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 uni versally 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 stran gers 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. x. 14), by one offering once made ; it is therefore we dis cern not (mind not) the Holy Ghost, or his works, as we do Christ and his. But what says the apostle, Rom. xv. 30, Now I beseech you, bre thren, 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 xiii. 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 ot
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
THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I. 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 per son 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. iv. 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. viii., 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 chap ter set as avri MifMva, 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 fami liar, a friend, that walks with us, takes us by the hand, talks to you, adviseth you as the Spirit of counsel (as, Isa. xi. 2, he is called), continuallv
This is God s way, walk in it. Again, when we read 2 Cor. xiii. 14, speaking in us, < The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you : that Ko/vwv/a, 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 i. 4. The word in both places is one and the same. And when he moves them (Phil. ii. 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 con verse and intercourse had by us from him as a person, as well as consola-
CHAP. VI.] IN OUR SALVATION
tion 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. cxliii. 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, give me more of them. And when he bids us grieve him not (Eph. iv. 30), doth it not import one whom we converse with daily, that is full of love and kindness to us, full of ten derness, 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. viii. 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 him self 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. ii. 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 equalit}^ ; and though it fall lower in some respects, yet exceed ing 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 ever lastingly 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. i. 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. viii. 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. vi. 19, is also called his temple) even within the grave, and fallen to dust.
THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I.
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. vii. 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. vi. 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. vi. 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 com pany, Rom. xv. 8. 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. iv. 6), < He sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. 2 Cor. i. 22, < He hath given the earnest of his Spirit into our hearts. John vii. 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 < 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 originally his title, 2 Tim. i. 14, to be styled, (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 vi.), < 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 con tinually 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. xxii., where we find some outcries for Christ s coming, that he would
come quickly. The Spirit says, Come (speaking to Christ), as well as 1 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. v.), 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 nnregenerate men. Well, God by his providence hath brought thee once more to the word, which the apostle calls the ministration of the Spirit. Now con sider, 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. xliv. 3, there is the promise of the Spirit (which in Gal. iii. 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 in terprets, I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine
among the grass, &c. One shall say, I am the Lord s, &c. And this scripture also did offspring ; and they shall spring up (as herbs, namely) our Saviour Christ allude to in the promise of his Spirit to the woman of Samaria : John iv. 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 vii. 37-3iJ, 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 : and yet the yet glorified. The promise in each refers to both places 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 pro mised) to become a spring in her heart, which other water poured from with out 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
44: THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I. 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 Gen tiles, 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 Johnjpromiseth) 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, prophesy ing of times when Christ should be on earth, thus speaks, chap. xxxv. 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, aud streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool. Which promise, as Christ inter preted, 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, xxxvii.), 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 iii., and who, Acts ii., came as a rushing wind), the Spirit of the living God (as in 2 Cor. iii. 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 arnent 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 up braided the Jews with : Acts vii. 51, Ye stiffnecked, who evermore resist the Holy Ghost. It is the sin for which our Saviour chiefly wept over Jerusalem, Luke xiii. 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 6 Avnigrbg, 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 popehng 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, xar egof, 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 yenere in that kind, the greatest and the only unpar donable 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 conver sion 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 com mitted 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. More over 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. ii.
23) the very neglecting the salvation of the gospel is made a crime deserv ing 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. xxii. 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 irre coverable 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 iii. 18. And if mercy and
46 THE WOEK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I. 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 con trary 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 wo, 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 vi. 4, who had had many good motions, which like the dew were dried up, and reformations which like a cloud passed away, Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee ? 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 above all things, take heed of quenching them by carnal mirth, or company, or recreations, as men use to do.
CHAP. VII.] IN OUR SALVATION. 47
CHAPTEK VII.
How the Holy Ghost is the author of regeneration, or the first application of salvation to us, in a more peculiar manner, comparatively to the other two persons.
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 Ghost ; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. TITUS
III. 5, 6.
Eegeneration, you see, is attributed to the Spirit as the author. It is termed the renewing of the Holy Ghost and likewise the shedding forth the Holy Ghost is magnified as the rich gift and blessing of the New
Testament.
