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The Puritans and their Heirs on the Sensible Presence of God, the Immediate Work of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit’s Work of Assurance

I’ve been compiling these quotes for a while now. I plan to add to the list:

Puritan William Guthrie speaks of the shedding abroad of God’s love in the heart and the sensible presence of God to the soul:

I speak with the experience of many saints, and, I hope, according to Scripture, if I say there is a communication of the Spirit of God which is sometimes vouchsafed to some of His people that is somewhat besides, if not beyond, that witnessing of a sonship spoken of before. It is a glorious divine manifestation of God unto the soul, shedding abroad God’s love in the heart; it is a thing better felt than spoken of: it is no audible voice, but it is a ray of glory filling the soul with God, as He is life, light, love, and liberty, corresponding to that audible voice, ‘O man, greatly beloved’ (Dan. 9: 23); putting a man in a transport with this on his heart, ‘It is good to be here.’ (Matt. 17: 4.) It is that which went out from Christ to Mary, when He but mentioned her name– ‘Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto Him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master.’ (John 20: 16.) He had spoken some words to her before, and she understood not that it was He: but when He uttereth this one word “Mary”, there was some admirable divine conveyance and manifestation made out unto her heart, by which she was so satisfyingly filled, that there was no place for arguing and disputing whether or no that was Christ, and if she had any interest in Him. That manifestation wrought faith to itself, and did purchase credit and trust to itself, and was equivalent with, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ This is such a glance of glory, that it may in the highest sense be called ‘the earnest,’ or first-fruits ‘of the inheritance’ (Eph. 1: 14); for it is a present, and, as it were, sensible discovery of the holy God, almost wholly conforming the man unto His likeness; so swallowing him up, that he forgetteth all things except the present manifestation. O how glorious is this manifestation of the Spirit! Faith here riseth to so full an assurance, that it resolveth wholly into the sensible presence of God. This is the thing which does best deserve the title of sensible presence; and is not given unto all believers, some whereof ‘are all their days under bondage, and in fear’ (Heb. 2: 15); but here ‘love, almost perfect, casteth out fear.’ (1 John 4: 18.) This is so absolutely let out upon the Master’s pleasure, and so transient or passing, or quickly gone when it is, that no man may bring his gracious state into debate for want of it. (from Scottish Presbyterian William Guthrie, The Christian’s Great Interest, available online HERE)

John Owen distinguishes between faith and spiritual sense. Faith alone justifies. Spiritual sense comes and goes, but there is no denying its reality:

Learn to distinguish between faith and spiritual sense. This rule the apostle gives us in 2 Cor v. 7, ‘We walk by faith, and not by sight.’ It is the sight of glory that is especially here intended. But faith and sense in any kind are clearly distinguished. That may be believed which is not felt; yea, it is the will and command of God that faith should stand and do its work where sense fails…And if we will believe no more of God, of his loved, of his grace, of our acceptance with him, than we have a spiritual affecting sense of, we shall be many times at a loss (John Owen, Works vol. 6, pp. 561-562).

John Owen describes the teaching of the Spirit, which is a part of his anointing (1 John 2: 20, 27). There is an unction of the Spirit which brings joy:

A teaching by the Spirit of consolation; – making sweet, useful, and joyful to the soul, the discoveries that are made of the mind and will of God in the light of the Spirit of sanctification. Here the oil of the Spirit is called the ‘oil of gladness,’ – that which brings joy and gladness with it; and the name of Christ thereby discovered is a sweet ‘ointment poured forth,’ that causeth souls to run after him with joy and delight [Song of Solomon 1:3]. We see it by daily experience, that very many have little taste and sweetness and relish in their souls of those truths which yet they savingly know and believe; but when we are taught by this unction, oh, how sweet is every thing we know of God!…When we find any of the good truths of the gospel come home to our souls with life, vigour, and power, giving us gladness of heart, transforming us into the image and likeness of it, – the Holy Ghost is then at work, is pouring out of his oil (Communion with God, from Works vol. 2, p. 248).

One way (not the only way, or primary way) in which the Spirit of God brings a believer joy is by his immediate work to and upon the soul. I find the example of John the Baptist leaping for joy in the womb of his mother quite compelling and helpful:

He doth it immediately by himself; without the consideration of any other acts or works of his, or the interposition of any reasonings, or deductions and conclusions. As in sanctification he is a well of water springing up in the soul, immediately exerting his efficacy and refreshment; so in consolation, he immediately works the soul and minds of men to a joyful, rejoicing, and spiritual frame, filling them with exultation and gladness; – not that this arises from our reflex consideration of the love of God, but rather gives occasion thereunto. When he so sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, and so fills them with gladness by an immediate act and operation (as he caused John [the] Baptist to leap for joy in the womb upon the approach of the mother of Jesus), – then doth the soul, even from hence, raise itself to a consideration of the love of God, whence joy and rejoicing doth also flow. Of this joy there is no account to be given, but that the Spirit worketh it when and how he will. He secretly infuseth and distills it into the soul, prevailing against all fears and sorrows, filling it with gladness, exultations; and sometimes with unspeakable raptures of mind (Communion with God, pp. 252-253).

