means to ingenerate and increase evangelical holiness in us.

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It is confessed by all, that examples are the most effectual ways of instruction. And if they are proposed in a timely way, they secretly solicit the mind to imitation, and almost unavoidably incline it to this. But their force and efficacy are increased when — added to this power which examples naturally and morally have to instruct and affect our minds — things are particularly designed and instituted by God to be our examples. He requires that we should learn from them both what to do, and what to avoid. The apostle instructs us in this at large in 1Cor 10.6-11.[988] Now, these both concur in the example of holiness given to us in the person of Christ; for —

1st. In himself, morally considered, He is not only the most perfect, absolute, glorious pattern of all grace, holiness, virtue, and obedience, to be chosen and preferred above all others, but he alone is so; there is no other complete example of it. As for those examples of heroic virtue or stoic apathy which are boasted about among the heathens, it would be an easy matter to find such flaws and tumors in them that it would render them not only unattractive, but deformed and monstrous. And in the lives of the best of the saints, there is declared what we should expressly avoid, as well as what we should follow. In some things, we are left at a loss whether it is safe to conform to them or not, seeing that we are not to be followers of anyone further than they were followers of Jesus Christ.[989] Nor in what they were or did, are they absolutely our rule and example, but only in so far as they conformed to Christ in this. The best of their graces, the highest of their attainments, and the most perfect of their duties, have their spots and imperfections. So that, even though they may have exceeded what we can attain to, and are therefore fit to be proposed for our imitation, they come short of what we aim at, which is to be holy as God is holy.1Pet 1.16 But in Christ, our great exemplar, there was never the least shadow of variableness from the perfection of holiness (for "he did no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth;" indeed, "in him was light, and no darkness at all"). So too, all his graces, all his actings of them, all his duties, were so absolute and complete, that we ought to aim no higher, nor propose any other pattern for ourselves. And who is it that, aiming at any excellence, would not desire the most absolute and perfect example? This example of holiness, therefore, is to be found in Christ, and in him alone. And,

2dly. He is appointed by God for this purpose. One end why God sent his Son to take our nature upon him, and to conduct himself in the world in this holiness, was that he might set us an example in our own nature. He was like us in all things, except sin. He was an example of that renovation of God's image in us, of that return to him from sin and apostasy, and of that holy obedience, which God requires of us.

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Such an example was needed, that we might never be at a loss about the will of God in his commands, having a glorious representation of it before our eyes; and this could be given to us only in our own nature. The angelical nature was not suited to set us an example of holiness and obedience, especially as to the exercise of those graces which we principally stand in need of in this world; for what examples could angels set for us of patience in afflictions, of quietness in sufferings, seeing that their nature is incapable of such things? Nor could we have had an example that was perfect and complete in our own nature, but only in the one who was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." Heb 7.26 Therefore, to this end among others, God sent his own Son to take our nature on him, and in this to represent to us the perfect idea of that holiness and obedience which he requires of us. It is evident, therefore, that these two considerations of an instructive example — that it has a moral aptitude to incite the mind to imitation, and that it is instituted by God for that purpose — are both found eminently in this example of Christ.

But there is yet more in this matter: for —

1st. Just as God appointed the consideration of Christ as a special ordinance for the increase of holiness in us, so Christ's holy obedience, as proposed to us, has a particular efficacy to that purpose, beyond all other instituted examples; for —

(1st.) We are often called to behold Christ, and to look on him, or it is promised that we will do so, Isa 45.22; Zec 12.10.[990] Now, this beholding of Christ, or looking on him, is considering him by faith for the ends for which he is exhibited, proposed, and set forth by God in the gospel and its promises. Therefore, this is a special ordinance of God, made effectual by his Spirit. And there are two ends: [1st.] Justification; [2dly.] Salvation, or deliverance from sin and punishment. "Look to me," he says, "and be saved." This was him on the cross, and he is still so in the preaching of the gospel, in which he is "evidently crucified before our eyes," Gal 3.1; lifted up like the bronze serpent in the wilderness, John 3.14-15. So that in looking on him by faith, as "bearing our sins in his own body on the tree," 1Pet 2.24, and "receiving the atonement" made thereby, Rom 5.11, we may be justified from all our sins through faith in him, and saved from the wrath to come. But this is not what we intend; for,

(2dly.) He is proposed by God to us in the gospel, as the great pattern and exemplar of holiness; so that, by God's appointment, our beholding and looking on him, in the way mentioned, is a means of the increase and growth of holiness in us. So our apostle declares: 2Cor 3.18, "We all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

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What is proposed to us is the "glory of God," or the "glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 2Cor 4.6 — that is, God gloriously manifests himself in the person of Christ. We are said to "behold with unveiled face." 2Cor 3.18 The veil of types and shadows being taken off and removed, faith now clearly and distinctly views and considers Jesus Christ as represented to us in the mirror of the gospel — that is, faith considers the evidences of the presence of God in him and with him, in his work, purity, and holiness. And the effect of this is that we are, through the operation of the Spirit of God, "changed into the same image," or made holy; and in this, we are like him.

2dly. There is particular force and efficacy in the example of Christ, by way of motive to incline us to imitate him, that is not to be found in any other example, on any occasion whatsoever; because,

(1st.) Whatever is proposed to us as our pattern and example, in what he was or what he did, he was it, and he did it, not for his own sake, but merely out of free love for us. That pure nature of his, which we ought to labor to be conformed to, 1John 3.3, and which he will at length bring us to, Phi 3.21, he took upon himself, by an infinite condescension, merely out of love for us, Heb 2.14, 15; Phi 2.5-8. And all the actings of grace in him, all the duties of obedience which he performed, all that glorious compliance with the will of God in his sufferings which he manifested, proceed from his love for us, John 17.19; Gal 2.20. These things are in themselves truly honorable and excellent — indeed, they are entirely that. The holiness and obedience which God requires of us consists in these; and by the appointment of God, it is proposed for our imitation in the example of Jesus Christ. How it must therefore necessarily influence and prevail on gracious souls to endeavor to conform to him in this, to be as he was, to do as he did, seeing that he was what he was, and he did what he did, merely out of love for us, and for no other end! And,

(2dly.) Everything which we are to imitate in Christ is also beneficial to us in other ways; for we are, in a way, saved by it. By his obedience we are made righteous, Rom 5.19. There is no grace or duty of Christ which he performed, that we do not have the advantage and benefit of it. And this increases the efficacy of his example. For who would not strive to obtain those things in himself, when being in Christ has so great an advantage?

Therefore, in this regard also, the Lord Christ is made sanctification to us, and he is the cause of evangelical holiness in us; and certainly we are, most of us, much to blame that we do not abound more in the use of this means for the end mentioned.

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If we abided more constantly in beholding or contemplating the person of Christ, the glory and beauty of his holiness, as the pattern and great example proposed to us, then we would be more transformed into his image and likeness. But it so happens that many who are called Christians delight to talk about, and greatly admire, the virtuous sayings and actions of the heathen. They are ready to make them the object of their imitation, while they have no thoughts of the grace that was in our Lord Jesus Christ, nor do they endeavor to conform to it. And the reason is this: because the virtue which they seek and desire is the same kind of virtue that was in the heathen, and not the grace and holiness that was in Christ Jesus. And it is also from this that some who — not out of love for it, but to decry other important mysteries of the gospel — place all Christianity in the imitation of Christ. Yet in their practice, they despise those qualities and duties in which he principally manifested the glory of his grace. They have no regard for His meekness, patience, self-denial, quietness in bearing reproaches, contempt of the world, zeal for the glory of God, compassion for the souls of men, or condescension to the weaknesses of all. But there is no greater evidence that whatever we seem to have of anything that is good in us, is no part of evangelical holiness, than that it does not render us conformable to Christ.

And we should always consider how we ought to act faith in Christ with respect to this end. Let none be guilty in practice, of what some are falsely charged with as to their doctrine — let none divide the work of faith, and exercise themselves in only one half of it. To believe in Christ for redemption, justification, and sanctification, is only one half of the duty of faith. It respects Christ only as he died and suffered for us; as he made atonement for our sins; as he obtained peace with God, and reconciliation for us; as his righteousness is imputed to us for justification. It is to these ends, indeed, that he is first and principally proposed to us in the gospel; and with respect to them, we are exhorted to receive him and believe in him.

But this is not all that is required of us. Christ is proposed to us in the gospel as our pattern and example of holiness. Just as it is a cursed imagination that this was the whole end of his life and death — namely, to exemplify and confirm the doctrine of holiness which he taught — so it is evil and pernicious to neglect his being our example, to not consider him by faith to that end, nor labor after conformity to him. Therefore let us deeply contemplate what he was, what he did, how he carried himself in all instances of duties and trials, until an image or idea of his perfect holiness is implanted in our minds, and we are thereby made like him.

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[5.] That which principally differentiates evangelical holiness with respect to the Lord Christ, from all natural or moral habits or duties, and by which he is made sanctification to us, is that the principle of spiritual life and holiness in believers is derived from him, from his person as our head. And by virtue of believers' union with him, real supplies of spiritual strength and grace are constantly communicated to them, by which their holiness is preserved, maintained, and increased. The whole difference about grace and morality depends on and will issue from the statement and proof of this. For if what men call morality is derived from the Lord Christ by virtue of our union with him, then it is evangelical grace; if it is not, then it is either nothing, or else it is something of another nature and kind — for it is not grace not, nor is it holiness. And all that I have to prove in this is that the Lord Jesus Christ is a head of influence. He is the spring or fountain of spiritual life to his church. I know that in this I have the consent of the church of God in all ages; and so I will confine the proof of my assertion to the ensuing positions, with their confirmation:

1st. Whatever grace God promises to anyone, or bestows on them, or works in them, all of it is bestowed on and worked in, by, and through Jesus Christ as the mediator or middle person between God and them. This the very notion and nature of his office of mediator, and it requires his interposition between God and us. To affirm that any good thing, any grace, any virtue, is not immediately given to us, or bestowed on us, or worked in us by God through Christ; or to affirm that we believe in God, and yield obedience and praise with glory to him, and it is not directly by Christ — is to utterly overthrow his mediation. Moses, indeed, is called a mediator between God and the people, Gal 3.19, as he was an intermediary: a messenger to declare the mind of God to them, and to return their answers to God. But to limit the mediatory work of Christ to such an interposition, is to leave him but one office (that of a prophet), and to destroy the principal uses and effects of his mediation towards the church. In like manner, because Moses is metaphorically called a savior or redeemer (Acts 7.35) with respect to his use and employment in that mighty work of delivering the people out of Egypt, some will not allow that the Lord Christ is a redeemer in any other sense. This subverts the whole gospel with the faith and souls of men. But in particular, what there is of this nature in the mediation of Christ — in his being the middle person between God and us — may be declared in the ensuing assertions:

(1st.) God himself is the absolute infinite fountain, the supreme efficient cause, of all grace and holiness; for he alone is originally and essentially holy, as he alone is good; and so he is the first cause of holiness and goodness to others.

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Hence he is called "The God of all grace," 1Pet 5.10; the author, possessor, and bestower of it. "He has life in himself," and quickens whom he pleases, John 5.26; "With him is the fountain of life," Psa 36.9; as declared before. This, I suppose, needs no further confirmation with those who really acknowledge any such thing as grace and holiness. These things, if any, are among those "perfect gifts" which are "from above," coming down "from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning," Jas 1.17.

(2dly.) God from his own fullness communicates to his creatures, either by way of nature or by way of grace. In our first creation, God implanted his image on us, in uprightness and holiness, in and by making or creating our nature. And if we had continued in that state, the same image of God would have been communicated by natural propagation. But since the fall and entrance of sin, God no longer communicates holiness to anyone by way of nature or natural propagation. For if he did so, there would be no necessity for everyone born to be born again before he can enter into the kingdom of God, as our Savior affirms, John 3.3 — for he might have grace and holiness from his first nativity. Nor could it be said of believers that they are "born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," Joh 1.13, for grace might be propagated to them by those natural means. It was the old Pelagian figment that what we have by nature, we have by grace, because God is the author of nature. So Adam was as his nature was, pure; but it is our nature as it is, corrupt; and what we have thereby, we have of ourselves, in contradiction to the grace of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;" and we have nothing else by natural propagation.

(3dly.) God communicates nothing in a way of grace to anyone except in and by the person of Christ, as the mediator and head of the church, John 1.18. In the old creation, all things were made by the eternal Word, the person of the Son, as the Wisdom of God, John 1.3; Col 1.16. There was no immediate emanation of divine power from the person of the Father for the production of all or any created beings, except in and by the person of the Son — their wisdom and power were one and the same as acted in him. And the support of all things in the course of divine providence, is also his immediate work — which is why he is said to "uphold all things by the word of his power," Heb 1.3. And so it is in the new creation with respect to him as mediator. In this, he was the "image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature, having the pre-eminence in all things; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist," Col 1.15, 17-18.

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In raising the whole new creation — which is by a new spiritual life, and holiness communicated to all its parts — the work is carried on immediately by the person of Christ the mediator; and none has any share in this except what is received and derived from him. This is plainly asserted in Eph 2.10. So the apostle disposes of this matter: "The head of every man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God," 1Cor 11.3; this is true in respect to his influence as well as his rule. Because God does not immediately govern the church except in and by the person of Christ, whom he gave to be head over all things to this end, neither does he administer any grace or holiness to anyone except in the same order: for "the head of every man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God."

(4thly.) God works real, effectual, sanctifying grace, spiritual strength and holiness, in believers — indeed, it is that grace by which they are enabled to believe and are made holy. And it really sanctifies them more and more, so that they may be preserved "blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." This has been so fully confirmed in the whole of what has been discussed both concerning regeneration and sanctification, that it must not be asserted here again.

Therefore, all this grace, according to the former assertion, is communicated to us through and by Christ, and not otherwise.

2dly. Whatever is worked in believers by the Spirit of Christ, it is in their union to the person of Christ, and by virtue of this union. I have already sufficiently proved to those to whom anything of this kind will be sufficient, that the Holy Spirit is the immediate and efficient cause of all grace and holiness. Now, the end for which the Holy Spirit is sent, and consequently of all that he does in being sent, is to glorify Christ; and he does this by receiving from Christ, and communicating it to others, John 16.13-15. He effects two works of this kind: first, To unite us to Christ; and, secondly, To communicate all grace to us from Christ, by virtue of that union.

(1st.) By the Spirit we are united to Christ; — that is, united to his person, and not as a light within us, as some think; nor is it united to the doctrine of the gospel, as others with equal folly seem to imagine. It is by the doctrine and grace of the gospel that we are united, but it is the person of Christ to which we are united. For "he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit," 1Cor 6.17, because it is by that one Spirit that he is joined to him; for "by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body," chap. 12.13 — implanted into the body, and united to the head. And therefore, "if we do not have the Spirit of Christ, we are none of his," Rom 8.9. We are therefore his — that is, we are united to him — by a participation in his Spirit. And by this union, Christ himself is in us; for "Jesus Christ is in us, unless we are reprobates," 2Cor 13.5 — that is, he is in us "by his Spirit that dwells in us," Rom 8.9, 11; 1Cor 6.19.

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It may therefore be inquired whether we receive the Spirit of the gospel from the person of Christ or not? This is an inquiry which nothing but the extreme ignorance or impudence of some could render seasonable[991] or tolerable, seeing that formerly no Christian ever doubted it; nor is someone a Christian now, who disbelieves it. It is true, we receive Christ by the "preaching of the gospel," Gal 3.2; but it is no less true that we receive him immediately from the person of Christ. For no other reason is he so frequently called "The Spirit of Christ;" that is, the Spirit which he gives, sends, bestows, or communicates. Christ receives from the Father the "promise of the Holy Ghost," and he pours him out, Acts 2.33.

But it may be said that,

"If we are united to Christ hereby — namely, by his Spirit — then we must be holy and obedient before we receive him, for our union consists in that. Certainly Christ does not unite ungodly and impure sinners to himself, which would be the greatest dishonor to him imaginable. We must therefore be holy, obedient, and like Christ, before we can be united to him; and consequently, we must be so before we receive his Spirit, if thereby we are united to him."

Ans. 1. If this were so, then indeed we are not indebted in the least to the Spirit of Christ for being holy, and obedient, and like Christ; for he that has the Spirit of Christ is united to Christ, and the one who is united to him has his Spirit, and no one else. Whatever therefore is of holiness, righteousness, or obedience in any man, antecedent to union with Christ, would not be a special effect of his Spirit. In such a case, we would therefore need to purify ourselves without any application of the blood of Christ to our souls, and sanctify ourselves without any special work of the Spirit of God on our nature. Let those who can, satisfy themselves with these things. For my part, I have no esteem for or valuation of that holiness, as holiness, which is not the immediate effect of the Spirit of sanctification in us.

Ans. 2. It is granted that, ordinarily, the Lord Christ prepares the souls of men in some measure for the inhabitation of his Spirit, by the dispensation of his word — by light and by convictions ensuing from it. The way and manner of this has been fully declared before.

Ans. 3. It is denied that, on this supposition, the Lord Christ unites impure or ungodly sinners to himself, such that they would be united and yet continue impure and ungodly. For in the same instant in which anyone is united to Christ, and by the same act by which he is united, the believer is really and habitually purified and sanctified; for where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty, and purity, and holiness.2Cor 3.17

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All acts and duties of holiness are consequential to this union, in order of nature; but the person himself is quickened, purified, and sanctified at the union.

Therefore, because the Spirit of Christ — communicated from Christ for our union with him — is the cause and author of all grace and evangelical holiness in us, it is evidence that we receive the Spirit directly from Christ himself. This is what gives evangelical holiness its difference from all other moral habits and acts that are pleaded for.[992]

(2dly.) The second work of the Spirit is to communicate all grace to us from Christ by virtue of that union. I will take it for granted that the Spirit is the author of all grace and holiness, until everything that was said before about the work of the Holy Spirit in our regeneration and sanctification, is disproved. And if that is disproved, then we may also part with our Bibles, as books that openly and palpably mislead us. Whatever the Spirit so works in us, it is in pursuit of his first communication to us by which we are united to Christ — namely, for the edification, preservation, and further sanctification of the mystical body. He makes every member of that body fit for the "inheritance of the saints in light." All the holiness which I desire any acquaintance with, or participation in, consists in those supplies of grace which he gives — acted by us in all duties of obedience.

(3dly.) There is a mystical, spiritual body of which Christ is the head, and those of his church are its members. There is therefore a union between them in spiritual things, like that which exists between the head and members of the body of a man in natural things. And because of the weight and importance of it, with its singular use for the faith of believers, the Scripture frequently speaks of this body. "God has given him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all," Eph 1.22, 23. "For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ," 1Cor 12.12. "Christ is the head, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love," Eph 4.15-16. And the apostle speaks again to the same purpose, Col 2.19, "Not holding the Head, from which all the body, having nourishment ministered, and knit together by joints and bands, increases with the increase of God." Now, it has been always granted by all those who acknowledge the divine person of the Son of God, or the union of the human nature to the divine nature in his person, that the Lord Jesus is the head of his church, in the double sense of that word. For he is the political head of it by way of rule and government; and he is the real spiritual head, as to any vital influences of grace, to all his members.

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The Romanists, indeed, create some disturbance on his political headship by interposing another immediate, ruling, governing head, between Christ and the catholic church; yet they do not deny that the Lord Christ, in his own person, is the absolute, supreme king, head, and ruler of the church. And the Socinians cannot grant his spiritual headship; for in denying his divine person, it is impossible to conceive how his human nature, subsisting alone by itself, could be such an immense fountain of grace that an emanation of that grace could proceed from it into all the members of the mystical body. But up to now, this has been acknowledged by all other Christians.

And, therefore, there is nothing that belongs to gospel grace or holiness, except what is originally derived from the person of Christ, as he is the head of the church. And this is most evidently expressed in the passages cited before. In 1Cor 12.12, it is plainly affirmed that as it is between Christ and the church, so it is between the head and the members of the same natural body. Now, not only does the whole body have guidance and direction in the disposal of itself from the head, but every member in particular actually has influences of life and strength from there, without which it can neither act, move, nor discharge its position or duty in the body. "So also is Christ," says the apostle. Not only does the whole mystical body of the church have guidance and direction from him — in his laws, rules, doctrine, and precepts — but it has spiritual life and motion also; and so does every member of this body. They all receive from him grace for holiness and obedience, without which they would be but withered and dead members in the body.

But he has told us that "because he lives, we shall live also," Joh 14.19. For the Father having given him to have "life in himself," Joh 5.26, "he quickens" with spiritual life "whom he will," 5.21, from that fountain of spiritual life which is in him; supplies of that same life are given to the church. And therefore, because he lives, we also live— that is, we live a spiritual life here, without which we will never live eternally hereafter.

And in Eph 4.15-16, the relation of believers to Christ is stated to exactly correspond to the relation and union of the members of the body to the head. It is expressly affirmed that, just as there are supplies of nourishment and natural spirits in the natural body — communicated from the head to the members by the subservience of all the parts of the body, designed for that purpose, to the growth and increase of the whole in every part — so from Christ, the head of the church (which he is in his divine person as God and man), a supply of spiritual life, strength, and nourishment is made to every member of the body for its increase, growth, and edification. For "we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," Eph 5.30.

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We are made out of Christ as Eve was made out of Adam, yet so continuing in him as to have all our supplies from him; "we in him, and he in us," as the apostle says in John 14.20. And in Col 2.19, it is expressly affirmed that from him, the head, there is nourishment ministered to the body, for its increase with the increase of God. And none has yet undertaken to declare what this spiritual nourishment can be that is supplied to the souls of believers for their increase and growth from Christ their head, if it is not the emanation from his person, and the communication to them, of that grace which is the principle and spring of all holiness and duties of evangelical obedience. And if any deny this, they do what they can to destroy the life and overthrow the faith of the whole church of God. Yes, upon such a blasphemous imagination — that there could be a severing for one moment, of the influences of spiritual life and grace from the person of Christ to the church — the whole must be supposed to die and perish, and do so eternally.

(4thly.) The whole of what we assert is plainly and evidently proposed in various instructive allusions, which are made use of to this purpose. The primary one is laid down and declared by our Savior in John 15.1, 4, and 5: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine; no more can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, and you are the branches: he that abides in me, and I in him, will bring forth much fruit: for without me" (or, severed from me, apart from me) "you can do nothing."

The natural in-being of the vine and branches in each other is known to all, along with the reason for it; and so is the way by which the in-being of the branches in the vine is the cause and means of their fruit-bearing. It is only by the communication and derivation of that succus, that is, juice and nourishment, which alone is the preservative of vegetative life, and the next cause of fruit-bearing. All fruit lives virtually in this juice and nourishment; indeed, it is the first matter and substance of it; it is only formed into its proper kind and perfection in and by the branch. Let anything be done to intercept this communication from the vine to any branch, and it not only immediately loses all its fruit-bearing power and virtue, but it also withers and dies away itself. There is a mutual acting of the vine and branches in this matter. For the vine itself, it is natural to communicate nourishment to the branches from its own fullness — it does it from the principle of its nature. And it is also natural for the branches to draw and derive their nourishment from the vine. "This is how it is between me and you," says the Lord Christ to his disciples. "I am the vine," he says, "and you are the branches."

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"And there is a mutual in-being between us: I am in you, and you are in me, by virtue of our union. What is now expected from you is that you bring forth fruit — that is, that you live in holiness and obedience, to the glory of God. Unless you do so, you are not true, real branches in me, whatever outward profession you may make of being so." But how will this be effected? How will they be able to bring forth fruit? This cannot be done in any other way than by abiding in Christ, and thereby continually deriving spiritual nourishment — that is, grace and supplies of holiness — from him. "For," he says, "separate," or apart, "from me, you can do nothing of this kind." And that is because nothing becomes fruit in the branch that was not nourishment from the vine. Nothing is duty, nothing is obedience in believers, except what is grace from Christ, communicated to them. The preparation of all fructifying grace is in Christ, just as the fruit of the branches is naturally in the vine. And the Lord Christ spiritually and voluntarily communicates this grace to all believers, just as the vine communicates its juice to the branches naturally; and it is in the new nature of believers to derive it from him by faith. This being done, it is turned into particular duties of holiness and obedience in them. Therefore, it is evident that there is nothing of evangelical holiness in anyone, except what is (in the virtue, power, and grace of it) derived immediately from Jesus Christ by virtue of our relation to him, and our union with him. It may be asked whether this is true with moral virtue or not. This same necessity of union is taught by our apostle under the similitude of an olive-tree and its branches, Rom 11.16-24; and also where Christ is said to be a living stone; and believers, as living stones, are built on him into a spiritual house, 1Pet 2.4-5.

Particular testimonies so abound in this case, that I will only name a few of them: John 1.14, 16, He is "full of grace and truth. And of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace." It is about the person of Christ, or the "Word made flesh," the Son of God incarnate, that the Holy Ghost speaks. He was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. It is not the fullness of the Deity that is intended here, as it dwelt in him personally, but what was in him as he was made flesh — that is, in his human nature, as inseparably united to the divine — an all-fullness that he received by the good pleasure or voluntary disposing of the Father, Col 1.19. And therefore, it does not belong to the essential fullness of the Godhead. As to the nature of this fullness, it is said to consist in "grace and truth," that is, in the perfection of holiness — and in the knowledge of the whole mind, counsel, and mystery of the will of God. Of this fullness we "receive grace for grace," — all the grace, in every kind, of which we are made partakers in this world.

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This fullness in Christ expresses the inconceivable fullness of his human nature, by virtue of his indissolvable personal union (with all graces in their perfection) in which he did not receive the Spirit by measure, Joh 3.34. I suppose this is acknowledged by all Christians; and I am sure this cannot be denied without the highest impiety and blasphemy. Therefore, the Holy Ghost being witness, we derive and receive all our grace from this union, every believer according to his measure, Eph 4.7. Therefore, grace is given to the Lord Christ in immeasurable perfection by virtue of his personal union, Col 2.9; from him it is derived to us by the gracious inhabitation of his Spirit in us, 1Cor 6.19, Eph 4.7, according to the degree of participation allotted to us.[993] This, in its substance, is contained in this testimony. There was and is in Jesus Christ a fullness and perfection of all grace. There is none at all in us, of ourselves or by anything that we have by nature or natural generation — whether by blood, or the flesh, or the will of man, John 1.13. Whatever we have is received and derived to us from the fullness of Christ, which is an inexhaustible fountain of this grace, by reason of his personal union.

To the same purpose, Christ is said to be "our life," and "our life is hidden with him in God," Col 3.3-4. Life is the principle of all power and operation. And the life intended here, is that life by which we live to God, the life of grace and holiness. For its actings consist in setting our affections on heavenly things, and mortifying our members that are on the earth.Col 3.5 Christ is this life. He is not this life formally; for if he were, it would not be our life, but only his. He is therefore our life efficiently, as he is the immediate cause and author of it; and he is that cause, as he is now with God in glory. Hence it is said that we live this life of God; and yet we do not live it of ourselves, but "Christ lives in us," Gal 2.20. And he does not live in us any other way than by the communication of vital principles and power for vital acts — that is, by grace and holiness from himself to us. If he is our life, then we have nothing that belongs to it — nothing of grace or holiness — except what is derived to us from him.

To conclude, we either have all grace and holiness from Christ, or we have it of ourselves. The old Pelagian fiction, that we have them from Christ because we have them by yielding obedience to his doctrine, makes us their only spring and author. And on that account, it was very justly condemned by the church of old, not only as false, but as blasphemous. Therefore, whatever is not derived from Christ and thus conveyed to us, does not belong to our sanctification or holiness, nor is it of the same nature or kind as holiness.

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Whatever ability of mind or will may be supposed in us — whatever application of means may be made for exciting and exercising that ability; whatever effects in virtues and duties in all offices of humanity and honesty, or religious observances that may thereby be produced from them, and worked by us — if it is not all derived from Christ as the head and principle of spiritual life to us, then it is something of another nature than evangelical holiness.

(3.) The immediate efficient cause of all gospel holiness is the Spirit of God. We have sufficiently proved this already. And although many quibbles have been raised against the manner of his operation in this, none has been so hardy as to openly deny that this is indeed his work; for to do so is to expressly renounce the gospel on the matter. This is why in our foregoing discourses, we have at large vindicated the manner of his operations in this, and proved that he does not educe grace by moral applications to the natural faculties of our minds; but he creates grace in us by an immediate efficiency of almighty power. And what is so worked and produced, differs essentially from any natural or moral habits of our minds, however acquired or improved.

(4.) This evangelical holiness is a fruit and effect of the covenant of grace. We have asserted on other occasions before, the promises of the covenant to this purpose. In these promises, God declares that he will cleanse and purify 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. Our holiness consists in these things. Therefore, whoever has anything of holiness, he receives it in the accomplishment of these promises of the covenant. For there are not two ways by which men may become holy, one by the sanctification of the Spirit according to the promise of the covenant, and the other by their own endeavors without it. Although, indeed, Cassianus,[994] with some of the semi-Pelagians, dreamed something to that purpose. This is why that which is thus a fruit and effect of the promise of the covenant, has a special nature of its own, distinct from whatever does not have a relation to that covenant. No man can ever be made a partaker of the least degree of that grace or holiness which is promised in the covenant, unless it is by virtue and as a fruit of that covenant. For if men might do so, then the covenant of God would be of no effect — for on this supposition, what it seems to promise in a unique manner, may be attained without it, which renders it an empty name.

(5.) In this consists the image of God, to which we are to be renewed. I have proved this before, and I will afterward have occasion to insist on it. Nothing less than the entire renovation of the image of God in our souls will constitute us evangelically holy.

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No series of obediential actings, no observance of religious duties, no attendance to actions among men as morally virtuous and useful, however exact they may be, or however constant we may be to 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 to him.

From what has thus been briefly discussed, we may take a look at that horrible mixture of ignorance and impudence with which some contend that the practice of moral virtue is all the holiness which is required of us in the gospel. They neither understand what they say nor what they affirm. Yet they do this with so great a confidence as to despise and scoff at anything that is pleaded otherwise. But this pretense, notwithstanding all the swelling words of vanity with which it is set off and vended, will easily be discovered to be weak and frivolous; for —

1. The name or expression "moral virtue" is foreign to the Scripture — it is not once used by the Holy Ghost to denote that obedience which God requires of us in and according to the covenant of grace. Nor is there any sense of it agreed upon by those who so magisterially impose it on others. Indeed, there are many express arguments about the meaning of these words, and what is intended by them, which those who contend about them are not ignorant of. Yet they have not endeavored to attach the sense they intend, to any expression used in the gospel concerning the same matter. But they say that all men must necessarily submit to this: that at least the main part, if not the whole of religion, consists in moral virtue — even though it is altogether uncertain what they mean by one term or the other! These are men who scarcely think anything is intelligible when declared in the words of the Scripture; one of them has openly maligned it as "ridiculous jargon." They do not like — they seem to abhor — speaking of spiritual things in the words which the Holy Ghost teaches. The only reason for this, is because they do not understand the things themselves; and when these things are "foolishness" to anyone, it is no wonder that the terms by which they are declared also seem to be foolishness to them.

But those who have received the Spirit of Christ, and know the mind of Christ (which profane scoffers are removed from), best receive the truth and apprehend it when it is not declared in "the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which are taught by the Holy Ghost." It is granted to some, to have the wisdom and skill to further explain and declare the truths that are taught in the gospel, by sound and wholesome words of their own. Yet all these words, as to their propriety and significance, are to be tried and measured by the Scripture itself. But we have a new way of teaching spiritual things that has sprung up among some. Being ignorant of the whole mystery of the gospel, and therefore despising it, they would debase all its glorious truths, and the declaration made of them, into dry, barren, sapless, philosophical notions and terms. And those terms are the most common, obvious, and vulgar that ever obtained among the heathen of old.

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"Virtuous living," they tell us, "is the way to heaven." But they have added as little in the declaration of what this virtue is, or what a life of virtue is, as any persons who ever made such a noise about them.

2. That ambiguous term moral has, by usage, obtained a double meaning with respect to its opposition to other things, which are either not so moral, or are more so. Sometimes it is applied to the worship of God, and so it is opposed to instituted worship. That religious worship which is prescribed in the Decalogue, or required by the law of creation, is commonly called "moral." And that is opposed to those rites and ordinances which are superadded, or arbitrarily instituted; again, it is opposed to things that are more than merely moral — namely, spiritual, theological, or divine things. Take the graces of the Spirit, such as faith, love, and 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 various respects in which they exceed the sphere of morality, they are called graces and duties that are theological, spiritual, supernatural, evangelical, or divine. And these are opposed to all those habits of the mind, and all those duties, which are required by the law of nature; and because they are required by nature, they are merely moral. In neither sense can it be said that moral virtue is our holiness, especially not the whole of it, not with any tolerable congruity of speech. But because most duties of holiness have morality in them — as moral is opposed to instituted — some would have nothing else in them, because "moral" is opposed to supernatural and theological. But it has been sufficiently declared that the principle and acts of holiness are of another special nature.

3. As intimated before, it is somewhat uncertain what the great pleaders for moral virtue intend by it. Many seem to design no more than that honesty and integrity of life which was found among some of the heathens in their virtuous lives and actions. And, indeed, it would be heartily wished that we might see more of it among some who are called Christians, for many things the heathen did were materially good and useful to mankind. But no matter how exacting it is, and however diligently its course is attended to, I deny it is the holiness required of us in the gospel, according to the terms of the covenant of grace. That is because it has none of those qualifications which we have proved essentially belong to this holiness. And I defy all the men in the world to prove that this moral virtue is the sum of our obedience to God, while the gospel is owned for a declaration of His will and our duty.

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It is true that all the duties of this moral virtue are required of us. But in the exercise of every one of them, there is more required of us than belongs to their morality — namely, that they be done in faith and love to God through Jesus Christ. Many things are required of us, as necessary parts of our obedience, which do not belong to this moral virtue at all.

4. Some give a description of morality that "it should be of the same extent with the light and law of nature, or the dictates of it as rectified and declared to us in the Scripture." And I confess, this requires of us the obedience which is due to God by the law of our creation, and according to the covenant of works, both materially and formally. But what has this to do with evangelical holiness and obedience? Why, it is alleged that "religion before the entrance of sin, and religion under the gospel, are one and the same; and therefore there is no difference between the duties of obedience required in the one and in the other." It is true that they are the same so far as they have the same Author, the same object, and the same end; and so far as they had the same religion under the law. But it is a vain imagination to think that they are the same as to all the acts of our obedience, and the manner of their performance. Was there no alteration made in religion by the interposition of the incarnate person and mediation of Christ? Was there no augmentation of the object of faith? Was there no change in abolishing the old covenant and establishing the new — the covenant between God and man being what gives the special form and kind to religion, the measure and designation of it? Was there no alteration in the principles, aids, assistances, and whole nature of our obedience to God? The whole mystery of godliness must be renounced if we intend to give way to such imaginations. Even if this moral virtue and its practice contained and expressed all that obedience, materially considered, which was required by the law of nature in the covenant of works, I deny that it is our holiness or evangelical obedience. And among many other reasons, that is principally because it does not have any respect to Jesus Christ, which our sanctification has.

5. If it is said that they do not intend to exclude Jesus Christ by this moral virtue, but to include a respect to him, then I desire only to ask this: whether what they mean by it is such a habit of mind, and such acts proceeding from it, that they have the properties described before as to their causes, rise, effects, use, and relation to Christ and the covenant — those which are expressly and plainly assigned to evangelical holiness in the Scripture? Is this moral virtue that which God predestined or chose us for, before the foundation of the world? Is it that which he works in us in pursuit of electing love? Is it that which gives us a new heart, with the law of God written in it?

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Is it a principle of spiritual life that disposes, inclines, and enables us to live to God according to the gospel — a principle which is produced in us by the effectual operation of the Holy Ghost, and is not educed out of the natural powers of our own souls by the mere application of external means? Is it that which is purchased and procured for us by Jesus Christ, whose increase in us he continues to intercede for? Is it the image of God in us, and does our conformity to the Lord Christ consist in this? If it is so, if moral virtue corresponds to all these properties and adjuncts of holiness, then the whole contest in this matter is whether it is the Holy Spirit or these men that is wisest, and knows best how to express the things of God rationally and significantly. But if the moral virtue they speak of is unconcerned in these things, if none of them belongs to it, if it may and does consist without them, then as to our acceptance before God, it will appear at length to be no more than what one of the greatest moralists in the world complained of. When he was dying, he found such moral virtue to be "a mere empty name."

Upon examination, this repugnant Pelagian figment of holiness or evangelical righteousness, will not create any great trouble for those who look at the Scripture as a revelation of the mind of God in these things. Pelagians would have its principle be natural reason, and its rule be the law of nature as explained in the Scripture. But its use and end is acceptance with God and justification before him — by which most of those who plead for it, seem to understand no more than outward acts of honesty; nor do they practice it so much. Yet it is absolutely opposite to and destructive of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, being the mere doctrine of the Quakers,[995] by whom it is better and more intelligibly expressed than by some new patrons of it among us.

Chapter VII.

Of the acts and duties of holiness.

Actual inherent righteousness, in duties of holiness and obedience, explained — The work of the Holy Spirit with respect to this — Distribution of the positive duties of holiness — Internal duties of holiness — External duties and their difference — Effectual operation of the Holy Spirit is necessary to every act of holiness — Dependence on providence with respect to natural things, and dependence on grace with respect to supernatural things, compared — Arguments to prove the necessity of actual grace to every duty of holiness — Contrary designs and expressions of the Scripture and that of some men, about duties of holiness.

II. The second part of the work of the Spirit of God in our sanctification respects the acts and duties of holy obedience. What we have addressed before chiefly concerns the principle of it as habitually resident in our souls, both as to its first infusion into us, as also its preservation and increase in us.

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But we are not endowed with such a principle or power to act it at our pleasure, or as we see good. Rather, God "works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure." And all these acts and duties of holiness or gospel obedience are of two sorts, or they may be referred to two heads:

FIRST, those which have for their object the will of God in positive commands; they respect our internal and external duties — those in which we do what God requires.

SECONDLY, those which respect divine prohibitions, which consist in the actings of grace or holiness in opposition to sin, or in the mortification of it (see chap. VIII).

It must be declared what the work of the Holy Spirit is, and what aid he affords us, in both these sorts of duties:

FIRST. The acts and duties of the first sort, respecting positive divine commands, fall under a double distinction; for in their own nature they are either, (1.) Internal only, or (2.) External also. There may be internal acts of holiness that have no external effects, but there are no external acts or duties that are any part of holiness, which are only external and no more: for it is required for this that they be quickened and sanctified by internal actings of grace. Two persons may therefore, at the same time, perform the same commanded duties, and in the same outward manner; and yet it may be the duty of evangelical holiness in one, but not in the other. This is how it was with Cain and Abel, and with the other apostles and Judas. For if faith and love are not acted in either of them, then what they do is duty, but only equivocally and not properly so.

(1.) By the duties of holiness that are internal only, I intend all acts of faith, love, trust, hope, fear, reverence, and delight, that have God for their immediate object, but they do not express or exert themselves in any external duties. Our spiritual life to God principally consists in these; for they are like the first acts of life, which principally evidence the strength or decays of it. And we may take from these the best measure of our spiritual health and interest in holiness. For we may abound in outward duties, and yet our hearts are very much alienated from the life of God. Indeed, sometimes men may endeavor to make up what is lacking in them by a multitude of outward duties, so that they may have "a name to live on" when they are "dead." The true nature of hypocrisy and superstition consists in this, Isa 1.11-15. But when the internal actings of faith — fear, trust, and love — abound and are constant in us, they evidence a vigorous and healthy condition of soul.

(2.) Duties that are external are of also two sorts, or they are distinguished with respect to their objects and ends; for —

[1.] God himself is the object and end of some of them, such as prayer and praises, whether private or more solemn.Those things which are commonly called "duties of the first tablet" are of this nature: all those which belong to the sanctification of the name of God in his worship.

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[2.] Some respect men of all sorts in their various capacities, and our various relationships to them; or, they have men for their object, but God for their end. And among these I also include those which principally regard ourselves, or our own persons. The whole of what we intend is summarily expressed by our apostle in Tit 2.12.[996]

Concerning all these acts and duties — whether internal only or external also, whether their proper object is God, ourselves, or other men — insofar as they are acts of holiness and are accepted by God, they proceed from a particular operation of the Holy Spirit in us. To make our intention more evident, we may distinctly observe the following —

(1.) That there is in the minds, wills, and affections of all believers a meetness, fitness, readiness, and habitual disposition to perform all acts of obedience towards God, all duties of piety, charity, and righteousness that are required of them. They are internally and habitually distinguished by this, from those who are not so disposed. We declared before that this is so with them, and how it comes to be so: this power and disposition is worked and preserved in them by the Holy Ghost.

(2.) No believer can act of himself— that is, actually exert or exercise — this principle or power of a spiritual life, in any one instance, of any duty, whether internal or external, either towards God or men, such that it will be an act of holiness, or a duty accepted by God. He cannot, I say, do so of himself, by virtue of any power that is habitually inherent in him. In this world we are not entrusted with any such spiritual ability from God, to do anything that is good, without further actual aid and assistance. Therefore —

(3.) What I intend to prove at present is this: That the actual aid, assistance, and internal operation of the Spirit of God is necessary, required, and granted, to produce every holy act of our minds, wills, and affections, in every duty whatsoever — or that, notwithstanding the power or ability which believers have received in or by habitual grace, they still stand in need of actual grace, in, for, and to every single gracious, holy act or duty towards God.

I will now explain this a little further, and then confirm it.

As it is in our natural lives with respect to God's providence, so it is in our spiritual lives with respect to his grace. In the works of nature, God has endowed our body with a vital principle, or a quickening soul, by which our body is itself quickened.

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By virtue of this, we are enabled for all vital acts, whether natural and necessary, or voluntary, according to the constitution of our being, which is intellectual. "God breathed into man the breath of life; and man became a living soul," Gen 2.7. Giving him a principle of life, man was fitted for and enabled to all the proper acts of that life. For a principle of life is an ability for and disposition to acts of life. Yet, whoever is thus made a living soul, whoever is endowed with this principle of life, is not able originally, as the first cause and independent of God, to exert or produce any vital act without any motion or acting from God. Whatever does not have this principle of life is like a dead carcass. It has no fitness for vital actions, nor is it capable either of motion or alteration, except as it receives impressions from an outward principle of force, or an inward principle of corruption. But the one who has a fitness, readiness, and habitual power for all vital actions, yet is without the concurrence of God in His energetic providence moving and acting him, can do nothing. For "in God we live, and move, and have our being," Acts 17.28. If anyone could perform an action of himself, without any concourse of divine operation, he must himself be absolutely the first and only cause of that action — that is, he is the creator of a new being.

It is the same, as to our spiritual life. By the grace of God through Jesus Christ, we are furnished with a principle of life, in the way and for the ends described before. Hereby we are enabled and disposed to live to God in the exercise of spiritually vital acts, or the performance of duties of holiness. And the one who does not have this principle of spiritual life, is spiritually dead, as we manifested at large before — he can do nothing at all that is spiritually good. He may be moved and, as it were, compelled by the power of convictions, to do many things that are materially good; but he can do nothing that, upon all considerations, is spiritually good and accepted by God.

The question is this: Having received this principle of spiritual life, and being habitually sanctified by it, what can believers do as to actual duties, by virtue of this principle, without the new and immediate assistance and working of the Holy Spirit in them? I say that, without the particular concurrence and assistance of the grace of God for every act of this principle, they can no more do anything spiritually good, than a man can naturally act, move, or do anything in absolute independence of God, of his power and providence. The apostle expresses this relation between the works of God's providence and of his grace, in Eph 2.10: "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God ordained beforehand that we should walk in them."

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At the beginning, God made all things by a creating power, producing them out of nothing. And he did not leave them merely to themselves and their own powers when he created them; but he upholds, supports, sustains, and preserves them in the principles of their being and operations, acting powerfully in and by them, after their several kinds. Without his support of their being, by an actual incessant emanation of divine power, the whole fabric of nature would dissolve into confusion and nothingness. And without his influence into and concurrence with their ability for operation by the same power, all things would be dead and deformed, and not one act of nature would be exerted.

So it also is in this work of the new creation of all things by Jesus Christ. "We are God's workmanship." He has formed and fashioned us for himself, by the renovation of his image in us. Hereby we are fitted for good works and the fruits of righteousness, which he appointed as the way of our living to him. This new creature, this divine nature in us, he supports and preserves in such a way that without his continual influential power, it would perish and come to nothing. But this is not all. He moreover acts it, and effectively concurs to every singular duty, by new supplies of actual grace. So then, what we are to prove is that there is an actual operation of the Holy Ghost in us, necessary to every act and duty of holiness whatsoever, without which none either will or can be produced or performed by us. This is the second part of his work in our sanctification. And there are several ways by which this is confirmed to us:

1. The Scripture declares that we ourselves cannot, in and by ourselves — that is, by virtue of any strength or power that we have received — do anything that is spiritually good. Our Savior tells his apostles, and all sanctified believers: "Without me you can do nothing," John 15.5 — "without me;" "separated from me," as a branch may be separated from the vine. If a branch is separated from the root and body of the vine, so that it does not receive continual supplies of nourishment from them, if their influence into it is intercepted by any means, then it does not proceed in its growth; it produces no fruit, but immediately begins to decay. Our Savior says it is this way with believers in respect to him. Unless they have continual, uninterrupted influences of grace and spiritually vital nourishment from him, they can do nothing. The phrase "without me," expresses a denial of all the spiritual aid we have from Christ. If we lack this, "we can do nothing," — that is, we can do nothing by our own power, or by virtue of any habit or principle of grace that we have received. For when we have received it, whatever we can do without further actual assistance, we can do by ourselves. Thus, "you can do nothing" pertains to fruit-bearing to God. For in natural and civil things, we can do a little; and in sinful things we can do too much — we need no aid or assistance for any such purpose. But in fruit-bearing to God, we can do nothing.

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Now, every act of faith and love, every motion of our minds or affections towards God, is a part of our fruit-bearing; and unquestionably, so are all external works and duties of holiness and obedience. Therefore, with our Savior himself as judge, believers who are really sanctified and made partakers of habitual grace, cannot of themselves, without new actual aid and assistance of grace from him, do anything that is spiritually good or acceptable with God.

Our apostle confirms this same truth in 2Cor 3.4-5: "And we have such trust through Christ toward God: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God." It is a great and eminent grace which he declares that he was acting — namely, trust in God through Christ in the discharge of his ministry, and for the blessed success of it. But he no sooner expressed it, than he seems to be jealous lest he appear to assume something to himself in this work, or in the trust he had for its success. No man was ever more cautious against this; and indeed it was incumbent on Paul to be cautious, because he was appointed to be the principal minister and preacher of the grace of Jesus Christ. Therefore, I say, he adds a caution against any such apprehensions; and he openly renounces any such power, ability, or sufficiency in himself, such that by its virtue he could act so excellent a grace, or perform so great a duty: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves."

And he has asserted in countless places, the necessity and efficacy of grace in this matter, and our impotency without it. But in his own instance, he also made such a distinction between what was of himself, and what was of grace — with such an open disclaimer of any interest of his own in what was spiritually good, as distinct from grace — that it should be sufficient with all sober persons to determine all differences in this case. See 1Cor 15.10, Gal 2.20, and this place.[997] I assume no such thing to myself, and I ascribe no such thing to any other, such that I or they should have in ourselves a sufficiency for any such purpose — for our apostle knew nothing of any sufficiency that needed any other thing than grace to make it effectual. And he does not exclude such a sufficiency in ourselves with respect to eminent actings of grace and greater duties, except with respect to every good thought, or whatever may have a tendency to any spiritual duty. We cannot conceive, we cannot engage in the beginning of any duty, by our own sufficiency. For it is the beginning of duties which the apostle expresses by "thinking," because our thoughts and projections are naturally the first thing that belongs to our actions. He does this on purpose, as it were, to obviate that Pelagian fiction that the beginning of good was from ourselves, and we had the help of grace only to perfect it.

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"But what then? If we have no such sufficiency, to what purpose should we set about thinking or doing anything that is good? Who would be so unwise as to attempt what he has no strength to accomplish? And does the apostle not deny by this, that he himself had performed any holy duties, or acted out any grace, or done anything that was good, seeing that he had no sufficiency of himself to do so?"

To obviate this quibble, Paul confines this denial of sufficiency to "ourselves;" we do not have it of ourselves. "But," he says, "our sufficiency is of God," — that is, we have it by actual supplies of that grace which is necessary for every duty. And he declares how God communicates this sufficiency, and how we receive it: 2Cor 9.8, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; so that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." God manifests the abounding of grace towards us when he works an effective sufficiency in us — which he does so as to enable us to abound in good works or duties of holiness. These are those supplies of grace which God gives us for all our duties, as He promised Paul in his own case, 2Cor 12.9.[998]

This is the first demonstration of the truth proposed for consideration — namely, the testimonies given in the Scripture that believers cannot, of themselves, perform any acts or duties of holiness, or anything that is spiritually good. Therefore, these things are effects of grace, and they must be worked in us by the Holy Ghost, who is the immediate author of all divine operations.

2. All actings of grace, all good duties, are actually ascribed to the operation of the Holy Ghost. The particular testimonies to this are so multiplied in the Scripture that it is not convenient or indeed possible to recall them distinctly; some of them may be asserted as instances, and these are reduced to three heads:

1st. There are many places in which we are said to be led, guided, or moved by the Spirit, to live in the Spirit, to walk after the Spirit, or to do things by the Spirit who dwells in us. Nothing can be meant by these expressions in general, but the actions of the Holy Spirit of God on our souls. Our obedience to God according to the gospel consists in complying with this activity, such as acting when we are moved by him: Gal 5.16, "Walk in the Spirit." To walk in the Spirit is to walk in obedience to God, according to the supplies of grace which the Holy Ghost administers to us; for it is added that "we will not then fulfil the lusts of the flesh," — that is, we will be kept to holy obedience and the avoidance of sin. So we are said to be "led by the Spirit," verse 18, being moved by him, and not by the vicious, depraved principles of our corrupted nature.

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Rom 8.4, "Do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit." To walk after the flesh is to have the principle of indwelling sin acting itself in us to produce and perpetrate actual sins. Therefore, to walk after the Spirit is to have the Spirit acting in us to effect all gracious acts and duties. And this is given to us in a command that we do not neglect his motions in us, but comply with them by way of diligence and duty: see Rom 8.14-15.[999] So we are enjoined to attend to particular duties through "the Holy Ghost which dwells in us," 2Tim 1.14; that is, through his assistance, without which we can do nothing.

2dly. As we are said to be led and moved by him, so he is declared to be the author of all gracious actings in us: Gal 5.22-23, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." All these things are worked and produced in us by the Spirit, for they are his fruits. And not only is the habit of them from Him, but all their actings, in all their exercise, are from him. Every act of faith is faith; and every act of love is love; and consequently no act of them is of ourselves, but every one of them is a fruit of the Spirit of God. So in another place he adds a universal affirmative, comprehending all instances of particular graces and their exercise: Eph 5.9, "The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." All actings of grace, all duties of obedience, all parts of holiness, may be reduced to these three things. And it is through the supplies of the Spirit that He trusts for a good issue of his obedience, Phi 1.19.[1000] So it is expressly stated in the promise of the covenant, Eze 36.27, "I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments, and do them." This is the whole that God requires of us, and it is all worked in us by his Spirit, Eze 11.19-20; Jer 32.39-40. All the obedience and holiness that God requires of us in the covenant, all duties and actings of grace, are promised to be worked in us by the Spirit, after we are assured that, of ourselves, we can do nothing.

3dly. Particular graces and their exercise are assigned to his acting and working in us: Gal 5.5, "We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." The hope of the righteousness of faith is the thing hoped for thereby. All that we look for or expect in this world, or hereafter, is by the righteousness of faith. Our quiet waiting for this is a special gospel grace and duty. We do not do this of ourselves, but "through the Spirit:" We "worship God in the Spirit," Phi 3.3; love the brethren "in the Spirit," Col 1.8; we "purify our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in unfeigned love of the brethren," 1Pet 1.22.[1001] It is expressly said about faith, that it is "not of ourselves; it is the gift of God," Eph 2.8.

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3. There are express testimonies to the position laid down before: Phi 2.13, "It is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The things thus worked are all things that pertain to our obedience and salvation, as evident from the connection of these words with verse 12, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Two things are required for this:

1st. Power for such operations, or for all the duties of holiness and obedience that are required of us. It has been abundantly confirmed before that we are endowed with this, that it is worked in us, bestowed on us, by the Holy Ghost. But when this is done for us, is there anything else yet remaining to be done? Indeed,

2dly. There is the actual exercise of the grace we have received. How may this be exercised? The whole work of grace consists in the internal acts of our wills, and the external operations in duties suited to this. Therefore this is incumbent on us; we are to look for this in ourselves; it is our duty to do so — namely, to stir up and exercise the grace we have received in and for its proper operations. But it is so our duty, that we cannot perform it of ourselves. It is God who effectively works in us all those gracious acts of our wills, and all holy operations in a way of duty. Every act of our wills, so far as it is gracious and holy, is efficiently the act of the Spirit of God; he "works in us to will," or in the very act of willing. To say that He only persuades us, or excites and stirs up our wills by his grace, so that they produce their own acts, is to say that He does not do what the apostle affirms he does. For if the gracious actings of our wills are so much our own as not to be his, then he does not work in us to will, but he only persuades us to will.

But the same apostle utterly excludes this pretense: 1Cor 15.10, "I labored abundantly; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." He had a necessity incumbent on him to declare the great labor he had undergone, and the pains he had taken in "preaching the gospel;" yet immediately, lest anyone think that he ascribed anything to himself (any gracious, holy actings in those labors), he adds his usual epanorthosis,[1002] "Not I;" — "Let me not be taken the wrong way; it was not I, by any power of mine, by anything in me; rather, it was all worked in me by the free grace of the Spirit of God." "Not I, but grace," is the apostle's assertion.

Suppose now that by his grace God does no more than aid, assist, and excite the will in its actings — that he does not effectively work all the gracious actings of our souls in all our duties — the proposition would take on the reverse meaning, "Not grace, but I," seeing that the principal relation of the effect is to the next and immediate cause, and it has its designation from there. But truly, just as God works them "to will" in us, so He also works them "to do" — that is, to effectively perform those duties to which the gracious actings of our wills are required.

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What has been said may suffice to prove that the Holy Spirit, as the author of our sanctification, also works in us all gracious acts of faith, love, and obedience, in which the first part of our actual holiness and righteousness consists. And the truth thus confirmed may be further improved for our instruction and edification by the following.

(1.) From this it is easily discernible how contrary the designs and expressions of the Scripture are to the notions of some men among us. There is nothing that is good in us, nothing that is done well by us in the way of obedience, that the Scripture does not expressly and frequently assign it to the immediate operations of the Holy Spirit in us. It does so in general as to all gracious actings whatsoever — and not content with that, it proposes that the Holy Ghost is the immediate author of every grace and every holy duty, distinctly affirming them. And when it comes to mentioning us, the Scripture indeed positively prescribes our duty to us; but just as plainly, it lets us know that we have no power in or from ourselves to perform it. But some men say, preach, and write to another purpose altogether. The subjects of their discourses are the freedom, liberty, power, and ability of our own wills; the light, guidance, and direction of our own minds or reasons; and from all of these, our own performance of all the duties of faith and obedience. And that is done in opposition to what is ascribed in the Scriptures to the immediate operations of the Holy Ghost; the Scriptures are all for grace. Scripture says, "Not I, but grace; not I, but Christ; without him we can do nothing." But these men are all for our wills: "Not grace, but our wills do it all." It is plainly affirmed in the Scripture that God created heaven and earth, and that he sustains and preserves all things by his power. It is no less plainly affirmed that he creates grace in the hearts of believers, preserves it, acts it, and makes it effectual, working all our works for us, and all our duties in us. But evasions must be found out — strange, forced, uncouth senses must be put on plain and frequently repeated expressions — to secure the honor of our wills, and to take care that all the good we do may not be assigned to the grace of God. To this purpose, distinctions are coined, evasions are invented, and such an explanation is given of all divine operations as to render them useless and insignificant. Indeed, in the judgment of some, it has grown weak and ridiculous (if not criminal) for anyone to assign those works and operations to the Spirit of God, which the Scripture assigns to Him; and they use the very words that the Scripture uses!

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To lessen the corruption and depravation of our nature by sin; to extol the integrity and power of our reason; to maintain the freedom and ability of our wills in and to things that are spiritually good; to say that the conversion of men to God can be attributed to their natural good dispositions, inclinations, and the right use of their reason; to consider holiness to be only a probity of life[1003] or honesty in conduct, done on rational motives and considerations — these are the things that men are now almost wearied with repeating. There is scarcely a person who would build a reputation for himself in the world, who does not immediately furnish himself with some new tinkling ornaments for these old Pelagian figments. But whoever takes an impartial view of the design and constant doctrine of the Scripture in this matter, will not easily be carried away with the plausible pretenses of men who exalt their own wills and abilities, in opposition to the Spirit and grace of God by Jesus Christ.

(2.) From what has been discussed, a further discovery is made of the nature of gospel obedience, from all the acts of our souls in this, and the duties that belong to it. It is commonly granted that there is a great difference between those acts and duties which are truly gracious, and those which are called gracious but are not so — such as duties of faith, prayer, or charity. But this difference is generally supposed to be in the adjuncts of those duties, in some of their properties, but not in the kind, nature, or substance of the acts of our minds in these things. Indeed, it is commonly said that because wicked men say they believe, and gladly do many things out of obedience, the substance of what they do is the same as the acts of those who are truly regenerated and sanctified. They may differ in their principle and end, but as to their substance or essence, they are the same. But there is no small mistake in this. All gracious actings of our minds and souls, whether internal only, in faith, love, or delight, or extending to external duties required in the gospel — both are worked in us by the immediate efficacy of the Spirit of grace. And so they differ in their kind (in the essence and substance of the acts themselves) only from whatever is not worked or effected in us by the Spirit grace. For whatever may be done by anyone — in any acting of common grace or in the performance of any duty of obedience — if these are educed out of the power of the natural faculties of men, excited by convictions, as directed and enforced by reasons and exhortations, or as assisted by common aids of whatever nature, they are natural as to their kind; they have no other substance or being than what is natural. But what is worked in us by the special grace of the Holy Ghost in the way mentioned, is supernatural. It is not educed out of the powers of our natural faculties, but it is an immediate effect of the almighty supernatural efficacy of the grace of God.

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And therefore, the sole reason why God accepts and rewards duties of obedience in those who are sanctified, and disregards those duties of others which are the same as to their outward matter and manner of performance,[1004] is not only because of the state and condition of the persons who perform them— though that has an influence in this — but also from the nature of the acts and duties themselves. He never accepts and rejects duties of the same kind absolutely with respect to the persons who perform them. The duties themselves are of a different kind. Those which he accepts are supernatural effects of his own Spirit in us; and so he rewards and crowns the fruits of his own grace. As for what he rejects, whatever appearance it may have of complying with the outward command, it has nothing in it that is supernaturally gracious; and so it is not of the same kind as what he accepts.

