the Holy Spirit, ........ 368
III. — Unto whom the Holy Spirit is promised and given as a comforter, or the
object of his acting in this office, ..... 379
IV. — Inhabitation of the Spirit the first thing promised, . . . 383 V. — Particular actings of the Holy Spirit as a comforter — How he is an unc- tion, 389
VI.— The Spirit a seal, and how, ....... 399
VII — The Spirit an earnest, and how, ... ... 407
The application of the foregoing Discourse, - . .413
[BOOK IX.]
A DISCOUBSE OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS.
I. — Spiritual gifts, their names and signification, .... 420
II. — Differences between spiritual gifts and saving grace, . . . 425
III.— Of gilts and offices extraordinary; and first of offices, . . . 438
IV. — Extraordinary spiritual gifts, 1 Cor. xii. 5-11, .... 453
V. — The original, duration, use, and end, of extraordinary spiritual gifts, 474 VI.— Of ordinary gifts of the Spirit —The grant, institution, use, benefit, end,
and continuance of the ministry, ..... 486
VII. — Of spiritual gifts enabling the ministry to the exercise and discharge of
their trust and office, ....... 498
VIII.— Of the gifts of the Spirit with respect unto doctrine, worship, and rule
— How attained and improved, ... ... 508
nNETMATOAOriA"
OK,
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT,
CONTINUED:
EMBRACING THE CONSIDERATION OF
HIS WORK AS THE SPIRIT OF ILLUMINATION, OF SUPPLICATION,
OF CONSOLATION, AND AS THE IMMEDIATE AUTHOR
OF ALL SPIRITUAL OFFICES AND GIFTS.
vol. rv.
THE REASON OF FAITH;
AN AN^ER UNTO THAT INQUIRY, " WHEREFORE WE BELIEVE THE SCRIPTURE TO BE THE WORD OF GOD;"
THE CAUSES AND NATURE OF THAT FAITH WHEREWITH WE DO SO :
THE GROUNDS WHEREON THE HOLT SCRIPTURE IS BELIEVED TO BE THE 'WORD OF GOD WITH FAITH DIVINE AND SUPERNATURAL ARE DECLARED AND VINDICATED.
BY JOHN OWEN, D.D.
If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.— Lcke xvi. 31.
LONDON: 1677.
PREFATORY NOTE.
Thb subject of this treatise belongs to the office of the Holy Spirit in illuminating the minds of believers. It is the first part of what may be regarded as the sixth book in the work of our author on the dispensation and operations of the Spirit, and is occupied with an answer to the question, on what grounds, or for what reason, we believe the Scrip- ture to be the word of God. When it was published, the novel views of the Friends, to whom Owen frequently in his work on the Spirit alludes, had become extensively known. Barclay's famous "Apology for the True Christian Divinity" had just appeared ; in which their views received the advantage of a scientific treatment and formal exhibition. The essential principle of the system is "the inward light" ascribed to every man, conse- quent upon a peculiar tenet, according to which the operation of the Holy Spirit in his office of illumination is universal,— so universal that even where the facts of the gospel are utterly unknown, as in heathen countries, this light exists in every man, and by due submission to its guidance he would be saved. How far this notion was simply a mistaken recoil to an opposite extreme from the high views of ecclesiastical prero- gative which certain divines of the Church of England were fond of urging, is an in- quiry scarcely within our province. It is an instructive fact, however, that mysticism, in claiming a special inspiration for every man, manifests no very remote affinity with the modern scepticism that admits the inspiration of Scripture, but only in such a sense as makes inspiration common to all authorship. However wide and vital may be the discrepancy in other respects between the mystic and the sceptic, in this principle they seem at one ; and they are at one also to some extent in the practical tendencies it en- genders, such as the disparagement of the Scriptures as an objective rule of faith and life. The Scriptures, according to the Friends, are only " a secondary rule, ^lbordinate to the Spirit," or, in other words, to the inward light.
In opposition to such principles, the authority, sufficiency, and infallibility, of the Scriptures, were ably proved by many writers of the Church of England ; whose services in this department are freely acknowledged in this treatise. Somewhat rationalistic in their spirit, however, and driven perhaps to a greater rationalism of tone by the fanatical excesses which they sought to rebuke, they stated the question in such terms as super- seded the necessity of supernatural influence in order to the production of saving faith in the divine word ; and even such a writer as Tillotson speaks vaguely about " the prin- ciples of natural religion" governing all our reasonings about the evidence and interpre- tation of revealed truth. If Owen, therefore, affirmed the necessity of the Spirit for the due credence of revelation, he might be confounded with " the professors of the inward light ;" and he actually was charged by divines of the class to which we have alluded with this and kindred errors. If, on the other hand, he affirmed the competency of the external evidences of revelation to produce a conviction of its divine authority, it might be insinuated or fancied that he was overlooking the work of the Spirit as the source of faith. It is his object to show that, in truth, he was committed to neither extreme; that while external arguments deserve and must be allowed their proper weight, the faith by which we receive Scripture must be the same in origin and essence with the faith by which we receive the truths contained in it ; that faith of this description implies the effectual illumination of the Holy Spirit ; and that in this illumination there is no par- ticular and internal testimony, equivalent to inspiration or to an immediate revelation from God, to each believer personally. The Spirit is the efficient came by which faith is implanted ; but not the objective ground on which our faith rests. The objective ground or reason of faith, according to our author, is " the authority and veracity of God reveal- ing themselves in the Scripture and by it ;" and Scripture must be received for its own sake, as the word of God, apart from external arguments and authoritative testimony. The grounds on which it is thus to be received resolve themselves into what is now known by the designation of the experimental evidence in favour of Christianity, — the renew- ing and sanctifying effect of divine truth on the mind. It might be objected, that if the Spirit be requisite to appreciate the force of the Christian evidence, so as to acquire true and proper faith in Scripture as the word of God, men who do not enjoy spiritual en- lightenment would be free from any obligation to receive it as divine. The treatise is fitly closed by a brief but satisfactory reply to this and similar objections.