CHAPTER IX: We not only partake of the effects of the Holy Spirit's operations in us, but also of
God upon these terms, If I walk thus and thus, God will give and continue his Spirit to me? No; but thou sayest as David, 'Lord, give me thy constant Spirit,' to work all in me, to cause me to walk in thy statutes. Ps. 51:10, 11, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.' In the margin it is, 'a constant spirit within me;' and if this is thy dependence and thy salvation, and if upon these terms thou boldest and retainest the Spirit, thou art a son. You esteem it in lands as a matter of great moment the tenure, whether it be freehold or copyhold. My brethren, know there is a freehold of the Spirit, and a copyhold; and go over but thy prayers and the workings of thy spirit with God, and thou wilt easily see thy tenure.
CHAPTER IX
That we not only partake of the effects of the Holy Spirit's operations in us, but also of his person dwelling in us.
There is a gift of his person, first and chiefly, or primarily; but secondarily of his graces, to be wrought in us by him. And in this gift of his person doth consist the greatness, the richness of the gift. This is expressed in those words, 'Whom he shed on us richly,' Titus 3:6.
This, I say, is intended of his person first, and simply, and then of his graces and effects, as in the second place intended to us, as those which accompany the gift of his person, and as handmaids upon it, and do flow from and depend upon the bestowing and gift of himself.
Thus there is the gift of the person of Christ to us and for us; and there is the gift of all those benefits which he hath purchased; but the gift of his person is, of the two, greater infinitely than that of his benefits, as the person is more worth than the dowry. And thus you are to look at the gift of the person of the Spirit more than all his
χαρίσματα, or gifts. Let us hear how the Scripture speaks to this great point, and sets a value and indigitation upon it as in distinction from his graces: Rom. 5:5, 'The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.' Here you may observe a set distinction made between this one effect of the Spirit in us, viz., 'the shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts,' and the gift of the person of the Spirit; and how there is brought in a manifest super-addition of the gift of his person over and above that effect of shedding God's love: 'by the Spirit,' says he, 'which he hath given us.'
Thus he speaks of the gift of the person himself singly and apart, distinct from the other; yea, and as being the foundation of it. Take this instance and comparison. God having given a wife to a man, by whom he hath had such and such children, such and such an estate, benefits, and privileges; when mention is made of any one of those good things that accrued by her, she, to heighten the mercy of the gifts, by the consideration of the person by means of whom the man hath them, might say, All these things are by the wife which God hath given thee. The same import you have in other such appendixes and additional clauses to the like purpose. Acts 5:32, 'And we' (that is, apostles) 'are his witnesses,' (that is, Christ's) 'of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost,' (which manifestly refers to his person).
The apostle adds, 'Whom God hath given to them that obey him;' thus notably holding up unto their view the greatness of this gift.
And indeed the pouring forth the Holy Ghost is all the discourse of the first ten chapters of the Acts. And therefore it is elsewhere called the 'gift of the Holy Ghost, Acts 10:45. It is not χαρίσματα (spoken of 1 Cor. 12), gifts, in the plural, as speaking of his graces, but it is 'the gift,' as one absolute, full, and entire gift, once given for all; his person containing virtually all other parcels and particular gifts, which he after works. The like addition to signify this you may observe, 1 Cor. 6:19, 'Your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, whom ye have of God.' This refers also manifestly to his person, as I shall have occasion further to shew; and it comes in to mind them of the greatness of the gift, and the special favour of the donor, 'whom ye have of God.' Again you have it, 1 Cor. 2:12, 'We have received the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the free
gift of God to us.' Here is a double gift, and both from God, distinguished, 1, The grace or gifts of God and his Spirit bestowed on us, τα χαρισθὲντα or χαρίσματα; and 2, The gift of the person of the Spirit distinct from these, whom we receive (says he) as given by God first, and so received by us. And he is given (as to other ends) so that we may know these things he gives us, or works in us, the gift of which is distinct from that of his person, which is set out further by this τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ. The Spirit is out of God himself, and proceeding from him, and he is in God, as the spirit of a man in a man, ver. 11.
The reason of this is, because the Spirit is given us by the covenant of grace, which covenant makes freely over all that is in God unto us, and for our good; all, both attributes and persons in him, the donation thereof running thus, 'I will be thy God, and thou shalt be my people.' I use to say that the covenant of grace is in all the transactions a covenant of persons. Consider that of election in the Father's hand; he pitched not on qualifications, but persons, afore they had done good or evil, Rom 9:13. And therefore so long as the persons remain, his love remains; and thence he works that in the person which may make him comely: Eph. 1:4, 'He hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love.' And Christ, when he comes, he gives his person, 'He gave himself,' as everywhere it is said, both to us and for us; and he died not for abstracted propositions, but persons. 'I lay down my life for my sheep, and I know them by name.'
And when he applies his blood to us, he gives us himself, and the soul in the end seeks his person also, as Paul did, Phil. 3:8. Thus answerably, in the third person, the gift of the Holy Ghost is the gift of his person to dwell in us.
The next thing to be considered is his coming upon us, and his dwelling in us. I have two assertions to add concerning this.