Chapter VIII.

Mortification of sin, the nature and causes of it.

Mortification of sin, the second part of sanctification — Frequently prescribed and enjoined as a duty — What the name signifies, with the reason for this; and also "crucifying sin" — The nature of the mortification of sin explained — Indwelling sin in its principle, operations, and effects, as the object of mortification — Contrariety between sin and grace — Mortification as taking part with the whole interest of grace, against sin — How sin is mortified, and why subduing it is so called — Directions for the right discharge of this duty —The nature of it is unknown to many — The Holy Spirit is the author and cause of mortification in us — The manner of the operation of the Spirit in the mortification of sin — Particular means of the mortification of sin — Duties necessary to the mortification of sin, which we are directed to by the Holy Ghost — Mistakes and errors of persons failing in this matter — How spiritual duties are to be managed so that sin may be mortified — Influence of the virtue of the death of Christ, as applied by the Holy Spirit, in the mortification of sin.

SECONDLY. There is yet another part or effect of our sanctification by the Holy Ghost, which consists in and is called mortification of sin. What we already asserted concerns the improvement and practice of the principle of grace which believers are endowed with. And what we now propose concerns the weakening, impairing, and destroying of the contrary principle of sin — in its root and fruits, in its principle and actings. And because the Spirit of God is everywhere said to sanctify us, we are commanded and constantly said to mortify our sins. For sanctification expresses grace that is communicated and received in general; but mortification expresses grace as being received, improved, and acted to a certain end.

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I will be brief in handling it, because I formerly published a small discourse on the same subject.[1005] There are two things that I will speak to:

First, The nature of the duty itself;

Secondly, The manner: how it is worked in us by the Holy Ghost; I principally intend this one.

1. It is known that this duty is frequently enjoined and prescribed to us:

Col 3.5, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry."

"By avoiding" is implied in the verse. "Mortify your members which are upon the earth," — that is, your carnal, earthly affections; "avoiding (or 'by avoiding') fornication," etc. And so a distinction is made between carnal affections and their fruits. Or the special sins mentioned are instances of these carnal affections: "Mortify your carnal affections," — namely, fornication and the like; in which there is a metonymy[1006] of the effect for the cause. And they are called "our members," —

(1.) The whole principle of sin, and the course of sinning which proceeds from it, is called the "body of sin," Rom 6.6, or the "body of the sins of the flesh," Col 2.11. And with respect to these particular lusts, they are here called the members of that body, "Mortify your members." He does not mean the parts or members of our natural bodies, as though they were to be destroyed, as some seem to imagine, who place mortification in outward afflictions and macerations of the body — for he adds, "that are on the earth," that is, earthly, carnal, and sensual.

(2.) The old man — that is, our depraved nature —uses these affections and lusts as naturally and readily as the body uses its members; and by them (which adds efficacy to the allusion) it draws the very members of the body into compliance with it and into its service. We are cautioned against it by our apostle: Rom 6.12, "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies" (that is, our natural bodies), "that you should obey it in its lusts." He pursues this exhortation in Rom 6.19, "As you have yielded your members as servants to uncleanness, and iniquity unto iniquity;[1007] even so, now yield your members as servants to righteousness, unto holiness." Some, out of neglect, take "the members of Christ" — that is, the members of their own bodies, which are members of Christ — and make them the "members of a harlot," 1Cor 6.15. There are many other commands to the same purpose, which will afterward occur.

And concerning this great duty we may consider three things:

(1.) The name of it, by which it is expressed;

(2.) The nature of it, in which it consists (p. 541);

(3.) The manner and way by which it is effected and worked (p. 547).

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(1.) For the name, it is expressed in two ways, and both of them are metaphorical:

[1.] By the Greek nekroun and thanatoun [1008] which are rendered "mortify ourselves." The first is used in Col 3.5, nekroosate, which is "mortify" — that is, to extinguish and destroy all that force and vigor of corrupted nature which inclines to earthly, carnal things, in opposition to that spiritual, heavenly life and its actings which we have in and from Christ, as declared before. Nekroou is the Latin eneco, morte macto, "to kill," "to affect with or destroy by death." Yet this word is not used absolutely by our apostle; the thing is not so mortified or killed that it should no longer have any being — rather, it is rendered useless as to what its strength and vigor would otherwise produce. So he expresses its effects in the passive tense in Rom 4.19; — "He did not consider his own body now dead" — "now mortified." The body of Abraham was not then absolutely dead; it was only that its natural force and vigor was exceedingly abated. And so Paul seems to mollify this expression in Heb 11.12, "Of one, and him as good as dead," — where "him" respects the thing addressed.[1009] There, the verb "to mortify" signifies a continued act: taking away the power and force of anything until it comes to be "dead" as to some certain ends or purposes — this is how it is in the mortification of sin. Rom 8.13, "If through the Spirit you mortify [are mortifying] the deeds of the body, you will live," — the Greek word is thanatoute, and it is used to the same purpose. It signifies "to put to death;" but it is used in the present tense to denote that it is a work which must always be doing: "If you mortify," — that is, "If you are always and constantly employed in that work." And the apostle uses "the deeds of the body," to express the effect for the cause, metonymically;[1010] for he intends the same as in Gal 5.24, "The flesh with its affections and lusts" — all the corrupt deeds arise from the flesh, and the body is instrumental in this.

[2.] Crucifying expresses the same duty with relation to the death of Christ, as the meritorious, efficient, and exemplary cause of it: Rom 6.6, "Our old man is crucified with him." Gal 2.20, "I am crucified with Christ." Gal 5.24, "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts." Gal 6.14, By the Lord Jesus Christ, "the world is crucified to me, and I to the world." Now, there may be something intimated in this of the manner of mortification of sin, which is gradually carried on to its final destruction, like a man dies on the cross. Yet what is principally intended is the relation of this work and duty to the death of Christ.

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This is why we and our sins are said to be crucified with him: because we and they are crucified by virtue of his death. And in this we "always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus," 2Cor 4.10 — this represents the manner of it, and it expresses its efficacy.

This is how the name of this duty is expressed.

(2.) We will more particularly inquire into its nature next, and we will declare it in the ensuing observations:

[1.] Mortification of sin is a duty that is always incumbent on us in the whole course of our obedience. The command which testifies to it, represents it as an always present duty. When it is no longer a duty to grow in grace, it remains a duty to mortify sin. No man under heaven can at any time say that he is exempted from this command, nor on any pretense. The one who ceases from this duty, lets go of all his endeavors after holiness. As for those who claim an absolute perfection: of all persons living, they are the most impudent; they cannot open their mouths in this matter without lying to themselves; for —

[2.] Because this duty is always incumbent on us, it argues undeniably that the principle of sin abides in us while we are in the flesh — and along with its fruits, it is that which is to be mortified. The Scripture calls this the "sin that dwells in us," the "evil that is present with us," the "law in our members," "evil concupiscence," "lust," the "flesh," and the like. And to this are ascribed the properties and actings of folly, deceit, tempting, seducing, rebelling, warring, and captivating. This is not the place to dispute the truth of this assertion. It cannot, with any repute of modesty, be denied by any who own the Scripture, or pretend to be acquainted with themselves. Yet, through the craft of Satan, with the pride and darkness of the minds of men, it so happens that the lack of a true understanding of this is the occasion for most of those pernicious errors which at present pester the church of God, and which practically keep men from being seriously troubled by their sins, or seeking relief by Jesus Christ. Thus, someone has not feared recently to openly profess that he knows of no deceit or evil in his own heart — though one who is wiser than he, has informed us that "he that trusts in his own heart is a fool," Pro 28.26.

[3.] Indwelling sin, which is the object of this duty of mortification, falls under a threefold consideration:

1st. Its root and principle;

2dly. Its disposition and operations;

3dly. Its effects.

These are frequently distinguished in the Scripture, though mostly in metaphorical expressions. So they are distinctly mentioned together in Rom 6.6, "Our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we should no longer serve sin."

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1st. The root or principle of sin which by nature possesses all the faculties of the soul, and which as a depraved habit, inclines to all that is evil, is the "old man;" this is opposed to the "new man" "which is created after God in righteousness and true holiness." Eph 4.24

2dly. There is the inclination, an actual disposition, and operations of this principle or habit, with its members, which is called the body of sin. For under these expressions, sin is proposed as in procinctu,[1011] a readiness to act, and an inclining to all that is evil. This also is expressed by "the flesh with its affections and lusts," Gal 5.24; "deceitful lusts," Eph 4.22 ("The old man is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts"); "The wills of the flesh and of the mind," Eph 2.3.[1012]

3dly. There are the effects, fruits, and products of these things, which are actual sins. By these, as the apostle puts it, we serve sin, by bringing forth its fruits: "That we should no longer serve sin," Rom 6.6. And these fruits are of two sorts:

(1st.) Internal, in the figments and imaginations of the heart; which is the first way by which the lusts of the old man act. Therefore it is said of those who are under the power or dominion of sin, that "every figment or imagination of their hearts is evil continually," Gen 6.5 — for they have no other principle by which they are moved except that of sin; and therefore all the figments of their hearts must necessarily be evil. With respect to this, our Savior affirms that all actual sins "proceed out of the heart," Mat 15.19, because there is their root, and there they are first formed and framed.

(2dly.) External, in actual sins, such as those enumerated by our apostle, Col 3.5; Gal 5.19-21. All these things together make up the complete object of this duty of mortification. The old man, the body of death with its members, and the works of the flesh (or the habit, operations, and effects of sin), are all intended, and they are all to be regarded in this duty.

[4.] This principle of sin, with its operations and effects, are opposed and directly contrary to the principle, operations, and fruits of holiness, as worked in us by the Spirit of God (we described this before).

1st. They are opposed in their principle; for "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another," Gal 5.17. These are those two adverse principles which maintain such a conflict in the souls of believers while they are in this world, which is so graphically described by our apostle in Romans 7.So the old man and new man are opposed and contrary to each other.

2dly. In their actings. The lusting of the flesh and the lusting or desires of the Spirit — walking after the flesh and walking after the Spirit — living after the flesh and living in the Spirit — are also opposed. This is the opposition that exists between the body of sin with its members, and the life of grace:

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"Who do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit," Rom 8.1, 4, 5. "We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you will die: but if through the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you will live," verses 12-13. By "walking after the flesh," I do not understand to mean, at least not principally, the committing of actual sins; rather, it is complying with the principle or habit of sin that prevails in a depraved, unsanctified nature, which allows it predominance in the heart and affections. It is when men are disposed to act according to the inclinations, lustings, motions, wills, and desires of the flesh; or it is to bend habitually in our course and conduct, to that way which the flesh inclines and leads us to. This principle does not bring forth actual sins in everyone equally; rather, it has various degrees of efficacy as it gains an advantage by temptations, or as it is controlled by light or hampered by convictions. Hence all those who are under the power of sin are not equally vicious and sinful; but the bent of the soul, and most of its actings, goes after the flesh. To "walk after the Spirit" consists in surrendering to His rule and conduct, or walking according to the dispositions and inclinations of the Spirit, to that which is born of the Spirit — namely, a principle of grace that is implanted in us by the Holy Ghost. This has been asserted at large before. And,

3dly. The external fruits and effects of these two principles are also contrary, as our apostle declares expressly and at large in Gal 5.19-24. For in the enumeration of the "works of the flesh," he lists actual sins, such as adultery, fornication, and the like. And in the account he gives of the "fruits of the Spirit," he lists habitual graces, such as love, joy, and peace. He expresses them both metaphorically. In the former, he has respect to the vicious habits of those actual sins; and in the latter, he has respect to the actual effects and duties of those habitual graces.

[5.] There is a universal contrariety, opposition, contending, and warfare, between grace and sin — the Spirit and the flesh — in their inward principles, powers, operations, and outward effects. Therefore the work and duty of mortification consists in constantly taking part with grace[1013] in its principle, actings, and fruits, against the principle, actings, and fruits of sin. These contrary principles reside in the same faculties of the soul, and their actings arise from those faculties. Thus, as the one is increased, strengthened, and improved, the other must of necessity be weakened and decay. Therefore, the mortification of sin must consist in these three things:

1st. In cherishing and improving the principle of grace and holiness which is implanted in us by the Holy Ghost, by all the ways and means which God has appointed for this; we have spoken of this before. This is what alone can undermine and ruin the power of sin; and without it, all attempts to weaken the power of sin are vain and fruitless.

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Whatever pains men may take to mortify, crucify, or subdue their sins — unless they endeavor first to weaken and impair its strength by the increase of grace and by growing in this grace, they will labor in the fire, where their work will be consumed.1Cor 3.1^1-15

2dly. In frequent actings of the principle of grace in all duties, both internal and external. For where the inclinations, motions, and actings of the Spirit are vigorous, and kept in constant exercise — in all acts, duties, and fruits of holy obedience — the contrary motions and actings of the flesh are defeated.

3dly. In a due application of the principle, power, and actings of grace, by way of opposition to the principle, power, and actings of sin. Just as the whole of grace is opposed to the whole of sin, so there is no particular lust by which sin can act its power, that there is not a particular grace ready to make effectual opposition to it, by which it is mortified. The mystery of this great duty of mortification consists in this application of grace, in its actings in opposition to all the actings of sin. Where men are ignorant of this, and have fallen under a conviction of the power of sin, and been perplexed with it, they have discovered countless foolish ways for its mortification. They wickedly oppose this internal, moral, depraved principle, with external, natural, bodily force and exercise, which is not concerned with it in any way.

But we must treat this further afterward under the third head, concerning the manner how this work is to be carried on, or how this duty is to be performed.

[6.] This duty of weakening sin by the growth and improvement of grace, and the opposition which grace makes to sin in all its actings, is called mortification, killing, or putting to death, on various accounts:

First and principally, from that life which — because of its power, efficacy, and operation — is ascribed to indwelling sin. Because of it, the soul is in a state of death; but because power and operations are the proper adjuncts or effects of life, it is for this reason that life is ascribed to sin, on whose account sinners are dead. This is why this corrupt principle of sin in our depraved nature — having a constant, powerful inclination and working actually towards all evil —is metaphorically said to live, or to have a life of its own. Therefore the opposition that is made to sin for its ruin and destruction, is called mortification or killing — it deprives sin of that strength and efficacy by which it is said to live.

Secondly, It may be so called because of the violence of the contest to which the soul is put in this duty to kill sin. All other duties that we are called to in the course of our obedience, may be performed in an easier, gentler, and plainer manner. It is our work and duty to conflict with all sorts of temptations — indeed, to wrestle with "principalities and powers, and spiritual wickednesses in high places." Eph 6.12

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Yet, in this conflict which we have with ourselves, which is wholly within and from us, there is more of warring, fighting, captivating, wounding, and crying out for help and assistance — there is a deeper sense of the violence that is used in taking the life of a mortal enemy — than in anything else we are called to do.

And, thirdly, the end aimed at in this duty is destruction, which is the end of all killing. As it was said, sin has a life; and it is such a life that it not only lives by it, but it rules and reigns in all those who are not born of God. By the entrance of grace into the soul, sin loses its dominion, but not its being — its rule, but not its life. The utter ruin, destruction, and gradual annihilation of all the remainders of this cursed life of sin, is our design and aim in this work and duty — and it is therefore called mortification. The design of this duty, wherever it is done in sincerity, is to leave sin neither its being, its life, nor its operation.

Some directions, as is our manner, may be taken from what we have discussed concerning the nature of this duty, to direct our own practices: —

First, It is evident, from what has been discussed, that it is a work which has a gradual progress, and we must continually be exercised in it. This respects, in the first place, the principle of sin itself. Every day, and in every duty, a special eye is to be had to the abolition and destruction of this principle of sin. It will not die except by being gradually and constantly weakened. If we spare it, it heals its wounds, and recovers its strength. Hence, many who attain the mortification of sin to a great degree, may allow it to regain its rule by their negligence in some instance or other, such that they never recover their former state while they live.

And this is the reason why we have so many withering professors among us, decayed in their graces, fruitless in their lives, and in every way conformed to the world. Indeed, there are some who, being under the power of that blindness and darkness which is a principal part of the depravation of our nature, neither see nor discern the inward secret actings and motions of sin — its deceit and restlessness, how it mixes itself one way or other in all our duties, with the defilement and guilt which accompany these things. They judge that God scarcely takes notice of anything but outward actions — and maybe not much of them either (so as to be displeased with them, unless they are very foul indeed). Even then, He is easily entreated to pass by and excuse them. They judge that this duty is superfluous, despising both the confession and the mortification of sin in its root and principle. But those who receive the most grace and power from above against sin, of all others, are the most sensible of its power and guilt, and of the need to continually apply themselves to its destruction.

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Secondly, With respect to its inclinations and operations, in which it variously exerts its power in all particular instances, we are to continually watch against it and subdue it. And this concerns us in all that we are and do — in our duties, in our calling, in our conduct with others, in our retirements, in the frames of our spirits, in our restraints, in our mercies, in the use of our enjoyments, in our temptations. If we are negligent on any occasion, we will suffer by it. This is our enemy, and this is the war we are engaged in. Every mistake, every neglect, is perilous. And —

Thirdly, The end of this duty, with respect to us, is expressed by the apostle: that we should no longer serve sin, Rom 6.6. This refers to the perpetration of actual sins, bringing forth the actual fruits of the flesh, internal or external also. Let someone think whatever he will of himself, if the old man is not crucified with Christ, he is a servant of sin. If he has not received virtue from the death of Christ, if he is not worked to conformity to him in this, then whatever else he may do or attain, however else he may change his course and reform his life in anything, or in many things — he serves sin, and not God. Our great design ought to be, that we should no longer serve sin. In the ensuing verses, the apostle gives us many reasons for this. Serving sin is indeed the worst service that a rational creature is capable of, and it will have the most doleful end. Therefore, what is the only way and means by which we may attain this end: namely, that we may not serve sin, even though it still abides in us? What will secure us from its danger? It is the mortification of sin which we insist on, and nothing else. If we expect to be freed from the service of sin by its own surrender of its dominion over us, or by any compromise with it, or in any other way than by being always killing or destroying it, we only deceive our own souls.

And, indeed, it is to be feared that the nature of this duty is not sufficiently understood, or it is not sufficiently considered. Men look at it as an easy task, as something that can be carried on with a little diligence and ordinary attendance. But is it for nothing that the Holy Ghost expresses the duty of opposing sin, and weakening its power, by the terms mortification, killing, or putting to death? Is there not something peculiar in this, beyond any other act or duty of our lives? Certainly there is intimated a great contest by sin to preserve its life. Everything will do its utmost to preserve its own life and being; and so will sin. If it is not constantly pursued with diligence and holy violence, it will escape our assaults. Let no man think to kill sin with few easy or gentle strokes. Once someone has once struck a serpent, if he does not continue his blows until the serpent is slain, he may regret that he ever began the quarrel. And so will the one who undertakes to deal with sin, if he does not pursue it constantly to death.

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Sin will revive after awhile, and the man must die. It is a great and fatal mistake if we suppose this work will allow any remissness or intermission. Again, the principle to be slain is in ourselves, and it is so possessed by our faculties that it is called ourselves. It cannot be killed without a sense of pain and trouble. Hence it is compared to cutting off the right hand, and plucking out the right eye. Lusts that pretend to be useful to the state and condition of men, ones that are pleasant and satisfactory to the flesh, will not be mortified without such violence that the whole soul is deeply sensible of it.

Various other things might be asserted to manifest how men deceive themselves if they suppose they may carry on this duty of mortification in a negligent, careless course and manner. Is there no danger in this warfare? Is there no watchfulness, no diligence required of us? Is it easy to kill an enemy who has so many advantages of force and fraud? This is why, if we take care of our souls, we are to attend to this duty with that care, diligence, watchfulness, and earnest contention of spirit, which the nature of it requires.

Moreover, there is no less fatal mistake where we make the object of this duty to be only some particular lusts, or their fruits in actual sins, as observed before. This is the way with many. They make headway against some sins, which they find themselves most concerned with on one account or other; but if they observe their course, they will find how little success they have. For the most part, sin gains ground on them, and they continually groan under the power of its victories — and the reason is because they mistake their business. Contests against particular sins are only to comply with light and convictions about them. But mortification, having a design for holiness, respects the body of sin: the root and all its branches. The first will miscarry, and the latter will be successful. This is the difference between mortification which men are pushed to by convictions from the law (which always proves fruitless), and mortification which we are moved to by the spirit of the gospel. The first respects only particular sins, as the guilt of them reflects on the conscience; the latter respects the whole interest of sin, as it is opposed to the renovation of the image of God in us.

(3.) What remains to be further demonstrated is that the Holy Spirit is the author of this work in us. So that even though it is our duty, it is his grace and strength by which it is performed. It is also the manner in which it is worked by Him, that is principally intended:

[1.] For the first, we have the truth of it asserted in Rom 8.13, "If through the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh." It is we who are to mortify the deeds of the flesh. It is our duty — but of ourselves we cannot do it; it must be done in or by the Spirit.

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Whether we take "the Spirit" for the person of the Holy Ghost (as the context seems to require), or we take it for the gracious principle of spiritual life in the renovation of our nature — not the Spirit himself, but that which is "born of the Spirit" — it is all the same for our purpose; the work is removed from our own natural power or ability, and resolved into the grace of the Spirit.

That we go no further to prove our assertion, it may suffice to observe that the confirmation of it is the principal design of the apostle, from the second to the thirteenth verse of that chapter. He both affirms and proves at large that the power and reign of sin — its interest and prevalence in the minds of believers — are weakened, impaired, and finally destroyed by the Holy Ghost (so that all its pernicious consequences will be avoided); and he proves that these things could not be effected any other way. In the foregoing chapter, from the seventh verse to the end, he declares the nature, properties, and efficacy of indwelling sin, as the remainders of it still abide in believers. Because a twofold conclusion might be made from the description he gives of the power and actings of this sin — that is, a double question might arise to the great disconsolation of believers — he removes them both in this chapter, manifesting that there was no cause for such conclusions or exceptions from anything delivered by him. The first conclusion is this:

"If this is the power and prevalence of indwelling sin, if it so obstructs us in doing what is good, and it impetuously inclines us to evil, then what will become of us in the end? How will we answer for all the sin and guilt which we have contracted by it? We must, we will, therefore, perish under the guilt of it."

And the second conclusion that is apt to arise from the same consideration is this:

"Seeing that the power and prevalence of sin is so great, and that we in ourselves are in no way able to resist it, much less overcome it, then it can only be that at length it will absolutely prevail against us, and bring us under its dominion, to our everlasting ruin."

The apostle obviates both these conclusions in this chapter, or he removes them if they are laid as objections against what he had delivered. And he does this —

1st. By a tacit concession that both of them are true for all those who live and die under the law, without an interest in Jesus Christ; for by affirming that "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," he grants that those who are not in him, cannot avoid it. Such is the guilt of this sin, and such are its fruits in whomever it abides, that it makes them liable to condemnation. But —

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2dly. There is deliverance from this condemnation and from all liability to it, by free justification in the blood of Christ, Rom 8.1. For those who have an interest in him, and are made partakers of it — even though sin may grieve, trouble, and perplex them; and by its deceit and violence it may cause them to contract great guilt in their forays — yet they need not despond or be utterly cast down by it; there is a stable ground of consolation provided for them, in that "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

3dly. So that none may abuse this consolation of the gospel, in order to countenance continuing in their service of sin, he gives a limitation of the subjects to whom it belongs — namely, all those, and only those, who do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit, Rom 8.1. As for those who surrender themselves to the conduct of this principle of indwelling sin — who comply with its motions and inclinations, being moved wholly by its power — let them neither flatter nor deceive themselves: there is nothing in Christ or the gospel to free them from condemnation. It is only those who surrender themselves to the conduct of the Spirit of sanctification and holiness, that have an interest in this privilege.

4thly. As to the other conclusion, taken from the consideration of the power and prevalence of this principle of sin, Paul prevents or removes it by fully revealing how and by what means the power of it will be so broken, and its strength abated, its prevalence disappointed, and itself destroyed, that we need not fear its consequents mentioned before. Rather, we may secure ourselves that we will be the death of this sin, and it will not be the death of our souls. Now, he says this is "by the law" or power "of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus," Rom 8.2. And upon that, he proceeds to declare that it is by the effectual working of this Spirit in us alone that we are enabled to overcome this spiritual adversary. This being sufficiently evident, it remains only that we declare —

[2.] The way and manner in which he produces this effect of His grace.

1st. The foundation of all mortification of sin is the inhabitation of the Spirit in us. He dwells in believers as his temple, and so he prepares it for himself. All those defilements or pollutions which render the souls of men unfit habitations for the Spirit of God, consist in inherent sin and its effects. He will therefore remove and subdue these, so that he may dwell in us suitably to his holiness: Rom 8.11, "If the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised Christ from the dead will also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you." Our "mortal bodies" are our bodies as they are liable to death because of sin, as in verse 10; and the "quickening" of these mortal bodies is their being freed from the principle of sin, or from death and its power, by a contrary principle of life and righteousness. It is freeing us from being "in the flesh," so that we may be "in the Spirit," verse 9.

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And by what means is this effected? It is by "the Spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead," verse 11 — that is, the Spirit of the Father; which is also called the "Spirit of God," and the "Spirit of Christ," verse 9; for he is equally the Spirit of the Father and the Son. And he is described by this periphrasis,[1014] because there is a similitude between that work — as to its greatness and power which God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead — and what he works in believers in their sanctification, Eph 1.19-20;[1015] and also because this work is wrought in us by virtue of the resurrection of Christ. But under what special consideration does he effect this work of mortifying sin in us? It is as he dwells in us. God does it "by his Spirit that dwells in us," Rom 8.11. As it is a work of grace, it is said to be worked by the Spirit; and as it is our duty, we are said to work it "through the Spirit," verse 13. Let men pretend whatever they please, if they do not have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them, they have not mortified any sin, but still walk after the flesh; and by continuing to do so, they will die.

Moreover, as this is the only spring of mortification in us as it is a grace, so its consideration is the principal motive for mortification as it is a duty. So our apostle presses for it by this argument: "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you, whom you have from God?" 1Cor 6.19. And we may add to this, that weighty caution which he gives us to the same purpose in 1Cor 3.16-17: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are."

There are two things principally considered in every duty — first, the life and spring of it, as it is worked in us by grace; and secondly, the principal reason and motive for it, as it is to be performed by way of duty. Both these, as to the matter of mortification, center in this inhabitation of the Spirit. For —

(1st.) He is the one who mortifies and subdues our corruptions, who quickens us to life, holiness, and obedience, as he "dwells in us," that he may make and prepare a habitation fit for himself. And,

(2dly.) The principal reason and motive for attending to it with all care and diligence as a duty is that we may thereby preserve his dwelling-place as becomes his grace and holiness. And indeed (as our Savior tells us), because the things that defile us arise from and come out of the heart, there is no greater or more forcible motive to contend against all the defiling actings of sin (which is our mortification) than this: that by neglecting this duty, the temple of the Spirit will be defiled, which we are commanded to watch against, under the severe commination[1016] of being destroyed for such neglect.

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It may be said, "Because we acknowledge that there are still remainders of this sin in us, and they are accompanied with their defilements, how can it be supposed that the Holy Ghost will dwell in us, or in anyone who is not perfectly holy?" I answer —

(1st.) The great matter which the Spirit of God considers in his opposition to sin, and the opposition of sin to his work, is dominion and rule. The apostle makes this evident in Rom 6.12-14.[1017] The matter in question is this: Who or what will principally conduct the mind and soul? (Rom 8.7-9)[1018] The Holy Ghost will never dwell where sin has the rule. He enters no soul as his habitation unless, at the same instant, he dethrones sin, spoils it of its dominion, and takes the rule of the soul into the hand of his own grace. Where he has effected this work, and brought his adversary into subjection, there he will dwell — though sometimes his habitation is troubled by his subdued enemy.

(2dly.) The souls and minds of those who are really sanctified, have such a continual sprinkling with the blood of Christ, and are so continually purified by virtue of his sacrifice and oblation, that they are never unfit habitations for the Holy Spirit of God.

2dly. The manner of the actual operation of the Spirit of God in effecting this work (or how he mortifies sin, or enables us to mortify it) is to be considered. An acquaintance with it depends on the knowledge of the sin that is to be mortified, which we have described before. The principal object of this duty is the vicious, corrupt habit and inclination to sin which is in us by nature, or "the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." Eph 4.22 When this is weakened in us as to its power and efficacy, when its strength is abated and its prevalence is destroyed, then this duty is being properly discharged, and mortification is carried on in the soul.

Now, the Holy Ghost does this —

(1st.) By implanting in our minds and all their faculties, a contrary habit and principle, with contrary inclinations, dispositions, and actings — namely, a principle of spiritual life and holiness, bringing forth the fruits of this life. By this means, the work of mortification is effected; for sin will not die except by being killed and slain. And because this is gradually done, it must be done by warring and conflict. There must be something in us that is contrary to sin, which in opposing and conflicting with it, works out sin's ruin and destruction insensibly and by degrees (for it does not die at once). In a chronic distemper, the disease continually combats and conflicts with the powers of nature until, having insensibly improved, these powers prevail to its dissolution; so it is in this matter.

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In Gal 5.16-25, the apostle expressly asserts and describes these adverse principles with their contrariety, opposition; and conflict, and also their contrary fruits and actings, along with the issue of the whole.

The contrary principles are the flesh and the Spirit. And their contrary actings are in lusting and warring against one another: verse 16, "Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfil the lust of the flesh." Not to fulfil the lusts of the flesh, is to mortify it; for it neither will nor can be kept alive if its lusts are not fulfilled. He gives a fuller account of this in verse 17, "For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary to one another." If by the "Spirit," the Spirit of God himself is intended, He does not "lust" in us except by virtue of that spirit which is born of Him — that is, the new nature, or the holy principle of obedience which He works in us. And the apostle describes at large the way of their mutual opposition to one another in the verses which follow, by instancing the contrary effects of the one and the other.

But the issue of the whole is in verse 24, "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts." They have "crucified" it; that is, they have fastened it to that cross where at length it may expire. And this is the way of it — namely, the actings of the Spirit against it, and the fruits produced by this acting. Hence Paul closes his discourse with this exhortation: "If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit;" that is, "If we are endowed with this spiritual principle of life, which is to live in the Spirit, then let us act, work, and improve that spiritual principle to the ruin and mortification of sin."

This, therefore, is the first way by which the Spirit of God mortifies sin in us. And we regularly carry on this work and duty in compliance with it, under His conduct — that is, we mortify sin by cherishing the principle of holiness and sanctification in our souls, laboring to increase and strengthen it by growing in grace, and by a constancy and frequency in acting it in all duties, on all occasions, abounding in its fruits.[1019] Growing, thriving, and improving in universal holiness is the great way of mortifying sin. The more vigorous the principle of holiness is in us, the more weak, infirm, and dying, the principle of sin will be. The more frequent and lively the actings of grace are, the feebler and less seldom will be the actings of sin. The more we abound in the "fruits of the Spirit," the less we will be concerned in the "works of the flesh." We only deceive ourselves if we think sin will be mortified on any other terms. When they are galled in their consciences, and disquieted in their minds, with any sin or temptation in which their lusts or corruptions are either influenced by Satan, or entangled by its objects, occasions, and opportunities, men often set themselves in good earnest to oppose and subdue it by all the ways and means they can think of.

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But everything they do is in vain; and in the end they will find it so, to their cost and sorrow. The reason is because they neglect this course, without which no sin was ever truly mortified in the world, nor ever will be. The course I intend is that of laboring universally to improve a principle of holiness, not in this way or that, but in all instances of holy obedience. This is what will ruin sin; and without it, nothing else will contribute anything to it. Bring a man to the law — urge him with the purity of its doctrines, the authority of its commands, the severity of its threatenings, and the dreadful consequences of its transgression — suppose that he is convinced by this of the evil and danger of sin, of the necessity of its mortification and destruction — upon this conviction, will he be able to discharge this duty, so that sin may die and his soul may live? The apostle assures us of the contrary in Rom 7.7-9.[1020] The whole effect of the application of the power of law to indwelling sin is but to irritate, provoke, and increase its guilt. And besides this, what other probable way can anyone fix upon to this end?

(2dly.) The Holy Ghost carries on this work in us as a grace; and he enables us to the work as our duty, by those actual supplies and assistances of grace which he continually communicates to us. For the same divine operations, the same supplies of grace, which are necessary to the positive acts and duties of holiness, are also necessary to this end: that sin may be mortified in its actual motions and lustings. So the apostle issues his long account of the conflict between sin and the soul of a believer, and his complaint about that, with this good word: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord," Rom 7.25 — namely, the one who supplies me with gracious assistance against the power of sin. Temptation is successful only by actual sin, Jas 1.14.[1021] And it was with respect to a special temptation that the Lord Christ gives that answer to the apostle, "My grace is sufficient for you," 2Cor 12.9. It is the actual supply of the Spirit of Christ that enables us to withstand our temptations and subdue our corruptions. This is the "additional supply," Phi 1.19, as occasion requires, beyond our constant daily provision; or grace given to help seasonably, upon our cry for it, Heb 4.16. We have discussed the nature of these supplies before. I will only observe that in the life of faith and dependence on Christ, the expectation and derivation of these supplies of grace and spiritual strength, is one principal part of our duty. These things are not empty notions, as some imagine. If Christ is a head of influence to us, as well as a head of rule, then it is just as the natural head is to the body.

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If Christ is our life, and our life is in him; and we have nothing except what we receive from him; if he gives us supplies of his Spirit and increases of grace; and if it is our duty by faith to look for all these things from him, and that is the means of receiving them —things which are all expressly and frequently affirmed in the Scripture — then this continual expectation and derivation of spiritual strength from him, is the way we are to take for the actual mortification of sin. Therefore, if we would be found successfully discharging this duty, then it is required of us —

[1st.] That we diligently endeavor after these continual supplies of grace, in the whole course of our lives — that is, that we wait for them in all those ways and means by which they are communicated to us. For although the Lord Christ gives them out freely and bountifully, yet our diligence in duty provides the measure of receiving them. If we are negligent in prayer, meditation, reading, hearing the word, and other ordinances of divine worship, then we have no ground to expect any great supplies to this end. And,

[2dly.] That we live and abound in the actual exercise of all those graces which are most directly opposite to those particular lusts or corruptions that we are most exercised with or liable to. For both sin and grace test their interest and prevalence in particular instances. Therefore, if any are more than ordinarily subject to the power of a corruption — such as passion, inordinate affections, love of the world, distrust of God — unless they are constant in the exercise of those graces which are diametrically opposed to them, they will continually suffer under the power of sin.

(3dly.) It is the Holy Spirit which directs us to, and helps us in, the performance of those duties which are appointed by God to this end, that they may be means of the mortification of sin. For the right use of those duties (for there are such duties), two things are required:

[1st.] That we know them rightly in their nature and use, and also that they are appointed by God to this end; and then,

[2dly.] That we perform them in a due manner.

And we must have both these from the Spirit of God. He is given to believers "to lead them into all truth;" he teaches and instructs them by the word, not only what duties are incumbent on them, but also how to perform them, and with respect to what ends:

[1st.] It is required that we know them rightly in their nature, use, and ends. For lack of this, or neglect of looking after it, all sorts of men have wandered after foolish imaginations about this work, either as to the nature of the work itself, or as to the means by which it may be effected. For mortification being a grace and duty of the gospel, from that only is it to be truly learned, and that is by the teachings of the Spirit of God. It may not be amiss to give some instances of the darkness of men's minds and their mistakes in this.

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First, A general apprehension that something of this nature is necessary, arising from the observation of the disorder of our passions, and the exorbitancy of the lives of most in the world, is suited even to the light of nature — and from there it was variously improved by the philosophers of old. To this purpose they gave many instructions about denying and subduing the disorderly affections of the mind, conquering passions, moderating desires, and the like. But their discoveries of sin rose no higher than the actual disorder they found in the affections and passions of the mind — and they knew nothing of the depravation of the mind itself — and they had nothing to oppose what they discovered except moral considerations (and most of those were notoriously influenced by self-glory and applause). And so they never attained to anything like the due mortification of sin.

Secondly, We may look into the Papacy, and take a look at the great appearance of this duty which is in this religion, and we will find it all disappointed. This is because they are not led to, nor are they taught, the duties by which mortification may be brought about by the Spirit of God. By the light of the Scripture, they have a far clearer discovery of the nature and power of sin than the philosophers of old had. The commandment has also been variously brought and applied to their consciences, and so doubtless many of them are and have been made deeply sensible of the actings and tendency of indwelling sin. Upon this ensues a terror of death and eternal judgment. Things being as stated, persons who were not profligate nor had their consciences seared, could not refrain from contriving ways and means by which sin might be mortified and destroyed. But because they had lost a true apprehension of the only way by which this might be effected, they took up countless false ways of their own. This was the spring of all the austerities, disciplines, fastings, self-macerations, and the like, which are exercised or in use among them. For although in practice they are now turned mostly to benefit the priests, and to indulge sin in the penitents, yet these were first invented and set afoot with a design to use them as engines for the mortification of sin — and they have a great appearance in the flesh to that end and purpose.Col 2.23 Yet when all was done, they found by experience that they were insufficient for it. Sin was not destroyed, nor was conscience pacified by these means. This made them take to purgatory. Here they have hopes that all will be set right when they have gone out of this world; from which none could come back to complain of their disappointments. These things are not being said to condemn even external severities and austerities in their proper place — in fastings, watchings, and abstinences. But our nature is apt to run into extremes.

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Because we see the vanity of the Papists in placing mortification of sin in an outward shadow and appearance of it, in that bodily exercise which does not profit, we are apt to think that all things of that nature are utterly needless, and cannot be subordinate to spiritual ends. But the truth is, I will greatly suspect the internal mortification (pretend what they will) of those who always pamper the flesh, indulge their sensual appetite, conform to the world, and lead their lives in idleness and pleasures. Indeed, it is high time that professors of Christ, by joint consent, retrench that course of life which many have fallen into — in a full diet, brazen apparel, and time spent in vain conversation. But these outward austerities, I say, will never effect the end that is aimed at. For most of them, being means that God never appointed or blessed for any such end or purpose, are but the fruit of men's own contrivances and inventions. Thus, let them be insisted on and pursued to the most imaginable extremes, they will not contribute in the least towards the mortification of sin. Nor is there either virtue or efficacy in the rest of them, except as they are subordinated to other spiritual duties. So Hierom gives us an honest instance in himself, telling us that while he lived in his horrid wilderness in Judea, lodged in his cave, his mind would be on the sports and revels at Rome!

Thirdly, The same may be said of the Quakers among ourselves. What first recommended them was an appearance of mortification; which maybe some of them also really intended, though it is evident that they never understood the nature of it. For even in the height of their outward appearances, they came short of the sorry weeds,[1022] begging habits, macerated countenances, and severe looks of many monks in the Roman church, and of the dervishes among the Mohammedans. Quakers were so far from restraining or mortifying their real inclinations, that they seemed instead to excite and provoke themselves to exceed all others in their clamors, railings, evil-speaking, reproaches, calumnies, and malicious treatment of those who dissented from them. They were without the least discovery of a heart filled with kindness and benignity to mankind, or love toward any but themselves. In this frame and state of things, sin is as secure from mortification as it is in the practice of open lusts and debaucheries. But even if they made a real industrious attempt to mortify sin, what success have they had? What have they attained? Some of them have very wisely slipped over the whole work and duty of it into a pleasing dream of perfection. And generally finding the fruitlessness of their attempt, and that sin will not indeed be mortified by the power of their light within, nor by their resolutions, nor by any of their austere outward appearances, nor by peculiar habits or looks (which in this matter are openly pharisaical), they begin to give up on their intentions.

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For who, among all those who pretend to have any reverence for God, more openly indulge themselves with covetousness, love of the world, emulation, strife, contentions among themselves, severe revenges against others, than they do — not to mention the filth and uncleanness which they mutually charge one another with? This is how all self-devised ways of mortification will end. It is the Spirit of God alone who leads us into the exercise of those duties by which it may be carried on.

[2dly.] It is required that the duties which are to be used to this end, are rightly performed, in faith, to the glory of God. Without this, multiplying these duties increases the burden and bondage, and that is all. Now, it has been sufficiently evinced before, that we can perform no duty in this way or manner without the special assistance of the Holy Spirit. And the duties which are appointed by God in a special manner to this end, are prayer, meditation, watchfulness, abstinence, and wisdom or circumspection with reference to temptations and their prevalence.

To avoid going over these duties in particular, and what their special efficacy to this end and purpose consists in, I will only give some general rules concerning exercising our souls in them, and some directions for their right performance:

First, All these duties are to be designed and managed with a special respect to this end of mortifying sin. It will not suffice that we are exercised in them in general, and with regard only to this general end. We are to apply them to this particular case: designing in and by them the mortification and ruin of sin — especially when, by its special actings in us, sin reveals itself in a particular manner to us. No man who wisely considers himself — his state and condition, his occasions and temptations — can be wholly ignorant of his special corruptions and inclinations by which he is ready to halt, as the psalmist puts it.[1023] Someone who is so ignorant, lives in the dark to himself, and he walks uncertainly with God, not knowing how he walks or where he goes. David probably referred to this when he said,

"I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from my iniquity," Psa 18.21-23.

He could have done none of this, nor preserved his integrity in walking with God, if he had not known and kept a continual watch on his own iniquity, or that working of sin in him which most particularly inclined and disposed him to evil. Upon this discovery, we are to apply these duties in a particular manner to the weakening and ruin of the power of sin.

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Just as all these are useful and necessary, so the circumstances of our condition will direct us as to which of them in particular we ought to be most familiar with. Sometimes prayer and meditation claim this place, as when our danger arises solely from ourselves — from our own perverse inclinations, disorderly affections, or unruly passions. Sometimes it is watchfulness and abstinence, when sin takes advantage from temptations, concerns, and business in the world. Sometimes it is from wisdom and circumspection, when the avoidance of temptations and opportunities for sin is required of us in a special manner. These duties, I say, are to be managed with a particular design to oppose, defeat, and destroy the power of sin on which they have a powerful influence, being designed by God for that end; for —

Secondly, All these duties, rightly improved, work two ways towards the end designed: First, Morally, and by way of impetration — namely, asking for help and assistance; Secondly, Really, by an immediate opposition to sin and its power, from which assimilation toward holiness arises:

(First.) These duties work morally and by way of impetration. I will instance only one of them, and that is prayer. There are two parts of prayer with respect to sin and its power:

First, Complaints;

Secondly, Petitions:

[First.] Complaints. This is the title of Psalm 102, "A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the Lord." So David expresses himself in Psa 55.2, "Attend to me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise." His prayer was a doleful lamentation. And Psa 142.2, "I poured out my complaint before him; I showed before him my trouble." This is the first work of prayer with respect to sin, with its power and prevalence. In this the soul pours out its complaints to God, and shows before him the trouble it undergoes on account of this. And it does this in a humble acknowledgment of its guilt, crying out about sin's deceit and violence; for all just and due complaint is done with respect to what is grievous, and beyond the power of the complainer to relieve himself against. As to believers, there is nothing of this sort to be compared with the power of sin.

Therefore, this is and ought to be the principal matter and subject of believers' complaints in prayer. Indeed, such is the very nature of the case, that the apostle could not give an account of it without great complaints, Rom 7.24.[1024] This part of prayer, indeed, is derided and scorned by profligate persons, but it is acceptable with God, and it is what believers find ease and rest in for their souls. Let the world scoff as it pleases, what is more acceptable to God than for his children — out of pure love for Him and for holiness, out of a fervent desire to comply with his mind and will, and thereby to attain conformity to Jesus Christ — to come with their complaints to Him about the distance they are kept from these things by the captivating power of sin, bewailing their frail condition and humbly acknowledging all the evils they are liable to on account of it?

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Would any man have thought it possible, if experience had not convinced him, that so much Luciferian pride and atheism should possess the minds of any who would be esteemed Christians, as to make them scoff at and deride these things? Or that anyone should ever read the Bible, and just once consider what he is, and with whom he deals, and be ignorant of this duty? We can do nothing with such persons, but to leave them to please themselves with these silly and impious imaginations while they may. In their repentance they will come to know their folly, either in this world (which we hope and pray for) or in another.

I say, these complaints about sin poured out before the Lord, this crying out about its deceit and violence, are acceptable to God, and they prevail with him to give us aid and assistance. He owns believers as his children, and he has the heart and compassion of a father towards them. He knows that sin is their greatest enemy, and that it fights directly against their souls. Will he then despise their complaints, and their bemoaning of themselves before him? Will he not avenge them of that enemy, and do it speedily? See Jer 31.18-20.[1025] Men who think they have no other enemies, none to complain of, except those who oppose them, or obstruct them, or oppress them in their secular interests, advantages, and concerns, are strangers to these things. Believers look at sin as their greatest adversary, and they know that they suffer more from it than from all the world. Allow them, therefore, to make their complaints about it to the one who pities them, and who will relieve them and avenge them.

[Secondly.] Prayer directly petitions to this purpose. It consists of petitions to God for supplies of grace to conflict with and conquer sin. I do not need to prove this. No man prays as he ought to, no man joins in prayer with another who prays as he ought to, where these petitions are not a part of his prayer. They will especially be so, and ought to be so, when the mind is particularly engaged in the design of destroying sin. And these petitions or requests, as far as they are gracious and effectual, are worked in us by the Holy Ghost. In this He "makes intercession for us, according to the will of God;" and by this He carries on this work of the mortification of sin — for it is his work. He makes us put up prevailing requests to God for continual supplies of grace by which sin may be constantly kept under, and at length destroyed.

And this is the first way by which this duty has an influence in mortification — namely, morally and by way of impetration.

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(Secondly.) This duty has a real efficiency to the same end. When rightly performed and duly attended to, it mightily prevails to weaken and destroy sin. For in and by fervent prayer (especially when it is designed for this end), the habit, frame, and inclinations of the soul toward universal holiness, with a detestation of all sin, are increased, cherished, and strengthened. The soul of a believer is never raised to a higher intension of spirit in the pursuit of, love for, and delight in holiness — nor is it more conformed to or cast into its mold — than it is in prayer. And frequency in this duty is a principal means to fix and consolidate the mind in its form and likeness. Hence believers often continue in and come away from prayer above all imprints from sin, as to inclinations and compliances. If such a frame would always continue, how happy we would be! But abiding in the duty is the best way to reach out for it. Therefore, I say that this duty is really efficient for the mortification of sin, because in prayer all the graces by which sin is opposed and weakened, are excited, exercised, and improved toward that end; so too the detestation and abhorrence of sin is increased in us. And where this is not so, there are some secret flaws in the prayers of men, which it would be wise to discover and heal.

(4thly.) The Holy Spirit carries on this work by applying, in a special manner, the death of Christ to us for that end. And this is another thing which the world despises because it does not understand it. Yet in whomever the death of Christ is not the death of sin, he will die in his sins. To evidence this truth we may observe —

[1st.] In general, the death of Christ has a special influence in the mortification of sin, without which sin will not be mortified. This is plainly enough testified to in the Scripture. By his cross — that is, by his death on the cross — "we are crucified to the world," Gal 6.14. "Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed," Rom 6.6; that is, sin is mortified in us by virtue of the death of Christ.

[2dly.] In the death of Christ with respect to sin, we may consider —

First, His oblation of himself;[1026] and,

Secondly, The application of this to us.

By the first, our sins are expiated as to their guilt; but from the second, they are actually subdued as to their power; for it is gaining an interest in his death, and participating in its benefits, which we call its "application" to us. Upon this, we are said to be "buried with him" and to "rise with him," of which our baptism is a pledge, Rom 6.3-4.[1027] Baptism is not, as some imagine, in the outward representation of being dipped into the water and taken up again (which would be to make one sign the sign of another).

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Rather, it is in a powerful participation in the virtue of the death and life of Christ — in death to sin and newness of life in holy obedience, of which baptism is a pledge; it is a token of our initiation and implanting into Christ. So we are said to be "baptized into his death," or into the likeness of it — that is, in its power, verse 3.

Thirdly, The old man is said to be crucified with Christ, or sin is said to be mortified by the death of Christ (as observed before in part) on two accounts:

(First.) On account of conformity. Christ is the head, the beginning or idea, of the new creation, the first-born of every creature. Whatever God designs for us in this, he first exemplified it in Jesus Christ; and we are "predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son," Rom 8.29. The apostle gives us an express instance of this in the resurrection: "Christ the first-fruits; afterward those who are Christ's at his coming," 1Cor 15.23. It is so in all things — all that is worked in us, is worked in resemblance and conformity to Christ. Particularly, we are by grace "planted in the likeness of his death," Rom 6.5, being "made conformable to his death," Phi 3.10; and so we are "dead with Christ," Col 2.20. Now, this conformity is not in our natural death, nor in being put to death as he was — rather, it is what we are made partakers of in this life, and that is in the way of grace and mercy. Christ died for sin, for our sin, which was the meritorious procuring cause of it; and he lived again by the power of God. God will work a likeness and conformity to this in all believers. There is by nature a life of sin in them, as declared. This life of sin must be destroyed; sin must die in us; and we thereby become dead to sin. And just as he rose again, so we are to be quickened both in and to newness of life. It is in this death of sin that the mortification which we speak of consists; and without it, we cannot be conformed to Christ in his death, which is what we are designed for. The same Spirit who worked these things in Christ will, in the pursuit of his design, work that which corresponds to them in all his members.

(Secondly.) In respect to efficacy. Virtue goes forth from the death of Christ for the subduing and destruction of sin. It was not designed to be a dead, inactive, and passive example, but it is accompanied with a power that conforms and changes us into his own likeness. It is the ordinance of God to that end, which he therefore gives efficacy to. It is by a fellowship or participation in his sufferings that we are "made conformable to his death," Phi 3.10; — this participation is an interest in the benefit of his sufferings; we are also made partakers of this suffering. This death of sin in us, makes us conformable to his death. The death of Christ is designed to be the death of sin — let those who are dead in sin deride it as they please.

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If Christ had not died, sin would never have died in any sinner to eternity. Therefore, it cannot be denied that there is virtue and efficacy in the death of Christ for this purpose, not without a renunciation of all its benefits. On the one hand, the Scripture tells us that he is "our life," our spiritual life, the spring, fountain, and cause of it; we have nothing, therefore, that belongs to it, except what is derived from him. Those who suppose that the Lord Christ is not our life, or the author of life to us, except as he has revealed and taught the way of life to us, throw themselves outside the bounds of Christianity. He is our life as he is our head. And it would be a sorry head that only teaches the feet to go, and does not communicate strength to the whole body to do so. I have sufficiently proved before, that we have real influences of life from Christ. From our spiritual life ensues the death of sin; for this, on the other hand, is specifically assigned to his death in the testimonies produced before. This death of sin is therefore derived from Christ by virtue — that is, it is derived in a special manner from his death, as the Scripture testifies.

The entire inquiry is, How the death of Christ is applied to us, or in other words: How we apply ourselves to the death of Christ for this purpose. I answer, we do it in two ways:

[1st.] By faith. The way to derive virtue from Christ is by touching him. So the diseased woman in the gospel touched only the hem of his garment, and virtue went out from him to stop her bloody issue, Mat 9.20-22. It was not her touching him outwardly, but her faith, which she moved then and thereby, that derived virtue from him. For so our Savior tells her in his answer, "Daughter, be of good comfort; your faith has made you whole." But to what end was this touching of his garment? It was only a pledge and token of the particular application of the healing power of Christ to her soul, or her faith in him in particular for that end. For at the same time, many thronged upon him in a press, so that his disciples marvelled that he should ask who touched his clothes, Mark 5.30-31. Yet none of them was advantaged except the poor sick woman. It is a great emblem of common profession on the one hand, and of special faith on the other. Multitudes press and throng about Christ in a profession of faith and obedience, and in the real performance of many duties; yet no virtue goes out from Christ to heal them. But when anyone, though poor, though seemingly at a distance, gets the least touch of him by special faith, this soul is healed. This is our way with respect to the mortification of sin. The Scripture assures us that there is virtue and efficacy in the death of Christ to that end. The means by which we derive this virtue from him is by touching him — that is, by acting faith on him in his death, for the death of sin.

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But how will this effect it? How will sin be mortified by it? I ask in return, How — by what power and virtue — were they healed in the wilderness who looked to the brazen serpent? Was it not because that was an ordinance of God, which he made effectual for that purpose by his almighty power? The death of Christ is the same, as to the crucifying of sin, When it is looked on or applied to by faith, will not divine virtue and power go out from it to that end? The Scripture and the experience of all believers give testimony to the truth and reality of this. Besides this, faith itself, acting on the death of Christ, has a particular efficacy to subdue sin. For "beholding" him by it "as in a mirror, we are changed into the same image," 2Cor 3.18; what we particularly behold, we are particularly transformed into its likeness. Moreover, it is the only means by which we actually derive from Christ the benefits of our union with him. From there we have all grace, or else there is no such thing in the world; and the communication of it to us is principally in and by the actual exercise of faith. So faith being acted with respect to his death, we have grace for killing sin; and thereby we become dead with him, crucified with him, buried with him, as in the testimonies produced before.

This is what we call the application of the death of Christ to us, or our application of ourselves to the death of Christ for the mortification of sin. And those by whom this means is despised or neglected, who are ignorant of it or blaspheme it, must live under the power of sin, whatever inventions they turn to for deliverance. Our success will be according to how we abide and abound in this application. Those who are careless and remiss in the exercise of faith, by prayer and meditation in the way described, will find that sin will hold its ground, and maintain so much power in them that it will result in their perpetual trouble. But men who are much conversant with the death of Christ — not in notions and lifeless speculations, not in natural or carnal affections, like those which are raised in weak persons by images and crucifixes, but by holy actings of faith with respect to what is declared in the Scripture as to its power and efficacy — will be implanted into its likeness, and experience the death of sin in them continually.Jas 2.21

[2dly.] We do it by love. Christ crucified is the great object of our love, or it should be; for in this he is "altogether lovely" to sinners. Hence one of the ancients cried out, "My love is crucified; why do I stay behind?" In the death of Christ, his love, grace, and condescension most gloriously shine forth. We may therefore consider three things with respect to this love:

First, The object of it;

Secondly, The means of the representation of that object to our minds and affections;

Thirdly, The effects of it as to the case in hand.

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First, The object of it is Christ himself, in his unsearchable grace, his unspeakable love, his infinite condescension, his patient suffering and victorious power, in his death or dying for us. It is not his death absolutely that is intended, but himself, as all these graces conspicuously shine forth in his death.

Secondly, there are various ways by which this may be represented to our minds:

(First,) Men may do it to themselves by their own imaginations. They may frame and fancy dolorous[1028] things about it for themselves, which is the way of those who are under deep and devout superstitions. But no love in sincerity will ever be ingenerated towards Jesus Christ by this.Eph 6.24

(Secondly,) It may be done by others, in pathetic and tragic declarations about the outward part of Christ's sufferings. Some have great skill in this, to work on the natural affections of their auditors. And great passions, accompanied with tears and vows, may be excited by it. But for the most part, there is no more in this work, than what these same people can find in themselves, maybe in reading or hearing a fictional story. For there is a sympathy in natural affections for the proper objects of those affections, even though they are represented by false imaginations.

(Thirdly,) It is done in the Papacy, and among some others, by images — in crucifixes and dolorous pictures, to which they pay great devotion, and with an appearance of ardent affections. But none of these is such a due representation of this object that it can ingenerate sincere love in any soul towards Christ crucified. This is why,

(Fourthly,) This is done effectively only by the gospel, and in its dispensation according to the mind of God. For in this, "Jesus Christ is evidently crucified before our eyes," Gal 3.1. The gospel does this by proposing to our faith the grace, the love, the patience, the condescension, the obedience, the end and design of Christ in this. Thus Christ is eyed by faith as the proper object of sincere love. And being so stated —

Thirdly, Its effects, as of all true love, are these:

First, Adherence;

Secondly, Assimilation:

(First,) Adherence. Love in the Scripture is frequently expressed by this effect; the soul of one clings or is knit to another, as Jonathan's was to David, 1Sam 18.1.[1029] So it produces a firm adherence to Christ crucified, which in some sense, makes a soul always present with Christ on the cross. And from this ensues,

(Secondly,) Assimilation or conformity. No one considers the nature or effects of love who does not assign this as one effect: it produces a likeness between the mind that loves, and the object that is beloved. And I am sure it is so in this matter. A mind filled with the love of Christ as crucified, represented in the manner and way described before, will be changed into his image and likeness by the effectual mortification of sin, through deriving power and grace from his death for that purpose.

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(5thly.) The Holy Ghost carries on this work by constantly revealing to and impressing on believers, on the one hand, the true nature and certain end of sin; and on the other hand, the beauty, excellence, usefulness, and necessity of holiness — with the concerns of God, Christ, the gospel, and their own souls in this. A rational consideration of these things is the entire ground and reason for mortification, in the judgment of some men. But we have proved that there are other causes for it also. I now add that if we have no consideration of these things, except what our own reason is able to suggest to us by itself, it will never be prevalent to any sincere or permanent attempt in the mortification of any sin whatever. Let men make the best of their reason that they can in searching and considering the perverse nature and dreadful consequents of sin, and of the perfect peace and future blessedness which attends the practice of holiness. They will find an obstinacy and stubbornness in their hearts that is not conquerable by any such reasonings or considerations. That conviction of sin and righteousness which is useful and prevalent to that end and purpose, is worked in us by the Holy Ghost, John 16.8.[1030] Even if he makes use of our minds, understandings, reasons, consciences, and the best of our consideration in this matter, if he does not give a particular efficacy and power to all of these, the work will not be effectual. But when he is pleased to make use of reasons and motives, taken from the nature and end of sin and holiness, in order to mortify sin, then these will hold good. They will bind the soul to this duty, against all objections and temptations that would divert it in any way.

And thus I have briefly, and I confess weakly and obscurely, delineated the work of the Holy Ghost in the sanctification of those who believe. Many things might have been more enlarged and particularly inquired into; but what has been discussed I judge sufficient for my present purpose. And I have no doubt that what has been argued from plain Scripture and experience is sufficient to direct us in the practice of true evangelical holiness. And with all sober persons, it is sufficient to cast out of all consideration, this repugnant product of pride and ignorance: that all gospel holiness consists in the practice of moral virtues.

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Book V.

Chapter I.

Necessity of holiness from the consideration of the nature of God.

