Chapter V
That this suitableness of the mind to spiritual tilings, is the great distinguish
ing character of one that is born of the Spirit, John iii. 5, from others who are not so.
* a suitableness
8. 1 shall now give an account why I put in this restriction,
of the heart unto spiritual things, as spiritual. The truth is, herein lies
the spirit, or the formal constitution and difference of that which is here termed spirit. The meaning whereof is, that spiritual things are to be
considered barely and merely as they are in themselves and their own
nature, abstracted from all other considerations and concomitants adherent
to them, and abstracted from such benefits as are accidental, external, and
foreign to them. Spiritual things may indeed be viewed as wrapt up in
worldly conveniences, the avoidance of punishment, or the obtaining some
thing which a man apprehends good to him, which occurs by them or with
them. But spiritual things, as spiritual, are the things themselves, which
are represented in their own real nature, in their native hue and proper colours to a spiritual man.
. (1 .) In other things, the formal reason of any objects is that which puts the
difference between sciences and arts, yea, and the senses. Bodies natural
are the subjects of a multitude of arts and sciences; but take it as a natural
body, and simply so considered, it is the proper subject of philosophy, and makes an essential difference between that and other knowledge. So it is
here ; spiritual things are the proper objects of that true, genuine, heavenborn spirit, begotten by regeneration.
(2.) The apostle is my warrant for putting in this distinction; for he sets
this fatal and eternal difference between a natural man and a spiritual man :
1 Cor. ii. 14, 15, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know
108 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK IV.
them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. To say, because they are spiritually discerned, and to give this as the reason why a natural man cannot therefore receive them, is all one as to say, that if they be rightly discerned, they must be discerned in their spirituality ; that is, as they are in themselves spiritual, as spiritual. Thus the soul, whilst in the body, cannot
see or discern the angels that daily attend us, nor the devils that hourly tempt us. Why ? Because they are spirits, and are spiritually to be dis
cerned, and so can be viewed only by naked spirits like themselves. They may be seen if they will thicken and condensate the air, or take a shape, enclose themselves in a body
: but still as spirits, and in their own sub stance and nature, they are discerned by none but those of their kind. And
(as he here speaks of a spiritual man, ver. 15) they can see all we do, but themselves are not discerned by us ; we see not their motion nor their act
ings. I know this similitude, as none other, will hold in all ; for our soul,
stripped of our flesh, would thus see angels ; but not so an unregenerate man, he would not discern spiritual things though he were stripped of flesh,
if he was not also spiritualised. And by this natural man is not barely understood a sensual man, sensual for lusts and bodily pleasures, but a man endowed with the greatest gifts of knowledge and wisdom, such as were the scribes and pharisees, and the disputers of this world, 1 Cor. i.
7, 8, 20. And for the discerning of these things spiritually, a man must not simply have the Spirit of God to reveal them objectively (vers. 10-12), but he must subjectively be made by that Spirit a spiritual man, and have
spiritual senses given him, else, though the Spirit should reveal them, he could not receive them.
* The natural man receives not the things of the
Spirit of God ; for quicquid recipitur, recipitur ad modum recipientis. As a blind eye receives not the light of the sun, neither can he know them ; which words speak an impotency or an incapacity in the subject ; for there
is a disproportion between the objects, take them in their spiritual nature, and the subject. For, says he, they are spiritually discerned; and
therefore the man must be made spiritual, or he cannot take them in ; as a beast must be made rational, ere he can understand or take in the things of a man. That look, as now this natural body of ours (as, 1 Cor. xv., the
apostle calls it), cannot discern an angel or spirit, as he is a spirit ; but when God shall make his natural body a spiritual body (which how he will do it, we know not), then we shall see angels and spirits, even as we are seen of them ; but a spiritual body it must be made first. So it is, a man must be spiritual before he can see spiritual things.
