This will the better appear if we consider the faculties of the soul distinctly, and what is the especial work of the Holy Spirit upon them in our regeneration or conversion to God : —
(1.) The leading, conducting faculty of the soul is the mind or understanding. Now, this is corrupted and vitiated by the fall; and how it continues depraved in the state of nature hath been declared before. The sum is, that it is not able to discern spiritual things in
CHAP, v.] OF EEGENERATION. S31
a spiritual manner; for it is possessed with spiritual blindness or darkness, and is filled with enmity against God and his law, esteem- ing the things of the gospel to he foolishness ; because it is alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in it. We must, therefore, inquire what is the work of the Holy Spirit on our minds in turning of us to God, whereby this depravation is removed and this vicious state cured, whereby we come to see and discern spiri- tual things in a spiritual manner, that we may savingly know God and his mind as revealed in and by Jesus Christ, And this is seve- ral ways declared in the Scripture: —
[1.] He is said to give us an understanding: 1 John v. 20, "The Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true;" which he doth by his Spirit. Man by sin is become like the " beasts that perish, which have no under- standing," Ps. xlix. ] 2, 20. Men have not lost their natural intel- lective faculty or reason absolutely. It is continued unto them, with the free though impaired use of it, in things natural and civil. And it hath an advance in sin; men are "wise to do evil:"^ but it is lost as to the es|)ecial use of it in the saving knowledge of God and his will, "To do good they have no knowledge," Jer. iv. 22; for naturally, "there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God," Rom. iii. 11. It is corrupted not so much in the root and prin- ciple of its actings, as with respect unto their proper object, term, and end. Wherefore, although this giving of an understanding be not the creating in us anew of that natural faculty, yet it is that gracious work in it without which that faculty in us, as depraved, will no more enable us to know God savingly than if we had none at all. The grace, therefore, here asserted in the giving of an understanding is the causing of our natural understandings to understand savingly. This David prays for: Ps. cxix. 3-1, "Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law." The whole work is expressed by the apostle, Eph. i. 17, 18, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him : the eyes of your understanding being opened ; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling," etc. That " the Spirit of wisdom and revelation" is the Sjjirit of God working those effects in us, we have before evinced. And it is plain that the " reve- lation" here intended is suhjective, in enabling us to apprehend what is revealed, and not objective, in new revelations, which the apostle prayed not that they might receive. And this is farther evidenced by the ensuing description of it: "The eyes of your understanding
1 " Prorsus si Dei adjutorium defuerit, nihil boni agcre poteris ; agis quidcm illo non adjuvente libera voluntate, scd male ; ad hoc idonea est voluntas tua qua? vocatiu' li- bera, et male agendo fit daranabilis ancilla." — August. Serm. xiii. do Verb. Apost.
S32 THE NATURE, CAUSES, AND MEANS [BOOK III.
being opened." There is an eye in the understanding of man, — that is, the natural power and abihty that is in it to discern spiritual things. But this eye is sometimes said to be "blind," sometimes to be "darkness," sometimes to be "shut" or closed; and nothing but the impotency of our minds to know God savingly, or discern things spiri- tually when proposed unto us, can be intended thereby. It is the work of the Spirit of grace to open this eye,^ Luke iv. 18; Acts xxvi. 18; and this is by the powerful, effectual removal of that depravation of our minds, with all its effects, which we before described. And how are we made partakers thereof? It is of the gift of God, freely and effectually working it : for, first, he " giveth us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation" to that end; and, secondly, works the thing itself in us. He " giveth us a heart to know him," Jer. xxiv. 7, without which we cannot so do, or he would not himself undertake to w^ork it in us for that end. There is, therefore, an effectual, powerful, creating act of the Holy Spirit put forth in the minds of men in their conversion imto God, enabling them spiritually to discern spiri- tual things; wherein the seed and substance of divine faith is contained- [2.] This is called the renovation of our minds: " Renewed in the spirit of your mind," Eph. iv. 23 ; which is the same with being " re- newed in knowledge," Col. iii. 10. And this renovation of our minds hath in it a transforming power to change the whole soul into an obediential frame towards God, Rom. xii. 2. And the work of renew- ing our minds is peculiarly ascribed unto the Holy Spirit: Tit. iii. 5, " Tlie renewing of the Holy Ghost." Some men seem to fancy, yea, do declare, that there is no such depravation in or of the mind of man, but that he is able, by the use of his reason, to apprehend, re- ceive, and discern those truths of the gospel which are objectively proposed unlo it. But of the use of reason in these matters, and its abihty to discern and judge of the sense of propositions and force of inferences in things of religion, we shall treat afterward. At present, I only inquire whether men unregenerate be of themselves able spi- ritually to discern spiritual things when they are proposed unto them in the dispensation of the gospel, so as their knowledge may be sav- ing in and unto themselves, and acceptable unto God in Christ, and that without any especial, internal, effectual work of the Holy Spirit of grace in them and upon them? If they say they are, as they