I have in a former discourse shewn how all the three persons have shared and distributed the whole work of our salvation amongst them, unto three several parts. 1. Election is appropriated to the Father. 2. Redemption to the Son. 3. Application of both to the Holy Ghost ; who accordingly doth bear several offices suited to these three works.
That which now I have to do, is more particularly to demonstrate both the on and 8ion of this point of great moment ; both that and why this last part of salvation, viz., application, and so principally this of regeneration, is attributed to the Holy Ghost.
I. I shall produce scriptures to demonstrate this point.
1. The first Scripture is John iii. 5, Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. This scripture shews not only the necessity of being born again, but withal that it must be the Spirit, who < For no man can so much as say, Jesus must do it, or it will not be done. is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. xii. 3.
2. The near kindred and dependence the new creature hath with and upon the Spirit, as the child begotten hath of and with its proper father, doth evidence the same truth.
(1.) The new creature is in the same third of John, ver. 6, styled spirit (as elsewhere it is called a spiritual man, 1 Cor. ii.), That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. It is therefore professedly baptized into the same name, because the father of this new birth and baptism is the Spirit. With men the begotten bears the name of the most immediate parent ; and so in this case, though this work of the Spirit be in common termed the Divine nature (2 Peter i. 4) because it is the image of the Godhead, of which all three persons are partakers, yet to shew that in a more peculiar manner it is the child of the Spirit, it is called spirit.
(2.) For the very same reason this Spirit of God, the author, relatively bears the name of Holy in the New Testament, where it is (though not first) yet more frequently used as his special title, to be called The Holy Ghost, as our old English hath rendered it to us. Is not the Father holy, and the Son holy, and both equally holy with this Holy Spirit ? Yes, essentially and personally also in themselves ; Holy, holy, holy, they are all pro claimed, Isa. vi. How came these other two to bear it, that he, the third person, should have the peculiar style of Holy? It is not neither in a peculiar, neither in a personal or essential respect, but relatively unto that
48 THE WOBK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I. which is his proper and peculiar work, because he sanctifies and makes us holy, and so merits that name ; as Christ doth of our Saviour, and the Father of God the Father and Maker. And here let me return to the necessity of this person s making us holy. As it is necessary for Christ to redeem us, there is an absolute necessity that we all be a sanctified holy sacrifice offered up to God, if we look to be saved, or otherwise we must be made a sacrifice of his wrath, as Christ hath told us, Mark ix. 49. Where he having threatened, if lust be not killed, men shall be cast into the fire that is unquenchable (ver. 47, 48), he adds this as a reason, that every man is to be a sacrifice to God one way or other. According to the old law some sacrifices were consumed with fire, as the burnt-offerings ; some seasoned with salt, to sink up the corrupt moisture in them, Lev. ii. 13. One sort of these sacrifices all men must become ; if not sanctified by the Spirit, so as to have salt in them, then with hell-fire, which also is a sacri fice to God. Now Christ for our redemption offered up himself a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savour, Eph. v. 2 ; and it was necessary he should be so. And to that end he sacrificed himself, as in his sacrificial prayer he speaks, John xvii. 19. And it is as necessary, if we be saved, that our persons be offered up unto God as a sacrifice also, Eom. xii. 1, even a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. It was necessary, therefore, we should have a sanctifier of us to be an offering unto God, as well as a redeemer, that offered up himself for us. And who is that ? You are directed to him in Rom. xv., This is the issue of my ministry, (says Paul, speaking of his converting the nations, ver. 18, 19) that the * might be an offering acceptable, being sancti
Gentiles (being converted) fied by the Holy Ghost. Else never to be acceptable to God. Christ was sanctified immediately by himself, by the personal union with the Son of God
I sanctify myself even as he also offered up himself by the eternal
Spirit, or Godhead dwelling in him, Heb. ix. ; but we by the Holy Ghost. And as in that other speech, That which is born of the Spirit is spirit, the new creature bears his name ; so here, he is called the Holy Spirit, or bears the name of holy, because the sanctifier of us : Being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
3. The work of conversion, not only in the whole, but in every part thereof, is attributed to him, John xvi. 8, 9, 10. It is (as I hinted afore, and shall shew hereafter) divided into three parts. 1. Conviction of sin.
