William Law · 8 of 44

An Address to the Clergy · Part 4

But as soon as it is known and confessed, that all the Happiness or Misery of all Creatures consists only in this, as they are more or less possessed of God, or as they differently partake of the Divine Nature, then it must be equally known, that Nothing but God can do or be any religious Good to us, and also that God cannot do, or be any religious Good to us, but by the Communication of himself, or the Manifestation of his own Life within us.

Hence may be seen the great and like Blindness both of Infidels and Christians; the one in trusting to their own Reason dwelling in its own logical Conclusions; the other in trusting to their own Reason dwelling in learned Opinions about Scripture Words and Phrases, and Doctrines built upon them. For as soon as it is known and confessed, that God is all in all, that in him we live and move and have our Being, that we can have Nothing separately, or out of him, but every Thing in Him, that we have no Being or Degree of Being but in Him, that He can give us Nothing as our good but Himself, nor any Degree of Salvation from our fallen Nature, but in such Degree as he again Communicates something more of Himself to us, as soon as this is known, then it is known with the utmost Evidence, 'that to put a religious Trust in our own Reason, whether confined to itself, or working in Doctrines about Scripture Words, 'has the Nature of that same Idolatry that puts a religious 'Trust in the Sun, a departed Saint, or a graven Image.' And as Image-Worship has often boasted of its Divine Power, because of the Wonders of Zeal and Devotion that have been raised thereby in thousands, and ten thousands of its Followers, so it is no Marvel, if Opinion-Worship should often have and boast of the same Effects.—But the Truth of the whole Matter lies here: As the WORD manifested in the Flesh or become Man, is the one Mediator, or Restorer of Union between God and Man, so to seeing Eyes it must be evident, that nothing but this one Mediatorial Nature of Christ, essentially brought to Life in our Souls, can be our Salvation through Christ Jesus. For that which saved and exalted that Humanity in which Christ dwelt, must be the Salvation of every human Creature in the World. But to return. What poor Divinity Knowledge comes from great Scholars, and great Readers, may be sufficiently seen from the two following judicious Quotations in a late Dissertation on Enthusiasm; the one is taken from Dr. Warburton's sermons, the other from a Pastoral Letter of Mr. Sinstra, a Preacher among the Mennonists of Friesland. That from Dr. Warburton stands thus: 'By them (that is, by the Writings of the New Testament) the prophetic Promise of our Saviour, that the 'Comforter should abide for ever, was eminently fulfilled. For 'though his ordinary Influence occasionally assists the Faithful, 'yet his constant Abode and Supreme Illumination is in the 'Sacred Scriptures.'

Dr. Warburton's Doctrine is this, that the inspired Books of the New Testament is that Comforter, or Spirit of Truth, and Illuminator, which is meant by Christ's being always with his Church. Let us therefore put the Doctor's Doctrine into the Letter of the Text, which will best show how true or false it is.

Our Lord says, 'It is expedient for you that I go away, or the Comforter will not come;' that is, it is expedient for you, that I leave off teaching you in Words, that sound only into your outward Ears, that you may have the same Words in Writing, for your outward Eyes to look upon; for if I do not depart from this vocal Way of Teaching you, the Comforter will not come, that is, ye will not have the Comfort of my Words written on Paper. But if I go away, I will send Written Books, which shall lead you into such a Truth of Words as you could not have, whilst they were only spoken from my Mouth; but being written on Paper, they will be my spiritual, heavenly, constant Abode with you, and the most supreme Illumination you can receive from Me.

Christ says further: 'I have many Things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now: howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall guide you into all Truth; for He shall not speak of Himself, for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you;' that is, though you cannot be sufficiently instructed from my Words at present, yet when they shall hereafter come to you in Written Books, they will give you a knowledge of all Truth, for they shall not speak of themselves, but shall receive words from me, and show them unto you. Again, Christ says, 'These things have I spoken unto you in Proverbs; but the Time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in Proverbs, but will show you plainly of the Father.' That is, hitherto you have only had spoken Proverbs from me, and therefore you have not plainly known the Father; but the time cometh when these spoken Proverbs shall be put into Writing, and then you shall plainly know the Father. Again, Christ adds, 'Ye now therefore have Sorrow, but I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice, and your Joy no Man taketh from you.' That is, you are now troubled at my personal Departure from you, but some written Books shall be my seeing you again, and in that Visit you shall have such Joy as cannot be taken from you.

