It is sacrilegious presumption to come to holy places, and to set upon holy duties, to hear or read the word of God, without lifting up our hearts to God for his Holy Spirit. We cannot plough without his heifer. Can we know the mind of God without the Spirit of God ? What arrogancy is this to think I shall be saved ; and the Spirit never tells us with the word bo: but it is only a presumptuous conceit. This is a sacrilegious usurpation upon God's glory. The Spirit of God knows what things are in God towards us, and reveals to our spirits God's inward love to us. ' The Spirit teacheth us to know the things that are given us of God.' Wo only know the good that God means us by his own Spirit ; and therefore let us labour every day more and more to be spiritual and heavenly-minded. ^ And, above all things, to make it the pitch of our desires, 'as it is Luke xi. 18, to pray for the Spirit, ' he will give his Holy Spirit to ^hem that ♦ That is, ' intentness.' — Q.
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beg it.' It is the best and the chief gift of all ; for this makes our knowledge heavenly, our persuasion heavenly, and sound and constant in life and death. And this Spirit carries the whole soul with it : this Spirit makes us like the word of God. Because it is spiritual, it makes us so ; and we love it in our inward man, and consent to it, and joy in it. Whereas naturally there is inward rebellion in the greatest scholar in the world against the word of God, The heart riseth against divine truths. They are as opposite as fire and water, as heaven and hell. The proud heart of man slights the promises of mercy, as nothing to petty things of the world. It slights the comforts of the word to carnal comforts, and the commandments of God in respect of the commandments of men. The proud man looks scornfully upon the things of conscience and of the Spirit ; only the Spirit of God brings the proud heart of man to be sub- ject to the word of God. Nothing that is not spiritual will hold out. What- soever is not spiritual, Christ will not own at the day of judgment. If the Spirit seal us and set a stamp upon us, Christ will look on his own stamp of the Spirit ; where the first fruits are not, the harvest will not follow. The Spirit is an ' earnest.' Where the ' earnest' is not, the bargain will not follow. I beseech you, let us labour for the Spirit in the use of all means : let us attend upon the word, * which is the ministry of the Spirit,' and we shall find that the Spirit will alter and change us, and shew us our interest in the promises, and the goodness of them. The more we attend upon the means, the more we shall see it ; and the more we pray, the more we shall have the Spirit ; and the more we obey God, the more we shall have the Spirit of God. God gives his Spirit to ' them that obey him.'
Use. And this should teach us ivhen we come to hear or to read the word of God, Lord, open mine eyes ! ; Lord, persuade my soul ! Lord, bow the neck of my soul ! of my inward man, that iron sinew. Lord, take away my hard heart, and give me a heart of flesh, teach my heart. Thou must persuade and incline me ; incline my heart. Lord !
We want religious carriage in this. We come presumptuously upon confidence of our wit, to hear sermons, and to read the word ; and so we come away worse than we went. Why ? We do not pray to God to per- suade us.
' They were persuaded of them.'
Mark here, first, he opens the eyes, and so he persuades. God persuades the inward man with enlightening. He shews a reason. The devil, and antichrist his vicar, they persuade by darkness, by maintaining a kingdom of darkness. The devil allures : he shews no reason ; he keeps the soul in darkness and blindness. Antichrist persuades men to their religion. How ? By fleshly allurements ; not instructing them and opening their eyes, enlightening their understandings ; but God opens their eyes to see, and then teaches and persuades. The devil's instruments they persuade, and so they teach and draw away. They persuade with carnal objects and the like, to draw and bewitch the affections, and so the judgment is dark still ; but where there is true dealing there is no fear of the light.
Therefore, those that are enemies to the means of salvation, that fear God's people should know too much, they take a course contrary to God. For God enlightens, and then persuades ; and knowledge enlighteneth : so that knowledge is necessary. All divine persuasion of faith hath the name of knowledge. They were persuaded by the Spirit of God of the truth of God, having their eyes opened.
It is an evidence we are not persuaded. We come to church, and attend