2. Of righteousness for justification. 3. Of judgment, holiness, and refor mation ; and the Spirit is there made the author of these three. And according to this division of the parts thereof, he hath titles also given him, as in relation to his immediate working of these three.
the Spirit of bondage ; I say, he con descends but to the work and name ; for otherwise, and in himself, he is (1.) He condescends to be termed the free Spirit, (Ps. li. 11, 12), and delights in comforting us, not in grieving us. And he is therefore also called the Comforter ; but yet to affect our salvation, and the effectual application of it to us, he (contrary to his nature) becomes our jailor, takes the keys of death and damnation into his custody, and shuts up our spirits under the law, as it is a school master to Christ, rattles the chains, lets us see the sin and punishment we deserve. He convinceth of sin, John xvi., and becomes a Spirit of bond age, Rom. viii. 15.
(2.) But then, secondly, in regard of the revealing God s love to us, and Christ and his righteousness, by whom we are adopted, and by which justi
the Spirit of fied, he is called in the same place the Spirit of adoption,
CHAP. VII. J IN OUR SALVATION. 49 faith, as some interpret, 2 Cor. iv. 13. Barnabas was full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, Acts xi. 24.
(3.) In regard of sanctifying us, and convincing of judgment, he is in the Old Testament enstyled the Spirit of judgment, Isa. iv. 4, in respect of washing away the filth of sin : When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of Zion, by the Spirit of judgment, &c. And in the New he is : Heb. x. 29 Have done despite to the Spirit of grace, that is, to him as going about to work grace and holiness in the entitled the Spirit of grace heart. The sin against the Holy Ghost, which is there described, not being against the person of the Spirit, so much as against him in his workings ; and that in his working grace and sanctifying, as in the words afore you have it. And as to grace in the general, as he is the author of every parti cular grace, so in the head himself, therefore much more in the members. The prophet, speaking of the Messiah in Isa. xi. 1, * The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and shall be in him, in respect of his effects upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord. There is the like reason he should be denomi nated from every other grace. He is in one chapter, John xiv., termed The Spirit of truth, ver. 17, who reveals all truth to the understanding ; The Holy Spirit, who sanctifies the will, the chief subject of holiness ; The Comforter, who fills the heart with joy and peace in believing; which is therefore usually styled joy in the Holy Ghost, in multitudes of places; that phrase speaking him not so much the object of it (which is rather
Christ, 1 Peter i. 8, In whom believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious; and God, Rom. v. 11) as the author of it: Bom. xv. 13, 4 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.
II. I shall now, secondly, give the reasons why this work is committed to him, and is his lot. These reasons are not of logical demonstration, but harmonious, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and by the suiting of one thing with another, in which the strength of divine reason lies ; for divinity is a wisdom, not an art.
1. This operation of the Spirit is in a correspondency to the creation of the first man, who was a type of what was to come : Job xxxiii. 4, The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. It is evident he speaks of the new creation, in allusion to the old: ver. 1-3, My word shall be of the uprightness of my heart, and my lips shall utter knowledge thereby ; and then adds, The Spirit of God hath made me, that is, hath given me a sincere heart, an illuminated mind, put the words of life into me. To have spoken of his first creation only, he being a man fallen from it, had been a poor argument to persuade Job of the truth of his heart, and the truths he went about to utter. And yet, too, he as evidently alludes to the first creation : Gen. ii. 7, The Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Now, in this new creation, we being dead in sins and trespasses, it is the Spirit of God that giveth life, 2 Cor. iii. 6 ; who, as in respect of giving us this new life, is called the Spirit of the living God, ver. 3 ; and in the Old Testament, Ezek.
xxxvii. 13, 14, I will bring you out of your graves, I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, which you find in the 36th chapter, ver. 27. And it is observable that the first visible giving the Holy Ghost, which was after Christ s resurrection, to enable them to be ministers, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, which should give life to them, and to others by
VOL. VI. D
50 THE WOKE OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I. them, was the ceremony of breathing on them : And he said, Receive the Holy Ghost, John xx. 22. We had his blood that ran in his veins first, and it is efficacious to wash away the guilt of sin. We have his breath next, which comes out of the inwards of him, which conveys his Spirit, which conveys himself into our inwards, as it is in the prophet, and gives us life. And as life comes with the breath of God breathed at first, and goes away with it, so doth spiritual life upon the going or coming of the Holy Ghost upon us.
