CHAPTER VI: The uses of the precedent doctrine
CHAPTER VI
The uses of the precedent doctrine.
Use 1. Let me a little affect your hearts with the love of the Spirit, from and upon occasion of all that hath been said. There is a daily intercourse with, and meditation of, the love of the Father and the love of Christ. There is a fellowship of the Father, and a fellowship of the Son, in the souls of every believer. But the Holy Ghost, though he hath been universally aknowledged as a person equal to either, yet we do not hold and pursue after fellowship with him as a distinct person; nor is his love in what he hath done for us set on as a seal upon our hearts. Whereas the Scriptures (though more sparingly, because it was he who wrote them) do urge obligations upon us, drawn from him, as well as the other two persons.
If we believe he is a person in the Trinity, let us treat with him as a person, apply ourselves to him as a person, glorify him in our hearts as a person, dart forth beams of special and peculiar love to, and converse with him as with a person. Let us fear to grieve him, and also believe on him, as a person; which our very Creed directs us to.
Do you profess to hold communion and converse with the saints? I beseech you, have it with the maker of them, the Holy Ghost; and this not at second hand, by having fellowship with those he dwells in, but immediately also with himself.
Because the Spirit is intimior intimo, is so nearly and intimately united to us, dwells in us as our own souls do in us, therefore we converse not with him (as we do seldom with our own souls), but are most of all strangers thereto. Also because his work is but new beginning, and as yet imperfect, and but a foundation of that
building in eternity to be raised: whereas Christ hath perfected his, hath 'perfected for ever those that are sanctified' (Heb. 10:14), by one offering once made; it is therefore we discern not (mind not) the Holy Ghost, or his works, as we do Christ and his. But what says the apostle, Rom. 15:30, 'Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord
Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me,' &c. You see he adjures them by the Spirit, and his love, and their love unto the Spirit, as well as for Christ's sake. The occasion was, 'that ye would pray for me,' says he, that that work of the ministry (which is properly the Holy Ghost's work, Acts 13:2), may prosper in my hand. And if you profess love to the Spirit, whose work it is, and so consider his love to you, who hath done so much for you, his honour in this work will be dear to you. And inasmuch as he had urged them just before, 'for the Lord Christ's sake,' and then subjoins, 'for the love of the Spirit,' surely he must mean in like connection of sense, that for the Spirit's sake also, and for his love's sake towards them, who had borne no less love to them than Christ had done, they would do what he exhorted them to. Sure his exhortation falls not lower, nor runs in a lower way, to mean only the love which they bore to the Spirit, but it means that love which the Spirit himself bore to them, and which is equal to that of Christ. And the edge of his persuasive farther lies in this, and is as if he had said,
Seeing that when we exhort you for Christ's sake, it useth to take with you, to move and prevail with you; so when we urge you by the love of the Spirit, it will have no less effect, if you do but consider all he hath done for you, or is to you. Now when he moves them for Christ's sake (as in the first place he doth), the meaning is to obtest them by all the love that Christ had borne them, and by what he had done for them. When, therefore, he adds, 'and for the love of the Spirit' (the Spirit being a person we are obliged to, as well as unto Christ), can you think he had not this as his more especial aim, to move them in like manner by this very love of the Holy Ghost, who indeed deals altogether in the affairs of love from the Father and the Son? He proceeds from them by way of love, and love in them mutually each to other is the original of his person. And as he is the love that is between them both, so it is he who sheds abroad the love of both into
our hearts; and it is he who is grieved, as a friend or person that loves us (as Eph. 4:30), when we sin, or neglect that duty which is his care and charge to work in us.