(3.) A third ground why I say that a spiritual man must discern spiritual things as spiritual, is, because he otherwise receives not the things at all, which the apostle hints. This is a great truth, that if the soul of a man does not arrive at, and close with, and embrace the things themselves, as
they are in themselves and in their own nature, it knows them not, it re
ceives them not at all ; but only ideas and notions, shadows and clouds, instead of them. God will be known as God, and glorified as God (Rom.
i. 21), or he accounts it no knowledge. Then we know and affect things as they are, when our knowledge and affections towards them are such as the nature of the things requires. If the knowledge of Christ in my heart be not answerable, similar to what is in the thing itself, I do not know it ; as I am not said to know a man, if I know him but by hearsay, or have seen but his picture. And therefore the apostle distinguished as I do ; Eph. iv. 21, If you have been taught as the truth is in Jesus ; that is,
CHAP. V.] IN OUE SALVATION. 169
to know Christ in himself, and the truths about him, which are beams of
him, as they are in their true and naked hue. Thus also affections to any thing or person is not true love, or a genuine affection, if it be not suited and carried out to the thing and the person itself; you call it harlotry love
else ; lust, not love. And therefore, of necessity, if our knowledge of
spiritual things be true, and such as it ought to be, if our affections unto them be genuine, our hearts must be suited to the thing as spiritual. Yea, otherwise the things, whatever they are in themselves, do become to us but
things of the flesh, as the law was to the carnal Jew, and ah
1 spiritual
privileges are to an unregenerate professor.
4. This is the great difference or constitutive distinction of men regene rate from the unregenerate, though never so much enlightened, elevated to
the tasting of the powers of the world to come. Those that are truly re newed are made spirit, or spiritual in all things ; so not the other. Al
though raised up and elevated to be exercised about things spiritual, yet not about the spirituality of the things, and to be carried out to them as
such. This will appear in the particulars of the work of grace all along. There is a carnality about spiritual objects, else the apostle would never have termed the Corinthians carnal, in comparison of other Christians, and not spiritual, 1 Cor. iii. 1. Now that which was in a great measure re
maining in them, is predominantly in temporary believers. It is in them
as that which constitutes their estate, without any genuine principle of
spirit at all. It is nowhere said of any temporary believer, or person that
fell away, that he was born again, nor is it anywhere said of any such that
they are spiritual men, or begotten of the Spirit.
The main use I intend is of examination of our estates, whether we are
savingly regenerate or not ? Consider what the frame, the posture, the
vergency, your spirits are of unto things that are spiritual, as spiritual. I
speak now only unto men that are or have been some way or other affected with things spiritual ; for as for such as are not, but live wholly in things
earthly and sensual, such need not a jury to pass upon them to condemn them. Towards our help in this examination, let us take these two things. 1. Take instances of several particulars of spiritual things, and search
ing out wherein the spiritualness of them lies, bring them and your hearts
together, to put you upon considering how your hearts and they agree and
suit each other.
(1.) Learn to understand in your own hearts what these two things mean, and what a vast difference is between them. 1. To have heavenly natural dispositions and inclination suiting the heart to things spiritual, as
spiritual ; and, 2d, To have accidental and forced elevations or stirrings of heart towards things spiritual, and those but upon considerations that are but accidental to the things, or are but appurtenances of them, attendants and hang-byes to them, arid are not of the nature of the things themselves.
You will ask me, What do you account but accidental affections in men s
hearts to things spiritual ; and what is it that is accidental in the things themselves ?
[1.] That is but an accidental affection in the heart itself, which is
forced and strained in respect of what the whole stream of thy heart other wise doth naturally carry thee forth unto ; whereas that which is born of
the flesh doth wholly and naturally mind and savour nothing but what is
earthly, worldly, &c., Rom. viii. 5, and the whole propension and pondus thereof would of itself for ever run that way ; yet so as look, as streams
that naturally run but one way, yet are capable of a turn, and to be diverted
170 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK IV.
a contrary way by winds, or stoppage, or the overflowings of waters, &c., without having a new and natural spring or fountain to feed and carry it on that contrary current : so the natural mind may sometime flow in an other current than that in which its own inclinations carry it. But now the
apostle Peter, speaking of the hearts of men regenerate, expresseth it thus, 1 Pet. v. 2 : that what they did was not out of constraint, but willingly, and out of a ready mind. The great and predominant principle in us is
self-love ; it is the spirit, the quintessence, of original sin. Now this spring or fountain of all lusts in us naturally cuts forth a channel to itself only towards things earthly ; and the poise of it (as it is the predominant prin
ciple in man s nature, as by nature it is) doth lie clean another way than
to fall in at all with any of the things which are spiritual, or to have any thing to do with them ; but it secretly and closely enjoys itself in cleaving and adhering unto things earthly and sinful ; yet so as if it be stormed with the noise and conviction of the things of the other world, as with what
is the dreadful consequent of sin, viz., wrath and destruction, and of what
is the deliverance out of it, even to leave sin, to seek after pardon, &c., the
enlightenings of these things coming powerfully in upon self-love in men, that other natural stream and current to things earthly may be stopped, yea, and (as is said of Jordan) turned backwards, and the affections run that way ; and yet all this be but accidental and violent, in respect unto the natural tendency thereof, which remains still one and the same.
