' Morin. Exercit. de Ilcb. Text. Siiicer., Exercit. i. cap. 1.
TESTIMONY OF THE SPIRIT. 327
Holy Ghost ; which work of his illumination is commonly by others spoken unto, and by me also in another place.^
2. The Holy Ghost, together with and by his work of illumination, takmg off the perverse disposition of mind that is in us by nature, vnth our enmity to and aversation from the thmgs of God, effectually also persuades the mind to a receiving and admitting of the truth, wisdom, and authority of the Word. Now, because this perverse dis- position of mind, possessing the H riye/j^ovixSv of the soul, influences the will also into an aversation and dislike of that goodness which is in the truth proposed to it, it is removed by a double act of the Holy Ghost.
(1.) He gives us wisdom — understanding — a spiritual judgment — whereby we may be able to compare spiritual things with spiritual, in a spiritual manner, and to come thereby to a clear and full light of the heavenly excellency and majesty of the Word ; and so enables us to know of the doctrine whether it be of God. Under the benefit of this assistance all the parts of the Scripture in their harmony and correspondency, all the truths of it in their power and necessity, come in together to give evidence one to another, and all of them to the whole ; I mean as the mind is enabled to make a spiritual judgment of them.
(2.) He gives a'ls&riaiv imMiiartJinv, a spiritual sense, a taste of the things themselves upon the mind, heart, and conscience ; when we have aigdrjryipia, ysyvfivccsfisva, " senses exercised" to discern such things. These things deserve a more full handling, and to be particularly exemplified ft-om Scripture, if the nature of our present design would admit thereof.
As in our natural estate, in respect of these things of God, the mind is full of vanity, darkness, blindness, yea, is darkness itself, so that there is no cori'espond en cy between the faculty and the object — and the will lies in an utter unacquaintedness, yea, impossibility of any acquaintance, with the life, power, savour, sweetness, relish, and goodness, that are in the things proposed to be known and discerned, under the dark shades of a blind mind ; so, for a removal of both these, the Holy Ghost communicates light to the understanding, whence it is able to see and judge of the truth as it is in Jesus — and the will being thereby delivered from the dungeon wherein it was, and quickened anew, performs its office, in embracing what is proper and suited unto it in the object proposed. The Spirit, indeed, discovereth to every one xa6S)g fSovXerai, according to the counsel of his will ; but yet in that way, in the general, whereby the sun gives out his light and heat, the fonner making way for the latter. But these things must not now be insisted on.
1 Dr Owen treats of tliis subject in his Pncumatologia, or Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit. — Ed.
328 THE DIVINE ORIGINAL OF SCRIPTURE.
Now, by these works of the Spirit he doth, I say, persuade the mind concemmg the truth and authority of the Scripture, and therein leave an impression of an effectual testimony within us; and this tes- timony of his, as it is authoritative and infallihle in itself, so [is it] of inconceivably more efficacy, power, and certainty, unto them that do receive it, than any voice or internal word, boasted of by some, can be. But yet this is not the work of the Spirit at present inquired after.
3. There is a testunony of the Spuit that respects the object, or the Word itself; and this is a public testimony, which, as it satisfies our souls in particular, so it is, and may be, pleaded in reference unto the satisfaction of all others to wdiom the Word of God shall come. The Holy Ghost speaking in and by the Word— imparting to it virtue, power, efficacy, majesty, and authority— affords us the witness that our faith is resolved into. And thus, whereas there are but two heads whereunto all grounds of assent do belong — viz., authority of testimony and the self-evidence of truth — they do here both concur in one. In the same Word, we have both the authority of the testimony of the Spirit and the self-evidence of the truth spoken by him ; yea, so that both these are materially one and the same, though distinguished in their formal conceptions. I have been much affected with those verses of Dante, the Italian poet, which somebody hath thus, word for word, turned into Latin: —
" Larga pluvia
Spiritus sancti quae est diflFusa
Super veteres, et super novas membranas.
Est syllogismiis qui earn mihi conclusit
Acute adeo ut prse ilia
Omnis demonstratio mihi videatur obtusa."
The Spirit's communication of his own light and authority to the Scripture, as evidence of its original, is the testimony pleaded for.
When, then, we resolve our faith into the testimony of th§" Holy Ghost, it is not any private whisper, word, or voice, given to indi- vidual persons; it is not the secret and effectual persuasion of the truth of the Scriptures that falls upon the minds of some men, from various involved considerations of education, tradition, and the like, whereof they can give no particular account; it is not the effectual work of the Holy Ghost upon the minds and wills of men, enabling them savingly to believe, that is intended ; (the Papists, for the most part, pleading about these things, do but show their ignorance and malice ;) but it is the public testimony of the Holy Ghost given unto all, of the Word, by and in the Word, and its own divine light, efficacy, and power.