1. Concerning his coming upon us, and God's shedding him forth, my assertion is, that the first coming of the Holy Ghost is immediately
upon us, as we are in our natural condition, in our uncleanness and pollution, without any preparation to make way for his coming upon us, or into us. He doth not work grace first, and then come into a man; but he comes first and seizeth on a man, then works grace in him. And this the text in Tit. 3:6 insinuates; when weighing the mercy thereof, the apostle says, 'He shed his Spirit upon us.' On us; how qualified? The fourth verse tells us, 'Us, when disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures.' And he then sent him to renew us, ver. 5. Such were the vessels when this precious liquor was first poured into them, and upon them. And his coming first thus on men when in their natural state, is exemplified in the Corinthians; yea, and pressed on them as a great point, which the apostle would have them seriously to mind and consider, to the end they might ascribe unto the Holy Ghost his due glory: 1 Cor. 12:1–3, 'Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto those dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I will give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.' Being to treat of spiritual gifts infused into the people of God, he prefaceth this, I would have you (says he) know and consider these things about them. 1st, That the author of them is wholly and entirely the Spirit of God. 'No man can say,' or confess out of conviction of judgment, 'that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.' And the embracing of this foundation of Christian religion was before any further spiritual gift was communicated unto you, but was indeed the foundation of bestowing it, 'for no man, speaking by the Spirit, calleth Jesus an execration.' Then, 2d, says he, I would have you remember the condition you were in when the Spirit of God began first to teach you this: you were all idolaters, led away as brute beasts after dumb idols, when also you execrated and abominated our Jesus
(as to this day the Jews and heathens do), when it was certain, therefore, that you had not the Spirit, of God in you; 'for no man that hath the Spirit calleth Christ accursed,' as ye then did. So then, who was the first beginner of this great change and alteration but the Spirit of God? And 3d, If this were your condition (as it was), what
did or could the Spirit find in you, as preparatory and inviting of him thereunto? Absolutely nothing at all. The lowest and first step which can be supposed to be out of heathenism into Christianity, viz., the thoughts and profession that our Jesus is the Lord and Christ; even this first thought, which is the introduction to all, you, says the apostle, had from the Spirit of God first, as well as you have been enlightened by him since. 4th, He would have them further consider that they, when they were thus idolatrous, were acted and possessed by another greater spirit than their own, who invisibly was in them, and yet effectually wrought in them, and had possession of their minds, fancies, and affections (which unless he had been in them he could not have), 'Even Satan, that evil spirit, the god of this world,' who (as it is said, 2 Cor. 4:4) blinded these heathens. This he clearly insinuates to them (and puts it in, as in opposition to their now having the Spirit of God) in these words, 'Ye were led after dumb idols.' Led, even as brute beasts are at the pleasure of them that possess them; and led by some other spirit than their own. It had been impossible else that so many wise heathens should have worshipped dumb idols (as on purpose he terms them), themselves having reasonable souls, that thought and spake, which those idols, that had eyes and saw not, wanted. Now then the apostle would have them to consider that ere their judgments could be led to own Christ as Lord, this evil spirit must be dispossessed; and another spirit, even the Spirit of God, come in his room, and possess their hearts, and so lead them into all the truth they then possessed; without which they had never embraced the first element or principle of Christian verity. From which instance and experiment in the Corinthians, I infer, that the Spirit of God, when he converts men to things spiritual, comes upon a man when a heathen, suppose, as then the world went, or on us, when unregenerate. And it is confirmed by this, that the Holy Ghost reveals not any truth, or works any saving good, but a man first hath him sent down into his heart. He is first sent and shed upon us, ere we are led into all or into any truth; as the 14th, 15th, 16th chapters of John shew. We receive him as an unction first, ere he savingly teacheth us any truth. 1 John 2:20, 'Ye have an unction from the holy One' (which is the Spirit, Acts 10:30), 'and ye
know all things,' first and last. All that ye know in spirituals, it is from him, yea, and by having him first. And as from having him first it is that we begin to know, so, that we continue to know and acknowledge spiritual things savingly, is from his abiding in us. He in his person is first said to abide, and so to go on to teach us. So ver.
27 of that chapter, 'But the anointing which ye have received of him abides in you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.' So then these idolatrous Corinthians, when they were converted to God, had first the Spirit communicated to them, casting out that evil spirit, and possessing his room in them, ere they could be taught the first letter in this school. Which agrees with what
Christ says of the casting out Satan, in order to men's conversions (unto which Christ's scope extends): Mat. 12:27, 28, 'If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you;' with which compare Luke 11:20–22, &c. It is said by Matthew that it is the Spirit, by Luke, the finger of God, by whom Christ professeth to cast out devils, in men to be converted, as well as out of men possessed. This
Spirit he compares there to a stronger than Satan, that comes upon him immediately as he is in his house or place,* binds him, and overcomes him; and so himself enters in, as Matthew's and Mark's phrase is. For it is entry and possession the Holy Ghost aims at; and it is the first thing he doth, after he hath pulled forth Satan, that was in possession, and bound him; and then, being entered, he throws out his goods and weapons, mortifies corruptions, and sanctifies the heart, and leads the soul into saving truths. And this is it which Paul insinuates, that he came upon these Corinthians, cast out the spirit that led them into error, entered himself, and led them into truth.
And it was as necessary he should first come on them, ere they could spiritually assent to the first or least truth, as it is necessary he comes on us, and abides in us, to lead us into all truth else. And therefore it evidently follows, both, first, that the shedding forth, or entering in of the Holy Spirit is the first foundation to all wrought in us; and secondly, that therefore this his coming upon us and entering into us
is immediately, without any preparation, when men are unregenerate. When Christ indeed comes to dwell in our hearts by faith, as Eph. 3:17, there need be preparation in our hearts for that his coming, and there is a preparing the way of the Lord. For he is to be received by our faith as a Saviour and Redeemer, and therefore we cannot receive him as supposed to be such until we see ourselves sinners. But our receiving the Spirit is not objectivè, as we receive an object into our understandings or hearts, and so needs no preparation on our parts; for he himself must first come to work all apprehensions and affections in us, from first to last: Gal. 4:6, 'He sends his Spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father;' and he cries as he comes along.