2. It is the Spirit that converts and regenerates us, and forms the new creature in us, in a conformity to our head Christ. The Holy Ghost was, 1. The immediate former of the human nature of Christ in the womb ; 2. The uniter of that nature to the Son of God ; 3. The sanctifier thereof, with all graces dwelling therein above all measure.
(1.) He was the former of the human nature of Christ in the womb : Mat. i. 18, She was found with child of the Holy Ghost ; and ver. 20, that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost ; which was in his forming and fitting that matter into a man, which the prolific virtue useth to do. i (2.) He was the uniter of it to the divine, and sanctifier of it with : Luke i. 35, And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also all graces, both which you have expressed in another place that holy thing that shall be bom of thee shall be called the Son of God. Now, we being to be made as comformable to Christ as is possible, it was correspondent that the same person who was designed to form Christ s body for the Godhead to dwell in all its fulness should form Christ in us, that God and Christ may dwell in us : 1 Cor. iii. 16, * Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? That same person that made that happy match, the personal union be tween Christ s human nature and the divine, the same person makes the union between Christ and our souls ; and so we become one spirit with the Lord, 1 Cor. vi. 17. The same person that made the man Christ partaker of the divine nature maketh us also. There is a higher correspondency yet. The Holy Ghost is vinculum Trinitatis, the union of the Father and the Son, as proceeding from both by way of love ; and who so meet to be the union of God and man in Christ, of Christ and men in us, as he that was the bond of union among themselves ?
(3.) In respect of sanctifying that human nature of Christ, it was the Holy Ghost who made him Christ, that anointed him with himself, and all: Isa. xi. 2, The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the his graces
Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. The graces of Christ, as man, are attributed to this Spirit, as the immediate author of them ; for although the Son of God dwelt personally in the human nature, and so advanced that nature above the ordinary rank of creatures, and raised it up to that dignity and worth, yet all his habitual graces, which even his soul was full of, were from the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit is therefore said to be given him without measure. And this inhabitation of the Holy Ghost did in some sense and degree concur to constitute him Christ, which, as you know, is the anointed one of God : Acts iv. 27, Thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed. Anointed with what ? Acts x.
38, God anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost. Now, then, if the Spirit made him Christ, and concurred in this respect to make him the anointed of God, much more is it he that makes us Christians.
CHAP. VIII.] IN OUR SALVATION. 51
8. Consider what this application of salvation unto us is. It is the reve lation of the mind and love of God and Christ unto us, and the things of both. He that doth this must * take of mine, says Christ ; and in doing so he must take of my Father s also, for all the Father hath or doth is Christ s. You have both in one place: John xvi. 14, 15, He shall glorify me : for he shall receive of mine, and shew it to you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Great persons woo not by themselves, but employ ambassadors and ministers of state ; and so doth Christ. Now, who should do this but the Spirit, who knows the heart and mind of God ? 1 Cor. ii., We have received the Spirit who is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given us of God ; that is, by our having him from God, who knows all that is in God, which is the reason there given ; ver. 10, God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God ; which he confirms and illustrates by a similitude fetched from our own bosoms : ver. 11, for what man, that is, what other man, knows the things of a man (that are in his own breast), save the spirit of a man that is in him ? Even so the things of God knows no man, or angel, but the Spirit of God; who being the Spirit of counsel (Isa. xi. 2) even to Christ himself, helped him to all God s secrets ; and he also being privy and overhearing (as John xvi. 13), all that the Father and Christ have intended to us, and spoken about us, was only fit to reveal them unto us. And thus by him we come to have the very mind of God and Christ. The grace of Christ, and the love of God the Father, are revealed to us by the communion of the Holy
Ghost, 2 Cor. xiii. 14.