owe unto God, with our conduct in all the ways thereof, is, in general and parti- cular instances, so appropriated unto him, as that it is withal declared that no- thing of it in any kind can be enjoyed or performed without his especial operation, aid, and assistance ; so careful was God fully to instruct and to secure the faith of the church in this matter, according as he knew its eternal concernments to lie therein. Yet, notwithstanding all the evidence given hereunto, the church of God in most ages hath been exercised with oppositions either to his person, or his work, or the manner of it, contrary unto what is promised and declared conceining them in the word of truth ; nor doth it yet cease so to be. Yea, though the con- tradictions of some in former ages have been fierce and clamorous, yet all that hath fallen out of that kind hath been exceeding short of what is come to pass in the days wherein we live ; for, not to mention the Socinians, who have gathered into one head, or rather ulcerous imposthume, all the virulent oppositions made unto His deity or grace by the Photinians, Macedonians, and Pelagians of old, there are others, who, professing no enmity unto his divine person, yea, admitting and owning the doctrine of the church concerning it, are yet ready on all occa- sions to despise and reproach that whole work for which he was promised under the Old Testament, and which is expressly assigned unto him in the New. Hence is it grown amongst many a matter of reproach and scorn for any one to make mention of his grace, or to profess an interest in that work of his, as his, with- out which no man shall see God, if the Scripture be a faithful testimony ; and some have taken pains to prove that sundry things which are expressly assigned unto him in the gospel as effects of his power and grace are only filthy enthu- siasms, or at least weak imaginations of distempered minds. Neither is there any end of calumnious imputations on them by whom his work is avowed and his grace professed. Yea, the deportment of many herein is such as that, if it were not known how effectual the etTorts of profaneness are upon the corrupted minds of men, it would rather seem ridiculous and [to] be despised than to deserve any serious notice : for let any avow or plead for the known work of the Spirit of God, and it is immediately apprehended a sufficient ground to charge them with leaving the rule of the word to attend unto revelations and inspii-ations, as also to forego all thoughts of the necessity of the duties of obedience ; whereas no other work of his is pleaded for, but that only without which no man can either attend unto the rule of the Scripture as he ought, or perform any one duty of obedience unto God in a due manner. And there are none of this conspiracy so weak or unlearned but are able to scoff at the mention of him, and to cast the very naming of him on others as a reproach. Yea, it is well if some begin not to deal in like manner with the person of Christ himself; for error and profane- ness, if once countenanced, are at all times fruitful and progressive, and will be so whilst, darkness and corruption abiding on the minds of men, the great adversary is able, by his subtle malice, to make impressions on them. But in these things not a few do please themselves, despise others, and would count themselves injured if their Christianity should be called in question. But what value is there in that name or title, where the whole mystery of the gospel is excluded out of our reli- gion? Take away the dispensation of the Spirit, and his effectual operations in all the intercoui'se that is between God and man; be ashamed to avow or profess the work attributed unto him in the gospel,— and Christianity is plucked up by the roots. Yea, this practical contempt of the work of the Holy Spirit being grown the only plausible defiance of religion, is so also to be the most pernicious, beyond all notional mistakes and errors about the same things, being constantly accom- panied with profaneness, and commonly issuing in atheism.
The sense I intend is fully expressed in the ensuing complaint of a learned per- son, published many years ago: " In s'^cnlo hodie tam pcrverso prorsus immersi
TO THE READERS. 9
vivimus miseri, in quo Spiritus Sanctus omnino ferme pro ludibrio habetur : imo in quo etiam sunt qui non tantum corde toto eum repudient ut factis negent, sed quoque adeo blasphemi in eum exsurgant ut penitus eundem ex orbe expulsum aut exulatum cupiant, quum illi nuUam in operationibus suis relinquant efficaciam; ac propriis vanorum habituum suorum viribus, ac rationis profanse libertati car- nalitatique suae omnem ascribant sapientiam, et fortitudinem in i-ebus agendis. Unde tanta malignitas externae protervise apud mortales cernituv. Ideoque per- nicies nostra nos jam ante fores expectat," etc. Herein lies the rise and spring of that stated apostasy from the power of evangelical truth, wherein the world takes its liberty to immerge itself in all licentiousness of life and conversation; the end whereof many cannot but expect with dread and terror.