There are two or three objections which I will answer.
Obj. 1. Can we imagine that the Spirit of God, who is so holy a Spirit, will come and enter into and possess himself of an unclean, filthy, and defiled heart, in the fulness and spring-tide of its filth and uncleanness? Doth he not rather first make the heart holy, and then by that holiness dwell therein, seating himself in the new creature which he first creates? Thus indeed some have evangelised, and thereupon distinguished between his coming upon us, as at first, and his dwelling in us.
But I answer.
Ans. 1. That if the Spirit could be defiled in so doing, he would not do it; but this earth muds not the water that gets into it to become a spring, no more than the sunbeams are by shining into a dunghill.
Ans. 2. The substance of the soul (which he comes to) is his own, and he comes to make it clean, which he cannot do, unless he gets within it. It is well for us he is so holy, for no other water but of this preciousness would have virtue and power to cleanse us. And this is no more absurdity than to say, that pure water is poured first into a vessel to take away the filth of it; or that fire gets into and fills the
pores of metals in the ore, whilst full of dross, to burn out, and consume, and separate it from them. Now these are the comparisons the Scripture useth: Ezek. 36:25, 'I will sprinkle clean water upon you.' And is not that pity, you will say, that not only water, but clean water, should be poured upon defiled hearts, utterly defiled? God prevents the objection, in telling us that he thinks not much at this cost. The cleanest, sweetest water that heaven affords, he chooseth, viz., his own Holy Spirit. But the water is so clean, as it receives no tincture whilst it runs through you, and cleanseth you; as it there follows, 'And ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you; and a new heart will I give you,' And this is interpreted to be the Spirit: ver. 27, 'I will put my Spirit within you;' not upon you only: that will not serve to cleanse; he therefore puts him first into you. And what is this but what you read, 1 Cor.
6:11, 'Such were some of you, but ye are washed:' there is the genus, or in common the Spirit's work; the particulars follow: 'But ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' The Spirit must do both, And it is no strange thing ye should receive the Spirit, and he come into you to do all these, ere ever you are sanctified or justified. That other comparison of fire, I need not insist on. You have it, Isa. 4:4, 'When the Lord shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem by the Spirit of burning.' You know how the Holy Ghost in this respect is compared to fire up and down the New Testament. Now what is it to the fire to enter into what is drossy and defiled, to eat it out and consume it? Such fuel is proper for it to seize on, and shew its power upon. And what is it to this rushing wind to enter into the middle of a rotten house (the old man) and blow it down, and rear up a new one in the room of it? And what is it for this strong man to enter into Satan's house, whilst he is in it, and throw him out, and spoil and rifle all his goods, and throw them out after him? He will not stand without doors to do it, as Christ also tells us.
Obj. 2. A second objection is out of John 14:17, where Christ, speaking of the Spirit, says, 'Whom the world' (or men unregenerate)
'cannot receive, because they see him not, neither know him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you,' &c.
Ans. The answer is clear. That promise of the Spirit there is meant of him as a comforter and assurer of salvation; so ver. 16, 'I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.' Now, as such, he can never come first on an unregenerate man, but he must be a Spirit of bondage first to him, and (as chap. 16 ver. 8) 'convince the world of sin.' And therefore they in that condition are not capable of the Spirit as a sealer; for they must have regeneration first, and faith first wrought: Eph. 1:13,
'After ye believed, ye were sealed with the Spirit of promise.' So as Christ's plain meaning is this: you that are already believers, and have already experimentally felt the workings of this Spirit in you,
'you know him' (says he), and to you, and to others that know him, by having been already wrought upon, I will send him as a Comforter, to fill your hearts with joy in believing, unspeakable and glorious. But unregenerate men are utterly incapable of this privilege, for they know him not in these first effects of regeneration and change of heart, and therefore as a comforter they see not nor know him. He must be a regenerator ere a comforter. Receive him they may to convert them, but not thus to assure them, until he hath wrought regeneration in them, as he hath done on you.
I shall now discourse about the indwelling or inbeing of the Spirit in us after he is thus come. Concerning which my assertion is this,
That the indwelling of the Spirit also is of his person primarily and immediately, and by his graces secondarily. And although it be with his graces, yet it is not primarily by his graces; but his person is given to dwell in us immediately and for ever, and his graces secondarily.
Our persons (bodies and souls) are the temples of his person immediately; his graces are the hangings, the furniture, that he may dwell like himself, ut habitet decorè, that he may dwell handsomely.
He is a holy Spirit, and 'holiness becomes his house,' as the psalmist speaks; and so, though he comes first into bare walls, yet he
afterwards adorns them. You have a parallel made in the Scriptures of this point of his indwelling with that former, of the gift of him: that as his person hath been shewed to be the great gift, and his graces the secondary gift, so his indwelling is primarily added to his person, and to his graces secondarily. Because sometimes in Scripture the Spirit is used to express his graces, the cause being put for the effect, therefore it hath been generally almost asserted that he dwells no otherwise in us than by having wrought such and such graces. But my position is, that as the person of the Spirit is primarily given, so his person doth primarily dwell in us, and his graces secondarily. And this I hope to make clear by parallel scriptures to those other.
