Published a little after his Death.
THE reason of my addressing this discourse to the clergy, is not, because it treats of things not of common concern to all Christians, but chiefly to induce them, as far as I can, to the serious perusal of it; and because whatever is essential to Christian salvation, if either neglected, or mistaken by them, is of the saddest consequence both to themselves, and the churches in which they minister. I say essential to salvation, for I would not turn my own thoughts, or call the attention of Christians to any thing, but the one thing needful, the one thing essential, and only available, to our rising out of our fallen state, and becoming, as we were at our creation, an holy offspring of God, and real partakers of ♦of the divine nature.
If it be asked, What this one thing is? It is the SPIRIT OF GOD ♦WORKING SPIRITUAL LIFE IN US. Nothing else is wanted by us, nothing else is intended for us by the law, the prophets, and the gospel. Nothing else is, or can be effectual, to the making sinful man become again a godly creature.
Every thing else, however glorious and divine in outward appearance, every thing that angels, men, churches or reformations, can do for us, is dead and helpless, but so far as it is, the immediate work of the Spirit of God, breathing, and living in it.
All scripture bears full witness to this truth, and the design of all that is written, is only to call us back from the power of Satan, the flesh and the world, to be again under full dependance upon, and obedience to the Spirit of God. When this is done, all is done, that the scripture can do for us. Read what chapter, or doctrine of scripture you will, be ever so delighted with it, it will leave you as poor, as empty, and unreformed, as it found you, unless it be a delight that has turned you to the Spirit of God, and strengthened your union with, and dependance upon him. For if it be an immutable truth, that no man can call Jesus, Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, it must be a truth equally immutable, that no one can have any one Christ-like temper, but so far as he is immediately led, and governed by the Holy Spirit.
The reasons of which are as follow.
All possible goodness was in God from all eternity, and must to all eternity be inseparable from him. As therefore before God created any thing, it was certainly true, that there was but one that was good; so it is just the same truth, after God had created innumerable hosts of blessed, holy, and heavenly beings, that there is but one that is good, and that is God.
All that can be called goodness, or holiness, in the creatures, is no more their own, or the growth of their created powers, than they were their own, before they were created. But all that is called goodness in the creature, is nothing else but the one goodness of God manifesting itself in the creature, according as its created nature is fitted to receive it. This is the unalterable state between God and the creature: goodness, for ever and ever, can only belong to God, as essential to him, and inseparable from him.
God could not make the creature to be great and glorious in itself; this is as impossible, as for God to create beings into a state of independance on himself. The heavens, saith David, declare the glory of God; and no creature, any more than the heavens can declare any other glory, but that of God. And as well might it be said, that the firmament sheweth forth its own handy-work, as that a holy, divine, or heavenly creature, sheweth forth its own natural power.
But if all that is great, glorious, and happy, in the spirits, tempers, and enjoyments of the creature, is only so much of the greatness, glory, majesty, and blessedness of God, dwelling in it, and displaying his own triune light, life, and love, in and through the manifold forms, and capacities of the creature, then we may infallibly see the true ground and nature of all true religion. For the creatures true religion is its rendering to God all that is God’s, it is its continual acknowledging all that which it is, and has, and enjoys, in and from God. This is the one true religion of all intelligent creatures, whether in heaven, or on earth; for as they all have the same relation to God, so though ever so different in their states, or offices, they all have but one and the same true religion, or right behaviour towards God. Now the one religion, between God and all intelligent creatures, is this, a total, unalterable dependance upon God, an immediate, continual receiving of every kind, and degree of goodness, blessing, and happiness, that ever was, or can be found in them, from God alone. The highest angel has nothing of its own, that it can offer to God, no more light, love, purity, perfection, that spring from itself, or its own powers, than the poorest creature upon earth.
Could the angel see a spark of wisdom, goodness, or excellence, as coming from, or belonging to itself, its place in heaven would be lost, as sure as Lucifer lost his. But they are ever abiding flames of pure love, always ascending up to, and uniting with God, for this reason, because the wisdom, the power, the glory, the majesty, the love, and goodness of God alone, is all that they see, and feel, and know, either within, or without themselves.—Songs of praise to their heavenly Father, are their ravishing delight, because they see, and know, and feel, that it is the breath and spirit of their heavenly Father that sings and rejoices in them.—Their adoration in spirit and in truth never ceases, because they never cease to acknowledge the ALL of God;—the ALL of God in themselves, and the ALL of God in the whole creation. This is the one religion of heaven, and nothing else is the truth of religion on earth.
The matter plainly comes to this. Nothing can be religion to the intelligent creature, but the power and presence of God, really and essentially living and working in it. But if this be the unchangeable nature of religion, then of necessity the creature must have all its religious goodness, as wholly and solely from God’s immediate operation, as it had its first goodness at its creation. And it is the same impossibility for the creature to help itself to religion, by any contrivance, reasonings, or workings of its own natural powers, as to create itself. For the creature after its creation, can no more take any thing to itself, that belongs to God, than it could take it before it was created. And as the natural powers of the creature could only come from the one power of God, so that which comforts, which enlightens, which blesses, which gives peace, joy, goodness, and rest to its natural powers, can be had in no other way, nor by any other thing, but from God’s immediate, holy operation in it.