The necessity of evangelical holiness owned by all Christians — Doctrines falsely charged with being inconsistent with it — Though owned by all, it is practiced by few, and disadvantageously pleaded for by many — The true nature of it briefly expressed — The first argument for the necessity of holiness from the nature of God; frequently proposed to our consideration for that end — This argument is cogent and unavoidable; it is pressed, with its limitation — Not the nature of God absolutely, but as he is in Christ; the foundation of this necessity, and a most effectual motive to the same end — The nature and efficacy of that motive declared — The argument enforced from the consideration of our conformity to God by holiness, with that communion and likeness with him which depend on that, with our future everlasting enjoyment of him — The true force of that consideration vindicated — Merit rejected, and also the substitution of morality in the place of gospel holiness — False accusations of the doctrine of grace discarded; and the neglect of the true means of promoting gospel obedience charged — The principal argument further enforced, from the pre-eminence of our natures and persons by this conformity to God, and our accesses to God thereby, in order for our eternal enjoyment of him; as it also alone renders us useful in this world to others — Two sorts of graces by whose exercise we grow into conformity with God: those that are assimilating, such as faith and love; and those which are declarative of that assimilation, such as goodness or benignity, and truth — An objection against the necessity of holiness, from the freedom and efficacy of grace; answered.

What I will close this discourse with, is the consideration of the necessity of that holiness which we have thus far described, to all persons who make profession of the gospel, with the reasons for that necessity, and the principal motives for it. And for our encouragement in this part of our work, this necessity is such that it is allowed, pleaded for, and the thing itself is pretended to, by all sorts of Christians. No men can with modesty refuse the testing of their doctrines by their tendency to godliness, because the gospel is eminently "the truth" or "doctrine which is according to godliness," 1Tim 6.3, Tit 1.1. It is designed and in every way suited for attaining, furthering, and practicing it. But many are not yet agreed about what is of that nature, or what is a hindrance to it.

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The Socinians contend that the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ overthrows the necessity for a holy life; the Papists say the same thing concerning the imputation of the righteousness of Christ for our justification; the same charge is laid by others against the doctrine of the gratuitous election of God, the almighty efficacy of his grace in the conversion of sinners, and his faithfulness in preserving true believers in their state of grace to the end. On the other hand, the Scripture so places the foundations of all true and real holiness in these things, that without faith in them, and an influence on our minds from them, it will not allow anything to be called holy.

It is not my present business to examine the pretenses of others concerning the suitableness of their doctrines for the promotion of holiness. It is good that a conviction of its necessity has always been maintained, and it carries through all different persuasions in Christianity. In this one thing alone almost all Christians agree. And yet, notwithstanding this, the lack of holiness is the principal, if not the only thing, by which most who are called Christians are ruined. It is so ordinary a thing for men to agree on the necessity of holiness, and yet live in the neglect of it once they have done so! Conviction comes at an easy price, whether men would have it or not; but practice will stand them in pains, cost, and trouble. Therefore, to duly handle this matter, a few things must be premised, such as —

First, It is disadvantageous to the interest of the gospel to have men plead for holiness with weak, incogent arguments which are not taken from the stores of gospel truth, and so do not really affect the consciences of men. And it is pernicious to all the concerns of holiness itself, to have something defended and pleaded for under its name and title, which indeed is not holiness, but a usurper of its crown and dignity. We will inquire into this afterward.

Secondly, It is unattractive and unworthy to hear men contending for holiness as the whole of our religion, and in the meantime, on all occasions, expressing in themselves a habit and frame of mind that is utterly inconsistent with what the Scripture calls and esteems holiness. There is certainly no readier way than this, on various accounts, to unteach men all the principles of religion, and all respect for God and common honesty. If some men did this, being only at variance with themselves, without reflecting on others, it might be more easily borne. But we see and hear men proclaiming themselves, by their whole course of life, to be proud, revengeful, worldly, sensual, neglecters of holy duties, scoffers at religion and its power. These are men who plead for a holy life, against the doctrine and practice of those who actually walked unblamably before the Lord in all His ways — those on whose breasts and foreheads was written, "Holiness to the Lord." Exo 39.30 Such were most of the first reformed divines, whom the lives of these other men reflect badly on. This is a thing which justly nauseates all sober men, and which God abhors. But I will omit further consideration of this at present, and pursue what I have proposed.

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Thirdly, In my discourse concerning the necessity of holiness, with the grounds, reasons, and arguments for it, I will confine myself to these two things:

1. That the reasons, arguments, and motives which I will emphasize, being those taken out of the Gospel or the Scripture, are not only consistent and compliant with the great doctrines of the grace of God in our free election, conversion, justification, and salvation by Jesus Christ, but those which naturally flow from them, and reveal what their true nature and tendency is in this matter.

2. That I will suppose all along what that holiness is which I intend. Now, this is not that outward show and pretense of it which some plead for. It is not an attendance to or observation of some or all moral virtues only; it is not a readiness for some acts of piety and charity, from a superstitious, proud conceit that they merit grace or glory. But I intend that holiness which I have described before; which may be reduced to these three heads:

(1.) An internal change or renovation of our souls (our minds, wills, and affections) by grace;

(2.) A universal compliance with the will of God in all duties of obedience, and abstinence from sin, done out of a principle of faith and love;

(3.) A designation of all the actions of life to the glory of God by Jesus Christ, according to the gospel.

This is holiness — so to be, and so to do, is to be holy.

And I will divide my arguments into two sorts: 1. Those which prove the necessity of holiness as to its essence — holiness in our hearts and natures; 2. Those which prove the necessity of holiness as to its degrees — holiness in our lives and conversations.

I. First then,[1031] The nature of God as revealed to us, with our dependence on him, our obligation to live for him, with the nature of our blessedness in the enjoyment of him, indispensably require that we should be holy. Everywhere in the Scripture, the holiness of God's nature is made the fundamental principle and reason for the necessity of holiness in us. God Himself makes it the ground of his command for holiness: Lev 11.44, "I am the Lord your God: you will therefore sanctify yourselves, and you will be holy; for I am holy." So also Lev 19.2; 20.7. And to show the everlasting equity and force of this reason, it is transferred over to the gospel: 1Pet 1.15-16, "As he that has called you is holy, so you be holy in all manner of conduct; because it is written, Be holy; for I am holy." God lets them know that his nature is such that, unless they are sanctified and holy, there can be no such intercourse between him and them as ought to exist between a God and his people.

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So he declares that the sense of the enforcement of that precept is this: Lev 11.45, "I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: you will therefore be holy, for I am holy;" — In other words, "Without this, the relation designed cannot be maintained: that I should be your God and you should be my people." The description given to us about his nature has this same purpose: Psa 5.4-6, "You are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness: nor will evil dwell with you. The foolish will not stand in your sight: you hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak lies; the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man." This corresponds to what the prophet says, "You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity," Hab 1.13. He is such a God — that is, such is his nature, so pure, so holy — that prior to the consideration of any free acts of his will, it is evident that he can take no pleasure in fools, liars, or workers of iniquity. Therefore Joshua told the people that if they continued in their sins, they could not serve the Lord, "for he is a holy God," Jos 24.19. All the service of unholy persons towards this God is utterly lost and cast away, because it is inconsistent with His own holiness, to accept it.

Our apostle argues in the same way in Heb 12.28-29: "Let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire." He lays his argument for the necessity of grace and holiness in the worship of God, from the consideration of the holiness of his nature which, as a consuming fire, will devour what is unsuited to it, inconsistent with it. There would be no end of pursuing this reason for the necessity of holiness in all places where it is expressly proposed in the Scripture. I will only add in general, that of old, God strictly required that no unholy, no unclean, no defiling thing should be in the camp of His people. This is because of his presence among them, for He is himself holy. And so, without an exact observance of this, he declares that he will depart and leave them.

It would be abundantly sufficient for our purpose if we had no other argument to prove the necessity of holiness — that it is indispensably required of us — except this: that the God whom we serve and worship is absolutely holy; that his being and nature is such as that He can have no delightful intercourse with any who are unholy. The one who resolves not to be holy had best seek another god to worship and serve; he will never find acceptance with our God. And therefore the heathen, who gave themselves to all filthiness with delight and greediness, stifled the notions of a divine Being. They did not want these notions to control them in their sins and pleasures. So they fancied gods for themselves that were wicked and unclean, that they might freely conform to them and serve them with satisfaction.

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And God himself lets us know that men of wicked and flagitious[1032] lives have some secret thoughts that he is not holy, but is like themselves, Psa 50.21.[1033] For if they did not, they could not avoid it, but must either think of leaving Him, or leaving their sins.

But we must still further observe some things to evidence the force of this argument; such as —

FIRST, That to us in our present state and condition, the holiness of God as absolutely considered, merely as an infinite eternal property of the divine nature, is not the immediate ground of and motive for holiness. But it is the holiness of God as manifested and revealed to us in Christ Jesus. Under the first consideration, we who are sinners can draw no conclusion from it except that of Joshua: "He is a holy God, a jealous God; he will not forgive your iniquities, nor spare." Jos 24.19 We may indeed learn this from it: that nothing which is unholy can possibly subsist before him or find acceptance with him. No creature can take from its consideration, a motive and encouragement for any holiness that is not absolutely perfect. And we do not, we ought not urge any such argument for the necessity of a holiness, that cannot be responded to and complied with by the grace of God, as to its substance, even though we come short in the degrees of our holiness. My meaning is that no argument can be rationally and usefully pleaded for the necessity of holiness, which does not contain in itself an encouraging motive for it. To declare that it is necessary for us, and at the same time declare that it is impossible for us, is not to promote its interest. Those who suppose that these two things are absolutely and immediately suited to one another, or that under such a notion of holiness, we can take any encouraging motive for our duty in this, understand neither the holiness of God nor man. Indeed, no creature is capable of such perfection in holiness as to absolutely answer the infinite purity of the divine nature, without a covenant condescension, Job 4.18, 15.15.[1034] But it is the holiness of God as he is in Christ, and as represented to us in Christ, that gives us both the necessity and the motive for our holiness.

This is why God, in dealing with his people of old in this matter, did not propose to them the absolute perfection of his own nature to this end, but his being holy as he dwelt among them and was their God — that is, in covenant with them — both of which respected Jesus Christ. In him all the glorious perfections of God are so represented to us, that we may not only learn our duty from it, but also be encouraged toward it; for —

1. All the properties of God so represented to us in Christ, are more conspicuous, resplendent, alluring, and attractive, than as they are, absolutely considered. I do not know what light into and knowledge of the divine perfections Adam had in his state of innocency, when God had declared himself only in the works of nature.

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It was no doubt sufficient to guide Adam in his love and obedience, or in that life which he was to live for God. But I know that now, all our knowledge of God and his properties, unless it is that knowledge which we have in and by Jesus Christ, is insufficient to lead or conduct us in that life of faith and obedience which is necessary for us. God therefore gives us the "light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ," 2Cor 4.6 — that is, clear manifestations of his glorious excellencies. The light of the knowledge of this, is a clear, useful, saving perception and understanding of them. And this is not only a directive to holiness, but it is also effective for it. For thus "beholding the glory of the Lord," we are "changed into the same image from glory to glory," 2Cor 3.18.

2. In particular, the fiery holiness of God is represented to us in Christ, so that although it loses nothing of declaring the indispensable necessity of holiness in all who draw near to him, yet it is under such a contemperation [1035] with his goodness, grace, love, mercy, and condescension, that it may invite and encourage us to endeavor to be conformed to it.

3. Together with a representation of the holiness of God in Christ, there is a revelation made of what holiness he requires in us and will accept. As observed before, considering it absolutely, it neither requires nor allows anything except what is absolutely perfect; and where there is any single failing, the whole of what we do is condemned, Jas 2.10. This therefore can only perplex and torture the soul of a sinner, by pressing on him at the same time, both the necessity and the impossibility of holiness, Isa 33.14.[1036] But now, as God is in Christ, through his interposition and mediation, he accepts only such a holiness in us that we are capable of, and which no man has any discouragement from endeavoring to attain.

4. In and by Christ there is declared and administered a spiritual power of grace which will work this holiness in us, or work that conformity to the holiness of God which he requires. Therefore, just as we draw directly from this fountain the reasons for the necessity of holiness in our souls, so we draw the prevalent motives for it. Some things may be inferred from this, such as —

(1.) The mediation of Christ, and in particular his satisfaction, is so far from being a hindrance or discouragement to holiness, as some blasphemously pretend, that the great and fundamental reason for holiness in us — namely, the holiness of God himself — can have no influence on us without supposing and having faith in that mediation. Unless faith is built on this, no sinner upon viewing God's holiness, as absolutely considered, can have any other thoughts but those of Cain: "My sin is great; it cannot be pardoned. God is a holy God; I cannot serve him, and therefore I will depart out of his presence."

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But the holiness of God as manifested in Jesus Christ — including a supposition of satisfaction made for what is required by its absolute purity; and a condescension made upon that to accept in Christ that holiness of truth and sincerity which we are capable of — maintains the indispensable necessity of holiness, and equally encourages us to attain it. We may see what contrary conclusions will be reached based on these different considerations of it. Those who view it only in the first way, can come to no other conclusion in their thoughts than what is expressed in the prophet: Isa 33.14, "Who among us will dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us will dwell with everlasting burnings?" God's fiery holiness serves no other end for them than to fill them with terror and despair. But other inferences are natural from the consideration of the same holiness in the second way. "Our God," says the apostle, "is a consuming fire." What then? What follows as our duty upon that? "Let us have grace, by which we may serve him acceptably with reverence and godly fear," Heb 12.28-29. There is no more forcible reason than this, no more powerful motive for adherence to him in holy obedience. Men draw such different conclusions from these different considerations of the holiness of God, once they come to be serious and in good earnest about them!

(2.) It also follows from this, that our holiness under the new covenant, even though it has the same general nature and principal end as that which was required in the covenant of works, yet it has a special spring and fountain which that covenant did not have. And so, as it relates to various causes which the other had no concern in, it does not have the same special use. The immediate end and use of that former holiness in us was to answer the holiness of God absolutely, as expressed in the law, upon which we would have been justified. This is now done for us by Christ alone; and the holiness which God requires of us respects only those ends which God has proposed to us in compliance with his own holiness, as he glorifies it in Jesus Christ. This must be declared afterward.

SECONDLY, We may consider in what particular instances the force of this argument is conveyed to us, or the special reasons why we ought to be holy because God is so. There are three:

1. Because in this holiness consists all that conformity to God which we are capable of in this world; this is our privilege, pre-eminence, glory, and honor. We were originally created in the image and likeness of God. The privilege, pre-eminence, order, and blessedness of our first state consisted in this. And it is confessed by all that the substance of it was none other than our holiness.

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Therefore, without this conformity to God, without the impress of his image and likeness upon us, we do not, we cannot, stand in that relation to God which was designed for us in our creation. We lost this by the entrance of sin. And if there is no way for us to acquire it again, if we do not acquire it again, we will always come short of the glory of God, and of the end of our creation. Now, this is done in and by holiness alone. For the renovation of the image of God in us consists in this holiness, as our apostle expressly declares: Eph 4.22-24 with Col 3.10. It is therefore to no purpose for any man to expect an interest in God, or anything that will prove to his advantage eternally, who does not endeavor after conformity to him. For such a man despises all the glory that God designed for himself in our creation, and all that was eminent and particularly bestowed on us.

Therefore, someone whose design is not to be like God, according to his measure and the capacity of a creature, always misses his end, his rule, and his way. Our Savior would have his disciples do all things, that they may be the "children of their Father which is in heaven," Mat 5.45; that is, that they may be like him, representing him as children represent their father. The truth is, once the necessity of conformity to God is out of our view and consideration, we are easily turned aside by the least temptation we meet with. In brief, without that likeness and conformity to God which consists in holiness, as we bear the image under His eye of his great adversary the devil, so we can have no especial interest in God, nor can he have any in us.

2. The force of the argument arises from the respect it bears to our actual intercourse and communion with God. We are called to this; and in all our duties of obedience, we must endeavor to attain this. If there is not a real intercourse between God and our souls in these duties, they are all but uncertain beatings of the air. When we are accepted in them, when God is glorified by them, then we have in them this intercourse and communion with God. Now, because God is holy, if we are not holy in our measure, according to His mind, this cannot be. For God neither accepts any duties from unholy persons, nor is he glorified by them; and therefore he expressly rejects and condemns them as to these ends. It is a good duty to preach the word; but "to the wicked God says, What right have you to declare my statutes, or take my covenant in your mouth? Seeing that you hate instruction, and cast my words behind you," Psa 50.16-17 — i.e., "seeing you are unholy." To pray is a good duty; but to those who are not "washed" nor made "clean," and who "do not put away the evil of their doings from before his eyes," says God, "When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear," Isa 1.15-16. And the same may be said of all other duties whatsoever.

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It is certain, therefore, that because God is holy, if we are not so, all the duties which we design or intend to perform towards him are everlastingly lost as to their proper ends; for there is no intercourse or communion between light and darkness: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all;" and "if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness," as all unholy persons do, "we lie, and do not practice the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ," 1John 1.5-8. Now, what man that considers this (unless he is infatuated), would for the love of any one sin, or out of conformity to the world, or any other thing by which the essence and truth of holiness is impeached, utterly lose and forfeit all the benefit and fruit of all those duties in which perhaps he has labored, and for which he may have been charged no small cost? Yet this is the condition of all men who come short in anything that is essentially necessary to universal holiness. All they do, all they suffer, all the pains they take in and about religious duties, all their compliance with convictions, and what they do in those duties, indoors and out, is all lost as to the great ends of the glory of God and their own eternal blessedness, as sure as God is holy.

3. It arises from a respect toward our future everlasting enjoyment of him. This is our utmost end. If we come short of that (life itself is the greatest loss), it would be ten thousand times better if we had never been. For without it, a continuance in everlasting miseries is inseparable from our state and condition. Now, this enjoyment is never attainable by any unholy person. "Follow holiness," says our apostle, "without which no man will see the Lord;" for it is only the "pure in heart" who "will see God," Mat 5.8. It is by holiness that we are "made fit for the inheritance of the saints in light," Col 1.12. Nor can we attain it before we are thus made fit for it. No unclean thing, nothing that defiles or is defiled, will ever be brought into the glorious presence of this holy God. There is no imagination with which mankind is more foolishly besotted, none so pernicious as this: that persons who are not purified, not sanctified, not made holy in this life, should afterward be taken into that state of blessedness which consists in the enjoyment of God. There can be no thought more reproachful to his glory, or more inconsistent with the nature of the things themselves — for such persons can neither enjoy him, nor would God himself be a reward to them.

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They can have nothing by which they can adhere to him as their highest good, nor can they see anything in him that would give them rest or satisfaction; nor can there be any medium by which God could communicate himself to them, assuming they remain unholy, as all must do who depart from this life in that condition. Holiness is indeed perfected in heaven, but its beginning is invariably and unalterably confined to this world. And where this fails, no hand will be put to that work unto eternity. All unholy persons, therefore, who feed and refresh themselves with hopes of heaven and eternity, do it merely on false notions of God and blessedness, by which they deceive themselves. Heaven is a place where they would not be, as well as they cannot be — for in itself it is neither desired by them, nor fit for them. "He that has this hope" indeed, that he would see God, "purifies himself, even as he is pure," 1John 3.2-3. There is therefore a manifold necessity for holiness that is impressed on us from considering the nature of that God whom we serve and hope to enjoy, who is holy.

I cannot pass over this consideration without making some special improvement of it. We have seen how all our concern and interest in God, both here and hereafter, depend on our being holy. Those who build holiness on no other base, nor press it on any other motive, than that its acts and fruits are meritorious in the sight of God, have invented a very effectual means for prejudicing, indeed, a fatal engine for the ruin, of true holiness in the world. For whether this is believed and complied with or not, true holiness is ruined if no more effectual reason is substituted in its place. Reject this motive, and it may be thought there is no need for holiness. I am persuaded that this has really taken place in many who, being taught that good deeds are not meritorious, have concluded they are useless. Comply with this motive, and you destroy the nature of true holiness, and turn all its pretended duties into fruits and effects of spiritual pride and blind superstition.

But we see that the necessity of it with respect to God, has other foundations that are suited to and consistent with the grace, love, and mercy of the gospel. And we will fully show in our progress, that there is not one motive for it that is of any real force or efficacy, that does not perfectly comply with the whole doctrine of the free, undeserved grace of God towards us by Jesus Christ. Nor is there any motive which gives the least countenance to anything of merit in or from ourselves, or that would take us away from an absolute and universal dependence on Christ for life and salvation. Rather, they are such that they render it as necessary for us to be holy — that is, to be sanctified — as to be justified. The one who thinks to please God and come to enjoy him, without holiness, makes him an unholy God; he puts the highest indignity and dishonor imaginable upon Him.

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God deliver poor sinners from this deceit! There is no remedy; you must leave your sins or your God. You may as easily reconcile heaven and hell, the one remaining heaven and the other hell, or take away all differences between light and darkness, good and evil, as to procure acceptance for unholy persons with our God. Some live without God in the world — whether they have any notion of his being or not is immaterial. They live without any regard to him, either as to his present rule over them, or his future disposal of them. It is no wonder if holiness, in both name and thing, is universally despised by these persons. Their design is to serve their lusts to the utmost, and to immerse themselves in the pleasures of the world, without once taking God into their thoughts — they cannot do otherwise. But other men live under some constant sense of God, and an eternal accountability to him, and thereby they do many things that he requires, and abstain from many sins that their inclinations and opportunities suggest and prompt them to. For them, it is a deplorable folly not to endeavor after that universal holiness which alone will be accepted with Him. Such men seem to worship an idol all their days; for he that does not endeavor to be like God, contrarily and wickedly thinks that God is like himself. It is true, our interest in God is not built upon our holiness; but it is just as true that we have no interest in God without it. If this principle was well fixed in the minds of men — that without holiness no man will see God — and if that were enforced from the consideration of the nature of God himself, it could but influence them to a greater diligence about holiness than most seem to be engaged in.

There is indeed a great plea for morality, or for moral virtue among us. I wish it was more out of love for virtue itself, and a conviction of its usefulness, than out of a design to cast contempt on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel — as its faithful dispensers declare it to be. However, we are bound to believe the best of all men. Where we see those who plead for moral virtue in themselves and in their lives — being modest, sober, humble, patient, self-denying, charitable, and useful towards all — we are obliged to believe that their pleas for moral virtue proceed from a love and liking of virtue. But where men are proud, furious, worldly, revengeful, profane, intemperate, covetous, and ambitious, I cannot much understand their declamations about virtue. Only, I would for the present inquire 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 that to him in his holiness? Is it 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, by which we have communion with him here, and are led towards the enjoyment of him?

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If these are the things which they intend, then 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 teaches? Men never dislike the words of God except when they dislike the things of God. Is it because these expressions are not intelligible — people do not know what they mean, but they understand this phrase moral virtue well enough? We appeal to the experience of all who truly fear God in the world, to the contrary. None but the Scripture expressions of the causes, nature, work, and effects of holiness, convey a clear, experiential apprehension of them to their minds. This is because they nor anyone else knows what is intended by "moral virtue," since they would have to reject the common received notion of it, which is simply honesty among men. Therefore, if by that term they intend that holiness which is required of us in the Scripture, and particularly on account of the holiness of that God whom we serve, they fall into a high contempt of the wisdom of God. For they despise those notices and expressions of it which, being used by the Holy Ghost, are suited to the spiritual light and understanding of believers; and they substitute their own arbitrary, doubtful, uncertain sentiments and words in their place. But if it is something else which they intend (as indeed it evidently is — nor does anyone understand it to mean anything more than sobriety and usefulness[1037] in the world — things that are singularly good in their proper place), then it is not to be looked at other than as a design of Satan to undermine the true holiness of the gospel, and to substitute a deceitful and deceiving cloud or shadow in its place.

Moreover, what we have already discussed, abundantly evinces the folly and falsehood of those clamorous accusations in which the most important truths of the gospel are charged as inconsistent with and repugnant to holiness. "The doctrine," say the Socinians, "of the satisfaction of Christ, ruins all care and endeavors for a holy life. For when men believe that Christ has satisfied the justice of God for their sins, they will be inclined to be careless about them — indeed, to live in them." But because this supposition transforms believers into monsters of ingratitude and folly, so it is built on no other foundation than this: that if Christ takes 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 ourselves from the power, filth, and dominion of sin, or in any way glorify God in this world. This is an inference that is 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 to us.

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And it is a wonderment to consider with what virulent railing this charge is managed by the Papists; so too, with what scorn and scoffing, with what stories and tales some among ourselves endeavor 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, though I do not deny that such men may find a strong connection between these things in their own minds, seeing that there is a principle in the corrupt heart of men to "turn the grace of God into lasciviousness." Yet (as will be proved in due time) this sacred truth, both doctrinally and practically, is the great constraining principle for holiness and fruitfulness in obedience. For the present, I will give no other answer to those objections except that the objectors are wholly mistaken in our thoughts and apprehensions concerning that God whom we serve. God in Christ, whom we worship, has so revealed his own holiness to us, and what is necessary for us on account of this, that we know it to be a foolish, wicked, and blasphemous thing for anyone to think to please him, to be accepted by him, to come to enjoy him, without that holiness which he requires, and because of his own nature, must require. It is a monstrous imagination to think that the grace, mercy, or love of this God, who is our God, would encourage those to sin who truly know Him, or would countenance their neglect of holy obedience to him. There are, as I will show afterward, other invincible reasons and motives for it. But for those who believe the grace of the gospel, owning this one consideration alone is sufficient to secure them from the reproach of this objection.

Moreover, from what has been discussed, we may all blame ourselves for our sloth and negligence in this matter. It is to be feared that none of us have endeavored as we should to grow up into this image and likeness of God. And although for the main, as to our duty in this, our hearts may not condemn us, no doubt there are various things that belong to it in which we have all failed. Our likeness to God is our holiness (it is that in which we bear his image), as declared. Wherever there is the holiness of truth described before, in its essence, there is a radical conformity and likeness to God. In the first communication of it to us through the promises of the gospel, we are "made partakers of the[1038] divine nature," 2Pet 1.4 — it is such a new spiritual nature that it represents that of God himself. Being begotten by him, we are made partakers of his nature.

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But though all children partake of the nature of their parents, yet they may be, and some of them are, very deformed; they bear very little of their likeness. So it is in this matter. We may have the image of God in our hearts, and yet come short of that likeness to him in its degrees and improvement, which we ought to aim at. And this happens two ways:

(1.) When our graces are weak, withering, and unthrifty — for our likeness to God is evidenced in their flourishing and fruit-bearing, and the glory of God in this world consists in them.

(2.) When, by the power of our corruptions or our temptations, we contract a deformity — something that has the likeness of the old crooked serpent.

Where either of these befall us, so that our graces are low and wasted, or our corruptions are high and active, they frequently reveal themselves. Even though the image of God may be in us, there is not much of his likeness upon us. And so we come short of this great and fundamental duty of our faith and profession. So far as this is the way with us, may we not (should we not) greatly blame ourselves? Why are we so slow, so negligent, in the pursuit of our principal interest and happiness? Why do we allow everything, why do we allow anything, to divert our minds from this design, or to retard our endeavors in it? Therefore, that I may contribute something to the awakening of our diligence in this, I will add a few motives and some directions for it, so that we may be found "perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2Cor 7.1 This is the only way by which we may be like him in this world:

FIRST, our likeness to God consists in the excellence and preeminence of our nature above that of all other creatures in the world, and of our persons above those of other men who are not partakers of his image. For —

1. With reference to other things, this is the highest excellence that a created nature is capable of. Other things had external impressions of the greatness, power, and goodness of God upon them; but man alone, in this lower world, was capable of having the image of God in him. The perfection, the glory, the pre-eminence of our nature at the creation, was expressed only by this: that we were made in the image and likeness of God, Gen 1.26-27. This gave us a pre-eminence above all other creatures, and hence dominion over them ensued. For although God made a distinct grant of it to us, that we might better understand and be thankful for our privilege, yet it was a necessary consequence of his image in us. This is what James refers to where he tells us that "every nature," the nature of all things in their several kinds, "is tamed," that is, subjected to the nature of man, James 3.7. He renders the Hebrew kabash, Gen 1.28 (OT:03533, subdue), by the Greek damazo (NT:1150, tame), which the LXX renders katakurieuoo, "subdue it." But not being content to be like God, that is, in holiness and righteousness, we would be as God in wisdom and sovereignty; and not attaining what we aimed at, we lost what we had, Gen 3.5-6.[1039]

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Being "in honor, we did not remain, but became like the beasts that perish," Psa 49.12. We were first like God, and then like beasts, 2Pet 2.12. By the loss of the image of God, our nature lost its preeminence, and we were reduced to the order of perishing beasts. For notwithstanding some feeble relics of this image that still abide with us with respect to our proper end, in our lapsed condition, we really have more of the bestial nature in us than of the divine. This is why the restoration of this image in us by the grace of Jesus Christ, Eph 4.24, Col 3.10, is the recovery of that pre-eminence and privilege of our nature which we foolishly lost. By this, an impression is again made upon our nature, by the authority of God, which gives us pre-eminence above other creatures, and rule over them. Indeed, that whole dominion over the residue of the creation which mankind scrambles for with craft and violence, depends on this renovation of the image of God in some of them. It is not that I judge that men's right and title to their portion and interests in this world depend on their own personal grace or holiness; but if God had not designed to renew his image in our nature by Jesus Christ, He would not have continued anything by right or title in this. And as the foundation of it, he took our nature into union with Himself in the person of his Son; and thereby He gathered all things under a new head in him;Eph 1.22 and made him the first-born of the creation Col 1.15 — the head and heir of all.Heb 1.2 It was upon the promise and the establishment of the new covenant that this right was restored to us. So it is expressed in the renovation of the covenant with Noah and his children:

Gen 9.1-2, "God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you will be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, and upon all that moves upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered."

This is an express renovation of the grant made to us at our first creation, Gen 1.28 — the right to which we lost in our loss of the image of God. And therefore, in that service in which the creature continues for mankind, it is made "subject to vanity" and put into "bondage." It must continue in this state — even though it groans and looks out, as it were, for deliverance — until God has accomplished the whole design of the "glorious liberty of his children," Rom 8.20-21. Whatever they may pride themselves in, their parts or enjoyments — however they may sport themselves in the use or abuse of other creatures — if this image of God is not renewed in them, they have really no great preeminence above the things which perish under their hands, 2Pet 2.12.[1040] Having exalted our nature by union with himself in the person of his Son, God requires us to preserve its dignity above others.

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2. Again, this is what gives privilege and pre-eminence to some persons above others. The wise man says,"The righteous is more excellent than his neighbor," Pro 12.26. It is seldom that this is so on account of civil wisdom, wealth, greatness, or power. There is nothing that can establish this general rule but their conformity and likeness to God. Hence such persons are called "the saints in the earth," and "the excellent," Psa 16.3. Both Hebrew terms, qadowsh (OT:06918) and addiyr (OT:0117), first and properly belong to God. He above all is absolutely "holy," and he is "excellent," Psa 8.9. They are ascribed to men upon their likeness to God in holiness. This makes them the "saints and excellent in the earth;" it gives pre-eminence in office and authority to some above others. And this dignity of office reflects a dignity of person on those who are vested in it, and it communicates pre-eminence to them. For their office and authority is from God, which gives both it and them a real privilege and honor above others.

But what is originally in and from persons themselves, is solely from the renovation of the image of God in them. And it is heightened and increased according to the degrees they attain in their participation in it: the more holy, the more honorable. Hence, wicked men in the Scripture are said to be "vile," Psa 12.8, "quisquiliæ hominum," — "trifling vilenesses;" and the righteous are said to be "precious" and valuable.[1041] Hence, awe has often been put on the spirits of vile and outrageous sinners from the appearances of God in holy persons. Indeed, whenever men eminently conform to God in holiness, wicked men may oppose, revile, reproach, and persecute them — exasperated by their own secular interests, prejudices, and an unconquerable adherence to their lusts. But secretly, in their hearts, they are awed by the likeness of God in these men, for which they sometimes dread them, sometimes flatter them, and sometimes wish they did not exist, which is how they deal with God himself. Why do we weary ourselves about other things? Why do we "spend our labor in vain, and our strength for that which is not bread?" Isa 55.2 This is how, in time, all endeavors after any other excellence will appear.

In this lies the whole of that dignity which our nature was made for, and is capable of. Sin is the sole debasement of it — it is that alone by which we render ourselves base and contemptible. The self-pleasing of men, in the ways and fruits of it, or in worldly advantages, and their mutual applause for one another, will suddenly vanish into smoke. It is holiness alone that is honorable; and that is because the image and representation of God is in it. I think we are satisfied that the dignity of professors above others does not consist in worldly or secular advantages, for very few have them: "Not many wise men according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called," 1Cor 1.26.

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Nor does this image consist in spiritual gifts. Many who have excelled us, not only in degree but in kind — those who have had extraordinary gifts of the Spirit — will be shut out of heaven with the worst of the world. Mat 7.22-23, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and cast out devils in your name, and worked many miraculous works in your name?" — which is more than any of us can say. And yet Christ will "profess to them, 'I never knew you: depart from me, you who work iniquity,' you unholy persons."

Nor is it in our profession itself. Many make it to be in rigid austerities, renunciation of the world, and outward works of charity, beyond most of us; and yet they perish in their superstitions.

Nor is it in the purity of worship, excluding those mixtures of human inventions which others defile the service of God with. For multitudes may partake of this worship in the "great house" of God, and yet be "vessels of wood and stone." Not being "purged from sin," they are not "vessels unto honor, sanctified, and fit for the Master's use," 2Tim 2.20-21.

Therefore it consists solely in that likeness to God which we have in and by holiness, with what attends it and is inseparable from it. Where this is not so, nothing else will exempt us from the common herd of perishing mankind.

SECONDLY, our access and approach to glory are according to our growth and improvement in this likeness to God. We are drawing towards our natural end every day, whether we want to or not; and if we do not draw nearer towards our supernatural end in glory with this likeness, we are most miserable. Now, men only deceive themselves if they suppose that they are approaching glory in time, if they are not at the same time getting nearer to it in grace. It is some representation of future glory, that we will be like or "equal to the angels" in this, Luke 20.36. But that only respects one particular aspect of that state. It is a far more excellent description of it, that we will be like God: "When he will appear, we will be like him; for we will see him as he is," John 3.2. Our glory, subjectively considered, will be our likeness to God, according to the capacity of creatures. And it is the highest folly for any to think that they will love hereafter what they now hate; that their glory will be what they now abhor. The minds of men are filled with such foolish contradictions! There is nothing in this world which they more despise than to be like God; and they hate everyone who is so; yet they pretend to have a desire and expectation of that estate in which they will be like God, and be so forever! But this will be our glory: to "behold the face of God in righteousness," and be "satisfied with his likeness," Psa 17.15.

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How then will we make our approaches towards this glory spiritually, which may correspond to the approaches we make towards our end naturally, seeing that not to do so is folly and intolerable negligence? We have no other way but thriving and growing in that likeness of God which we have here in holiness. By this alone we are "changed into the image of God from glory to glory," 2Cor 3.18 — from one glorious degree of grace to another, until one great change will issue all grace and holiness in eternal glory. In our desires for heaven, if they are regular, we do not consider so much our freedom from trouble, as from sin — nor is our aim complete happiness, so much as perfect holiness. Those who desire heaven only to ease their troubles, and not to perfectly free them of sin, will fall into a state in which sin and trouble will be eternally inseparable. Therefore, we should continually tend towards our rest and blessedness, if we would have assured and evident pledges of it in our own souls, if we would have foretastes of it and an experiential acquaintance with it. And who would not know as much as possible of his eternal blessedness? This is the design which we ought to pursue. It is to be feared that most of us do not know how much of glory may exist in present grace, nor how much of heaven may be attained in holiness on the earth. We have a generation among us that would happily boast of perfection, while in their minds they are obviously under the power of darkness — corrupt in their affections and worldly in their lives. But our duty is to always be "perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2Cor 7.1 Pursued in the right way, it will continually transform the soul into the likeness of God. Much of the glory of heaven may dwell in a simple cottage; and poor persons, even in rags, may be very like God.

THIRDLY, It is only from our likeness and conformity to God that we are or may be useful in the world, in a due manner and order. I will have occasion to speak more of this afterward. Therefore I will only touch on it here, with respect to one concern or circumstance. God is the great preserver and benefactor of the whole creation; "He is good, and does good." He is the sole cause and fountain of all good of any kind, that any creature is made a partaker of. And there is no property of God more celebrated in the Scripture than his goodness, and his giving the fruits of it to all his creatures. He is so only good, that there is nothing so good in any other sense, than by participating in it, and being like him in this. Therefore, those who are like God, and them only, are useful in this world. There is indeed (at least there has been) much good, useful good, done by others, on various convictions and for various ends. But there is one flaw or other in all they do.

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Either superstition, or vain-glory, or selfishness, or merit, or one thing or another, gets into all the good that is done by unholy persons, and it brings death into the pot. So that, even though it may be of some use to individual persons in particulars, in some seasons, it is of no use to the general good of the whole. The one who bears the likeness of God, and who acts from that principle in all that he does, he alone is truly useful. He represents God in what he does, and does not spoil it by false ends of his own. If we would therefore keep up the privilege and pre-eminence of our nature and persons; if we would make due and daily accessions towards glory and blessedness; if we would be of any real use in this world — our great endeavor ought to be to grow up more and more into this likeness of God, which consists in our holiness.

It will or may, therefore, be justly inquired here, how or what we may do so that we may thrive and grow up more and more into this likeness to God. To remit other considerations to their proper places, I answer at present that there are some graces of holiness that are effectively assimilating;[1042] and there are others that are declarative and expressive of this likeness of God in us:

FIRST, those of the first sort have a particular efficacy to promote the likeness of God in our souls, such as faith and love; we ought to abide and abound in their constant exercise if we intend to grow in likeness and conformity to God:

1. Faith is a part of our holiness as it is a grace of the sanctifying Spirit; and it is a principle of holiness as it purifies the heart and is made effectual by love. The more faith is duly and properly exercised, the more holy we will be, and consequently the more like God. This would be a large theme; I will confine it to one instance. The glorious properties of God, as we have shown before, are manifested and revealed in Jesus Christ; "in his face they shine forth." The only way by which we behold them, by which we have an intuition into them, is by faith. In Christ, the glorious excellencies of God are represented to us, and by faith we behold them. And what is the effect of this? "We are changed into the same image" and likeness "from glory to glory," 2Cor 3.18. This is the great mystery of growing in holiness and thriving in the image of God. And because the world is ignorant of this, they labor in vain by other means to satisfy their notions and convictions. But this is the great way and means of it, appointed and blessed by God for that purpose — namely, constantly by faith (in a way of believing the revelation made in the gospel), to view, behold, and contemplate the excellencies of God, his goodness, holiness, righteousness, love, and grace, as manifested in Jesus Christ.

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And that is so as to make use of, and apply to ourselves and our condition, the effects and fruits of these excellencies according to the promise of the gospel. This is the great arcanum [1043] of growing up into the likeness of God. Without it, however men may multiply their duties in compliance with their convictions, they will never have greater conformity to God. All professors who come short in this matter do or may know that it arises from their lack of a constant exercise of faith on God in Christ. Therefore, if we have a real design for being still more like God — which is our privilege, safety, glory, and blessedness — then this is the way we must take for its accomplishment. Abound in actings of faith, and we will thrive in holiness; and those which do not infallibly produce this effect, are but acts of presumption, under the name of faith.

2. Love has the same tendency and efficacy; I mean, the love of God. One who would be like God, must be sure to love him, or all other endeavors to that purpose will be in vain. And one who loves God sincerely, will be like him. Under the Old Testament, none in his general course was so like God as David. He was therefore called "the man after God's own heart;" and none ever made greater expressions of love to Him, which occur continually in the Psalms. Let men take whatever pains they can in acts and duties of obedience, if they do not proceed from a principle of divine love, their likeness to God will not be increased by them. All love, in general, has an assimilating efficacy; it casts the mind into the mold of the thing that is beloved. Thus love of this world makes men earthly minded; their minds and affections grow earthly, carnal, and sensual. But of all kinds, divine love is the most effectual to this purpose, having the best, most noble, proper, and attractive object. It is our adherence to God with delight for what He is in himself, as manifested in Jesus Christ. By this love we cling to God, and so we keep near him, and thereby we derive transforming virtue from him. Every approach to God by ardent love and delight is transfiguring. And it acts itself continually by — (1.) Contemplation; (2.) Admiration; and, (3.) Delight in obedience.

(1.) Love acts itself by contemplation. It is in its nature to meditate on and contemplate the excellencies of God in Christ. Indeed, this is the life of it; and where this is not so, there is no love. A heart filled with the love of God will exercise itself night and day in and with thoughts of God's glorious excellencies, rejoicing in them. The psalmist exhorts us to this: Psa 30.4, "Sing to the Lord, O you saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness." And love will do the same with respect to all his other properties. To this purpose, see Psa 63 throughout. And this will further our likeness to God. Our minds will be changed by it into the image of what we contemplate, and we will endeavor to have our lives conformed to it.

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(2.) Love works by admiration also. This is the voice of love, "How great is his goodness! How great is his beauty!" Zec 9.17. The soul being (as it were) ravished with that view which it has of the glorious excellencies of God in Christ, it has no way to express its affections except by admiration. "How great is his goodness! How great is his beauty!" And this beauty of God is that sweetness and holy symmetry of glory (if I may be allowed to speak so improperly) in all the perfections of God being exalted in Christ, all in a sweet correspondence, which is the proper object of our love. To see infinite holiness, purity, and righteousness, with infinite love, goodness, grace, and mercy, all equally glorified in and towards the same things and persons, one glimpse of which is not to be attained in this world apart from Christ, is that beauty of God which attracts the love of a believing soul, and fills it with a holy admiration of him. This also is a most effectual furtherance of our conformity to him, toward which we will labor in vain without these steps.

(3.) Again, love gives delight in obedience and all the duties of it. The common instance of Jacob is known, of whom it is said that his seven years' service seemed short and easy to him for the love he bore to Rachel. He did with delight, what he would not afterward undergo for the highest wages. But we have a greater instance. Our Lord Jesus Christ says concerning all the obedience that was required of him, "Your law, O God, is in my heart; I delight to do your will." And yet we know how terrible to his nature were the things he did and suffered in obedience to that law. But his unspeakable love to God, and to the souls of men, rendered it all his delight. From this follow our intention and frequency in all the duties of love. And where these two are found — intention of mind and spirit, with a frequency of holy duties, both proceeding from delight — holiness will thrive; and consequently we will thrive in our conformity to God.

In brief, love and likeness to God are inseparable, and they are proportionate to one another; without this, no duties of obedience are any part of his image.

SECONDLY, There are graces which are declarative of this assimilation, or which evidence and manifest our likeness to God. I will instance only two of them —

1. The first is such that I will give it many names in its description, as the Scripture also does; but the thing intended is one and the same. This is goodness, kindness, benignity, love, with readiness to do good, to forgive, to help and relieve, and this is towards all men, on all occasions. And this is also to be considered in opposition to an evil habit of mind exerting itself in many vices, which still agree in the same general nature: such as anger, wrath, envy, malice, revenge, frowardness, and selfishness; all of which are directly opposite to the grace of holiness that is instanced and pleaded for at present.

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And this, I fear, is not so considered as it ought to be. For if it were, it would not be so common a thing as maybe it is, for men to plead highly for the imitation of God, and yet they give us a full representation of the devil in almost all they do. For just as this universal benignity and love to all, is the greatest representation of the nature of God on earth, so fierceness, envy, wrath, and revenge, are the greatest representations of the devil. If then, we would be like our heavenly Father, if we would manifest that we are like him to his glory, if we would represent him in and to the world, then it must be by this frame of spirit, and by actings that are constantly suited to it. Our blessed Savior instructs us in and to this likeness, in Mat 5.44-45.[1044] I say, a man who is thus good — his nature being cured and rectified by grace, and thereby being useful and helpful, free from guile, envy and selfishness, from pride and elation of mind — is the best representation we can have of God on the earth, since the human nature of Christ was removed from us.

Therefore, we are to labor after this if we intend to be like God, or to manifest to the world his glory in our persons and lives; and no small part of our holiness consists in this. Many lusts, corruptions, and distempered passions, are to be subdued by grace if we design to be eminent in this. Strong bents and inclinations of mind to react to countless provocations and exasperations that befall us, must be corrected and discarded. Many duties must be constantly attended to, and various graces kept up in their exercise. The whole drove of temptations, whose force consists entirely in a pretense of care for self, must be scattered or resisted. And this is why in the Scripture a good man, a merciful man, a useful, liberal man, is frequently spoken of with eminence and distinction, as one whom God has a special regard for, and concerning whom there are particular promises. When men live to themselves, and are satisfied that they do no harm, even though they do no good, they are secure, selfish, wrathful, angry, peevish, or have their kindness confined to their relations. Or they are little useful other than in what they are pressed to, and in this they come away with difficulty in their own minds. They esteem that all is lost which is done for the relief of others, and the greatest part of wisdom is to be cautious, and to disbelieve the necessities of men; in a word, they make self and its concerns the end of their lives — whatever their profession may be otherwise, or their diligence in religious duties, they do very little to either represent or glorify God in the world. If we therefore design to be holy, let us constantly labor after conformity to God in our families, towards our relations, in churches, in our conduct in the world, and our dealings with all men; towards our enemies and persecutors, the worst of them, so far as they are ours only; towards all mankind as we have opportunity.

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Let us express our likeness to him in this philanthropy, goodness, benignity, condescension; in this readiness to forgive, to help, and to relieve; without which we neither are nor can we be the children of our Father which is in heaven.

This frame of heart, and actings that are suitable to it, are especially required with respect to the saints of God, to believers. Even God himself, whom we are bound to imitate, and press to conform to, exercises his benignity and kindness in a special manner towards them: 1Tim 4.10, "He is the savior of all men," but "specially of those that believe." There is a speciality in the exercise of his saving goodness towards believers. And corresponding to this, we are likewise commanded to "do good to all men," but "especially to those who are of the household of faith," Gal 6.10. Although we are obliged to exercise the goodness described before, to all men "as we have opportunity," yet we are allowed (indeed, we are enjoined) to have a particular regard in this to the household of faith. If this were more exercised — if we considered ourselves obliged to express this benignity, kindness, goodness, forbearance, and love towards all believers in a special manner (notwithstanding the provocations and exasperations which we meet with, or suppose we meet with, when perhaps none are given or intended to us), it would prevent or remove many of those scandalous offenses and animosities that are among us. But if in common we love those who love us, and do good to those who do good to us, and delight in those who are of our company and go the same way with us, it may advance us in the condition of Pharisees and publicans — for they did this also.[1045]

But if we take this course among believers, and love them only, delight in them only, and are open and free in all the effects of genuine kindness towards those who go our way, or are of our party, or are kind and friendly to us, or who never gave us provocations really or in our own surmises, then we are far worse in this than either the Pharisees or publicans. For we are to endeavor after conformity and likeness to God, not only as he is the God of nature, and good to all the works of his hands, but as he is our heavenly Father; and as He is good, kind, benign, and merciful in a special manner to the whole family of his children, however differenced they may be among themselves — or indeed, when they are unkind or provoking to him. I confess that when I see men apt to remain sensitive about old provocations and differences; ready to receive impressions of new ones; or ready to apprehend them where there are none; incredulous of the sincerity of others who profess a readiness for love and peace; ready to take things in the worst sense; to be morose and severe towards this or that sort of believer; unready to help them, scarcely desiring their prosperity, or maybe their safety — I cannot help but look at it as a very great stain on their profession of faith, whatever else it is: and I would have my own ways examined by this rule.

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2. Truth is another grace, another part of holiness, of the same import and nature. Truth is used in the Scripture for uprightness and integrity — "You require truth in the inward parts," Psa 51.6 — and it is frequently used for the doctrine of truth, as revealed by God and believed by us. But what I intend is only what is enjoined of us by the apostle — namely, in all things to "speak the truth in love," Eph 4.15. Our apostasy from God was eminently from him as the God of truth; by opposition to this attribute, we sought to dethrone Him from his glory. We would not believe that his word was truth. Sin entered into the world by and with a long train of lies; and ever since, the whole world and everything in it is filled with lies; they represent Satan and his nature, who is the father of lies and liars. Hereby this apostasy from the God of truth, visibly and openly continues. I could willingly stay here to manifest how the whole world is corrupted, depraved, and sullied by lies of all sorts, but I must not divert to this. This is why truth and sincerity in words — for I must confine myself to this at present— is an effect of the renovation of the image of God in us, and a representation of Him to the world. No duty is more frequently pressed upon us: "Put away false speaking;" "Do not lie to one another;" "Speak the truth in love."

And consideration of this is exceedingly necessary for all those who by their course of life are engaged in business and trade. That is because of the disreputation which is cast on that course of life by the evil practices of some — of many (I am not saying most). And also because failures in truth are apt to insinuate themselves in a thousand ways into the practices of such persons — even when they are not aware of it. "It is nothing, it is nothing, says the buyer, but when he goes away, he boasts;" Pro 20.14 and "It is good, it is good, says the seller, but when he has sold it, he boasts," or he is well pleased with the advantage which he has made by his words. But these things have the image of Satan upon them, and they are most opposite to the God of truth.

Another occasion must be taken to further press this necessary duty. But at present, I will only intimate that where truth is not universally observed, according to the utmost watchfulness of sincerity and love, all other marks and tokens of the image of God in a believer are not only sullied, but defaced; and the representation of Satan is most prevalent. I could not help but add these things, as naturally consequential to that first and principal argument for the necessity of holiness which we proposed and asserted.

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Having dispatched this first argument, and added some special improvements to it with respect to its influence on our practice, it remains only that we free it from one objection which it seems exposed to. Now, this arises from the consideration of the infinite grace, mercy, and love of God, as they are proposed in the dispensation of the word. For considering the frame of men's minds in the days in which we live, it may be said to us, and likely enough it will be said,

"You who thus press for holiness and its necessity from the consideration of the nature of God, do you not preach to us every day of the greatness of his mercy towards all sorts of sinners, his readiness to receive them, and his willingness to pardon them? This is done freely in Christ, you say, without the consideration of any worth, merit, or righteousness of their own. But in doing this, do you not invite all sorts of sinners, the worst and the greatest, to come to God by Christ, that they may be pardoned and accepted? From where, then, can any argument arise for the necessity of holiness from the consideration of the nature of this God, whose inestimable treasures of grace, and the freedom of whose love and mercy towards sinners, as you say, no tongue can express?"

Ans. 1. This objection is very natural for carnal and unbelieving minds, and therefore we will meet with it at every turn. Nothing seems more reasonable to them than that we may live in sin because grace has abounded. If men must still be holy, they can see no need or use for grace. They cannot see that God is gracious to any purpose, if notwithstanding that grace, men may still perish because they are not holy. But this objection is raised, rejected, and condemned by our apostle, in whose judgment we may acquiesce. In the same place, Rom 6.1, he subjoins the reasons why, notwithstanding the superabounding grace of God in Christ, there is an indispensable necessity that all believers should be holy.[1046]

Ans. 2. God himself has obviated this objection. He proclaims his name: Exo 34.6-7, "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Had He stopped here, and not further declared his nature and unchangeable purposes concerning sinners, either in this or any other place of Scripture, then some support might have been given to this objection. But He adds immediately, "and that will by no means clear the guilty," — that is, as it is explained in countless places in Scripture, "the guilty" are those who continue in their sins, without regard to obedience and holiness springing from the atonement made for their guilty souls in the blood of Christ.

Ans. 3. We do and we ought to declare the rich and free love, grace, mercy, and bounty of God to sinners in and by Jesus Christ. And woe to us if we are not found in that work all our days, and thereby encourage all sorts of sinners to come to him for the free pardon of their sins, "without money or price," without merit or deserving on their part! For this is the gospel.

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But notwithstanding all this grace and condescension, we declare that he does not dethrone himself, nor deny himself, nor change his nature, nor become unholy, so that we may be saved. He is God still: naturally and essentially holy — holy as he is in Christ, reconciling the sinful world to himself. And therefore he indispensably requires that those whom he pardons, receives, and accepts into his love and into communion with himself, should be holy also. These things are not only consistent, but inseparable. Without the consideration of this grace in God, we can have no encouragement to be holy; and without the necessity of holiness in us, that grace can neither be glorified nor useful.

Chapter II.

Eternal election is a cause of and motive for holiness.

Other arguments for the necessity of holiness, from God's eternal election — The argument from this is explained, improved, and vindicated.

We have seen on this whole matter, what conclusions (as to our own duty) we ought to draw from that revelation of the nature of God in Christ which is made to us, and from our relation to him. If this does not prevail with us always, and in all instances of obedience, to endeavor to be holy universally, in all manner of holy conduct, then we can neither enjoy his favor here, nor can we be brought to the enjoyment of him in glory.

The next consideration of God that we usually take after considering his nature and its properties, is of the eternal free acts of his will, or his decrees and purposes. And we will now inquire what respect they have to holiness in us, and what arguments and motives may be taken from them both to evince the necessity of holiness to us, and to press us to it, especially from the decree of election. In an especial way, election is maligned by some as no friend to this design. I say then, that —

II. It is the eternal and immutable purpose of God that all who are His in a unique manner — all those whom he designs to bring to blessedness in the everlasting enjoyment of himself — will be made holy, antecedent to this. God has declared to us this purpose of his, so that we may take no wrong measures of our estate and condition, nor build our hopes or expectations of future glory, on sandy foundations that will fail us.

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Whatever else we are, in positions, abilities, profession, moral honesty, usefulness to others, reputation in the church — if we are not personally, spiritually, and evangelically[1047] holy, we have no interest in that purpose or decree of God by which any are designed for salvation and glory. And we will briefly confirm this:

Eph 1.4, "He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." But is this what we are firstly and principally ordained to, and for its own sake — namely, holiness and unblamableness in the obedience of love? No; we are firstly "ordained to eternal life," Acts 13.48; we are "from the beginning chosen to salvation," 2Thes 2.13. What God intends in the first place, as his end in the decree of election, is our eternal salvation to the "praise of the glory of his grace," Eph 1.5, 6, 11. How then is he said to "choose us that we should be holy?" In what sense is our holiness proposed as the design of God in election? It is proposed as the indispensable means for attaining the end of salvation and glory. God says, "I choose these poor lost sinners to be mine in an especial manner, to save them by my Son, and bring them to eternal glory through his mediation. But in order to accomplish this, I purpose and decree that they will be holy and unblamable in the obedience of love; without which, as a means, none will ever attain that end."

This is why the expectation and hope of any man for life and immortality and glory, without previous holiness, can be built on no other foundation than this: that God will somehow rescind his eternal decrees and change his purposes — that is, cease to be God — merely to comply with them in their sins! And who knows what the end would be of such a cursed hope and expectation? The contrary is seconded by the apostle: Rom 8.30, "Those whom he predestined, he also called." Wherever predestination to glory goes beforehand, concerning any person, effectual calling to faith and holiness infallibly ensues; and where faith and holiness never were, predestination never was. So says 2Thes 2.13, "God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit." We are chosen for salvation by the free, sovereign grace of God. But how may this salvation actually be obtained? How may we be brought into the actual possession of it? Through the sanctification of the Spirit, and not otherwise. Those whom God does not sanctify and make holy by his Spirit, he never chose for salvation from the beginning. Therefore, the counsels of God concerning us do not depend on our holiness; but upon our holiness our future happiness depends, in the counsels of God.

Hence we may see that the force of the argument for the necessity of holiness from God's decree of election, lies in this. And it consists in these two things:

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First, That such is the nature of the unalterable decree of God in this matter, that no person living can ever attain the END of glory and happiness without the MEANS of grace and holiness; the same eternal purpose respects both. I will afterward show how the infallible and indissolvable connection of these things is established by the law of God. Our present argument is from this: that it is fixed by God's eternal decree. He has ordained none to salvation whom he has not antecedently ordained to be holy. Not the least infant that goes out of this world will come to eternal rest unless it is sanctified, and so made habitually and radically holy.[1048] He chooses none to salvation except through the sanctification of the Spirit. Therefore, whatever else we have or may seem to have, it is contrary to the nature of God that we should come to the enjoyment of Him if we are not holy; and so it is also contrary to his eternal and unchangeable decree.

Secondly, It arises from this: that we can have no evidence of our interest in God's decree of election, by which we are designed for life and glory, without having holiness effectively worked in us. Therefore, just as our life depends on it, so do all our comforts. Our apostle speaks to this purpose in 2Tim 2.19: "The foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows those who are his." It is the decree of election which he intends, and he proposes it as that alone which will give security against apostasy in a time of great temptations and trials; our Savior does likewise in Mat 24.24.[1049] Everything else will fail except what is a special fruit and effect of this decree. What then is incumbent on us with respect to this, that we may know we have an interest in this single security against final apostasy? Says the apostle, "Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity." There is no other way to evidence this than by a departure from all iniquity, by universal holiness. So the apostle Peter directs us to "give all diligence to make our election sure," 2Pet 1.10. It is sure in itself from all eternity — "The foundation of God stands sure" — but our duty is to make it sure and certain to ourselves; and this is a thing of the highest importance and concern to us, which is why we are required to give all diligence to that end. How, then, may this be done or effected? He declares this in the foregoing verses, and it is only by finding in ourselves, and duly exercising, that train of gospel grace and duties which he enumerates there, in verses 5-9.[1050]

It is evident, therefore, and necessary from God's decree of election, that if we intend to have either eternal glory hereafter, or any consolation or assurance here, then we must endeavor to be "holy and without blame before him in love;" for whomever God purposes to save, he purposes first to sanctify.

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Nor do we have any ground to suppose that we are built on that foundation of God which stands sure, unless we depart from all iniquity. What further motives may be taken from the special nature of this decree, will be considered once we have removed one objection out of our way.

There are some who apprehend that these things are quite otherwise; for they say that any supposition of God's decree of personal election, is a discouragement to all endeavors for holiness, and an effectual obstruction to this in the lives of men. It is chiefly under this pretense that the doctrine of election is blasphemed and spoken evil of. For they say,

"If God has from eternity freely chosen men for salvation, what need is there for them to be holy? They may live securely in the pursuit of their lusts, and be sure that they will not fail to have heaven at last; for God's decree cannot be frustrated, nor can his will be resisted. And if men are not elected, then whatever they endeavor to do in the ways of holy obedience, it will be utterly lost; for they cannot and will not be eternally saved. This doctrine, therefore, is so far from being a conviction of the necessity of holiness and a motive for it, that indeed it renders it unnecessary and useless. Yes, it defeats the power and efficacy of all other arguments and motives for holiness."