I. That text in 1 Cor. 6:19 (which I said I should have recourse to again), shews it: 'Your bodies' (and therefore much more your souls)
'are the temples of the Holy Ghost, who is in you.' It was not sufficient for him to say they were as his temples, for him to be worshipped in, by and through the graces he puts in them, but he adds, 'Who is in you, whom ye have of God.' Besides what afore was said, it appears further thus; for as he heightens their sin of fornication, in the former verse, that it is against the person of Christ, in respect of their relation to him as a husband, so in like manner in this verse, that it is against the person of the Holy Ghost, an indweller in them: 'Ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost, who is in you.' It is therefore made a distinctive property of the Holy Ghost as in relation to the saints (even as procession is proper to him in relation to the Father), that he is the indweller in us: 2 Tim. 1:14,
'That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.' You may observe that in the place before cited, how still there came in this superadditional clause, 'By the Holy Ghost which is given in us;' so in like manner that other clause,
'the Holy Ghost which dwells in us,' where the person of the Holy Ghost, as thus dwelling in us, is spoken of as abstracted and severed from his grace by two characters: First, That he exhorts Timothy to keep the truth in faith and love; ver. 13, as also ver. 14, that whole frame both of grace and form of truth, which he calls 'that good thing
committed to him by the Holy Ghost.' For evidently severing the Holy Ghost's person, as the conservator of faith, and love of the truth, and of all that is good within us, or committed to us. He distinguisheth him (I say) from these graces as the things that are to be preserved by him. For else he should exhort to keep these graces by these graces themselves, if he meant that they were these graces by which the Holy Ghost doth only dwell with in us. Secondly, his exhortation to Timothy runs not thus, 'By the Holy Ghost who dwells in thee,' which yet had been more proper if he had intended the indwelling of those graces in him; but he speaks generally 'by the Holy Ghost who dwells in thee and us,' all in common.
II. It may be observed, that whereas both God and Christ, those other two persons, are also in Scripture said to be in us, and to dwell in us, yet this indwelling is more special, and immediationi suppositi, attributed to the Holy Ghost; which, as it serves to give him an honour peculiar to him, so when set in such a comparison, even with them, must be meant and understood of his person immediately, and not by his graces only. Yea, the other two persons are said to dwell in us, and the Godhead itself, because the Holy Ghost dwells in us, he being the person that makes entry, and takes possession first, in the name and for the use of the other two, and so bringeth them in. I shall but name the place which looks this way: Eph. 2:22, 'Ye are an habitation unto God by the Spirit;' 1 Cor. 3:16, 'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?' namely, the Father, or (if ye will) the Godhead itself. And it follows by a special addition, 'And that the Spirit of God dwells in you.' So giving the original foundation or ground how we came to be temples of God, because the Spirit of God dwells there. Or, as afterwards, chap. 6, 'The Spirit which ye have of God.' Likewise, 1 John 3:24, 'He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.' Take it either of God the Father or the Son, for he had spoken of either: ver. 23, 'And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us,' whom we feel dwelling and working in our hearts. And therefore our divines have generally affirmed it, that Christ is said to dwell in us, because first his Spirit dwells in us, from Rom. 8:9, 10, compared. Now to me
it were strange to interpret such speeches that God and Christ dwell in us, because their Spirit dwells in us, and then by the Spirit mean only his grace, or the Spirit only by his grace; for the Spirit of God being a third person, must needs be acknowledged an indweller as well as the other two; yea, and to come in between them and his own grace, seeing their dwelling in ns is attributed to his. The truth is, that it is in this union of ours with God, as in that of Christ; that look, as in the union of the man Jesus unto the Son of God, and in the indwelling of the Son of God in that human nature, the Son of God first and originally dwells there, and he dwelling therein, the Father is in the man, and the Spirit is in him, and he in the Father; so is it here in this subordinate union of ours that the third person comes as the first inmate in us, and he taking possession, the other two come in and take up their abode also.
Or, if you will, you may view it in the Spirit's comforting of us, which holds parallel to this. Christ first promiseth to send the Spirit, as our comforter, into us: 'And when he is come' (says he, John 14:15, 17), 'I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.' 'And in that day' (ver. 20) 'ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.' 'If any man love me' (ver. 23), 'my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.' So the Spirit comes first. And thus it is even in their indwelling also; so as indeed it may be rightly urged to the point in hand, that if it be thus, that God and Christ dwell in us, because his Spirit dwells in us, that then much more it must be granted that his graces are said to be and to dwell in our hearts, because the Spirit first and primarily, who is the author of them, doth so; as the beams do therefore dwell in this visible world, or the heavens, because the sun doth first and originally dwell there, whose emanations and flowings forth they are.
I might bring an invincible argument from this, that he first comes ere he works grace, but I refer it to the next head.
I observe that gifts and graces are called the manifestation of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 12:7, that is, an outward demonstration or manifestation in men of that Spirit that dwells and abides within the heart, and is invisible. The seeing of the eye, the hearing of the ear, the acting of the fancy, and speech in the tongue, are the manifestation of the soul that dwells in the body, and dwells not there by these, but with these; and in order, the soul itself is that ἐγελέχια,* that actus primus of these, as actus secundi. And such is the Spirit to our souls, and his grace, he dwelling first in us himself.