Christ also says, 'If any Man loves me, my Father will Love him, and we will come unto him and make our Abode with Him.' That is, according to the Doctor's Theology, certain Books of Scripture will come to him, and make their Abode with him; for he expressly confines the constant Abode and supreme Illumination of God to the holy Scriptures. Therefore (horrible to say) God's inward Presence, his operating Power of Life and Light in our Souls, his Dwelling in us, and we in Him, is something of a lower Nature, that only may occasionally happen, and has less of God in it than the dead Letter of Scripture, which alone is his Constant Abode and Supreme illumination.—Miserable Fruits of a paradoxical Genius!

Christ from Heaven says, 'Behold I stand at the Door, and knock; if any man hear my Voice, and open unto me, I will come into him, and sup with him.' This is his true eminent Fulfilling of his prophetic Promise of being a Comforter, and Spirit of Truth to his Church to the end of the World. But according to the Doctor, we are to understand, that not the heavenly Christ, but the New Testament continually stands and knocks at the Door, wanting to enter into the Heart, and sup with it; which is no better than holding, that when Christ calls himself Alpha and Omega, He means not himself, but the New Testament.—Again, "I am the Vine, ye are the Branches; as the Branch cannot bear Fruit of itself, except it abide in the Vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me; for without me, ye can do Nothing." Now take the Doctor's Comment, and then the Truth of all these Words of Christ was only temporary, and could be true no longer, than till the Books of the New Testament were written; for then all this, which Christ has affirmed of himself, of the Certainty and Necessity of his Life and Power in them, ended in Christ, and passed over to the Written Words of the New Testament, and they are the true Vine, and we its Branches, they are That without which we can do Nothing. For thus it must be, if, as the Doctor affirms, the Writings of the New Testament are that, by which we are to understand the constant Abode and supreme Illumination of God in Man.—Now absurd, and even blasphemous, as this Interpretation of the foregoing Text is, it must be evident to every Reader, that it is all the Doctor's own; for the Letter of Scripture is only made here to claim that Divinity to itself, which the Doctor has openly affirmed to be true of it.

"Rabbi," says Nicodemus to Christ, "we know that thou art a Teacher come from God." Now that which was here truly said of Christ in the Flesh, is the very Truth that must be said of the Scripture teaching in Ink and Paper; it is a Teacher come from God, and therefore fully to be believed, highly reverenced, and strictly followed. But as Christ's Teaching in the Flesh was only preparatory to his future vital Teaching by the Spirit, so the Teaching of Scripture by words written with Ink and Paper is only preparatory, or introductory to all that inward essential Teaching of God, which is by his Spirit and Truth within us.—Every other Opinion of the holy Scripture, but that of an outward Teacher and Guide to God's inward Teaching and Illumination in our Souls, is but making an Idol-God of it: I say an Idol-God; for to those who rest in it as the constant Abode and Supreme Illumination of God with them, it can be Nothing else. For, if Nothing of Divine Faith, Love, Hope, or Goodness, can have the least Birth, or Place in us, but by Divine Inspiration, they who think these Virtues may be sufficiently raised in us by the Letter of Scripture, do in Truth and Reality make the Letter of Scripture their Inspiring God.—The Apostles preached and wrote to the People by Divine Inspiration. But what do they say of their inspired Doctrine and Teachings? What Virtue or Power was there in them? Do they say, that their Words and Teachings were the very promised Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, the true Abode and Supreme Illumination of God in the Souls of Men? So far from such a blasphemous Thought, that they affirm the direct contrary, and compare all their inspired Teachings and Instructions to the dead Works of bare Planting and Watering, and which must continue dead, till Life comes into them from another and much higher Power. "I have planted," says St. Paul, "Apollos has watered, but God gave the Increase." And then further to show that this Planting and Watering, which was the highest Work that an inspired Apostle could do, was yet in itself to be considered as a lifeless, powerless Thing, he adds, "So then, neither is he that planteth any thing, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the Increase."—But now, if this must be said of all That which the inspired Apostles taught in outward Words, that it was nothing in itself, was without Power, without Life, and only such a Preparation towards Life, as is that of Planting and Watering, must not that same be said of their inspired Teachings, when left behind them in Writing? For what else are the Apostolical Scriptures, but those very Instructions and Teachings put into Writing, which they affirmed to be but bare Planting and Watering, quite powerless in themselves, till the Living Spirit of God worked with them? Or will anyone say, that what Paul, Peter, John, amp;c., spoke by Inspiration from their own Mouths, was indeed bare Planting and Watering, in order to be capable of receiving Life from God; but when these apostolical Teachings and Instructions were written on Paper, they were raised out of their first Inability, got the Nature of God himself, became Spirit and Life, and might be called the great quickening Power of God, or, as the Doctor says, the Constant Abode and Supreme Illumination of his Spirit with us?