Now, if not for the sake of those who use it as a quibble against the truth, then for the sake of those who may feel its force as a temptation, this objection must be removed out of our way. To this end I answer two things:

1. In general, this persuasion is not from God who calls us. This way of arguing is not taught in the Scripture, nor can it be learned from there. The doctrine of God's free electing love and grace is fully declared there; and it is proposed as the fountain of all holiness, and made a great motive for it. Is it not safer to adhere to the plain testimonies of Scripture, confirmed by the experience of most believers — captivating our understandings to the obedience of faith — than to listen to such perverse quibbles that would possess our minds with a dislike of God and his ways? Those who hate gospel holiness, or would substitute something else in its place, will never lack exceptions to all its concerns. They lay claim to and plead for an interest in holiness. For as I said formerly, a general confession of the necessity of holiness is almost the only thing which all who are called Christians agree on. But they would have a holiness that does not spring from eternal, divine election; that is not worked in us originally by the almighty efficacy of grace in our conversion; that is not promoted by free justification through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. Now, this is a holiness that the Scripture knows nothing of, unless it is to reject and condemn it.

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That is why this objection proceeds only from the craft of Satan, opposing the ways and methods of God's grace when he dares not openly oppose the thing itself. And so it is safer for a believer to rest quietly in the clear Scripture revelation, than pay attention to such proud, perverse, and froward quibblings.

2. In particular, We are not only obliged to believe all divine revelations, but also to accept the way, order, and method in which, by the will of God, they are proposed to us, and which is required by the nature of the things themselves. For instance, belief in eternal life is required in the gospel; yet no man is obliged to believe that he will be eternally saved while he lives in his sins — rather the contrary is obliged. On this supposition, which is plain and evident, I will in the ensuing propositions, utterly remove this objection from consideration:

(1.) The decree of election, considered absolutely in itself, without respect to its effects, is no part of God's revealed will; that is, it is not revealed that this or that man is or is not elected. This, therefore, cannot be made either argument or objection against anything in which faith or obedience is concerned. For we do not know it; we cannot know it; it is not our duty to know it; knowledge of it is not proposed as useful to us — indeed, it is our sin to inquire into it. It may seem to some to be like the tree of knowledge of good and evil seemed to Eve: good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and much to be desired to make one wise. All secret, forbidden things seem so to carnal minds. But men can gather no fruit from this tree except death. See Deu 29.29.[1051] Whatever exceptions, therefore, are laid against this decree as it is in itself, whatever inferences are made on supposing this or that about a man being elected or not, they are all unjust and unreasonable. Indeed, they are proud contentions with God, who has appointed another way for discovering it, as we will see afterward.

(2.) God sends the gospel to men in pursuit of his decree of election, and in order for its effectual accomplishment. I do not dispute what other end it has or may have, in its indefinite proposal to all; but this is the first, regulating, and principal end of it. Therefore, in preaching it, our apostle affirms that he "endured all things for the sake of the elect, that they might obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory," 2Tim 2.10. So beforehand, God commanded Paul to stay and preach the gospel at Corinth, because "he had many people in that city," — namely, in his purpose of grace, Acts 18.10. See chap. 2.47, 13.48.[1052]

(3.) Wherever this gospel comes, it proposes life and salvation by Jesus Christ to all who will believe, repent, and yield obedience to him. It plainly makes known to men their duty, and it plainly proposes to them their reward.

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In this state of things, no man, without the highest pride and utmost effect of unbelief, can oppose the secret decree of God as to our known duty. Such a proud one says, "I will neither repent, nor believe, nor obey, unless I may first know whether I am elected or not; for all at last will depend on that." If this is the resolution of any man, he may go about his business, for the gospel has nothing to say or offer to him. If he will accept it on no other terms than that he may set up his own will, and wisdom, and methods, in opposition to and in exclusion of those of God, he must, for all I know, take his own course, which he may repent of when it is too late.

(4.) The sole way of God's appointment by which we may come to apprehend an interest in election, is by the fruits of it in our own souls; nor is it lawful for us to inquire into it or after it in any other way. The obligation which the gospel puts upon us to believe anything, respects the order of the things themselves that are to be believed, and the order of our obedience, as observed before. For instance, when it is declared that Christ died for sinners, no man is immediately obliged to believe that Christ died for him in particular, but only that Christ died to save sinners, to procure a way of salvation for them, and he finds himself to be among them. On this belief, the gospel requires faith and obedience from men; they are obliged to comply with it. Until this is done, no man is obliged to believe that Christ died for him in particular. So it is in this matter of election. A man is obliged to believe the doctrine of election upon the first promulgation of the gospel, because it is plainly declared in it; but as for his own personal election, he cannot believe it, nor is he obliged to believe it, in any other way than as God reveals it by its effects. No man should, no man can, justly question his own election, doubt it, or disbelieve it, until he is in such a condition that it is impossible for the effects of election to ever be worked in him (if such a condition exists in this world). For just as a man can have no evidence that he is elected while he is unholy, so he can have no evidence that he is not elected while it is still possible for him to ever be holy. Thus God does not call anyone to be immediately conversant about whether men are elected or not. Faith, obedience, and holiness, are the inseparable fruits, effects, and consequents of election, as proved before. See Eph 1.4; 2Thes 2.13; Tit 1.1; Acts 13.48. In whomever these things are worked, that person is obliged to believe his own election, according to the method of God and the gospel. Any believer may have the same assurance of his election, as he has of his calling, sanctification, or justification; for these things are inseparable. And by the exercise of grace, we are obliged to secure our interest in election, 2Pet 1.5-10.[1053]

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But as for those who are as yet unbelievers and unholy, they can draw no conclusion that they are not elected except from this supposition: that they are in a state and condition in which it is impossible for them to ever have either grace or holiness; and this cannot be supposed concerning any man, except one who knows he has sinned against the Holy Ghost.Mat 12.31

Therefore, all the supposed strength of the objection mentioned, lies only in the pride of men's minds and wills, refusing to submit themselves to the order and method of God in the dispensation of his grace and his prescription of their duty. This is where we must leave it.

To return to our designed discourse: The doctrine of God's eternal election is proposed everywhere in the Scripture for the encouragement and consolation of believers, and to further them in their course of obedience and holiness. See Eph 1.3-12; Rom 8.28-34. As for men's present concern in this, it is infallibly assured to them by its effects; and being so, it is filled with motives for holiness, as we will now further declare in particular.

First, The sovereign and ever-to-be-adored grace and love of God in election is a powerful motive for holiness; for we have no way to express our resentment[1054] of this grace — our acknowledgment of it, our thankfulness for it — except by a holy, fruitful course of obedience; nor does God require anything else of us on account of this. Let us therefore inquire what sense of obligation this puts on us, that God from all eternity, out of his mere sovereign grace and not moved by anything in ourselves, should first choose us to life and salvation by Jesus Christ, immutably decreeing to save us out of the perishing multitude of mankind — when we did not then, nor ever would, differ from them in the least, either in his eye or consideration, or by anything in ourselves. What impression does this make upon our souls? What conclusion do we educe from this as to our practice and obedience? "Why," says someone, "if God has thus chosen me, I may then live in sin as I please; all will be well and safe in the end, which is all I need to care about." But this is the language of a devil, and not of a man. Suggestions of this nature may possibly be injected into the minds of believers by the craft of Satan, in conjunction with the deceitfulness of sin — and what may not? But someone who would foment, embrace, and act practically according to this inference, is such a monster of impiety and presumptuous ingratitude, that hell itself cannot parallel it in many ways. I will use some boldness in this matter. The one who does not understand, who is not sensible, that apprehending God's electing love by faith in Christ has a natural, immediate, and powerful influence on the souls of believers to the love of God and holy obedience, is utterly unacquainted with the nature of faith, and its whole work and actings towards God in the hearts of believers.

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Is it possible that anyone who knows these things, can suppose that those in whom these things exist in sincerity and power, can be such stupid, impious, and ungrateful monsters, so devoid of all holy ingenuity and filial affections towards God, that merely out of spite to God, they would throw poison into the spring of all their own mercies? I have known many who complain that they could not arrive at a comfortable persuasion of their own election; but I never heard any who complained, once they had accepted election in a due manner, that it proved to be a snare to them — that it tended to ingenerate a loose life, unholiness, or a contempt for God in them. Besides, in the Scripture it is still proposed and made use of for other ends. And those who know anything of the nature of faith, or of the love of God — anything of intercourse or communion with him by Jesus Christ, anything of thankfulness, obedience, or holiness — will not be easily persuaded that God's electing love and grace is not a mighty constraining motive to duly exercise them all.

God himself knows this is so. And therefore he makes the consideration of his electing love — as free and undeserved — his principal argument to stir people up to holy obedience, Deu 7.6-8, 11.[1055] A supposition of this is at the bottom of that blessed exhortation of our apostle in Col 3.12-13, "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on hearts of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another." These things, which are so great a part of our holiness, are becoming to the elect of God; they are required of the elect on account of their interest in electing love and grace. Men may frame a holiness for themselves, and be stirred up to it by motives of their own (just as there is a religion in the world that runs parallel to that of evangelical truth, but does not touch it, nor will to eternity). But what the gospel requires is promoted on the grounds and by the motives that are specific to it, of which this one, God's free electing love and grace, is among the principal. To further confirm this truth, I will instance some special graces, duties, and parts of holiness, that this consideration is suited to promote:

1. Humility in all things is a necessary consequence of a due consideration of this decree of God; for what were we when he thus set his heart upon us, to choose us, and to do us good forever? — poor, lost, undone creatures, that lay perishing under the guilt of our apostasy from him. What did he see in us to move him to choose us? — nothing but sin and misery. What did he foresee that we would do of ourselves more than others, if he did not work in us by his effectual grace? — nothing but a continuance in sin and rebellion against him, and that would be forever.

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Thoughts of this should keep our souls in all humility and continual self-abasement! For what do we have in or from ourselves, for which we should be lifted up? Therefore, as the elect of God, let us put on humility in all things. And let me add that, in our day, there is no grace by which we may more glorify God and the gospel than this, now that the world is sinking into ruin under the weight of its own pride.

The spirits of men, the looks of men, the tongues of men, the lives of men, are lifted up by their pride to their destruction. May the good Lord keep those who profess Christ from a share in the pride of these days! Spiritual pride in foolish self-exalting opinions, and the pride of life in the fashions of the world, are the poison of this age.

2. Submission to the sovereign will and pleasure of God, in the disposing of all our concerns in this world. It is acknowledged that this is an excellent fruit of faith, an eminent part of holiness or duty of obedience; and it was never more signally called for than it is at this day. The one who cannot actually resign himself and all his concerns to the sovereign pleasure of God, can neither glorify him in anything, nor have one hour's solid peace in his own mind. Public calamities, private dangers and losses, the uncertainty of all things here below, call for this at present in a special way. God has taken all pretenses of security from the earth, by what some men feel and some men fear. No one knows how soon his portion may be brought to the utmost extremity of earthly calamities. Is there is none so old, none so young, none so wise, none so rich, as to expect relief from such things? Where then will we drop anchor in this condition?[1056] Where will we take ourselves for quietness and repose? This is not to be obtained in any other way than by resigning ourselves and all our concerns to the sovereign pleasure of God; and what greater motive can we have to do this than election?

The first act of divine sovereign pleasure concerning us was choosing us from all eternity unto all holiness and happiness. This was done before we yet existed, when we had no contrivances of our own. Would we not put all our temporary concerns into the same hand now? Can the same fountain send out sweet and bitter water? — can the same sovereign pleasure of God be the free and only cause of all our blessedness, and yet do what is really evil to us? Our souls, our persons, were secure and blessedly provided for in the sovereign will of God as to grace and glory; and what a prodigious impiety it is, not to entrust all other things into the same hand, to be disposed of freely and absolutely! If we will not forego our interest in mere, absolute, free, and sovereign grace for ten thousand worlds (as no believer will), how ready we should be to resign to this same grace, that little portion which we have in this world among perishing things!

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3. Love, kindness, compassion, forbearance towards all believers, all the saints of God, however differenced among themselves, are made indispensably necessary for us, and pressed upon us from the same consideration. And our holiness in no small part consists in this also. The exhortation of the apostle in Col 3.12-13, mentioned before, is to this purpose. For if God has chosen them from all eternity, and made them the objects of his love and grace — as he has done concerning all sincere believers — do we not think it is necessary (does God not require it of us) that we should love them also? How dare we entertain unkind, severe thoughts of them? How dare we maintain animosities and enmities against any of those whom God has eternally chosen to grace and glory? Upon provocations and attacks, and clashings of secular interests, such things have perhaps fallen out, and will fall out among us; but they are all opposite and contrary to that influence which the consideration of God's electing love ought to have on us. The apostle's rule is that, as to our communion in love, we ought to receive the one whom God has received, because God has received him. Against this, nothing else can be laid as a bar, Rom 14.1, 3. And the rule is no less certain, indeed it is subject to fewer exceptions, that we ought to choose, embrace, and love all those, whoever they are, whom God has chosen and loved from eternity. There is no greater evidence of low, weak, selfish Christians, than to prescribe any other rules or bounds to their spiritual, evangelical affections, than the decree of God's election as manifesting itself in its effects. "I endure all things," says our apostle, not for the Jews or Gentiles, not for the weak or strong in the faith, not for those of this or that way, but "for the elect's sake." This should regulate our love, and mightily stir it to all actings of kindness, mercy, compassion, forbearance, and forgiveness.

4. Contempt of the world, and all that belongs to it, will also be ingenerated in us from election. Did God set his heart upon some from eternity? Did he choose them to be his own particular people, to distinguish them as his from all the residue of mankind? Does he design to give them the highest, greatest, best fruits and effects of his love, and to glorify himself in their praises forever? What then will he do for them? Will he make them all kings or emperors in the world? Or will he at least have them rich, and noble, and honorable among men, so that it may be known and proclaimed, "Thus it will be done to the man whom the King of heaven delights to honor;" [1057] — that they should somehow be kept from restrictions, difficulties, and trials, from poverty, and shame, and reproach in the world? Alas! None of these things were in the least in the heart of God concerning them.

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They do not deserve to be named on the same day, as we used to say, with the least of those things to which God has chosen his own. If there were any real, substantial good in them on their own account, He would not have cast them out of the counsels of his love. But on the contrary, "You see your calling, brethren" (which is the infallible fruit and consequence of election), "how not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:" but God has chosen the poor of the world, the base and the contemptible for the most part — indeed, he has designed most of his elect to be in a poor, low, and afflicted condition in this world. And will we set our hearts on those things that God has so manifestly valued lower in comparison to the least concern of grace and holiness? Therefore, let those who are poor and despised in the world learn to be satisfied with their state and condition. If God had seen it would be good for you to be otherwise, he would not have passed it by when he was acting eternal love towards you. And let those who are rich not set their hearts on uncertain riches. Alas! They are things which God had no regard for when he prepared grace and glory for his own. Let the remembrance of this, suit your esteem and valuation of them. Just think to yourselves that these are not the things that God had any regard for when he chose you for grace and glory, and it will abate your care about them, cool your love towards them, and remove your hearts from them — which is your holiness.

Secondly, Electing love is a motive and encouragement to holiness, because of the enabling supplies of grace which we may and ought to expect from there by Jesus Christ. The difficulties we meet with in a course of holiness are great and many. Here Satan, the world, and sin, exercise and test their utmost strength. The best of us are often foiled, often discouraged, sometimes weary and ready to give up; it requires a good spiritual courage to take a prospect of the lions, serpents, and snares that lie in the way of a constant persevering course in gospel obedience. On this our knees are ready to grow feeble, and our hands to hang down.Heb 12.12 It is no small relief in this, no small encouragement to continue in our progress, that the fountain of electing grace will never fail us, but will continually give out supplies of spiritual strength and refreshment. Hence we may take heart and courage to rise again when we have been foiled, to abide when the shock of temptation is violent, and to persevere in those duties which are most wearisome to the flesh. And those who are unacquainted with a course of holy obedience, do not know how necessary this consideration is to a comfortable continuance in this.

Thirdly, It has the same tendency and effect in the assurance we have from it, that notwithstanding all the oppositions we meet with, we will not utterly and finally miscarry.

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God's "election" will at last "obtain," Rom 11.7; and "his foundation stands sure," 2Tim 2.19. His purpose, which is "according to election," is unchangeable; and therefore the final perseverance and salvation of those concerned in it are everlastingly secured. This is the design of the apostle's discourse in Rom 8 from verse 28 to the end. Because of the immutability of God's eternal purpose in our predestination, and because of his effectual operations in pursuit and for the execution of this, the elect of God will infallibly be carried through all, even the most dreadful oppositions that are made against them, and at length be safely landed in glory. There is no greater encouragement to grow and persist in holiness than what is administered by this assurance of a blessed end and issue of it.

Those who have experienced that spiritual slumber and sloth which unbelief will cast us under — those weaknesses, discouragements, and despondencies — the uncertainties, doubts, fears, and anxieties cast upon the souls of men as to what the outcome of things will be for them at last — how their duties are discouraged, spiritual endeavors and diligence are impaired, delight in God is weakened, and love is cooled by them — only those will be able to make a right judgment about the truth of this assertion. Some think that this apprehension of the immutability of God's purpose of election, and the infallibility of the salvation of believers on that account, tend only to carelessness and security in sin. They think that always being in fear, dread, and uncertainty of the end, is the only means to make us watchful to our duties of holiness. It is very sad that any man should so far proclaim his inexperience and unacquaintedness with the nature of gospel grace, the genius and inclination of the new creature, and the proper workings of faith, as to be able to argue this way, without a check being put on him by his own experience. It is true, if there were no difference between faith and presumption; no difference between the spirit of liberty under the covenant of grace, and that of bondage under the old covenant; no spirit of adoption given to believers; no genuine filial delight in and adherence to God ingenerated in them by it — then there might be something to this objection. But if the nature of faith and of the new creature, if the operations of the one and the disposition of the other, are those which are declared in the gospel, and which believers have experienced in their own hearts, then men only betray their ignorance while they contend that the assurance of God's unchangeable love in Christ, flowing from the immutability of his counsel in election, in any way impeaches, or does not effectively promote, the industry of believers in all duties of obedience.

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Suppose a man on a journey knows that he is on the right path, and by continuing on this path, he will certainly and infallibly come to his journey's end — especially if he quickens his speed a little, as occasion requires. Would you say that this is enough to make such a man careless and negligent? Would it be more to his advantage to be lost and bewildered in uncertain paths and ways, not knowing where he is going, or whether he will ever arrive at his journey's end? Common experience declares the contrary. How momentary and useless are those violent fits and gusts of endeavors which proceed from fear and uncertainty, whether in spiritual and temporal things, or in civil. While men are under the power of actual impressions from such fears, they will convert to God; indeed, they will "momento turbinis,"[1058] and perfect their holiness in an instant. But as soon as that impression wears off (as it will on every occasion, or none at all), those same persons are as dead and cold towards God as lead or iron running in a fiery stream stops once the heat is gone. It is that soul alone, ordinarily, which has a comfortable assurance of God's eternal, immutable, electing love, and thus of the blessed end of its own course of obedience, who goes on constantly and evenly in a course of holiness. He quickens his course and doubles his speed as he has occasion from his trials or opportunities. This is the very design of our apostle (to explain and confirm this) in Hebrews 6, from the tenth verse to the end of the chapter, as declared elsewhere.[1059]

It appears from what has been said, that the electing love of God is a powerful constraining motive for holiness; and it invincibly proves the necessity of holiness in all those who intend to have the eternal enjoyment of God. But it will be said that,

"Even if it is granted that those who are actually believers, and have a sense of their interest in this, will make use of what is pleaded — yet for those who are unconverted, or are otherwise uncertain of their spiritual state and condition, nothing can be so discouraging to them as this doctrine of eternal election. Can they draw any conclusion from it other than this, that if they are not elected, all care and pains taken in and about any duties of obedience are in vain; and if they are elected, then these are needless?"

The removal of this objection will put a close to our discourse on this subject; and I answer —

1. We have shown already that this doctrine is revealed and proposed in the Scripture principally to acquaint believers with their privilege, safety, and fountain of their comforts. Having therefore proved its usefulness to them, I have discharged all that is absolutely necessary for my present purpose. But I will show, moreover, that it also has its proper benefit and advantage towards others. For —

2. Suppose the doctrine of personal election is preached to men, together with the other sacred truths of the gospel. It is possible that two conclusions may be made from it by various persons:

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(1.) That because this is a matter of great and eternal moment to our souls, and there is no way to secure our interest in it except by the possession of its fruits and effects (which are saving faith and holiness), we will, we must, it is our duty to use our utmost endeavors, by attaining and growing in them, to make our election sure. And if we are sincere and diligent in this, we shall not fail.

Others may conclude,

(2.) That if it is so indeed, that those who will be saved are chosen to this before the foundation of the world, then it is to no purpose to go about believing or obeying, seeing that all things must fall out at last, according to how they were foreordained.

Now, I ask you, which of these conclusions is the most rational, and most suitable to the principles of sober love of ourselves, and care for our immortal condition? I will not say it is the most suited to the mind and will of God, with that subjection of soul and conscience which we owe to his sovereign wisdom and authority. But nothing is more certain than that (if pursued) the second conclusion will infallibly destroy all the everlasting concerns of our souls; death and eternal condemnation are its unavoidable results. No man who surrenders himself to the conduct of that conclusion, will ever come to the enjoyment of God.

But in pursuing the first, it is at least possible that a man may be found to be the object of God's electing love, and so be saved. But why do I say it is possible? There is nothing more infallibly certain than that the one who sincerely and diligently pursues the ways of faith and obedience — which are, as we have often said, the fruits of election — will obtain everlasting blessedness in the end. And ordinarily, he will have in this world, comfortable evidence of his own personal election. This, therefore, on all accounts, and towards all sorts of persons, is an invincible argument for the necessity of holiness, and a mighty motive for it. For it is unavoidable that if there is such a thing as personal election, and its fruits are sanctification, faith, and obedience, it is utterly impossible that, without holiness, anyone will see God. The reason for this consequence is apparent to all.

Chapter III.

Holiness is necessary from the commands of God.

The necessity of holiness proved from the commands of God in the law and the gospel.

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III. We have evinced the necessity of holiness from the nature and the decrees of God. Our next argument will be taken from his word or commands, as the nature and order of these things require. And in this case it is needless to produce instances of God's commands that we should be holy; it is the concurrent voice of the law and gospel. Our apostle sums up the whole matter:

1Thes 4.1-3, "We exhort you, that as you have received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification" (or holiness).

To this he adds one special instance. This is what the commandments of Christ require — indeed, this is the sum of the whole commanding will of God. The substance of the law is, "Be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy," Lev 19.2. It is the same as our Savior refers to, Mat 22.37-39.[1060] Holiness may be reduced to two heads —

1. The renovation of the image of God in us;

2. Universal actual obedience

These are the sum of the preceptive part of the gospel, Eph 4.22-24; Tit 2.11-12.[1061] Therefore, no further confirmation of this needs to be given by special testimonies.

Our inquiry must be what force there is in this argument, or why we should conclude a necessity of holiness from the commands of God. To this end, the nature and proper adjuncts of these commands are to be considered — that is, we are to get our minds and consciences affected by them, so as to endeavor after holiness on their account, or with respect to them. For whatever we may do which seems to have the substance of holiness in it, if it is not done with respect to God's command, it does not have the nature of holiness in it. For our holiness is our conformity and obedience to the will of God, and it respects a command which makes something obedience, or gives it the formal nature of obedience. Therefore, in his fear, worship, or service, God rejects whatever is resolved only into the doctrines or precepts of men, Isa 29.13-14.[1062] And so for men to pretend to (I know not what) freedom, light, and readiness for all holiness from a principle within, without respect to the commands of God without — as given in his word — is to make themselves their own god; and to despise obedience to Him who is over all, God blessed forever. We are the servants of God, we are the disciples of Christ, when we do what is commanded us, and because it is commanded us. What we are not influenced to do by the authority of God in his commands, we are not principled for by the Spirit of God administered in the promises. Whatever good any man does of any kind, if the reason why he does it is not God's command, then it belongs neither to holiness nor to obedience.

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Our inquiry is therefore after those things in the commands of God which put such an indispensable obligation on us to holiness, that whatever we may be or may have without it, will be of no use or advantage to us as to our eternal blessedness or the enjoyment of God.

But to make our way clearer and safer, one thing must still be premised to these considerations. It is that God's commands for holiness may be considered in two ways:

1. As they belong to and are parts of the covenant of works;

2. As they belong to and are inseparably annexed to the covenant of grace.

In both respects, they are materially and formally the same; that is, the same things are required in them, and the same person requires them; and so their obligation is joint and equal. Not only do the commands of the new covenant oblige us to holiness, but those of the old also, as to their matter and substance. But there is a great difference in the manner and ends of these commands, as they are considered distinctly. For —

1. The commands of God under the old covenant, so require universal holiness of us, in all acts, duties, and degrees of them, that upon the least failure in substance, circumstance, or degree, they allow nothing else that we do; rather they determine that we are transgressors of the whole law; for, with respect to them, "whoever would keep the whole law, and yet offends in one point, is guilty of all," Jas 2.10. Now, I acknowledge there arises from this an obligation to holiness for those who are under that covenant; and it is such a necessity that without it, they must certainly perish. Yet no argument from the nature of those things which I insist on,[1063] can be taken from this to press us to holiness: for no arguments are forcible to this purpose except those which include encouragements to what they urge. But this consideration of the command knows nothing about that, seeing that in our lapsed condition, compliance with it is absolutely impossible. And we cannot endeavor for things that are impossible. This is why no man who is influenced only by the commands of the law or by the covenant of works, absolutely considered, in whatever particular he might be forced or compelled, ever sincerely aimed or endeavored after universal holiness.

Men may be subdued by the power of the law, and compelled to habituate themselves to a strict course of duty. And having an advantage by a sedate natural constitution, a desire for applause, self-righteousness, or even superstition, they may make a great appearance of holiness. But if the principle of what they do is only the commands of the law, then they will never tread one true step in the paths of holiness.

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2. The end or reason why these commands require all the duties of holiness of us, is that they may be our righteousness before God, or that we may be justified by them. For "Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law, 'That the man who does those things shall live by them,'" Rom 10.5. That is, it requires all duties of obedience to this end: that we may have justification and eternal life by them. But it is not on this account either that any such argument can be made as to those things we inquire into; for by the deeds of the law no man can be justified: "If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who will stand?" Psa 130.3. David prays, "Enter not into judgment with your servant; for in your sight no man living will be justified," Psa 143.2; Rom 3.20; Gal 2.16. And if no one can attain the end of the command, as in this sense they cannot, then what argument can we take from that to prevail with them as to [the necessity of] obedience? Whoever therefore presses men to holiness merely on the commands of the law, and for the ends of the law, only puts them into a tormenting disquietude and deceives their souls. However, men are indispensably obliged by the law. And those who do not or will not by faith comply with the only remedy and provision that God has made in this case, must eternally perish for lack of what the law requires. For this reason, we are necessitated to deny the possibility of salvation to all those to whom the gospel is not preached, as well as to those by whom it is refused — for they are left to this law whose precepts they cannot satisfy, and whose end they cannot attain.[1064]

Under the new covenant, or gospel, it is different on both accounts with regard to the commands of God as to holiness; for —

1. Although in his commands, God requires universal holiness of us, he does not do it in that strict and rigorous way which the law demands: so that if we fail in anything — as to the matter or manner of its performance, in its substance or in the degrees of its perfection — everything else we do is rejected. Rather, he requires it with a tempering of grace and mercy. So that if there is universal sincerity in respect to all his commands, he pardons many sins, and accepts what we do, even though it comes short of legal perfection. He does both on account of the mediation of Christ. Yet this does not keep the law or the command of the gospel from requiring universal holiness of us, and perfection in this. We are to do our utmost to endeavor to comply with it, even though relief is provided in sincerity on the one hand, and mercy on the other. For the commands of the gospel still declare what God approves (which is no less than all holiness on the one hand), and what he condemns (which is all sin on the other) — as exactly and extensively as under the law: for the very nature of God requires it. The gospel is not the ministry of sin, so as to allow or indulge the least sin, even though in the gospel, pardon is provided by Jesus Christ for a multitude of sins.

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The obligation to holiness is equal to what it was under the law, even though relief is provided where unavoidably we come short of it. There is therefore nothing more certain than this: no relaxation is given as to any duty of holiness required by the gospel, nor is there any indulgence of the least sin. Yet, supposing the acceptance of sincerity, and a perfection of parts instead of degrees, with mercy provided for our failings and sins, an argument can be made from its command for an indispensable necessity of holiness, including the highest encouragement to endeavor after it. For together with the command, is the administration of grace, enabling us to that obedience which God will accept. Therefore, nothing can void or evacuate the power of this command and the argument made from it, except a stubborn contempt for God, arising from the love of sin.

2. The commands of the gospel do not require holiness and the duties of righteousness to the same end as the commands of the law did — namely, that we might be justified in the sight of God by them. For, because God now accepts from us a holiness that is short of that which the law required, if he still did it for the same end, it would reflect dishonor on his own righteousness and the holiness of the gospel. For —

(1.) If God can accept a righteousness for justification, which is inferior to or short of what he required by the law, then how great a severity must be thought to be in him, to bind his creatures to such an exact obedience and righteousness, that he could and might have dispensed with it at the beginning! In other words, if he accepts sincere obedience for our justification now, then why did he not do so before, instead of obliging mankind to absolute perfection according to the law? For in coming short of that, they all perished. Or will we say that God has changed his mind in this matter, and that he does not stand so much on rigid and perfect obedience for our justification now, as he did formerly? Where then is the glory of his immutability, and of his essential holiness, and of the absolute rectitude of his nature and will? Besides —

(2.) What will become of the honor and holiness of the gospel on this supposition? Must it not be looked at as a doctrine that is less holy than the law? The law required absolute, perfect, sinless holiness for our justification. But on this supposition, the gospel allows for the same end to be met by what is in every way imperfect, and consistent with a multitude of sins and failings. What can be said that would be more derogatory to it? Would this not indeed make "Christ the minister of sin," which our apostle rejects with so much detestation in Gal 2.17? To say that what he merited was to have our imperfect obedience accepted for our justification — attended with many and great sins ("for there is no man that lives and does not sin ") — instead of the perfect and sinless obedience required under the law, would plainly make him the minister of sin, or someone who has acquired some liberty for sin beyond whatever the law allowed.

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In Christ and by the gospel, God unquestionably meant to declare the holiness and righteousness of his own nature much more gloriously than he had ever done in any other way. And thus, on the whole, this supposition would be the great means to darken and obscure them. For in and by them, God must be thought (and is declared) to accept a righteousness for our justification, that is unspeakably inferior to what he required before.

It must therefore be granted that the end of gospel commands, which require the obedience of holiness in us, is not that we should be justified by or upon them. God has provided another righteousness for that end, which fully, perfectly, and absolutely answers all that the law requires — and on some considerations, it is far more glorious than what the law either did or could require. And God has hereby exalted more than ever the honor of his own holiness and righteousness, of which the external instrument is the gospel, which is also therefore most holy.

Now, this is none other than the righteousness of Christ imputed to us; for "he is the end of the law for righteousness to those who believe," Rom 10.4. But God has now appointed other ends for our holiness. And so as to his command of holiness under the gospel, all of those ends are consistent with the nature of that obedience which he will accept from us, and which we may attain through the power of grace. And so all of them offer new encouragements as well as enforcements for our endeavors after holiness. But because these ends will be the subject of most of our ensuing arguments, I will not insist on them here. I will only add two things in general:

[1.] That God has no design for his own glory in us or by us, in this world or unto eternity —there is no special communion that we can have with him by Jesus Christ, nor any capacity for us to enjoy him — that holiness is not necessary for it, as a means to its end.

[2.] These present ends of holiness under the gospel are such that God no less indispensably requires holiness of us now, than he did when our justification was proposed as its end. They are such that, in brief, God judges fit on their account to command us to be holy in all manner of holiness. We are now to inquire what obligation and necessity that puts on us to be holy.

First, The first thing to be considered in the command of God to this purpose, is the authority with which it is accompanied. It is indispensably necessary that we should be holy on account of the authority of God's command. Authority, wherever it is just and exerted in a due and equal[1065] manner, carries with it an obligation to obedience.

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Take this away, and you will fill the whole world with disorder. If the authority of parents, masters, and magistrates, did not oblige children, servants, and subjects to obedience, the world could not abide one moment out of hellish confusion. God himself makes use of this argument in general, to convince men of the necessity of obedience: "A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, that despise my name," Mal 1.6; — i.e., "If in all particular relationships where there is anything of superiority, which has the least parcel of authority accompanying it, obedience is expected and exacted, then is obedience not due Me, the one who has all the authority of all sovereign relationships in me towards you?"

Upon this consideration, there are two things that enforce the obligation from the command: jus imperandi and vis exsequendi.[1066] Both are comprised in the apostle's words, Jas 4.12, "There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy" —

1. The one who commands us to be holy is our sovereign lawgiver; he has absolute power to prescribe to us whatever laws he pleases. When commands come from those who have authority, and yet they are also under authority themselves, there may be some secret abatement of the power of the command. Men may think they can either appeal from them, or in one way or another, dislodge themselves from their power. But when the power immediately commanding is sovereign and absolute, there is no room for betrayal. The command of God proceeds from the absolute power of a sovereign legislator. And where it is not complied with, the whole authority of God, and in this case, God himself, is despised. So God in many places calls sinning against his commands, "despising him," Num 11.20, 1Sam 2.30; "despising his name," Mal 1.6; "despising his commandment," 2Sam 12.9; and that is done even by his saints themselves.[1067]

Being, then, under the command of God to be holy, and yet not to endeavor to be holy always and in all things, is to despise God, to reject his sovereign authority over us, and to live in defiance of him. I suppose there are few who would be willing to be found in this state. To be constant despisers of God and rebels against his authority, is a charge that men are not ready to own; and they suppose that those who are in fact in that state, are in a very ill condition. But this and no better, is the state of everyone who is not holy, who does not follow after holiness; yet so it is. Propose to men the true nature of evangelical holiness; press them to the duties in which the exercise of holiness consists; convince them with evidence as clear as noonday light that such and such sins, such and such courses, those in which they themselves live and walk, are absolutely inconsistent and irreconcilable with holiness — and for the most part, they will little heed you, and do less to respond to your exhortations.

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Tell these same persons that they are rebels against God, despisers of him, that they have utterly broken the yoke and cast off his authority, and they will defy you, and perhaps revile you. Yet these things are inseparable. Having given his command to men to be holy, God declared his sovereign will and pleasure in this. If we are not holy accordingly, then we are not one jot better than the persons described.

Here then, in the first place, we found the necessity of holiness upon the command of God. The authority which accompanies the command makes it necessary. Indeed, from this we must conclude that if we do not endeavor to thrive in holiness, if we do not watch diligently against everything that is contrary to it, then to that extent we are despisers of God and of his name in all this, as in the passages cited before.

This therefore evidences to the consciences of men, that the obligation to holiness is indispensable. And it would be well if we always carried this formal consideration of the commandment in our minds. For nothing more prevails with us to be watchful in holiness, as nothing more effectively renders what we do "obedience," properly so called. Forgetting this, or not heeding it as we should, is the great reason for our loose and careless walking, of our defect in making progress in grace and holiness. No man is safe for a moment, whose mind is dispossessed by any means, of a sense of the sovereign authority of God in his commands; nor can anything secure such a soul from being pierced and entered into by various temptations. Therefore we are to carry this obligation about with us wherever we go and whatever we do, to keep our souls and consciences under its power — in all opportunities for duties, and on all occasions of sin. If men always had this written on their hearts, in their ways, trades, shops, affairs, families, studies, and closets, they would have "Holiness to the Lord" written on their breasts and foreheads also.

2. The apostle tells us that because God is a sovereign lawgiver in his commands, he is able to kill and keep alive — that is, his commanding authority is accompanied by such a power, that he is able to absolutely and eternally reward the obedient by it, and to return to the disobedient a fit recompense of punishment. Although I would not exclude other considerations, I think this one of eternal rewards and punishments, is principally intended here. But,

(1.) Supposing that it has respect to temporal things also, it carries with it greater enforcement. God commands us to be holy. Things are in such a state and condition in the world, that if we endeavor to answer his will in a due manner, designing "perfect holiness in the fear of God," we will meet with much opposition, and many difficulties. At length it may perhaps cost us our lives; multitudes have professed it at no cheaper price.

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But let us not mistake in this matter: the one who commands us to be holy is the only sovereign Lord of life and death; he alone has the disposal of them both, and consequently of all things that are subservient and conducive to one or the other. He alone can kill in a way of punishment, and he alone can keep alive in a way of merciful preservation. The holy companions of Daniel committed themselves to this power of our Lawgiver, and preserved themselves in consideration of it when, with the terror of death, they were commanded to forsake the way of holiness, Dan 3.16-18.[1068] And with respect to this, our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that "he who would save his life," — namely, by a sinful neglect of the command — "will lose it." This, therefore, is also to be considered: The power of the One who commands us to be holy is such that he is able to carry us through all difficulties and dangers which we may incur on account of our being holy. Now, because the fear of man is one principal cause or means of our failing in holiness and obedience, either by sudden assaults or violent temptations — and next to this is the consideration of other things esteemed as good or evil in this world — the faith and sense of this power will bear us up above them, deliver us from them, and carry us through them.

Be of good courage, all you who trust in the Lord. Without fear or daunted spirit, you may, you ought, to engage in the pursuit of universal holiness. The one who has commanded it, who has required it of you, will bear you out in it. Nothing that is truly evil or finally disadvantageous will befall you on that account. For let the world rage while it pleases, and threaten to fill all things with blood and confusion, "to God the Lord belong the issues from death;" he alone can "kill" and "make alive." Thus there is no small enforcement of holiness from the consideration of the command, with respect to the power of the commander, relating to things in this world.

(2.) But I suppose it is a power of eternal rewards and punishments that is principally intended here. The "killing" here is what is mentioned by our Savior, and opposed to all temporal evils, and death itself: Mat 10.28, "Do not fear those who can kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." And this "keeping alive" is a deliverance from the wrath to come in everlasting life. This is what gives unavoidable efficacy to the command. Every command of a superior tacitly includes the intent of a reward and punishment. For a declaration is made of what is pleasing and what is displeasing to the one that gives the command; and in this there is a virtual promise and threatening. But rewards and punishments are expressly annexed to all solemn laws.

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There are two reasons why, for the most part, they little influence the minds of men who are inclined to their transgression:

[1.] The first is that the rewards and punishments declared are such, that men think they justly prefer their own satisfaction in the transgression of the laws, above these issues. It is so with all good men with respect to laws that are made contrary to the laws of God; and wise men may also do so with respect to useless laws, with trifling penalties; and evil men will do so with respect to the highest temporal punishments when they are greedily set on satisfying their lusts. Hence I say, in the first place, that the minds of men are little influenced by those rewards and punishments which are annexed to human laws. And,

[2.] There is a secret apprehension that the commanders or makers of the laws will not, or are not able, to execute those penalties in case of their transgression, which evacuates all their force. They ascribe much to the lawmaker's negligence (that they will not take care to see the sanction of their laws executed); they ascribe more to their ignorance (that the lawmaker will not be able to discover their transgression); and in various cases they ascribe something to their power (that the lawmaker cannot punish or reward, even if they would). For these reasons, the minds of men are little influenced by human laws beyond their own honest inclinations and interest.

But things are quite otherwise with respect to the law and God's commands that we should be holy. The rewards and punishments which the apostle called "killing" and "keeping alive," are eternal. And so, in the highest capacities of blessedness or misery, they cannot be balanced by any consideration of this present world, without the highest folly and villainy to ourselves. Nor can there be any reservation on account of mutability, indifference, ignorance, impotency, or any other pretense, that they will somehow not be executed. Therefore, the commands of God which we are considering, are accompanied with promises and threatenings of eternal blessedness on the one hand, or of misery on the other; and these will certainly befall us as we are found holy or unholy. All the properties of the nature of God are immutably engaged in this matter; and from this ensues an indispensable necessity to be holy. God commands that we should be holy; but what if we are not? Why, as sure as God is holy and powerful, we will eternally perish — for his command is accompanied with the threatening of that condition in case of disobedience. What if we comply with the command and become holy? On the same ground of assurance, we will be brought into everlasting felicity. This is greatly to be considered in the authority of the commandment.

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Some, perhaps, will say that to yield holy obedience to God with respect to rewards and punishments is servile, and it is not becoming to the free spirit of the children of God. But these are vain imaginations; the bondage of our own spirits may make everything we do servile. But a due respect for God's promises and threatenings is a principal part of our liberty. And thus the necessity of holiness, which we are engaged in demonstrating, depends on the command of God, because of that authority from which it proceeds and with which it is accompanied. It is therefore certainly our duty to keep a sense of this constantly fixed in our minds, if we would be found walking in a course of obedience and in the practice of holiness. This is what God primarily intends in His great injunction to obedience, Gen 17.1: "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be perfect." The way to walk uprightly, to be sincere or perfect in obedience, is always to consider that the one who requires it of us is God Almighty, accompanied with all the authority and power mentioned before, and under whose eye we walk continually. In particular, we may apply this to persons and to occasions:

[1.] As to persons. Let them, in a special manner, have a continual regard to this, who on any account are great, or high, or noble in the world. That is because their special temptation is to be lifted up to forgetfulness or disregard of this authority of God. The prophet Jeremiah distributes incorrigible sinners into two sorts, and gives different grounds for their impenitence respectively.

The first are the poor; it is their folly, stupidity, and sensual lusts that keep them away from attending to the command: Jer 5.3-4, "They have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they do not know the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God." These are poor incorrigible sinners, whose impenitency arises much out of their ignorance, blindness, and folly, in which they please themselves, even though they differ but little from the beasts that perish. And we abound with such men who will take no pains for instruction, and will allow no means for it.

But there is another sort of sinners to whom the prophet makes his application, and reveals the ground of their incorrigible impenitency also: "I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God," Jer 5.5. Great men, by reason of their education and other advantages, attain a knowledge of the will of God, or at least they may be thought to have so done, and they would be esteemed to excel in this. Therefore they are not likely to be obstinate in sin merely from stupid ignorance and folly.

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"No," says the prophet, "they take another course; 'they have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.'" They are like a company of rude beasts of the field, which, having broken their yokes and cords, run up and down the fields, treading down the corn, breaking up the fences, pushing with the horn, and trampling down everything before them. This is the course of men in the pursuit of their lusts, when they have "broken the yoke of the Lord." And the prophet declares this to be the special evil of great men, the rich, the mighty, the honorable in the world. Now, "breaking the yoke" is neglecting and despising the authority of God in the command. Seeing that this, therefore, is the special temptation of that sort of person, and that there are countless things of all sorts that concur to render that temptation prevalent on them, let all those who are in that condition, and have the least sincere desire after holiness, watch diligently — if they love and value their souls — to always, in all things, keep on their minds and consciences a due sense of the authority of God in his commands.

When you are in the height of your greatness, in the fullness of your enjoyments, in the most urgent of your avocations by the things or societies of the world, and those who belong to them — when the variety of public appearances and situations are about you, when you are uppermost in the words of others, and maybe in your own thoughts — remember Him who is over all, and consider that you are equally subject and liable to his authority as the poorest creature on earth. Remember that it is your special temptation to do otherwise. And if you still abhor those who have come to be sons of Belial by this means, or have altogether broken the yoke, and run up and down the world in pursuit of their lusts, saying, "Our lips are our own, and who is lord over us?"[1069] — then be watchful against the least beginnings or entrances of it in yourselves.

[2.] In general, let us all endeavor to carry a constant regard for the authority of God in his commands into all those seasons, places, societies, and occasions, in which we are apt to be surprised by any sin or neglect of duty. I may reduce this instruction or point it to three heads or occasions — namely, secrecy, businesses, and societies.

1st. Carry this with you into your secret retirements and enjoyments. Neglect of this is the next cause of those secret actual provoking sins which the world swarms with. When no eye sees but the eye of God, men think they are secure. Many have been surprised by this into folly, which has proved the beginning of a total apostasy. An awe upon the heart from the authority of God in the command, will equally secure us in all places and on all occasions.

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2dly. Let us carry it into our businesses, and the exercise of our trades or callings. Most men in these things are very apt to be intent on present occasions; and having a certain end before them, they habituate themselves into the ways of attaining it. And while they are so engaged, many things occur which are apt to divert them from the rule of holiness. Therefore, whenever you enter into situations in which you assume temptations will arise, call to mind the greatness, power, and authority over you of the One who has commanded you to be holy in all things. At every unexpected assault, retreat to those thoughts which will prove to be your relief.

3dly. Carry it with you into your companionships and social settings. For many have frequent occasions to engage in associations in which the least forgetfulness of the sovereign authority of God will betray them to profuse vanity and corrupt communication — until they do with delight, and hear with pleasure, those things with which the Holy Spirit of God is grieved, their own consciences are defiled, and the honor of their profession is thrown to the ground.

SECONDLY, The command of God that we should be holy is not to be considered only as an effect of power and authority, which we must submit to, but as a fruit of infinite wisdom and goodness also, which it is our highest advantage and interest to comply with. This introduces a particular necessity for holiness from the consideration of what is equitable, reasonable, and ingenuous; the contrary is foolish, perverse, ungrateful — in every way unbecoming to rational creatures. Where nothing can be discerned in commands except mere authority, will, and pleasure, they are looked at as merely respecting the good of those who command, and not at all the good of those who are to obey; this disheartens and weakens the principle of obedience. Now, because God's dominion over us is sovereign and absolute, he might have justly left us no other reason or motive for our obedience. And it may be that he dealt with the church of old this way,[1070] as to some particular, temporary, ceremonial institutions. Yet he does not, nor ever did so, as to the main part of their obedience. But as he proposes his law as an effect of infinite wisdom, love, and goodness, so he declares and pleads that all his commands are just and equitable in themselves, and also good and useful for us; and our compliance with them is our present as well as our future happiness. The command of God requiring that we should be holy, as a fruit of wisdom and goodness, is equitable and advantageous to us. That this is true, appears from all the considerations of it:

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1. Look at it formally, as a law prescribed to us, and it is so. The obedience in holiness which it requires is proportioned to the strength and power we have to obey. This declares it equitable to us, and an effect of the infinite wisdom and goodness in God. The command, as we showed before, may be considered either as it belonged to the old covenant, or as it is annexed to and part of the new. In the first way (as it belonged to the old covenant) the strength of grace which we originally had from God under the law of creation, was sufficient to enable us to perform all that holy obedience which was required in it. And our not doing so was from willful rebellion, not from any impotency or weakness in us. We did not fall from our first estate for lack of power to obey, but by the neglect of the exercise of that power which we had. God made us upright, but we sought out many inventions.[1071] And as it belongs to the covenant of grace, and by virtue of that covenant, there is a supply of spiritual strength given by the promise to all those who are taken into it, enabling them to comply with the commands for holiness, according to the rule of the acceptance of their obedience, as laid down before. No man who is instated[1072] in the covenant of grace comes short of, or fails to perform, that obedience which is required and accepted in that covenant, merely for lack of power and spiritual strength. For in this covenant, according to his divine power, God gives us "all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to glory and virtue," 2Pet 1.3.

It is true that this grace or strength is administered to them by certain ways and means, which if they do not attend to them, they will come short of holiness. But I say this: in the careful, diligent, sedulous use of those appointed means, no one who belongs to the covenant of grace will ever fail to have that power and ability which will render the commands of the gospel easy and not grievous to them; and by which they may so fulfil those commands as to be infallibly accepted. The Scripture is plain in this, where Christ himself tells us that "his yoke is easy, and his burden light," Mat 11.30; and he tells his holy apostle, that "his commandments are not grievous," 1John 5.3. For if they were to exceed all the strength which we either have or He is pleased to give us, they would be like the Jewish ceremonies — a yoke we could not bear, and a law that is not only grievous but unprofitable. But on the contrary, our apostle expressly affirms (and so may we) that "he could do all things," — that is, in the way and manner, and to the end for which they are required in the gospel — "through Christ that strengthened him." Phi 4.13 Some would confound these things, and throw everything into disorder. They would have men under the old covenant, with a power and spiritual strength to fulfil the commands of the new. God has never spoken of or declared this; and indeed, it is contrary to the whole design of his grace.

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Some would claim that men who have broken the old covenant, and forfeited all their strength and ability for obedience which they had under it, and who are not initiated in the new covenant, still have a power of their own to fulfil the command of one or the other — God neither gives nor is obliged to give this power. Nor is it necessary to prove that the command is equal and holy; for as observed, God gives us no command for holiness and obedience except in, with, and by virtue of some covenant. And no more is required to prove they are just and equal, than that they are easy for those who walk with God in that covenant to which they belong, and that the performance of what they have power for, will be accepted. If any would sinfully cast away their covenant interest and privilege, as we all cast it away at our original creation, we have only ourselves to thank if we lack power to answer its commands. Nor does it belong to the equity of the commands of the new covenant, that those who are not yet made partakers of it by grace, must have power to fulfil them. Indeed, if they did, and were to fulfill them accordingly (if such a thing was possible), it would not avail them. For not yet belonging to the new covenant, they must belong to the old. And the performance of the commands of the new covenant, in the way and manner which are required in the new, would not avail those who are really under the rule and law of the old — which allows nothing short of absolute perfection. For "what the law speaks, it speaks to those who are under the law;" and what the gospel speaks, it speaks to those "who are not under the law, but under grace." The formal transition of men from one of these states to the other, is by an act of God's grace in which they are merely passive, as demonstrated elsewhere. See Col 1.13.[1073]

This is what I mean: God at the beginning made a covenant with mankind, which was the first covenant, the covenant of works. In this, he gave them commands for holy obedience. These commands were not only possible for them, both as to the matter and manner of them, by virtue of that strength and power which was co-created with them, but it was easy and pleasant, and in every way suited to their good and their satisfaction in that state and condition. This rendered their obedience equal, just, and reasonable; and it aggravated their sin with the guilt of the most horrible folly and ingratitude. When this covenant was broken by the fall, we lost with it all power and ability to comply with its commands in holy obedience. Upon this, the "law" continued "holy, and the commandment continued holy, just, and good," as our apostle says in Rom 7.12. For what could make it otherwise, seeing that there was no change in it by sin; nor did God require more or harder things of us than He did before? But to us it became impossible; for we had lost the strength by which alone we were enabled to observe it. And so "the commandment, which was ordained to life, we find to be to death," Rom 7.10. Therefore, we say to all who remain in that state, "The commandment is still just and holy, but it is neither easy nor possible."

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Upon this, God brings in the covenant of grace by Christ, and He renews in this the commands for holy obedience, as declared before. And here it is that men trouble themselves and others about the power, ability, and free-will that men still have under the first covenant, and the impotence that ensued from its transgression, to fulfil the condition of the new covenant and yield the obedience required in it. For this is where men greatly contest the power of free-will and the possibility of God's command. If they would only grant that it is the mere work of God's sovereign and almighty grace to effectively instate men in the new covenant, then we would argue that by virtue of this, they indeed have that spiritual strength and grace administered to them which renders all its commands not only possible, but easy — indeed, pleasant and suited in every way to the principle of a holy life, a principle with which they are endowed.

And we make this an argument for the necessity of holiness. The argument we have under consideration is to prove the necessity of holiness with respect to God's command requiring it, because it is a fruit of infinite wisdom and goodness. It is so in an especial way as it belongs to the new covenant. Therefore, our disobedience (or living in sin) shows contempt for God's authority, and we add, for his wisdom and goodness also. Now, it is obvious that holiness is so much a fruit of God's wisdom and goodness, first from this: that it is proportioned to the strength and ability which we have to obey. Hence obedience in holiness becomes equal, easy, and pleasant for all believers who sincerely attend to it. This fully evinces the necessity of holiness, because of the folly and ingratitude of the contrary. That these things and the force of the present argument may be better apprehended, I will make the ensuing observations:

(1.) We do not say that anyone has this power and ability in himself or from himself. In the new covenant, God has not lowered his command to the power of man, but by his grace he raises the power of man to his command. The former would only comply with the sin of our nature, which God abhors; while the latter is the exaltation of his own grace, which he aims at. What we intend is not men's strength in and of themselves (the power of nature), but the grace administered in the covenant. For men to trust to themselves in this, as though they could do anything of themselves, is a renunciation of all the aids of grace, without which we can do nothing. We can have no power from Christ unless we are persuaded that we have none of our own.

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Our whole spiritual life is a life of faith; and that is a life of dependence on Christ for what we do not have of ourselves. This is what ruins the attempt of many for holiness, and what keeps what they do (even though it is like the acts and duties of holiness) from belonging to it at all. For what we do in our own strength is no part of holiness; this is evident from the preceding description of it. Nor does the Scripture abound in anything more than in testifying that the power and ability we have to fulfil the commands of God, as given in the new covenant, is not our own, nor is it from ourselves. It is merely from the grace of God administered in that covenant, as in John 15.5; Phi 2.13; 2Cor 3.5.[1074] It will be said, then,

"Where does the difference lie? Because it is a mere work of grace to instate us in the covenant, you conclude that we have no power of our own to that purpose. And if when we are in the covenant, all our strength and power is still from grace, then we are as remote from it as ever, as to any ability of our own to fulfil the command of God."

I answer that the first work of grace is merely upon us — by this work the image of God is renewed, our hearts are changed, and a principle of spiritual life is bestowed on us. But this latter work of grace is in us and by us.[1075] The strength or ability which we have thereby is as truly our own as Adam's was, which he had in the state of innocence — for he had his immediately from God, and so have we ours too, though in a different way.

(2.) There is no such provision of spiritual strength for any man, enabling him to comply with the command of God for holiness, as to countenance him in the least carnal security, or the least neglect of the diligent use of all those means which God has appointed for the communication of this to us, with the preservation and increase of it. God, who has graciously determined to give us supplies of this strength, has also declared that we are obliged to our utmost diligence for their involvement and due exercise when received. Countless commands and injunctions give testimony to this, but especially the whole method of God's grace and our duty in this, is declared by the apostle Peter, 2Pet 1.3-11; I have explained and improved that discourse elsewhere.[1076] The sum is that, by creating in us a new spiritual nature, and giving to us "all things pertaining to life and godliness," or a gracious ability for the duties of a holy, godly, spiritual life, we are obliged to use all means in the continual exercise of all grace. This will ascertain for us our eternal election with our effectual calling, upon which we will obtain an assured and joyful entrance into the kingdom of glory.[1077]

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(3.) This administration of grace and spiritual strength is not equally effectual at all times. There are seasons in which, to correct our negligences in giving way to our corruptions and temptations, (or on other grounds), and to reveal to us our own frailty and impotence (with other holy ends of his own), God is pleased to withhold the powerful influences of his grace, and to leave us to ourselves. In such instances we will assuredly come short of answering the command for universal holiness one way or other. See Psa 30.6-7.[1078] But I speak of ordinary cases; and it is to prevent that slothfulness and evasion of this duty to comply with all the commands of God for holiness, which we are so susceptible to.

(4.) We do not say that spiritual strength is administered in the covenant of grace in such a way that, by virtue of this, we can yield sinless and absolutely perfect obedience to God, or render any one duty absolutely perfect. If there are any who maintain that there is such an imputation of the righteousness of Christ to us that it would render our own personal obedience unnecessary, they overthrow the truth and holiness of the gospel. And to say we have such supplies of internal strength that they render the imputation of the righteousness of Christ for our justification unnecessary, is to overthrow the grace of the gospel and the new covenant itself.

This alone is what we are saying: There is such grace administered by the promises of the gospel, that it enables us to perform the obedience required in it, in that way and manner which God will accept. And in this performance there are various degrees, of which we should constantly aim at the most complete, and thus be "perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 2Cor 7.1 Where we signally come short of the best rules and examples, it is principally from our neglect of those supplies of grace which are tendered in the promises.

(5.) There is a twofold gracious power necessary to render the command for holiness and obedience to it, easy and pleasant:

[1.] That power which is habitually resident in the hearts and souls of believers, by which they are constantly inclined and disposed to all fruits of holiness. The Scripture calls this our "life," a new principle of life, without which we are dead in trespasses and sins. Where this does not exist, whatever arguments you constrain and press men with to be holy, you only offer violence to them, as it were, endeavoring to force them against the fixed bent and inclination of their minds. All you do by these arguments is to set up a dam against a stream of water, which will not be permanent, nor turn the course of the stream contrary to its natural inclination. To such men, the command for holiness must be grievous and difficult — because by nature we do not have in or of ourselves such a disposition and inclination, nor a principle that so inclines and disposes us to duties of holiness, nor is it to be raised out of its ruins.

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For the "carnal mind" (which is in us all) "is enmity against God." It carries in it an aversion to everything that is required of us by way of obedience, which has been proved at large. Yet without this habitual principle, we can never comply in a due manner with any one command of God that we should be holy. Lack of this principle is what renders obedience so grievous and burdensome to many. They endure it for a season, and at length they throw off its yoke either forcibly or insensibly. Light and conviction have compelled them to take this on, and attend to the performance of those duties which they dare not omit. But having no principle enabling or inclining them to it, everything they do is against the grain, even though they do much, and continue in it long; they find it difficult, uneasy, and wearisome. In whatever pretense they make to countenance the neglect of any part of that performance, or to bribe their consciences to comply with what is contrary to it — they do not fail to deliver themselves from their burden of holiness. For the most part, by multiplying such instances of the neglect of their duties of obedience, or by some great temptation before they leave the world, they insensibly and utterly leave all the ways of holiness, and respect for the commands of God. Or if they continue in any of them, it is only for external acts of morality, which pass with approval in the world — but they utterly renounce the inward and spiritual part of obedience. The reason for this, I say, is because having no principle within, enabling them to comply with the commands of God with delight and satisfaction, these grow grievous and intolerable for them. So for many, on the same ground, the worship of God is very burdensome, unless it is borne for them by external additions and ornaments.[1079]

[2.] There is an actual assistance of effectual grace required for this power. We are not put into such a condition by the covenant that we are enabled to do anything of ourselves without actual divine assistance. This would be to set us free from our dependence on God, and make us gods unto ourselves. The root still bears us, and the springs of our spiritual life are in another. And where both of these are present, the command is equitable, not only in itself but to us; and obedience to that command is as easy as it is just.

(6.) Both these sorts of grace [1080] are administered in the new covenant, suited to the holy obedience it requires:

[1.] For the first, it is what God so frequently and so expressly promises, where he says that "he will take away the heart of stone, and give us a heart of flesh;" that "he will write his laws in our hearts, and put his fear in our inward parts;" that we will "fear him," and "never depart from him;" that he will "circumcise our hearts" to "know" and "love" him; — I have previously explained at large the nature of the grace contained in these promises.

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It is sufficient for our present purpose that in and by these promises we are made partakers of the divine nature, and are endowed in this nature with a constant, habitual disposition and inclination to all acts and duties of holiness. For our power follows our love and inclinations, just as impotency is a consequence of their defect.