All true religion is, an essential union, and communion of the spirit of the creature, with the Spirit of the Creator: God in it, and it in God, one life, one light, one love. The Spirit of God first sows the seed of divine union in the soul of every man; and religion is, that, by which it is quickened, and brought to a fullness of life in God.—Take a similitude of this.—The beginning of animal breath, springs in the creature from the Spirit of this world, and the respiration, keeps up an essential union of the animal life with the spirit of this world. In like manner, faith, hope, love, and resignation to God, are in the religious life, its acts of respiration, which unite God and the creature, in the same essential manner, as animal respiration, unites the breath of the animal, with the breath of this world.
*Now as no animal could begin to respire, but because it had its beginning to breathe, from the air of this world, so no creature, angel or man, could begin to be religious, or breathe forth faith, love, and desire towards God, but because these divine affections were by the Spirit of God begotten in it.—And as a tree or plant can only grow, and fructify by the same power, that first gave birth to the seed, so faith, and hope, and love towards God, can only grow, and fructify by the same power, that begat the first seed of them in the soul. Therefore divine, immediate inspiration, and religion, are inseparable in the nature of the thing.
Take away inspiration, or suppose it to cease, and no religious acts, or affections can remain. For the creature can return nothing to God, but that, which it has first received from him; therefore, if it is to offer up to God, affections and aspirations, that are divine and godly, it must of necessity have the divine nature living, and breathing in it.—Can any thing reflect light, before it has received it, or any other light, than that which it has received? Can any creature breathe forth earthly or diabolical affections, before it is possessed of an earthly, or diabolical nature? Yet this is as possible, as for any creature to have divine affections dwelling in it, either before, or any farther, than it has, the divine nature, dwelling, and operating in it.
A religious faith, that is uninspired, a hope, or love, that proceeds not from the immediate working of the divine nature within us, can no more unite us with God, than an hunger after earthly food, can feed us with the bread of heaven.—All that the natural, or uninspired man does, or can do in the church has no more of the truth, or power of divine worship in it, than that, which he does in the field, or shop, through a desire of riches.—And the reason is, because all the acts of the natural man, whether relating to matters of religion, or the world, must be equally selfish, and there is no possibility of their being otherwise. For self-love, self-esteem, self-seeking, are as strictly the whole of all that is, or can be, in the natural man, as in the natural beast: the one can no more be better, or act above his nature, than the other. Neither can any creature be in a better, or higher state than this, till something supernatural is found in it: and this supernatural something, called in scripture, the WORD, or SPIRIT, or INSPIRATION of God, is that alone, from which man can have the first good thought about God, or the least heavenly desire.
A religion that is not wholly built upon the supernatural ground, but stands upon the powers, and reasonings of the natural, uninspired man, has not so much as the shadow of true religion in it, but is a mere nothing, in the same sense, as an idol is said to be nothing, because the idol has nothing of that in it, which is pretended by it. For the work of religion has no divine good in it, but as it brings forth, and keeps up essential union of the spirit of man with the Spirit of God; which essential union cannot be made, but through love on both sides, nor by love, but where the love that works on both sides, is of the same nature.
No man therefore can love God, or have unison with him, but he who is inspired with the same spirit of love with which God loved himself from all eternity, and before there was any creature.—Infinite hosts of new created heavenly beings, can begin no new kind of love of God, nor have the least power of beginning to love him at all, but by his own holy Spirit of love. This love that was then in God alone, is the only love that can draw creatures to God; they can have no power of cleaving to him, or adoring the divine nature, but by partaking of that eternal Spirit of love; and therefore the continual, immediate inspiration, or operation of the Holy Spirit, is the only possible ground of our continually loving God.—As to the pride charged upon this enthusiasm, so called; Christ saith, without me ye can do nothing, the same as if he had said, As to yourselves, ye are mere helpless sin and misery, and nothing that is good, can come from you, but by the continual, immediate breathing and inspiration of another spirit, given by God, to overrule your own. Now is there any pride, in fully believing and acting in full conformity to it? If so, then he that confesses, he neither hath, nor can have a single farthing, but as it is freely given him from charity, thereby declares himself to be a purse-proud vain boaster of his own wealth. Such is the spiritual pride of him, who fully acknowledges, that he neither hath, nor can have the least spark of goodness, but what is freely breathed into him by the Spirit of God. Again, if it is spiritual pride, to believe, that nothing we think, or say, or do, can have any goodness in it, but that which is wrought immediately by the Spirit of God, then it must be said, that in order to have humility, we must take some share of our virtues to ourselves, and not allow (as Christ hath said) that without him, we can do nothing that is good.
Behold a pride, and an humility, the one as good as the other, and both logically descended from a wisdom, that confesses it cometh not from above.
It is in vain to think, that there is a middle way, and that rational divines have found it out, as Dr. Warburton has done, who though denying immediate, continual inspiration yet allows, that the Spirit’s “ordinary influence, occasionally assists the faithful.”¹
*Now this middle way, hath neither scripture, nor sense in it: for an occasional influence, or concurrence, is as absurd, as an occasional God. For an occasional influence of the Spirit upon us, supposes an occasional absence of the spirit from us. For there could be no such thing, unless God was sometimes with us, and sometimes not, sometimes doing us good, as the God of our life, and sometimes doing us no good, but leaving us to be good from ourselves.—Occasional influence necessarily implies all this blasphemous absurdity. Again, this middle way of an occasional influence supposes, that there is something of man’s own that is good. But if there was any thing good in man, it could not be true, that there is only one that is good, and that is God. And was there any goodness in creatures, either in heaven, or on earth, but the one goodness of the divine nature, living, working, and manifesting itself in them, as its created instruments, then good creatures, both in heaven and on earth, would have something else to adore, besides, or along with God. For goodness, be it where it will, is adorable for itself; if therefore any degree of it belonged to the creature, it ought to have a share of that same adoration, that is paid to the Creator.
