OBSERVATIONS
ON SOME
FATAL MISTAKES,
In a Book lately published, and intitled,
“The Doctrine of Grace; or, The Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity, and the Abuses of Fanaticism. By William Lord Bishop of Gloucester.”
In a LETTER to a Friend.
Truth is never more grosly abused, nor its Advocates more dishonoured, than when they employ the foolish Arts of Sophistry, Buffoonery, and Scurrility in its Defence.
Bishop of Gloucester’s Preface.
OBSERVATIONS, &c.
My dear Friend,
WHEN the great St. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, had a mind to lay a solid foundation for the grand distinguishing doctrines of the gospel, I need not inform you, that, like a wise master-builder, he took care to dig deep into the corruption of human nature: and after having given us a lively portraiture of the universal depravity of the Gentile world, he proceeded, in a most masterly manner, to bring down the proud thoughts and high imaginations of the self-righteous and formal Pharisees; by proving, to a demonstration, that the Jewish professors, notwithstanding all their peculiar advantages of external revelation, circumcision, near affinity to Abraham, and such-like, were all equally included under sin, were all equally guilty before God, had all equally fallen short of his glory, consequently were all upon an equal level with the rest of mankind, and stood as much in need of the free grace of God in Christ Jesus, and the sanctifying operations of his Holy Spirit, as the most savage barbarian, or disputing Greek. This was acting like as did the forerunner or harbinger of our blessed Lord; for, when he saw many of the Sadducees and Pharisees (the infidels and professors of that age) coming to his baptism, disregarding as it were the former, in a very pungent, and what some would term, a very unpolite manner, he thus addresseth himself to the latter: “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father; for I say unto you, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” But why speak I of acting like the forerunner? I should rather have said, this was imitating our common Lord himself, who, in his glorious and divine sermon, (when, to use the words of the seraphic Hervey, “a mount was his pulpit, and the heavens were his sounding-board”) employs himself chiefly in detecting the false glosses and corrupt interpretations of the then masters of Israel; withal adding this cutting assertion, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
What a pity is it, my dear friend, that our modern defenders of christianity, in their elaborate and undoubtedly well-meant treatises, have not been more studious to copy after such bright and unerring examples! Many of these tracts I know you have read; and am persuaded, out of your usual candour, you will do them so much justice as to acknowledge, that, in respect to the outworks of religion, such as clearing up the prophecies of the Old, and vindicating the miracles of the New Testament, against the attacks of infidels and free-thinkers, they have shewn themselves, as far as bare human learning, added to external revelation, can carry them, to be masters of strong reasoning, nervous language, and conclusive arguments. But then, as I have often heard you lament, one thing they seem to lack, a deeper and more experimental knowledge of themselves, and of Jesus Christ. Hence it is, that when they come to touch upon the internals and vitals of christianity, they are quite grappled, and write so unguardedly of the all-powerful influences of the Holy Ghost, as to sink us into a state of downright formality; which, if the Apostle Paul may be our judge, we have need as much to be cautioned against, as of fanaticism, superstition, or infidelity itself: for in his second epistle to Timothy, after giving us a dreadful account of the abounding of wicked men in the last perilous times, such as “lovers of their own selves, [♦]coveteous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false-accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God;” he brings up the rear in this awful manner, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such, turn away;” and to use the words of our Lord, “Publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of God before them.”
[♦] “covetous” replaced with “coveteous”
Sorry am I to send you word, that a writer of this unhappy stamp now lies upon my table: a writer, who, although he entitles his book, “The Offices and Operations of the Holy Ghost vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity and Abuses of Fanaticism,” yet, in his great zeal against the latter, and to the no small encouragement of the former, as far as perverted reason and disguised sophistry could carry him, hath, in effect, robbed the church of Christ of its promised Comforter; and thereby left us, upon whom the ends of the world are come, without any supernatural influence or divine operations whatsoever. Often have I heard you observe, that there never was an age in which the stewards of the mysteries of Christ were more loudly called upon to vindicate the offices and operations of the Holy Spirit, than this wherein we live. And, for my own part, I cannot help thinking, that the most accomplished and duly qualified person in the universe, could he write or speak so extensively, that the whole world might hear or read him, could not possibly express his love to mankind in general, and to the church of God, purchased with his own blood, in particular, in a more necessary, commendable, and useful way, than by declaring, upon the house-top, that the Holy Ghost, like its almighty Purchaser, is the same to-day as he was yesterday; that he is now, as well as formerly, in the use of all instituted means, appointed to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgment; to lead them into all truth, by spiritually opening their understandings, that they may understand the scriptures; and to renew a clean heart and right spirit within them here, in order that they may be thereby prepared for the full enjoyment of a triune, and ever-blessed God hereafter. This you will judge, my dear friend, is what any one might have reasonably expected to have met with, in a book bearing such a promising title. But alas, how was I disappointed! And how will you be equally surprised, when I tell you, that upon perusing the book itself, I found that the author, instead of vindicating or asserting, rather denies and ridicules the standing and unalterable operations of the Holy Ghost. For, having ingeniously taken a great deal of learned pains against the insinuations of Doctor Middleton, to prove that there once was a Holy Ghost; and that he did once actually descend upon the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost; and further, that he did once inspire the sacred writers to settle the canon of scripture; he then, in order to tear up superstition, and what he calls fanaticism, by the roots, takes infinitely greater pains (as well he might, being a most arduous task indeed) to shew, that what true believers, in all ages, have always looked upon to be the standing and ordinary operations of the Spirit, “Such as manifest themselves in grace and knowledge, and which administer aid in spiritual distresses, are to be accounted and called miraculous, as much as those which extended outwards, in the gift of healing, and the relief of other corporeal infirmities.” And these “miraculous powers (he adds) being now, upon the perfect establishment of christianity, totally withdrawn, it consequently must be superstitious and fanatical to look for, or pretend to be possessed of, any of those operations which manifest themselves in grace and knowledge, and which administer aid in spiritual distresses.” Pages 75, 82, 83, octavo edition. Strange assertions these, you will say, for a vindicator of the offices and operations of the Holy Ghost, against the insults of infidelity, and the abuses of fanaticism! Alas! what could a Middleton say more? Nay, I could almost add, where hath he expressly said so much? But if it be superstition to look for, if it be fanaticism to seek after, and not rest till we are actually and experimentally possessed of, the supernatural influences of the Blessed Spirit, manifesting themselves in grace and divine knowledge, and affording aid in spiritual distresses, then may you and I, my dear friend, become more and more superstitious and fanatical every day! For I am persuaded, that without such divine manifestations as exceed the powers of humanity, were we to be signed with the sign of the cross in baptism, a thousand times over, we could never successfully fight under Christ’s banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and consequently not so much as truly commence, much less continue to be, his faithful servants and soldiers even to the end of our lives.