And here we may stay a little to confirm our principal assertion. Upon the supply of this grace, which gives both strength for and a constant inclination to holy obedience, the command for it becomes equal and just, fit and easy to be complied with. For none can refuse to comply with it in any instance, without contradicting that disposition and inclination of the new nature which God has implanted in them. So that sinning is not only contrary to the law outside them, to the light of their minds and warning of their consciences, but also contrary to the law which is their own inclination and disposition, and which in such cases has a palpable force and violence put upon it by the power of corruptions and temptations. Thus, the command for holiness may and does seem grievous and burdensome to unregenerate persons (as we observed) because it goes against the habitual bent and inclination of their whole souls. Yet it is not (nor can it be) grievous and burdensome to those who cannot neglect it, or do anything against it, without crucifying and doing violence to the inclinations of the new creature in them. For in all things "the spirit lusts against the flesh," Gal 5.17, and the disposition of the new creature is habitually against sin and for holiness.

This gives a mighty constraining power to the command, when it is evident in our own minds and consciences that it requires nothing of us except what we find an inclination or disposition to in our own hearts. And by this consideration, we may take in the power of it upon our souls, which is too frequently disregarded. Upon such a proposal to us, let us but consider what our minds and hearts say to it — what answer they return — and we will quickly discern how equal and just the command is. For I cannot persuade myself that any believer can ever be so captivated under the power of temptations, corruptions, or prejudices (if he will only take counsel from his own soul, on consideration of the command for obedience and holiness, and ask himself what he would have), that he will not have this plain and sincere answer: "I would do that indeed, and I would have the good that is proposed — this holiness, this duty of obedience." Not only will his conscience answer that he must not do the evil which temptation leads him to — for if he does, evil will ensue from that — but the new nature, and his mind and spirit, will say, "I want to do this good; I will delight in it; it is best for me, and most suited to me." And so it joins to the command, all the strength and interest it has in the soul.

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To this purpose, see the arguing of our apostle in Rom 7.20-22.[1081] It is true that there is a natural light in the conscience, complying with what the command proposes, and urging obedience to it, which does not make disobedience easy for us. But where that light is alone, the command increases its burden and our bondage; for it only allows for the sanction of the command, and it adds to the severity which attends it. But that compliance with the command which is from a principle of grace is of quite another nature, and it greatly facilitates obedience.

Thus we may distinguish between that compliance with the command, which comes from the natural light of conscience (which engenders bondage), and that which comes from a renewed principle of grace (which gives liberty and ease in obedience). For the first respects principally the consequence of obedience or disobedience — the good or evil that will ensue from them, Rom 2.14-15.[1082] Set aside this consideration, and it has no more to say. But the second respects the command itself, which it embraces, delights in, and judges to be good and holy, along with the duties that are required, and which are natural and suited to it.

[2.] Grace of the latter sort — actual grace for every holy act and duty — is administered to us according to the promise of the gospel. So God told Paul that "his grace was sufficient for him." And "he works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure," Phi 2.13, so that we "may do all things" through him that enables us; the nature of this grace has also been discussed before. Now, this actual working of grace is not in the power of the wills of men to make use of or refuse as they see good. Rather, its administration depends merely on the grace and faithfulness of God. Yet this I must say: that where this grace is sought in a due manner by faith and prayer, it is never so restrained from any believer that it will not be effectual in him to the whole of that obedience which is required of him, and as it will be accepted from him.

If this, then, is the condition of the command of holiness, it must be confessed how just and equal it is! And therefore how highly reasonable it is that we should comply with it; and how great would be the sin and folly of those who neglect it! It is true, we are absolutely obliged to obedience by the mere authority of God who commands. Yet he not only allows us to take in, but he directs us to seek after, those other considerations of it which may give it force and efficacy upon our souls and consciences. Among these, none is more efficacious towards gracious, ingenuous souls than considering the contemperation[1083] of duties commanded as spiritual aids to the strength promised to us. What cloak or pretense of dislike, or of neglect, is here left to anyone?

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Thus, not only the authority of God, but the infinite wisdom and goodness of God in giving such a command — so just, equal, and gentle — fall upon us in this, to oblige us to holy obedience. To neglect or despise this command, is to neglect or despise God in that way which he has chosen to manifest all the holy properties of his nature.

2. The command is equitable, and it is to be esteemed so from the matter of it, or the things that it requires. These are things that are neither great nor grievous, much less perverse, useless, or evil, Mic. 6.6-8.[1084] There is nothing in the holiness which the command requires except what is good for the one in whom it is found, and useful to all others concerned with him or with what he does. The apostle mentions what they are in his exhortation in Phi 4.8. They are things that are "true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report." And what evil is there in any of these things, that we should decline the command that requires them? The more we abound in them, the better it will be for our relations, our families, our neighbors, the whole nation, and the world, but best of all for ourselves. "Godliness is profitable for all things," 1Tim 4.8. "These things are good and profitable for men," Tit 3.8 — good for those who do them, and good for those towards whom they are done. But both these things — namely, the usefulness of holiness to ourselves and others — must be spoken to distinctly afterward, and they are therefore left to their proper place.

As observed before, it is incumbent on us, in the first place, to endeavor after holiness and the improvement of it, with respect to the command of God that we should be holy, and because of it; and especially under the consideration we insisted on. I do not know what vain imaginations seem to possess the minds of some, that they see no need to respect the command, nor its promises and threatenings, but obey merely from the power and guidance of an inward principle.[1085] Indeed, some suppose that a respect to the command would vitiate our obedience, rendering it legal and servile! But I hope that the darkness which hinders men from discerning the harmony and compliance between the principle of grace that is in us, and the authority of the command that is upon us, is much removed from all sincere professors. It is respect to the command which gives the formal nature of obedience to what we do; and so without a due regard to it, there is nothing of holiness in us. Some would make the light of nature their rule; some, in what they do, look no further for their measure than what carries the reputation of common honesty among men.

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But the one who would be holy indeed, must always mind the command of God with that reverence and those affections which become someone to whom God speaks directly. And so that it may be effectual towards us, we may consider —

(1.) How God has multiplied his commands to this purpose: to testify not only to his own infinite care of us and love for us, but also our eternal concern in what he requires. He does not give us a single command that we should be holy (which would be sufficient to oblige us forever), but he gives his commands to that purpose "line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept." Isa 28.13 Just looking over the Bible, and seeing almost every page of it filled with commands, or directions, or instructions for holiness, one can only conclude that the mind and will of God is very much in this matter, and that our concern in it is inexpressible. Nor does God content himself to multiply general commands to be holy, so that if we regard Him, they may never be out of our remembrance. Rather, there is no particular duty or instance of holiness, that he has not given us special commands for that also. No man can instance the least duty that belongs directly to holiness, that it does not fall under some special command of God.

We are not only, then, under the command of God in general, in an awe-filled reverence of which we ought to walk (as often reiterated to us); but we are under it on all occasions, in whatever we have to do or avoid in following after holiness. This is represented to us in especial commands to that purpose; and all of them are a fruit of the love and care of God towards us. Is it not then our duty to always consider these commands, to bind them to our hearts, and our hearts to them, so that nothing may separate them? O that they might always dwell in our minds, to influence them to an inward constant watch against the first disorders of our souls which are unsuited to the inward holiness that God requires — that they might abide with us in our private rooms, and on all occasions, for our good!

(2.) We may do well to consider what various enforcements God is pleased to give to those multiplied commands. He does not remit us merely to their authority, but he applies all other ways and means by which they may be made effectual. Hence they are accompanied with exhortations, entreaties, reasonings, expostulations, promises, and threatenings — all are made use of to fasten the command upon our minds and consciences. God knows how slow and backward we are to receive due impressions from his authority; and he knows by what ways and means the principles of our internal faculties are apt to be worked on. Therefore he applies these engines[1086] to fix the power of the command upon us.

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If these things were to be addressed severally, it is obvious how great a part of the Scripture would need to be transcribed. I will therefore take only a brief notice of the reinforcement of the command for holiness by those special promises which are given with it. I do not now mean the general promises of the gospel which, in its own way and place, interests us in holiness; but I mean those particular promises by which God enforces the command. It is not said for nothing that "godliness has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come," 1Tim 4.8. There is a special respect to holiness in all the promises; and it gives those in whom it is found, an especial interest in all the promises.

This is, as it were, the text preached by our Savior in his first sermon. For all the blessings which he pronounces, consist in giving particular instances of some parts of holiness, annexing a special promise to each of them. "Blessed," he says, "are the pure in heart." Heart-purity is the spring and life of all holiness. And why are such persons blessed? Why, he says, "they will see God." He appropriates the promise of the eternal enjoyment of God to this qualification of purity of heart. And that promise of this life is in both temporal and spiritual things. In temporal things, we may take from among many, that special instance given to us by the psalmist, "Blessed is he that considers the poor." Psa 41.1 To wisely consider the poor in their distress, so as to relieve them according to our ability, is a great act and duty of holiness. "He that does this," says the psalmist, "is a blessed man." Where does that blessedness arise from, and what does it consist in? It arises from participating in those special promises which God has annexed to this duty, even in this life: "The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he will be blessed upon the earth: and you will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on the bed of languishing: you will sustain him on his sickbed," Psa 41.1-3. Many special promises in the most important concerns of this life are given to the right discharge of this one duty — for godliness has the promise of this life. Other instances might be multiplied to the same purpose. This is also true with respect to spiritual things. Thus the apostle Peter, having repeated a long chain of graces whose exercise he presents to us, adds for our encouragement, "If you do these things, you will never fall," 2Pet 1.10. The promise of perseverance in obedience, with an absolute preservation from falling into all those sins which are inconsistent with the covenant of grace, is affixed to our diligence in holiness. And who does not know that the Scripture abounds in instances of this nature?

What we conclude is this: that together with the command of God requiring us to be holy, we should consider the promises that accompany it, such as (among other things) an encouragement to the cheerful performance of that obedience which the command itself makes necessary.

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Thus, the force of this argument is evident and exposed to all. God has positively declared his will in this matter, interposing his sovereign authority, commanding us to be holy, upon the penalty of his utmost displeasure. And with this, he has given us redoubled assurance (in case we are apt to deceive ourselves) that whatever else we will or can be, without sincere holiness he will neither own us, nor have anything to do with us. Whatever our gifts may be — whether positions, abilities, places, dignities, usefulness in the world, profession, outward duties — unless we are sincerely holy (which we may not be, and yet still be eminent in all these things), we are not, we cannot, and we will not be, accepted by God.

And the Holy Ghost is careful to obviate a deceit in this matter, which he foresaw would be apt to put itself in the minds of men. Because our faith is the foundation of our salvation, and the hinge on which the whole weight of it turns, men might be apt to think that if they have faith, it will go well enough with them, even though they are not holy. Therefore, because this plea and pretense of faith is great, and because it is apt to impose on the minds of men who would willingly retain their lusts with a hope and expectation of heaven, we are plainly told in the Scripture that faith without holiness, without works, without fruits— and it can be so, or it is possible to be so — is vain. What may perish forever with those in whom it is found, is not that faith which will save our souls, but what is falsely called faith.

Chapter IV.

Necessity of holiness from God's sending Jesus Christ.

The necessity of holiness proved from the design of God in sending Jesus Christ, with the ends of his mediation.

IV. We have still other considerations and arguments to plead, for the same purpose as those foregoing. For one principal end of the design of God in sending his Son into the world, was to recover us into a state of holiness, which we had lost: "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil," 1John 3.8. The manifestation of the Son of God was his incarnation, 1Tim 3.16, in order to do the work which he had to accomplish in our nature. And in general, this was the destruction of the works of the devil. The principal of these works, was infecting our nature and persons with a principle of sin and enmity against God, which was the effect of his temptation.

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And the destruction of this work is not done except by the introduction of a principle of holiness and obedience. The image of God in us was defaced by sin. The renovation or restoration of this image was one principal design of Christ in his coming. Unless this is done, there is no new world, no new creatures, no restoration of all things — no one end of the mediation of Christ is fully accomplished. And because his great and ultimate design was to bring us to the enjoyment of God, to his eternal glory, this cannot be done before we are "made fit for that inheritance of the saints in light," by grace and holiness But we will consider this matter a little more distinctly.

The exercise of the mediation of Christ is confined to the limits of his threefold office. Whatever he does for the church, he does it as a priest, or as a king, or as a prophet. Now, just as these offices agree in all the general ends of his mediation, so they differ in their acts and immediate objects. For their acts, it is plain that priestly, regal, and prophetic acts and duties have different natures, as do the offices to which they pertain. And for their objects, the proper immediate object of the priestly office is God himself, as evident both from the nature of the office and its proper acts. For as to the nature of the office, "every priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins," Heb 5.1. A priest is one who is appointed to deal with God on behalf of those for whom he executes his office. And the acts of the priestly office of Christ are two: oblation and intercession — and God is the immediate object of them both. Christ offered himself to God, and he makes intercession with him. But the immediate object of Christ's kingly and prophetic offices are men or the church. As a priest, he acts with God in our name and on our behalf. And as a king and prophet, he acts towards us in the name and authority of God.

This being premised, we may consider how each of these offices of Christ has an influence on holiness, and makes it necessary for us:

FIRST, for the priestly office of Christ, all of its proper acts immediately respect God himself, as declared. And therefore he does not immediately and efficiently work holiness in us by any priestly act. But the effects of these priestly acts (i.e., of his oblation and intercession) are of two sorts:

1. Immediate: those respecting God himself, such as atonement, reconciliation, and satisfaction. The first and fundamental end of the mediation of Christ consists in these. Without a supposition of these, all other things are rendered useless. We can neither be sanctified nor saved by him unless sin is first expiated and God atoned. But these are not our present consideration.

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2. The mediate effects of Christ's priestly actings respect us, and they are also of two sorts:

(1.) Moral, such as our justification and pardon of sin.

(2.) Real, as in our sanctification and holiness.

And for this, just as God designs them, so he effects holiness in all believers by virtue of the oblation and intercession of Jesus Christ. Therefore, even though the immediate actings of that office respect God alone as their proper object, their virtue and efficacy extend to our sanctification and holiness.

Tit 2.14, "He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a special people, zealous of good works." His "giving himself for us" is the common expression for offering himself as a sacrifice to God as a priest, Eph 5.2. And he did this not only that he might "redeem us from all iniquity," from the guilt of our sins, and the punishment due for them, which are regarded in redemption, but also so that he might "purify us to himself," sanctify us, or make us holy and fruitful, or "zealous of good works." His blood, as he offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit, "purges our conscience from dead works to serve the living God," Heb 9.14. There is a purging of sin which consists in the legal expiation of it, in making atonement for it; but the purging of a sinner, or the purging of the conscience, is by real efficiency in sanctification, which is declared to be one end of the oblation of Christ, Heb 1.3.[1087] So where he is said to "wash us from our sins in his own blood," Rev 1.5 — namely, as shed and offered for us —it is not only the expiation of guilt that is intended, but the purification of filth.

The way and manner how holiness is communicated to us by virtue of the death and oblation of Christ, I have shown at large before; and I will not therefore insist on it here again. I will only observe that holiness being one special end for which Christ "gave himself for us," or "offered himself to God" for us, it is impossible for us to have the least evidence of an interest in his oblation for any other end, without participating in this holiness. And as for those who are never made holy, Christ never died or offered himself for them. I cannot understand what advantage it is to religion to affirm that most of those for whom Christ died as a priest, or offered himself as an oblation to God, will have no benefit by it as to grace or glory — and incomparably most of them without any especial fault of their own, as never hearing of him. Nor can I find in the Scripture a double design of Christ in giving himself for mankind [universally] — towards some, that they may be redeemed from all iniquity, and purified to be his special ones; and towards others, that they may yet be left under the guilt and power of their sins.

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In considering the oblation of Christ, it evacuates the force of the motive for the necessity of holiness, when men are taught that Christ offered himself as a sacrifice for those who are never made holy. Therefore, I say, no unholy person can have any certain evidence that he has an interest in the oblation of Christ, seeing that Christ gave himself to purify those for whom he was offered.

The intercession of Christ, which is his second priestly act, also has the same end; and it is effectual to the same purpose. It is true, Christ does intercede with God for the pardon of sin by virtue of his oblation, for which he is said to be our advocate with God, and to comfort us in case of unexpected sin, 1John 2.1-2.[1088] But this is not all that he designs in this; he also intercedes for grace and for supplies of the Spirit, so that we may be made and kept holy. See John 17.15, 17.[1089]

SECONDLY, As to the prophetic office of Christ, the church or men alone are its immediate object, and the object of all its acts and duties. Christ is God's legate and ambassador in this, His apostle and messenger to us. Whatever he does as a prophet, he does with us and towards us in the name of God. There are two parts or works of Christ in this office, relating only to the doctrine he taught:

1. The revelation of God in his name and love; and of the mystery of God's grace, goodness, and truth by his promises — so that we may believe in him. For this first part, in which, indeed, his prophetic office was principally exercised, see John 1.18, 3.2, 17.6.[1090]

2. The revelation of God in his will and commands — so that we may obey him. For this second part, the revelation of the preceptive will of God that was made by Jesus Christ, may be considered two ways:

(1.) As he was specifically sent to the house of Israel as the "minister of the circumcision for the truth of the promises of God to the fathers," Rom 15.8.[1091]

(2.) With respect to the whole church of all ages.

(1.) The first, which took up much of his personal ministry in the flesh, consisted in the declarations, exposition, and vindication that he gave to the church of all divine precepts for obedience which had been given before. God had given excellent precepts for holiness and obedience from the beginning. And he did so in a special manner at the promulgation of the law on Sinai, and by the ensuing expositions of that law by the prophets. But the people to whom they were given were carnal — thus they were not able to bear the spiritual light and sense of them which was, therefore, greatly veiled under the Old Testament.2Cor 3.14 Not only the promises, but also the precepts of the law, were then but obscurely apprehended. Besides, the church having grown corrupt, the solemn expositions of God's commands were received among men whose sole design was to accommodate them to the lusts and sins of men, or to exempt men from an obligation to obey them, if not totally, then in many instances.

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Our blessed Savior applies himself in the discharge of his prophetic office, with respect to the end of the command, which is our holy obedience, as to both these, in the declaration of its excellence and efficacy. —

[1.] He declares the inward spiritual nature of the law, with its respect to the most secret frames of our hearts and minds, with the least disorder or irregularity of our passions and affections. And then —

[2.] He declares the true sense of its commands: their nature, meaning, and extent, vindicating them from all the corrupt and false glosses which were then current in the church, by which an abatement was made of their efficacy, and an indulgence granted to the lusts of men.

By their traditional interpretation, the Jews had restrained the sixth commandment, "You shall not kill," to actual murder; and the seventh, "You shall not commit adultery," to actual uncleanness; — just as some now would restrain the second commandment to making and worshipping images, excluding the primary intent of the precept, which is to restrict all means and manners of worship to those which are divinely instituted. We may see how, in his doctrine, Christ removed these corruptions, Mat 5.21, 22, 27, 28.[1092]

Thus he restored the law to its pristine crown, as the Jews have a tradition that this shall be done in the days of the Messiah. The Lord Christ placed the beginning of his prophetic office and ministry in this, Mat 5-7. He opened, unveiled, explained, and vindicated the preceptive part of the will of God that was previously revealed, to the end that by complying with it, we would be holy. The full revelation of the mind and will of God in the perfection and spirituality of the command, was reserved for Christ in the discharge of his office. And he gave it to us, that we might have a perfect and complete rule of holiness. This, therefore, was the immediate end of this work or duty of the office of Christ. And when we do not respond to it obediently, we reject that great prophet which God has sent; to which excision[1093] is so severely threatened.

(2.) The second part of this office, or of its discharge with respect to the church of all ages (which takes in the ministry of the apostles), and as divinely inspired by him, consisted in the revelation of our duties of holiness. Although these had a general foundation in the law, and their equity was established in it, their special nature could never have been known as incumbent on us and necessary to us, except by his teachings and instructions. Hence they are called "old" and "new" commandments in distinct senses.Joh 13.34 Such are faith in God through Christ, brotherly love, denial of ourselves in taking up the cross, returning good for evil, with other duties of the same kind. We know how great a part of evangelical holiness consists in these "new" things.

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Besides these, he also teaches us all those ordinances of worship in which our obedience to him also belongs to our holiness, by which it is enlarged and promoted. This, I say, is the nature and end of the prophetic office of Christ. In it he acts towards us from God, and in His name, as to the declaration of the will of God in his commands. And it is our holiness which is his only end and design in this. So it is summarily represented in Tit 2.11-12.[1094]

There are three things to be considered in the doctrine of obedience that Christ teaches:

[1.] That it reaches the heart itself, with all its inmost and secret actings; and that is in the first place. The practice of most goes no further than to outward acts; the teachings of many go no further (or at best) to the moderation of affections. But Christ, in the first place, requires the renovation of our whole soul into the image of God, in all its faculties, motions, and actings, John 3.3, 5; Eph 4.22-24.[1095]

[2.] It is extensive. There is nothing that is in any way pleasing to God, conformable to his mind, or compliant with his will, that he does not require; nothing crooked, or perverse, or displeasing to God, that it is not forbidden by him. It is therefore a perfect rule of holiness and obedience.

[3.] Clearness, perspicuity, and evidence of divine truth and authority in all.

[1.] By this, I say that the doctrine of Christ for universal obedience, in all its duties, comes to be absolute, in every way complete and perfect. It is a notable effect of the atheistic pride of men, that pretending to design obedience to God (at least in moral duties), they resort to other rules and directions, as either plainer, fuller, or more efficacious than those of the gospel — those which are the teachings of Christ himself, the great prophet and apostle sent by God to instruct us in our duty. Some go to the light of nature and the use of right reason as their guide (that is, their own reason); and some add the additional documents of the philosophers. They think that a saying of Epictetus, or Seneca, or Arrianus, being wittily suited to their fancies and affections, has more life and power in it than any precept of the gospel. The reason why these things are more pleasing to them than the commands and instructions of Christ is because, proceeding from the spring of natural light, they are suited to the workings of natural fancy and understanding. But those of Christ, proceeding from the fountain of eternal spiritual light, are not comprehended in their beauty and excellence without a principle of the same light in us, guiding our understandings and influencing our affections. Hence, take any precept about moral duties, general or particular, that is materially the same in the writings of philosophers as it is in the doctrine of the gospel, and not a few will prefer it as delivered in the first way, before the latter — men have risen to such a contempt of Jesus Christ, who is the wisdom of God and the great prophet of the church!

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When Christ entered his prophetic office, the "voice came from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, hear him." Luk 9.35 This office succeeded the place of all those terrible appearances and dreadful preparations which God made use of in giving the law. For He gave the law by the ministry of angels, who being mere creatures, he manifested the dread of his own presence among them to give authority to their ministrations. But when he came to reveal his will under the gospel, it was done by the one "in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily," Col 2.9 and who was entrusted with all divine power. God did no more than declare which person it was, and he gave us a general command to hear him. And he did this with respect to what he had fixed before as a fundamental ordinance of heaven — namely, that when he raised up and sent the great prophet of the church, whoever would not hear him should be cut off from the people.[1096] Compliance with this command, in hearing the voice of Christ, is therefore the foundation of all holiness and gospel obedience. If men will not be moved either by the wisdom, authority, or goodness of God in giving us this command and direction for our good; nor with the consideration of the endowments and faithfulness of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in the discharge of his prophetic office; nor from the remembrance that it is Christ, and not Epictetus, or Seneca, or Plato, to whom they must give their account at the last day — so as to take Christ alone for their guide in all obedience to God and duty among themselves — then they will find, when it is too late, that they have been mistaken in their choice.

Let us suppose at present, if you please, for the sake of those who would have it so, that all our obedience consists in morality, or its duties — this is the opinion of our "modern heathens" (as one rightly calls them). From where or from whom will we learn it, or to whom will we go for teaching and instruction about it? Certainly it would be where the instruction or system of precepts is most plain, full, perfect, and free from mistakes; where the manner of teaching is most powerful and efficacious; and where the authority of the teacher is greatest and most unquestionable — there is where we ought to apply ourselves to learn and be guided. In all these respects we may say of Christ, as Job said of God, "Who teaches like him?" Job 36.22. Then, probably,[1097] we will be taught by God, when we are taught by him.[1098] The commands and precepts of duties which are given to us by the light of nature, however improved they may be by the wits and reasons of contemplative men, are in many ways defective. For —

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1st. The utmost imaginations of men never reached to that in which the life and soul of holiness consist — namely, the renovation of our lapsed nature into the image and likeness of God. Without this, whatever precepts are given about the moderation of affections, and duties of moral holiness, they are lifeless and will prove useless. And hence the nature of no individual person was ever renewed by all those documents written by philosophers of old, whatever change was worked on their conduct. But this renewal is plainly and directly required in the doctrine of obedience taught by Jesus Christ, the great prophet of the church — as I have sufficiently proved in this whole discourse.

2dly. Very few natural precepts are certain, so that we may take them as undoubted and infallible rules. There are some general commands, I acknowledge, that are so clear in the light of nature that there is no question that what is required in them, is our duty to perform — such as, God is to be loved, others are not to be injured, everyone's right is to be rendered to him. All reasonable creatures assent to these at their first proposal — and where any are found to live in open neglect of them, or seem to be ignorant of them, their degeneracy into bestiality is open, and their sentiments are not at all to be regarded. But go a little further, and you will find all the great moralists in endless, uncertain disputes about the nature of virtue in general, about its offices and duties, about the rule and measure of their practice. Most of them have consumed their lives in these disputes, without any great endeavors to express their own notions in the conduct of their lives. And I suppose it is from the same reason, in part, that our present moralists seem to care for nothing but the name; virtue itself has grown to be a strange and uncouth[1099] thing. But as to what is commanded us by Jesus Christ, there is no room for the least hesitation whether it is an infallible rule for us to attend to or not. Every precept of his about the meanest duty is as equally certain, and infallibly declarative of the nature and necessity of that duty, as those of the greatest moralists who have the most evidence from the light of nature. Once it appears that Christ requires anything of us by his word, that he has taught us anything as the prophet of the church, no doubt remains with us whether it is our duty or not.

3dly. The whole rule of duties given by the most improved light of nature, setting aside those that are purely evangelical (which some despise), is obscure and partial. There are various moral duties, which I instanced before, in which the light of nature (as it remains in its lapsed, depraved condition), never extended to its discovery. And this obscurity is evident from the differences that surround its precepts and directions.

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But now the revelation made by Christ, and his commands in it, are commensurate with universal obedience. It gives bounds to obedience, so that there is no duty except what he has commanded. And it is sufficient to discharge the most specious pleas and pretenses that something is a duty towards God or man, by showing that it is not required by him. And so his commands and directions are plain and evidently perspicuous.[1100] I dare challenge the greatest and most learned moralist in the world, to give an instance of any one duty of morality, confirmed by the rules and directions of the highest and most contemplative moralist, that I cannot show and evince is more plainly and clearly required by the Lord Christ in the gospel; and that this duty is pressed on us by far more effectual motives than any they are acquainted with. It is therefore the highest folly, as well as wickedness, for men to design, plead, or pretend that we should learn duties of obedience from others, rather than from Christ, the prophet of the church.

[2.] The manner of teaching, as to its power and efficacy, is also to be considered to this end. And concerning this, we too may say, "Who teaches like him?" There was such eminency in his personal ministry while he was on the earth, that it filled all men with admiration. Hence it is said that "he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes," Mat 7.29; and another time, "they wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth," Luke 4.22; and the very officers sent to apprehend him for preaching, came away astonished, saying, "No one ever spoke like this man," John 7.46. It is true, it was not the design of God that multitudes of that hardened generation would be converted by his personal ministry, John 12.37-40;[1101] he had another design to fulfil in them, by them, and upon them. Yet it is evident from the gospel, that there was a divine power and glory accompanying his ministerial instructions.

Even so, this is not what I intend, but his continued and present teaching of the church by his word and Spirit. He gives such power and efficacy to it, that every day it demonstrates by its effects that it is from God, being accompanied with the evidence and demonstration of a spiritual power in it. The experiences, consciences, and lives of multitudes, bear witness to this continually. They attest, and will do so to eternity, what power his word has had to enlighten their minds, to subdue their lusts, to change and renew their hearts, to relieve and comfort them in their temptations and distresses, with like effects of grace and power.

What is in the manner of teaching by the greatest moralist, and what are its effects? Enticing words, smoothness and elegance of speech, composed into snares for the affections, and delight to the fancy, are the grace, ornament, and life of the way or manner of their teaching. And from these, evanid satisfaction, temporary resolutions for a kind of compliance with the things said, and maybe a few perishing endeavors after some change of life, are the best effects of all such discourses.

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So easy and gentle is their operation on the minds of men, that they are commonly delighted in by the most profligate and obstinate sinners — as is the preaching of those who act in the same spirit and from the same principles.

[3.] The last thing to be considered in those whose instructions we choose to give ourselves to, is their authority. But it must be left without further plea to the consciences of all, which will have the higher esteem: the authority of Christ the Son of God, or the authority of those others they admire. Let them freely make their choice, so they will ingenuously[1102] acknowledge what they do.

Therefore, the great end of the prophetic office of Christ is our holiness and obedience to God — in the revelation he made of the will of God in the Scriptures; in his personal ministry; and in the dispensation of his word and Spirit continued in the church. And so I cannot help but remark on the atheism, pride, and folly of those "modern heathens," who really, or in pretense, resort to the light of nature and philosophical maxims for their guidance and direction, rather than to the one who is designed by God to be the great teacher of the church. I do not deny that many excellent documents concerning virtue and vice may be found in the ancient moralists. Yet having been, perhaps, more conversant with their writings than most of those who pretend so highly to their veneration, I do not fear to affirm that, just as their sayings may be of use for illustration of the truth (which is infallibly learned another way), so if we take them alone, they will sooner delight the minds and fancies of men, than benefit or profit them as to the true ends of morality or virtue.

THIRDLY, This also is one great end of the kingly power of Christ. For as King, he subdues our enemies and preserves our souls from ruin. And our adversaries are those who fight against our spiritual condition and safety — such principally are our lusts, our sins, and our temptations, along with what accompanies them. Our Lord Christ subdues these by his kingly power, quickening and strengthening in us all the principles of holy obedience, by his aids and supplies of grace. In brief, the work of Christ as king may be reduced to these headings:

1. To make his subjects free;

2. To preserve them in safety, delivering their souls from deceit and violence;

3. In giving them prosperity, and increasing their wealth;

4. In establishing assured peace for them;

5. In giving them love among themselves;

6. In placing the interest and welfare of his kingdom in all their affections;

7. In eternally rewarding their obedience.

And he does all these principally by working grace and holiness in his subjects, as might easily be demonstrated. I assume no one questions that the principal work of Christ towards us, as our head and king, is in making and preserving us holy. I will not, therefore, further insist on that.

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It remains that we improve these considerations to confirm our present argument concerning the necessity of holiness.

First, it is evident from this, how vain and absurd a thing it is for anyone continuing in an unholy condition, to imagine they have any interest in Christ, or will have any benefit by him. This is the great deceit by which Satan, that enemy of common salvation, has ruined most who profess the Christian religion. The gospel openly declares a way of life and salvation by Jesus Christ. This is thus far admitted by all who are called Christians: that they will allow no other way for the same end to compete with it. I am not speaking about those who, being profligate and hardened in sins, disregard all future concerns. I intend only those in general who have a desire to escape the damnation of hell, and to attain immortality and glory. And they at least profess to do this by Jesus Christ, because they assume that the things mentioned in the gospel to this purpose, belong to them as well as to others, because they are Christians. But they do not consider that there are certain ways and means by which the virtue and benefit of all that the Lord Christ has done for us, are conveyed to the souls of men, and by which they are made partakers of them. Without these, we have no concern in what Christ has done or declared in the gospel. If we expect to be saved by Christ, it must be by what he does and has done for us, as a priest, a prophet, and a king. But one of the principal ends of what he does in all these, is to make us holy. And if these ends are not effected in us, we can have no eternal benefit by anything that Christ has done or continues to do as the mediator of the church.

Hence the miserable condition of most of those who are called Christians — who live in sin, and yet hope to be saved by the gospel — is greatly to be bewailed. They contract the guilt of the two greatest evils that any reasonable creatures are liable to in this world; for —

1. They woefully deceive and ruin their own souls. Their whole profession of the gospel is only crying, "Peace, peace," when sudden destruction lies at the door.1Th 5.3 They "deny the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." 2Pet 2.1 They are bought and vindicated into the knowledge and profession of the truth, but in their works they deny the one whom in words they own — "whose damnation slumbers not." 2Pet 2.3 For men to live in covetousness, sensuality, pride, ambition, pleasures, hatred of the power of godliness, and yet to hope for salvation by the gospel, is the most infallible way to hasten and secure their own eternal ruin. And,

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2. They cast the greatest dishonor on Christ and the gospel that any persons are capable of casting on them. Those who reject the Lord Christ as a seducer, and the gospel as a fable, no more dishonor the one and the other, than those who, professing them both, continue to live and walk in an unholy condition. For the open enemies of Christ are judged and condemned already; and no one has occasion to think worse of Christ or the gospel for their opposition to them. But those who profess to own Christ and the gospel, endeavor by their unholiness to represent the Lord Christ as a minister of sin, as one who has procured indulgence for men to live in their lusts and in rebellion against God; and they endeavor to represent the gospel as a doctrine of licentiousness and wickedness. What else can anyone learn from them concerning the one or the other? The whole language of their profession is that Christ is such a Savior, and the gospel is such a law and rule, that men who love sin and live in sin, may be saved by them. This is what has reflected all kinds of dishonor on the Christian religion, and put a stop to its progress in the world. These are the ones our apostle makes this bitter complaint about: Phi 3.18-19, "Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame — who mind earthly things." How this character suits many who are called Christians in these days! Whatever they think of themselves, they are "enemies of the cross of Christ," Phi 3.18 and "tread under their feet the blood of the covenant." Heb 10.29

Secondly, Let more serious professors be most serious in this matter. The apostle, having given assurance of the certain salvation of all true believers from the immutable purpose of God, quickly adds, "Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity," 2Tim 2.19. This plainly intimates that without holiness, without a universal departure from iniquity, we cannot have the least evidence that we are interested in that assured condition. You name the name of Christ, profess an interest in him, and expect salvation by him — by which way will you apply yourselves to him? From which of his offices do you expect an advantage?

Is it from his priestly office? Has his blood purged your consciences from dead works, so that you serve the living God? Are you cleansed, and sanctified, and made holy by it? Are you redeemed out of the world by it, and from your vain conduct according to the customs and traditions of men? Are you dedicated to God by it, and made his special ones? If you do not find these effects of the blood-shedding of Christ in and upon your souls and consciences, then in vain you should expect those other effects which you look for: of atonement, peace, and reconciliation with God, of mercy, pardon, justification, and salvation. The priestly office of Christ has its whole effect towards all those on whom it has any effect. Those who despise its fruits in holiness, will never gain the least interest in its fruits of righteousness.

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Is it from his actings as the great prophet of the church that you expect help and relief? Have you effectively learned from him "to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world?" Tit 2.12 Has he taught you to be humble, to be meek, to be patient, to "hate the garment defiled by the flesh?" Jude 1.23 Has he instructed you to sincerity in all your ways, dealings, and whole way of life among men? Above all, has he taught you, have you learned from him, to purify and cleanse your hearts by faith, to subdue your inward spiritual and fleshly lusts, to endeavor after a universal conformity to his image and likeness? Do you find his doctrine effectual to these ends? And are your hearts and minds cast into its mold? If so, then your interest in him by his prophetic office is secured for you. But if you say that you hear his voice in his word as it is read and preached; that you have learned many mysteries and have attained much light or knowledge by it, or at least that you know the substance of the doctrine he has taught so that you can discuss it; indeed, that you do many things or perform many duties according to his word — but you cannot say that the effects listed earlier are worked in you by his word and Spirit — then you lose the second expectation of an interest in Christ as your mediator, and any advantage by it.

Will you take yourselves to the kingly office of Christ? Do you have expectations of him by virtue of this? You may do well to examine how he rules in you and over you. Has he subdued your lusts, those enemies of his kingdom which fight against your souls? Has he strengthened, aided, supported, and assisted you by his grace, to all holy obedience? Have you submitted yourselves to be ruled by his word and Spirit, to obey him in all things, and to entrust all your temporal and eternal concerns to his care, faithfulness, and power? If so, then you have cause to rejoice, as those who have an assured concern in the blessed things of his kingdom. But if your proud, rebellious lusts still bear sway in you; if sin has dominion over you; if you continue to "fulfil the lusts of the flesh and of the mind;" 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 — then do not deceive yourselves any longer: Christ will be of no advantage to you.

In these things lie the sum of our present argument. If the Lord Christ does not act for our good except 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, is our holiness and sanctification — then those in whom that effect is not worked and produced, have neither ground nor reason to promise themselves an interest in Christ, nor do they have any advantage by his mediation.

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For men to "name the name of Christ," to profess to be Christians, or his disciples, to avow any expectation of mercy, pardon, life and salvation by him, and yet in the meantime to be worldly, proud, ambitious, envious, revengeful, haters of good men, covetous, living in various lusts and pleasures — this is a scandal and a shame to the Christian religion; and it is unavoidably destructive to their own souls.

Chapter 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 to our giving glory to Jesus Christ.

V. Another argument for the necessity of holiness may be taken from the consideration of ourselves, and our present state and condition; for it is hereby alone that the vicious distemper of our nature is or can be cured. I have declared and sufficiently confirmed before, that our nature is fearfully and universally depraved by the entrance of sin. And I will not consider it now as to the disability of living to God, nor the enmity toward him which has come upon us by this depravity, nor the future punishment which it renders us liable to. Rather, what I intend is the present misery we are under, unless this depravity is cured. For the mind of man is possessed with darkness, vanity, folly, and instability; the will is under the power of spiritual death, and it is stubborn and obstinate; and all the affections are carnal, sensual, and selfish. The whole soul is being hurried away from God. It is so out of its way, that it 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, where the light is like darkness," Job 10.21-22. When Solomon sought out the causes of all the vanity and aggravation in the world, of all the troubles that the life of man is filled with, he says this was the sum of his discovery: "God made men upright, but they have discovered many inventions," Ecc 7.29; that is, they have thrown themselves into endless entanglements and confusions. What sin is in its guilt, punishment is in its power — indeed, the greatest punishment men are liable to in this world. Thus, for the guilt of some sins, God penally gives many into the power of others, Rom 1.24, 26, 28; 2Thes 2.11-12.[1103]

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And he does this not only to secure and aggravate their condemnation at the last day, but to give them a recompense in this world for their folly in themselves; for there is no greater misery or slavery than to be under the power of sin.

This proves the original depravation of our nature: The whole soul, filled with darkness, disorder, and confusion, is being brought under the power of various lusts and passions, captivating the mind and will to their interests, in the vilest drudgeries of servitude and bondage. No sooner does the mind begin to act suitably according to the small remainder of light in it, than it is immediately controlled by impetuous lusts and affections which darken its directions and silence its commands. Hence we have the common saying, which is not so common as what it signifies: "I see better things, and approve of them; but I follow worse."

"Video meliora proboque,

Deteriora sequor." — Ovid. Metam. lib. vii. 20.

Hence the whole soul is filled with fierce contradictions and conflicts. Vanity, instability, folly, sensual and irrational appetites, inordinate desires, self-disquieting and torturing passions, act continually in our depraved natures. See the account of this in Rom 3.10-18.[1104] How full the world is of disorder, confusion, oppression, rapine, uncleanness, violence, and similar dreadful miseries! Alas! They are but a weak and imperfect representation of the evils that are in the minds of men by nature. For just as they all proceed from the heart, as our Savior declares in Mat 15.18-19, so the thousandth part of what is conceived, is never brought forth and acted out. "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your lusts that war in your members? You lust, and do not have: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you do not have," Jas 4.1-2. All evils proceed from the impetuous lusts of the minds of men; and when they are acted out to the utmost, they are as unsatisfied as they were at the start. Hence the prophet Isaiah tells us that wicked men, under the power and disorder of a depraved nature, are like "the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters toss up mire and dirt" and have "no peace," Isa 57.20-21. The heart is in continual motion, restless in its figments and imaginations, like the waters of the sea when it is stormy and troubled. They are all evil, "only evil continually," Gen 6.5. In this state, it "tosses up mire and dirt." Those who seem to have the greatest advantages above others, in power and opportunity to satisfy their lusts, only increase their own disquietude and miseries, Psa 69.14.[1105] For as these things are evil in themselves and to others, so they are penal to those in whom they work, especially those in whom they abound and reign. If their breasts were opened, it would appear by the confusion and horror they live in, that they are in the very confines of hell.

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Hence the life of man is full of vanity, trouble, disappointments, vexations, and endless self-dissatisfactions. Those who were wise among the heathens saw, complained of, and attempted in vain to find relief against it. All these things proceed from the depravation of our nature, and the disorder that has come upon us by sin. And if they are not cured and healed, just as they will assuredly issue in everlasting misery, so they are woeful and calamitous at present. True peace, rest, and tranquility of mind, are strangers to such souls. Alas! What are the perishing profits, pleasures, and satisfactions gained by them, which this world can afford? How unable the mind of man is to discover rest and peace in them, or from them! They quickly satiate and suffocate in their enjoyment; they come to find no relish in their varieties, which only heighten present vanity, and treasure up provision for future vexation. We therefore have no greater interest in the world than to inquire how this disorder may be cured, and to put a stop to this fountain of all abominations. What we intend will be clarified in the ensuing observations:

1. It is true that some are naturally of a more sedate and quiet temper and disposition than others. They do not fall into such outrages and excesses of outward sins as others do; indeed, their minds are not capable of such turbulent passions and affections as most are possessed with. These are comparatively peaceable and useful to their relations and others. Yet their minds and hearts are full of darkness and disorder: for so it is with all men by nature (as we proved), who do not have an almighty effectual cure worked on them. The less troublesome waves they have on the surface, the more mire and dirt they often have at the bottom.

2. Education, convictions, afflictions, illuminations, hope of a righteousness of their own, love of reputation, engagements into the society of good men, resolutions for secular ends, with other like means, often put great restraints on the actings and ebullitions[1106] of the evil imaginations and turbulent affections of the minds of men. Indeed, the frame of mind and course of life may be greatly changed by them — how, in what, and how far, is not our present business to declare.

3. Notwithstanding all that may be effected by these means, or any other of like nature, the disease is uncured; the soul still continues in its disorder and in all its inward confusion; for our original order, harmony, and rectitude consisted in the powers and inclinations of our minds, wills, and affections, to regular actings towards God as our end and reward.

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From this proceeded all that order and peace which were in all their faculties and their actings.[1107] While we continued in due order towards God, it was impossible to be otherwise in ourselves; but having fallen away from God by sin, having lost our conformity and likeness to him, we fell into all the confusion and disorder described before. Therefore —

4. The only cure and remedy for this evil condition is by holiness; it must be, and cannot be otherwise, than by the renovation of the image of God in us; for it is from the loss of this that all the evil mentioned springs and arises. Our souls are in some measure restored to their primitive order and rectitude by this; and without it, all attempts for inward peace, real tranquility of mind, with due order in our affections, will be in vain. It is the holy soul — the sanctified mind alone — that is composed into an orderly tendency towards the enjoyment of God. What we aim at is what we are directed to by our apostle in Eph 4.22-24. Our deliverance from the power of corrupt and deceitful lusts, which are the spring and cause of all the confusion mentioned, is by the renovation of the image of God in us, and not otherwise. Hence, a cogent argument and motive for holiness arises for all those who are not in love with their lusts and ruin.

But various things may be objected to this; such as, first —

"We admit and maintain that in all sanctified persons there are still certain remainders of our original depravation and disorder — that sin still abides in believers — indeed, that it works powerfully and effectively in them, leading them captive to the law of sin. From this ensue great and mighty wars and conflicts in the souls of regenerate persons who are truly sanctified. They suffer so far in this as to groan, complain, and cry out for deliverance. 'The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary.' Therefore, it does not appear that this holiness heals and cures the sinful distempers of our minds as described. On the other side, men who are assumed to still be under the power of sin, who do not have that grace and holiness in the renovation of the image of God which is pleaded for, seem to have more peace and quietness in their minds. They do not have that inward conflict which others complain about, nor those groans for deliverance — indeed, they find satisfaction in their lusts and pleasures, relieving themselves by them against anything that occasions their trouble."

Ans. 1. That peace and order which is pretended to be in the minds of men under the power of sin, who are not sanctified, is like that which is found in hell and the kingdom of darkness. Satan is not divided against himself; nor is there such confusion and disorder in his kingdom as to destroy it. Rather, it has a consistency ensuing from the common end of all that is in it — which is opposition to God and to all that is good.

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There may be such peace and order in an unsanctified mind. There being no active principle in it longing for God and for what is spiritually good, everything works in one way, and all its troubled streams have the same course. Yet they continually "toss up mire and dirt." There is only that peace in such minds which the "strong man armed" guards against; that is, in which Satan keeps his goods until someone stronger than he comes to bind him.[1108] If anyone thinks that such peace and order is sufficient for him, in which his mind in all its faculties acts uniformly against God (or acts for self, sin, and the world) without any opposition or contradiction, then he may find as much in hell when he comes there.

Ans. 2. There is a difference between anarchy [1109] and rebellion. Where there is anarchy in a state, all rule or government is dissolved, and everything is let loose to the utmost disorder and evil. But where the rule is firm and stable, there may be rebellions that give some parts and places disturbance and damage, yet the whole state is not disordered by it. So it is in the condition of a sanctified soul on account of the remainders of sin; there may be rebellion in it, but not anarchy. Grace keeps the rule in the mind and heart firm and stable, so there is peace and assurance for the whole state of the person, even though lusts and corruptions are rebelling and warring against it. Therefore the divine order of the soul — consisting in the rule of grace that subordinates everything to God in Christ — is never overthrown by the rebellion of sin at any time, however vigorous or prevalent it may be. But in the state of unsanctified persons, even though there is no rebellion, there nothing but anarchy. Sin has the rule and dominion in them; and however men may be pleased with it for a season, it is nothing but perfect disorder, because it is a continual opposition to God. It is a tyranny that overthrows all law, rule, and order with respect to our last and highest end.

Ans. 3. The soul of a believer has such satisfaction in this conflict, that its peace is not ordinarily disturbed, and it is never quite overthrown by it. Such a person knows sin is his enemy, knows its design, but he also knows the aids and assistances which are prepared for him against sin's deceit and violence — and so, considering the nature and end of this contest, he is satisfied with it. Yes, the greatest hardships that sin can reduce a believer to, only move him to exercise those graces and duties in which he receives great spiritual satisfaction. Such are repentance, humiliation, godly sorrow, self-abasement and abhorrence, with fervent outcries for deliverance. Now, although these things seem to have what is grievous and dolorous prevailing in them, yet the graces of the Spirit of God being active in them, they are so suited to the nature of the new creature, and they so belong to the spiritual order of the soul, that it finds secret satisfaction in them all.

646

But the trouble non-believers meet with in their own hearts and minds on account of sin, is only from the severe reflections of their consciences; and they receive them only as certain presages and predictions of future and eternal misery.

4. A sanctified person is ensured of success in this conflict, which keeps blessed peace and order in his soul during its continuance. And there is a twofold success against the rebellious actings of the remainders of indwelling sin:

(1.) In particular instances;

(2.) In the whole cause.

And in both these, we have sufficient assurance of success, if we are not lacking in ourselves.

(1.) Suppose the contest is considered with respect to any particular lust and corruption, and that lust is in conjunction with some powerful temptation. We have sufficient and blessed assurance that if we abide in the diligent use of the ways and means assigned to us, and in the improvement of the assistance provided in the covenant of grace, we will not fail to have actual success — lust will not conceive, bring forth, and finish sin, Jas 1.15. But if we are lacking in ourselves, negligent in our known duties and principal concerns, then it is no wonder if we are sometimes thrown into disorder, and foiled by the power of sin. But —

(2.) As to the general success in the whole cause — namely, that sin will not utterly deface the image of God in us, nor absolutely or finally ruin our souls (which is its end and tendency) — we have the covenant faithfulness of God for our security, which will not fail us, Rom 6.14.[1110]

Therefore, notwithstanding this opposition and all that is ascribed to it, there is peace and order preserved by the power of holiness in a sanctified mind and soul.

But it will be further objected that, secondly —

"Many professors who highly pretend to sanctification and holiness, and whom you judge to partake of them, are nonetheless peevish, froward, morose, and unquiet in their minds, among their relations, and in the world. Indeed, there is much outward vanity and disorder (which you make tokens of the internal confusion of the minds of men and of the power of sin) that either proceed from them, or are carried on by them. Where then is the advantage pretended, that should render holiness so indispensably necessary to us?"

Ans. If there are any such believers, all the more shame for them, and they must bear their own judgment. These things are diametrically opposite to the work of holiness and the "fruit of the Spirit," Gal 5.22; and, therefore, I say that —

1. Many are perhaps esteemed holy and sanctified, who indeed are not so. Though I will judge no man in particular, yet I would rather pass this judgment on any man, that he has no grace, than to say, on the other hand, that grace does not change our nature and renew the image of God in us.

647

2. Many who are really holy may have a double disadvantage: first, to be under circumstances that frequently expose their natural infirmities, and then to have them greatened and heightened in the sight of those with whom they deal. This was actually the case of David all his days, and of Hannah, 1Sam 1.6-7. I would far from countenance the sinful distempers of anyone; yet I do not doubt that the infirmities of many believers are represented by others out of envy and hatred of their profession of faith in Christ, to an undeserved disadvantage.

3. Wherever there is the seed of grace and holiness, an entrance is made upon the cure of all those sinful distempers — not only of the corrupt lusts of the flesh that are absolutely evil and vicious in their whole nature, but even of those natural infirmities and distempers of peevishness, moroseness, inclination to anger and passion, unsteadiness in resolution — which lust is apt to possess and use for evil and disorderly ends. And I am pressing for the necessity of holiness — that is, for its increase and growth — so that this work may be carried on to perfection. And through that, by the power of the grace of the gospel, the great promise may be accomplished which is recorded in Isa 11.6-9.[1111] A wandering, manipulative impostor, who pretended to judge men's lives and manners by their physiognomy,[1112] beheld Socrates and pronounced from his countenance, that he was a person of a flagitious,[1113] sensual life. The people who knew of Socrates' sober and virtuous conduct derided the man's folly. But Socrates excused him, affirming that he would have been such a man, if he had not bridled his nature by his philosophy. How much more truly may it be said of multitudes, that they would have been eminent in nothing but untoward[1114] distempers of mind, if their souls had not been rectified and cured by the power of grace and holiness!

I find there is no end of arguments that offer their service to the purpose in hand. I will therefore waive many, which are of great importance and attended with unavoidable cogency,[1115] and close this discourse with one which must not be omitted: In our holiness consists the principal part of that revenue of glory and honor which the Lord Christ requires and expects from his disciples in this world. I suppose it is out of the question among us that Christ requires this of us indispensably, even though most who are called Christians live as if they had no other design than to cast all disgrace, reproach, and shame on him and his doctrine. But if we are indeed his disciples, then he has bought us with a price, and we are not our own but his. And because we are his, we are to glorify him in soul and body, 1Cor 6.19-20. He died for us, that we should not live to ourselves, but to him who died for us, and by virtue of whose death we live, 2Cor 5.15; Rom 14.7-9.

648

"He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a special people, zealous for good works," Tit 2.14. But we need not insist on this. To deny that we ought to glorify and honor Christ in the world, is to renounce him and the gospel. The sole inquiry is, "How may we do so, and what does he require of us to that purpose?"

Now, the sum of all that the Lord Christ expects from us in this world may be reduced to these two heads:

1. That we should live holily to him;

2. That we should suffer patiently for him.

And he is glorified by us in these two things alone. He expects us to live holily at all times and in all things; suffering patiently is expected of us on particular occasions, as we are called to it by him. Where these two things are, where this revenue of glory is paid in and returned to him, he does not regret his purchase, nor the invaluable price he paid for us. Indeed, it says, "The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a goodly heritage;" these are the words of Christ concerning the church, which is his lot and the "portion of his inheritance," Psa 16.6. Now, among many others, we will consider but one way by which we glorify the Lord Christ by our holy obedience; and from this it will also appear how much we dishonor and reproach him when we come short of it.

The Lord Christ, coming into the world as the mediator between God and man, worked and accomplished a mighty work among us; and what he did may be referred to three heads:

1. The life which he led;

2. The doctrine which he taught; and,

3. The death which he underwent.

Concerning all these, there was ever a great contest in the world, and it continues yet. On the part of the world, it is managed under a double appearance: for some have openly maligned his life as unholy, his doctrine as foolish, and his death as justly deserved. This was the feeling of the Pagan world and the apostate Judaical church of old, as it is the feeling of many today. Others allow these to pass with some approval, pretending to own what is taught in the gospel concerning them. But in fact and in practice, they deny there is any such power and efficacy in them as they pretend to; and yet without it, they have no virtue. This is the way of carnal gospellers, and all idolatrous, superstitious worshippers among Christians. And lately there has risen up among us a generation who consider all that is said concerning Christ as mere fable. In opposition to this, the Lord Christ calls all his true disciples to bear witness and testimony to the holiness of his life, the wisdom and purity of his doctrine, the efficacy of his death to expiate sin — to make atonement and peace with God — along with the power of his whole mediation to renew the image of God in us, to restore us to God's favor, and to bring us to the enjoyment of Him.

649

He calls all his disciples to avow and express this in the world; and by their doing so, he is glorified (and not otherwise) in a special manner. A testimony is to be given to and against the world, that his life was most holy, his doctrine most heavenly and pure, his death most precious and efficacious; and consequently, that he was sent by God to his great work, and was accepted by him in this. Now, all this is not done other than by obedience to him in holiness, as it is visible and fruitful; for —

1. We are obliged to profess that the life of Christ is our example. We are called to this in the first place, and every Christian virtually makes that profession. No man takes that holy name upon himself but the first thing he signifies by it, is that he makes the life of Christ his pattern, which it is his duty to express in his own life. The one who takes up Christianity on any other terms woefully deceives his own soul. How then may we yield a revenue of glory in this? How may we bear testimony to the holiness of his life against the blasphemies of the world and the unbelief of most, who have no regard for this? Can this be done in any other way than by holiness of heart and life, by conformity to God in our souls, and living to God in fruitful obedience? Can men devise a more effectual expedient to cast reproach on Christ than to live in sin, follow diverse lusts and pleasures, prefer the world and present things before eternity, and meantime profess that the life of Christ is their example — as all unholy professors and Christians do? Is this not to bear witness with the world against him, that indeed his life was unholy? Surely it is high time for such persons to either leave the name of Christian, or leave the life of sin. It is therefore only in conformity to Christ, in the holiness we press for, that we can give him any glory on account of his life being our example.

2. We can give him no glory unless we bear testimony to his doctrine — that it is holy, heavenly, filled with divine wisdom and grace — by making it our rule. And there is no other way by which this may be done than by holy obedience, expressing the nature, end, and usefulness of it, Tit 2.11- 12.[1116] Indeed, the holy obedience of believers, as declared at large before, is a thing of quite another kind than anything in the world which we are directed to or instructed in by the rules, principles, and light of nature. His doctrine is spiritual, heavenly, mysterious, filled with principles and actings of the same kind as those by which our communion with God will be maintained in glory to eternity. Now, the life of evangelical holiness is secret and hidden in its principle, form, and chief actings — hidden with Christ in God from the eyes of the world — so that the men of this world neither see, know, nor discern the spiritual life of a believer in its being, form, and power.

650

Yet there are always such evident appearing fruits of it, as are sufficient for their conviction that the rule of it — which is the doctrine of Christ alone — is holy, wise, and heavenly. And multitudes in all ages have been won over to the obedience of the gospel, and faith in Christ Jesus, by the holy, fruitful, useful way of life of those who have expressed the power and purity of his doctrine in this kind.

3. The power and efficacy of the death of Christ for other ends is also required in this — to so "purify us from all iniquity," and "purge our conscience from dead works, that we may serve the living God." The world sometimes rises to such a height of pride and contemptuous atheism as to despise all appearance and profession of purity. But the truth is, if we are not cleansed from our sins in the blood of Christ, if we are not purified from iniquity by it, then we are an abomination to God, and we will be objects of his wrath forever. However, the Lord Christ requires no more of his disciples in this matter, to his glory, than to profess that his blood cleanses them from their sins, and that they evidence the truth of it by such ways and means as the gospel has appointed for that end. If their testimony as to the efficacy of his death is not received in this, or if it is despised by the world, and so at present no apparent glory redounds to him by his death, he is still satisfied with it. For he knows that the day is coming in which he will recall these things again, when rejecting this testimony will be an aggravation of condemnation for the unbelieving world.

I suppose the evidence of this last argument is plain and exposed to all. It is briefly this: without the holiness prescribed in the gospel, we give nothing of that glory to Jesus Christ which he indispensably requires. And if men are so senselessly foolish as to expect the greatest benefits and advantages by the mediation of Christ — namely, pardon of sin, salvation, life, and immortality — while they neglect and refuse to give him any revenue of glory for all he has done for them, then we may bewail their folly, but we cannot prevent their ruin. He saves us freely by his grace; but he requires that we express a sense of it, in ascribing to him the glory that is his due. And let no man think this is done in wordy expressions. It is not effected in any way other than by the power of a holy way of life, "showing forth the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light." 1Pet 2.9 Indeed, there is even more in it. If anyone professes to be a Christian — that is, a disciple of Jesus Christ, following the example of his life, obeying his doctrine, expressing the efficacy of his death — and yet continues in an unholy life, then he is a false traitor to Christ, and gives his testimony on the side of the world against Christ and all that he has done for us.

651

It is indeed the flagitious lives[1117] of professed Christians that have brought the life, doctrine, and person of our Lord Jesus Christ into contempt in the world. I advise all who read or hear of these things to diligently and carefully study the gospel, that they may receive from it evidence of the power, truth, glory, and beauty of Christ and his ways. For that person who would use the conduct of men as his guide, will hardly be able to determine which he should choose — whether to be a Pagan, a Mohammedan, or a Christian. And will such persons, because of whom the name of Christ is continually dishonored and blasphemed, expect an advantage by him, or mercy from him? Will men think they may live in sensuality, pride, ambition, covetousness, malice, revenge, hatred of all good men, and contempt of purity, and yet enjoy life, immortality, and glory by Christ? Who can sufficiently bewail the dreadful effects of such a horrid infatuation?

God teach us all to duly consider that all the glory and honor of Jesus Christ in the world, with respect to us, depends on our holiness, and not on any other thing that we are, have, or may do! If therefore we have any love for Christ, any spark of gratitude for his unspeakable love, grace, condescension, sufferings, and their eternal fruits; any care about or desire for his glory and honor in the world; if we would not be found at the last day to be the most hateful traitors to his crown, honor, and dignity; if we have any expectation of grace from him or advantage by him, here or hereafter — then let us labor to be "holy in all manner of conduct," 1Pet 1.15 that we may thereby adorn his doctrine,Tit 2.10 express his virtues and praises,1Pet 2.9 and grow up into conformity and likeness to Him,Eph 4.15 who is the first-born and image of the invisible God.Col 1.15

Μόνῳ Θεῷ σωτῆρι δόξα!