All religion is of divine inspiration, which being interpreted, is Immanuel, or God with us. Every thing short of this, is short of that religion, which worships God in Spirit and in truth. And every religious trust or confidence in any thing else, is but a sort of image-worship, which though it may deny the form, yet retains the power thereof in the heart. And he that places any religious safety, in theological decisions, scholastic points, in particular doctrines and opinions, about faith, justification, sanctification, or election, so far departs from the true worship of the living God, and sets up an idol of notions, to be worshipped, if not instead of, yet along with him. And I believe, it may be taken for a certain truth, that every society of Christians, whose religion stands upon this ground, however ardent and laborious their zeal may be in such matters, yet in spite of all, sooner or later, it will be found that nature is at the bottom, and that a selfish, earthly pride in their own definitions and doctrines, will by degrees creep up to the same height, and do those very same things, which they exclaim against in Popes, Cardinals, and Jesuits. Nor can it be otherwise; for a letter-learned zeal has but one nature, wherever it is; it can only do that for Christians, which it did for Jews; as it antiently brought forth Scribes, Pharisees, Hypocrites, and Crucifiers of Christ, as it afterwards brought forth Popes, Papal decrees, images, anathemas, transubstantiation; so in Protestant countries, it will be doing the same thing, only with other materials; images of wood and clay, will only be given up for images of doctrines; grace and works, imputed sin, and imputed righteousness, election and reprobation, will have their synods of Dort, as truly evangelical, as any council of Trent.
This must be the case of all fallen Christendom, as well Popish as Protestant, till single men, and churches, know, confess, and firmly adhere to this truth, viz. That our salvation is in the life of Jesus Christ in us. Every thing besides this, or that is not leading to it, is but mere Babel in all sects, and divisions of Christians, living to themselves, under a seeming holiness of Christian strife, and contention about scripture words. But this truth of truths, fully possessed, brings God and man together, puts an end to every Lo here, and Lo there, and turns the whole faith of man to a Christ, that can no where be a Saviour to him, but in his inmost soul, nor there, by any other means, but the immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit. To this man, all scripture gives daily edification; the words of Christ and his apostles fall like a fire into him. And what is it, that they kindle there? Not notions, not itching ears, not rambling desires after new and new expounders of them, but a holy flame of love, to be always attending to Christ, and his Holy Spirit within him, who alone can make him to be, and do all that which the words of Christ, and his apostles have taught. For there is no possibility of being like-minded with Christ, but by the nature and Spirit of Christ, living in us. Read all our Saviour’s sermon on the mount, consent to every part of it, yet the time of practising it, will never come, till you have a new nature from Christ, and are as vitally in him, and he in you, as the vine in the branch, and the branch in the vine. For no blessedness can be found either in men or angels, but where the Spirit, and life of God are within them. And all men, all churches, not placing all in the life, light, and guidance of the Holy Spirit, but pretending to act for the glory of God, from opinions which their logic and learning have collected from scripture words, or from what a Calvin, an Arminus, or some smaller name, has told them, are but where the apostles were, when there was a strife amongst them, who should be the greatest. And how much soever they may say of their zeal for truth, and the glory of God, yet their behaviour towards one another, is proof enough, that the great strife among them is, which shall have the greatest number of followers. Whereas not numbers of men, or kingdoms professing Christianity, but numbers, redeemed from the death of Adam, to the life of Christ, are the glory of the Christian church. And in whatever national Christianity, any thing else is sought after, by the profession of the gospel, but a new heavenly life, through the eternal Son of God, wrought in the fallen soul; there, the spirit of satanic and worldly subtlety, will be church, and priest, and supreme power, in all that is called religion.
But to return to the doctrine of continual inspiration. The natural man, educated in Pagan learning, and scholastic theology, seeing the strength of his genius in the search after knowledge, how easy and learnedly he can talk, and write, criticise and determine upon all scripture words and facts, looks at all this, as a full proof of his own religious wisdom, and calls immediate inspiration, enthusiasm; not considering, that all the woes denounced by Christ against Scribes, Pharisees, and Hypocrites, are so many woes, denounced against every appearance and shew of religion, that the natural man can practise.
And what is well to be noted, every one, however high in human literature, is but this very natural man, and can only have the goodness of a carnal religion, till as empty of all, as a new-born child, the Spirit of God becomes the inspirer and doer of all that he wills, does, and aims at, in his whole course of religion.
*But to all this, it must be added, that a religion of worldly glory and prosperity carried on, under the gospel-state, has more of a diabolical nature, than that of the Jewish Pharisees. It is the highest, and last working of the mystery of iniquity, because it lives to Satan and the world, in and by a daily profession of being crucified with Christ, of being led by his Spirit, of being risen from the world, and set with him in heavenly places.
