This great work, therefore, neither in part nor whole consists in raptures, ecstasies, visions, enthusiastic inspirations, but in the effect of the power of the Spirit of God on the souls of men, by and according to his word, both of the law and the gospel. And those who charge these things on them who have asserted, declared, and preached it accord- ing to the Scriptures, do it, probably, to countenance themselves in their hatred of them and of the work itself Wherefore, —
2. Where, by reason of distempers of mind, disorder of fancy, or long continuance of distressing fears and sorrows, in and under such preparatory works of the Spirit, which sometimes cut men to their hearts in the sense of their sin, and sinful, lost condition, any do fall into apprehensions or imaginations of any thing extraordinary in the ways before mentioned, if it be not quickly and strictly brought unto the rule, and discarded thereby, it may be of great danger unto their
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226 WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE [BOOK III.
souls, and is never of any solid use or advantage. Such apprehen- sions, for the most part, are either conceptions of distempered minds and discomposed fancies, or delusions of Satan transforming himself into an angel of light, which the doctrine of regeneration ought not to be accountable for. Yet I must say, —
3. That so it is come to pass, that many of those who have been, really made partakers of this gracious work of the Holy Spirit have been looked on in the world, which knows them not, as mad, enthu- siastic, and fanatical. So the captains of the host esteemed the pro- phet that came to anoint Jehu, 2 Kings ix. 11. And the kindred of our Saviour, when he began to preach the gospel, said he was "beside himself," or ecstatical, Mark iii. 21, and "they went out to lay hold on liim." So Festus judged of Paul, Acts xxvi. 24, 25. And the author of the Book of Wisdom gives us an account what acknow- ledgments some will make when it shall be too late, as to their own advantage : Chap. v. 3-5, " They shall say, crying out, because of the trouble of their minds. This is he whom we accounted a scorn, and a common reproach. We fools esteemed his life madness, and his latter end to have been shameful, but how is he reckoned among the sons of God, and his lot is among the holy ones!" From what hath been spoken it appears, —
^ Fourthly, That the work of the Spirit of God in regenerating the ouls of men is diligently to be inquired into by the 'preachers of he gospel, and all to whom the word is dispensed. For the former sort, there is a peculiar reason for their attendance unto this duty ; for they are used and employed in the work itself by the Spirit of God, and are by him made instrumental for the effecting of tliis new birth and life. So the apostle Paul styles himself the father of them who were converted to God or regenerated through the word of his ministry : 1 Cor. iv. 1 5, " Though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." He was used in the ministry of the word for their regeneration, and therefore was then- spiritual father, and he only, though the work was afterward carried on by others. And if men are fathers in the gospel to no more than are converted unto God by their personal ministry, it will be no advan- tage unto any one day to have assumed that title, when it hath had no foundation in that work as to its effectual success. So, sj)eaking of Onesimus, who was converted by him in prison, he calls him " his son, whom he had begotten in his bonds," Philem. 10. And this he declared to have been prescribed unto him as the principal end of his ministry, in the commission he had for preaching the gospel, Acts xxvi. 17, 18. Christ said unto him, "I send thee unto the Gentiles, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God;" which is a description of the
CHAP. I,] NEW CREATION BY EEGENERATION. 227
work under consideration. And this is the princijDal end of our ministry also. Now, certainly it is the duty of ministers to under- stand the work about which they are employed, as far as they are able, that they may not work in the dark and fight uncertainly, as men beating the air. What the Scripture hath revealed concerning it, as to its nature and the manner of its operation, as to its causes, effects, fruits, evidences, they ought diligently to inquire into. To be spiritually skilled therein is one of the principal furnishments of any for the work of the ministry, without which they will never be able to divide the word aright, nor show themselves workmen that need not be ashamed. Yet it is scarcely imaginable with what rage and perversity of spirit, with what scornful expressions, this whole work is traduced and exposed to contempt. Those who have laboured herein are said " to prescribe long and tedious trains of conversion, to set down nice and subtile processes of regeneration, to fill people's heads with innumerable swarms of superstitious fears and scruples about the due degrees of godly sorrow, and the certain symptoms of a thorough humiliation,"^ pp. 806, 307. Could any mistake be charged on particular persons in these things, or the prescribing of rules about conversion to God and regeneration that are not war- ranted by the word of truth, it were not amiss to reflect upon them and refute them ; but the intention of these expressions is evident, and the reproach in them is cast upon the work of God itself: and I must profess that I believe the degeneracy from the truth and power of Christian religion, the ignorance of the principal doctrines of the gospel, and that scorn which is cast, in these and the like ex- pressions, on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by such as not only profess themselves to be ministers, but of a higher degree than ordi- nary, will be sadly ominous unto the whole state of the reformed church amongst us, if not timely repressed and corrected. But what at present I affirm in this matter is, — 1. That it is a duty indispen- sably incumbent on all ministers of the gospel to acquaint themselves thoroughly with the nature of this work, that they may be able to comply with the will of God and grace of the Spirit in the effecting and accomplishment of it upon the souls of them unto whom they dispense the word. Neither, without some competent knowledge hereof, can they discharge any one part of their duty and office in a right manner. If all that hear them are born dead in trespasses and sins, if they are appointed of God to be the instruments of their re- generation, it is a madness, which must one day be accounted for, to neglect a sedulous inquiry into the nature of this work, and the means whereby it is wrought. And the ignorance hereof or negligence herein, with the want of an experience of the power of this work in