And therefore, as animalis homo is a man that hath no more but a soul in him, that informs him, and acts him, without the Spirit of God, so oppositely he is a spiritual man (you have the opposition, 2
Cor. 2:15) that hath received into his heart the Spirit of God (read all the verses afore), that he might know the things of God.
The objection which hath diverted men from this assertion is, that the person of the Holy Ghost is everywhere: Ps. 139:7, 'Whither shall
I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I fly from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there,' &c. And in that respect, his person is as much in a worm as in the saints, and in all alike; therefore, how can his person be said to dwell more in the saints than elsewhere, otherwise than by his effects and graces?
1. According to the severity of this reason, the second person, the Son of God, should not be said to dwell otherwise in the human nature of Christ than by effects and graces, which, Col. 2:9, he is said to do:
'For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,' in distinction from saints and angels. For essentially, as he is God, he is also in the meanest creature; and yet the person of the Son, and the Godhead itself, dwells personally in that nature, and not the graces only. Now, what is it makes that indwelling to be more than by graces and effects, and so puts that vast difference? All acknowledge that it is because he takes up that human nature into a nearer relation to his person, so as to be one person with it immediately; and such an union graces alone work not, nor gives foundation unto. And so he dwells in him upon that account.
Well then, 2dly, it is true that into so near and high a relation the saints are not taken up. They are not made one with the Spirit, nor doth the Spirit dwell in them upon that account. The Spirit dwelling in a saint is not said to be 'made flesh,' as the Word is, John 1:14; for then, what good or evil the saints do would personally be accounted the Holy Ghost's; our prayers his, subjectively; yea, and our sins his; as the blood and obedience of that man Jesus was the blood and obedience of God, and the Son of God. Therefore our relation to the Holy Ghost's person is not so near by God's ordination. Yet,
3dly (as to the point in hand), We are capable and are made partakers, by the like ordination and free gift of God, of a relation, or propriety rather, to the very person of the Holy Ghost, which, though it be lower than that of the Son of God to human nature in Christ
God-man, yet it is not founded upon graces, but is beyond them, and before them, even by God's free and absolute gift and donation of his person to us, in order to such graces, and the working of them in us.
So as that this person should indeed dwell in us, in reference to graces as the final cause, but not the instrument at all, or means of his indwelling. It is unio personarum, an union of two persons immediately, us and him remaining two persons still, as that of marriage is of two persons immediately, in order to such and such ends. And it is not unio personalis, to become one person, as that of the two natures of Christ, the human and the divine, which is unio duarum naturarum, but not unio naturalis, of two natures, but not into one nature, but one person. And this difference was exemplified in Christ himself, our head, in the man Christ Jesus, in whom the Spirit of God dwells, not personally, for then Christ would be one person with the Holy Ghost as well as with the Son of God; nor doth the Father dwell personally in Christ, for then all three persons should have been said to be incarnate. And yet I suppose none will say that the person of the Spirit, nor of the Son, dwells in the man
Jesus only by means of his graces. But further, the person of the Spirit first rests on the man Christ, which person he hath a right unto, that he should dwell in him, because that man Christ Jesus is now united to the second person personally, and so to his graces
secondarily. So as if we ask whether in order of nature the person of the Spirit dwells in him first, or the Spirit by its graces, we may without any hesitation answer, the person of the Spirit primarily, and then his graces. Unto which seems to me to accord that in Isa. 11:12, where it is first said, 'The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him;' namely, the person of the Holy Ghost, simply and absolutely considered; then relatively, as in order to endowing him with such and such particular graces, viz., 'The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord.'
Now for the manner of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost's person; it is no error to affirm that it is the same in us and the man Christ
Jesus. Sure we are capable of it, and therefore shall have it, we being to be conformed to his image and likeness (as he to ours) in all that is possible, as he was to us, sin only excepted; so we to him, the personal union and the privilege of it excepted. Only, indeed, we differ herein from him in two things. 1. In the measure; for he hath the Spirit given him 'without measure' in his effects. 2. In the right to this indwelling of his person in us, and in him. He holds it as a royalty, and one of the greatest, from his personal union with the Son of God. We hold it in his right, and by virtue of the covenant of grace, and free donation; for because we are sons adopted in him, 'he hath sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,' Gal. 4:6. But the modus, the manner of the indwelling, is one and the same.
These things long since satisfied me in this great point, and I submit them to judgment.
CHAPTER X
The uses of the foregoing doctrine.
Use 1. Let us view with admiration the riches of this gift of the person of the Holy Ghost. It is the word which the apostle useth here in the text, 'whom he shed upon us,' πλουσιῶς, 'richly.' Let us value him accordingly. You value the things (every one of them) which God hath given us; then value the Spirit much more, who is the author of the most, and discoverer of them all. Take the most precious of graces, 'like precious faith' (as Peter calls it), assurance of the love of God, which is the earnest of glory; the gift of the Spirit that works this faith, and the shedder abroad of this love, is infinitely greater.
And therefore, in Rom. 5:5, after the enumeration of faith, and all the fruits of it, peace with God, rejoicing in hope of glory, patience, experience, shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts, it is super-added, as more than all these, being the root, the spring of all,
'the Spirit which he hath given us.' Yea, and as in ver. 6, 7, 8, he sets out the greatness of the love of God, that gave Christ to die for us; so, in those verses aforesaid, he would in like manner insinuate the greatness of that love that gave us this Holy Spirit to work all these graces in us, and reveal the love which God hath so commended.