[2.] There are answerably also accidental or consequential respects or considerations that are but appendixes to things which in themselves are the most spiritual, which are foreign and extrinsecal to the things, and yet are revealed in the word together with those things, with the apprehension of which a natural man, that hath nothing in him but only self-love, may be stirred, moved, and affected. As take sin for one instance : there is the evil of sin as sin ; that is, the spiritual evil in it as spiritual, and as it is con
trary to God ; and there is the wrath of God, &c., which is the consequent of sin, that is an accidental evil to it, as it is sin. As there is the charcoal in its foulness, and there is the fire in the coal, likewise there is Christ s
righteousness as it is a satisfaction to God for sin, and the glorious way of
saving sinners by it, above all ways else, this is the spiritualness of it ; and there is the freedom from that wrath thereby ; the one is the thing in itself, the other is the consequent or accidental appendix of it. Now (you know) like will still find out its like, suit and consort with it. Hence my exhor tation is, that you would, in searching yourselves, narrowly observe what your spirit doth match withal ; that is, what it is in spiritual things which your hearts are taken with in them, whether with what is accidental chiefly, or chiefly with what is truly spiritual. The apostle hath an expression, 1 Cor. ii. 13, which may allusively help me to convey my meaning, com
paring (saith he) spiritual things with spiritual. He speaks there indeed of the delivery of spiritual things to be preached of by us ; and it is as if he had said (comparing the words afore and these together), if you be to make orations about things civil, politic, scholastical, then use all your flowers of rhetoric and art to set them out with ; for fleshly worldly matters are best dressed up in clothings and ornaments that are suitable to them ; but if you be to make sermons, take and seek such words and expressions as may be savour}^ and spiritual, and so suited to the matter. In like man ner (say I, in allusion to it as to the point in hand), if you be to examine your hearts, compare spiritual things with spiritual, or else accidental with accidental ; lay things of a sort together ; that is, observe what kind of
CHAP. V.j IN OUR SALVATION. 171
affections in thy heart are stirred, and to what sort or kind of things, and
upon what considerations. If, therefore, thy case be such, that only transient and accidental affections are in thy heart (accidental I say to the
natural whole current of thy heart), finding out and consorting with the
like accidental considerations in things spiritual ; here is no genuine true
spiritual regeneration, here are but plainly two bastards married, two slips of each family, accidental affections, to accidentals in things spiritual ; and
their brood will be answerable, they will not inherit with the sons of the
free woman, that is, spirit here. But, on the contrary, if there be a new
spring and fountain set open in thy heart, that works forth itself a natural
current and channel contrary to that other, whose poise was to each,* which doth withal find out that in spiritual things which are truly spiritual, suits and complies with the things themselves as in themselves, and pours out
its streams upon them and runs into them, here is a noble match between two offsprings of two heaven-born families, which will never be parted, but, as a noble plant, will bring forth fruit unto God, and unto everlasting life.
Another consideration I would premise, as both useful to prevent a mis take in examination of ourselves hereby, and which also ariseth from, and
is the natural corollary of this part of my definition, suiting the heart to
spiritual things. The premise is this, that the spiritualness of our affect
ing of spiritual things lies not in a total opposition or exclusion of what
suiteth self-love in us, or aiming at our own good ; but if it be rightly stated, it takes it in the most naturally that can be. Some good souls, when they hear of such doctrines as these, that spiritual things are to be
affected for themselves, and as spiritual, have presently made this inter
pretation of it, that if the heart be truly spiritual, then it must affect them
in opposition to themselves altogether, and to their own good
: and that,
therefore, they must wholly renounce and cashier all thoughts of a man s
self therein, thinking that if they at all intermix them, they do unspiritualise all the rest.
