second, and which the third, is not yet of absolute necessity to salvation; while they are co-equal and co-essential; and it was necessary to the Jews to believe, that this love of God did operate, and was communicated to the faithful; not upon the terms of innocency, according to the first covenant; but to sinners that deserved death, and upon terms of mercy, through the covenant of grace, which was made with lapsed man in order to his recovery, through a Redeemer.

Direct. 3. All that is efficiently necessary to our salvation, in or of God, is not objectively necessary to be known. And such a measure of the knowledge of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is necessary to save us, as is necessary objectively to sanctify us under the efficiency of the said Spirit: And all the rest is not of such necessity. And therefore as under the Gospel, the Spirit is Christ's great Witness, as well as Agent in the world, it is more necessary now to believe distinctly in the Holy Ghost in that relation, than it was before Christ's coming in the flesh.'

There is a great deal of the Divine perfection, which causeth our salvation, unknown to us: as the sun will shine upon us, and the wind will blow, and the rain will fall, and the earth will bear fruits, whether we know it or not; so our knowledge of it is not at all necessary to any Divine efficiency as such: the Spirit by which we are regenerate, is like the wind that bloweth, whose sound we hear, but know not whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth (no nor what it is); John iii. 6-9. But all those things which are necessary to work objectively and morally on the soul, do work in esse cognito;' and the knowledge of them is as necessary as the operation is. It was of absolute necessity to the salvation of all, before Christ's coming, and among the Gentiles as well as the Jews, that the Spirit should sanctify them to God, by possessing them with a predominant love of him in his goodness; and that this Spirit proceed from the Son or wisdom of God: but it was not so necessary to them as it is now to us, to have a distinct knowledge of the personality and operations of the Spirit and of the Son. And though now it is certain that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh to the Father, but by the Son (John xiv. 6.); yet that knowledge of him which is necessary to them that hear the Gospel, is

not at all necessary to them that never hear it; though the same efficiency on his part be necessary: and so it is about the knowledge of the Holy Ghost, without which Christ cannot be sufficiently now known and rightly believed in.

Direct. 4. The presence or operation of the Spirit of God is causally the spiritual life of man, in his holiness: as there is no natural being but by influence from his being; so no life but by the communication from his life, and no light but from his light, and no love or goodness, but from this Spirit of love.'

It is therefore a vain conceit of them, that think man in innocency had not the Spirit of God: they that say, his natural rectitude was instead of the Spirit, do but say, and unsay for his natural rectitude was the effect of the influx or communication of God's Spirit: and he could have no moral rectitude without it; as there can be no effect without the chief cause: the nature of love and holiness cannot subsist, but in dependance on the love and holiness of God: and those Papists who talk of man's state first in pure naturals, and an after donation of the Spirit, must mean by pure naturals, man in his mere essentials, not really, but notionally by abstraction distinguished, from the same man at the same instant as a saint; or else they speak unsoundly: for God made man in moral dispositive goodness at the first; and the same love or Spirit, which did first make him so, was necessary after to continue him It was never his nature to be a prime good, or to be good independently without the influence of the prime good; Isa. xliv. 3. Ezek. xxxvi. 27. Job xxvi. 13. Psal. li. 10. 12. cxliii. 10. Prov. xx. 27. Mal. ii. 15. John iii. 5, 6. vi. 63. vii. 39. Rom. viii. 1. 5, vi. 11. ii. 11, 12. vi. 17. xii. 11. 13. 3. 17. Ephes. ii. 18. 22. iii. 16. v. 9. Col. i. 8. Jude 19. Direct. 5. The Spirit of God, and the holiness of the soul may be lost, without the destruction of our essence, or species of human nature; and may be restored without making us specificilly other things.'

so.

6. 9. 13. 16. 1 Cor.

xv. 45.

2 Cor. iii.

That influence of the Spirit which giveth us the faculty of a rational appetite or will, inclined to good as good, cannot cease, but our humanity or being would cease: but that influence of the Spirit, which causeth our adherence to God by love may cease, without the cessation of our be

ings; as our health may be lost, while our life continueth; Psal. li. 10. 1 Thess. v. 19. Direct. 6.

The greatest mercy in this world, is the gift of the Spirit, and the greatest misery is to be deprived of the Spirit; and both these are done to man by God, as a Governor, by way of reward and punishment oftimes: therefore the greatest reward to be observed in this world, is the increase of the Spirit upon us, and the greatest punishment in this world is the denying or withholding of the Spirit.'