I would ask all writers against continual, immediate divine inspiration, how they could more effectually lead men, into an habitual state of sinning against the Holy Ghost, than by such doctrine? For how can we possibly avoid the sin of grieving, or quenching the Spirit, but by continually reverencing his holy presence in us; by continually waiting for, trusting, and attending to that, which the Spirit of God, wills, works, and manifests within us? To turn men from this continual dependance upon the Holy Spirit, is turning them from all true knowledge of God. For without this, there is no possibility of any edifying, saving knowledge of God. For tho’ we have ever so many mathematical demonstrations of his being, we are without all real knowledge of him, till his own Spirit manifests him, as a power of life, light, and goodness, vitally felt, and adored in our souls. This is the one knowledge of God, which is eternal life; this is that knowledge of which Christ saith, no one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son revealeth him. And if none belong to God, but those who are led by the spirit of God, if we are reprobates unless the Spirit of Christ be living in us, who need be told, that all we have to trust to, as children of God, is the continual, immediate guidance, unction, and teaching of his Holy Spirit? Or how can we more profanely sin against this Spirit, or more expressly call men from the power of God unto Satan, than by ridiculing a faith and hope, that look wholly to his continual, immediate operations, for all that can be holy and good in us?
This is the end of all scripture; for all that is there said, however learnedly read, or studied by Hebrew or Greek skill, fails of its end, till it brings us to feel all that the scriptures speak of God and man, verified in our own souls. For all is within man, that can be either good or evil to him: God within him, is his divine life; Satan within him is his life of earthly wisdom, of diabolical falseness, wrath, pride, and vanity of every kind. There is no middle-way, he that is not under the power of the one, is under the power of the other; so far therefore as man loses this life of God, so far he falls under the power of Satan and worldly wisdom. When St. Peter, full of an human love to Christ, advised him to avoid his sufferings, Christ rejected him with Get thee behind me, Satan; and only gave this reason for it, thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. A plain proof that whatever is not from the Holy Spirit of God, however plausible it may seem to men, is yet in itself, nothing else but the power of Satan in us. *Christians, seeking any thing else, but to be inspired by the Spirit of God, will bring forth a Christendom, that in the sight of God will have no other name, than a spiritual Babylon, a spiritual Egypt, a scarlet whore, a devouring beast, and red dragon. For all these names belong to all men, however learned, and to all churches, whether greater or less, in which the spirit of this world hath any share of power. This was the fall of the whole church, soon after the apostolic ages; and all human reformations, begun by ecclesiastical learning, and supported by civil power, will signify little or nothing, till all churches dying to their own will, wisdom, and own advancement, seek for no reforming power, but from that Spirit of God, which converted Sinners, Publicans, Harlots, Jews and Heathens, into an holy, apostolical church, a church, which knew they were of God, that they belonged to God, by that spirit which he had given them, and which worked in them.
*Time, and the things of time, will soon have an end; and he that trusts to any thing but the Spirit of God working in his heart, will be but ill fitted to enter into eternity; God must be all in all in us here, or we cannot be his hereafter. Time works only for eternity; and poverty eternal must as certainly follow him, who dies only stuffed with human learning, as he who dies only full of worldly riches. The folly of thinking to have any divine learning, but that which the Holy Spirit teaches, or to make ourselves rich in knowledge towards God, by heaps of common place learning, will leave us, as dreadfully cheated, as that rich builder of barns in the gospel, to whom it was said, Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee; and then, whose shall all these things be? Luke 12. So is every man that treasures up a religious learning, that comes not wholly from the Spirit of God.
Farther, what a blindness is it, to charge persons with the enthusiasm of holding the necessity of continual, immediate inspiration, and to attack them as enemies to the established church, when every body’s eyes see, that collect after collect in the established liturgy, teaches, and requires them to believe, and pray for the continual inspiration of the Spirit, as that alone, by which they can have the least good thought or desire? Thus, “O God, forasmuch as without thee, we are not able to please thee; mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts.” Is it possible for words more strongly to express the necessity of a continual, divine inspiration? Or can inspiration be higher, or more immediate in prophets and apostles, than that which directs, that which rules our hearts, not now and then, but in all things? Or can the absolute necessity of this be more fully declared, than by saying, that if it is not in this degree both of height and continuance in our hearts, nothing that is done by us, can be pleasing to God?
Now the matter is not at all about the different effects, proceeding from inspiration, as whether by it, a man be made a saint in himself, or sent by God with a prophetic message to others, this affects not the nature and necessity of inspiration, which is just as necessary to all true goodness, as to all true prophecy. All scripture is of divine inspiration. But why so? Because holy men of old, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now the above collect, as well as Christ and his apostles, oblige us in like manner to hold, that all holiness is by divine inspiration, and that therefore there could have been no holy men of old, or in any latter times, but solely for this reason, because they LIVED, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Again, the liturgy prays thus, “O God, from whom all good things do come, grant that by thy holy inspiration, we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same.” Now, if I have ever said any thing higher of the nature, and necessity of continual, divine inspiration, than this church-prayer does, I refuse no censure. But if I have, from all that we know of God, shewn the utter impossibility of any goodness in us, but from the divine nature in us, if I have shewn, that Christ and his apostles, over and over say the same thing; and that our church liturgy is daily praying according to it; what kinder thing can I say of those churchmen, who accuse me of enthusiasm, than that which Christ said of his blind crucifiers, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!
