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, nXoutituz, 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. v. 5, after the enumera
tion 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
* To us a Son is given, or Spiritu*
divines ; whether Filius datus (Isa. ix.),
datus, The Spirit given (Rom. v.), 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. i. 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, Kar l^o^v (as it is called), is
predicated so much, and held at so high a rate, John iv. 10, be Christ, or
* Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of
the Spirit,
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 ques tioned 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 con
text more clearly carries it to the Spirit. For, 1, the gift of God (as there)
68 THE WOBK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I.
seems to be distinguished from, rather than explained by, that which fol
* Who it is that saith to thee, and give me drink, seem as two
lows.
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 vii. 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. ix. 20, 30, it is twice
expressed, as also Isa. Ixiii., 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 remem
bers 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. ii. 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 xix. 1, 2),
* Have ye received the Holy Ghost, yea or no ? So tran scendent 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 ii. 32, The glory of thy people Israel ). But when
they had received the Holy Ghost (Acts ii.) they would have run away with
it alone, as the richest prize, till God confuted them, by pouring forth the eame 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 xi. 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. xxxix. 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 x. 41. And in that hot dispute in Acts xv., 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,
* sealed us, and given us the earnest of
* hath anointed us, and
his Spirit in our hearts, 2 Cor. i. 21, 22. That as the apostle argues,
CHAP. X.] IN OUR SALVATION. 69
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 x. 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
infonte, 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 iii. 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,
* they that are after
* not having the Spirit. And indeed (Bom. viii. 5, 6),
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. xii. 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 dis
covered 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 foun
tain. 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. v. 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 ?
: Rom. xv. 13, Now the God of hope fill you with all
Pray for the Spirit
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
* And
through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh, Rom. viii. 13.
ye through the Spirit have purified your hearts, 1 Peter i. 22. Our Saviour Christ, both in his own practice and direction to us, hath
70 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I-
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 xiv. 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 llth of Luke, Christ himself had been pray
ing, 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
* Ask, and * seek, and knock, all being several degrees of more
bids them
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 par ticulars in the Lord s Prayer, he singleth out this of the Spirit
* If
: ver. 13,
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. vii. 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. v.) 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 vii. 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
CHAP. X.] IN OUR SALVATION. 71
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 him
self, 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. xii. 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
* Know }^e not that ye are the temple of God ; and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
dwells in us, and be holy, as he is holy
: as Cor. iiii. 16, 17,
you ? If any man defileth the temple of God, him shall God destroy ; for
the temple of God is holy ; which temple }^e are. You see what a hei nous 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
* 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,
purport of that Gal. v. 25,
* 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. xxxvii. 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.
72 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I.
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 tantumpro 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. ii. 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.
Ixiv., 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. xxvii. 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, rb ffvev/Aa roD Qzou TO ayiov. 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. xxiii. 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. xiii.), 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 self-love 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.
*.;;,* The chapter ends abruptly, and is probably incomplete. In the folio edition there is at the bottom of the page the catchword And/ and the following page is
left blank in all the copies that we have been able to consult. In other cases we have found pages blank in one copy, but not in another of the same edition, the omission being manifestly caused by the carelessness of the printers. In this case, however, it is probable that the manuscript left by the author was unfinished. ED.
CHAP. L] IN OUR SALVATION, 73
BOOK IT.
That there are two states or conditions through which God carries the elect :
the state of nature, and the state of grace. That the new birth is the pas
sage between them, which evidenceth the necessity of the new birth, or regene
ration. The reasons why God hath so ordered it, that the generality of the
elect, who live in riper years, should for some time remain in the state of nature before he renews them. The uses of the doctrine.
But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man ap
peared, 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 ; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs accord
ing to the hope of eternal life. TIT. III. 4-7.