Insomuch as this hath been started as matter of debate, and most serious consideration, by some divines; whether Filius datus (Isa. 9),
'To us a Son is given,' or Spiritus datus, 'The Spirit given' (Rom. 5), be the richer favour? Whether the incarnation, 'God manifest in the flesh,' or the diffusion, or 'pouring forth of the Spirit upon all flesh,' be the greater mercy? From heaven they both came down, the Spirit as well as the Son, 1 Pet. 1:2, and from the bosom of the Father both.
They are both of them pawns, and earnests, and witnesses alike, of one and the same love. It is also a dispute among interpreters, whether the gift of God, which, Κατʼ ἐξοχὴν (as it is called), is predicated so much, and held at so high a rate, John 4:10, be Christ, or the Spirit, 'Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.' It is questioned whether, as the sole sufficient satisfying
object of our desires, is the gift of the Son or the gift of the Spirit?
Whether Christ means himself, or the Holy Ghost, as given to us?
Many carry it to Christ, but the context more clearly carries it to the Spirit. For, 1, the gift of God (as there) seems to be distinguished from, rather than explained by, that which follows. 'Who it is that saith to thee,' and 'give me drink,' seem as two things, not one and the same. And, 2, that gift is clearly that living water which God and Christ give, and that is the Spirit, ver. 14 being compared with John
7:38, 39. In the Old Testament you hear of it, as more than all the mercies of giving the law, or bringing out of Egypt. 'Thou gavest them thy good Spirit to instruct them.' So Neh. 9:20, 30, it is twice expressed, as also Isa. 63, when he professeth to mention 'the lovingkindness of the Lord, according to all he hath bestowed upon us,' ver.
7. Where you may see how he heaps up and multiplies words to set out the riches of God's mercies by. And this he reckons the greatest of their sins, that 'they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit,' as the greatest mercy of all, 'and therefore he fought against them,' ver. 10.
And then himself remembers what his kindness of old had been, and how doth he express the height of it? ver. 11, 'Where is he that put his
Holy Spirit within him?' And when the temple was built again, and they delivered out of Babylon, what is the greatest promise God could make, till Christ should come and give a greater measure of his
Spirit? You have it, Hag. 2:5, 'According to the word I covenanted with you, when I came out of Egypt, so my Spirit remains among you,' as the greatest pledge and pawn of my favour, 'fear you not.' But in the New Testament, there you hear of it again and again; as in the Old, 'Thou gavest them thy good Spirit;' so in the New, 'He hath given his Holy Spirit,' is written almost in every epistle. It is almost all the talk, and fills their mouths throughout all the book of the Acts; especially the first fifteen chapters, it was all their talk and speech.
The first question they asked, when they met any that professed Christ, was (as Acts 19:1, 2), 'Have ye received the Holy Ghost,' yea or no? So transcendent a privilege is it, that it is recorded as the emulation of the Jews against the Gentiles. The Jews had wont to make Messiah their glory (as Simeon hath it, Luke 2:32, 'The glory of thy people Israel'). But when they had received the Holy Ghost (Acts
2) they would have run away with it alone, as the richest prize, till God confuted them, by pouring forth the same Spirit equally, and as much upon the Gentiles, thereby giving both sorts his children an equal portion in him, as being the whole of his estate now left to bestow, having given his Son afore: Acts 11:17, 'Forasmuch as God gave them' (says Peter) 'the like gift of the Holy Ghost, as he did unto us,' which argued the utmost of his favour to the one as well as the other; as that of the prophet also shews, Ezek. 39:29, 'Neither will I hide my face any more from them, for I have poured forth my Spirit upon them, saith the Lord.' Nay then (say the Jews there), let them take all, as well as we. God hath withheld nothing from them, 'for then hath God granted the Gentiles repentance unto life' ver. 18, and estated them in all promises, in all privileges of life, for he hath given them his Spirit. Who dares deny to baptize them? Who dares to shut them out from any privileges? 'For they have received the Holy Ghost as well as we,' says Peter, Acts 10:41. And in that hot dispute in Acts
15, about the Gentiles' salvation, Peter silences all with this (ver. 8, 9), 'God, who knows their hearts, hath given them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, as he did to us, and put no difference between them and us' (so ver. 11). They and we are heirs alike of the same salvation; and God (saith Paul an apostle, and a Jew, unto the Gentile Corinthians) hath established us with you, and you with us,
'hath anointed us,' and 'sealed us,' and 'given us the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts,' 2 Cor. 1:21, 22. That as the apostle argues, 'If he hath given us his Son, how shall he not with him give us all things?' so the sum of these agitations is, that if God hath given us his Spirit, how shall he not give us, I do not say, with him only, but in him, even in that one gift of him, give us all things? In this one gift of the Holy
Ghost (as it is termed, Acts 10:47, and often elsewhere)—not gifts, as of many, but gift, as of one—is contained all the whole, both of grace and glory; tanquam in fonte, tanquam in semine; as in the seed and fountain of both.
Use 2. Is the gift of the Spirit that great and rich gift which God vouchsafes to the sons of men? Then how miserable are they that have not this Spirit in them, nor have had any workings from him in
order to their salvation, to this very day! that live a life of sensual pleasures, in enjoying meat, drink, marriage, beauty, great houses, riches, fine clothes; and then say (as in Revelations 3:17), 'I am rich, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;' for why, thou wantest the Spirit. When Jude would express the misery of these sensual wretches, his words are, ver. 19, 'not having the Spirit.' And indeed (Rom. 8:5, 6), 'they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.'