It would be great Folly and Perverseness, to charge me here with slighting, or lessening the true Value, Use, and Importance of, the inspired Apostolical Scriptures; for if the Charge was just, it must lie against Paul, and not against me, since I say nothing of them, but that which He says, and in his own express Words, viz., that all their Labour of Preaching, instructing, and Writing by Divine Inspiration, had in themselves no other Nature, Use, or Power, than that of such Planting and Watering as could not fructify till a higher Power than was in them gave Life and Growth to that which they planted and watered.

I exceedingly love, and highly reverence the Divine Authority of the sacred Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists, and would gladly persuade every one, to be as deeply affected with them, and pay as profound a Regard to them, as they would to an Elijah, a St. John Baptist, or a Paul, whom they knew to be immediately sent from Heaven with God's Message to them.—I reverence them as a literal Truth of and from God, as much the greatest heavenly Blessing that can be outwardly bestowed upon us.—I reverence them as doing, or fitted to do all that good amongst Christians now, which the Apostles did in their Day, and as of the same Use and Benefit to the Church of every Age, as their Planting and Watering was to the first.

But now, if this is not thought that Fulness of Regard that is due to the holy Messengers of God; if anyone will still be so learnedly wise, as to affirm, that though Paul’s Preaching in his Epistles, whilst He was alive, was indeed only bare Planting and Watering, but the same Epistles, being published after his Death, got another Nature, became full of Divine and living Power, such a one has no Right to laugh (as the Doctor does) at the silly Mahometan, who believes the Alcoran to be uncreated. For wherever there is Divine Efficacy, there, there must be an uncreated Power. And if, as the Doctor says, the Scriptures of the New Testament are the only constant Abode and Supreme Illumination of the Spirit of God with us, all that is said of the Eternal Spirit of God, of the uncreated Light, might and ought to be said of them; that they are the WORD that was God, was with God, and are our true Immanuel, or God within us.

I shall now only add this friendly hint to the Doctor, that he has a Remedy at hand in his own Sermon, how he may be delivered from thus grossly Mistaking the Spirit of the Gospel, as well as the Law of Moses.—St. Paul, (says the Doctor) ‘had a quick and lively Imagination, and an extensive and intimate Acquaintance with those Masters in moral Painting, the classic Writers, (N.B.) all which he proudly sacrificed to the Glory of the everlasting Gospel.’

Now if the Doctor did that, though it was only from Humility, which he says the Apostle did proudly, such Humility might be as great a Good to him, as that Pride was to the Apostle.—And indeed, one would have thought, that as soon as the Doctor had discovered these Writers to be only great Masters in moral Painting, it should have had the same effect upon him, as if he had found them great Masters in Delusion. For where there is Moral Painting, there, there is moral Delusion. And the Spirit, the Life, the Purity, and Divine Simplicity of Gospel Truth, is more eluded, lost, and destroyed by moral Paintings, whether in Books or Pulpits, than by any material Colourings put upon Images of Wood or Clay, to excite Spiritual Devotion in Churches.—Again, if the everlasting Gospel is now as glorious a Thing, as it was in St. Paul’s Days; if the highest, most ac complished classic Knowledge is so unsuitable to the Light and Spirit of the Gospel, that it is fit for Nothing but to be cast away, or as the Doctor says, 'to be all sacrificed to the Glory of the Gospel,' how wonderful is it, that this should never come into his head from the Beginning to the End of his three long Legation-Volumes, or that he should come piping hot with fresh and fresh classic Beauties found out by himself in a Shakespeare, a Pope, amp;c., to preach from the Pulpit the Divine Wisdom of a Paul, in renouncing all his great Classic Attainments, as mere loss and Dung, that by so doing he might win Christ, and be found in him!