And as this is the apostle's scope, so this love of his ought to be very dear unto us; for if we single out any thing earnestly to entreat some other thing from another, that thing we entreat them by must be supposed to be most precious to us. Again, when, Rom. 8, he had insisted on this, that there is the Spirit of Christ in us, or we are none of his, he then begins the enumeration of many great things this
Spirit doth for us throughout that chapter, by those arguments persuading us not to live after the flesh, but after the Spirit. In the midst of these persuasives he comes in with this, 'Wherefore, brethren, we are debtors, but not to the flesh.' Those words make two entire sentences, one affirmative, that 'we are debtors;' the other negative, 'but not to the flesh;' we are not debtors to the flesh. Now to whom is it he affirms we are debtors? Evidently the Spirit, as not only the words of opposition, 'not to the flesh' (which two are in this chapter set as ἀντικέιμενα, as contraries and opposites, as everywhere else), but as the coherence and the illation—'therefore we are debtors'—shew. It was this Spirit he had last spoken of, the Spirit that dwelleth in us as a guide and leader, actor and informer of us, as the soul in our souls: ver. 11, 'If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.' And from thence he infers, 'therefore we are debtors.' To whom but to him? Debtors unto what? To live after the Spirit and not after the flesh: so ver. 12, 13, 'Not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' The obligation here, you see, runs in the Spirit's name, the arrest is at his suit. Debtors then we are, and infinitely indebted to him, and this for dwelling in us; and because we are led and guided by him, as a person that loves us, are we wonderfully beholden unto him. And those next words, 'As many as are led by the Spirit,' directs us to treat with him as with a person, a familiar, a friend, that walks with us, takes us by the hand,
talks to you, adviseth you as the Spirit of counsel (as, Isa. 11:2, he is called), continually speaking in us, 'This is God's way, walk in it.'
Again, when we read 2 Cor. 13:14, 'The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you': that Κοινωνία, which we translate communion, doth it not, and may it not, import the fellowship and converse that the Holy
Ghost vouchsafes to us with himself, as well as that with the Father and the Son? 1 John 1:4. The word in both places is one and the same. And when he moves them (Phil. 2:1) by all these considerations, 'If there be any consolation in Christ, any fellowship of the Spirit,' &c., why should we not interpret 'fellowship of the Spirit' for converse and intercourse had by us from him as a person, as well as consolation in Christ, is that which is in the person of Christ? Out of such an experimental sense of sweet familiarity and converse had with the Spirit of God, doth that speech of Holy David seem to proceed, Ps. 143:10, 'Thy Spirit is good, lead me.' Methinks he speaks so feelingly of him, and of that sweetness he had found in him as a friend, as if he had said, I have found his counsel and converse so good, O give me more of them. And when he bids us grieve him not (Eph. 4:30), doth it not import one whom we converse with daily, that is full of love and kindness to us, full of tenderness, whose love we should 'take in, and consider, and have a wary, watchful regard to, and grieve with him if we offend him?
I cannot enlarge upon the work he hath done and is to do for us, which yet is proper to this occasion. I shall only instance in what, in the doctrinal part, I have been so large in, and in that which, Rom.
8:11, 12, the apostle putteth this very obligation upon; our being debtors to the Spirit. He had in that chapter spoken much and great things about the Spirit's indwelling in us, and the fruits thereof: and he spoke thus, ver. 11, 'If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Christ's love was in dying, the Spirit's is shewn in his indwelling in us. His inference from thence is, ver. 12, 'Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.' But that the greatness
of his love and grace may appear unto us, and we may put a due value upon it, let us compare it with the love of Christ himself in being incarnate, and dwelling in our nature for us. You account it infinite love in him to leave the bosom of his Father, to come down from heaven, and become one person with a man, to be made flesh, and so to be made less than his Father in that respect. Yea, and this love is the greater, inasmuch as he assumed this nature as clothed with all infirmities of flesh and blood, the likeness of sinful flesh, and dwelt among us, and endured such contradictions of sinners, as the apostle speaks. And this union was the foundation of all his work and satisfaction for us. And herein God commended his love, as Heb. 2 you have it set forth. And yet set this grace of the Holy Ghost's indwelling in us by it, and it riseth up unto an equality; and though it fall lower in some respects, yet exceeding that of Christ in others, the scales will be acknowledged even.
