ARTICLE XIII. OF WORKS DONE BEFORE JUSTIFICATION
Query 1. Whether a gradual improvement in grace and goodness is not a good foundation of comfort
21. The sixth scripture which your Lordship has undertaken to show
“relates only to the apostolical times,” is <460204>
1 Corinthians 2:4, 5. And
“this interpretation also,” it is said, “is confirmed by the authority of Chrysostom, Origen, and other ancient writers.” (p. 33.) With those other
“ancient writers.” I have no concern yet. St. Chrysostom so far confirms this interpretation, as to explain that whole phrase “the demonstration of the Spirit and of power,” of “the power of the Spirit shown by miracles.”
But he says not one word of any “proof of the Christian religion arising from the types and prophecies of the Old Testament.”
Origen has these words: —
“Our word has a certain peculiar demonstration, more divine than the Grecian logical demonstration. This the Apostle terms, ‘the demonstration of the Spirit and of power;’ of the Spirit, because of the prophecies, sufficient to convince any one, especially of the things that relate to Christ; of power, because of the miraculous powers, some footsteps of which still remain.” (Vol. 1, p. 321.) Hence we may doubtless infer, that Origen judged this text to relate, in its primary sense, to the Apostles; but can we thence infer, that he did not judge it to belong, in a lower sense, to all true Ministers of Christ?
Let us hear him speaking for himself in the same treatise: —
“‘And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power;
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.’ Those who hear the word preached with power are themselves filled with power,” (N.B. not the power of working miracles,) “which they demonstrate both in their disposition, and in their life, and in their striving for the truth unto death. But some, although they profess to believe, have not this power of God in them, but are empty thereof.” (p. 377.)
(Did Origen, then, believe that the power mentioned in this text belonged only to the apostolical age?)
“See the force of the word, conquering believers by a
persuasiveness attended with the power of God! I speak this to show the meaning of him that said, ‘And my speech and my preaching were not with the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.’ This divine saying means, that what is spoken is not sufficient of itself (although it be true, and most worthy to be believed) to pierce a man’s soul, if there be not also a certain power from God given to
the speaker, and grace bloom upon what is spoken; and this grace cannot be but from God.”
After observing that this is the very passage which your Lordship mentions at the close of the other, but does not cite, I desire every unprejudiced person to judge, whether Origen does not clearly determine that the power spoken of in this text, is in some measure given to all true Ministers in all ages.
22. The last scripture which your Lordship affirms “to be peculiar to the times of the Apostles,” is that in the First Epistle of St. John, concerning the “unction of the Holy One.”
To confirm this interpretation, we are referred to the authority of “Origen and Chrysostom, on the parallel passages in St. John’s Gospel.” (p. 42.) But it has appeared, that both these fathers suppose those passages to belong to all Christians; and, consequently, their authority (if these are parallel passages) stands full against this interpretation.
Your Lordship subjoins, “I shall here only add that of the great
Athanasius, who, in his epistle to Serapion, interprets the ‘unction from the Holy One,’ not merely of divine grace, but of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit.”
Nay, it is enough, if he interprets it at all of ordinary grace, such as is common to all Christians.
And this your Lordship allows he does. But I cannot allow that he interprets it of any thing else. I cannot perceive that he interprets it at all
“of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit.”
His words are, “The Holy Spirit is called, and is, the unction and the seal.
For John writes, ‘The anointing which ye have received of him, abideth in you; and ye need not that any man should teach you, but as his anointing,’
his Spirit, ‘teacheth you of all things.’ Again: It is written in the Prophet Isaiah, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me.’
And Paul writes thus: ‘In whom also ye were sealed.’ And again: ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.’ This anointing is the breath of the Son; so that he who hath the Spirit may say, ‘We are the sweet smelling savor of Christ.’ Because
we are partakers of the Holy Spirit, we have the Son; and having the Son, we have ‘the Spirit crying in our hearts, Abba, Father.’”
And so in his Oration against the Arians: —
“‘He sendeth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.’ His Son in us, invoking the Father, makes him to be called our Father. Certainly God cannot be called their Father, who have not the Son in their hearts.”
Is it not easy to be observed here,
(1.) That Athanasius makes “that testimony of the Spirit” common to all the children of God:
(2.) That he joins “the anointing of the Holy One,” with that seal of the Spirit wherewith all that persevere are “sealed to the day of redemption:” And,
(3.) That he does not, throughout this passage, speak of the extraordinary gifts at all?
Therefore, upon the whole, the sense of the primitive Church, so far as it can be gathered from the authors above cited, is, that “although some of the scriptures primarily refer to those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit which were given to the Apostles, and a few other persons in the
apostolical age; yet they refer also, in a secondary sense, to those ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit which all the children of God do and will experience, even to the end of the world.”
23. What I mean by the ordinary operations of the Holy Ghost, I sum up