Remains of that reverend and learned divine, John Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in…Remaines of that reverend and learned divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in…

To this I answer, that this you must know, that ¹the only means to receive the Spirit into the heart, the right conveyance of the Spirit into the heart, is by the Word purely preached, when it comes in the evidence of the Spirit purely, without the mixture of any thing of mans with it: and further you shall know, whether you have received the Spirit by the preaching of the Word, by these two things; by the antecedent, and by the consequent.

To this I answer, that this you must know, that ¹the onely meanes to receive the Spirit into the heart, the right conveyance of the Spirit into the heart, is by the Word purely preached, when it comes in the evidence of the Spirit purely, without the mixture of any thing of mans with it: and further you shall know, whether you have received the Spirit by the preaching of the Word, by these two things; by the antecedent, and by the consequent.

1. 1Answ.

First, you shall know it by that which went before: ¹if the Spirit hath been wrought by the Word, then there will be a deep humiliation wrought in the soul for sin, and then Christ and the Spirit comes into the heart, and begins to cheer up the dejected soul, and strengthens the inward man, and then thereupon there will be a thorough change wrought in the whole man, and it must needs be so; because the nature of the Spirit is, first to pull down what mans corruption hath built; and then to lay down the foundation of the spiritual building, humility; and then after to rear the building of grace in the soul; as for example, if you would know whether the plants ⟨p. 146⟩receive virtue from the Olive or no: then you must know, that first they must be cut off, and then they must be ingrafted in, and then see, whether they have the fatness of the Olive, and then, whether they bear the Olive leaves; so a man that hath not received the Spirit by the word, he shall see it by the ripeness of sins, the corrupt branches, the bitter fruit that comes and is brought forth by him; but on the contrary, if the Word by the Spirit hath cut you down and humbled you throughly in the sight of sin, and then ingrafted you into Christ, by working in you a saving justifying faith: and if it hath then made you fat and well liking in grace, that you have brought forth better fruit then you could before, then certainly the Spirit came into the heart the right way, and works in the right manner: but as I said, it will first humble you by the Word, as in