It falls lower in this, that the union between him and us is not personal, as that of Christ's is with his human nature; but yet it is as near it as possibly may be, for it is an immediate union of our persons to and with his person, so as to have an eternal right personal to each other, and everlastingly to dwell each in other. And it indeed was well for us we had not a personal union with the Spirit; for our defilements (if remaining) would then have defiled and been imputed unto his person.
In other things it is equal; For, 1. Both are said to come alike down from heaven; the Spirit (1
Pet. 1:12) as well as Christ.
2. He indwells in us for ever, as was shewn. He is in us; and shall be with us married as indivisibly without all divorce, as the Son of God and that human nature also are. Yea, and as Christ continued his union with the body in the grave, so those words (Rom. 8:11), 'The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in you,' import, that
the Spirit continueth his union and relation to the body (which, 1 Cor. 6:19, is also called his temple) even within the grave, and fallen to dust.
But, 3. In these things the love shewn by the Spirit in such his union with us doth exceed.
(1.) That though indeed the Son of God dwelt and dwells thus intimately in a human nature, yet it is a nature made holy, harmless, separate from sin and sinners, Heb. 7. But this good Spirit's lot and part is to come at first into hearts full of all defilements, into rags of uncleanliness, into flesh that is and hath wholly corrupted itself. Of old this was made a wonder by Solomon; 'Will God in very deed dwell on earth, in a house which I have built for him, whom the heaven and the earth cannot contain?' 2 Chron. 6:18. But here is a wonder of wonders, that the holy God (as the Spirit is) should dwell in hearts so unholy and unclean, and make them his temples (as 1
Cor. 6:19).
(2.) Christ indeed dwelt among us, and conversed with sinful men, whereby he suffered daily such contradictions of sinners. But it was a contradiction merely from without, and yet this grated on his spirit
(nothing more), insomuch as it is said he pleased not himself in the best of his company, Rom. 15:3. But the union of the Holy Ghost, and his indwelling in us, is in our sinful hearts; so as often, where his indwelling is mentioned, it is inserted (Gal. 4:6), 'He sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.' 2 Cor. 1:22, 'He hath given the earnest of his Spirit into our hearts.' John 7:38; this spring of living water is said to be in the belly, environed about with mud. All which imports a nearer union than that of Christ within us; to which this limitation is added, 'He dwells in our hearts by faith.' But of the Spirit it is said everywhere that he dwells in us. It is originally his title, 2 Tim. 1:14, to be styled, 'He that dwells within us.' Now the contradiction which he by reason of this near inhabitation endures must needs be much greater and quicker to his sense, from those he dwells thus within, and hath entered into, and hath undertaken such a conjunction
withal, than that of outward converse, which Christ only endured.
For if what Christ says in another case be true, what is from without should offend; then how much more that which is from within, the person one dwells withal? And in this respect he alone of all the three persons is said to be grieved, having taken on him the part of an intimate friend. A father (as God the Father) is offended, but a familiar friend is grieved. It argues a nearer striking home at the heart. And in this respect he hath had an hard task of it, and this from the beginning of the world. He hath been burdened, and felt the weight of the old world (Gen 6), 'My Spirit shall not always strive with man therein.' And yet he relieves' himself by bringing the flood upon them after an hundred and twenty years. But against these he thus indwells in, whom he regenerates, he hath no relief; for he hath eternally undertaken for them.
And is it nothing, think you, to have his work continually spoiled?
Never to find the soul as he left it? To have that heart he dwells in continually resisting and contradicting of him? To have that unspun in the night which he hath woven in the day? To have made a good prayer in us, and that swept away, as if it were but a cobweb, by lust that riseth? To have his greatest enemy, the devil, blaspheme him and his graces, in his own house, in his own hearing? If Lot's righteous soul was vexed, or our own graces within us troubled; then how much more is the author of all grace, dwelling in us, insomuch as he is weary of this world, and the course held in this respect?