It is to no purpose to object to all this, that these kingdoms are over-run with enthusiasts who are acting in the wildest manner, under the pretence of being led by the Spirit. Be it so, or not so, the doctrine I am upon is not in the least affected by it. For what an argument would this be; enthusiasts make a bad use of the doctrine of being led by the Spirit of God, ergo, he is enthusiastical who preaches up the doctrine of being led by the Spirit of God. Now as absurd as this is, was any of my accusers, as high in genius, as bulky in learning, as Colossus was in stature, he would be at a loss to bring a stronger argument than this, to prove me an enthusiast, or an abettor of them.
Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Now as sure as this is necessary, so sure is it, that no one can be thus converted, till natural reason, and his own will, are equally denied.
Now whether this reason, broken off from God, contendeth about the difference of scripture words and opinions, or reasoneth against them, the same evil state of fallen nature, the same separation from God, the same evil tempers of flesh and blood, will be equally strengthened by the one, as by the other. Hence it is, that Papists and Protestants are hating, fighting, and killing one another for the sake of their different, excellent opinions, and yet, as to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, they are in the highest union, and communion with one another. For if you expect a zealous Protestant to be therefore alive to God, or a zealous Papist to be therefore dead to all goodness, you may be said, to have lived in the world without either eyes or ears.—And the reason why it must be so, is because bad syllogisms for transubstantiation, and better syllogisms against it, signify no more towards the casting Satan out of our souls, than a bad, or better taste for painting.
Hence also it is, that Christendom, full of the nicest decisions about faith, grace, works, merits, satisfaction, &c. is full of all those evil tempers, which prevailed in the Heathen world, when none of these things were thought of.
A scholar, pitying the blindness and folly of those who live to themselves in the cares and pleasures of this vain life, thinks himself to have escaped the pollutions of the world, because he is day after day, dividing, dissecting, and mending church opinions, fixing heresies here, schisms there; forgetting all the while, that carnal self-will and natural reason have the doing of all that is done by this learned zeal, and are as busy and active in him, as in the reasoning infidel, or projecting worldling. For where this is wholly denied, there nothing can be called heresy, or wickedness, but the want of loving God with our whole heart, and our neighbour as ourselves: nor any thing be called life or salvation, but the Spirit and power of Christ manifesting itself in us. But where the natural man is become great in religious learning, there the greater the scholar, the more firmly will he be fixed in their religion, whose God is their belly.
*Hence may be seen, the great and like blindness both of Infidels and Christians; the one in trusting to their own reason, dwelling in its own logical conclusions; the other in trusting to their own reason, dwelling in learned opinions about scripture words and phrases, and doctrines built upon them. “For as soon as it is known, that God is all in all, that in him we live and move and have our being; that we can have nothing separately, or out of him, but every thing in him; that we have no being, or degree of being but in him; that he can give us nothing as our good, but himself, nor any degree of salvation from our fallen nature, but in such degree, as he again communicates something more of himself to us: as soon as this is known, then it is known with the utmost evidence, that to put a religious trust in our own reason, whether confined to itself, or working in doctrines about scripture words, has the nature of that same idolatry, that puts a religious trust in the sun, a departed saint, or a graven image.” And as image-worship has often boasted of its divine power, because of the wonders of zeal and devotion, that have been raised thereby in thousands, and ten thousands of its followers; so it is no marvel, if opinion-worship should often have, and boast of the same effects.
What poor divinity-knowledge comes from great scholars, and great readers, may be sufficiently seen from the two following quotations in a late dissertation on enthusiasm; the one is taken from Dr. Warburton’s sermons, the other from a pastoral letter of Mr. Stinstra, a preacher amongst the Mennonists of Friesland. That from Dr. Warburton, stands thus: “By them (that is, by the writings of the New Testament) the prophetic promise of our Saviour, that the Comforter should abide for ever; was eminently fulfilled. For tho’ his ordinary influence occasionally assists the faithful, yet his constant abode and supreme illumination is in the sacred scriptures.¹” Dr. Warburton’s doctrine is this, that the inspired books of the New Testament, is that Comforter, or Spirit of truth, which is meant by Christ’s being always with his church.—Let us put the Doctor’s doctrine into the letter of the text, which will best shew how true, or false it is.
*Our Lord saith, it is expedient for you that I go away, or the Comforter will not come: that is, it is expedient for you, that I leave off teaching you in words, that sound only into your outward ears, that you may have the same words in writing, for your outward eyes to look upon; for if I do not depart from this vocal way of teaching you, the Comforter will not come, that is, ye will not have the comfort of my words written on paper. But if I go away, I will send written books, which shall lead you into such a truth of words, as ye could not have, whilst they were only spoken from my mouth; but being written on paper, they will be my spiritual, heavenly, constant abode with you.
Christ saith further; I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now: howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself, for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you: that is, though ye cannot be sufficiently instructed from my words at present, yet when they shall hereafter come to you in written books, they will give you a knowledge of all truth, for they shall not speak of themselves, but shall receive words from me, and shew them unto you.
*Christ also saith, if any man love me, my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him: that is, according to the Doctor’s theology, certain books of scripture will come to him, and make their abode with him; for he expressly confineth the constant abode, and supreme illumination of God, to the holy scriptures. Therefore (horrible to say) God’s inward presence, his operating power of life and light in our souls, his dwelling in us, and we in him, is something of a lower nature, that only may occasionally happen, and has less of God in it, than the dead letter of scripture, which alone is his constant abode and supreme illumination—Miserable fruits of a paradoxical genius!