To God our Savior alone be the glory!

Notes

[←1]

Adjunct: something added to another thing, but not an essential part of it — WHG

[←2]

Socinians were antitrinitarian, denying the distinction of persons in the Godhead. Christ was the Logos, but Socinus denied His pre-existence; He was the Word of God only in being His interpreter. Christ was miraculously begotten as a perfect man, and as the appointed mediator, but He was not God (he was a deified man). He was not conceived of the Holy Spirit, but begotten by Joseph. His death did not bring about our redemption. Adam was free from sin only as a fact (i.e. his nature did not change at the Fall). Socinus denied the doctrine of original sin entirely. There was no hell; instead, the wicked were annihilated. — WHG

[←3]

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) began in England in the late 1640's. The "founder" of Quakerism is generally considered to be George Fox. He became convinced that it was possible to have a direct experience of Jesus Christ without the mediation of clergy. Quakers individually strive to sense a "moving of the Spirit" to direct their actions. Sometimes it causes them to quake, hence the name "Quaker." They joined with other Non-Conformist groups of the time to oppose the state-run Anglican Church of England with its formulated worship; thus Quakerism was a political movement as well as religious. — WHG

[←4]

Samuel Parker (1640-1688) Bishop of Oxford and a fierce opponent of the Dissenters. He wrote A Defence and Continuation of the Ecclesiastical Politie. London: 1671. — WHG

[←5]

Necessary for relief or supply.

[←6]

That is, Jerome (c.347-420), translator of the Latin Vulgate bible.

[←7]

Socinus (1539-1604) rejected the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, and original sin, leading to Unitarian theology.

[←8]

Photinus was a Galatian heretic of the 4th century; anti-Trinitarian. He considered the Father and the Word one Person. The Word became the Son only at the Incarnation, not at the creation, and was only a man (Sabellian/Nestorian heresies). — WHG

[←9]

In Justification by Faith (General Considerations, Our Apostasy from God), Owen describes Pelagianism this way: "Pelagianism, at its core, is determined to minimize our condition. Not apprehending the dread of our original apostasy from God, and the consequence of the total depravity of our nature, they disown any need for either Christ to satisfy our debt, or divine grace to restore us. So they renounce the main purpose of the mission both of the Son of God and of the Holy Spirit by denying the deity of the one and the personality of the other. In their view, the fall we had was not very great, and the disease we contracted is easily curable. Because there is little or no evil in our nature, it is no big deal to be freed or justified from it by our own endeavors. They suppose the efficacious grace of God is not needed at all for our sanctification and obedience." — WHG

[←10]

Ordinarily this word means moral perversion, or an impairment of virtue. But it has a very specific meaning with regard to the Gospel, and to pleasing God. It refers to the pervasive effects of Adam's fall on our nature as human beings. It is the innate and total corruption and disabling of our heart, mind, and soul – of our will, affections, and understanding – with regard to spiritual things. Owen will exhaustively describe this depravation, this inability, as he proceeds.

[←11]

It appears God was pleased to grant another opportunity. Those very topics are addressed in this compendium. It includes a number of Dr. Owen's later works: Book VI pub. 1677, Book VII pub. 1682, and Book VIII pub. 1693 (posthumously).

[←12]

Prevented or done away with.

[←13]

Or Jerome (c.347-420) translator of the Latin Vulgate Bible (from the Hebrew and Greek into common Latin).

[←14]

Owen refers to 'St Jerome's Dream', a painting of Orazio Borgianni, c1600. St Jerome (c. 340-420) dreamed he was in the presence of God. When asked to identify himself, he replied that he was a follower of Jesus. God told him he was a liar and that he was a Ciceronian. Jerome stopped reading Latin authors and turned his efforts to translating the Bible into Latin — WHG.

[←15]

Plausible but false; based on a pretense; deceptive.

[←16]

Eph 1:16-19 — I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; 18 so that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, you may know what is the hope of his calling, and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 and the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.

[←17]

This is Owen's sarcastic humor at work. He's saying that if he were to stop making this argument just because his opponents don't want to hear it, that won't keep the Spirit from acting on them anyway: what's true is true. His caustic attack continues into the next paragraph. — WHG

[←18]

Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Theophylactus.

[←19]

Hate coupled with disgust.

[←20]

Wrestled away from; obtained by seizing forcibly or violently.

[←21]

Isa 45.23; Rom 14.11; Phi 2.11

[←22]

Quoted from Francis Bacon (1561-1626).

[←23]

Crel. de Spir. Sanc., Prolegom., pp. 29-31.

[←24]

1Cor 6.12, 10.23; 2Cor 8.10.

[←25]

An herb that causes bitterness or sickness.

[←26]

Those who were with the Lord.

[←27]

"Præsentia spirituali cum eis erat ubique futurus post ascensionem suam, et cum tota ecclesia sua in hoc mundo usque in consummationem seculi: neque enim de solis apostolis potest intelligi, 'sicut dedisti ei potestatem omnis carnis, ut onme quod dedisti ei det eis vitam æternam;' sed ubique de omnibus quibus in eum credentibus vita æterna datur." — Aug. Tractat. 106, in Evangel. Johan.

"Munus hoc quod in Christo est — in consummationem seculi nobiscum; hoc expectationis nostræ solatium, hoc in donorum operationibus futuræ spei pignus est; hoc mentium lumen, hic splendor animorum est." — Hilar, lib. ii. 35, de Trinitat.

[←28]

"Hic est qui prophetas in ecclesia constituit, magistros erudit, linguas dirigit, vertutes et sanctitates facit, opera mirabilia gerit, discretiones spirituum porrigit, gubernationes contribuit, consilia suggerit, quæque alia sunt charismatum dona componit et digerit; et ideo ecclesiam Domino undique et in omnibus consummatam et perfectam facit." — Tertul. "He is the one who raises up prophets in the Church, instructs teachers, guides tongues, sanctifies works, performs miracles, grants discernment of spirits, provides governments, suggests counsels, and orders and arranges whatever other charismata there are; thus He consummates the Lord's Church everywhere, and perfects all things."

[←29]

Isaiah 59:21 "As for Me," says the LORD, "this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants," says the LORD, "from this time and forevermore."

[←30]

"Hic est qui operatur ex aquis secundam nativitatem, semen quoddam divini generis, et consecrator cælestis nativitatis; pignus promissæ hæreditatis et quasi chirographum quoddam æternæ salutis; qui nos Dei faciat templum et nos efficiat domum, qui interpellat divinas aures pro nobis gemitibus ineloquacibus, advocationis officia, et defensionis exhibens munera, inhabitator corporibus nostris ductus, et sanctitatis effector; hic est qui inexplebiles cupiditates coercet," etc. — Novat. de Trinitat.

[←31]

Tit 3.5; 1Cor 6.11.

[←32]

2Cor 9.8; 2Tim 3.16-17.

[←33]

"Omnibus quidem quæ divina sunt cum reverentia et vehementi cura opertet intendere, maxime autem his quæ de Spiritus Sancti divinitate dicuntur, præsertim cum blasphemia in eum sine venia sit; ita ut blasphemantis poena tendatur non solum in omne præsens seculum, sed etiam in futurum. Ait quippe Salvator, blasphemanti in Spiritum Sanctum non esse remissionem, 'neque in isto seculo neque in futuro:' unde magis ac magis intendere oportet quæ Scripturarum de eo relatio sit: ne in aliquem, saltem per ignorantiam, blasphemiæ error obrepat." — Didym, de Spir. Sanc. lib. i., Interpret. Hieron.

[Didymus, from whom Owen quotes so copiously in the following pages, was a professor of theology in Alexandria, and died A.D. 396 at the age of eighty-five. He became blind when only four years old, and yet contrived to acquire great distinction for his knowledge of all the sciences of the age, and especially of theology. His treatise on the Holy Spirit was translated by Jerome into Latin, and appears among the works of that father. — Ed.]

[←34]

An area in which something (or someone) acts or operates or has power or control.

[←35]

Deu 18:20 `But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.'

[←36]

To destroy completely, as if down to the roots.

[←37]

1Cor 10:20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

[←38]

Ἐπειδὰν γὰρ τελεταῖς τισι καὶ μαγγανείαις κατέδησε δαίμονά τις εἰς ἄνθρωπον, καὶ ἐμαντεύετο ἐκεῖνος, καὶ μαντευόμενος ἐῥῤίπτετο, καὶ ἐσπαράττετο, καὶ ἐνεγκεῖν τοῦ δαίμονος τὴν ὁρνὴν οὐκ ἠδύνατο ἀλλ' ἔμελλε διασπώμενος οὕτως ἀπόλλυσθαι, τοῖς τὰ τοιαῦτα μαγγανεύουσι φησί.

Λύσατε λοιπὸν ἄνακτα, βροτὸς Θεὸν οὐκ ἔτι χωρεῖ. — Chrysost. in 1Cor 12.

[←39]

Jer 5:30 "An astonishing and horrible thing Has been committed in the land: 31 The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?

[←40]

Mental infirmities.

[←41]

Broach: to open up a topic for discussion; but in this sense, to instigate or provoke a dispute.

[←42]

An artful trick; a sly artifice so that the performance escapes detection - "sleight of hand."

[←43]

Originally "fathered their prejudices," etc.

[←44]

Mat 24:24 "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

[←45]

1Joh 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

[←46]

Analogy: An inference that if things agree in some respects they probably agree in others. In this case, it requires that their doctrine be consistent with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ "according to the Scriptures" 1Cor 15.3, 4 - that it affirms Jesus is the promised Messiah, "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," Joh 1.29 - that he "came into the world to save sinners," 1Tim 1.5, who must "believe in the name of the Son of God," 1Joh 5.13 - WHG

[←47]

Not just that "Jesus" has come in the flesh, but that he is the incarnate "Christ" - "the one who was to come" Mat 11.3.

[←48]

2Joh 1:7-11 For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist... 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; 11 for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.

[←49]

Rom 9:4-5 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

[←50]

Originally "cogging," which is to weight a die so as to cheat at gambling; to trick, deceive, or "palm off" as genuine.

[←51]

That is, every believer is responsible to test false prophets by this standard.

[←52]

Deu 18:20-22 'But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.' 21 "And if you say in your heart, 'How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?'— 22 "when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

[←53]

Hence, "Know what you believe, and why you believe it." - WHG

[←54]

Rom 12:2 be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Eph 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. Phi 1:10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; 1Thes 5:21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.

[←55]

That is, testing their doctrine against the word of God.

[←56]

"Under their color" is flying their flag (their colors): it means putting up a false front or facade; being an imitation.

[←57]

"Ita dico, Lucili, sacer intra nos spiritus sedet, malorum bonorumque nostrorum observator et custos: hic prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse tractat." — Senec. Ep. xli.

[←58]

"Quoniam quidam temeritate potius quam recta via etiam in superna eriguntur, et hæc de Spiritu Sancto jactitant, quæ neque in Scripturis lecta, nec a quoquam ecclesiasticorum veterum usurpata sunt, compulsi sumus creberrimæ exhortationi fratrum cedere, quæque sit nostra de eo opinio etiam Scripturarum testimoniis comprobare; ne imperitiâ tanti dogmatis, hi qui contraria opponunt decipiant eos qui sine discussione sollicita in adversariorum sententiam statim pertrahuntur." — Didym. De Spir. Sanc. lib. i.

[←59]

Gainsayers: those who question the truth or validity of something; or take exception to it, just to argue the point.

[←60]

"Appellatio Spiritus Sancti, et ea quæ monstratur ex ipsa appellatione substantia, penitus ab his ignoratur, qui extra sacram Scripturam philosophantur: solummodo enim in nostratibus literis et notio ejus et vocabulum refertur tam in nobis quam in veteribus." — Didym. de Spir. Sanc. lib. i.

[←61]

Col 2:2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

[←62]

That is, shouted down or decried.

[←63]

The Philopatris was regarded as an attack on Christianity, and attributed to Julian the Apostate (emperor 361-363). Barthold Niebuhr (19th c. German historian), ascribed it to the reign of Nicephorus Phocas (963-969), a view now generally accepted.

[←64]

"If not chastely, yet charily;" or "If it is not done virtuously, then let it be done cautiously" (with circumspection).

[←65]

Act 2:13 Others mocking said, "They are full of new wine."

[←66]

John 10:32 Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?" 33 The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God."

[←67]

Psa 22:7 All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 "He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!" Mat 27:42 "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him (originally Mat 21.38-39).

[←68]

That is, to be made alive: Eph 2:1 And you He made alive [or "quickened"], who were dead in trespasses and sins;

[←69]

2Pet 1:19-21 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; to which you do well to take heed, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the day star arises in your hearts: 20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy did not come in olden times by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

[←70]

Gal 4:29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.

[←71]

Deu 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! Isa 45:18 For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: "I am the LORD, and there is no other. Isa 45:22 "Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.

[←72]

Act 2:33 "Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. Joh 15:26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

[←73]

2Kngs 17:13 Yet the LORD testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets."

[←74]

Joh 8:24 " I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."

[←75]

Mat 16:18 "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

[←76]

1Cor 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Joh 5:23 "that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

[←77]

Joh 16:7 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 "And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 "of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 "of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11 "of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

[←78]

2Pet 1:17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 18 And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. 19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; 20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

[←79]

Joh 3:4 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"

[←80]

Joh 3:11 "Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

[←81]

That is, convicting them of it – their conscience is convinced or convicted of their sin.

[←82]

That is, those who verbally profess their faith in Christ and consider themselves Christians. This term "professor" is neutral as to someone's actual eternal state, which is known only to God. There are other places where Owen specifies "elect" or "believers" in contrast to professors generally.

[←83]

The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chap. I, par. 6, puts it this way: "either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture."

[←84]

The relation between two words that are spelled the same way but differ in meaning.

[←85]

Psa 1:4 The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

[←86]

The trait of forgetting or ignoring your responsibilities.

[←87]

Didym. lib. 2 de Spiritu Sancto, Athanas. ad Serapion, Basil. lib. 4. contra Eunom., among the Grecians, are similarly entangled with this corruption of the text; as was Concil. Sardicen. in Socrat. lib. 2 cap. 20.

[←88]

A metonymy substitutes the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (e.g., 'they counted heads').

[←89]

Originally "chapiter" - The upper part of a column that supports the entablature, between the column and the roof.

[←90]

The word for "breath" in this verse is the Heb. neshamah, which at times is also translated "spirit." — WHG

[←91]

Psa 135:17 They have ears, but they do not hear; Nor is there any breath (ru'ach) in their mouths.

[←92]

Job 19:17 My breath (ru'ach) is offensive to my wife, And I am repulsive to the children of my own body.

[←93]

Ecc 8:8 No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, And no one has power in the day of death. Ecc 12:7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

[←94]

Num 14:24 "But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.

[←95]

1Kngs 18:12 "And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you to a place I do not know;

[←96]

"Discant (homines) Scripturæ sanctæ consuetudinem, nunquam spiritum perversum absolute, sed cum additamento aliquo spiritum nuncupari: sicut ibi, Spiritu fornicationis seducti sunt; et in Evangelio, Cum autem spiritus immundus exierit de homine; et cætera his similia." — Hieron. Comment. in Hab. cap. ii.

[←97]

"Qui Spiritum negavit, et Deum Patrem negavit et Filium; quoniam idem est Spiritus Dei, qui Spiritus Christi est," cap. 3. "Unum autem esse Spiritum nemo dubitaverit; etsi de uno Deo plerique dubitaverunt," cap. 4. — Ambros. de Spir. Sanc. lib. i.

[←98]

Ὄνομα αὐτοῦ πνεῦμα ἅγιον, πνεῦμα ἀληθείας, πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ, πνεῦμα κυρίου, πνεῦμα τοῦ Πατρὸς, πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ, καὶ οὕτω καλεῖ αὐτὸν ἡ γραφή. Μᾶλλον δὲ αὐτὸ ἑαυτὸ καὶ πνεῦμα Θεοῦ, καὶ πνεῦμα τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ. — Chrysost. de Adorand. Spir.

[←99]

Crell. Prolegom

[←100]

"Sanctificationis bonitatisque vocabulum, et ad Patrem, et ad Filium, et ad Spiritum Sanctum æquè refertur; sicut ipsa quoque appellatio Spiritus. Nam et Pater Spiritus dicitur ut ibi, Spiritus est Deus, Joan. iv. 24. Et Filius Spiritus, Dominus, inquit, Spiritus ejus, 2Cor 3.17. Spiritus autem Sanctus semper Spiritus Sancti appellatione censetur; non quod ex consortio tantum nominis Spiritus cum Patre ponatur et Filio, sed quod una natura unum possideat et nomen." — Didym. de Spir. Sanc. lib. iii.

[←101]

Joh 4:21, 24 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father... 24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

[←102]

"Multa sunt testimonia, quibus hoc evidenter ostenditur, et Patris et Filii ipsum esse Spiritum, qui in Trinitate dicitur Spiritus Sanctus. Nec ob aliud existimo ipsum proprie vocari Spiritum, cum etiam si de singulis interrogemur, non possimus non Patrem et Filium Spiritum dicere; quoniam Spiritus est Deus, id est, non Corpus est Deus sed Spiritus; hoc proprie vocari oportuit eum, qui non est unus eorum, sed in quo communitas apparet amborum." — August. Tractat. xcix. in Johan.

[←103]

Appellation: identifying word(s) by which someone or something is called and classified, or distinguished from others.

[←104]

Psa 18:15 Then the channels of the sea were seen, The foundations of the world were uncovered At Your rebuke, O LORD, At the blast of the breath of Your nostrils (ru'ach aph).

[←105]

Joh 3:8 "The wind (to pneuma) blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit (tou pneumatos)."

[←106]

Ἄνωθεν παρὰ Θεοῦ κατιοῦσα ἐπὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας ἁγίους δωρεὰ, ἣν πνεῦμα ἅγιον ὀνομάζουσιν οἵ ἱεροὶ προφῆται. — Justin Martyr.

[←107]

Tormenting.

[←108]

Jugurtha (c. 160-104 BC) King of Numidia (today's Algeria); he described Rome as "a city for sale and doomed to quick destruction, if it should find a buyer." He killed the two sons of his predecessor, and enlisted Rome's aid by bribery and intrigues.

[←109]

Dan 4:13-17 "I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven. 14 He cried aloud and said thus: ... 15 let [Nebuchadnezzar] graze with the beasts On the grass of the earth. 16 Let his heart be changed from that of a man, Let him be given the heart of a beast, And let seven times pass over him. 17 `This decision is by the decree of the watchers, And the sentence by the word of the holy ones, In order that the living may know That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, Gives it to whomever He will, And sets over it the lowest of men.'

[←110]

Perhaps referring to Junius Philargyrius, an early commentator sometime in the 5th-7th centuries.

[←111]

The Codex Alexandrinus, thought by some to have been written by Thecla, a female martyr of Egypt, shortly after the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325). Samuel Tragelles (1813-1875) thought it was written in a monastery dedicated to Thecla.

[←112]

Johannes Crellius, or John Crell (1590-1633) A Socinian theologian. In 1617 Grotius published a refutation of the alleged errors of Faustus Socinus, which Crellius replied to. I assume this refers to his prologue to that work — WHG.

[←113]

Jdg 3.10 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel.

[←114]

Gen 2:4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God (Jehovah Elohim) made the earth and the heavens...

[←115]

Referring to the hypostatic union of the Godhead (all three persons are "of the same substance") - Council of Nicea 325.

[←116]

"fons et origo Trinitatis."

[←117]

Εἴπερ πνεῦμα Θεοῦ οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμίν — ἴδε πνεῦμα Θεοῦ. Εἰ δέ τις πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ οὐκ ἔχει — καὶ μὲν ἐχρῆν εἰπεῖν, εἰ δέ τις πνεῦμα Θεοῦ οὐκ ἔχει, ἀλλ' εἷπε πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ. Εἶπε Θεοῦ πνεῦμα καὶ, ἐπήγαγε τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Εἰ δέ τις πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ οὐκ ἔχει, οὗτος οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ τοῦτο εἷπεν, ἵνα δείξῃ ὅτι ἒν πνεῦμα, καὶ ἴσον ἐστὶν εἰπεῖν πνεῦμα Θεοῦ, καὶ πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ. — Ibid.

[←118]

To twist or contort.

[←119]

Such as the ceremonial law and the temple, with their system of sacrifices. See Book IV, chap. 4. They were only shadows of Christ — the reality having come, they ended (Heb 8.5-8; 10.1, 5).

[←120]

"Actually" is used here in its literal sense: changed by an overt act.

[←121]

Mat 28:20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;

[←122]

Mutual or reciprocal.

[←123]

"In hac divini magisterii schola, Pater est qui docet et instruit; Filius qui arcana Dei nobis revelat et aperit; Spiritus Sanctus qui nos replet et imbuit. A Patre potentiam, a Filio sapientiam, a Spiritu Sancto accipimus innocentiam. Pater eligit, Filius diligit, Spiritus Sanctus conjungit et unit." — Cypr. de Baptismo Christi.

[←124]

"'Hæc autem omnia operatur unus atque idem Spiritus, dividens singulis prout vult;' unde dicentes operatricem, et ut ita dicam, distributricem naturam Spiritus Sancti, non abducamur ab his qui dicunt, operationem et non substantiam Dei esse Spiritum Sanctum. Et ex aliis quoque plurimis locis subsistens natura demonstratur Spiritus Sancti." — Didym. de Spir. Sanc. lib. ii.

[←125]

Ἐπειδήπερ τὸ δωρούμενον τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιόν ἐστι, καλεῖται καὶ τὸ δῶρον ὁμωνύμως τῶ χαρίσματι. — Chrysost.

"Nec existimare debemus Spiritum Sanctum secundum substantias esse divisum quia multitudo bonorum dicatur — impassibilis enim et indivisibilis atque immutabilis est, sed juxta differentes efficientias et intellectus multis bonorum vocabulis nuncupatur; quia participes suos, non juxta unam eandemque virtutem communione sui donet, quippe cum ad utilitatem uniuscujusque aptus sit." — Didym. lib. i.

[←126]

1Cor 13:4-7 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

[←127]

e.g., Joh 12:48 "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him-- the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.

[←128]

Prosopopoeia: representing an abstract quality or idea as a person or creature.

[←129]

Gal 4:8 But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. Rom 1:25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.

[←130]

Our adversaries prove this from Acts 20.32, Eph 6.10, Phi 3.10, 2Thes 1.9, and they might do it from countless other places; although Acts 20.32 will not confirm what it is produced to countenance — Schlichting. de Trinitat. ad Meisner., p. 605.

[←131]

"Baptizate gentes in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. In nomine dixit, non in nominibus. Non ergo aliud nomen Patris, aliud nomen Filii, aliud nomen Spiritus Sancti, quam unus Deus." — Ambros. de Spir. Sanc. lib. i. cap. 4.

[←132]

Literally, an outlandish fantasy; a concept foreign to the Faith.

[←133]

Mat 3:16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. Luk 3:22 And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." Joh 1:32 And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.

[←134]

Owen also included here the Latin incubabat (to brood over) to convey the operation of the Spirit.

[←135]

Eph 2:14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.

[←136]

Song 1:15 THE BELOVED: Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove's eyes.

[←137]

Isa 11:2 The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. 3 His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; 4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

[←138]

Theodotion was a second century Hellenistic Jewish scholar who translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek (ca. 150).

[←139]

The sons of Aaron who offered "strange fire" - that is, foreign fire.

[←140]

1Kngs 18:38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, "The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!" 40 And Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!" So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there.

[←141]

1Cor 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Tit 3:4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

[←142]

Mal 3:2 "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire And like launderer's soap.

[←143]

These are called "preincarnate" appearances of Christ, often signified by the name "the Angel of the LORD." Owen probably refers to his commentary on Hebrews - Exercitation X: 'Appearances of the Son of God under the old testament' (1668), Hebrews vol.1, Works of John Owen, vol.17 (Goold, 1853).

[←144]

Owen's sarcasm here refers back to those who reject the dove as a representation of the Spirit as a person (p. 74 above).

[←145]

Thomas Goodwin — though he otherwise asserts "the deity of the Holy Ghost."

[←146]

1Tim 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons; 1Pet 1:11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 2Pet 1:21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

[←147]

In the Greek, quoted by Owen in the original, it is ὅπου ἂν ἡ ὁρμὴ τοῦ εὐθύνοντος βούληται, literally "wherever the impulse (Gr. horme) of the one steering might determine (or wish)." The ESV renders it "wherever the will of the pilot directs," which makes Owen's point nicely: that the will is involved - and thus that the Spirit has a will, and He is therefore a person.

[←148]

The word "wills" in the Greek is boulomai, the same word used in Jas 3.4.

[←149]

That is, saying it without any basis or justification for it, in an attempt to circumvent the plain meaning of the text.

[←150]

Isa 11:2 The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

[←151]

Eph 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man;

[←152]

Arguments over petty or irrelevant things.

[←153]

Irrefragable: it cannot be refuted; it is indisputable, clearly right, incontrovertible.

[←154]

"Disce, puer, virtutem ex me, verumque laborem; Fortunam ex aliis:" [Æn. xii. 435.]

[←155]

In passing.

[←156]

Gr. Αφορίσατε δή μοι (Aphorisate deh moi) "Separate even to me"; "me" is personal dative singular case; hence, "to me".

[←157]

Act 20:28 "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

[←158]

Of sophistry: plausible but misleading.

[←159]

Lev 24:11 And the Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name of the LORD and cursed; and so they brought him to Moses.

[←160]

Incapable of being atoned for.

[←161]

1Cor 12:6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit; 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

[←162]

Isa 40.28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

[←163]

Act 13.2, 4 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." ...4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. Act 20:28 "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

[←164]

This is the Filioque, Latin for "and (from) the Son", a phrase included in some forms of the Nicene Creed (325).

[←165]

In logic, it is only when causes are independent of each other that the nearest cause is determined to be the "proximate" cause of some event or effect. It is immaterial whether it is the first or last cause, or even the primary cause — it only matters whether it is the "responsible" cause. This phrase "next cause" refers to the responsible cause of something. Owen will use this phrase a number of times to identify the Spirit as the responsible cause of our salvation, and sanctification. Without Him, they are impossible.

[←166]

Joh 15:9 "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. Luk 19:10 "for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

[←167]

Μία ἄρα καὶ ἐκ τούτων, ἡ τῆς Τρίαδος ἐνέργεια δείκνυατι. Οὐ γὰρ ὡς παρ' ἐκάσοτυ διάφορα, καὶ διηρημένα τὰ διδόμενα σημαίνει ὁ ἀπόστολος. Ἀλλ' ὅτι τὰ διδόμενα ἐν Τριάδι δίδοται, καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐξ ἑνὸς Θεοῦ ἐστι. — Athanasius, Epistol. [i. 31] ad Serapionem.

Μίαν ἐνέργειαν ὁρῶμεν πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ, καὶ ἁγίου πνεύματος. Basil. Homil. xvii., in Sanctum Baptisma. Ὧν αἱ αὐται ἐνέργειαι τούτων καὶ οὐσία μία, ἐνέργεια δὲ υἱοῦ καὶ πατρὸς μία ὡς τὸ· ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον. Καὶ πάλιν· ἃ γὰρ ἄν ὁ πατὴρ ποιῇ ταῦτα καὶ ὁ υἱὸς ὁμοίως ποιεῖ. Ἄρα καὶ οὐσία μία πατρὸς καὶ υἱοῦ. — Idem advers. Eunom., lib. iv.

"Quicquid de Spiritu Sancto diximus hoc similiter de Patre et Filio communiter et indivise volumus intelligi; quia sancta et inseparabilis Trinitas nunquam aliquid se sigillatim operari noverit." — Ambrose in Symbol Apost. cap. ix.

[←168]

Πάντα τὰ θεοπρεπῶς λέγόμενα ἐπὶ τῆς ὑπερουσίου τρίαδος καθ' ἑκάστης τῶν τριῶν ὑποστάσεων ἐξιδιοῦται καὶ ἐναρμόττεται πλὴν ἃ τὴν προαγωγὴν τούτων, ἤγουν τὴν ὑποστασικὴν γνώρισιν ἐμποιοῦνται. — Arethas, in Apocal. Commentar. cap. 1.

[←169]

Official recognition or approval.

[←170]

The act of taking something upon one's self, or undertaking it.

[←171]

"Hoc non est inæqualitas substantiæ, sed ordo naturæ; non quod alter esset prior altero, sed quod alter esset ex altero." — Aug. lib. iii. contra Maxentium, cap. 14.

[←172]

Πᾶσα ἐνέργεια ἡ θεόθεν ἐπὶ τὴν κτίσιν διήκουσα, καὶ κατὰ τὰς πολυτρόπους ἐννοίας ὀνομαζομένη ἐκ πατρὸς ἀφορμᾶται, καὶ διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ πρόεισι, καὶ ἐν τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίω τελειοῦται. — Gregor. Nyssen. ad Ablabium Ἐν δὲ τῇ τούτων (ἀγγέλων) κτίσει, ἐννόησόν μοι τὴν προκαταρκτικὴν αἰτίαν τῶν γενομένων τὸν πατέρα, τὴν δημιουργικὴν τὸν υἱὸν, τὴν τελειωτικὴν τὸ πνεῦμα. — Basil. de Spir. Sanc. cap. xvi.

[←173]

Καὶ γὰρ διὰ μὲν τῆς παλαιᾶς ὡς προκαταρκτικὸν τῶν ὅλων ὁ πατὴρ πρώτως κηρύττεται. Καὶ δευτέρως δὲ ὁ υἱὸς ὡς δημιουργικὸν αἴτιον ἐμφανίζεται. Καὶ τρίτως ὡς τελειωτικὸν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον. Τὰ τελειωτικὰ γὰρ τῶ τέλει φερωνύμως ἀναφαίνεται, τῆ προκοπῇ καὶ αὐξήσει τῶν πραγμάτων καὶ τῶν χρὸνων οἵα στέφανος ἀναῤῥήσεως ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀθλητικοῖς ἱδρῶσι κατὰ τὸ τέλος ἐναρμοζόμενος. Δὶα καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον πλάσας ὁ Θεὸς πρῶτον εἷτα τέλει ἐνεφύσησεν εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ πνεῦμα ζωῆς. — Jobius apud Photium, lib. cxxii. cap. 18.

[←174]

Dan 7:10 A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened. 2Chr 18:18 "Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and His left.

[←175]

Jer 19:13 "And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods."

[←176]

Jer 44:17 "But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.

[←177]

Song 6:10 Who is she who looks forth as the morning, Fair as the moon, Clear as the sun, Awesome as an army with banners?

[←178]

This word in the original is בְּרוּחוֹ‎. To make it agree with שִּׁפְרָה, Owen must have adopted the opinion of Aben Ezra, that בְּ in the former word is redundant. Eminent critics demur to this conclusion; Simonis and others rendering the clause, "By his Spirit the heavens [are] beauty." — Ed.

[←179]

Aspectable: having a pleasing and seemly appearance worthy of being looked at.

[←180]

Psa 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.

[←181]

See page 94 (original page number).

[←182]

Gen 1:2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

[←183]

Originally humour. In Owen's day it referred to one of the four fluids in the body whose balance was believed to determine the emotional and physical state of someone; more generally, it referred to an essential quality that flows and mixes like a liquid.

[←184]

2Pet 3:5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing [Gr. sunistemi: being formed together] out of water and in the water;

[←185]

Eph 4:24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Col 3:10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.

[←186]

Eph 1:10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth-- in Him.

[←187]

Col 1:17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

[←188]

Psa 104:30 You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.

[←189]

Jdg 6:34 But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him.

[←190]

Isa 45:1 "Thus says the LORD to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held-- To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut: 2 `I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron. 3 I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel. 4 For Jacob My servant's sake, And Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me.

[←191]

This second part will begin at the bottom of the original page 116.

[←192]

There is an essential difference between God working powerfully in us (Col 1.29), and our working with God's power.

[←193]

Tit 2:11-12 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age;

[←194]

Act 2:41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. Jas 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

[←195]

Luk 11:13 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

[←196]

Joh 5:19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. Joh 5:26 "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,

[←197]

Ἀποστέλλεται μὲν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον οἰκονομικῶς, ἐνεργεῖ δὲ αὐτεξουσίως. — Basil. Hom. xv. de Fide. Joh 16:13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

[←198]

That is, both the Father and the Spirit have this end in mind: to make their love effectual to us.

[←199]

Rom 4:4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace [i.e., as a gift], but as debt [something owed].

[←200]

Isa 55:1 "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.

[←201]

This may cause confusion. If faith is required to receive the Holy Spirit as our comforter and guide, and yet faith is "an effect and fruit of the same Spirit," then how can we receive the Spirit, if we first need the Spirit to impart that faith? The short answer is that the Spirit first operates upon us, to regenerate us, Tit 3.5; so that having been born again (Joh 3.3) we are enabled to have faith in Christ, at which point we receive the Spirit who then operates within us - WHG.

[←202]

Mat 7:22 "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

[←203]

Joh 14:17 "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

[←204]

Originally "local mutation." The word mutation comes from the Latin for move, or change. Owen says the idea that the Spirit moves about from place to place, is inconsistent with His omnipresent nature. Therefore "sending" the Spirit means something different than physical mobility.

[←205]

That is, unless the Spirit were absent in someone, there would be no need to send Him in order to give them light.

[←206]

"Etenim si de loco procedit Spiritus et ad locum transit, et ipse Pater in loco invenietur et Filius: si de loco exit quem Pater mittit aut Filius, utique de loco transiens Spiritus et progediens, et Patrem sicut corpus secundum impias interpretationes relinquere videtur et Filium. Hoc secundum eos loquor qui dicunt quod habeat Spiritus descensorium motum … Venit non de loco in locum, sed de dispositione constitutionis in salutem redemptionis." — Ambros. de Spir. Sanc. lib. i. cap. 11.

[←207]

"Quid igitur Spiritus Sancti operatione divinius, cum etiam benedictionum suarum præsulem Spiritum Deus ipse testetur, dicens, Ponam Spiritum meum super semen tuum, et benedictiones meas super filios tuos. Nulla enim potest esse plena benediction nisi per infusionem Spiritus Sancti." — Ambros. de Spir. Sanc. lib. i. cap. 7.

[←208]

Jer 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." 6 Then said I: "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth." 7 But the LORD said to me: "Do not say, 'I am a youth,' For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak.

[←209]

Maimonides (1135-1204) - considered the greatest Jewish scholar of the Middle Ages; he codified Jewish law in the Talmud.

[←210]

"Significat autem effusionis verbum largam et divitem muneris abundantiam; itaque cum unus quis alicubi aut duo Spiritum Sanctum accipiant non dicitur, 'Effundam de Spiritu meo,' sed tunc quando in universas gentes munus Spiritus Sancti redundaverit." — Didym. de Spir. Sanc. lib. i.

[←211]

Psa 78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter (Heb. naba - pour out) dark sayings of old; Psa 145:7 They shall utter (Heb. naba) the memory of Your great goodness, And shall sing of Your righteousness.

[←212]

Luk 4:1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

[←213]

Psa 65:11-1 NKJ You crown the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip with abundance. 12 They drop on the pastures of the wilderness, And the little hills rejoice on every side. 13 The pastures are clothed with flocks; The valleys also are covered with grain; They shout for joy, they also sing.

[←214]

Joh 1:33 "I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'

[←215]

Joh 7:38-39 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

[←216]

Isa 44:3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring;

[←217]

Tit 3:4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

[←218]

Isa 35:6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. 7 The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

[←219]

Heb 6:7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;

[←220]

"Spiritus Sanctus qui a Patre et Filio procedit, nec ipse coepit; quia processio ejus continua est, et ab eo qui non coepit." — Ambros. in Symbol. Apostol., cap. 3.

"Spiritus quidem Sanctus nec ingenitus est nec genitus alicubi dicitur, ne si ingenitus diceretur sicut Pater, duo Patres in Sancta Trinitate intelligerentur; aut si genitus diceretur sicut Filius, duo itidem Filii in eadem estimarentur esse Sancta Trinitate: sed tantummodo procedere de Patre et Filio salva fide dicendum est. Qui tamen non de Patre procedit in Filium, et de Filio procedit ad sanctificandam creaturam, sicut quidam male intelligentes credendum esse putabant, sed simul de utroque procedit. Quia Pater talem genuit Filium, ut quemadmodum de se, ita et de illo quoque procedat Spiritus Sanctus." — Aug. Serm. xxxviii. de Tempore.

[←221]

Like doubting Thomas (Joh 20-25-27).

[←222]

2Cor 5.7. Οὐ γὰρ ἐπειδὰν πάμπαν ἀκατάληπτον τὸ Θεῖον διὰ τοῦτο που πάντως μηδόλως ζητεῖν περὶ αὐτοῦ προσῆκεν, ἀλλ' ἐν ρᾳστώνῃ τὸν τοῦ βίου καταναλίσκειν χρόνον· κατὰ δὲ τὸ μέτρον τὸ μεριθὲν ἐκάστῳ παρὰ τοῦ κυριου, τῆς γνώσεως τὴν ἐξέτασιν φιλοπόνως ποιεῖσθαι· ὅτι μὲν ἀκατάληπτον ἀκριβῶς πεπεισμένους· ἐφ' ὅσον δὲ χωροῦμεν διὰ τῆς θεωρίας, ἑαυτοὺς ἐκείνῳ συνάπτοντας. — Justin. Martyr. Expositio Fidei de rectâ Confess.

[←223]

See Owen's, A Brief Declaration of the Doctrine of the Trinity, 1669.

[←224]

"Nullus sine Deo, neque ullus non in Deo locus est. In coelis est, in inferno est, ultra maria est. Inest interior, excedit exterior. Itaque cum habet atque habetur, neque in aliquo ipse, neque non in omnibus est." — Hilar. lib. i. de Trinitat.

[←225]

Act 10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

[←226]

A form of punishment.

[←227]

Unrestrained by convention or morality; debauched; degenerate.

[←228]

Joh 7:37 Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

[←229]

Isa 59:21 "As for Me," says the LORD, "this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants," says the LORD, "from this time and forevermore." Jer 31:33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jer 32:39 `then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. 40 `And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. Eze 11:19 "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 20 "that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

[←230]

Isa 40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: "My way is hidden from the LORD, And my just claim is passed over by my God "? Isa 49:14 But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me."

[←231]

Or "animating spirits" — the instincts, inclinations, and emotions that visibily influence and guide human behavior.

[←232]

Those who argue in a way that is specious or excessively subtle, and misleads others, intentionally or not.

[←233]

These initials refer to Samuel Parker, in whose "Defense and Continuation of the Ecclesiastical Polity," 1671, the sentiments to which Owen objects will be found. For an account of Parker, see vol. xiii., p. 344 of Owen's works. — Ed.

[←234]

Ταῦτα, οἶμαι, σαφῶς παρὰ τῶν προφητῶν περὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος μεμαθηκὼς Πλάτων εἰς τὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς ὄνομα μεταφέρων φαίνεται. Ὁμοίως γὰρ ὥσπερ οἱ ἱεροὶ προφῆται τὸ ἓν καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ πνεῦμα εἰς ἑπτὰ πνεύματα μερίζεσθαι φασίν, οὕτω καὶ αὐτὸς μίαν καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν ὀνομάζων ἀρετήν, ταύτην εἰς τέσσαρας ἀρετὰς μερίζεσθαι λέγει. — Justin. Martyr. ad Græc. Cohortat., [cap. xxxii.]

Aliter statuit Cyprianus seu quisquis fuit author lib. de Spir. Sanc. inter opera Cypriani. "Hic est Spiritus Sanctus quem Magi in Ægypto tertii signi ostensione convicti, cum sua defecisse præstigia faterentur, Dei digitum appellabant, et antiquis philosophis ejus intimarunt præsentiam defuisse. Et licet de Patre et Filio aliqua sensissent Platonici, Spiritus tamen tumidus et humani appetitor favoris santificationem mentis divinæ mereri non potuit, et ubi ad profunditatem sacramentorum deventum est, omnis eorum caligavit subtilitas, nec potuit infidelitas sanctitudini propinquare" — Cypr. de Spir. Sanc.

[←235]

Τῶν τοῦ ἁγίου· πνεύματος ἀξιουμένων ἐστὶ διαφορὰ, πλεῖον ἤ ἔλαττον λαμβανόντων τοῖ ἁγίου πνεύματος τῶν πιστευόντων. — Origen. Comment. in Matthæum.

[←236]

2Kng 2:9 And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?" Elisha said, "Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me."

[←237]

Deu 21:17 "But he shall acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

[←238]

ἔχει Θεὸς ἔνδικον ὄμμα (echei Theos endikon omma).

[←239]

Exo 31:2-6 "See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 3 "And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, 4 "to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, 5 "in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. 6 "And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all who are gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you;

[←240]

Isa 33:17 Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will see the land that is very far off.

[←241]

Joh 8:56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad."

[←242]

Deu 3:24 `O Lord GOD, You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like Your works and Your mighty deeds? 25 `I pray, let me cross over and see the good land beyond the Jordan, those pleasant mountains, and Lebanon.'

[←243]

Luk 10:23 Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see; 24 "for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it."

[←244]

Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ.

[←245]

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."

[←246]

Rom 15:8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,

[←247]

Luk 16:16 "The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.

[←248]

Mat 11:11 "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist;"

[←249]

In other words, the mere promise of the Seed in Gen 3.15, required those religious duties (worship, sanctification, sacrifices, priestly intercession, etc.) which would later be codified in the Mosaic Law, and fulfilled in and by Jesus Christ. – WHG

[←250]

Gen 20:7 "Now therefore [Abimelech], restore [Abraham's] wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours."

[←251]

2Pet 1:19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;

[←252]

Οἳ δὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἄνθρωποι πνευματοφόροι πνεύματος ἁγίου, καὶ προφῆται γενόμενοι ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐμπνευσθέντες καὶ σοφισθέντες ἐγένοντο θεοδίδακτοι, καὶ ὅσιοι καὶ δίκαιοι. — Theophil. ad Autolycum. lib. ii.

"Prophetæ voces itemque virtutes ad fidem divinitatis edebant." — Tertul. Apol. cap. xviii.

Οὐδ' ἀνδρὸς τοῦτο ποιεῖν, ἢ σοφοῦ τινος καὶ θείου; ἢ θεὸς ἂν ἔχοι φαίη τις ἂν, τοῦτο τὸ γέρας. Καὶ γὰρ οὐ τοῦ μάντεως, τό διότι, ἀλλὰ τὸ ὅτι μόνον εἰποῦ. — Plotin. Ennead. iii. lib. 3.

[←253]

Num 11:17 "Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone.

[←254]

Owen assumes Hebrews was written by Paul, which many scholars today might dispute.

[←255]

Job 33:23 "If there is a messenger for him, A mediator, one among a thousand, To show man His uprightness...

[←256]

Heb. רֹאֶה ra'ah (OT:07200), as in 1Sam 9.9; and חֹזֶה chozeh (OT:02374), as in 1Chr 29.29.

[←257]

Num 12:6 Then He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. 7 Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house. 8 I speak with him face to face, Even plainly, and not in dark sayings; And he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant Moses?"

[←258]

Owen is distinguishing here the extraordinary gift of prophecy, from the ordinary gift, which he just desribed. Today prophesy is often used with its ordinary meaning, which is to proclaim the words of God as recorded in Scripture (see Neh 8.5-9).

[←259]

"Sed et hoc notandum ex eo quod dixerat; ut videam quid loquatur, in me; prophetiam visionem et eloquium Dei non extrinsecus ad prophetas fieri, sed intrinsecus et interiori homini respondere. Unde et Zacharias, et angelus inquit, qui loquebatur in me." — Hieron. Comment. in Hab cap. ii

[←260]

2Tim 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness...

[←261]

Dan 7:15 "I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit within my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. Dan 7:28 "...my thoughts greatly troubled me, and my countenance changed; but I kept the matter in my heart." Dan 8:27 And I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days; afterward I arose and went about the king's business. I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it. Hab 3:16 When I heard, my body trembled; My lips quivered at the voice; Rottenness entered my bones; And I trembled in myself, That I might rest in the day of trouble. When he comes up to the people, He will invade them with his troops. Isa 21:2 A distressing vision is declared to me; The treacherous dealer deals treacherously, And the plunderer plunders. Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media! All its sighing I have made to cease. 3 Therefore my loins are filled with pain; Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed when I heard it; I was dismayed when I saw it. 4 My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me; The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.

[←262]

And because the ancients contend, against the Ebionites, Marcionites, and Montanists, (as Epiphanius, Advers. Hæres. lib. ii. tom. 1; Hæres. xlviii.; Hieron. Prooem. Comment. in Isa.,) that the prophets were not used ecstatically, but understood the things that were spoken to them, they did not intend that they had, by virtue of their inspiration, a full comprehension of the whole sense of the revelations made unto them, but only that they were not in or by prophecy deprived of the use of their intellectual faculties, as it befell satanical enthusiasts. Ταῦτα γὰρ ἀληθῶς προφητῶν ἐν ἁγίω πνεύματι, ἐρρωμένην ἐχόντων τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ τὴν διδασκαλίαν καὶ τὴν διαλογίαν, as Epiphanius speaks. Wherefore, upon these words of Austin, "Per quosdam scientes, per quosdam nescientes, id quod ex adventu Christi usque nunc et deinceps agitur prænunciaretur esse venturum," de Civitat. Dei, lib. vii. cap. 32, one well adds, "Prophetæ nec omnes sua vaticinia intelligebant, nec qui intelligebant omnia intelligebant; non enim ex se loquebantur sed ex superiore Dei afflatu; cujus consilia non onmia eis erant manifesta; utebaturque Deus illis non velut consultis futurorum, sed instrumentis quibus homines alloqueretur."

[←263]

1Pet 1:10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

[←264]

Dan 12:8 Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, "My lord, what shall be the end of these things?" 9 And he said, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

[←265]

Jer 23:28 "The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the LORD.

[←266]

Excessively agitated; distraught with fear or other violent emotion.

[←267]

1Chr 28:12 and the plans for all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, of all the chambers all around, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries for the dedicated things;

[←268]

"Nec aer voce pulsatus ad aures eorum perveniebat, sed Deus loquebatur in animo prophetarum." — Hieron. Prooem., in lib. i. Comment. in Isa.

[←269]

Πνεῦμα δὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ πατὰ πᾶσιν μὲν οὐκ ἔστιν. Παρὰ δέ τισι τοῖς δικαίοις πολιτευομένοις καταγομένον, καὶ συμπλεκόμενον τῇ ψυχῇ, διὰ προαγορεύσεων ταῖς λοιπαῖς ψυχαῖς τὸ κεκρυμμένον ἀνήγγειλε. — Tatian. Assyr. Contra. Græcos.

[←270]

"Sunt autem multa genera prophetandi, quorum unum est somniorum quale fuit in Daniele." — Hieron. in Hieremian, cap. 23.

[←271]

Act 16:9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."

[←272]

Vaticination: Knowledge of the future said to be obtained from a divine source.

[←273]

Isa 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!" 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

[←274]

Jer 23:33, 36 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, asks you, What is the burden of the LORD? you will then say to them, What burden? I will even forsake you, says the LORD...36 And you will mention the burden of the LORD no more: for every man's word will be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.

[←275]

Hab 1:1 The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw. Zec 9:1 The burden of the word of the LORD Against the land of Hadrach, And Damascus... Mal 1:1 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

[←276]

Exo 19:18 Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

[←277]

Eze 24:19 And the people said to me, "Will you not tell us what these things signify to us, that you behave so?"

[←278]

Eze 8:3 He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy. Eze 11:24 Then the Spirit took me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to those in captivity. And the vision that I had seen went up from me.

[←279]

Heb 1:1 God... at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets;

[←280]

"Prophetæ erant Baal, et prophetæ confusionis, et alii offensionum, et quoscunque vitiosos prophetas Scriptura commemorat." — Hieron. Comment. in Epist. ad Titum. cap. i.

[←281]

Ζητήσεις δὲ εἰ πάντες, εἴ τις προφητεύει, ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου προφητεύει; πῶς δὲ οὐ ζητήσεως ἄξιόν ἐστιν, εἴγε Δαβὶδ μετὰ τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ Οὐρίου ἁμαρτίαν εὐλαβούμενος ἀφαιρεθῆναι ἀπ' αὐτοῦ τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμά φησι. Τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον σου μὴ ἀντανέλῃς ἀπ' ἐμοῦ … Οὕτω δὲ ζητήσεως ἄξιόν ἐστι τὸ περὶ τοῦ αγίου πνεύματος εί δύναται εἷναι καὶ ἐν ἀμαρτωλῷ ψυχῇ — Origen. Commentar. in Johan. tom. 30.

"Prophetiæ mysterio usi sunt etiam qui exorbitaverant a vera religione, quia et illis dedit Deus verbum suum ut mysteria futura pronunciarent hominibus." — Hieron. Comment. in Job. cap. xxxiii.

"Nam et prophetare et dæmonia excludere et virtutes magnas in terris facere sublimis utique et admirabilis res est, non tamen regnum coeleste consequitur quisquis in his omnibus invenitur, nisi recti et justi itineris observatione gradiatur." — Cyprian. de Unitat. Ecclesiæ.

[←282]

Isa 41:22 "Let them bring forth and show us what will happen; Let them show the former things, what they were, That we may consider them, And know the latter end of them; Or declare to us things to come. 23 Show the things that are to come hereafter, That we may know that you are gods; Yes, do good or do evil, That we may be dismayed and see it together.

[←283]

As with Abimilech's dream about Abraham's wife (Gen 20.3ff); or Pharaoh's dream, interpreted by Joseph (Gen 41.1ff).

[←284]

Joh 11:51 Now he did not say this on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation;

[←285]

Εἴ τις μὲν οὖν Προφήτης ἐστὶ πάντως προφητεύει· εἰ δέ τις προφητεύει οὐ πάντως ἐστὶ Προφήτης … Ἐκ δὲ τῶν περὶ τὸν Καϊάφαν ἀναγεγραμμένων, προφητέυσαντα περὶ τοῦ σωτῆρος, ἔστιν ὅτι καὶ μοχθηρὰ ψυχὴ ἐπιδέχεται τοτὲ τὸ προφητεύειν. — Origen. Comment. in Johan. sect. 30.

[←286]

Alonso Tostado (ca. 1400–1455) Latin Tostatus Abulensis ("Tostado from Ávila"); a Spanish exegete and bishop of Ávila.

[←287]

KJV Isa 3:2 The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent [diviner], and the elder...

[←288]

In ancient Greece, a woman who was regarded as an oracle or prophet, at Delphi for example.

[←289]

Augustine, City of God: "In this way, too, the kingdom of Saul himself, who certainly was reprobated and rejected, was the shadow of a kingdom yet to come which should remain to eternity. For, indeed, the oil with which he was anointed, and from that chrism he is called Christ, is to be taken in a mystical sense, and is to be understood as a great mystery; which David himself venerated so much in him, that he trembled with stricken heart when, being hid in a dark cave, which Saul also entered when pressed by the necessity of nature, he had come secretly behind him and cut off a small piece of his robe, that he might be able to prove how he had spared him when he could have killed him, and might thus remove from his mind the suspicion through which he had vehemently persecuted the holy David, thinking him his enemy. Therefore he was much afraid lest he be accused of violating so great a mystery in Saul, because he had thus meddled even with his clothes. For thus it is written: "And David was heart-stricken because he had taken away the skirt of his cloak." But to the men with him, who advised him to destroy Saul thus delivered up into his hands, he says, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's Christ, to lay my hand upon him, because he is the Lord's Christ." Therefore he showed so great a reverence to this shadow of what was to come, not for its own sake, but for the sake of what it prefigured." — from Philip Schaff's Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, vol. 2, book 17, ch.6.

[←290]

1Chr 28:19 "All this ...the LORD made me understand in writing, by His hand upon me, all the works of these plans."

[←291]

Jer 36:4, 18: Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote on a scroll of a book, at the instruction of Jeremiah, all the words of the LORD which He had spoken to him... 18 So Baruch answered them, "He proclaimed with his mouth all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink in the book."

[←292]

See John Owen, The Divine Original of the Scripture, 1659, Works of John Owen, vol. 16.

[←293]

Gen 17:5 "No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. — Abram: אַבְרָם (exalted father); Abraham: אַבְרָהָם (father of multitudes).

[←294]

Mat 5:18 "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

[←295]

See his treatises on "The Divine Original of the Scriptures," "Vindication of Greek and Hebrew Texts," and "Exercitationes adversus Fanaticos," vol. xvi. of his works. — Ed.

[←296]

That is, a direct cause, as opposed to an indirect, secondary, or "mediate" cause.

[←297]

Mat 12:24-28 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, "This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons." 25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 "If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 "And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 28 "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

[←298]

Act 3:12, 16 So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? ...16 "[Christ's] name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

[←299]

Jos 10:12 Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: "Sun, stand still over Gibeon; And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon."

[←300]

Jos 10:14 And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the LORD heeded the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.

[←301]

Hab 3:11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; At the light of Your arrows they went, At the shining of Your glittering spear.

[←302]

. A Greek scholar and exegete of the Hebrew texts. He translated his grandfather's book of wisdom, Ecclesiasticus (or Sirach) from Hebrew into Greek, c. 169 BC.

[←303]

Putid: rotten; fetid; stinking; base; worthless.

[←304]

Joh 5:36 "But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works [i.e., signs or miracles] which the Father has given Me to finish-- the very works that I do-- bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. Joh 10:24-25 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, "How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me.

[←305]

Marked by care and persistent effort.

[←306]

The term elohiym is also translated "judges" (Exo 21.6).

[←307]

Joh 10:34 Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods "'? 35 "If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 "do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God '? Psa 82:6 I said, "You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High."

[←308]

Hos 7:3 They make a king glad with their wickedness, And princes with their lies. 4 "They are all adulterers. Like an oven heated by a baker-- He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough, Until it is leavened. 5 In the day of our king Princes have made him sick, inflamed with wine; He stretched out his hand with scoffers.

[←309]

They credit it to their own labors: like a fisherman dragging his nets, who gives no credit to God for the fish he has caught.

[←310]

Jdg 6:34 But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon; "came upon" is the Heb. labesh (OT:03847), to clothe.

[←311]

Gen 6:3 And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." [either referring to the lifespan of men, or to the time remaining until the flood]. 1Pet 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by Whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.

[←312]

Rom 16:26 but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith; 2Cor 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

[←313]

Pedagogy means the activities of educating or instructing a child to adulthood, or the activities that impart knowledge or skill. Here it refers to the ceremonial law which continued with its priesthood and temple sacrifices, until Christ appeared. Yet what was contained in the law were but shadows of the Christ to come, and having come, the shadows were no longer needed. Gal 3:24 Therefore the law was our tutor [Gr. paidagogos, or 'pedagogue'] to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Heb 10:9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second.

[←314]

Isa 35:6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. Isa 44:3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring; Joe 2:28 "And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. Eze 11:19 "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh; Eze 36:27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

[←315]

Eph 5.6; Col 3.6.

[←316]

Luk 11:9-13 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 "If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 "Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

[←317]

Mat 7:11 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

[←318]

Eph 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, Eph 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man; Col 2:2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

[←319]

Joh 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- 17 "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

[←320]

Heb 9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 16 For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17 For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.

[←321]

2Cor 1:22 who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

[←322]

Joh 16:7 "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. Joh 16:13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

[←323]

Here effectually means having legal efficacy or force; "authoritatively."

[←324]

Hos 4:12 My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And they have played the harlot against their God.

[←325]

"Gratias ago tibi clementissime Deus, quis quod quæsivi mane prior ipse donasti." — Cypr. de Baptism. Christi.

[←326]

Heb 1:1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; Eph 1:9-10 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him.

[←327]

2Cor 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[←328]

Eph 3:8-11 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord; 1Pet 1:10-12 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-- things which angels desire to look into.

[←329]

Phi 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

[←330]

John of Damascus (c. 675-749), an elder of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

[←331]

Predication: (logic) a declaration of something self-evident; something that can be assumed as the basis for argument.

[←332]

Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

[←333]

Δῆλόν ἐστιν ὅτι καὶ τὴν τοῦ παντὸς τέλους ὥραν ὡς μὲν λόγος γινώσκει, ὡς δὲ ἄνθρωπος ἀγνοεῖ. Ἀνθρώπου γὰρ ἴδιον τὸ ἀγνοεῖν, καὶ μάλιστα ταῦτα. Ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο τῆς φιλανθρωπίας ἴδιον τοῦ σωτῆρος. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος, οὐκ ἐπῃσχύνετο διὰ τὴν σάρκα τὴν ἀγνοοῦσαν εἰπεῖν, οὐκ οἷδα. Ἵνα δείξῃ ὅτι εἰδὼς ὡς θεὸς ἀγνοεῖ σαρκικῶς. — Athanas. Orat. iv. ad Arian.

Ἀγνοεῖ τοίνυν κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος, ὁ γινώσκων τὰ πάντα κατὰ τὴν δύναμιν τῆς θεότητος. — Chrysost. tom. vii. serm. 117.

Πλὴν ἰστέον, ὅτι οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν πατέρων, σχεδὸν δὲ πάντες, φαίνονται λέγοντες αὐτὸν ἀγνοειν. Εἰ γὰρ κατὰ πάντα λέγεται ἡμῖν ὁμοούσιος, ἀγνοοῦμεν δὲ καὶ ἡμεῖς, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸς ἠγνόει. — Leontius Byzantinus, de Sectis.

[←334]

Rev 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants-- things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John;

[←335]

Advanced is a verb here, not an adjective. Owen is saying that we may not perfectly understand how the divine properties are expressed beside Christ's human nature, but however it is done, his human nature is not their subject. Hence Christ is fully man and fullyGod, without any admixture or diminution of either nature.

[←336]

Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa.

[←337]

"Maximum in totâ creaturâ testimonium de divinitate Spiritus Sancti corpus Domini est; quod ex Spiritu Sancto esse creditor secundum evangelistam, Mat i., sicut angelus ad Josephum dicit, Quod in ea natum est de Spiritu Sancto est." — Athanas. De Fid. Un. et Trin.

"Creatrix virtus altissimi, superveniente Spiritu Sancto in virginem Mariam, Christi corpus fabricavit; quo ille usus templo sine viri natus est semine" — Didym. de Spir. Sanc. lib. ii.

[←338]

A figure of speech: using the name of a part for that of the whole, or the whole for the part; or using the special for the general, or the general for the special; or the material for the thing that is made of it. For example, "All hands on deck!"

[←339]

KJV Heb 2:16 For truly he did not take on himself the nature of angels; but he took on himself the seed of Abraham.

[←340]

Gen 2.19, Heb. yatsar (OT:03335), to form pre-existing material. In Gen 1.1, "God created," ex nihilo Heb. bara (OT:01254).