And to that account I have sometimes in my thoughts cast that speech, Rev. 22, where we find some outcries for Christ's coming, that he would come quickly. 'The Spirit says, Come' (speaking to Christ), as well as 'the bride says, Come.' She, that she may enjoy her husband; he, that he may be eased. He groans to be unburdened of this conflict with sinful hearts he dwells in (as our souls are said to do, 2 Cor. 5), as having so long borne the trouble and grief of this work, which till there is an end of all by Christ's coming, he is designed unto.
Use 2. There is another use of this doctrine, which I urge to unregenerate men. Well, God by his providence hath brought thee once more to the word, which the apostle calls the ministration of the Spirit. Now consider, though thou hast been never so empty, dry, and barren of goodness, and art now in thy filthiness, thou mayest carry home the Spirit with thee, and therein thou art passive; but if thou dost, it will cost thee something in his workings on thee; he will work strangely on thy heart. Thou mayest now begin to be possessed of the richest gift God hath to bestow. Thou earnest to see fashions, a reed shaken with the wind, as John's hearers did; but thou standest in the wind of the Spirit, and he may seize upon thee, and save thee; for he comes upon men without preparation, and then works all. I shall open but two or three scriptures to this purpose. In Isa. 44:3, there is the promise of the Spirit (which in Gal. 3 is said to have been made to Abraham and his seed), 'I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground;' which Isaiah himself interprets, 'I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring; and they shall spring up' (as herbs, namely) 'among the grass,' &c. 'One shall say, I am the Lord's,' &c. And this scripture also did our Saviour Christ allude to in the promise of his Spirit to the woman of Samaria: John 4:14, 'But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternal life.' He alludes also to the same scripture in what he says to his disciples:
John 7:37–39, 'If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.' The promise in each refers to both places: and yet the occasion was differing, though of one and the same Spirit. If you observe the purport and occasion of the promise of the Spirit in the 4th of John, it was when our Saviour was treating with the woman of Samaria, a great sinner, ver. 18; utterly ignorant, ver. 10, 23; a flouter of him, ver. 15; and as yet (when Christ spake these words) purely in her natural estate. And therefore this promise of the Spirit here all acknowledge to be the
Spirit of regeneration, to work conversion at the first; to become, as at the first he doth, a well of water springing up to eternal life.
Now this was at first poured upon a dry ground, in respect to any such work; utterly dry, utterly barren, that hath not so much as a desire or thirst after this Holy Spirit, to ask him, as she had not, ver.
10, 'If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.' And upon this ignorant, barren soul doth Christ pour out his Spirit whilst he is speaking with her; and which was the strangeness of it, though poured from without, yet soaking into her, it began (as Christ promised) to become a spring in her heart, which other water poured from without on earth doth never become, bubbling up all that which tended to eternal life. And the promise of the Spirit as regenerating at the first, and to that end poured out on such souls as here, was part of Isaiah's scope. He had a further also, for it is pouring 'water upon dry ground,' causing herbs to come up where barrenness was (ver. 4), to the end that men that are Gentiles, and strangers to the commonwealth of Israel (as this
Samaritan was) might 'call themselves by the name of Jacob, and subscribe unto the Lord, and surname themselves by the name of Israel,' ver. 5. And the first thing we see God doth (as Christ also in the 4th of John promiseth) to such sons, is to pour out his Spirit on them in that very condition, and he becomes a spring within them of all goodness, even then when there is not a drop afore, nor any preparation to it. And again the prophet Isaiah, prophesying of times when Christ should be on earth, thus speaks, chap. 35 ver. 5, 6, 'Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.' Then followeth the very same promise, that 'in the wilderness waters should break out, and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool.' Which promise, as Christ interpreted, so he also made it good, fulfilling of it in this Samaritan, the first fruits of Gentile converts; and this he did whilst he was speaking it to her. Ezekiel speaks to the same purpose and effect
(chap. 37), though under another allusion, of men not only dead, but
consumed to bone, and those bones dry; and a wind came from God upon them, even when in this estate, and made them alive. And what is the moral of it? The Spirit of God (whom Christ compares to the wind, John 3, and who, Acts 2, came as a rushing wind), the Spirit of the living God (as in 2 Cor. 3:3) came upon these men, and made them alive, even when dead and dry bones. Thus it is said, ver. 14, 'I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live.' He puts his Spirit into us, not only pours him on us ere we have the least of life, who therefore must needs come on us, yea, into us when we are dead. He gets into us, and becomes a spring in our bellies, in the heart of this barren earth when it is dry.
