Of the necessity of divine teaching, in order to believing, the apos- tle speaks, in Eph. iv. 20, 21. " But ye have not so learned Christ; " if so be that you have heard him, and been taught by him, as " the truth is in Jesus ;" i. e. Your faith must needs be effectual, both to the reformation of your lives, and your perseverance in the ways of holiness, if it be such a faith as is begotten and intro- duced into your hearts by divine teachings *. Now, in the explica- tion of this point, I shall speak distinctly to the following enqui- ries.
1. Plow doth God teach men, or what is imported in our being taught of God ?
2. What those special lessons are, which all believers do hear, and are taught of God ?
* They who believe, by means of the preacher speaking to them outwardly, hear and learn inwardly of the Father ; they who believe not, hear outwardly, but not inwardly. Aug. on Predest. chap. 8.
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3. In what manner doth God teach these things to men in the day of their conversion to Christ ?
4. What influence God's teaching hath upon our believing ?
5. Why it is impossible for any man to believe, or come to Christ v, ithout the Father's teachings.
First, How doth God teach men, or what is imported in our being taught of God ? To this I will speak both negatively and positively, for your clearer apprehension of the sense and meaning of the Spirit of God in this phrase.
First, The teaching of God, and our hearing and learning of him, is not to be understood of any extraordinary visional appear- ances, or oraculous and immediate voice of God to men : God in- deed hath so appeared unto some, Numb. xii. 8. Such voices have been heard from heaven, but now these extraordinary ways are ceased, Heb. i. 1, 2. and we are no more to expect them ; we may sooner meet with satanical delusions than divine illuminations in this way. I remember, the learned Gerson tells us that the de- vil once appeared to an holy man in prayer, personating Christ, and saying, I am come in person to visit thee, for thou art worthy. But he with both hands shut his eyes, saying, Nolo hie Christum vi- dere, satis est ipsum in gloria videre ; i. e. I will not see Christ here ; it is enough for me to see him in glory. We are now to at- tend only to the voice of the Spirit in the scriptures : this is a more sure word than any voice from heaven, 2 Pet. i. 19.
Secondly, The teachings of God are not to be understood as op- posite unto, or exclusive of the teachings of men. Divine teachings do not render ministerial teachings in vain or useless. Paul was taught of God, Gal. i. 12. and his conversion had something extraordinary in it, yet the ministry of Ananias was used and ho- noured in that work, Acts ix. 4, 17. compared. Divine teachings do indeed excel, but not exclude human teachings. I know that scripture, Jer. xxxi. 24. to which Christ here refers, is objected against the necessity of a standing ministry in the church, " They " shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man " his brother," &c. But if those words should be understood ab- solutely, they would not only overthrow all public ordinances of God's own institution, 1 Cor. xii. 28. and deprive us of a princi- pal fruit of Christ's ascension, Eph. iv. 11. 12. but, for the same reason, would destroy all private instructions and fraternal admoni- tions also. Such a sense would make the prophet to contradict the apostle, and spoil the consent and harmony of the scriptures : the sense thereof cannot be negative, but comparative ; it shews the excellency of divine, but doth not destroy the usefulness of human teachings; Subordinate non pugnant. The teachings of men are
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made effectual by the teachings of the Spirit ; and the Spirit in his teachings Avill use and honour the ministry of man.
Thirdly, But to speak positively, the teachings of God are no- thing else but that spiritual and heavenly light, by which the Spi- rit of God sbineth into the hearts of men, to give them " the light " of the knowledge of the glory of Go.d in the face of Jesus " Christ,-1 as the apostle speaks, 2 Cor. iv. 6. And though this be the proper work of the Spirit, yet it is called the teachings of the Father, because the Spirit who enlightens us is commissioned and sent by the Father so to do, John xiv. 26. Now these teach- ings of the Spirit of God, consist in two things, viz. in his,
1. Sanctifying impressions.
2. Gracious assistances.
First, In his sanctifying impressions or regenerating work upon the soul, by virtue whereof it receives marvellous light and insight into spiritual things ; and that not only as illumination is the first act of the Spirit in our conversion, Col. iii. 10. but as his whole work of sanctification is illuminative and instructive to the convert- ed soul, 1 John ii. 27. " The anointing which you have received " of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach " you, but as the same anointing teacheth you.'" The meaning is that sanctification gives the soul experience of those mysterious things which are contained in the scriptures, and that experience is the most excellent key to unlock and open those deep scripture- mysteries ; no knowledge is so distinct, so clear, so sweet, as that which the heart communicates to the head, John vii. 17. " If any " man do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." A man that never read the nature of love in books of philosophy, nor the transports and extasies thereof in history, may yet truly describe and express it by the sensible motions of that passion in his own soul ; yea, he that hath felt, much better understands, than he that hath only read or heard. O what a light doth spiritual sense and experience cast upon a great part of the scriptures ! for indeed sanctification is the very copy or transcript of the word of God upon the heart of man ; Jer. xxxi. 33. " I will write my law in their u hearts :" so that the scriptures and the experiences of believers, by this means answer to each other, as the lines and letters in the press answer to the impressions made upon the paper ; or the figures in the wax, to the engravings in the seal. When a sanc- tified man reads David's psalms, or Paul's epistles, how is he sur- prized with wonder to find the very workings of his own heart so exactly decyphered and fully expressed there ! O, saith he, this is my very case, these holy men speak what my heart hath felt.
Secondly, The Spirit of God teacheth us, as by his sanctifying impressions, so by his gracious assistances^ which he gives us pro re
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nata, as our need requires, Mat. x. 19. " It shall be given you in " that same hour what ye shall speak, John xiv. 26. " He shall " bring all things to your remembrance : he assisteth both the un- derstanding in due apprehensions of truth, and the heart in the spiritual improvements of truth. And so much briefly of the first particular.