Let it be supposed, that our Lord was to come again for a while in the Flesh, and that his coming was for this end, to do that for the Christian World cumbered with much Learning, which he did to poor Martha, only cumbered with much Serving; who thereby neglected that Good Part which Mary had chosen; must we suppose that the Doctor would hasten to meet him with his Sacred Alliances, his Bundles of Pagan Trash, and hieroglyphic Profundities, as his full Proof that Mary's good Part, which shall never be taken from her, had been chosen for himself and all his Readers? As well might it be thought, that the Pope would come richly laden with his blessed Images, his heavenly Decrees, his Divine Bulls, as infallible Proofs of his being born again from above, and solely devoted to the one Thing Needful.

Let the Doctor figure to himself the gaudy Pageantry of a Divine high Mass in a Romish Cathedral; let him wonder at that flagrant daring Contrariety that it hath to that first Gospel-Church of Christ, viz., 'where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them'; would he not be still fuller of Wonder, if he should hear the Pope declaring, that all this heathenish show of invented Popperies was his projected Defence of that first Church of Christ?—But if the Doctor would see a Protestant Wonder full as great, he need only look at his own theatrical parading Show of heathen Mysteries, and heathenish Learning, set forth in highest Pomp. To what End? Why to bring forth, what he calls (as the Pope above) his projected Defence of Christianity.

O vainest of all vain Projects! For what is Christianity, but that which Christ was while on Earth? What can it be, but that which it is, and has from him? He is a King, who has all Power in Heaven and on Earth, and his Kingdom, like himself, is not of this World. Away then with the Projects of popish Pomp, and pagan Literature to support it; they are as wise Contrivances, as a high Tower of Babel to defend it against the gates of Hell.

I come now to the Quotation from the pastoral Letter of Mr. Stinstra. 'A judicious Writer' (says the Dissertation), 'observes, that Sound Understanding and Reason are That on which, and by which, God principally operates (N.B.) when he finds it proper to assist (N.B.) our weakness by his Spirit.'

I cannot more illustrate the Sense, or extol the Judgment, both of the Author, and Quoter of this Striking Passage, than by the following Words.

'A judicious Naturalist observes, that Sound and Strong Lungs are that on which, and by which, the Air or Spirit of this World principally operates, when (N.B.) he finds it proper to assist, (N.B.) the Weakness of our Lungs, by his Breathing into them.'

—Now if any right minded Man should happen to find his Heart edified, his Understanding enlightened, by the above Passage on Divine Inspiration, he will be much pleased at my assuring him, that the Pastoral Letter of Mr. Stinstra, and the Dissertation on Enthusiasm by Mr. Green, are from the Beginning to the End full as good, in every Respect, as that is.

These two Instances are Proof enough, that as soon as any Man trusts to natural Abilities, Skill in Languages, and common-place Learning, as the true Means of entering into the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom, which is Nothing else but Righteousness, Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost, he gives himself up to certain Delusion, and can escape no Error that is popular, or that suits his State and Situation in the learned, religious World.—He has sold his Birth-right in the Gospel State of Divine Illumination, to make a Figure and Noise with the Sounding Brass and Tinkling Cymbals of the natural Man.