Use 3. Is it the Spirit of God who is the author of conversion? Then ament and bewail the hardness of thy heart, which though it hath so often had good motions put into it by the Spirit (which motions, for aught thou knowest, are the beginnings of this work, and leaders unto repentance), yet it hath not followed them, but given a deaf ear unto them.
1. Consider the heinousness of the sin. It is that which Stephen upbraided the Jews with: Acts 7:51, 'Ye stiffnecked, who evermore resist the Holy Ghost.' It is the sin for which our Saviour chiefly wept over Jerusalem, Luke 13:34. Consider that it is to oppose the Holy
Ghost in his own proper work and office, and in as much as in you lies to put him out of office. And though it be not always that sin against the Holy Ghost, which is unpardonable (for many have afterwards repented of this), yet it is a sin against the Holy Ghost.
For as the Scripture, though it makes indeed but one ὁ Αντιχριστὸς, 'that antichrist, the man of sin and son of perdition,' the pope, the greatest arch-heretic that ever was, or will be, yet every petty popeling and less notorious heretic is an antichrist, 'for there be many antichrists now in the world' (says the apostle of his times, before the great antichrist was risen). So it is in this case: though the Scripture makes but one sin against the Holy Ghost, κατʼ ἐξοχὴν, yet the resister of the least motion of the Spirit leading to repentance is a sinner against the Holy Ghost, and there be many such sinners. I
appeal to many of you; how often hath the Holy Ghost come and viewed you? How often hath he come to your hearts when ye were alone, and even unto your bedside, beseeching you, and ye have put him off! And you may judge of the' greatness of this sin, to resist the least good motion (which is a step to the other), in that the Scripture makes the full act (or grosser act, as I may call it) of that sin to be, in isto genere in that kind, the greatest and the only unpardonable one.
Now we measure sins in the act they tend to; as murder being a great sin, and the act thereof more heinous than of other sins, therefore thoughts of murder and revenge are worse than any other sinful thoughts. And if you will put this sin of resisting the motions of the Spirit into the balance of the sanctuary, and rightly weigh it with other ways of sinning, I dare affirm it, that the resisting the least good motion tending to conversion is greater than many of those grosser acts against the law of God. And these motions resisted do heighten and aggravate all our other sins committed before and after them. For they tend to turn us from them by causing us to repent of all sins past, and preventing sins to come. Moreover this sin is a sin against the gospel (for the gospel is the ministration of the Spirit, and so of these good motions of the Spirit), and sins against the gospel are greater than those against the law. And therefore (Heb. 2:2, 3) the very neglecting the salvation of the gospel is made a crime deserving a sorer punishment than any breach of the law. And how much sorer punishment does it deserve to despise it when it is brought home to us by the Holy Ghost, and by him set on upon our hearts? If barely to hear the word, and not be moved by it, be a sin, and a heinous one, then to be moved by it and to neglect it is a greater; for it is despising of the greater mercy, and it is against the Spirit of grace in the gospel.