[←341]

Jer 33:16-21 16 In those days Judah will be saved, And Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.' 17 "For thus says the LORD:`David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; 18 `nor shall the priests, the Levites, lack a man to offer burnt offerings before Me, to kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice continually.'"

19 And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 20 "Thus says the LORD:`If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, 21 `then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers.

[←342]

Line of descent traced through the maternal side of the family; or more generally, related by blood.

[←343]

Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

[←344]

That is, kinship, or the relation of an offspring to its forbears.

[←345]

That is, Christ's body was only an effect of the creative power of the Holy Spirit; it did not establish a parent-child relationship; neither is Owen asserting that the person of Christ is a created being – "only" the body was created. Joh 6:38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." Col 2:9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

[←346]

Defying expression or description.

[←347]

Εἴ τις λέγει πρῶτον πεπλάσθαι τὸ σῶμα τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐν τῇ μήτρᾳ τῆς ἁγίας παρθένου, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἑνωθῆναι αὑτῷ τὸν Θεὸν λόγον, καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ὡς προϋπάρξασαν, ἀνάθεμα ἔστω. — Concil. Constantinop. ad Origenistas.

[←348]

Gen 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, "I have acquired a man from the LORD."

[←349]

Aristotle claims four causes are needed to explain change in the world. These causes are material, formal, efficient and final. The material cause is what something is made of. The formal cause is either what makes a form singular; or what exemplifies it, like a concept in the mind which gives rise to that form. The efficient cause is what actually produces it. The final cause is why efficient causes do what they do and why formal causes do what they do – it concerns purpose and meaning. So carving a statue of a king begins in the sculptor's mind (formal cause), requires a block of marble (material cause), physically carving it with hammer and chisel (efficient cause), to honor the king (its final cause).

[←350]

For example, Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Third Part, 'Treatise on the Incarnation,' q. 32, point 2. Reply to Objection 1: Christ's body, through not being consubstantial with the Holy Ghost, cannot properly be said to be conceived "of" [de] the Holy Ghost, but rather "from [ex] the Holy Ghost," as Ambrose says (De Spir. Sanct. ii.): "What is from someone is either from his substance or from his power: from his substance, as the Son who is from the Father; from his power, as all things are from God, just as Mary conceived from the Holy Ghost."

[←351]

The 2nd century Mishnah (Kiddushin 3:12) says a Jew must be either the child of a Jewish mother or a convert to Judaism. Orthodox Jews say this rule dates from Moses at Mount Sinai; but most non-Orthodox scholars say it began either at the time of Ezra, or during Roman rule in the 1st–2nd centuries A.D. Patrilineal descent was the standard of Judaism prior to that time.

[←352]

That is, self-deception. Jer 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

[←353]

Behavior that breaches the rule, etiquette, custom or morality.

[←354]

The first part can be found in the previous chapter, at page 162. — WHG

[←355]

That is, if Christ only had the capacity of Adam prior to the fall, it would not have been enough to live to God perfectly.

[←356]

Isa 11:3, "His delight is in the fear of the LORD..." See that note on page 172.

[←357]

Joh 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.'" 16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

[←358]

"Quomodo proficiebat sapientiâ Dei? doceat te ordo verborum. Profectus est ætatis, profectus est sapientiæ, sed humanæ. Ideo ætatem ante præmisit, ut secundum homines crederes dictum; ætas enim non divinitatis sed corporis est. Ergo si proficiebat ætate hominis proficiebat sapientiâ hominis. Sapientia autem sensu proficit, quia a sensu sapientia." — Ambros. de Incarnat. Dom. Mysterio, chap. vii.

"Nam et Dominus homo accepit communicationem Spiritus Sancti; sicut in evangeliis legitur, 'Jesus ergo repletus Spiritu Sancto, regressus est a Iordane.' Hæc autem absque ullâ calumniâ de dominico homine, qui totus Christus, unus est Jesus Filius Dei, sensu debemus pietatis accipere, non quod alter et alter sit, sed quod de uno atque eodem quasi de altero, secundum naturam Dei, et hominis disputatur." — Didym. de Spir. Sanc. lib. ii.

[←359]

See the note on the original page 172, point 3, concerning the Greek wording in Luke 2.40.

[←360]

Nescience: lack of knowledge; ignorance in its plainest sense. Hence Jesus went through a learning process, as we all do.

[←361]

Bellarm. de Anim. Christi.

[←362]

Rom 15:8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers;

[←363]

Deu 18:18 `I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 `And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.

[←364]

Act 3:23 `And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.' Heb 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, Joh 8:24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."

[←365]

Note: "quick understanding" is the KJV; the NKJ reads, "His delight is in the fear of the Lord." In Hebrew, "delight" is absent, as is "quick understanding." Verse 3 simply continues the the thought from verse 2, "The Spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord" and begins with a connector that might be rendered "even the fear of the Lord." Hebrew repeats a phrase for emphasis. Thus Owen is pointing to "Spirit of knowledge" in verse 2, Heb. da'ath (OT:01847), where it is not static, as if it were past knowledge or experience remembered, but "quick" or living knowledge being actively received and presently acted on.

[←366]

Psa 45:7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions. Heb 1:8 But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions."

[←367]

Mat 3:17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

[←368]

Joh 1:33 "I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'

[←369]

Luk 2:46 Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.

[←370]

In the Greek, ηὔξανε, καὶ ἐκραταιοῦτο πνεύματι, πληρούμενον σοφίας, it is literally "grow (imperfect active tense) and even be made strong (imperfect passive tense) in the Spirit, being filled (participle imperfect passive tense) of wisdom." – WHG.

[←371]

A style that involves indirect ways of expressing things.

[←372]

Literally out of measure.

[←373]

Isa 48:16 "Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit Have sent Me."

[←374]

Mat 12:28 "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

[←375]

Mat 12:31 "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 "Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

[←376]

Mar 6:5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. Mar 9:39 But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. Luk 4:36 Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, "What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out." Luk 5:17 Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. Luk 6:19 And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. Luk 8:46 But Jesus said, "Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me." Luk 9:1 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.

[←377]

Joh 10:37 "If I don't do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 "but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him."

[←378]

Also Luke 10.2.

[←379]

Isa 42:4 He will not fail nor be discouraged... Isa 42:6 "I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles; Isa 49:5 "And now the LORD says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, And My God shall be My strength), 6 Indeed He says, 'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'" 7 Thus says the LORD, The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, To Him whom man despises, To Him whom the nation abhors, To the Servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship, Because of the LORD who is faithful, The Holy One of Israel; And He has chosen You." 8 Thus says the LORD: "In an acceptable time I have heard You, And in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people, To restore the earth, To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages; Isa 50:7 "For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed. 8 He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me.

[←380]

Heb 9:14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse [or purge] your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

[←381]

Heb 7:26-27 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

[←382]

Heb 7:20 And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath 21 (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: "The LORD has sworn And will not relent, 'You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek ' ");

[←383]

Heb 5:2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.

[←384]

Psa 40:6 Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. 7 Then I said, "Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. 8 I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart." Heb 10:5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. 6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. 7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come-- In the volume of the book it is written of Me-- To do Your will, O God.'"

[←385]

Rom 3:24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

[←386]

Isa 53:11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. Phi 2:9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth;

[←387]

Isa 8:17 And I will wait on the LORD, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him. Psa 18:2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Job 13:15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.

[←388]

Psa 22:9 But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother's breasts. 10 I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother's womb You have been My God. 11 Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help.

[←389]

Psa 22:8 "He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!" with Mat 27:43 "He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, 'I am the Son of God.'"

[←390]

Isa 50:7 "For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed. 8 He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me. 9 Surely the Lord GOD will help Me; Who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment; The moth will eat them up.

[←391]

Gal 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree "), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

[←392]

Oblation: A sacrificial offering to God; also, an offering of worship, thanksgiving, etc. See Lev 2.4-13; 19.24; Psa 54.6.

[←393]

Gen 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

[←394]

Rom 5:17 For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.

[←395]

Act 2:23 "Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;

[←396]

"Pains of death" – Heb. חֶבְלֵי־מָוֶת (OT:02256, 04194).

[←397]

Our author must allude to a difference in the vowel-points; חֵבֶל as in Isa 66.7, signifying pains, and חֶבֶל , with the seghol instead of the tsere, being translated cord or rope. The word occurs also in composition with בְּ under the meaning of "cords," or "fetters," as in Job 36.8, בְּחַבְלֵי־עֹנִי . — Ed.

[←398]

For חֶבְלֵי־מָוֶת , are the "sorrows of death," and , חֶבְלֵי־מָוֶת are the "cords of death." See Psa 18.4; 116.3.

[←399]

Gr. odin thanatos, ὠδῖνες θανάτου (NT:5604, 2288).

[←400]

1Pet 1:11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

[←401]

2Pet 2:5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

[←402]

Gen 6:3 And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

[←403]

Eph 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

[←404]

Originally "suffrage."

[←405]

2Cor 10:4, 5 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

[←406]

Joh 9:29 "We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from."

[←407]

Act 2:33 "Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear." — i.e., the evidence of the Spirit, proved that Jesus was the Christ – WHG.

[←408]

2Cor 5:16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

[←409]

2Cor 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

[←410]

Rev 12:6 Then the woman [i.e., the Church] fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

[←411]

Cates, viands, i.e., stocks and supplies. — Ed.

[←412]

Any receptacle in which wafers for the Eucharist are kept, or the vault in which they are stored.

[←413]

Eph 4:20 But you have not so learned Christ;

[←414]

Psa 45:2 You are fairer than the sons of men; Grace is poured upon Your lips; Therefore God has blessed You forever.

[←415]

Eph 6:24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

[←416]

Zec 3:9 For behold, the stone That I have laid before Joshua: Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,' Says the LORD of hosts, 'And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

[←417]

Zec 4:7 'Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'

[←418]

Owen didn't publish The Glory of Christ until 1684, which dealt extensively with Christ as Mediator. But there are many references to his office as Mediator in this present work; and so he may be referring to those generally. – WHG

[←419]

Psa 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. 2 Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. 4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun; etc.

[←420]

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will;

[←421]

Καὶ μάλιστά γε τὸ ἀπολαύειν τοῦς ἀναπλασθέντας τοῦ ἁγιασμοῦ καὶ διαμένειν ἐν τῇ ἀναπλάσει, τῆς τοῦ παναγίου πνεύματος ἐστι δημουργίας τε καὶ συνοχῆς. — Jobius apud. Photium. lib. cxxii.

[←422]

Isa 44:3 For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring; Joel 2:28 "And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. 29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

[←423]

Absurd or silly because it is unlikely.

[←424]

2Cor 3:6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. ... 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

[←425]

Isa 59:21 "As for Me," says the LORD, "this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants," says the LORD, "from this time and forevermore."

[←426]

That is, the church as an institution, governed by Christ through his Spirit, having ministers called by him to rule in his name.

[←427]

Or "the Vicarious Christ;" a vicar is one who represents another, acting in his name and on his behalf.

[←428]

The words of Schmidt on Eph 4.10 are worthy of consideration: Ἵνα πληρώσῃ τὰ πάντα, "Per τὰ πάντα, aliqui intelligunt totum mundum, seu totum universum hoc, exponuntque ut omnipræsentia sua omnibus in mundo locis adesset, loca omnia implendo: et hi verbum πληρώσῃ de physicâ et crassâ impletione accipiunt; quam tamen talis πλήρωσις seu impletio locorum in mundo omnium quæ vel expansionem corpoream in quantitate continuâ, vel multiplicationem, imo infinitam multitudinem unius ejusdemque corperis in discreta præsupponit, et ex humana speculatione orta est, falsoque nostris ecclesiis affingitur" (in which yet he confesses that it is taught); "ne cogitanda quidem sit pio homini; sed potius omnipræsentia Christi hominis — uti promissa est, modo nobis ineffabili credi, et multo certius aliunde sciri possit ex ipsius promissione," Mat 28.20. This way, as we say with the Scripture, is by his Spirit, the perfect manner of whose presence and operation is ineffable.

[←429]

Joh 1:17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

[←430]

Mat 11:27 "All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

[←431]

Evangelical here means in keeping with the Gospel. Thus evangelical obedience is godiness in response to Gospel salvation, attained through faith alone, in Christ alone, by God's grace alone (which is the Gospel). Such obedience reflects (however imperfectly) the perfect obedience of Christ that actually saved us, and it testifies of the newness of life we have in Christ.

[←432]

vox naturæ clamantis ad Dominum naturæ.

[←433]

vox Spiritus adoptionis clamantis per Christum, Abba, Pater.

[←434]

"Interest" is not just a curiosity about them, but having a share or stake in them. It's like owning stock in a corporation that pays dividends (interest, or return on investment); or having a portion in the Promised Land (Deu 10.9). Joh 13:8 Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part [or portion] with Me."

[←435]

That is, obedience offered in response to God's love in Christ.

[←436]

Act 13:2 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

[←437]

2Pet 1:5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

[←438]

This displays Owen's dry wit. His logic is this: not doing anything because you think the Spirit does everything, is proof that you don't have the Spirit; because if you were saved, and had the Spirit, He would enable and ensure that you diligently do your duties. Therefore, it is foolish for any believer to even assert such a thing (Phi 2.12-13).

[←439]

Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

[←440]

"Si in gratiâ, non ex naturâ aquæ, sed ex præsentiâ est Spiritus Sancti: numquid in aquâ vivimus, sicut in Spiritu? Numquid in aquâ signamur sicut in Spiritu?" — Ambros. de Spir. Sanc. lib. i. cap. 6.

[←441]

e.g., 1Cor 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

[←442]

Animated or made alive and vigorous.

[←443]

Rom 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

[←444]

Joh 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

[←445]

"Similiter ex Spiritu secundum gratiam nos renasci, Dominus ipse testatur dicens, Quod natum est ex carne, caro est, quia de carne natum est; et quod natum est de Spiritu, Spiritus est, quia Spiritus Deus est. Claret igitur spiritualis quoque generationis authorem esse Spiritum Sanctum, quia secundum Deum creamur et Filii Dei sumus. Ergo cum ille nos in regnum suum per adoptionem sacræ regenerationis assumpserit, nos ei quod suum est denegamus? ille nos supernæ generationis hæredes fecit, nos hæreditatem vindicamus, refutamus authorem; sed non potest manere beneficium cum author excluditur, nec author sine munere, nec sine authore munus. Si vindicas gratiam, crede potentiam; si refutas potentiam, gratiam ne requiras. Sancti igitur Spiritus opus est regeneratio ista præstantior, et novi hujus hominis qui creatur ad imaginem Dei author est Spiritus, quem utique meliorem hoe exteriori esse nostro homine nemo dubitaverit." — Ambros. de Spir. Sanc lib. ii. cap. 9.

[←446]

"Denique quomodo respondeat advertite, et videte latebras ambiguitatis falsitati præparare refugia, ita ut etiam nos cum primum ea legimus, recta vel correcta propemodum gauderemus." — August. de Peccat. Orig., cap. 18.

"Mihi pene persuaserat hanc illam gratiam de qua quæstio est confiteri; quominus in multis ejus opusculi locis sibi ipsi contradicere videretur. Sed cum in manus meas et alia venissent quæ posterius latiusque scripsit, vidi quemadmodum etiam illic gratiam nominare sed ambigua generalitate quid sentiret abscondens, gratiæ tamen vocabulo frangens invidiam, offensionemque declinans." — Id. de Grat. Christ., lib. i. cap. 37.

Vid. August. lib. i. cont. Julianum, cap. 5, lib. iii., cap. 1, Lib. de Gest.; Pelag., cap. 30, Epist. 95, ad Innocent.; Epist. Innocent. ad August.

"Negant etiam quam ad sacram Christi virginem Nemehiadem in oriente conscripsimus, et noverint nos ita hominis laudare naturam ut Dei semper addamus auxilium (verba Pelagii quibus respondet Augustinus), istam sane lege, mihique pene persuaserat, hanc illam gratiam de qua quæstio est confiteri." — Id. ubi supra.

[←447]

"Fefellit judicium Palæstinum, propterea ibi videtur purgatus; Romanam vero ecclesiam, ubi eum esse notissimum scitis fallere usque quaque non potuit, quamvis et hoc fuerit utrumque conatus. Tanto judices fefellit occultius, quanto exponit ista versutius." — August. Lib. de Peccat. Orig. cap. 16.

[←448]

To destroy completely, "down to the roots."

[←449]

Samuel Parker; see page 121 of this vol. — Ed.

[←450]

See also Gal 4:19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you;

[←451]

Psa 51.5; John 3.5, 36; Rom 3.19, 5.15-18; Eph 2.3; Tit 3.3-4.

[←452]

Ex opere operato – lit. "from the work worked." A Catholic doctrine that the efficacious grace of the Sacraments derives from the sacrament itself (or from Christ), as opposed to the merits or holiness of the administrator or recipient. That voids 1Cor 11.27, "whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner..." Faith is required.

[←453]

Put simply, baptism does not save; it is only a visible sign of salvation, a public profession of our faith in Christ.

[←454]

The Greek word used here is antitupos (NT:499), or "antitype" – a symbol or counterpart of something. Salvation comes by the resurrection of Christ, and baptism is the symbol of that resurrection. Paul puts it this way: Rom 6:4 "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Owen cites this verse immediately below. – WHG

[←455]

Originally, "restipulation" – which is a responsive guarantee or promise. In Roman law, it is an oral contract or agreement made in question and answer form, which was necessary to give it legal force. "Do you so swear?" "I so swear."

[←456]

Rom 6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

[←457]

"Per inhærentem justitiam intelligimus supernaturale donum gratiæ sanctificantis, oppositum originali peccato, et in singulis animæ facultatibus reparans et renovans illam Dei imaginem, quæ per peccatum originale foedata ac disspata fuit. Origlnale peccatum mentem tenebris implevit, hæc infusa gratia lumine coelesti collustrat. Istud cor humanum obstinatione et odio Dei ac divinæ legis maculavit, hæc infusa justitia cor emollit et amore boni accendit et inflammat. Postremo illud affectus omnes atque ipsum appetitum rebellione infecit; hæc renovata sanctitas in ordinem cogit perturbatas affectiones, et ipsam rebellem concupiscentiam dominio spoliat, et quasi sub jugum mittit." — Davenant. de Justit. Habit. cap. iii.

"Fides tanquam radix imbre suscepto hæret in animæ solo; ut cum per legem Dei excoli coeperit surgant in ea rami qui fructus operum ferant. Non ergo ex operibus radix justitiæ, sed ex radice justitiæ fructus operum crescit." — Origen. lib. iv. In Epist. ad Roman.

[←458]

"Is qui Spiritus Sancti particeps efficitur, per communionem ejus fit spiritualis pariter et sanctus." — Didym. lib. i. de Spir. Sanc., p. 218, inter opera Hieronymi.

"Qui Spiritu Sancto plenus est statim universis donationibus Dei repletur, sapientia, scientia, fide, cæterisque virtutibus." — Id. ibid.

"Nunquam enim accipit quisquam spirituales benedictiones Dei, nisi præcesserit Spiritus Sanctus; qui enim habet Spiritum Sanctum consequenter habebit benedictiones." — Idem, p. 220.

[←459]

"Sicut in nativitate carnali omnem nascentis hominis voluntatem præcedit operis divini formatio, sic in spirituali nativitate qua veterem hominem deponere incipimus." — Fulgent. de Incarnat. et Grat. Christ. cap. 29.

"Forma præcessit in carne Christi, quam in nostra fide spiritualiter agnoscamus; nam Christus Filius Dei, secundum carnem de Spiritu Sancto conceptus et natus est: carnem autem illam nec concipere virgo posset nec parere, nisi ejus carnis Spiritus Sanctus operetur exordium. Sic etiam in hominis corde nec concipi fides potuit nec augeri, nisi eam Spiritus Sanctus effundat et nutriat. Ex eodem namque Spiritu renati sumus, ex quo Christus natus est." — Idem, cap. xx.

[←460]

Gal 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. Gal 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

[←461]

Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

[←462]

Vicious: marked by vice.

[←463]

Mat 19:16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" 17 So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." 18 He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "`You shall not murder,'`You shall not commit adultery,'`You shall not steal,'`You shall not bear false witness,' 19 `Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" 20 The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?" 21 Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

[←464]

"Adjuvat nos Deus" (the words of Pelagius), "per doctrinam et revelationem suam, dum cordis nostri oculos aperit, dum nobis, ne præsentibus occupemur, futura demonstrat, dum diaboli pandit insidias, dum nos multiformi et ineffabili dono gratiæ cælestis illuminat." — August. Lib. de Grat. cont. Pelag. et Cælest. cap. vii.

[←465]

Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

[←466]

Eph 1:19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power. Col 2:12-13 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 2Thes 1:11 Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power,

[←467]

Mat 7:18 "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

[←468]

Mat 3:10 "And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

[←469]

Eze 36:25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Jer 31:33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jer 32:39-40 `then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. 40 `And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.

[←470]

Rom 6:3-6 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Col 3:1-5 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. 5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Eph 4:23-25 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor," for we are members of one another.

[←471]

1Thes 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[←472]

Originally "distempered" which indicates a mind "out of control," lacking in all moderation, and taken to extremes. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was taken for "diseased," as in Shakespeare's Sonnet 153. Cupid had driven someone mad with desire, and there was no cure to be found except in his mistress' eyes, from which the fiery disease (the distemper) was contracted. – WHG

[←473]

2Kng 9:5-6, 11-12 And when he arrived, there were the captains of the army sitting; and he said, "I have a message for you, Commander." Jehu said, "For which one of us?" And he said, "For you, Commander." 6 Then he arose and went into the house. And he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel:`I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel... 11 Then Jehu came out to the servants of his master, and one said to him, "Is all well? Why did this madman come to you?" And he said to them, "You know the man and his babble." 12 And they said, "A lie! Tell us now." So he said, "Thus and thus he spoke to me, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: "I have anointed you king over Israel."'"

[←474]

NKJ, "out of his mind."

[←475]

Act 26:24 Now as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!" 25 But he said, "I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason.

[←476]

Or "anguish of spirit." The passage describes how a righteous or just man is considered in the eyes of the wicked.

[←477]

Owen refers to the Roman Catholic practice of calling clergy "father" when they were not instrumental in their conversion.

[←478]

An ethical or moral principle that inhibits action.

[←479]

Our author quotes from Parker's "Defense and Continuation of the Eccleaiastical Polity," etc. pp. 306, 307. See page 121 of this volume. — Ed.

[←480]

Marked by care and persistent effort.

[←481]

1Joh 3:9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

[←482]

"Sunt quædam opera externa, ab hominibus ordinariè requisita, priusquam ad statum regenerationis, aut conversionis perducantur, quæ ab iisdem quandoque libere fieri, quandoque liberè omitti solent; ut adire ecclesiam, audire verbi præconium, et id genus alia.

"Sunt quædam effecta interna ad conversionem sive regenerationem prævia, quæ virtute verbi, spiritusque in nondum regeneratorum cordibus excitantur; qualia sunt notitia voluntatis divinæ, sensus peccati, timor poenæ; cogitatio de liberatione, spes aliqua veniæ." — Synod. Dordrec. Sententia Theolog. Britan. ad Artic. quartum, thes. 1, 2, p. 139.

[←483]

Unresisting.

[←484]

Marked by care and persistent effort.

[←485]

Official recognition or approval.

[←486]

1Cor 2:9 But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

[←487]

Rom 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

[←488]

Joh 2:23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. Joh 12:42 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue;

[←489]

"Heu miserum, nimisque miserum quem torquet conscientia sua, quam fugere non potest; nimis miserum quem expectat damnatio sua quam vitare non potest, nisi Deus eripiat. Nimis est infelix cui mors æterna est sensibilis; nimis ærumnosus quem terrent continui de sua infelicitate horrores." — August. de Contritione Cordis.

[←490]

Act 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Act 16:30 And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

[←491]

Mat 13:20-21 "But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 2Pet 2:20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. Mat 12:43 "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 "Then he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 "Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

[←492]

Uncouth: foreign and unfamiliar.

[←493]

Originally, "humours in their complexions and constitutions." Below that, "fad" was originally "novelty."

[←494]

It was the Age of Enlightenment, or Age of Reason (1620s-1780s), when man's intellect became the standard of truth.

[←495]

That is, illumination, conviction, and reformation.

[←496]

Deception.

[←497]

The condition of being useful in reaching an end, or carrying out a plan.

[←498]

Rom 6:17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 1Cor 2:13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 2Cor 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2Cor 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[←499]

That is, illumination of the mind without regeneration (rebirth) will not save, even though it is one means of salvation.

[←500]

Liable to vanish or disappear; faint; weak; evanescent.

[←501]

The image is of an untidy house being put in order (Mat 12.44). Much is gatherered up for disposal, but not all.

[←502]

"Nonne advertimus multos fideles nostros ambulantes viam Dei, ex nulla parte ingenio comparari, non dicam quorundam hæreticorum, sed etiam minorum? Item nonne videmus quosdam homines utriusque sexus in conjugali castitate viventes sine querela, et tamen vel hæreticos vel Paganos, vel etiam in vera fide et vera ecclesia sic tepidos, ut eos miremur meretricum et histrionum subito conversorum, non solum sapientiâ et temperantiâ sed etiam fide, spe et charitate superari." — August. lib. ii. Quæs. ad Simplician. q. 2.

[←503]

"Nonconformist" refers to a Protestant clergyman in England and Whales who did not "conform" to, or comply with, the Act of Uniformity of 1662. Dissenters, such as Puritans, refused to comply because the act imposed Roman Catholic theology and practices on the Anglican Church. And so, nearly 2,000 Protestant clergymen were "ejected" from the established church, and barred from civil or military offices. Many, like John Bunyan, were imprisoned. Bunyan was released after 12 years, which was the same year this work of Owen was published (1674). So these were real and present wounds for him as he wrote.

[←504]

See Samuel Parker's "Defense and Continuation of the Ecclesiastical Polity," pp. 343, 344. — Ed.

[←505]

An international Synod held in Dordrecht (Dordt) Netherlands (1618-1619), to settle a controversy initiated by the rise of Arminianism. In its conclusions, the Synod refuted the five points of the Arminian Remonstrance Articles (1610). The refutations became known as the five points of Calvinsim, or the Doctrines of Grace.

[←506]

Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again [regenerate], he cannot see the kingdom of God [unregenerate]." 4 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, [regenerate] he cannot enter the kingdom of God [unregenerate]. 6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh [unregenerate], and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit [regenerate]. 7 "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' 8 "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

[←507]

"Dico veterem Nativitatem atque adeo omnes vires naturæ, quæ naturali propagatione transfunduntur in sobolem in scriptura damnari; maledictam cordis nostri imaginationem, rationem, os, manus, pedes peccato et tenebris involuta in nobis omnia." — Johan. Ferus in Evang. Joh. cap. i. v. 23. "Fide perdita, spe relicta, intelligentia obcæcata, voluntate captiva, homo quo in se reparetur non invenit." — De Vocat. Gent. lib. vii. cap. 3.

[←508]

Joh 9:41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remains.

[←509]

"Si quis per naturæ vigorem evangelizanti predicationi nos consentire posse confirmet absque illuminatione Spiritus Sancti; hæretico fallitur spiritu." — Conc. Arausic. ii. can. 7.

[←510]

This is Owen's sarcasm at its finest: those asserting such nonsense obviously have a depraved mind; thus they are incapable of giving a reasoned response, seeing that their own minds need a regenerating work of the Spirit.

[←511]

That is, it was a darkness of the mind; and so the Spirit enlightens the mind.

[←512]

Psa 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

[←513]

Psa 19:8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;

[←514]

2Pet 1:19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;

[←515]

Psa 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. 2 Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. 4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

[←516]

Rom 10:15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!" Rom 10:18 But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: "Their sound has gone out to all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world."

[←517]

In the sense of "placed before," "presented." — Ed.

[←518]

See treatise, "Communion with God," and his "Vindication" of it in reply to Dr. Sherlock, vol ii. — Ed.

[←519]

An intervening and indispensable cause of something, even though it is not direct (e.g. a hammer driving a nail).

[←520]

Vitiated: impaired, corrupted, or made imperfect (i.e., defective).

[←521]

"Quomodo nempe lux incassum circumfundit oculos cæcos vel clausos, ita animalis homo non percipit ea quæ sunt Spiritus Dei." — 1Cor ii. 14; Bernard. Ser. i. sup. Cantic.

[←522]

"Si quis per naturæ vigorem bonum aliquod quod ad salutem pertinet vitæ æternæ, cogitare ut expedit, aut eligere, sive salutari, id est, Evangelicæ prædicationi consentire posse confirmat, absque illuminatione et inspiratione Spiritus Sancti, qui dat omnibus suavitatem consentiendo et credendo veritati, hæretico fallitur spiritu." — Conc. Arausic. ii. can. 7.

"Ideo dictum est quia nullus hominum illuminatur nisi illo lumine veritatis quod Deus est; ne quisquam putaret ab eo se illuminari, a quo aliquid audit ut discat, non dico si quenquam magnum hominem, sed nec si angelum ei contingat habere doctorem. Adhibetur enim sermo veritatis extrinsecus vocis ministerio corporali; verumtamen neque qui plantat est aliquid, neque qui rigat, sed qui incrementum dat Deus. Audit quippe homo dicentem vel hominem vel angelum, sed ut sentiat et cognoscat verum esse quod dicitur, illo lumine mens ejus intus aspergitur, quod æternum manet, quod etiam in tenebris lucet." — August. de Peccat. Meritis et Remissione, lib. i. cap. 25.

[←523]

Eph 4:19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

[←524]

Eph 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

[←525]

Pro 7:11 She was loud and rebellious, Her feet would not stay at home. 12 At times she was outside, at times in the open square, Lurking at every corner.

[←526]

Joh 1:5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

[←527]

Eph 4:18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;

[←528]

1Joh 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

[←529]

Eph 4:23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

[←530]

Owen will now address the efficacy and power of this darkness, the second point mentioned on page 246.

[←531]

Act 17:28 "for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.' Psa 104:30 You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.

[←532]

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Job 10:12 You have granted me life and favor, And Your care has preserved my spirit.

[←533]

Rom 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."

[←534]

Eph 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), Phi 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

[←535]

Rom 14:7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.

[←536]

Gen 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."

[←537]

Joh 6:68 But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Act 5:20 "Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life."

[←538]

Rom 6:22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. Phi 1:11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

[←539]

1Tim 5:6 But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. Jas 5:5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

[←540]

Rom 7:9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.

[←541]

Rom 9:32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Rom 10:3 For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

[←542]

Rom 5:6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

[←543]

1Cor 15:44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Jude 1:19 These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.

[←544]

Tractat. 98, in Johan: "Animalis homo, i.e., qui secundum hominem sapit, animalis dictus ab anima, carnalis a carne, quia ex anima et carne constat omnis homo, non percipit ea quæ sunt Spiritus Dei, i.e., quid gratiæ credentibus conferat crux Christi." And another: "Carnales dicimur, quando totos nos voluptatibus damus; spirituales, quando Spiritum Sanctum prævium sequimur; id est, cum ipso sapimus instruente, ipso ducimur auctore. Animales reor esse philosophos qui proprios cogitatus putant esse sapientiam, de quibus recte dicitur, animalis autem homo non recipit ea quæ sunt Spiritus, stultitia quippe est ei," Hieronym. Comment. in Epist. ad Galatians cap. v. And another: Ψυχικός ἐστιν ὁ τὸ πᾶν τοῖς λογισμοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς διδοὺς, καὶ μὴ νομίζων ἄνωθέν τινος δεῖσθαι βοηθείας, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἀνοίας, καὶ γὰρ ἔδωκεν αὐτὴν ὁ Θεὸς ἴνα μανθάνῃ, καὶ δέχηται τὸ παρ' αὐτοῦ, οὐχ ἵνα ἑαυτῇ αὐτὴν ἀρκεῖν νομίζῃ. Καὶ γὰρ οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ καλοὶ καὶ χρήσιμοι, ἀλλ' ἐὰν βούλωνται χωρὶς φωτὸς ὁρᾷν, οὐδὲν αὐτοὺς τὸ κάλλος ὀνίνησιν, οὐδὲ ἡ οἰκεία ἰσχὺς, ἀλλὰ καὶ παραβλάπει. Ὅυτω τοίνυν ἡ ψυγὴ ἑὰν βουληθῇ χωρὶς πνεύματος βλέπειν, καὶ ἐμποδὼν ἑαυτῇ γίνεται, Chrysostom on 1Cor 2.15

[←545]

1Cor 2:11-12 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

[←546]

Speaking of 1Cor 2.1-14.

[←547]

Eph 3:8-11 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord;

[←548]

"Firmissime tene et nullatenus dubites, posse quidem hominem, quem nec ignorantia literarum, neque aliqua prohibit imbecillitas vel adversitas, verba sanctæ legis et evangelii sive legere sive ex ore cujusquam prædicatoris audire; sed divinis mandatis obedire neminem posse, nisi quem Deus gratiâ suâ prævenerit, ut quod audit corpore, etiam corde percipiat et æcepta divinitus bonâ voluntate atque virtute, mandata Dei facere et velit et possit." — August. de Fide ad Petrum, cap. 34.

[←549]

Rom 2:23 You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? 24 For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," as it is written.

[←550]

Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

[←551]

Eze 18:25 "Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' Hear now, O house of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not fair?

[←552]

"Magnum aliquid Pelagiani se scire putant quando dicunt, non juberet Deus quod sciat non posse ab homine fieri; quis hoc nesciat? sed ideo jubet aliqua quæ non possumus ut noverimus quid ab illo petere debeamus. Ipsa enim est quæ orando impetrat, quod lex imperat." — August. de Grat. et Lib. Arbit. cap. 19.

"Mandando impossibilia non prævaricatores homines fecit, sed humiles; ut omne os obstruatur; et subditus fiat omnis mundus Deo; quia ex operibus legis non justificatibur omnis caro coram illo. Accipientes quippe mandatum, sentientes defectum, clamabimus in coelum, et miserebitur nostri Deus." — Bernard. Serm. 50, in Cantic.

[←553]

Rom 6:17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 2Cor 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

[←554]

1Joh 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 2Cor 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[←555]

1Cor 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

[←556]

Eph 3:9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places; Job 28:20 "From where then does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? 21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living, And concealed from the birds of the air. 22 Destruction and Death say, 'We have heard a report about it with our ears.'

[←557]

1Cor 1:22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness; 1Cor 1:26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,

[←558]

"prodeunt oratores novi, stulti adolescentuli."

[←559]

2Pet 3:3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."

[←560]

Isa 53:1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

[←561]

2Cor 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[←562]

"In nullo gloriandum, quia nihil nostrum est." — Cypr. lib. 3. ad Quirin.

"Fide perdita, spe relicta, intelligentia obcæcata, voluntate captiva, homo qua in se reparetur non invenit." — Prosp. De Vocat. Gent. lib. i. cap. 7.

"Quicunque tribuit sibi bonum quod facit, etiamsi nihil videtur mali manibus operari, jam cordis innocentiam perdidit, in quo se largitori bonorum prætulit." — Hieron. in Pro cap. xvi.

[←563]

"NKJ: "You are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."

[←564]

Dr. Henry Hammond in his Paraphrase and Annotations Upon the New Testatment, 1653, modernized here, re 1Cor 2.14. It was the first lengthy commentary published in English. Hammond has been called the Father of English Exegesis. – WHG

[←565]

(Οὐ δέχεται NT:3756,1209)

[←566]

2Cor 4:4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

[←567]

Obdurate: hardened, hard-hearted, intractable, unrepentant, recalcitrant.

[←568]

Rom 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Rom 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

[←569]

Rom 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

[←570]

Difficult to solve or alleviate.

[←571]

That is, inwardly and unseen – "enclosed."

[←572]

Lessened.

[←573]

Rom 1:23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man-- and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Psa 106:20 Thus they changed their glory Into the image of an ox that eats grass.

[←574]

Mic 6:6 With what shall I come before the LORD, And bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Gen 4:13 And Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is greater than I can bear!

[←575]

This could mean either elaborate, or bizarre. Heresies tend to be both, because they're fascinating, captivating.

[←576]

Unrestrained by convention or morality; debauched; degenerate.

[←577]

Or, "You did not say, 'It's hopeless,' for you found new life in your own strength," so you did not turn to God.

[←578]

Col 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. 5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age;

[←579]

1Cor 2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

[←580]

Eph 3:7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power. 8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,

[←581]

Created at the same time.

[←582]

Rom 2:14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them).

[←583]

1Cor 15:3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures;

[←584]

Rom 6:17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. Gal 4:19 My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you. Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age; 1Cor 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 2Cor 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

[←585]

Enervate: to weaken and enfeeble – to drain or bleed off the power of something.

[←586]

Ruined in character or quality; corrupted morally; impaired or diminished; rendered imperfect and ineffective.

[←587]

Joh 1:5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 1Cor 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

[←588]

Isa 5.20.

[←589]

Rom 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

[←590]

1Tim 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Heb 3:12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 2Cor 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

[←591]

Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved); Joh 5:21 "For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will." Joh 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

[←592]

Originally Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Rom 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;

[←593]

"Actus vivificantis in vivificatum [vivificandum according to the translation. — Ed.] per unionem utriusque;"

[←594]

The primary or initiating act. The union of soul and body by the Spirit is the original act which produces a living being.

[←595]

Psa 115:4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands. 5 They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; 6 They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell; 7 They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat.

[←596]

Elicit, brought into actual existence. — Ed.

[←597]

Imperate, done by the direction of the mind. — Ed.

[←598]

Obediential power – a power to obey, not a power to command.

[←599]

A quickening principle, says Owen, is what induces life into any creature; life is not inherent in the material of the creature itself. When God breathed life into Adam, He breathed a quickening principle into him, which acted to give life to Adam's flesh.

[←600]

Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

[←601]

Ecc 7:29 Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes."

[←602]

That is, Adam's life in his fallen condition (which is any life apart from Christ), and a believer's life in his restored condition.

[←603]

Eph 4:23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Col 3:10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.

[←604]

Neither in fact, nor legally.

[←605]

See page 245.

[←606]

Mat 7:18 "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Mat 12:33 "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.

[←607]

Jer 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

[←608]

"Magnum aliquid Pelagiani se scire putant quando dicunt, non juberet Deus quod scit non posse ab homine fieri, quis hoc nesciat? sed ideo jubet aliqua quæ non possumus ut noverimus quid ab illo petere debeamus. Ipsa enim est fides quæ orando impetrat, quod lex imperat." — August. de Grat. et Lib. Arbit. cap. xvi.

"O homo cognosce in præceptione quid debeas habere; in corruptione cognosce tuo te vitio non habere; in oratione cognosce unde accipias quod vis habere." — Idem, de Corrupt. et Grat. cap. iii.

"Mandando impossibilia, non prevaricatores homines fecit, sed humiles; ut omne os obstruatur; et subditus fiat omnis mundus Deo. Accipientes nempe mandatum, sentientes defectum, clamabimus in coelum." — Bernard. Serm. 50 in Cant.

"Quamvis dicamus Dei donum esse obedientiam, tamen homines exhortamur ad eam: sed illis qui veritatis exhortationem obedienter audiunt, ipsum donum Dei datum est, hoc est, obedienter audire; illis autem qui non sic audiunt, non est datum." August. de Dono Perseverant. cap. xiv.

[←609]

Originally, "vehicula gratiæ."

[←610]

Jas 1:18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. 1Pet 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever;

[←611]

In other words, man's relationship to God is not neutral. If he is not for God, he is against Him (Mat 12.30).

[←612]

Heb 9:14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

[←613]

Eph 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

[←614]

Jas 1:15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

[←615]

1Cor 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

[←616]

Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

[←617]

Eph 4:15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-- Christ-- 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

[←618]

Jer 31:33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Eze 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and (1) put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "I will put My Spirit within you and (2) cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

[←619]

That is to concern themselves about them, or to make every effort to do them (i.e., righteous deeds).

[←620]

"Manifestissimè patet in impiorum animis nullam habitare virtutem; sed omnia opera eorum immunda esse atque polluta, habentium sapientiam non spiritualem sed animalem, non coelestem sed terrenam." — Prosper. ad Collat. cap. xiii.

"Omne etenim probitatis opus nisi semine veræ

Exoritur fidei, peccatum est, inque reatum

Vertitur, et sterilis cumulat sibi gloria poenam."

Prosper. de Ingratis. cap. xvi. 407-409.

"Multa laudabilia atque miranda possunt in homine reperiri, quæ sine charitatis medullis habent quidem pietatis similitudinem, sed non habent veritatem." — Idem, ad Rufin. de Lib. Arbit.

[←621]

Isa 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;

[←622]

bonum oritur ex integris, malum ex quocunque defectu.

[←623]

Ruined in character or quality.

[←624]

Isa 1:11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 "When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies-- I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Hos 1:4 Then the LORD said to him: "Call his name Jezreel, For in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

[←625]

Originally, Mat 10.26.

[←626]

Owen concludes there was nothing inherently wrong with Cain's sacrifice: the defect was in him.

[←627]

Gen 4:4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering,

[←628]

The duties being good in themselves, they may be required of all men, regardless of their state of grace. But the duties of those who are not in a state of grace, are so corrupted by their fallen state as to make them unacceptable to God. Isa 64:6, "we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags." Num 19:22 "Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean." But all our spiritual sacrifices, done in faith, are made acceptable in Christ by God's grace (1Pet 2.5).

[←629]

We are not to temper the requirements of the law; for God will temper its penalty: Luk 12:47 "And that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 "But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

[←630]

Obediential power – a power to obey, but not a power to command.

[←631]

Col 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ;

[←632]

Canting is a tilt, tendency, or inclining – like a hat canted on the head leans one way.

[←633]

Rom 2:14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them).

[←634]

"Natura sic apparet vitiata ut hoc majoris vitii sit non videre."

[←635]

Jer 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil. Rom 3:10 As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." 13 "Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of asps is under their lips"; 14 "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 And the way of peace they have not known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes." 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

[←636]

Characterized by making an absolute and final decision

[←637]

Tit 3:3 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit;

[←638]

Cornelis Jansen (d. 1638) was a Catholic theologian, who emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination, following the teachings of Augustine of Hippo. He was opposed by the Jesuits who coined the term "Jansenism" to identify Jansen and his followers as Calvinistic. Jesuits prefere logic and ethical principles to resolve moral issues.

[←639]

Thomas Bradwardine (c. 1290-1349) – English scholastic theologian, mathematician, physicist, courtier and Archbishop of Canterbury for a short while. He was known as Doctor Profundus, "the Profound Doctor."

[←640]

Austin (Augustine of Hippo, 354-430); Hilary of Poitiers (c. 300–c. 368); Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390–c. 455), a disciple of Augustine; Fulgentius may refer to bishop Fulgentius of Ruspe (c. 467–533), or more likely, to Gottschalk (c. 808–867), called Fulgentius after the bishopof Ruspe, or perhaps after Fabius Planciades Fulgentius (the mythographer), who was either himself the bishop of Ruspe, or else his contemporary.

[←641]

To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.

[←642]

Isa 5:3 "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. 4 What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes? 5 And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. Pro 29:1 He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. 2Chr 36:14 Moreover all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more, according to all the abominations of the nations, and defiled the house of the LORD which He had consecrated in Jerusalem. 15 And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. 16 But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy.

[←643]

1Cor 4:15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Jas 1:18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. 1Pet 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever;

[←644]

Mat 4:15 "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: 16 The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned." Luk 4:18 "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." Act 26:16 `But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. 17 `I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, 18 `to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.' Act 20:20 "how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, 21 "testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Act 20:26 "Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27 "For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

[←645]

Receptive.

[←646]

Harmful.

[←647]

Τί τὸ ὄφελος, ἐὰν εὐσύνθετος μὲν ὁ λόγος, κακοσύνθετος δὲ ὁ τρόπος; εἰ μὲν γὰρ σοφιστοῦ διδασκαλεῖον ἦ ἡ ἐκκλησία εὐγλωττίας ἧν ὁ καιρός. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τρόπων ἀγὼν καὶ καρποφορία τὸ προκείμενον, καὶ προσδοκία οὐρανῶν τὸ προσδοκώμενον, μὴ γλυπτα ζητείσθω ἀλλ' ὁ τρόπος. — Athanas. de Semente.

[←648]

In other words, eloquence doesn't convert anyone without the work of the Spirit; but neither is it ineffective in the work.

[←649]

1Cor 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Mar 16:15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

[←650]

Eph 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

[←651]

Originally, "metaphorical."

[←652]

Owen's point is that the Spirit operates through means: both the means of preaching, and the means of the faculties of men. And by these means, it is not a coercive ("real") operation by the Spirit, but a persuasive ("moral") operation. He enables us to receive the gospel, and in being enabled (regenerated), we are persuaded by the effectual means God has provided.

[←653]

"Non est igitur gratia Dei in natura liberi arbitrii, et in lege atque doctrina sicut Pelagius desipit, sed ad singulos actus datur illius voluntate de quo scriptum est; pluviam voluntariam segregabis Deus hæreditati tuæ. Quia et liberum arbitrium ad diligendum Deum primi peccati granditate perdidimus; et lex Dei atque doctrina quamvis sancta et justa et bona, tamen occidit, si non vivificet Spiritus, per quem fit non ut audiendo sed ut obediendo, neque ut lectione sed ut dilectione teneatur. Quapropter ut in Deum credamus et pie vivamus, non volentis neque currentis sed miserentis est Dei; non quia velle non debemus et currere, sed quia ipse in nobis et velle operatur et currere. Non ergo gratiam dicamus esse doctrinam, sed agnoscamus gratiam quæ facit prodesse doctrinam; quæ gratia si desit, videmus etiam obesse doctrinam." — August. Epist. ccxvii, ad Vitalem.

[←654]

"Sed quid illud est quo corporum sensus pulsantur, in agro cordis cui impenditur ista cultura, nec radicem potest figere nec germen emittere, nisi ille summus et verus Agricola potentia sui operis adhibuerit, et ad vitalem profectum ea quæ sunt plantata perduxerit?" — Epist. ad Demetriadem.

[←655]

A deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone.

[←656]

"Omni dictamini rectæ rationis potest voluntas se conformare; sed diligere Deum super omnia est dictamen rectæ rationis; ratio enim dictat inter omnia diligenda esse aliquid summe diligendum. Item homo errans potest diligere creaturam super omnia, ergo etiam Deum; mirum enim valde esset, quod voluntas se conformare possit dictamini erroneo et non recto." — Biel, ii. Sent. distinc. 27, q. art. 4.

[←657]

These were the scholastics Duns Scotus (c. 1266-1308), and William of Occam (c. 1287-1347). Scholasticism was a methodology of thought taught in medieval European universities, based on Aristotelian logic and the writings of the early Church Fathers. Gabriel Biel (c. 1425-1495) was a German scholastic.

[←658]

"Hoc piarum mentium est, ut nihil sibi tribuant, sed totum gratiæ Dei; unde quantumcunque aliquis det gratiæ Dei, etiamsi subtrahat potestati naturæ aut liberi arbitrii a pietate non recedit; cum vero aliquid gratiæ Dei subtrahitur et naturæ tribuitur quod gratiæ est, ibi potest periculum intervenire." — Cassander. Lib. Consult. art. lxviii.

[←659]

"Pelagiana hæresis quo dogmate catholicam fidem destruere adorta sit, et quibus impietatum venenis viscera ecclesiæ atque ipsa vitalia corporis Christi voluerit occupare, notiora sunt quam ut opere narrationis indigeant. Ex his tamen una est blasphemia, nequissimum et subtilissimum germen aliarum, quâ dicunt gratiam Dei secundum merita hominum dari. Cum enim primum tantam naturæ humanæ vellent astruere sanitatem, ut per solum liberum arbitrium posset assequi Dei regnum; eo quod tam plene ipso conditionis suæ præsidio juvaretur; ut habens naturaliter rationalem intellectum facile bonum eligeret malumque vitaret, et ubi in utrâque parte libera essent opera voluntatis, non facultatem his qui mali sunt ad bonum deesse, sed studium. Cum ergo, ut dixi, totam justitiam hominis ex naturali vellent rectitudine ac possibilitate subsistere, atque hanc definitionem doctrina sana respueret, damnatum a catholicis sensum et multis postea hæreticæ fraudis varietatibus coloratum, hoc apud se ingenio servaverunt, ut ad incipiendum, et ad proficiendum, et ad perseverandum in bono necessariam homini Dei gratiam profiterentur. Sed in hac professione quo dolo vasa iræ molirentur irrepere, ipsa Dei gratia vasis misericordiæ revelavit. Intellectum est enim, saluberrimeque perspectum hoc tantum eos de gratia confiteri, quod quædam libero Arbitrio sit magistra, seque per cohortationes, per legem, per doctrinam, per creaturarum contemplationem, per miracula, perque terrores extrinsecus judicio ejus ostentet; quo unusquisque secundum voluntatis suæ motum, si quæsierit inveniat; si petierit, recipiat; si pulsaverit, introeat." — Prosp. ad Rufin. de Lib. Arbit.

[←660]

"Inaniter et perfunctorie potius quam veraciter pro eis, ut doctrinæ cui adversantur credendo consentiant, Deo fundimus preces, si ad ejus non pertinet gratiam convertere ad fidem suam, ipsi fidei contrarias hominum voluntates." — August. Epist. ccxvii.

[←661]

"Prima divini muneris gratia est, ut erudiat nos ad nostræ humilitatis confessionem, et agnoscere faciat, quod, si quid boni agimus, per illum possumus, sine quo nihil possumus." — Prosp. Sentent. cv. ex August.

[←662]

"Quicunque tribuit sibi bonum quod facit etiamsi videtur nihil mali manibus operari, jam cordis innocentiam perdidit in quo se largitori bonorum prætulit." — Hieron. in cap. xvi. Proverb.

[←663]

Ille ad Deum digne elevat manus, ille orationem bonâ conscientiâ effundit qui potest dicere.

[←664]

Tu nosti Domine quam sanctæ et puræ et mundæ sint ab omni malitia, et iniquitate, et rapina quas ad te extendo manus: quemadmodum justa et munda labia et ab omni mendacio libera quibus offero tibi deprecationes, ut mihi miserearis. (On the Proceedings of Pelagius, chap. 6, Synod of Diospolis, 415 AD).

[←665]

"O bone Domine Jesu, etsi ego admisi unde me damnare potes, tu non amisisti unde salvare soles. — Verum est conscientia mea meretur damnationem, et poenitentia mea non sufficit ad satisfactionem. Sed certum est quod misericordia tua superat omnem offensionem. Parce ergo mihi, Domine, qui es salus vera et non vis mortem peccatoris: miserere, Domine, peccatrici animæ meæ, solve vincula ejus, sana vulnera ejus. Ecce misericors Deus coram te exhibeo animam meam virtutum muneribus desolatam, catenis vitiorum ligatam, pondere peccatorum gravatam, delictorum sordibus foedatam, discissam vulneribus dæmonum, putida et foetidam ulceribus criminum: his et aliis gravioribus malis quæ tu melius vides quam ego obstrictam, oppressam, circumdatam, obvolutam, bonorum omuium relevamine destitutam," etc.

[←666]

"Ploremus coram Domino qui fecit nos et homines et salvos. Nam si ille nos fecit homines, nos autem ipsi nos fecimus salvos, aliquid illo melius fecimus; melior est enim salvus homo quam quilibet homo. Si ergo te Deus fecit hominem, et tu te fecisti bonum hominem, quod tu fecisti melius est." — August. de Verb. Apost. Serm. x.

"Natura humana, etiamsi in illa integritate in qua est condita, permanet, nullo modo seipsam, creatore sua non adjuvante, servaret. Unde cum sine Dei gratia salutem non posset custodire quam accepit, quomodo sine Dei gratia potest recuperare quam perdidit?" — Prosp. Sentent. 308.

[←667]

Owen is saying that God's word is powerful in and of itself to accomplish its purposes (Isa 55.11). And that is true whether it is proclaimed to the elect, or the unregenerate. The issue is not the power or effect of what is proclaimed (Jer 23:29 "Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD, "And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces). The issue is the receptivity of the one to whom it is proclaimed (Parable of the Sower, Mat 13.3-9). Why is regeneration indispensable to conversion? Because the Holy Spirit must make the sinner receptive to the gospel, by preparing the soil of his heart to receive its powerful life-giving seed (Joh 6.63; 8.43). The Spirit turns stony, weed-ridden soil, into good fertile soil. For example, in the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree, Luk 13.6-9, the Spirit is the vinedresser who prepares the soil so the tree will become fruitful, and profitable to the owner of the vineyard (i.e., to God the Father). Owen will now describe the Spirit's preparatory work as "immediate" (direct) and "physical", effecting a real change in the heart, mind, and soul of the elect. As he put it on the previous page, it is "real effective grace." This is the corollary to what he said about the natural faculties. They don't change. Their effectiveness changes, because of the Spirit. – WHG

[←668]

"At vero onmipotens hominem cum gratia salvat,

Ipsa suum consummat opus, cui tempus agendi

Semper adest quæ gesta velit: non moribus illi

Fit mora, non causis anceps suspenditur ullis.

Nec quod sola potest curâ officioque ministri

Exequitur, famulisve vicem committit agendi.

Qui quamvis multa admoveat mandata vocantis,

Pulsant non intrant animas; Deus ergo sepultos

Suscitat et solvit peccati compede vinctos.

Ille obscuratis dat cordibus intellectum:

Ille ex injustis justos facit, indit amorem

Quo redametur amans, et amor quem conserit, ipse est.

Hunc itaque affectum quo sumunt mortua vitam,

Quo tenebræ fiunt lumen, quo immunda nitescunt;

Quo stulti sapere incipiunt ægrique valescunt

Nemo alii dat, nemo sibi."

Prosp. de Ingrat. cap. xv. 384-398.

"Legant ergo et intelligant, intueantur atque fateantur, non lege atque doctrina insonante forinsecus, sed internâ atque occultâ, mirabili atque ineffabili potestate operari Deum in cordibus hominum non solum veras revelationes, sed bonas etiam voluntates." — August. Lib. de Grat. Christ. adv. Pelagium et Cælest., cap. xxiv.

[←669]

"Quid est, Omnis qui audivit a Patre, et didicit, venit ad me; nisi nullus est qui audiat a Patre, et discat et non veniat ad me? Si enim omnis qui audivit a Patre et didicit, venit, profecto omnis qui non venit non audivit a Patre nec didicit; nam si audisset et didicisset veniret; — hæc itaque gratia quæ occulte humanis cordibus divina largitate tribuitur, a nullo duro corde respuitur; ideo quippe tribuitur ut cordis duritia primitus auferatur." — August. de Prædest. Sanct. lib. i. cap. 8.

[←670]

Isa 43:13 Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?" The KJV reads, "...I will work, and who shall let it?" [i.e., who will grant or disallow it?]

[←671]

"O qualis est artifex ille Spiritus! nulla ad discendum mora agitur in omne quod voluerit. Mox enim ut eligeret mentem docet; solumque tetigisse docuisse est. Nam humanum subito ut illustrat immutat affectum; abnegat hoc repente quod erat, exhibet repente quod non erat." — Gregor. Hom. xxx. in Evangel.

[←672]

"Christus non dicit, duxerit, ut illic aliquo modo intelligamus præcedere voluntatem; sed dicit, traxerit, quis autem trahitur si jam volebat; et tamen nemo venit nisi velit, trahitur ergo miris modis ut velit, ab illo qui novit intus in ipsis hominum cordibus operari; non ut homines, quod fieri non potest, nolentes credant, sed ut volentes ex nolentibus fiant." — August. cont. Duas Epist. Pelag. cap. xix.

"Certum est nos velle cum volumus, sed ille facit ut velimus bonum, de quo dictum est, Deus est qui operatur in nobis velle." — Idem de Grat. et Lib. Arbit. cap. xvi.

[←673]

It is not about a meeting of the minds.

[←674]

So Austin, cont. Duas Epistol. Pelag. lib. i. cap. 19: "Trahitur [homo] miris modis ut velit, ab illo qui novit intus in ipsis cordibus hominum operari; non ut homines, quod fieri non potest, nolentes credant, sed ut volentes ex nolentibus fiant." "For [the man] is drawn in wondrous ways, by the one who knows the hearts of men working in them; not as men, for that cannot be, for they refused to believe; but in spite of their unwillingness."

[←675]

Potentially possible.

[←676]

Logically potential.

[←677]

Physically potential.

[←678]

Operating grace.

[←679]

This is precisely what John Wesley would later assert under his notion of "prevenient grace" (1740).

[←680]

Mat 20:16 "So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen."

[←681]

"Si quis sine gratia Dei credentibus, volentibus, desiderantibus, conantibus misericordiam dicit conferri divinitus; non autem ut credamus, velimus, per infusionem et inspirationem Spiritus Sancti in nobis fieri confitetur, anathema sit." — Conc. Arausic. 2. can. 6.

"Datur potestas ut filii Dei fiant qui credunt in eum, cum hoc ipsum datur ut credant in eum. Quæ potestas nisi detur a Deo nulla esse potest ex libero arbitrio, quia nec liberum bono erit quod liberator non liberaverit." — August, lib. i. cont. Duas Epist. Pelag. cap. 3.

[←682]

"Restat ut ipsam fidem unde omnis justitia sumit initium, non humano, quo isti extolluntur, tribuamus arbitrio, nec ullis precedentibus meritis, quoniam inde incipiunt bona quæcunque sunt merita, sed gratuitum Dei donum esse fateamur, si gratiam veram, id est, sine meritis cogitamus." — August. Epist. cv.

[←683]

Actual faith: faith that acts (Jas 2.20).

[←684]

"Semper quidem adjutorium gratiæ nobis est a Deo poscendum, sed nec ipsum quod possumus viribus nostris assignem. Neque enim haberi potest ipse saltem orationis affectus nisi divinitus fuerit attributus. Ut ergo desideremus adjutorium gratiæ, hoc ipsum quoque est gratiæ, ipsa namque incipit effundi ut incipiat posci." — Fulgent. Epist. vi. ad Theod.

[←685]

"Hoc est enim, promittit Deus quod ipse facit; non enim ipse promittit et alius facit; quod jam non est promittere sed prædicere. Ideo non ex operibus sed ex vocante, ne ipsorum sit, non Dei." — August. de Spir. et Lit. cap. xxiv.

[←686]

"Hæc gratia quæ occultè humanis cordibus divina largitate tribuitur, a nullo duro corde respuitur; ideo quippe tribuitur, ut cordis durities primitus auferatur" — August. de Prædest. Sanct. cap. viii.

[←687]

Act 16:14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.

[←688]

In other words, that would make our salvation performance-based, instead of grace-based. As soon as we stop performing, we cease to be saved. Owen's point is that something is graciously infused in us at our regeneration, and that is what saves us.

[←689]

"Prorsus si Dei adjutorium defuerit, nihil boni agere poteris; agis quidem illo non adjuvente libera voluntate, sed male; ad hoc idonea est voluntas tua quæ vocatur libera, et male agendo fit damnabilis ancilla." — August. Serm. xiii. de Verb. Apost.