Or when they hear that there is an accidental goodness in spiritual things, which will take self-love in a carnal heart, they then presently judge that
therefore true spiritualness lies in this, in having no affection of self-love
working or stirring at all to anything in things spiritual. These are both mistakes : and the very terms of this latter part of the definition I have
given, duly understood, clears and states this great case, and is preventive of these mistakes. Mark it : it suiteth the heart unto the things ; now if the heart be made suitable to the very things themselves, it is certain that a man must and doth at once affect both the things for themselves, and for
his own good also. For why ? Let the thing be the most spiritual that ever were revealed, wherein doth a man s own good lie, but in the enjoy ment of what is comfortable to him, and which he most desires ? And what is it that is most comfortable, and yields most content to any man, but the things that are suited to him, and he unto them ? If, therefore, the being and end of grace lie in this, to suit the mind to spiritual things themselves, and for themselves, then it must needs most happily fall out and come to pass, that at once in affecting the things in themselves, the
believer pursues his own good and happiness.
The general truth of this assertion, that men s comforts, and so that which they account their chiefest good, do lie in the suitableness or frame of their minds as it stands unto the things, is so evident in experience, as I need not insist on it. What is the reason that trahit sua quemque voluptas,
* Qu. earth "? ED.
172 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK IV.
one man is pleased with one thing, another with other things ? It lies in the several humours and suitableness of dispositions to such or such things. You use to say, that which is one man s heaven is another man s hell; what otherwise is the reason that carnal men mind the things of the flesh, or
earthly things, naturally, but because they are suited to them? Else they have a light within them which tells them they are not the best things. You see in nature it is not every stone, though good and precious, that will draw iron after it, or unto which iron will greedily run or clasp with, but with the loadstone it will ; and again, no other metal but that will close with a loadstone. What is the reason ? There is a suitableness. Now
then, take a carnal heart, and change the inward radical disposition of it, make and render it suitable to God, and Christ, and all other spiritual things as they are in themselves (and the power and efficacy of saving grace must lie in this, or differs not from flesh), and instantly that soul is
taught, and hath an instinct for its own good, and greedily and naturally
(according to the measure of grace given) runs out unto and after these
spiritual things as spiritual, and placeth its happiness and good in them, as truly as ever it did in the other.
You will say, wherein then is the difference between a carnal man s
affecting these things, and a spiritual man s doing so ? For it is out of
self-love in both.
I answer, out of the principles already delivered.
1. That the fundamental and original difference lies not in this, as if that were a carnal heart, that, with respect to its own good, or with love to itself, did affect spiritual things ; and on the contrary, he only were truly a spiritual man that did not fit all out of self-love affect them. No, God forbid ; but that which puts the difference is, what that goodness is, which in spiritual things the heart of a man doth thus affect, and find his good to lie in. If
it is only that which is the accident of all goodness, and but the consequent of the other, as ease of conscience, freedom from wrath, judgment, &c., and the man not affected with the things as in themselves, there being no
suitableness at all to the things if they could be nakedly represented to him, and in their spiritual hue ; this heart is a carnal heart, and thou that wearest
it art not a spiritual, but a mere outward and accidental Christian ; for, as a man affects, so he is. The usual comparison I give to express the diffe rence between these two is this : take two men, whereof the one is in per fect health and vigour, and as hungry as Esau was when he came out of the field, and take another who is heart-sick; set meat or drink before these two, the one falls to eat it (and that as it is meat) out of appetite and suitableness to the thing in itself; for God hath ordained
* the belly for meats, and meats for the belly. The other s stomach nauseates the
thing simply in itself considered, and the native scent overcomes him. But
yet rather than he will die, he will take down something, and yet by his
good will he takes that only when it is so sauced as the natural scent is not discerned. So it is here. If God, and Christ, and his righteousness, and the graces of his Spirit, could be represented in their native naked hue, a natural man could not receive them, as the apostle speaks ; but take them
as dipped and sauced with ease of conscience, hopes of freedom from wrath,
&c., carnal men take them down. In a word, they make use of them as
physic, not as meat. Here, in this case, a man affects not the thing, hath no mind or suitableness to the thing itself, but to the consequent of it, and a mere accident belonging to it, which is freedom from pains, &c.
