It may be some will say and plead, that whatever is spoken of the Holy Ghost, his graces, gifts, and operations, did entirely belong unto the first times of the gospel, wherein they were manifested by visible and wonderful effects, — to those times they were confined; and, consequently, that we have no other interest or concern in them but as in a recorded testimony given of old unto the truth of the gospel. This is so, indeed, as unto his extraordinary and miraculous opera- tions, but to confine his whole work thereunto is plainly to deny the truth of the promises of Christ, and to overthrow his church ; for we shall make it undeniably evident that none can believe in Jesus Christ, or yield obedience unto him, or worship God in him, but by the Holy Ghost. And, therefore, if the whole dispensation of him and his communications unto the souls of men do cease, so doth all faith in Christ and Christianity also.
On these and the like considerations it is that I have thought it necessary for myself, and unto the church of God, that the Scripture should be diligently searched in and concerning this great matter; for none can deny but that the glory of God, the honour of the gos- pel, the faith and obedience of the church, with the everlasting wel- fare of our own souls, are deeply concerned herein.
CHAP. I.] THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS WORK. 45
The apostle Peter, treating about the great things of the gospel, taught by himself and the rest of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, tells those to whom he wrote that in what was so preached unto them they had not " followed cunningty-devised fables," 2 Pet. i, 16; for so were the " power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" then reported to be in the world. What was preached concerning them was looked on as "cunningly-devised" and artificially -framed "fables," to inveigle and allure the people. This the apostle gives his testimony against, and withal appeals unto the divine assurance which they had of the holy truths delivered unto them, verses 1 7-21. In like manner, our Lord Jesus Christ himself having preached the doctrine of regeneration unto Nicodemus, he calls it into question, as a thing incredible or unintelligible, John iii. 4; for whose instruc- tion and the rebuke of his ignorance, he lets him know that he spake nothing but what he brought with him from heaven, — from the eternal Fountain of goodness and truth, verses 11-18. It is fallen out not much otherwise in this matter.
The doctrine concerning the Spirit of God, and his work on the souls of men, hath been preached in the world. What he doth in convincing men of sin ; what in working godly sorrow and humilia- tion in them ; what is the exceeding greatness of his power, which he puts forth in the regeneration and sanctification of the souls of men ; what are the supplies of grace which he bestows on them that do believe; what assistance he gives unto them as the Spirit of grace and supplications, — hath been preached, taught, and pressed on the minds of them that attend unto the dispensation of the word of the gospel. Answerable hereunto, men have been urged to try, search, examine themselves, as to what of this work of the Holy Ghost they have found, observed, or had experience to have been effectually ac- complished in or upon their own souls. And hereon they have been taught that the great concernments of their peace, comfort, and as- surance, of their communion among themselves as the saints of God, with many other ends of their holy conversation, do depend. Nay, it is, and hath been constantly, taught them that if there be not an effectual work of the Holy Ghost upon their hearts, they " can- not enter into the kingdom of God." Now, these things, and what- ever is spoken in the explication of them, are by some called in question, if not utterly rejected ; yea, some look on them as " cun- ningly-devised fables," — things that some not long since invented, and others have propagated for their advantage. Others say that what is delivered concerning them is hardly, if at all, to be under- stood by rational men, being only empty speculations about things wherein Christian religion is little or not at all concerned. Whereas, therefore, many, veiy many, have received these things as sacred
46 GENERAL PRINCIPLES, ETC. [bOOK L
truths, and are persuaded that they have found them reahzed in their own souls, so that into their experience of the work of the Holy SiDirit of God in them and upon them, according as it is de- clared in the word, all their consolation and peace with God is for the most part resolved, as that which gives them the best evidence of their interest in him who is their peace ; and whereas, for the present, they do believe that unless these things are so in and with them, they have no foundation to build a hope of eternal life upon, — it can- not but be of indispensable necessity unto them to examine and search the Scripture diligently whether these things be so or no. For if there be no such work of the Spirit of God upon the hearts of men, and that indispensably necessary to their salvation ; if there are no such assistances and supplies of grace needful unto every good duty as wherein they have been instructed, — then in the whole course of their profession they have only been seduced by " cunningly-de- vised fables," then' deceived hearts have fed upon ashes, and they are yet in their sins. It is, then, of no less consideration and im- portance than the eternal welfare of their souls immediately con- cerned therein can render it, that they diligently try, examine, and search into these things, by the safe and infallible touchstone and rule of the word, whereon they may, must, and ought, to venture their eternal condition. I know, indeed, that most believers are so far satisfied in the truth of these things and their own experience of them, that they will not be moved in the least by the oppositions which are made unto them and the scorn that is cast upon them ; for " he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him- self," 1 John V. 10: but yet, as Luke wrote his Gospel to Theophilus " that he might know the certainty of those things Vt^herein he had been instructed," Luke i. 4, — that is, to confirm him in the truth, by an addition of ??ew degrees of assurance unto him, — so it is our duty to be so far excited by the clamorous oppositions that are made unto the truths which we profess, and in whose being such, we are as much concerned as our souls are worth, to compare them diligently with the Scripture, that we may be the more fully confirmed and estab- lished in them. And, uiDon the examination of the whole matter, I shall leave them to their option, as Elijah did of old: " If Jehovah be God, follow him; but if Baal be God, follow him." If the things which the generality of professors do believe and acknow- ledge concerning the Spirit of God and his work on their hearts, his gifts and graces in the church, with the manner of their communica- tion, be for the substance of them (wherein they all generally agree) according to the Scripture, taught and revealed therein, on the same terms as by them received, then may they abide in the holy profes- sion of them, and rejoice in the consolations they have received by