ARTICLE XIII. OF WORKS DONE BEFORE JUSTIFICATION
Query 1. Whether a gradual improvement in grace and goodness is not a good foundation of comfort
4. That I confound the extraordinary with the ordinary operations of the Spirit, and therefore am an enthusiast, is also strongly urged, in a charge
delivered to his Clergy, and lately published, by the Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry.
An extract of the former part of this I subjoin, in his Lordship’s words: —
“I cannot think it improper to obviate the contagion of those enthusiastical pretensions, that have lately betrayed whole multitudes either into presumption or melancholy. Enthusiasm, indeed, when detected, is apt to create infidelity; and infidelity is so shocking a thing, that many rather run into the other extreme, and take refuge in enthusiasm. But infidelity and enthusiasm seem now to act in concert against our established religion. As infidelity has been sufficiently opposed, I shall now lay before you the weakness of those enthusiastical pretensions.” (pp. 1, 2.)
“Now, to confute effectually, and strike at the root of, those enthusiastical pretensions,
“First, I shall show that it is necessary to lay down some method for distinguishing real from pretended inspiration.” (pp. 3, 5.)
“Many expressions occur in the New Testament concerning the operations of the Holy Spirit. But men of an enthusiastical temper have confounded passages of a quite different nature, and have jumbled together those that relate to the extraordinary operations of the Spirit, with those that relate only to his ordinary influences.
It is therefore necessary to use some method for separating those passages relating to the operations of the Spirit, that have been so misapplied to the service of enthusiastical pretenders.” (pp. 5-7.)
“I proceed therefore to show,
“Secondly, that a distinction is to be made between those passages of Scripture about the blessed Spirit that peculiarly belong to the primitive Church, and those that relate to Christians in all ages.”
(p. 7.)
“The exigences of the apostolical age required the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. But these soon ceased. When therefore we meet in the Scripture with an account of those extraordinary gifts, and likewise with an account of his ordinary operations, we must distinguish the one from the other. And that, not only for our own
satisfaction, but as a means to stop the growth of enthusiasm.”
(pp. 8-10.)
“And such a distinction ought to be made by the best methods of interpreting the Scriptures; which most certainly are an attentive consideration of the occasion and scope of those passages, in concurrence with the general sense of the primitive Church.” (p.
11.)
“I propose, Thirdly, to specify some of the chief passages of Scripture that are misapplied by modern enthusiasts, and to show that they are to be interpreted chiefly, if not only, of the
apostolical Church; and that they very little, if at all, relate to the present state of Christians.” (p. 12.)
“I begin,” says your Lordship, “with the original promise of the Spirit, as made by our Lord a little before he left the world.”
I must take the liberty to stop your Lordship on the threshold. I deny that this is the original promise of the Spirit. I expect his assistance, in virtue of many promises some hundred years prior to this.
If you say, “However, this is the original or first promise of the Spirit in the New Testament:” No, my Lord; those words were spoken long before:
“He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.”
Will you reply? — “Well, but this is the original promise made by our Lord.” I answer, Not so, neither; for it was before this Jesus himself stood and cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink: He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And this he spake of the Spirit, which they should receive who believed on him.” (Ou emellon lambanein oi
pisteuontev eiv auton.) If I mistake not, this may more justly be termed, our Lord’s original promise of the Spirit. And who will assert that this is to be “interpreted chiefly, if not only, of the apostolical Church?”
5. Your Lordship proceeds: “It occurs in the fourteenth and sixteenth chapters of St. John’s Gospel; in which he uses these words.” In what verses, my Lord? f10 Why is not this specified? unless to furnish your Lordship with an opportunity of doing the very things where of you before complained, — of “confounding passages of a quite contrary nature, and jumbling together those that relate to the extraordinary
operations of the Spirit, with those that relate to his ordinary influences?”
You cite the words thus: “‘When the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth, and he will show you things to come.’ These are nearly the words that occur. (<431613>
16:13.)
“And again: ‘The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.’ These words occur in the fourteenth chapter, at the twenty-sixth verse.”
But, my Lord, I want the original promise still; the original, I mean, of those made in this very discourse. Indeed your margin tells us where it is, (<431416>
14:16,) but the words appear not. Taken together with the context, they run thus: —
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.
“And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever:
“Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” (<431415>
14:15-17.)
My Lord, suffer me to inquire why you slipped over this text. Was it not (I appeal to the Searcher of your heart!) because you was conscious to yourself that it would necessarily drive you to that unhappy dilemma, either to assert that for ever, eiv ton aiwna, meant only sixty or seventy years; or to allow that the text must be interpreted of the ordinary
operations of the Spirit, in all future ages of the Church?
And indeed that the promise in this text belongs to all Christians, evidently appears, not only from your Lordship’s own concession, and from the text itself, (for who can deny that this Comforter, or Paraclete, is now given to all them that believe?) but also from the preceding, as well as following, words. The preceding are, “If ye love me, keep my
commandments. And I will pray the Father.” None, surely, can doubt but these belong to all Christians in all ages. The following words are, “Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive.” True, the world cannot; but all Christians can and will receive him for ever.
6. The second promise of the Comforter, made in this chapter, together