With respect to my points on the qualitative aspects of preaching and how some of the formost of the churches saints specifically took upon them, in the course of a balanced ministry overall, to address an imbalance that existed I offer the following from Owen on the Holy Spirit Vol 3:
1. “The work, as we may gather from various allusions in it, was written in opposition to the rationalism of the early Socinians, especially as represented by Crellius; to the mysticism of the Quakers, a sect which had grown into notoriety within thirty years before the publication of this work; and to the irreligion of a time when the derision of all true piety was the passport to royal favor.”
The Holy Spirit by John Owen, vol 3, pg. 2, Preferatory Note, by the editor William H. Gould
Note the specific statement of opposition to “:rationalism” and “irreligion and derisioin of all true piety as a passport to royal favor”
2. “Against such fanaticism it was natural that a reaction should ensue, and certain divines pandered to the blind prejudice of the times succeeding the Restoration, by sarcastic invective against all that was evangelical in the creed of the Puritans and vital in personal godliness. Samuel Parker, in his infamous subserviency to the malice of the Court against dissent, and even against the common interests of Protestantism, distinguished himself in this assault upon the doctrines of grace and the distinctive principles of the Christian faith.”
The Holy Spirit by John Owen, vol 3, pg.2, Preferatory Note, by the editor William H. Gould
Note the specific statement dealing with certain divines antagonistic to distinctive principles of the Christian faith.
3. “In 1678, Dr. Clagett, preacher to the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn, and one of his Majesty’s chaplains in ordinary, in “A Discourse concerning the Operation of the Holy Spirit,” etc., attempted “a confutation of some part of Dr. Owen’s work on that subject.” Mr. John Humfrey, in his “Peaceable Disquisitions,” having animadverted on the spirit in which Clagett had dealt with Owen, Clagett published another volume, and promised a third on the opinions of the Fathers respecting the points at issue. The manuscript of this last volume was lost in a fire which consumed the house of a friend with whom it had been lodged. Henry Stebbing published, in 1719, an abridgment of the first two volumes. The principles of the work are not evangelical; a tone of cold pedantry pervades it; and the author seems as much influenced by a desire to differ from Owen as to discover the truth in regard to the points on which they differed.”
The Holy Spirit by John Owen, vol 3, pg. 3, Preferatory Note, by the editor William H. Gould
Note the specific reference to “a tone of Cold pedantry” in the attempted refutation of Owen’s work.
4. “The THIRD BOOK is occupied with the subject of regeneration as the especial work of the Spirit; it is shown not to consist in baptism merely, or external reformation, or enthusiastic raptures,”
The Holy Spirit by John Owen, vol 3, pg. 4, Preferatory Note, by the editor William H. Gould
Note the specific reference to regeneration “not to consist in baptism merely, or external reformation”
So much for the analysis of Mr. Gould, the points made by the author himself, which are in his own preface to the book, follow and are even more to the point:
1. “For although all that diligence, in the use of outward means, necessary to the attainment of the knowledge of any other useful truth, be indispensably required in the pursuit of an acquaintance with these things also, yet if, moreover, there be not an addition of spiritual ways and means, suited in their own nature, and appointed of God, unto the receiving of supernatural light and the understanding of the deep things of God, our labor about them will in a great measure be but fruitless and unprofitable: for although the letter of the Scripture and the sense of the propositions are equally exposed to the reason of all mankind, yet the real spiritual knowledge of the things themselves is not communicated unto any but by the especial operation of the Holy Spirit. Nor is any considerable degree of insight into the doctrine of the mysteries of them attainable but by a due waiting on Him who alone giveth “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of them;” for “the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God,” and they to whom by him they are revealed.”
The Holy Spirit by John Owen, vol 3, pg. 6, To The Readers, by the author, John Owen.
Owen makes this point repeatedly, stressing the futility of the rational mind apart from the work of the spirit in his preface and then makes this statement toward the end of his work concerning the aspersions cast on those who content for the operations of the Spirit of God:
2. “The oppositions unto all that we believe and maintain herein are of two sorts: — First, Such as consist in particular exceptions against and objections unto each particular work of the Spirit, whether in the communication of gifts or the operation of grace. Secondly, Such as consist in reflections cast on the whole work ascribed unto him in general. Those of the first sort will all of them fall under consideration in their proper places, where we treat of those especial actings of the Spirit whereunto they are opposed.”
“The other sort, at least the principal of them,wherewith some make the greatest noise in the world, may be here briefly spoken unto:-- The first and chief pretense of this nature is, that all those who plead for the effectual operations of the Holy Spirit in the illumination of the minds of men, the reparation of their natures, the sanctification of their persons, and their endowment with spiritual gifts, are therein and thereby enemies to reason, and impugn the use of it in religion, or at least allow it not that place and exercise therein which is its due. Hence, some of those who are otherwise minded affirm that it is cast on them as a reproach that they are rational divines; although, so far as I can discern, if it be so, it is as Hierom was beaten by an angel for being a Ciceronian (in the judgment of some), very undeservedly. But the grounds whereon this charge should be made good have not as yet been made to appear; neither hath it been evinced that anything is ascribed by us unto the efficacy of God’s grace in the least derogatory unto reason, its use, or any duty of man depending thereon.”
The Holy Spirit by John Owen, vol 3, pg. 11, To The Readers, by the author, John Owen.
Note how Owen makes the point that those who contend openly for the mandatory nature of the Operations of the spirit are labeled as enemies to reason.
I will present statements from Edwards and Philpots and Bunyans Works as time affords, since you have asked for them, suspecting that you will reject what these men have themselves clearly stated, but praying that you will consider what I say.