Rabbi, saith Nicodemus to Christ, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: now this must be said of the scripture likewise; it is a teacher from God, and therefore fully to be believed, highly reverenced, and strictly followed. But as Christ’s teaching in the flesh was only preparatory to his vital teaching by the Spirit; so the teaching of scripture by words written with ink and paper, is only preparatory to the teaching of God, by his Spirit within us. Every other opinion of the holy scripture, but that of an outward teacher and guide to God’s inward teaching, is but making an idol-god of it: I say an idol-god; for to those who rest in it as the constant abode and supreme illumination of God with them, it can be nothing else. For, if nothing of divine faith, love, or goodness, can have place in us, but by divine inspiration, they who think these virtues may be sufficiently raised in us by the letter of scripture, do in truth make the letter of scripture their inspiring God.
The apostles preached, and wrote to the people by divine inspiration. But what do they say of their inspired doctrine, and teachings? What virtue was there in them? Do they say that their words, and teachings, was the very promised Comforter, the Spirit of truth, the true abode, and supreme illumination of God in the souls of men? So far from such a blasphemous thought, that they affirm the direct contrary, and compare all their inspired teachings to the dead works of bare planting and watering, and which must continue dead, till life come into them from much higher power. I have planted, saith St. Paul, Apollos hath watered, but God gave the increase. And then further to shew, that this planting and watering, which was the highest work that an inspired apostle could do, was yet, in itself, to be considered, as a lifeless, powerless thing; he adds, So then, neither is he that planteth any thing; nor he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
But if this must be said of all that, which the inspired apostles taught in outward words, that it was nothing in itself, was without power, without life, and only such a preparation towards life, as is that of planting and watering; must not the same be said of their inspired teachings, when left behind them in writing? For what else are the apostolical scriptures, but those very instructions put into writing, which they affirmed to be bare planting and watering, quite powerless in themselves, till the living Spirit of God worked with them? Or will any one say, that what Paul, Peter, and John, spoke by inspiration from their own mouths, was indeed but bare planting and watering, in order to be capable of receiving life from God: but when these apostolical instructions, were written on paper, they were raised out of their first inability, got the nature of God himself, became spirit and life, and might be called the great quickening power of God, or, as the Doctor says, the constant abode, and supreme illumination of his Spirit with us?
I exceedingly love and highly reverence the sacred writings of the apostles and evangelists, and would gladly persuade every one to pay as profound a regard to them, as they would to an Elijah, a John Baptist, or a Paul, whom they knew to be immediately sent from heaven with God’s message to them.—I reverence them, as fitted to do all that good amongst Christians now, which the apostles did in their day, and as of the same benefit to the church of every age, as their planting and watering was to the first.
But if this is not thought that fullness of regard, that is due to the holy messengers of God; if any one will still be so learnedly wise, as to affirm, that though Paul’s preaching in his epistles, whilst he was alive, was indeed only bare planting and watering, but the same epistles being published after his death, got another nature, became full of divine and living power; such a one hath no right to laugh (as the Doctor doth) at the silly Mahometan, who believes the Alcoran to be uncreated. For wherever there is divine efficacy, there must be an uncreated power. And if, as the Doctor saith, the scriptures of the New Testament are the only constant abode, and supreme illumination of the Spirit of God with us, all that is said of the eternal Spirit of God, of the uncreated light, ought to be said of them; that they are the WORD that was God, was with God, and are our true Immanuel, or God with us.
I shall now only add this friendly hint to the Doctor, that he has a remedy at hand in his own sermon, how he may be delivered from thus grossly mistaking the spirit of the gospel, as well as the law of Moses. “St. Paul (saith the Doctor) had a quick and lively imagination, and an extensive and intimate acquaintance with those masters in moral painting, the classic writers; (N. B.) all which he proudly sacrificed to the glory of the everlasting gospel.”¹
Now if the Doctor did that (though it was only from humility) which he says the apostle did proudly, such humility might be as great a good to him, as that pride was to the apostle. And if the everlasting gospel is now as glorious a thing as it was in St. Paul’s days; if the highest classic knowledge is fit for nothing but to be all sacrificed to the glory of the gospel; how wonderful is it that this should never come into his head, from the beginning to the end of his three long legation-volumes, or that he should come piping hot with fresh and fresh beauties found out by himself in a Shakespeare, a Pope, &c. to preach from the pulpit, the divine wisdom of a Paul, in renouncing all his great classical attainments, as mere loss and dung, that by so doing, he might win Christ, and be found in him!
Let the Doctor figure to himself the gaudy pageantry of a high mass in a Romish cathedral; let him wonder at that flagrant, daring contrariety, that it hath to the first gospel church of Christ. Would he not still be fuller of wonder, if he should hear the pope declaring, that all this Heathenish shew of invented fopperies, was his projected defence of that first church of Christ? But if the Doctor would see a Protestant wonder, full as great, he need only look at his own theatrical parading show of Heathen mysteries, and Heathenish learning, set forth in the highest pomp. To what end? Why to bring forth what he calls, (as the pope above) his projected defence of Christianity.
I come now to the quotation from the pastoral letter of Mr. Stinstra. “A judicious writer, (says the dissertation) observes, that sound understanding, and reason, are that on which, and by which, God principally operates, (N. B.) when he finds it proper to assist (N. B.) our weakness by his Spirit.”¹
I cannot more illustrate the sense, or extol the judgment, both of the author and quoter of this striking passage, than by the following words.
