21. Chapter 5. Observations and inferences concerning the Spirit –

Chapter 5. Observations and inferences concerning the Spirit – This process being done, I would like to have gone on to show how we hold communion with the Holy Spirit, but there are some misrepresentations in the world in reference to this dispensation of the Holy Spirit, and in contempt of his true work. I cannot help but remark on them in this chapter.

Take a view of those who profess to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet condemn and despise the operations, gifts, and graces his Spirit, and his dispensations to his churches and saints. While Christ was in the world with his disciples, he made no greater promise to them than of giving them the Holy Spirit, neither in respect to their own good nor in carrying on the work he committed to them. He instructs them to pray for the Spirit from the Father, being as necessary for them as bread for children, Luke 11:13. He promises them the Spirit as a well of water springing up in them for their refreshment, strengthening, and consolation to everlasting life, John 7:37-39. The Spirit is to carry on and accomplish the whole work of the ministry that Christ has committed to them, John 16:8-11. And upon his ascension, this gift of the Holy Spirit forms the foundation of that glorious and plentiful communication of gifts and graces mentioned in Ephesians 4:8; Ephesians 4:11-12. Christ received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:33, and that made the greatest and most glorious difference between the administration of the new covenant and old. The whole work of the ministry relates specifically to the Holy Spirit; though that is not my present business to prove. The Spirit calls men to that work; they are set apart for him, Acts 13:2. He furnishes them with gifts and abilities for it, 1 Corinthians 12:7-10. So without this administration of the Spirit, the whole religion that we profess is nothing, and there is no fruit of the resurrection of Christ from the dead. This being the state of things, in our worship of and obedience to God, in our own consolation, sanctification, and ministerial employment, the Spirit is the principle, life, and soul of it all. Yet the malice of Satan is so desperate, and the wickedness of men so great, that their endeavor has been to shut the Spirit out of all gospel administrations.

First, his gifts and graces were not only decried, but almost excluded from the public worship of the church in the past. This was done by imposing a laborious form of service, to be read by the minister. This is neither a unique gift of the Holy Spirit to anyone, nor part of the ministry at all. It is marvelous to consider what arguments and pretences were invented and used by learned men, to defend and maintain it. They argued from the antiquity of such a service, its composition and approval by the martyrs, the beauty of its uniformity in the worship of God, etc. But the main argument they insisted on, and used all their eloquence to condemn, was the vain babbling repetitions and folly of men praying by the Spirit. Once this was pounced on, everything else fell before them, and their adversaries were rendered ridiculous. Such is the cunning of Satan, and so unsearchable are the follies of men. The sum of it all might be stated this way: “Though the Lord Jesus Christ has promised that the Holy Spirit will be with his church to the end of the world, to fit and furnish men with gifts and abilities to carry on the worship which he requires and accepts at our hands, yet the work is not to be done for that purpose; the gifts he bestows are not sufficient for that end, either as to invocation or doctrine. And therefore, we will not only help men to avoid it by our human directions, but we will exclude them from exercising those gifts of the Spirit.”

Innumerable evils ensue in formally setting apart men to the ministry who never

“tasted of the powers of the world to come,” or received any gifts from the Holy Spirit for that purpose. If ensues from an external pompous worship, wholly foreign to the power and simplicity of the gospel; from silencing, destroying, and banishing men whose ministry was accompanied with the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit. What I aim to do is point out the public contempt of the Holy Spirit, of his gifts and graces, by such an administration of the church of God, which has been found even where the gospel has been professed.

Again, it is a sad thing to consider, and to recall, the growth of that contempt of the Spirit in private men and their ways. The name of the Spirit had become a term of reproach. To plead for, or pretend to pray by the Spirit, was enough to render a man the object of scorn and reproach from all sorts of men, from the pulpit to the stage. “What! You are full of the Spirit? Then you will pray by the Spirit. If you have the gift, let us hear your nonsense.” Perhaps these detractors would think themselves wronged not to be considered Christians. Christians!

Some have pretended to be leaders of the flock, mounted themselves a story or two above their brothers, claimed to have a rule and government over them, and made it their business to scoff at and reproach the gifts of the Spirit of God. If this is the frame of their spirit, what can be expected of non-believers? It is unimaginable what height of blasphemy a process of this kind rose to. May the

Lord grant there is nothing of this cursed leaven still remaining among us! Is this the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that believers are called to? Is this the appropriate entertainment of the one whom our Savior promised to send to supply us in his bodily absence, so that we might not lose anything by it? One infinitely holy and blessed person of the Trinity has taken upon himself to be our comforter. It would be bad enough that men with such a stupid blindness, being called Christians, can look no further for their comfort and consolation than to be led by moral considerations that are common to heathens. But they are not content with this. They feel compelled to oppose and despise him as well!