2. Consider the danger of this sin. You have seen that, for the guilt of it, it is above committing gross sins against the law. And the danger of it is answerable; for sins against the law God threateneth but conditionally with damnation, if men believe not, and repent not; so as that repentance coming between they may escape. But this God threateneth, yea, and punisheth with impenitency itself (and that is
the damning sin) for God useth ordinarily to punish sins in their own coin, according to their nature and kind; and this he punisheth with impenitency, because it resists the work of repentance: 'I would have purged thee' (says God in the prophet, unto the people of Israel), 'but thou wouldst not.' When God would they would not, and therefore
God never after would. And when God hath used means, and comes unto us to cleanse us, and we would not, he says (as it is, Rev. 22:11),
'He that is filthy, let him be filthy still'; and so we shall be long enough, for all him. For at length God grows peremptory, and never makes offer more. God commonly gives such up unto irrecoverable hardness of heart and blindness of mind. And I appeal to their own consciences if they grow not harder after such resistings, as clay doth, the more the sun hath shone upon it, or as ice freezeth harder after it had begun to thaw. Consider but the reason of it. If a man sins against the law, he hath yet the court of the gospel to sue in, and so to obtain pardon; as if a man be cast in one court, he hath a liberty to remove his suit from that court unto a higher; but if he be condemned in the higher, then there is no going backward unto any lower court. So God hath given us two courts, that of the law and that of the gospel. Thou being an unclean or covetous person, or a drunkard, goeth to the law, and that condemns thee. Then the Spirit offers thee to remove thy suit to the highest court of the gospel, and upon faith and repentance to bring thee a pardon. Thou neglects this, and so the gospel itself presently condemns thee; for there, 'he that believes not is condemned already,' John 3:18. And if mercy and the offers of it condemn thee, I know not what can save thee; for that is the highest court, and go backward thou canst not. The work of the Spirit (as you heard) is the last act of man's salvation, and without it neither no evidence of thy election, nor redemption, are to be respected. And if thou run unto God's mercy (as that is the common shift, that God is merciful) or to Christ's redemption, in that he died for sinners, both these send thee to the Spirit. And the Spirit tells thee he hath offered salvation unto thee upon thy repenting many a time, and hath proffered to assist therein, and thou didst still refuse; and how then canst thou expect salvation? Ay, but thou wilt say, I
hope the Spirit will offer again and again, and when I am on my deathbed, as well as now. I answer, 1. That it is a great hazard, for 'the Spirit blows when and where he listeth;' and, it may be, he will never move thee more. And,
2. Consider whether thou hast any reason to expect this. For suppose thou shouldst have often, again and again, moved a friend of thine in a matter which concerns himself, and which thou hast most* benefit by, only out of love, thou hast thus moved him in it, and he still gives thee a contrary or froward answer, and goes on doing the contrary, wouldst not thou at last resolve, that seeing thou hast so often moved him in vain, hereafter thou wilt never speak of it to him more? This is the case between the Spirit and thee. He hath often moved thee in a matter that concerns thine eternal wealth or we, even to repent, but thou givest him a churlish answer, and goest still on in thine impenitency; how then canst thou expect he should ever move thee again? God comes at length to say of thee, as of those in Hosea 6:4, who had had many good motions, which like the dew were dried up, and reformations which like a cloud passed away, 'O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning cloud; and as the early dew it goeth away.'
3. Yet seeing this is thy plea, that thou hopest the Holy Ghost will move thee again, I charge thee, as thou tenderest thine own salvation, if that now or hereafter he doth move thee, to take the opportunity of time and tide. If by meditation, reading, or prayer, any sparks be kindled in thee, blow them up; let those thoughts rest on thee; welcome them, hug them, as the best guests that ever came to lodge in thine heart. Shall an ambassador extraordinary be sent from the King of heaven unto thee with a message, and wilt thou not give him audience, but put him off from day to day, and tell him (as Felix did Paul) thou wilt hear him another time? The best men are but green wood, on which, though fire do take hold, it is subject to die again; and therefore, if thou hast but a few sparks, leave them not till they have taken hold, nor then till they are put into a flame. And