Use. 3. Let me instruct your hearts accordingly to direct your prayers hereafter with answerable intentions and vehemency, for the gift of the Spirit himself. You pray in the Spirit, and you bless in the Spirit; let me exhort you to pray for the Spirit above all, and to bless God for this Holy Spirit, as one of the greatest blessings of all. When the apostle saw the Corinthians eager after spiritual gifts, his care and skill was to pitch their aims and desires upon what was most excellent: 1 Cor. 12:21, 'Covet the best gifts; and yet I shew you a more excellent way.' Thou seekest after particular mercies, and some one particular grace thou at present findest thou needest, to be humbled for sin, to be emptied of thine own righteousness, to have the right way and art of believing particularly discovered to thy heart, or to have power against such a lust, &c. And thou dost well, for thou art to branch thy prayers into all particular wants. But yet let me shew thee a more excellent way. Pray for the Spirit himself to be given thee; and whilst thou seekest for the stream, forget not the fountain. For when God gives thee him more and more to dwell in thee, and fill thee and mingle with thine heart, he brings with himself all these unto thee. Is thine heart hard? If God pour this water on thee, it will soak into it, and soften it. Wouldst thou see thy sinfulness, the most spiritual wickedness of unbelief, &c., in thee?
'When he is come, he will convince of sin, because they believe not in me,' saith Christ. He that searcheth the deepest things of God, is much more able to search and discover the shallows of thy heart.
Wouldst thou have no confidence in the flesh, but be purely carried out of thyself to seek the righteousness of Christ alone, and be found therein? Read Gal. 5:5, 'We through the Spirit wait for the righteousness of faith.' Wouldst thou have joy and peace in believing, joy unspeakable and glorious, the love of God shed abroad in thine heart? Pray for the Spirit: Rom. 15:13, 'Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.' Wouldst thou have thy lusts mortified? 'We through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh,'
Rom. 8:13. 'And ye through the Spirit have purified your hearts,' 1
Peter 1:22.
Our Saviour Christ, both in his own practice and direction to us, hath guided us to this, as the great request. 1. By his own example; for what is made the greatest and most professed subject of the flower of the most raised prayers that our great high priest eternally puts up for us? Yea, and upon what occasion did he first promise that he would pray for us? It is even this: 'I will pray the Father to give you another Comforter, even the Holy Ghost,' John 14:16, 26. You may judge what things your own or others' judgments and apprehensions are raised up to as most excellent, by what your prayers and desires therein reach forward to, as the mark of your eye. Therefore in Christ's judgment, that knows best what is to be prayed for, this is the most excellent. Yea, and you may take this further estimate of it, that he promiseth to spend his prayers now in heaven (and if ever his heart is wound up to the highest strains, it is there), yea, his prayers and intercessions there are spent most upon this subject. And though he may be supposed to pray for other things we stand in need of, yet I am sure this in particular is mentioned, and perhaps the first and chiefest.
And as his own practice, so his direction pitcheth us upon this also.
And he cites his father's judgment also of this to be the best request we can put up; that if ever we were confined to ask but some one thing, he would advise us to ask this. In the 11th of Luke, Christ himself had been praying, and was upon that occasion desired to
teach them to pray, ver. 1; and he gives them many particulars in that we call the Lord's Prayer, and then makes a parable to provoke them to importunity, ver. 5, 6, 7; and bids them 'Ask,' and 'seek,' and 'knock,' all being several degrees of more urgency, vehemency, and importunity, so ver. 9; with promise that such shall in the end receive, ver. 10. But then what is the most eminent thing, the best, he would direct you to pray for? Though he had given the particulars in the Lord's Prayer, he singleth out this of the Spirit: ver. 13, 'If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?' He wraps up this direction in a promise, and delivers it by way of promise for their greater encouragement, and he calls in his Father's judgment to prove that this is the best and greatest request: 'If you, that are evil, know how to give good things to your children.' According to your judgment you use to give the best, and use to exercise your best judgment therein; then take your heavenly
Father's judgment, which is most excellent and desirable, even 'his Spirit.' And therefore, Mat. 7:11 expresseth it thus: 'How much more shall your Father in heaven give good things,' even all good things
(for such the Spirit summarily is), 'to them that ask him?' This is the Father's judgment, you see, and it is Christ's, and you may be sure it is the Spirit's. You cannot honour him more than to pray most for him, that makes all your prayers;' and he takes it kindly to see himself most desired by you, that is the author of all your desires.
You may observe also how Christ pitcheth our thirstings upon this great sea and ocean of goodness, able to supply us with whatever we desire. He had taught them (Mat. 5) to 'hunger and thirst after his righteousness,' and holiness therewith, with a promise of blessedness. But in the great day of the solemn feast, he makes this proclamation, John 7:37–39, upon this last day of the feast he brings forth his best wine—'Be filled with the Spirit, and not with wine'—he proclaims his best commodity at the end of this assembly. And you may observe he says but in general, 'He that thirsteth,' he names not what; because, let it be what good soever the mind of man could be supposed to stretch its desires to, that Spirit which he spake of, ver.
39, was a complete satisfaction to it, and so as they might thirst no
more. And he directs them to two things; 1, to believe on himself, and come to him who was to give the Spirit; and then, 2dly, to come to his Spirit as given by him, whom we are also said to drink, 1 Cor.
