2. This also by the way may serve to detect that Doctrine some, nay too many maintain, of the Power of the Creature: 1Alas, alas, what can the Dead do! For evident it is, that those who are thus dead, have no Principle or first Power of living unto God, or to perform any Duty to be accepted of him: It is with them, as to all Acts and Ends of spiritual Life, as with the Body, as to the Acts and Ends of natural Life, when the Soul is departed from it; or else God would never say they are dead, call them dead. Does God make use of an improper Metaphor? Dare they affirm that? It must be so, if Man naturally be not dead, but wounded, in a spiritual Sense only. True, a wicked Man is naturally alive, and his Soul is in his Body, and he is endowed with Understanding, Will and Affection, and may perform many Duties God requires of him: But what of this? for in spiritual Life the Holy Ghost is unto the Soul, what the Soul is unto the Body, in respect of natural Life, namely, the quickening Principle. And (as a Learned Author well observes) to deny such a quickening ⟨p. 147⟩2Principle of spiritual Life, superadded unto us by the Grace of Christ, distinct and separate from the natural Faculties of the Soul, is upon the Matter to renounce the whole Gospel: It is all one as to deny that Adam was created in the Image of God, which he lost, and that we are renewed unto the Image of God by Jesus Christ.
2. This also by the way may serve to detect that Doctrine some, nay too many maintain, of the Power of the Creature: 1Alas, alas, what can the Dead do! For evident it is, that those who are thus dead, have no Principle or first Power of living unto God, or to perform any Duty to be accepted of him: It is with them, as to all Acts and Ends of spiritual Life, as with the Body, as to the Acts and Ends of natural Life, when the Soul is departed from it; or else God would never say they are dead, call them dead. Does God make use of an improper Metaphor? Dare they affirm that? It must be so, if Man naturally be not dead, but wounded, in a spiritual Sense only. True, a wicked Man is naturally alive, and his Soul is in his Body, and he is endowed with Vnderstanding, Will and Affection, and may perform many Duties God requires of him: But what of this? for in spiritual Life the Holy Ghost is unto the Soul, what the Soul is unto the Body, in respect of natural Life, namely, the quickning Principle. And (as a Learned Author well observes) to deny such a quickning ⟨p. 147⟩2Principle of spiritual Life, superadded unto us by the Grace of Christ, distinct and separate from the natural Faculties of the Soul, is upon the Matter to renounce the whole Gospel: It is all one as to deny that Adam was created in the Image of God, which he lost, and that we are renewed unto the Image of God by Jesus Christ.
- 1Arminianism detected.
- 2Dr. Owen.
