Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged; verses 9, 10, 11.
I have yet many things to say unto you; but ye cannot bear them now: (Verse 12.) but when he shall come, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all truth——And he will shew you things to come. Verse 13.
There is only one sentence here which has not already been considered, He will shew you things to come.
And this, it is granted, relates to the gift of prophecy, one of the extraordinary operations of the Spirit.
The general conclusion which your Lordship draws, is exprest in these words. “Consequently all pretensions to the Spirit, in the proper sense of the words of this promise (i. e. of these several texts of St. John) are vain and insignificant, as they are claimed by modern Enthusiasts.” And in the end of the same paragraph you add, “None but the ordinary operations of the Spirit are to be now expected, since those that are of a miraculous (or extraordinary) kind are NOT PRETENDED TO, even by modern Enthusiasts.”
My Lord, this is surprizing. I read it over and over, before I could credit my own eyes. I verily believe this one clause, with unprejudiced persons, will be an answer to the whole book. You have been vehemently crying out all along against those enthusiastical pretenders; nay, the very design of your book, as you openly declare, “was to stop the growth of their Enthusiasm; who have had the assurance (as you positively affirm, page 6,) to claim to themselves the extraordinary operations of the Holy Spirit.” And here you as positively affirm, that those extraordinary operations “are not pretended to by them at all!”
8. Yet your Lordship proceeds, “The next passage of scripture, I shall mention as peculiarly belonging to the primitive times, though misapplied to the present state of Christians by modern Enthusiasts, is what relates to the testimony of the Spirit, and praying by the Spirit, in the 8th chapter of the epistle to the Romans.” Page 16.
I believe it incumbent upon me thoroughly to weigh the force of your Lordship’s reasoning on this head. You begin, “After St. Paul had treated of that spiritual principle in Christians, which enables them to mortify the deeds of the body—he says, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. This makes the distinction of a true Christian, particularly in opposition to the Jews.” I apprehend it is just here, that [♦]your Lordship turns out of the way, when you say, “particularly in opposition to the Jews.” Such a particular opposition I cannot allow, till some stronger proof is produced, than St. Paul’s occasionally mentioning six verses before, “the imperfection of the Jewish law.”
[♦] “you” replaced with “your”
Yet your Lordship’s mind is so full of this, that after repeating the 14th and 15th verses (as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God: for ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear: but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father!) you add, “in the former part of this verse, the apostle shews again the imperfection of the Jewish law.” This also calls for proof: otherwise, it will not be allowed, that he here speaks of the Jewish law at all: not, tho’ we grant that “the Jews were subject to the fear of death, and lived in consequence of it, in a state of bondage.” For are not all unbelievers, as [♦]well as the Jews, more or less, in the same fear and bondage?