A judicious naturalist observes, that sound and strong lungs, are that, on which, and by which, the air or spirit of this world principally operates, when (N. B.) he finds it proper to assist, (N. B.) the weakness of our lungs, by his breathing into them.” Now if any man should find his heart edified, his understanding enlightened, by the above passage on divine inspiration, he will be pleased at my assuring him, that the pastoral letter of Mr. Stinstra, and the dissertation on enthusiasm, by Dr. Green, are from the beginning to the end, full as good in every respect, as that is.
These two instances are proof enough, that as soon as any man trusts to natural abilities, skill in languages, and common-place learning, as the true means of entering into the kingdom of God, a kingdom of God, which is nothing but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; he gives himself up to certain delusion, and can escape no error that is popular, or that suits his state and situation in the learned, religious world. He has sold his birthright in the gospel-state of divine illumination, to make a figure and noise, with the sounding brass and tinkling cimbals of the natural man.
Thus Doctor Green, wanting to write on divine inspiration, runs from book to book, from country to country, to pick up reports wherever he could find them, concerning divine inspiration, from this and that judicious author, that so he might be sure of compiling a judicious dissertation on the subject. All which he might have known to be mere delusion, had he but remembered, or regarded any one single saying either of Christ or his apostles concerning the Holy Spirit, and his operations. For not a word is said by them, but fully shews that all knowledge of the Spirit, is only that which the Spirit manifests in man.
*But there is a degree of delusion still higher to be noted, in such writers, as Dr. Green; for his collection of ingenious, eminent, rational authors, of whom he asks counsel concerning the necessity, or certainty of the immediate inspiration of the Spirit, are such as deny it, and write against it. Therefore the proceeding is just as wise, as if a man was to consult some ingenious, and eminent Atheists, about the truth and certainty of God’s immediate, continual providence; or ask a few select Deists, how, or what he was to believe of the nature and power of gospel-faith. Now there are the Holy Spirit’s own operations, and there are reports about them. The only true reports are those that are made by inspired persons; and if there were no such persons, there could be no true reports of the matter. And therefore to consult uninspired persons, and such as deny, and reproach the pretence to inspiration, to be rightly instructed about the truth of immediate, continual divine inspiration, is a degree of blindness, greater than can be charged upon the old Jewish Scribes and Pharisees.
The reports, that are to be acknowledged as true, concerning the Holy Spirit, and his operations, are those that are recorded in scripture; that is, the scriptures are an infallible history, or relation of that which the Holy Spirit is, and does, and works in true believers; and also an infallible direction how we are to seek, and wait, and trust in his good power over us. But then the scriptures themselves, though thus true, and infallible in these reports about the Holy Spirit, yet can go no farther, than to be a true history; they cannot give the reader the possession and enjoyment of that which they relate. This is plain, not only from the nature of a written history, but from the express words of our Lord, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Therefore, the new birth, is that alone, which gives true knowledge and perception of that which is the kingdom of God. The history may relate truths about it; but the kingdom of God, being nothing else, but the power and presence of God, dwelling and ruling in our souls, this can only manifest itself in man, by the new birth.
*Poor, miserable man! that strives with all the sophistry of human wit, to be delivered from the immediate, continual operation and government of the Spirit of God, not considering, that where God is not, there is the devil, and where the Spirit rules not, there all is the work of the flesh, tho’ nothing be talked of, but spiritual and Christian matters. I say talked of; for the best ability of the natural man, can go no farther than talk, and notions, and opinions about scripture words and facts; in these, he may be a great critic, an acute logician, a powerful orator, and know every thing of scripture, except the spirit and the truth.
How much then is it to be lamented, that though all scripture assures us, the things of the Spirit of God, must to the end of the world, be foolishness to the natural man; yet from one end of learned Christendom to the other, nothing is thought of, as the proper means of attaining divine knowledge, but that which every natural, proud, envious, false, vain-glorious, worldly man can do. Where is that divinity-student, who thinks, or was ever taught to think, of partaking of the light of the gospel any other way, than by doing with the scriptures, that which he does with Pagan writers, whether poets, orators, or comedians, viz. exercising his logic, rhetoric, and critical skill, in discanting upon them? This done, he is thought by himself, and others, to have a sufficiency of divine, apostolical knowledge. What wonder therefore if it should sometimes happen, that the very same vain, corrupt, puffing literature, that raises one man to be a poet-laureat, should set another in a divinity chair?