2. Another difference is, where only thus the accidental goodness of
CHAP. V.] IN OUR SALVATION. 173
spiritual things affects a man, there is self only, or love to a man s self only, that is the root of such affections ; yea, and such a carnal self as of itself would pour out its affections to other things much rather, to which only it hath an inbred suitableness. The whole heart of itself would run that way, and no other, by its good will. But being overpowered by the power of
the world to come, there is a stop put to such affections, and the current of them turned another way. But, take a spiritual man, who is in his inward man suited to things spiritual, and spiritually naturalized, or naturally
spiritualized to them, and though the accidental considerations might have
first moved him (for, alas, at first a man hath no other principle but self-
love to be wooed and courted), and in their rank lawfully continue still ;
yet he now, being come unto them, and himself spiritualised, he closeth with the things themselves as in themselves, and as best and most excel
lent, Phil. i. 10. He finds so much in the things themselves, that he wisheth no greater good, yea, no other good, than what ariseth from the
things, and from communion with them and enjoyment of them. He finds
his good lies in them, which (as was said) ariseth out of a suitableness. So that now the state of the case is not whether thou affectest them out of selflove or for thine own good, yea or no, but whether the things themselves have been made suitable to that inward man, and so withal unto that self in thee. The root of all that which we call hypocrisy, or counterfeit grace, though* wrought by the Spirit, doth lie in this defect, the man hath not a heart to the things, but chiefly to the appurtenances of them, and so is said
in Scripture to have a heart and a heart, f and to be a double-minded man, because he pursues not the things for themselves, but for what ac
companies them, when all the while, as to the things themselves, he hath a heart against them, if they were represented in their true spiritualness. And this is the true meaning of that phrase ; for otherwise it were far more
proper to say of a regenerate man, that he hath had a heart and a heart in
him, for he hath really two principles, flesh and spirit : two men, two
springs and fountains in him ; of flesh, suited to things fleshly ; of spirit, suited to things spiritual. But yet because his heart is truly suited unto these spirituals, therefore he is said to affect them with his whole heart, and not to have a heart and a heart. But the other in their most over
flowing affections, that seem as a land-flood to carry the whole stream that
way, as in the people s hearts when the law was given, We will (say they) obey the voice of the Lord. Oh (says God), that there were such a heart in them ! As a corollary from what hath been spoken, I shall a little further enlarge on this question, whether a regenerate man, as such, may and doth affect
spiritual things for his own good, and how far ? Briefly, 1. Take self-love, as it is a natural principle, and annexed to being or
entity itself, if grace will have a subject to reside in, it must have this for
part of it, for it is the adjunct of being. If you think to spiritualise your affections so far as nothing of love to yourselves should remain, then you must destroy the subject of those affections. If you cut off this nail en
tirely, you cut off the finger too. Pare it you may, and must, as to the
inordinacy of it ; thus to the captive woman taken to wife was done by the
law, Deut. xxi. 11, 12.
2. If grace sanctifies us throughout, and every faculty and principle in
ns, 1 Thes. v. 23, then it sanctifies self-love in us ; for of all things in us
it is most a part in ourselves. And if there be a sanctified self-love, then * Qu. not ? ED. f 1 Chron. xii. 33. Marginal rendering. ED.
174 THE WORK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK IY.
part even of our holiness must lie in loving ourselves. But then withal
observe, that this sanctification of self-love is eminently seen in this, that
the heart being made spiritual, and suitable to spiritual things, it is enabled and made so truly happy, as to find its own greatest good in those things,
and is carried forth towards them with the greatest contentment to itself. And so it comes to pass that when a man s soul is perfectly sanctified, he
loves these spiritual things with a stronger love to himself, than any carnal man can do, or ever did, carnal things. And hence these two make but
one stream : I at once love myself, and spiritual things themselves, and all comes to be reconciled by this, that the heart is made suitable to them.
Yea, upon this ground I will go yet higher. The more I judge God, Christ, and all other spiritual things, to be the best and chiefest good for my soul
(and this when considered in the highest spiritualness that can be supposed
to be revealed by the Spirit, and discerned and apprehended by me), when
they rise up in the most spiritual spirituality, the Holy Ghost himself can
or doth represent them, then for my soul to be most able to say, These
are the best for me, and to have spiritual affections rise up as these other
apprehensions of the spirituality of the things do rise, this argues still that my heart hath the greater degree of grace. And the reason of it is clear
from this principle, that grace suits the soul to spiritual things ; and there
fore those actings of my heart argue it still to be the more spiritual, as
being so suited that still I find my highest good to lie in the highest and
utmost spiritualness of them ; even as the more a man s stomach affecteth
and relisheth meat, the stronger meats, yea, and the more sweetness it
finds therein, the better stomach it is. David s heart hath in a great de
gree decided this in few words : Ps. Ixxiii. 28, It is good for me to draw
near to God. He found communion with him, out of suitableness, to be
his greatest good.