jl 51 WAY AND MA cation ofthe Spirit, respect is had unto his effects, or the ends for which he is given. What they are, shall be afterwards declared. Now the authority of this giving, respects principally his gifts and graces, which depend on the authority of the Father. (2.) This expression denotes freedom. What is giv- . en might be witheld. This is the gift of God, (as he is called, John iv. l0.) not the purchase of our endea- vours, nor the reward of our desert. Some men de- light to talk of their purchasing grace and glory. But the one and the other are to be bought without money and without price. Even eternal life itself, the end of all our obedience, is thegift ofGod through Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. vi. 23. The scripture knows of no earnings that men can make of themselves but death. For, as Austin says, Quicquid totem est peecatum est; and the wages ofsin is death. To what end or purpose soever the Spirit is bestowed upon us, whether it be for the communication of grace, or the distribution of gifts, or for consolation and refreshment, it is of the meregift of God, from his absolute and sovereign freedom. Sect. 5.Secondly; In answer hereunto, they are said to receive him, on whom, as a gift, he is bestow- ed; as in the testimonies beforementioned. And in re- ceiving, two things are implied: (1.) That we contribute nothing thereunto, which should take off from the thing received as a gift. Receiving answers giving, and that implies freedom in the giver. (2.) That it is their pri- vilege and advantage. For what a man receives, he Both it for his own good. First, then, we have him freely as a gift of God. For to receive him in general, is to be made partaker of him, as unto those ends for which he is given of God. Be those ends what they will, in respect of them, they are said to receive him who are made partakers of him. Two things may be pleaded to take of the freedom of this gift, and of our reception, and to cast it on something necessary and re- quired on our part. For (I.) our Saviour tells us, t' that the world cannot receive him, because it seeth +, him not, neither knoweth him," John xiv. 17. Now if the world cannot receive him, there is required an a- bility and preparation in them that do so, that are not in the world; and so the gift and communication of the Spirit depends on that qualification in us. But all men ore naturally alike in theworld, and of it. No one man NNER OF THE DIVINE by- nature hath more ability or strength in spiritual things than another. For all are equally dead in tres- passes and sins, all equally children of wrath. It must therefore be inquired how some come to have this abil. ity and power to receive the Spirit of God which others have not. Now this, as I shall fully manifest after- wards, is merely from the Holy Ghost himself and his grace; respect being had herein only unto the order of his operations in us, some being preparatory for, and dispositive unto others; one being instituted as the means of obtaining another, the whole being the effect of the free gift of God. For we do not make ourselves to dif- fer from others, nor have we any thing that we have not received, 1 Cor. iv. 7. Wherefore the receiving of the Holy Ghost, intended in that expression of our Sa- viour, with respect whereunto some are able to receive him, some are not, is not absolute, but with respect unto some certain work and end. And this, as is plain in the context, is the receiving of him as a comforter and a guide in spiritual truth. Hereunto faith in Jesus Christ, which also is an effect and fruit of the same Spi- rit, is antecedently required. In this sense, therefore, believers alone can receive him, and are enabled so to do by the grace which they have received from him in their first conversion unto God. But (2.) it will be said, that we are bound to pray for him before we re. ceive him: and therefore the bestowing of him depends on a condition to be by us fulfilled. For the promise is, that ourheavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit un- to them that ask him, Luke xi. 13. But this cloth not prove the bestowing and receiving of him not to be ab- solutely free. Nay, it proves the contrary. It is Gra- tia indebita, undeserved grace, that is the proper ob- ject of prayer. And God, by these encouraging pro- mises, cloth not abridge the liberty of his own will, nor derogate from the freedom of his gifts and grace, but only directs us into the way whereby we may be made partakers of them, unto his glory, and our own advan- tage. And this also belongs unto theorder ofthe com- munication of the grace of the Spirit unto us. This very praying for the Spirit is a duty which we cannot perform withouthis assistance. For noman can call Je- sus Lord but by the Holy Ghost, I Cor. xii. 3. He helps us, as a spirit of grace and supplication, to pray for him as a spirit ofjoy and consolation. Sect. 6. (3.) This is such a gift as in God proceeds
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