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It is therefore a great part of a Christian's wisdom and work, to observe the accesses and assistances of the Spirit, and its withdrawings; and to take more notice to God in his thankfulness of the gift of the Spirit, than of all other benefits in this world and to lament more the retiring or withholding of God's Spirit, than all the calamities in the world; and to fear this more as a punishment of his sin; lest God should say as Psal. lxxxi. 11, 12. "But my people would not hearken to my voice, Israel would none of me: so I gave them up to their own hearts' lust, to walk in their own counsels." And we must obey God through the motive of this promise and reward, “ Turn you at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you;" Prov. i. 23. "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive;” John vii. 39. Luke xi. 13. God will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask it. And we have great cause when we have sinned, to pray with David, "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit;" Psal. li. 10-12. And as the sin to be feared is the grieving of the Holy Spirit, (Ephes. iv. 30.) so the judgment to be feared, is accordingly the withdrawing of it." But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit ; therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them. Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them upWhere is he that put his holy Spirit within them?" Isa. lxiii. 10, 11. The great thing to be dreaded, is, lest "those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost-should fall

away, and be no more renewed by repentance,--" Heb. vi. 4. 6.

Direct. 7. Therefore executive pardon or justification cannot possibly be any more perfect than sanctification is: because no sin is further forgiven, or the person justified executively, than the punishment is taken off; and the privation of the Spirit, being the great punishment, the giving of it, is the great executive remission in this life.'

But of this more in the chapter of justification following. Direct. 8. The three great operations in man, which each of the three persons in the Trinity eminently perform, are Natura, medicina, salus;' the first by the Creator, the second by the Redeemer, the third by the Sanctifier.'

Commonly it is called Nature, Grace and Glory: but either the terms Grace and Glory' must be plainer expounded, or that distribution is not sound: If by 'Grace' be meant all the extrinsic medicinal preparations made by Christ; and if by Glory' be meant only the holiness of the soul, the sense is good: but in common use those words are otherwise understood. Sanctification is usually ascribed to the Holy Ghost: but glorification in heaven, is the perfective effect of all the three persons in our state of perfect union with God; Rom. xv. 16. Titus iii. 5, 6. But yet in the work of sanctification itself, the Trinity undividedly concur and so in the sanctifying and raising the church, the apostle distinctly calleth the act of the Father, by the name of operation; and the work of the Son by the name of administration, and the part of the Holy Ghost by the name of gifts; 1 Cor. xii. 4-6. And in respect to these sanctifying operations of God, 'ad extra,' the same apostle distributeth them thus: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all;" 2 Cor. xiii. 14. Where by God, seemeth to be meant all the persons in the Trinity in their perfection; but especially the Father, as the fountain of love, and as expressing love by the Son and the Spirit; and by the grace of Christ, is meant all that gracious provision he hath made for man's salvation, and the relative application of it, by his intercession, together with his mission of the Holy Spirit. And by the communion of the Spirit is meant that actual communication of life, light and love to the soul itself, which is eminently ascribed to the Spirit

Direct. 9. The Spirit itself is given to true believers, and not only grace from the Spirit.'

Not that the essence of God, or the person of the Holy Ghost, is capable of being contained in any place, or removing to or from a place, by local motion: But 1. The Holy Ghost is given to us relatively, as our covenanting Sanctifier in the baptismal covenant: we have a covenantright to him, that is, to his operation. 2. And the Spirit itself is present as the immediate Operator; not so immediate as to be without means, but so immediately as to be no distant agent, but by proximate attingency, not only 'ratione virtutis,' but also ratione suppositi,' performeth his operations: if you say, so he is present every where; I answer, but he is not a present operator every where alike. We are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost, both because he buildeth us up, for so holy a use, and because he also dwelleth in us; 1 Cor. vi. 19.

Direct. 10. By the sanctification commonly ascribed to the Holy Ghost, is meant that recovery of the soul to God, from whom it is fallen, which consisteth in our primitive holiness, or devotedness to God, but summarily in the love of God, as God.'

Direct. 11. And faith in Christ is often placed as before it, not as if the Spirit were no cause of faith, nor as if faith were no part of our saving special grace; nor as if any had saving faith before they had love to God; but because as Christ is the Mediator and way to the Father; so faith in him is but a mediate grace to bring us up to the love of God, which is the final perfective grace and because, though they are inseparably complicate, yet some acts of faith go before our special love to God in order of nature, though some others follow after it, or go with it.'

It is a question that seemeth very difficult to many, whether love to God, or faith in Christ must go first (whether in time or order of nature.) For if we say that faith in Christ must go first, then it seemeth that we take not faith or Christ as a means to bring us to God as our end; for our end is 'Deus amatus,' God as beloved; and to make God our end, and to love him, are inseparable. We first love the good which appeareth to us, and then we choose and use the means to attain it; and in so doing we