How is it, that the logical, critical, learned deist comes by his infidelity? Why by the same help of the same good powers of the natural man, as many a learned Christian comes to know, and contend for the gospel. For, drop divine inspiration, and all is dropt, that can give the believer any godly difference from the infidel. The Christian therefore that rejects and writes against the necessity of immediate divine inspiration, pleads the whole cause of infidelity: he confirms the ground on which it stands; and has nothing to prove the goodness of his own Christianity, but that which equally proves to the deist, the goodness of his infidelity. For without the new birth, or which is the same thing, without immediate, continual divine inspiration, the difference between the Christian, and the Infidel, is lost; and whether the uninspired, unregenerate son of Adam, be in the church, or out of the church, he is still that child of this world, that mere natural man, to whom the things of the Spirit of God, are and must be foolishness.—Nothing but the loss of the light and Spirit of God, turned an order of angels into devils.—Nothing but the loss of that same light and Spirit, took from Adam, his first crown of glory, stript him more naked than the beasts, and left him a prey to devils, and in the jaws of eternal death.—What therefore can have the least power towards man’s redemption, but the light and Spirit of God? Or what can begin, or bring forth the return of his first state, but this eternal light and Spirit.—Hence it is, that the gospel-state is by our Lord, affirmed to be a kingdom of heaven, because it has the nature of no worldly thing, is to serve no worldly ends, can be helped by no worldly power, receives nothing from man, but man’s full denial of himself, stands upon nothing that is finite or transitory, has no existence but in that power of God, that created and upholds heaven and earth; and is a kingdom of God become man, and a kingdom of men united to God, through a continual, immediate divine illumination. What scripture of the New Testament can you read, that does not prove this to be the gospel-state, a kingdom of God, into which none can enter, but by being born of the Spirit, none can continue, but by being led by the Spirit, and in which not a thought, or desire, or action, can be allowed to have any part, but as it is a fruit of the Spirit?
What now have parts, and literature, and the natural abilities of man, that they can do here? Just as much as they can do at the resurrection of the dead; for all that is to be done here, is nothing else, but resurrection and life. Therefore, that which gave eyes to the blind, cleansed the lepers, cast out devils, and raised the dead; that alone can, and must do all that is to be done in this gospel kingdom of God. For the smallest work of grace must be as solely done by God, as the greatest miracle in nature: because every work of grace, is the same overcoming of nature, as when the dead are raised to life. Yet vain man would be thought to have great power in this kingdom of grace, not because he happens to be born of noble parents, but because he has happened to be made a scholar, has run through all languages and histories, has been long exercised in conjectures and criticisms, and has his head as full of all notions, theological, poetical and philosophical, as a dictionary is full of words.
Now let this simple question decide the matter: has this great scholar any more power of saying to this mountain, be thou removed hence, and cast into the sea, than the illiterate Christian? If not, he is just as weak, as powerless, and little in the kingdom of God, as he is. But if the illiterate man’s faith, should happen to be nearer to the bulk of a grain of mustard-seed, than that of the prodigious scholar, the illiterate Christian stands much above him in the kingdom of God.
Look now at the present state of Christendom, glorying in the light of Greek and Roman learning, (lately broke forth) as a light that has helped the gospel to shine with a lustre, that it scarce ever had before. Look at this, and you will see the fall of the present church from its first gospel state, to have much likeness to the fall of the first divine man, from the glory of innocence, and heavenly purity, into an earthly state of worldly craft and serpentine subtilty.
In the first gospel church, Heathen light had no other name, than Heathen darkness; and the wisdom of words was no more sought after, than that friendship of the world, which is enmity with God. In that new-born church, the tree of life, which grew in the midst of paradise, took root and grew up again. In the present church, the tree of life is hissed at, as the visionary food of deluded enthusiasts; and the tree of death, called the tree of knowledge of good and evil, has the eyes and hearts of priest and people, and is thought to do as much good to Christians, as it did evil to the first inhabitants of paradise.——This tree, that brought death and corruption into human nature, is now called a tree of light, and is, day and night, well watered with every corrupt stream, however distant or muddy with earth, that can be drawn to it.
But now, what follows from this new risen light? Why Aristotle’s atheism, Cicero’s height of pride and depth of dissimulation, and every refined or gross species of Greek and Roman vices, are as glaring in this new enlightened Christian church, as ever they were in old pagan Greece, or Rome. Would you find a gospel Christian, in all this mid-day glory of learning, you may light a candle, as the philosopher did in the mid-day sun, to find an honest man.
How poorly was the gospel at first preached, if the wisdom of words, and if wit and imagination had been its genuine helps? But alas they stand in the same contrariety to one another, as self-denial and self-gratification. To know the truth of gospel-salvation, is to know that man’s natural wisdom is to be equally sacrificed with his natural folly: for they are but one and the same thing, only called sometimes by one name, and sometimes by the other.
His intellectual faculties are, by the fall, in a much worse state than his natural animal appetites, and want a much greater self-denial. And when our own will, our own understanding and imagination have their natural strength indulged, and are made rich and honourable with the treasures acquired from a study of the Belles Lettres, they will just as much help poor fallen men to be like-minded with Christ, as the art of cookery, well and daily studied, will help a professor of the gospel, to the spirit and practice of Christian abstinence.
Who then can enough wonder at that bulk of libraries, which has taken place of the short gospel? Or at that number of champion disputants, who from age to age have been all in arms to support a set of opinions and practices, all which may be most cordially embraced without the least degree of self-denial, and most firmly held without the least degree of humility.
What a grossness of ignorance, both of man and his Saviour, to run to Greek and Roman schools, to learn how to put off Adam, and to put on Christ? To drink at the fountains of Pagan poets and orators, in order more divinely to drink of the cup that Christ drank of?——What can come of all this, but that which is already too much come, a Ciceronian gospeller, instead of a gospel penitent?
This will be more or less the case with all the doctrines of Christ, whilst under classical acquisition, and administration. Those divine truths, which are no farther good and redeeming, but as they are spirit and life in us, will serve only to help classic painters (as Dr. W.¹ calls them) to lavish out their colours on their own paper monuments of lifeless virtues.