12:13. Our prayers are the most precious actings of our souls, and it is the greatest advantage that can be to us to have the aims of our prayers set to the best and highest marks. And upon all accounts you have seen this to be it, to pray for the Spirit. And therefore learn hereafter, in your prayers, not to deal or traffic in particular or small wares only, but put in for the whole stock of the Spirit, as wise merchants use to do, and as Christ himself (as you have heard) in his intercession doth. And observe it in experience, when the Holy Ghost comes upon you, and fills your hearts as another Spirit, sensibly mingling with yours, then if you go over all the promises and find them yours, you can then apply this or that, or any one. And why?
Because you have the great promise, 'the Spirit of promise.' You may (let me say it with reverence) at such a time make use of the Spirit to anything whatsoever. You may fall upon your lusts by him, and do more at such a time for the destroying of them than in many prayers after. You may 'by the Spirit' then, at such a time, 'mortify the deeds of the flesh.' At such times improve your opportunity; for, having the Spirit, you have all good things, and you may ask what you will and have it. And yet even then ask still for more of himself.
Use 4. If the Holy Ghost be the great indweller in us, and graces but the manifestations of him, then let us shew forth the virtue of him that dwells in us, and be holy, as he is holy: as Cor. 3:16, 17, 'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God; and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defileth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy; which temple ye are.' You see what a heinous thing it is to defile the heart or soul, because his temple. But elsewhere the apostle holds forth a stronger motive, even that the Spirit dwells in us, as the soul doth in the body, and the life we lead is his, not ours; as the life of the body is not of the body, but of the soul in the body. This is the purport of that Gal. 5:25, 'If we live in the Spirit, we walk in the Spirit.' The question first is (for opening of it),
What is meant by that phrase, 'if ye live in the Spirit.' And how is it to
be distinguished from 'walking in the Spirit'? If to live in the Spirit were meant to be active, lively, or striving in actions of spiritual life, to walk in the Spirit would be all one; it would be but idem ex eodem; for to live, in that sense, is to move and walk. But the genuine notion that interprets this is, that he intends a comparison:—
1. Between the soul's indwelling in our bodies as a principle of life, and the Spirit's like indwelling as the fountain of spiritual life; which that in the prophet also insinuates, Ezek. 37:14, 'I will put my Spirit into you, and ye shall live.' 2dly, That as walking or action of life spring from the soul's indwelling, so should an answerable walking from this of the Spirit's like indwelling. And so this expression, 'if ye live in the Spirit,' is a persuasion drawn from a common professed principle. His inference runs thus: Consider whom you have in you.
The Spirit. And how? Even as a constant principle of spiritual life.
And to that end he doth dwell and abide in you, as your reasonable soul doth in your bodies. If you profess this, then live, and act, and walk, and shew forth graces worthy and suitable to so great and holy a Spirit, that hath vouchsafed and condescended thus to dwell in you, and become a fountain of such a life in you and to you. Every living thing acts according to that soul that is in it, according to the degree of vigour and activity, and kind of life communicated thereby. If you then profess to live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit; as if you should say to a sottish man (Cui anima inservit tantum pro sale), If you be a man, have a reasonable soul in you, act and carry yourself as a man, and be not not like a beast that perisheth.
The only inquest will be, Why, if he intend this similitude of the soul's indwelling (as it is evident he doth), he should express it thus:
'If you live in the Spirit'?
The answer is, It is true that we indeed, in common speech, rather use to say the soul lives in the body, than that the body lives in the soul; though in reality it be true that the body rather lives in the soul, than the soul in the body, the soul being a principle of life unto the body, and not e contra. The apostle thereupon, to express perfect and
real dependence of life spiritual upon this great Spirit, chooseth rather to say, 'Live you in the Spirit,' thereby importing this Spirit to be the same to us in respect of all grace and spiritual life communicated to us by union with, and indwelling in us, that the soul is to the body. And yet of Christ, Paul useth even that other phrase also (though only when he speaks of the activity of a Christian's life), that 'Christ lives in us,' Gal. 2:20.
Use 5. Grieve not this Holy Spirit. That expression imports the highest motive. Superiors use to be offended, familiar friends grieved; the Spirit, considered as a superior, therefore to resist him is termed rebellion,: Isa. 64, 'They rebelled against his Holy Spirit.' But because he vouchsafes also to become a familiar friend (as hath been declared), therefore he is also said to be grieved. And if you have love in you, that will move you more, when you think him you grieve is
God, Isa. 27:13. To grieve not man only, but God, is load enough; more than to say you offend him. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, is comparatively guarded with a trinity of articles, τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ
Θεοῦ τὸ ἅγιον. They shew his greatness and his goodness: his greatness, that he is the Spirit of God; his goodness (1.), the Holy
Spirit in himself; (2.) that he hath sealed you. We would not grieve a brother, Prov. 23:19, much less a father. You would not grieve a minister that watcheth over men's souls, as a substitute under the Holy Ghost (Heb. 13), much less himself. If thou hast done so, there is no way but to be grieved too, and as fire best takes out fire, so thy grief that of the Spirit's.
I say no more but this to myself and you. There is a day a-coming in which you will need him and all his cordials; therefore I speak to you in the words of Ecclesiasticus, which is the voice of that bodily selflove in us, and let it be of spiritual self-love also, 'Honour thy physician.' So treat this Holy Spirit, as thou wouldst one from whose prescription thou art in a continual course of physic, and none have skill but he. For when thou comest to die, his cordials must alone support, for none of any other's making will do thee any good. It is these, and these alone, must comfort, and carry thee to heaven.