Whence is it, that we see Genius and natural Abilities to be equally pleased with, and equally contending for the Errors and Absurdities of every System of Religion, under which they are educated? It is because Genius and Natural Abilities are just the same Things, and must have the same Nature now, as they had in the ancient Schools of the Peripatetic, Academic, Stoic, and Atheistical Philosophers.—'The Temptation of Honour, which the 'Academic Exercise of Wit' (as Dr. W. says) 'was supposed to bring to its Professor,' has still its Power among Church-Disputants. Nor can it possibly ever be otherwise, till Parts and Genius, amp;c., do, as the Blind, the Deaf, the Dumb, and Lepers formerly did, go to be healed of their natural Disorders by the Inspiration of that Oracle, who said, 'I am the Light of the World, He that followeth me, walketh not in Darkness.'—'No Man cometh unto the Father but by me.'—Well therefore might St. Paul say, ‘I have determined to know Nothing among you, but Christ, and him crucified.’—And had it not been for this Determination, he had never known, what he then knew, when he said, ‘The Life that I now live, is not mine, but Christ’s that liveth in me.’—Now did the Apostle here overstretch the Matter? Was it a Spirit of Enthusiasm, and not of Christ living in him, that made this Declaration? Was He here making Way for Ignorance and Darkness to extinguish the Light that came down from Heaven, and was the Light of the World?—Did he here undermine the true Ground and Rock on which the Church of Christ was to stand, and prevail against the Gates of Hell? Did he by setting up this Knowledge, as the best and only Knowledge that an apostle need to have, break down the Fences of Christ’s Vineyard, rob the Church of all its strong Holds, leave it defenceless, without a Pale, and a ready Prey to Infidels?—Who can say this, but that ‘Spirit of Antichrist, that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh’? For, as Christ’s intending Nothing, knowing Nothing, willing Nothing, but purely and solely the whole Course of his crucifying Process, was the whole Truth of his being come in the Flesh, was his doing the whole Will of him that sent him, was his overcoming the World, Death, and Hell, so He that embraces this Process, as Christ embraces it, who is wholly given up to it, as Christ was, He has the Will of Christ, and the Mind of Christ, and therefore may well desire to know Nothing else.—To this Man alone, is the World, Death, and Hell, known to be overcome in him, as they were in Christ; to him alone is Christ become the Resurrection and the Life; and he that knows this, he knows with St. Paul that all other Knowledge may, and will be cast away as Dung.—Now if St. Paul, having rejected all other Knowledge but that of a crucified Saviour, which to the Jew was a Stumbling-Block, and to the Greek Foolishness, if he had afterwards wrote three such Legation-Volumes as the Doctor has done, for the Food and Nourishment of Christ’s Sheep, who can have no Life in them but by eating the true Bread that came down from Heaven, must they not have been called Paul’s full Recantation of all that he had taught of a Christ crucified?

The other Instance of Delusion from Book-learning, relates to Mr. Green, who wanting to write on Divine Inspiration, runs from Book to Book, from Country to Country, to pick up Reports wherever he could find them, concerning Divine Inspiration, from this and that judicious Author, that so he might be sure of compiling a Judicious Dissertation on the Subject. All which he might have known to be mere Delusion and lost Labour, had he but remembered, or regarded any one single Saying either of Christ or his Apostles concerning the holy Spirit and his Operations. For not a Word is said by them, but fully shows that all Knowledge or Perception of the Spirit is nothing else but the Enjoyment of the Spirit, and that no Man can know more of him than that which the Spirit himself is, and does, and manifests of his Power in Man. '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 Common-Place 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 we can have of him, is a Truth taught us, not only by all Scripture, but by the whole Nature of Things. For every Thing that can be seen, known, heard, felt, amp;c., must be manifested by itself, and not by another. It is not possible for any Thing but Light to manifest Light, nor for any Thing but Darkness to make Darkness to be known. Yet this is more possible, than for any Thing 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 select 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 Pretence 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.

The Reports that are to be acknowledged as true concerning the Holy Spirit and his Operations, are those that are recorded in Scripture; that is, the Scriptures are an infallible History, or Relation of that which the Holy Spirit is, and does, and works in true Believers; and also an infallible Direction how we are to seek, and wait, and trust in his good Power over us. But then the Scriptures themselves, though thus true and infallible in these Reports and Instructions about the Holy Spirit, yet they can go no further than to be a true History; they cannot give to the Reader of them the Possession, the Sensibility, and Enjoyment of that which they relate. This is plain, not only from the Nature of a written History or Instruction, but from the express Words of our Lord, saying, ‘Except a Man be born again of the Spirit, he cannot see or enter into the Kingdom of God.’ Therefore the new Birth from above, or of the Spirit, is that alone which gives true knowledge and Perception of that which is the Kingdom of God. The History may relate Truths enough about it; but the Kingdom of God, being Nothing else but the Power and Presence of God, dwelling and ruling in our Souls, this can only manifest itself, and can manifest itself to Nothing in Man but to the New Birth. For every Thing else in Man is deaf and dumb and blind to the Kingdom of God; but when that which died in Adam is made alive again by the quickening Spirit from above, this being the Birth which came at first from God, and a Partaker of the Divine Nature, this knows, finds, and enjoys the Kingdom of God.