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SermonIndex.net : Christian Books : Address 85: |The things of God,| says St.à

An Humble Affectionate And Earnest Address To The Clergy by William Law

Address 85: |The things of God,| says St.à

|The things of God,| says St. Paul, |knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.| Is not this decisive upon the matter? Is not this proof enough, that nothing in man but the Spirit of God in him, can know what the Spirit's work in man is and does? The fruits of the Spirit, so often mentioned in scripture, are not things different, or separate from the Spirit; and if the Spirit is not always working in us, his fruits must be as absent from us as he is. St. John says, |Hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.| A demonstration, that the Spirit can no other way make himself known to us, but by his dwelling and working in us. St. James says, |Every good and perfect gift cometh from ABOVE|: but now does not he in reality deny this, who seeks for the highest gift of knowledge from BELOW, from the poor contrivance of a commonplace book? Again, |if any man lacketh wisdom, let him ask it of God|; St. James does not say, let him go ask Peter, or Paul, or John, because he knew that divine wisdom was nothing else, but divine inspiration. But Mr. Green has got together his ingenious, his eminent writers, his excellent, learned, judicious authors, his cool, rational- morality doctors (a set of men whose glorious names we read no more of in the gospel, than of the profound Aristotle, or the divine Cicero) and these are to do that for him, which the whole college of apostles could do for nobody. Now this doctrine, that nothing but the Spirit can know the things that be of God, and that the enjoyment of the Spirit, is all the knowledge that we can have of him, is a truth taught us, not only by all scripture, but by the whole nature of things. For everything that can be seen, known, heard, felt, must be manifested by itself, and not by another. It is not possible for anything but light to manifest light, nor for anything but darkness to make darkness to be known. Yet this is more possible, than for anything but divine inspiration to make divine inspiration to be known. Hence there is a degree of delusion still higher, to be noted in such writers as Mr. Green; for his collection of ingenious, eminent, rational authors, of whom he asks counsel concerning the necessity or certainty of the immediate inspiration of the Spirit, are such as deny it, and write against it. Therefore the proceeding is just as wise, as if a man was to consult some ingenious and eminent atheists, about the truth and certainty of God's immediate continual providence; or ask a few selected Deists, how, or what he was to believe of the nature and power of gospel faith. Now there are the Holy Spirit's own operations, and there are reports about them. The only true reports, are those that are made by inspired persons; and if there were no such persons, there could be no true reports of the matter. And therefore to consult uninspired persons, and such as deny and reproach the pretense to inspiration, to be rightly instructed about the truth of immediate continual divine inspiration, is a degree of blindness greater than can be charged upon the old Jewish scribes and Pharisees.

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