342 VINDICI-E EVANGELiaE.
the Son. 2. Our Saviour, Christ, says here, "He shall not speak of himself;" but he nowhere says, " He shall not impart of his own fulness," which is Mr B.'s addition. To " speak of himself" shows the original authority of him that speaks, whereby he speaks to be in himself; which, as to the words and works pointed to, is not in the Holy Ghost personally considered, and as in this dispensation. But to impart of his own fulness, is to give out of that which is emi- nently in himself; which the Holy Ghost doth, as hath been shown. 3. Christ, in the words insisted on, comforting his disciples with the promise of the presence of his Spirit when he should be bodily absent from them, acquaints them also with the works that he should do when he came to them and upon them, in that clear, eminent, and abundant manner which he had promised; — which is not any new work, nor any other than what he had already acquainted them with, nor the accomplishment of any thing but what he had laid the foundation of; yea, that all the mercy, grace, light, guidance, direc- tion, consolation, peace, joy, gifts, that he should communicate to them and bless them withal, should be no other but what were pro- cured and purchased for them by himself. These things is the Spirit said to hear and speak, to receive and communicate, as being the proper purchase and inheritance of another ; and in so doing to glorify him whose they are, in that peculiar sense and manner. All that discourse which we have of the mission and sending of the Holy Ghost, and his proceeding or coming forth from the Father and Son for the ends specified, John xiv. 26, xv. 26, xvi. 7, 13, concerns not at all the eternal procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and Son, as to his distinct personality and subsistence, but belongs to that economy, or dispensation, or ministry, that the whole Trinity proceedeth in for the accomplishment of the work of our salvation.
The last query, by the heap of scriptures that is gathered in an- swer to it, seems to have most weight laid upon it; but it is indeed, of all the rest, most weakly sophistical. The words of it are, " Q. Do men receive the Holy Ghost while they are of the world and in their natural condition, to the end that they may become the children of God, may receive the word, may believe, may repent, may obey Christ; or after they are become the children of God, have received the word, do believe, do repent, do obey Christ?" The answer is as above. To the same purpose is that of the Kacovian Catechism : —
Ques. Is there not need of the internal gift of the Spirit, that we may believe the gospel f
Ans. By no means; for we do not read in the Scripture that that gift is conferred on any but him that believes the gospel.*
Remove the ambiguity of that expression, " Believe the gospel/'
' " Nonne ad credendum Evangelic S. S. interiore done opus est ? — NuUo mode ; non enim in Sciipturis legimus, cuiquam id conferri donum, nisi credent: evangelic." — Cap. vi. de premiss. S. 8.
OF THE DEITY OF THE HOLY GHOST, AND HIS WOEK, 343
and these two questions perfectly fall in together. It may, then, be taken either for believing the doctrine of the gospel in opposition to the law, and in this sense it is not here inquired after j or for the power of believing in the subject, and in that sense it is here denied.
1. Now, the design of this question is, to deny the effectual opera- tion of the Holy Ghost for and in the conversion, regeneration, and sanctification of the elect, and to vindicate the whole work of faith, holiness, quickening, etc., to ourselves. Tlie way designed for the proof and establishment of this insinuation consists in producing sundry testimonies wherein it is affirmed that those who do believe and are the children of God do receive the Spirit for other ends and purposes than those here enumerated. The sum of his argument is this : " If they who do believe and are the children of God do receive the Spirit of God for their adoption, and the carrying on of the work of their sanctification, with the supply of new grace, and the confirmation and enlargement of what they have received, with joy, consolation, and peace, with other gifts that are necessary for any work or employment that they are called unto, then the Holy Spirit doth not quicken or regenerate them, nor work faith in them, nor make them the children of God, nor implant them into Christ." Now, when Mr. B. proves this consequence, I will confess him to be master of one art which he never learned at Oxford, unless it were his business to learn what he was taught to avoid.
2. But Mr B. hath one fetch of his skill more in this question. He asks whether men do receive the Holy Ghost when they are of the world ; and for a confutation of any such apprehension produceth testimonies of Scripture that the world cannot receive the Holy Ghost, nor the natural man the things of God. But who told this gentleman that we say men whilst they are in and of the world do receive the Spirit of God, or the things of the Spirit, in the Scripture sense or use of that word " receiving?" The expression is meta- phorical, yet always, in the case of the things of the gospel, denoting the acting of faith in them who are said to " receive" any thing from God. Now, if this gentleman could persuade us that we saj^ that we receive the Spirit by faith, to the end that we may have faith, he might as easily lead us about whither he pleased as the Philistines did Samson when they had put out his eyes. A little, then, to in- struct this catechist : I desire him to take notice, that properly the Spirit is received by faith to the ends and purposes by him men- tioned, Avith many such others as might be added ; but yet, before men's being enabled to receive it, that Spirit, by his power and the efficacy of his grace, quickeneth, regenerateth, and worketh faith in their hearts. In brief, the Spii'it is considered and promised either as a Spirit of regeneration, with all the concomitants and essential consequents thereof, or as a Spirit of adoption, with the consequents