Fifthly, The principal cause and occasion of our present under- taking is, the open and horrible opposition that is made unto the Spirit of God and his work in the world. There is no concernment
asticorum vetcrum usurpata sunt, compulsi sumus creberrimEe exhortationi fratrum ccdcre, quocqxie sit nostra de eo opinio etiara Scripturarum testimoniis compi-obare ; no imperitia tanti dogmatis, lii qui contraria opponunt decipiant eos qui sine discussionc sollicita in adversariorxun sententiam statim pertraliuntur." — ^Didym. de Spir. Sane, lib. i:
1 " Appellatio Spiritus Sancti, et ea qute monstratur ex ipsa appellatione substantia, penitus ab his ignoratur, qui extra sacram Scripturam philosopbantur : solummodo cnim in nostratibus Uteris et notio ejus ct vocabulum refertur tam in nobis quam in veteribus." — Didym. de Spir. Sane. lib. i.
CHAP. I.J THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS WORK. 39
of his that is not by many derided, exploded, and blasphemed. The very name of the Spirit is grown to be a reproach ; nor do some think they can more despitefully expose any to scorn than by ascrib- ing to them a " concern in the Spirit of God." This, indeed, is a thing which I have often wondered at, and do continue still so to do : for whereas in the gospel every thing that is good, holy, praise- worthy in any man, is expressly assigned to the Spirit, as the immediate efficient cause and operator of it ; and whereas the condition of men without him, not made partakers of him, is described to be reprobate or rejected of God, and foreign unto any interest in Christ; yet many pretending unto the belief and profession of the gospel are so far from owning or desiring a participation of this Spirit in their own persons, as that they deride and contemn them who dare plead or avow any concern in him or his works. Only, I must grant that herein they have had some that have gone before them, — namely, the old scoffing heathens; for so doth Lucian, in his Philopatris [18], speak in imitation of a Christian by way of scorn, Asyi, i:afa rou Uviv/MUTog dum/j.iv rov Xoyou XaZuv — " Speak out now, receiving power or ability of speaking from the Spirit," or " by the Spirit." Certainly an attendance to the old caution. Si non cast^, tanien cauU, had been needful for some in this matter. Could they not bring their own hearts unto a due reverence of the Spirit of God, and an endea- vour after the participation of his fruits and effects, yet the things that are spoken concerning him and his work in the whole New Testameiit, and also in places almost innumerable in the Old, might have put a check to their public contemptuous reproaches and scornful mockings, whilst they owned those writings to be of God ; — but such was his entertainment in the world upon his first effusion. Acts ii. 13. Many pretences, I know, will be pleaded to give countenance unto this abomination; for, first, they will say, "It is not the Spirit of God himself mid his works, hut the pretence of others unto him and them, which they so reproach and scorn." I fear this plea or excuse will prove too short and narrow to make a covering unto their pro- faneness. It is dangerous venturing with rudeness and petulancy upon holy things, and then framing of excuses. But in reproaches of the Lord Christ and his Spirit men will not want their pretences, John X. 32, 33. And the things of the Spirit of God, which they thus reproach and scorn in any, are either such as are truly and really ascribed unto him and ^vrought by him in the disciples of Jesus Christ, or they are not. If they are such as indeed are no effects of the Spirit of grace, such as he is not promised for, nor attested to work in them that do believe, as vain enthusiasms, ecstatical raptures and revelations, certainly it more became Christians, men professing, or at least pretending, a reverence unto God, his Spirit, and his word,
40 GENERAL PRINCIPLES CONCERNING [BOOK L
to inauifest to and convince those of whom they treat that such things are not " fruits of the Spirit/' but imaginations of their own, than to deride them under the name of the Spirit, or his gifts and operations. Do men consider with whom and what they make bold in these things? But if they be things that are real effects of the Spirit of Christ in them tliat believe, or such as are undeniably assigned unto him in tlie Scripture, which they despise, what remains to give coun- tenance unto this daring profaneness? Yea, but they say, secondly, " It is not the real true operations of the Spirit themselves, but the false pretensions of others unto them, which they traduce and ex- pose." But will this warrant the course which it is manifest they steer in matter and manner ? The same persons pretend to believe in Christ and the gospel, and to be made partakers of the benefits of his mediation ; and yet, if they have not the Spirit of Christ, they have no saving interest in these things ; for " if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." If it be, then, only their false pretending unto the Spirit of God and his works which these persons so revile and scorn, why do they not deal with them in like manner with respect unto Christ and the profession of the gospel? why do they not say unto them, " You believe in Christ, you be- lieve in the gospel," and thereon expose them to derision? So plainly dealt the Jews with our Lord Jesus Christ, Ps. xxii. 7, 8; Matt. xxi. 38, 39. It is, therefore, the things themselves, and not the pretences pretended, that are the objects of this contempt and reproach. Be- sides, suppose those whom at present on other occasions they hate or despise are not partakers of the Spirit of God, but are really strangers unto the things which hypocritically they profess, — will they grant and allow that any other Christians in the world do so really partake of him as to be led, guided, directed by him; to be quickened, sanctified, purified by him; to be enabled unto com- munion with God, and all duties of holy obedience by him, with those other effects and operations for which he is promised by Jesus Christ unto his disciples? If they will grant these things to be really effected and accomplished in any, let them not be offended with them who desire that they should be so in themselves, and declare themselves to that purpose ; and men would have more charity for them under their petulant scoffing than otherwise they are able to exercise. It will, thirdly, yet be pleaded, " That they grant as fully as any the bei7ig of the Holy Ghost, the promise of him and his real ojyei'ations ; only, they differ from others as to the sense and exjjosi- tion of those phrases and expressions that are used concerning these things in the Scripture, which those others abuse in an unintelligible manner, as making them proper which indeed are metaphorical." But is this the way which they like and choose to express their no-