Nothing more reveals how few there are in the world that have a true interest in that blessed name by which we are all called. But this is no place to pursue this. The aim here is to prove the folly and madness of men in general, who profess to own the gospel of Christ, and yet condemn and despise his Spirit in whomever he is manifested. Let us be zealous for the gifts of the Spirit, not envious of them. From what has been said, we may also try the spirits that have gone abroad in the world, and which have been exercising themselves ever since the ascension of Christ. The iniquity of the generation that is past and passing away was in open, cursed opposition to the Holy Spirit. God has been above those who behaved presumptuously. Satan, whose plan is to be exalted as god of this world, and not to be cast down by the providence of God, has now transformed himself into an angel of light. He can only pretend to be the Spirit. There are “seducing spirits,” 1 Timothy 4:1. We have a “command not to believe every spirit, but try the spirits,” 1 John 4:1. The reason given is, “Because many false prophets have gone out into the world,” that is, men pretending to have the revelation of new doctrines by the Spirit. Paul intimates that men with such deceits were present even in the first church. He called on men not to be “shaken in mind by spirit.” 2

Thess. 2:2. The truth is, the spirits of these days are so gross, that anyone with the least discernment may find them out. And yet their delusion is so strong, that not a few are still deceived. One thing is evident to every eye: in pursuit of his plan, and compared to his former ways of acting, Satan has gone to extremes with his delusions. Not long ago, his great design was to cry for ordinances without the Spirit, casting all the reproach that he could upon the Spirit. Now his design is to cry for a spirit without ordinances, casting as much reproach and contempt as possible upon them. Before, he wanted a ministry without the Spirit; now, he wants a Spirit without a ministry. Before, reading the word might suffice, without either preaching or praying by the Spirit; now, the Spirit is enough without reading or studying the word at all. Before, he allowed a literal embracing of what Christ had done in the flesh; now, he talks about Christ in the Spirit only, and denies that he came in the flesh. This is the character of the false spirit that we are warned of in 1 John 4:1. The Spirit we are to hear and embrace is the Spirit promised by Christ, not the Montanists’ paraclete, or the one Mohammed pretended to be, or the ones feigned by those in our day. So let us briefly try these spirits by some of the effects for which Christ promised to give us the Holy Spirit: The first general effect, as observed, was to bring to remembrance the things that Christ spoke for our guidance and consolation. This was to the work of the Holy Spirit towards the apostles, who were the penmen of the Scriptures, and this is his work towards believers to the end of the world. The things that Christ has spoken and done are “written that we might believe, and believing, have life through his name,” John 20:31. They are written in the Scripture. This, then, is the work of the Spirit which Christ has promised. He will bring to our remembrance and give us understanding of the words of Christ that are written in the Scripture, and he will do so for our guidance and consolation. But the work of the spirit which is abroad in the world, and perverts many, is to decry the things that Christ has spoken and which are written in the word. His business is to pretend new revelations of his own, to lead men away from the written word in which the whole work of God and all the promises of Christ are recorded.

Again, the work of the Spirit promised by Christ is to glorify him: “He will glorify me; for he will receive of mine, and will show it to you,” John 16:14. It is to make the one who suffered at Jerusalem, and who then spoke to his disciples, glorious, honorable, and highly esteemed in the hearts of believers. He was to do that by showing the things of Christ to them (his love, kindness, grace, and purchase). This is the work of the Spirit. The work of the spirit that is gone abroad is to glorify itself, to decry Christ and render him contemptible, under the name of a Christ outside us, which it slights and despises. All it aims at is its own glory, its own honor, wholly inverting the order of the divine dispensations.

Because the fountain of all being lies in the Father’s love, the Son came to glorify the Father. He says, “I seek not my own glory, but the glory of him that sent me.” The Son, having carried on the work of redemption, was now to be glorified with the Father. He prays that it might be so, John 17:1, “The hour is come, glorify your Son.” And the glory he asks for is the glory he had before the world began, when his joint counsel was in carrying on the Father’s love. That is why the Holy Spirit is sent. His work is to glorify the Son. But now, as I said, we have a spirit in the world whose whole business is to glorify himself. That is how we may easily know where he comes from.

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, as was declared. He fills us with joy, peace, and hope. He quiets and refreshes the hearts of those in whom he dwells. He gives them liberty, rest, confidence, and the boldness of children. The spirit of which men now boast is a spirit of bondage, whose work is to make men quake and tremble. He casts them into an un-son-like frame of spirit, driving them with horror and bondage, draining their natural spirits, and making them wither away. There is hardly anything that more evidently reveals this spirit is not the Comforter promised by Christ than this: he is a spirit of bondage and slavery, a spirit of cruelty and reproach towards others.

He acts in direct opposition to the Holy Spirit in believers, and all the ends and purposes for which he is bestowed on them as a spirit of adoption and consolation. To give one instance more, the Holy Spirit bestowed on believers is a Spirit of prayer and supplication. The spirit we are dealing with pretends to take men beyond such low and contemptible means of communion with God. In a word, it is a very easy and facile task, to take all of the eminent effects of the Holy Spirit in and towards believers, and to show that the pretending spirit of our days comes in direct opposition to every one of them. Thus, Satan has passed from one extreme to another, from bitter and wretched opposition to the Spirit of Christ, to pretending to be the Spirit; but it is still for the same purpose.

I might give a number of other instances of the contempt or abuse of the dispensation of the Spirit. Those mentioned are the extremes to which all others may be reduced. I will not digress any further from what lies directly in my aim.