[←690]

"Erat lumen verum quæ illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum; ideo dictum est, quia nullus hominum illuminatur, nisi illo lumine veritatis quod Deus est, ne quisquam putaret ab eo se illuminari a quo aliquid audit ut discat; non dico si quenquam magnum hominem, sed nec si angelum ei contingat habere doctotem. Adhibetur enim sermo veritatis extrinsecus vocis ministerio corporalis; verumtamen neque qui plantat est aliquid, neque qui rigat, sed qui incrementum dat Deus. Audit quippe homo dicentem vel hominem vel angelum, sed ut sentiat et cognoscat verum esse quod dicitur, illo lumine intus mens ejus aspergitur quod æternum manet, quod etiam in tenebris lucet." — August. de Peccat. Merit. et Remiss. lib. i. cap. 25.

[←691]

Luk 4:18 "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; Act 26:18 `to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.'

[←692]

2Cor 4:4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

[←693]

"Libertas sine gratia nihil est nisi contumacia, non libertas." — August. Epist. lxxxix.

[←694]

1Cor 4:7 For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

[←695]

Mat 19:25 When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Joh 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. Rom 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

[←696]

Gal 5:24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Jas 1:14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

[←697]

"Quis istis corda mutavit, nisi qui finxit singillatim corda eorum? Quis hujus rigoris duritiem ad obediendi mollivit affectum, nisi qui potens est de lapidibus Abrahæ filios excitare?" — Prosp. ad Rufin. de Lib. Arbit.

"Ploremus coram Domino qui fecit nos et homines et salvos. Nam si ille nos fecit homines, nos autem ipsi nos fecimus salvos, aliquid illo melius fecimus. Melior enim est salvus homo quam quilibet homo. Si ergo te Deus fecit hominem et tu te fecisti bonum hominem, quod tu fecisti melius est. Noli te extollere super Deum, … confitere illi qui fecit te, quia nemo recreat nisi qui creat, nemo reficit nisi qui fecit." — August. de Verb. Apost. Serm. x.

"Nemo quisquam hominum sive ad cogitandum, sive ad operandum quodcunque bonum potest esse idoneus; nisi qui fuerit munere gratuito divinæ opitulationis adjutus; ab ipso namque est initium bonæ voluntatis, ab ipso facultas boni operis, ab ipso perseveantia bonæ conversationis." — Fulgent. lib. i. ad Monim.

[←698]

Mat 16:17 Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. Tit 3:5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit; Eph 2:9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

[←699]

"Jam divini amor Numinis, Patris omnipotentis prolisque beatissimæ sancta communicatio; omnipotens Paraclete Spiritus; moerentium consolator clementissime, jam cordis mei penetralibus potenti illabere virtute, et tenebrosa quæque laris neglecti latibula, corusci luminis fulgore pius habitator lætifica, tuique roris abundantia, longo ariditatis marcentia squalore, visitando fecunda." Augustine, Meditations, ch. 9. AND now, O Holy Spirit, love of God, who proceeds from the Almighty Father and his most blessed Son, powerful advocate, and sweetest comforter, infuse your grace, and descend plentifully into my heart; enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling, and scatter there your cheerful beams. I dwell in that soul which longs to be your temple; water that barren soil, over-run with weeds and briars, and lost for want of cultivating, and make it fruitful with your dew from heaven. (translated by Geo. Stanhope, D.D.)

[←700]

After a youth spent in vicious excess, Augustine was converted to the faith of the gospel, and admitted into the church by Ambrose at Milan, a. d. 387. Ten years afterwards he wrote his "Confessions," in thirteen books; of which ten are occupied with a detail of his sinful conduct in early life, the circumstances of his conversion, and his personal history up to the period of his mother's death, while the remaining three are devoted to an exposition of the Mosaic account of creation. The work is altogether of an unique and extraordinary character — a direct address to the Deity, sustained with considerable skill and occasionally in strains of animated devotion, abounding in the most humble confession of the sins of the author's youth, and marked everywhere with the vigor of genius. As a faithful and minute record of the internal workings of his heart, these "Confessions" of Augustine are of great service in illustrating the nature of the spiritual change implied in conversion. It is on this account Owen draws from them so largely in this chapter. Milner, for similar purposes, has embodied the substance of them in his "History of the Church."

The quotations made by Owen have been compared with Bruder's edition of the "Confessions" (1837). In some instances these quotations are translated by Owen, but wherever a formal translation is not supplied, the reader may understand that the substance of what is quoted is given immediately afterwards in our author's own words. — Ed.

Where Owen did not translate the Latin himself, an English translation has been provided from Albert Outler's 1955 edition of Augustine's Confessions. The Latin text has been moved into footnotes. – WHG

[←701]

"Irrideant, me arrogantes et nondum salubriter prostrati et elisi a te, Deus meus, ego tamen confitear tibi dedecora mea, in laude tua," Confess. lib. iv. cap. 1;

[←702]

Confess. lib. i. cap. 6, "Paulatim sentiebam ubi essem, et voluntates meas volebam ostendere eis per quos implerentur, et non poteram … Itaque jactabam membra, et voces, signa similia voluntatibus meis, pauca quæ poteram, qualia poteram; et cum mihi non obtemperabatur, vel non intellecto, vel ne obesset, indignabar non subditis majoribus, et liberis non servientibus, et me de illis flendo vindicabam." This again he repeats, cap. 7: "An pro tempore illa bona erant, flendo petere etiam quod noxie daretur; indignari acriter non subjectis hominibus, liberis et majoribus, hisque a quibus genitus est; multisque præterea prudentioribus, non ad nutum voluntatis obtemperantibus, feriendo nocere niti, quantum potest, quia non obeditur imperiis quibus perniciose obediretur? Ita imbecillitas membrorum infantilium innocens est, non animus infantium."

[←703]

"Istane est," he says, "innocentia puerilis? non est, Domine, non est, oro to, Deus meus. Nam hæc ipsa sunt quæ a pædagogis et magistris, a nucibus et pilulis et passeribus, ad præfectos et reges, aurum, prædia, mancipia, hæc ipsa omnino quæ succedentibus majoribus ætatibus transeunt [sicuti ferulis majora supplicia succedunt]," lib. i. cap. 18.

[←704]

Obduration: hardening, as in hardness of heart.

[←705]

Owen's translation. "Non videbam voraginem turpitudinis in quam projectus eram ab oculis tuis. Nam in illis jam quid me foedius fuit, [ubi etiam talibus displicebam], fallendo innumerabilibus mendaciis, et pædagogum et magistros et parentes amore ludendi, studio spectandi nugatoria [et imitandi ludicra inquietudine?]" lib. i. cap. 18 (par. 30). Outler's translation: "I did not perceive the gulf of infamy in which I was cast away from your eyes. For in your eyes, what was more infamous than I was already, since I displeased even my own kind and deceived, with endless lies, my tutor, my masters and parents – all from a love of play, a craving for frivolous spectacles, a stage-struck restlessness to imitate what I saw in these shows?"

[←706]

"Furta etiam faciebam de cellario parentum et de mensa, vel gula imperitante, vel ut haberem quod darem pueris, ludum suum mihi, quo pariter delectabantur tamen, vendentibus," lib. i. cap. 18 (par. 30).

[←707]

An inordinate desire for sexual intimacy; lust.

[←708]

Vehicles of lust.

[←709]

The Greek is epithumia (NT:1939), a craving or excessive desire for what is forbidden. The NKJ renders it "evil desire."

[←710]

Job 20:11 His bones are full of his youthful vigor, But it will lie down with him in the dust.

[←711]

Owen used oblique language to avoid over-using Austin's name. But "Austin" has been inserted as needed to clarify. – WHG

[←712]

"Neque enim tibi, Deus meus, sed apud te narro hæc generi meo, generi humano, quantulacunque ex particula incidere potest in istas meas literas. Et ut quid hoc? Ut videlicet ego et quisquis hæc legit, cogitemus de quam profundo clamandum sit ad te," lib. ii., cap. 3 (par. 5).

[←713]

Dullness; the habit of sin has made them indifferent and calloused to it.

[←714]

Ecc 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

[←715]

There is a point at which God abandons men to their sin (Gen 6.3; Rom 1.24-28). But even the elect may not come when first called. That is what Owen describes here. On p. 336 he noted that the Spirit "works effectively, powerfully, and irresistibly in [conversion]." On p. 335 he said that God makes "those who were unwilling and obstinate, to be willing and obedient — and that is freely and of our own choice." This is the mystery of election, in which God first acts, so that we may "come to Christ most freely, being made willing by His grace." WCF ch. 10, par. 1. But "freely" implies that irresistible isn't always immediate.

[←716]

Owen's translation. Confess. lib. ii. cap. 7 (par. 15): "Diligam te, Domine, et gratias agam, et confitear nomini tuo, quoniam tanta dimisisti mihi mala et nefaria opera mea. Gratiæ tuæ deputo et misericordia tuæ quod peccata mea tanquam glaciem solvisti, gratiæ tuæ deputo et quæcunque non feci mala; quid enim non facere potui qui etiam gratuitum facinus amavi? Et omnia mihi dimissa esse fateor, et quæ mea sponte feci mala, et quæ te duce non feci. Quis est hominum, qui suam cogitans infirmitatem, audet viribus suis tribuere castitatem atque innocentiam suam, ut minus amet te, quasi minus ei necessaria fuerit misericordia tua, quâ condonas peccata conversis ad te? Qui enim vocatus ad te secutus est vocem tuam et vitavit, et quæ me de meipso recordantem et fatentem legit, non me derideat ab eo medico ægrum sanari, a quo sibi prestitum est ut non ægrotaret, vel potius ut minus ægrotaret; et ideo te tantundem imo vero amplius diligat, quia per quem me videt tantis peccatorum meorum languoribus exui, per eum se videt tantis peccatorum languoribus non implicari;"

[←717]

1Cor 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

[←718]

Mat 12:31 "Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 "Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. Luk 12:10 "And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.

[←719]

"Puer coepi rogare te auxilium et refugium meum, et in tuam invocationem rumpebam nodos linguæ meæ, et rogabam te parvus non parvo affectu, ne in schola vapularem." "Invenimus homines rogantes te, et didicimus ab eis, sentientes te ut poteramus esse magnum aliquem; qui posses etiam non adparens sensibus nostris, exaudire nos et subvenire nobis," lib. i. cap. 9 (par. 14).

[←720]

Flagitious: shockingly wicked.

[←721]

Peter Waldo (c. 1140-1205), founder of the Waldensians. "We are not told under what form death appeared to the friend of Peter Waldo; all we know is that the grim tyrant [death] seized him, as he sat at the festal board. Like the companion of another great Reformer, [Luther], he was struck dead at his friend's side, and the effect on both survivors was the same—a sudden and solemn conviction of the necessity of repentance, and an unalterable determination, from that awful moment, to give themselves up to the service of God." J.L. Willyams, A Short History of the Waldensian Church (Nisbet and Co., London, 1855), p. 31.

[←722]

2Kngs 5:15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, "Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; now therefore, please take a gift from your servant." 16 But he said, "As the LORD lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing." And he urged him to take it, but he refused. 17 So Naaman said, "Then, if not, please let your servant be given two mule-loads of earth; for your servant will no longer offer either burnt offering or sacrifice to other gods, but to the LORD.

[←723]

1Pet 3:1 Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear.

[←724]

1Cor 14:24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all. 25 And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you.

[←725]

Liable to vanish or disappear; faint; weak; evanescent.

[←726]

An ethical or moral principle that inhibits action.

[←727]

Something used to achieve a purpose.

[←728]

Literally, He "arrays" them: He lines them up before us, rank upon rank, file upon file.

[←729]

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

[←730]

Eph 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

[←731]

Act 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart..." NKJ Acts 24:25 Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid...

[←732]

Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."

[←733]

Joh 16:8 "And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

[←734]

See Confess. lib. 5. cap. 7-9, etc. "Tu spes mea [et portio mea] in terra viventium, ad mutandum terrarum locum pro salute animæ mea, et Carthagini stimulos quibus inde avellerer admovebas, et Romæ illecebras quibus attraherer, proponebas mihi per homines, qui diligunt vitam mortuam, hinc insana facientes, inde vana pollicentes, et ad corrigendos gressus meos, utebaris occulte et illorum et mea perversitate,"

[←735]

2Pet 2:20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."

[←736]

Mat 13:5 "Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. Mat 13:21 "yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

[←737]

Luk 11:24 "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' 25 "And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. 26 "Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first." Hos 6:4 "O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, And like the early dew it goes away.

[←738]

Ecc 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. 2Pet 3:4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."

[←739]

"Libera me, Domine, ab his hostibus meis, a quibus me liberare non valeo. Perversum et pessimum est cor meum, ad deploranda propria peccata mea est lapideum et aridum, ad resistendum insultantibus molle et luteum, ad inutilia et noxia pertractanda velox et infatigabile, ad cogitanda salubria fastidiosum et immobile. Anima mea distorta et depravata est ad percipiendum bonum; sed ad voluptatum vitia nimis facilis et prompta, ad salutem reminiscendam nimis etiam difficilis et pigra." — Lib. de Contritione Cordis, inter opera August. cap. iv.

[←740]

Rom 7:8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

[←741]

lib. 8. cap. 5: "Suspirabam ligatus non ferro alieno, sed mea ferrea voluntate. Velle meum tenebat inimicus, et inde mihi catenam fecerat et constrinxerat me. Quippe ex voluntate perversa facta est libido, et dum servitur libidini, facta est consuetudo; et dum consuetudini non resistitur, facta est necessitas. Quibus quasi ansulis sibimet innexis, unde catenam appellavi, tenebat me obstrictum dura servitus." And he shows how faint and languid his endeavors were for reformation and amendment: "Sarcinâ sæculi, velut somno adsolet, dulciter premebar, et cogitationes quibus meditabar in te, similes erant conatibus expergisci volentium, qui tamen superati soporis altitudine remerguntur." And he confesses that although, through the urgency of his convictions, he could not but pray that he might be freed from the power of sin, yet, through the prevalence of that power in him, he had a secret reserve and desire not to part with that sin which he prayed against, cap 7: "Petieram a te castitatem et dixeram, Da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo. Timebam enim ne me cito exaudires, et cito sanares a morbo concupiscentiæ, quam malebam expleri quam extingui."

[←742]

"Vere abyssus peccata mea sunt, quia incomprehensibilia profunditate, et inestimabilia sunt numero et immensitate. O abyssus abyssum invocans! O peccata mea, tormenta quibus me servatis abyssus sunt, quia infinita et incomprehensibilia sunt. Est et tertia abyssus, et est nimis terribilis; judicia Dei abyssus multa, quia super omnem sensum occulta. Hæ omnes abyssi terribiles sunt mihi undique, quia timor super timorem et dolor super dolorem. Abyssus judiciorum Dei super me, abyssus inferni subtus me, abyssus peccatorum meorum est intra me. Illam quæ super me est timeo ne in me irruat; et me cum abysso mea, in illam quæ subtus me latet, obruat." — Lib. de Contritione Cordis, inter opera August. cap. ix.

[←743]

A soldier, perhaps of the praetorian guard. Confess. lib. 8 "There came to visit Alypius and me at our house one Ponticianus, a fellow countryman of ours from Africa, who held high office in the emperor's court.", cap. 6, par. 14. This man told them the tale of two courtiers who came across a book about the life of St. Antony. The one courtier turned to the other: "He fixed his eyes on his friend, exclaiming: 'Tell me, I beg you, what goal are we seeking in all these toils of ours? What is it that we desire? What is our motive in public service? Can our hopes in the court rise higher than to be 'friends of the emperor'? But how frail, how beset with peril, is that pride! Through what dangers must we climb to a greater danger? And when shall we succeed? But if I chose to become a friend of God, see, I can become one now.'" par. 15. "Such was the story Ponticianus told. But while he was speaking, you, O Lord, turned me toward myself, taking me from behind my back, where I had put myself while unwilling to exercise self-scrutiny. And now you set me face to face with myself, that I might see how ugly I was, and how crooked and sordid, bespotted and ulcerous. And I looked and I loathed myself; but where to fly from myself I could not discover." cap. 7, par. 16.

[←744]

Lib. viii. cap. 7. "Narrabat hoc Pontitianus; tu autem, Domine, inter verba ejus retorquebas me ad meipsum, auferens me a dorso meo ubi me posueram, dum nollem me attendere, et constituebas me ante faciem meam, ut viderem quam turpis essem, quam distortus et sordidus, maculosus et ulcerosus: et videbam et horrebam, et quo a me fugerem non erat. Et si conabar a me avertere aspectum narrabat ille quod narrabat, et tu me rursus opponebas mihi, et impingebas me in oculos meos, ut invenirem iniquitatem meam et odissem." And a little after, "Ita rodebar intus et confundebar pudore horribili vehementer, cum Pontitianus talia loqueretur."

[←745]

Owen's translation. Lib. viii. cap. 5 "Voluntas nova quæ mihi esse coeperat, ut te gratis colerem fruique te vellem, Deus, sola certa jucunditas, nondum erat idonea ad superandam priorem vetustate roboratam. Ita duæ voluntates meæ, una vetus, alia nova, illa carnalis, illa spiritualis, confligebant inter se, atque discordando dissipabant animam meam. Sic intelligebam in me ipso experimento id quod legeram, quomodo 'caro concupisceret adversus Spiritum, et Spiritus adversus carnem.' Ego quidem in utroque, sed magis ego in eo quod in me approbabam quam in eo quod in me improbabam. Ibi enim magis jam non ego, quia ex magna parte id patiebar invitus, quod faciebam volens;"

[←746]

Owen's translation. "Arripui librum, aperui, et legi … Nec ultra volui legere, nec opus erat; statim quippe cum fine hujusce sententiæ, quasi luce securitatis infusâ cordi meo, omnes dubitationis tenebræ diffugerunt. Tum interjecto aut digito aut nescio quo alio signo, codicem clausi, et tranquillo jam vultu indicavi Alypio. At ille quid in se ageretur, quod ego nesciebam, sic indicavit: petit videre quid legissem. Ostendi, et attendit etiam ultra quam ego legeram, et ignorabam quid sequeretur. Sequebatur vero, 'Infirmum autem in fide recipite,' quod ille ad se retulit, mihique aperuit. Sed tali admonitione firmatus est, placitoque ac proposito bono, et congruentissimo suis moribus, quibus a me in melius jam olim valde longeque distabat, sine ulla turbulenta cunctatione conjunctus est. Inde ad matrem ingredimur. Indicamus, gaudet. Narramus quemadmodum gestum sit; exultat et triumphat, et benedicit tibi, qui potens es ultra quam petimus aut intelligimus facere," lib. viii. cap. 12;

[←747]

Rom 7:9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

[←748]

Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

[←749]

Heb 2:14-15 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

[←750]

Gen 3:8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."

[←751]

Gal 4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar.

[←752]

Immit: to input or infuse (the correlative of emit).

[←753]

Isa 32:1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, And princes will rule with justice. 2 A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, And a cover from the tempest, As rivers of water in a dry place, As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 3 The eyes of those who see will not be dim, And the ears of those who hear will listen. 2Chr 16:12 And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians.

[←754]

Rom 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Rom 7:12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. 13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

[←755]

Rom 3:4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: "That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged."

[←756]

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 1Pet 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, Jas 1:18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. Eph 3:8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places;

[←757]

Rom 10:13 For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved." 14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!"

[←758]

1Joh 5:10 He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. Joh 3:33 "He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true.

[←759]

Joh 3:14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?

[←760]

Isa 55:1 "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. 3 Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you-- The sure mercies of David. Isa 65:1 "I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, 'Here I am, here I am,' To a nation that was not called by My name.

[←761]

Psa 130:4 But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. Job 33:24 Then He is gracious to him, and says, 'Deliver him from going down to the Pit; I have found a ransom'; Act 4:12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

[←762]

Rom 3:25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 2Cor 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Gal 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree ").

[←763]

2Cor 5:18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Isa 53:11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. Rom 5:10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

[←764]

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Rom 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 1Cor 1:30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God-- and righteousness and sanctification and redemption-- 31 that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD." 2Cor 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

[←765]

Owen, as proper to formal English, used "they" rather than "we" to refer to those advocating enabling regeneration. But he also used "they" to refer to those attacking it. Because this was confusing, it has been changed to "us" and "them. – WHG

[←766]

Deception.

[←767]

"Ut ventum est ad horam profitendæ fidei quæ verbis certis conceptis retentisque memoriter, de loco eminentiore, in conspectu populi fidelis, Romæ reddi solet ab eis qui accessuri sunt ad gratiam tuam, oblatum esse dicebat Victorino a presbyteris, ut secretius redderet, sicut nonnullis qui verecundia trepidaturi videbantur, offerri mos erat; illum autem maluisse salutem suam in conspectu sanctæ multitudinis profiteri. Non enim erat salus, quam docebat in rhetorica, et tamen eam publice professus erat. Quanto minus ergo vereri debuit mansuetum gregem tuum pronuncians verbum tuum, qui non verebatur in verbis suis turbas insanorum! Itaque ubi ascendit ut redderet, omnes sibimet invicem quisque ut eum noverant, instrepuerunt nomen ejus strepitu gratulationis, (quis autem ibi eum non noverat?) et sonuit presso sonitu per ora cunctorum collætantium, Victorinus, Victorinus. Cito sonuerunt exultatione quia videbant eum, et cito siluerunt intentione ut audirent eum. Pronunciavit ille fidem veracem præclara fiducia, et volebant eum omnes rapere intro in cor suum; et rapiebant amando et gaudendo. Hæ rapientium manus erant," lib. 8. cap. 2.

[←768]

Exploded: the first recorded use of this word was around 1538, from the Latin verb explōdere meaning to "drive out or off by clapping". The meaning was originally theatrical, "to drive an actor off the stage by making noise;" hence it means to "to drive out" or "to reject." In English, it did not mean to "go off with a loud noise" until around 1790.

[←769]

Strongly urged.

[←770]

Aesop's Fables, "The Frog and the Ox."

[←771]

1Thes 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; ὀλοτελεῖς (NT:3651) oloteleis.

[←772]

Compare with his definition on p. 386.

[←773]

A uniform that identifies a servant's position.

[←774]

NKJ and other translations, "all my days," Heb. yowm (OT:03117).

[←775]

Flagitious: shockingly wicked.

[←776]

Specious, here, means "gilded."

[←777]

1Cor 13:8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

[←778]

Eph 1:5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.

[←779]

2Cor 5:18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Col 1:25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

[←780]

Mar 16:16 "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

[←781]

Gal 3:2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

[←782]

Joh 14:1 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

[←783]

An effort above and beyond the call of duty.

[←784]

A great sacrifice; an ancient Greek or Roman sacrifice of 100 oxen.

[←785]

See 2Cor 5.18-21 (above, p. 377, footnote).

[←786]

Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

[←787]

Luk 17.10 "So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'"

[←788]

One who is bound by vows to a religious life of worship and service.

[←789]

Christ did everything necessary to merit our salvation; by substituting or adding our own works, we reject his. – WHG

[←790]

That is, something to motivate them to be holy – some tangible reward to make holiness "worthwhile."

[←791]

Munificence: liberality in bestowing gifts; extremely liberal and generous with material wealth.

[←792]

For instance: Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Eze 36:25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them; 1Cor 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Tit 3:4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit;

[←793]

Compare this with his definition on p. 369.

[←794]

2Thes 1:3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other;

[←795]

Col 2:19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

[←796]

1Thes 3:12-13 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, 13 so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father...

[←797]

Hos 6:3 Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD.

[←798]

Heb 4:2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

[←799]

That is, reasons.

[←800]

2Cor 1:4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

[←801]

Col 2:2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ;

[←802]

Owen extends Psa 22.1 "Why have you forsake me?" to include Psa 22:9 But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother's breasts. 10 I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother's womb You have been My God.

[←803]

Eph 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love; Col 1:10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; Isa 40:29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.

[←804]

Psa 138:8 The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever;

[←805]

To fail or go wrong; be unsuccessful.

[←806]

Luk 13:6 He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 "Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?' 8 "But he answered and said to him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it." — The first Adam was the keeper of the Lord's garden. And so too, the last Adam, by his Spirit, keeps the Lord's vineyard (the church), to ensure it is watered, fed, and fruitful in its season; Psa 1.3. – WHG

[←807]

Col 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Joh 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. Col 2:19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

[←808]

"It" can refer to grace, seed, or sanctification; but grace always plants and preserves the seed of holiness in a believer.

[←809]

Isa 35:3 Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted, "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you." 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. Isa 40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: "My way is hidden from the LORD, And my just claim is passed over by my God "? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

[←810]

"Crescit occulto velut arbor ævo." An adaptation of Horace's Odes (I.12, lines 45–46): "The fame of Marcellus increases, as a tree does in the insensible progress of time."

[←811]

Psa 66:8 Oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard, 9 Who keeps our soul among the living, And does not allow our feet to be moved. Psa 31:19 Oh, how great is Your goodness, Which You have laid up for those who fear You, Which You have prepared for those who trust in You In the presence of the sons of men!

[←812]

Psa 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

[←813]

Here this means exceptional, an aberration: existing outside of or not in accordance with the new nature.

[←814]

Mars, spoils, weakens, impairs, debases, and makes ineffective.

[←815]

1Pet 1:5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

[←816]

Phi 3:12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

[←817]

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

[←818]

See note, page 59.

[←819]

The Spirit comforts us because of Christ, as we share in his sufferings through proclaiming the gospel (2Tim 1.8; 1Pet 4.13).

[←820]

Joh 16:6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you.

[←821]

Exercised believers: those acting on (exercising) their belief in Christ, in the cause of Christ. This doesn't mean that believers are not comforted by the Spirit in physical or emotional distress (p. 411, Q3) – only that non-believers are not comforted by Him at all.

[←822]

Act 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." Owen apparently did not see the Spirit as the gift, but the gift as being from the Spirit.

[←823]

1Cor 12:7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. See Jeremiah Burroughs, Gospel Worship.

[←824]

1Cor 12:11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

[←825]

That is, none are short-changed by the Spirit; but neither are all gifted alike.

[←826]

Ex congruo, because it is fitting or appropriate; ex condigno, because it is a right. Rom 4:4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt [as a right]. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness [as appropriate to God's gracious promise].

[←827]

That is, private as opposed to occupying a public office in the church, such as an evangelist, minister of the gospel, etc..

[←828]

Luk 11:13 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

[←829]

Heb 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

[←830]

Act 9:11 So the Lord said to him, "Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. Act 9:17 And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

[←831]

1Thes 4:7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.

[←832]

The article "the" is present in the Greek, "the faith in me" but it's left out of most translations. Owen rendered it "the faith that is in me" or "that is placed in me." He does this to point out two things: (1) what sort of faith it is, and (2) what the object of that faith must be. Our faith, or trust, must be placed specifically and only in Jesus Christ (Joh 14.6; 15.5; Act 4.12).

[←833]

Tit 1.15; Rom 14.14.

[←834]

Col 2:12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Col 3:7 ...in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. 8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

[←835]

Owen may be referring to the universal atonement of Arminianism. See his treatise, Display of Arminianism, 1642.

[←836]

Rom 2:14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)

[←837]

In other words, all mankind has God's law written on their hearts, but the sin nature corrupts it; hence all need Christ.

[←838]

Eph 4:19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

[←839]

Marked by care and persistent effort.

[←840]

A false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone's words or actions.

[←841]

There is widespread confusion about the difference between objective sanctification, or imputed righteousness (which is Christ's), and subject sanctification, i.e., inherent or evangelical righteousness (which is our own). Christ's righteousness is perfect, and it is the only cause or basis of our justification. Our righteousness is imperfect, and it is the result of, or our response to, justification. Those who attack this doctrine conclude that inherent righteousness isn't required. They're mistaken: for we're saved by faith alone, but not by a faith which is alone. "Faith without works is dead," says James. All those who are called to salvation, are also called to sanctification, both objectively and subjectively. It is "infallibly" worked in us by God, to be seen by men (Mat 5.16).

[←842]

That is, we may be more holy or less holy at times; but we remain saints – God's holy ones – always.

[←843]

The quality of being deceptive.

[←844]

And because it is our entire nature, that comprises all our faculties, which include the mind. – WHG

[←845]

Or causing to possess.

[←846]

"Fieri non potest ut sanctifcato Spiritu non sit sanctum etiam corpus, quo sanctificatus utitur Spiritus." — August. Lib. de Bono Viduitat.

[←847]

Concommitance means existing together or in connection with one another. Therefore, because body and soul are inseparable parts of our nature, and because our nature is corrupted by original sin, the body and all its faculties are corrupted with it. Thus our body participates in the sins of the soul. Both are driven by the same governing principle of our nature, for evil or for good.

[←848]

That is, the body is not made holy by conversion, but by the soul's dedication to God by faith. As the soul acts faithfully in dedicating itself to God and holiness, the body too is made holy, at the same time and to the same extent, by grace.

[←849]

Rom 8:10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Phi 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. 2Cor 4:14 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God... 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

[←850]

Palliate: to lessen or try to lessen the seriousness or extent of something.

[←851]

Originally "such a fomes" – a contaminant, i.e., a means by which disease spreads.

[←852]

Pro 30:12 There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness.

[←853]

Num 31:23 "everything that can endure fire, you shall put through the fire, and it shall be clean; and it shall be purified with the water of purification. But all that cannot endure fire you shall put through water.

[←854]

Mal 3:2 "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire And like launderer's soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness.

[←855]

Lev 20.23; Jer 44.4; Hab 1.13; Zec 8.17.

[←856]

Psa 38.3-7; 51.12-14.

[←857]

Psa 80.16; Isa 66.15; Jer 2.22; Mal 3.2-3; Mat 3.11. Nitre is vinegar on carbonate of soda (or lye), which foams and sizzles.

[←858]

Expiate: to make up for, compensate, or make reparation for wrongdoing or causing offence.

[←859]

1Thes 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;

[←860]

Poena sensus is the "sense of pain" or of heart-brokenness and guilt over sin; poena damni is the "pain of loss" or of the consequences of sin; which include separation from God, loss of spiritual gifts and graces, loss of faith, etc.

[←861]

Lustration: to purify by means of a ritual.

[←862]

A right of access; or the act of attaining or gaining access to a new office or right or position.

[←863]

Jer 2:26 "As the thief is ashamed when he is found out, So is the house of Israel ashamed; They and their kings and their princes, and their priests and their prophets;

[←864]

Like a cesspool, fomes is a source of contamination, a means by which disease spreads.

[←865]

Job 42:5 "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. 6 Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes."

[←866]

Eze 16:3 "and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: "Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 "As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. 5 "No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.

[←867]

Eze 16:36 `Thus says the Lord GOD: "Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, 37 "surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.

[←868]

Eph 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

[←869]

Tit 1:15 To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.

[←870]

Jer 2:22 For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, Yet your iniquity is marked before Me," says the Lord GOD.

[←871]

Heb 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

[←872]

"By virtue of the work worked" – that is, they claim that baptism in and of itself purges the corruption of original sin.

[←873]

2Pet 1:9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

[←874]

A spare anchor used in times of emergency.

[←875]

The three things dealing with polution are found at the bottom of p. 424, previous chapter.

[←876]

Occasional here doesn't mean now and then; it means depending on the occasions and circumstances of our life.

[←877]

Eph 4:23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Col 3:10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,

[←878]

Originally "principal of grace."

[←879]

Zec 13:1 "In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

[←880]

τί τὸ φρόνημα τοῦ Πνεύματος.

[←881]

Having the power to atone for, or being offered in expiation for sins; thus it is intended to reconcile or appease.

[←882]

What compensates for a wrong; atones for sin; and appeases God.

[←883]

ζῶσα καὶ πρόσφατος.

[←884]

Heb. תָּמִיד (OT:3117) Exo 29.38-39.

[←885]

Yowm kippur, the Day of Atonement, Lev 23.27.

[←886]

Heb 9:9 It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience-- 10 concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. 11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

[←887]

Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word;

[←888]

Isa 1:16 "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow. 18 "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. Psa 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

[←889]

Jer 3:3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no latter rain. You have had a harlot's forehead; You refuse to be ashamed.

[←890]

Heb 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.

[←891]

Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?

[←892]

Rom 3:25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

[←893]

Heb 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

[←894]

Heb 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

[←895]

Col 3:10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him; 1Joh 3:3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

[←896]

Deu 4:4 "But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive today, every one of you. Josh 23:8 "but you shall hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day. Act 11:23 When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cling to the Lord.

[←897]

Heb 12:15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; Jas 1:14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

[←898]

Joh 15:3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

[←899]

Exo 15:25 So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them. And there He tested them;

[←900]

Isa 63:9 In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore them and carried them All the days of old. Act 9:5 And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads." Col 1:24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,

[←901]

1Kgs 17:18 So she said to Elijah, "What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?"

[←902]

Psa 89:30 "If his sons forsake My law And do not walk in My judgments, 31 If they break My statutes And do not keep My commandments, 32 Then I will punish their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. Lam 3:33 For He does not afflict willingly, Nor grieve the children of men.

[←903]

Gal 6:14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

[←904]

2Cor 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

[←905]

Num 5:2 "Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, everyone who has a discharge, and whoever becomes defiled by a corpse.

[←906]

Isa 3:16 Moreover the LORD says: "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, And walk with outstretched necks And wanton eyes, Walking and mincing as they go, Making a jingling with their feet, 17 Therefore the Lord will strike with a scab The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, And the LORD will uncover their secret parts." 18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery: The jingling anklets, the scarves, and the crescents; 19 The pendants, the bracelets, and the veils; 20 The headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands; The perfume boxes, the charms, 21 and the rings; The nose jewels, 22 the festal apparel, and the mantles; The outer garments, the purses, 23 and the mirrors; The fine linen, the turbans, and the robes. 24 And so it shall be: Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench; Instead of a sash, a rope; Instead of well-set hair, baldness; Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth; And branding instead of beauty. 25 Your men shall fall by the sword, And your mighty in the war. 26 Her gates shall lament and mourn, And she being desolate shall sit on the ground.

[←907]

Rev 21:27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

[←908]

1Cor 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

[←909]

Isa 66:24 "And they shall go forth and look Upon the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."

[←910]

Like a cesspool, fomes is a source of contamination, a means by which disease spreads.

[←911]

Mat 23:25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.

[←912]

Rev 3:16 "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'-- and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked-- 18 "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

[←913]

Rom 2:14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)...

[←914]

Hos 5:13 "When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah saw his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb; Yet he cannot cure you, Nor heal you of your wound.

[←915]

2Cor 7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

[←916]

Psa 38:5 My wounds are foul and festering Because of my foolishness.

[←917]

Hos 5:13 "When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah saw his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb; Yet he cannot cure you, Nor heal you of your wound. Jer 2:22 For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, Yet your iniquity is marked before Me," says the Lord GOD. Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow water, And cleanse my hands with soap, 31 Yet You will plunge me into the pit, And my own clothes will abhor me.

[←918]

2Pet 1:4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

[←919]

Rom 4:19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. 20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. Rom 10:6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7 or, "`Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart " (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

[←920]

Heb 4:2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

[←921]

That is, put it away, as opposed to masking it with false humility. Pride is an unavoidable remainder of sin in believers, and so it must be acknowledged and actively opposed. Job 33:17 In order to turn man from his deed, And hide pride from man, 18 He keeps back his soul from the Pit, And his life from perishing by the sword.

[←922]

Eze 16:3 "and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: "Your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 "As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. 5 "No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born.

[←923]

Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh-- who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands-- 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 1Cor 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

[←924]

1Co 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. 1Cor 6:15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh." 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

[←925]

That is, the withering and killing (or mortification) of sin, by drying up its root, and not just removing its fruit (Rom 8.13).

[←926]

Pro 9:13-18 The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. 14 She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, 15 calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, 16 "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" And to him who lacks sense she says, 17 "Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." 18 But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. (ESV)

[←927]

Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Col 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ;

[←928]

Heb 12:15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

[←929]

Joh 15:1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

[←930]

Rom 8:10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

[←931]

Rom 7:19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

[←932]

1Joh 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[←933]

Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.

[←934]

Joh 15:2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Joh 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. Joh 15:8 "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

[←935]

Mic 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

[←936]

Deu 29:29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

[←937]

Col 2:18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. 20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations-- 21 "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle," 22 which all concern things which perish with the using-- according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

[←938]

Deu 6:24 `And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. 25 `Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.' Psa 119:9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.

[←939]

Rom 2:14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)

[←940]

Isa 59:21 "As for Me," says the LORD, "this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants," says the LORD, "from this time and forevermore."

[←941]

Tit 2:12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age;

[←942]

Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.

[←943]

Gal 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

[←944]

Isa 1:11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 "When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies-- I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

[←945]

Isa 1:3 The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master's crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider."

[←946]

Jer 8:7 "Even the stork in the heavens Knows her appointed times; And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow Observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the LORD.

[←947]

That is, it doesn't operate independently, under its own power.

[←948]

Eph 4:15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-- Christ-- 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Col 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Joh 4:14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

[←949]

Phi 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

[←950]

Eph 4:23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Col 3:10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him;

[←951]

Isa 1:11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats. 12 "When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts? 13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies-- I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. 14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

[←952]

Rom 9:31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Rom 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

[←953]

Joh 16:2 "They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

[←954]

Decried.

[←955]

The meaning of "surprised" here, is ambushed or waylaid – ensnared. Our guard is down, so we "enter into temptation." Mt 26.41.

[←956]

Isa 40:31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

[←957]

The natural faculties include the intellectual faculties, the mind and understanding; the will and its resolve or self-control; the affections and what they are drawn to, etc. The conflict is not between these severally, but within each one individually. And so the depravity of man is said to be "pervasive" throughout the faculties, and not just in one or a few of them. Therefore, sanctification must likewise be pervasive — its principle of holiness progressively restores all the faculties of the new creature. – WHG

[←958]

Rom 5:21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

[←959]

See vol. vi. of his works. — Ed.

[←960]

Owen is saying that men have convictions of right and wrong, even in an unregenerate state. These convictions are born of "education, instructions, and example" (p. 474 above). Each society imparts a social conscience to its members, instructing them in what is and is not acceptable behavior. While this may keep a society from murder, theft, and violence (hindering the principle of sin), it may also keep it from biblical godliness (hindering the principle of holiness). A society may teach that adultery is OK, for example, while the Bible declares it is sin. And so these social convictions, which accept marital infidelity, hinder the principle of godliness, which abhors it. The pronoun "they," as in "they hinder," refers to these social convictions.

[←961]

See Book III, Chapter III.

[←962]

Eph 1:17 [I pray] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints;

[←963]

Heb 6:1 Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

[←964]

1Joh 2:20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 1Joh 2:27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

[←965]

Heb 5:14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

[←966]

That is, there is no more inclination towards one than the other. We can "take it or leave it" either way.

[←967]

Or, "Who in his right mind...?"

[←968]

Deu 30:6 "And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

[←969]

Song 5:2 I sleep, but my heart is awake; It is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, saying, "Open for me, my sister, my love, My dove, my perfect one; For my head is covered with dew, My locks with the drops of the night." 3 I have taken off my robe; How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; How can I defile them?

[←970]

Uncouth: here it means unacceptable.

[←971]

Benignity: the quality of being kind and gentle.

[←972]

Psa 78:34 When He slew them, then they sought Him; And they returned and sought earnestly for God. 35 Then they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer. 36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth, And they lied to Him with their tongue; 37 For their heart was not steadfast with Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.

[←973]

Connate: inherent or natural.

[←974]

Simply put, a man of rigid habits is known to be rigid, and his habits are rigid in nature – which, in turn, make him rigid.

[←975]

Originally this was "particular or universal" – as if applying to the extent of the atonement, an apparent slip. It has been changed to "general" to match Owen's wording below, so it would be easier to follow his illustration.

[←976]

Vocation: our calling to salvation.

[←977]

Rom 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

[←978]

2Pet 1:5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love... 10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;

[←979]

Rom 11:5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace... 7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.

[←980]

Rom 5:2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

[←981]

Impetrate: to obtain by entreaty – Christ is our Intercessor. He pleads our case before the Father's throne — yes, for forgiveness; but also for our enabling — for the grace and strength to live to God. Joh 16:14-15 The Spirit will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. Joh 16:24 Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

[←982]

Oblation refers to Christ offering his atoning blood to God for acceptance (Joh 20.17), upon which it is "sprinkled" on believers by the Holy Spirit (Exo 24.7-8) — this is its "application to our souls." He cleanses us in order to clothe us with Christ in holiness (Exo 28.40-41; Lev 16.32; Zec 4.4; Rom 13.14). – WHG

[←983]

Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Tit 2:14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. 1Joh 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. Heb 9:14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

[←984]

Improve: To use or employ to good purpose; to turn to profitable account.

[←985]

Virtually is used literally here: "by virtue of."

[←986]

Similar in nature, or present from birth; here, ushered in with the "new birth".

[←987]

Uncouth: foreign and unfamiliar.

[←988]

1Cor 10:6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. 7 And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." 8 Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; 9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; 10 nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

[←989]

1Cor 11:1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. Mat 23:10 "And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ.

[←990]

Isa 45:22 "Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. Zec 12:10 "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

[←991]

That is, seasoned or palatable, rather than timely.

[←992]

Mat 7:16 "You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 1Joh 3:10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

[←993]

2Pe 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of [i.e., participants in] the divine nature. Eph 4:4-7 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

[←994]

John Cassian (c.360–440 AD) –A Semi-Pelagian monk, residing in Gaul (modern France) who introduced Egyptian monasticism to the western church. "The Semi-Pelagian doctrine taught by John Cassian admits that divine grace (assistance) is necessary to enable a sinner to return to God and live; yet it holds that, from the nature of the human will, man may first spontaneously, of himself, desire and attempt to choose and obey God." A.A. Hodge

[←995]

Quaker pietism is justification by works (Pelagianism); they reject imputed righteousness. Owen had five primary criticisms of Quakerism: 1) He saw its teaching about the inner light is an attack on the work and person of the Holy Spirit; the role of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ, not himself. 2) Quakers deny the sacraments as unbiblical; they forsake the gospel's emphasis on the atoning work of Christ in order to focus on the inward light. 3) They deny the Trinity; "Convince any of them of the doctrine of the Trinity, and all the rest of their imaginations vanish into smoke." 4) They deny the necessity of Scripture and the doctrine of 'sola Scriptura' (Scripture alone). Quakers insist that Scripture is not needed once a person heeds the "inner light." 5) Their doctrine of the inner light is a denial of the fall of man into sin, and the consequent radical depravity of humanity. Since Adam's fall, his descendants are born in sin; and therefore they are by nature in darkness. From A Puritan Theology, Joel Beeke & Mark Jones (Reform. Heritage, Grand Rapids MI, 2012), pp. 429-441.

[←996]

Tit 2:12 ...denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age;

[←997]

1Cor 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

[←998]

2Cor 12:9 And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

[←999]

Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."

[←1000]

Phi 1:19 For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ;

[←1001]

See Eph 1.17; Acts 9.31; Rom 5.5, 8.15, 23, 26; 1Thes 1.6; Rom 14.17, 15.13, 16.

[←1002]

A rhetorical device: immediate rephrasing for intensification or justification.

[←1003]

Complete and confirmed integrity; having strong moral principles

[←1004]

As God respected Abel and his offering, but had no respect for Cain and his offering, Gen 4.4-5.

[←1005]

See vol. vi. of his works. — Ed.

[←1006]

Substituting the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (as in 'they counted heads').

[←1007]

NKJ: "and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness.

[←1008]

Mortify – Col 3.5 νεκροῦν (NT:3499); and Rom 8.13 θανατοῦν (NT:2289) – "put to death" in the NKJ.

[←1009]

Heb 11:12 καὶ ταῦτα νενεκρωμένου, καθὼς — kai tauta nenekroomenou kathoos.

[←1010]

Using the name of one thing for something closely associated with it – e.g., "he spent the evening reading Shakespeare" subsitutes the author's name for the author's works.

[←1011]

In procinctu is a Latin term which literally means "the grit for battle". It's a military phrase meaning "girding up" — i.e., preparing oneself for battle by donning your armor. It also refers to the will that is made out by soldiers before a fight to the death. Owen is saying that our enemy is prepared for a fight to the death. Are we? – WHG

[←1012]

Owen translates it "the wills," (DRA) rather than "the desires" (KJV). The Greek is θελήματα, thelemata (NT:2307).

[←1013]

That is, "taking the side of grace."

[←1014]

An indirect way of expressing something.

[←1015]

Eph 1:19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places;

[←1016]

A threat of divine punishment or vengeance.

[←1017]

Rom 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

[←1018]

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal [fleshly] mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

[←1019]

Joh 15.5, 8.

[←1020]

Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet." 8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.

[←1021]

Jas 1:14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

[←1022]

A black garment worn as a sign of mourning and sorrow.

[←1023]

Psa 38:17 For I am ready to halt [i.e., fall or stumble], and my sorrow is continually before me.

[←1024]

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

[←1025]

Jer 31:18 "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:`You have chastised me, and I was chastised, Like an untrained bull; Restore me, and I will return, For You are the LORD my God. 19 Surely, after my turning, I repented; And after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh; I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated, Because I bore the reproach of my youth.' 20 Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still; Therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the LORD.

[←1026]

Oblation: a sacrificial offering – in this case, an atoning sacrifice to appease the wrath of God.

[←1027]

Rom 6:3-5 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection;

[←1028]

Dolorous: pitiful or sorrowful; evoking great emotion.

[←1029]

1Sam 18:1 Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

[←1030]

Joh 16:8 "And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

[←1031]

Part II is in the next chapter. And each subsequent part is in its corresponding chapter.

[←1032]

Flagitious: shockingly, brutally wicked and cruel.

[←1033]

Psa 50:21 These things you have done, and I kept silent; You thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, And set them in order before your eyes.

[←1034]

KJV Job 4:18 He put no trust in His servants, and His angels He charged with folly; Job 15:15 Behold, he puts no trust in his saints; indeed, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

[←1035]

Contemporation: to temper or moderate something by mixing it with something of a different nature.

[←1036]

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"

[←1037]

"sobriety and usefulness" – that is, "sober-minded", and utilitarian (pragmatic).

[←1038]

τῆς θείας φύσεως – Though most translations give the definite article, it does not exist in the Greek text. Owen seems to hit the true meaning of the phrase in the remark appended to the quotation, when he refers it, not to the divine nature, but to one resembling or corresponding to it. — Ed.

[←1039]

Gen 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

[←1040]

2Pet 2:12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption;

[←1041]

Isa 43:4 Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people for your life. Mat 6:26 "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

[←1042]

Assimilating: those graces which, by their exercise, make us more like God, who is their source and epitome.

[←1043]

Information known only to a special group.

[←1044]

Mat 5:44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

[←1045]

Mat 5:43-48 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 "And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

[←1046]

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

[←1047]

That is, inherently. It is our own righteousness for sanctification, not the imputed righteousness of Christ for justification.

[←1048]

This seems preposterous. How can an infant be made habitually and radically holy by personal obedience? Indeed, Owen quoted from Augustine on the nature of an infant being born into sin and disobedience (see p. 339). In book VII, chap. VIII, Owen writes that all elect are "sanctified from the womb." (Psa 22.10) He explains, in respect to prayer, that while the infant does not and cannot exercise its regenerate ability to pray, it nonetheless has that principle or grace inherent in it. Short of death, it will evidence itself.

[←1049]

Mat 24:24 "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

[←1050]

2Pet 1:5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

[←1051]

Deu 29:29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

[←1052]

Act 2:47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Act 13:48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

[←1053]

2Pet 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;

[←1054]

Resentment once denoted a lively sense of good or favor conferred, as well as irritation under wrong or injustice. It is obviously used in the former meaning in this passage. — Ed. — It is a "re-sentiment," or here, a response to love. – WHG

[←1055]

Deu 7:6 "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. 7 "The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8 "but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt... 11 "Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.

[←1056]

The 1660s and 70s in England were turbulent times. London suffered a plague in 1665, and the Great Fire in 1666. Philosopher John Locke was busy establishing the Enlightenment, and Classical Liberalism (Natural Rights). Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France signed the Treaty of Dover in 1670 in which Louis paid Charles £200,000 per year to relax the laws against Catholics, so they could regain power. Pope Clement IX was persecuting the Jensenists and clashing with France. Pope Clement X granted indulgences for attending holy places. Spain and England were fighting over the Caribbean islands. There was piracy at sea and hiwaymen on land. Spain attacked the English colony at Charleston SC. England declared war on the Dutch, which France and Germany soon joined... and so on — just as it is in every age, for the nature of man canot change apart from Christ. – WHG

[←1057]

An allusion to Esther 6.6.

[←1058]

This means the time it takes to twirl a man around, or "do a 180." It's taken from the Satires of Horace.

[←1059]

Heb 6:11-12 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

[←1060]

Mat 22:37 Jesus said to him, "`You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the first and great commandment. 39 "And the second is like it:`You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

[←1061]

Eph 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,

[←1062]

Isa 29:13 Therefore the Lord said: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, 14 Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work Among this people, A marvelous work and a wonder; For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden."

[←1063]

That is, "those things in the commands of God which put such an indispensable obligation on us to holiness."

[←1064]

Owen's implicit argument is that if we evangelize only because we believe someone's salvation depends on us, and not because God commanded it, it is not holiness. A great quandary arises with regard to election as it relates to those who never hear the gospel (Rom 2.12-16). In the same way that Arminians condition salvation on a profession of faith, Calvinists tend to condition salvation on the proclamation of the gospel. We say that those in the Old Testament "looked forward" to Christ, and were saved by faith (Hebrew 11, Romans 4). Even though they had no certain object for their faith (Christ), they had faith in the One who promised. And so it may be presumptuous to say that anyone's salvation depends on the actions of other men to evangelize them, rather than depending solely on the eternal decree of God. But this does not make the Great Commission optional; for we are certainly God's ordained means. Yet to make the outcome of anyone's salvation absolutely dependent on another man's obedience, perhaps goes beyond Scripture. It redefines the elect as those to whom the gospel is presented, and who accept it, rather than those whom God chose before the foundation of the world (Eph 1.4); an Arminian might heartily agree. See also page 630. — WHG

[←1065]

Equal here, means fair or equitable.

[←1066]

Rule of right; and rule from punishment.

[←1067]

2Sam 12:9 `Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.

[←1068]

Dan 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 "If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 "But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up."

[←1069]

Psa 12.4.

[←1070]

Referring to the Old Testament "Church".

[←1071]

That is, we looked for (invented) ways around the contraints of holiness; we schemed to get our own way.

[←1072]

Instated: installed, brought under, or included in.

[←1073]

Col 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love;

[←1074]

Joh 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. Phi 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. 2Cor 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God;

[←1075]

There is a work of grace in regeneration which has nothing to do with a believer's ability – in fact, the believer must be reborn from above because he is unable to be reborn from below. It is "monergistic" – of God alone. But having professed faith in Christ, the believer is enabled and called to obedience by the Spirit at work in him – it is "synergistic." Col 1:29 "To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily." And so both are of grace, and both are to the glory of God.

[←1076]

He has had frequent occasion to refer to this passage, but see more especially book iv. chap. ii., on page 395 of this volume. — Ed.

[←1077]

Phi 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; Phi 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

[←1078]

Psa 30:6 Now in my prosperity I said, "I shall never be moved." 7 LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled.

[←1079]

External trappings, designed to captivate the eye and emotions, are used as props in the absence of a principle of holiness.

[←1080]

Formal grace that imparts the principle of holiness, and actual grace that enables holiness itself.

[←1081]

Rom 7:20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

[←1082]

Rom 2:14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them);

[←1083]

Contemporation: to temper or moderate something by mixing it with something of a different nature.

[←1084]

Mic 6:6 With what shall I come before the LORD, And bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

[←1085]

Not the principle of holiness, but a natural motivation ("the light of nature" or "moral virtue") which ignores God's command.

[←1086]

Something used to achieve a purpose.

[←1087]

Heb 1:3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high;

[←1088]

1Joh 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

[←1089]

Joh 17:15 "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16 "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

[←1090]

Joh 1:18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Joh 3:2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Joh 17:6 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.

[←1091]

Rom 15:8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers;

[←1092]

Mat 5:21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' 22 "But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire... 27 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

[←1093]

Excision: cutting off or cutting out; e.g., Gen 17:14 "And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."

[←1094]

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,

[←1095]

Joh 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.5 ...unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Eph 4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

[←1096]

Deu 18:18-19 `I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19 `And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him."

[←1097]

Not just possibly, but with considerable certainty – but we must first accept who Christ is when he speaks.

[←1098]

Joh 6:45 "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.

[←1099]

Uncouth: uncultivated.

[←1100]

Perspicuous: transparently clear; easily understandable.

[←1101]

Joh 12:37 But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, 38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: "Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?" 39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: 40 "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them."

[←1102]

Ingenuously: sincerely and genuinely.

[←1103]

NKJ Romans 1:24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves... 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature... 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 2Th 2:11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

[←1104]

Rom 3:10 As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one." 13 "Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of asps is under their lips"; 14 "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 And the way of peace they have not known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

[←1105]

Psa 69:14 Deliver me out of the mire, And let me not sink; Let me be delivered from those who hate me, And out of the deep waters.

[←1106]

An unrestrained expression of emotion; an explosive outburst.

[←1107]

That is, the faculties and actings of our minds, wills, and affections.

[←1108]

Luk 11:21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. 22 But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

[←1109]

Owen used "confusion" (chaos) here; but "anarchy" seemed a better contrast with the stable rule of grace. — WHG

[←1110]

Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

[←1111]

Isa 11:6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.

[←1112]

Physiognomy: facial appearance. The incident is taken from Plato's Dialogue Phaedo ("On the Soul").

[←1113]

Flagitious: extremely wicked.

[←1114]

Untoward: not in keeping with accepted standards of what is right or proper in polite society.

[←1115]

Cogency: persuasiveness.

[←1116]

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age;

[←1117]

Flagitious: shockingly wicked.

Table of Contents

Editor's Note

Prefatory note.

Analysis.

To the Readers.

Book I.

Chapter I. General principles concerning the Holy Spirit and his work.

Chapter II. The name and titles of the Holy Spirit.

Chapter III. Divine nature and personality of the Holy Spirit proved and vindicated.

Chapter IV. Particular works of the Holy Spirit in the first or old creation.

Chapter V. Way and manner of the divine dispensation of the Holy Spirit.

Book II.

Chapter I. Particular operations of the Holy Spirit under the Old Testament preparatory for the New.

I. Extraordinary Works of the Spirit.

1. Prophecy

2. The Writing of Scripture

3. Miracles

II. Ordinary Works of the Spirit.

1. In respect to political things.

2. In respect to moral virtues.

3. In respect to natural abilities.

4. In respect to the intellect.

Chapter II. General dispensation of the Holy Spirit with respect to the new creation.

Chapter III. Work of the Holy Spirit with respect to the head of the new creation - the human nature of Christ.

Christ as Head of the Church

I. Respecting the Person of Jesus Christ

Chapter IV. Work of the Holy Spirit in and on the human nature of Christ.

II. Respecting Others on behalf of Christ

Chapter V. The general work of the Holy Spirit in the new creation with respect to the members of that body of which Christ is the head.

Book III.

Chapter I. Work of the Holy Spirit in the new creation by regeneration.

Chapter II. Works of the Holy Spirit preparatory to regeneration.

Chapter III. Corruption or depravation of the mind by sin.

Chapter IV. Life and death, natural and spiritual, compared.

Chapter V. The nature, causes, and means of regeneration.

Chapter VI. The manner of conversion explained in the instance of Augustine.

Book IV.

Chapter I. The nature of sanctification and gospel holiness explained.

Chapter II. Sanctification is a progressive work.

Chapter III. Believers are the only object of sanctification, and subject of gospel holiness.

Chapter IV. The defilement of sin, what it consists in, with its purification.

Chapter V. The filth of sin is purged by the Spirit, and the blood of Christ.

Chapter VI. The positive work of the Spirit in the sanctification of believers.

Chapter VII. Of the acts and duties of holiness.

Chapter VIII. Mortification of sin, the nature and causes of it.

Book V.

Chapter I. Necessity of holiness from the consideration of the nature of God.

Chapter II. Eternal election is a cause of and motive for holiness.

Chapter III. Holiness is necessary from the commands of God.

Chapter IV. Necessity of holiness from God's sending Jesus Christ.

Chapter V. Necessity of holiness from our condition in this world.

Table of Contents

Editor's Note

Prefatory note.

Analysis.

To the Readers.

Book I.

Chapter I. General principles concerning the Holy Spirit and his work.

Chapter II. The name and titles of the Holy Spirit.

Chapter III. Divine nature and personality of the Holy Spirit proved and vindicated.

Chapter IV. Particular works of the Holy Spirit in the first or old creation.

Chapter V. Way and manner of the divine dispensation of the Holy Spirit.

Book II.

Chapter I. Particular operations of the Holy Spirit under the Old Testament preparatory for the New.

I. Extraordinary Works of the Spirit.

1. Prophecy

2. The Writing of Scripture

3. Miracles

II. Ordinary Works of the Spirit.

1. In respect to political things.

2. In respect to moral virtues.

3. In respect to natural abilities.

4. In respect to the intellect.

Chapter II. General dispensation of the Holy Spirit with respect to the new creation.

Chapter III. Work of the Holy Spirit with respect to the head of the new creation - the human nature of Christ.

Christ as Head of the Church

I. Respecting the Person of Jesus Christ

Chapter IV. Work of the Holy Spirit in and on the human nature of Christ.

II. Respecting Others on behalf of Christ

Chapter V. The general work of the Holy Spirit in the new creation with respect to the members of that body of which Christ is the head.

Book III.

Chapter I. Work of the Holy Spirit in the new creation by regeneration.

Chapter II. Works of the Holy Spirit preparatory to regeneration.

Chapter III. Corruption or depravation of the mind by sin.

Chapter IV. Life and death, natural and spiritual, compared.

Chapter V. The nature, causes, and means of regeneration.

Chapter VI. The manner of conversion explained in the instance of Augustine.

Book IV.

Chapter I. The nature of sanctification and gospel holiness explained.

Chapter II. Sanctification is a progressive work.

Chapter III. Believers are the only object of sanctification, and subject of gospel holiness.

Chapter IV. The defilement of sin, what it consists in, with its purification.

Chapter V. The filth of sin is purged by the Spirit, and the blood of Christ.

Chapter VI. The positive work of the Spirit in the sanctification of believers.

Chapter VII. Of the acts and duties of holiness.

Chapter VIII. Mortification of sin, the nature and causes of it.

Book V.

Chapter I. Necessity of holiness from the consideration of the nature of God.

Chapter II. Eternal election is a cause of and motive for holiness.

Chapter III. Holiness is necessary from the commands of God.

Chapter IV. Necessity of holiness from God's sending Jesus Christ.

Chapter V. Necessity of holiness from our condition in this world.