The Spirit sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts in order to give us an ‘overflowing sense’ of the mercy and love of God in Christ:

He ‘sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts,’ Rom. v. 5. That is the love of God to us, not our love to God, which is here intended, the context is so clear as nothing can be added thereunto. Now, the love of God is either of ordination or of acceptation, – the love of his purpose to do us good, or the love of acceptation and approbation with him. Both these are called the love of God frequently in Scripture, as I have declared. Now, how can these be shed abroad in our hearts? Not in themselves, but in a sense of them, – in a spiritual apprehension of them. ἐκκέχυται, is ‘shed abroad;’ the same word that is used concerning the Comforter being given to us, Tit. iii.6. God sheds him abundantly, or pours him on us; so he sheds abroad, or pours out the love of God in our hearts. Not to insist on the expression, which is metaphorical, the business is, that the Comforter gives us sweet and plentiful evidence and persuasion of the love of God to us, such as the soul is taken, delighted, satiated withal. This is his work, and he doeth it effectually. To give a poor sinful soul a comfortable persuasion, affecting it throughout, in all its faculties and affections, that God in Jesus Christ loves him, delights in him, is pleased with him, hath thoughts of tenderness and kindness towards him; to give, I say, a soul an overflowing sense hereof, is an inexpressible mercy (John Owen, Works vol. 2, p. 240)

The Spirit stills the storms of the soul with a word, and thereby we rejoice in his presence:

The soul knows the [the Holy Spirit’s] voice when he speaks…There is something too great in it to be the effect of a created power. When the Lord Jesus Christ at one word stilled the raging of the sea and wind, all that were with him knew there was divine power at hand, Matt. viii.25-27. And when the Holy Ghost by one word stills the tumults and storms that are raised in the soul, giving it an immediate calm and security, it knows his divine power, and rejoices in his presence (John Owen, Works vol. 2, p. 242).

Octavius Winslow on hiding from the presence of Christ and delighting in the presence of Christ:

There is a hiding from his presence; there are misty views of his character, misinterpretations of his dealings and a lessening of holy desire for him: but where the heart is right in its affections, warm in its love, fixed in its desires, God is glorious in his perfections, and communion with him the highest bliss on earth (Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension and the Revival of Religion in the Soul, pp. 50-51)

The sensible presence of God, and his absence, can be sensed in the soul:

He who knows God, who, with faith’s eye, has discovered some of his glory, and by the power of the Spirit has felt something of his love, will not be at a loss to distinguish between God’s sensible presence and absence in the soul. Some professing people walk so much without communion, without fellowship, without daily filial and close intercourse with God; they are so immersed in the cares, and so lost in the fogs and mists of the world; the fine edge of their spiritual affection is so blunted, and their love so frozen by contact with worldly influences and occupations, – and no less so, with cold, formal professors, – that the Sun of righteousness may cease to shine upon their soul, and they not know it! God may cease to visit them, and his absence not be felt! He may cease to speak, and the stillness of his voice not awaken an emotion of alarm! Yea, a more strange thing would happen to them if the Lord were suddenly to break in upon their soul, with a visit of love, than were he to leave them for weeks and months without any token of his presence (Personal Declension, pp. 52-53).

Martyn Lloyd-Jones used an illustration from Puritan Thomas Goodwin for the special manifestations of God in the Spirit. The idea is that there are times when God especially manifests his fatherly love by workings of the Spirit in the soul. I have not been able to track down the original source for Goodwin’s exact illustration, but here it is in the words of the Doctor:

A man and his little child are walking down the road and they are walking hand in hand, and the child knows that he is the child of his father, and he knows that his father loves him, and he rejoices in that, and he is happy in it. There is no uncertainty about it all, but suddenly the father, moved by some impulse, takes hold of the child and picks him up, fondles him in his arms, kisses him, embraces him, showers his love upon him, and then he puts him down again and they go on walking together (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Joy Unspeakable, pp. 95-96).

Charles Spurgeon, in a sermon called ‘The Former and the Latter Rain‘ insisted on the need for the reviving work of the Holy Spirit. He stressed that there are spiritual heights available that most believers do not see, and therefore should all the more desire and seek:

My Brothers and Sisters, there is a point in Grace as much above the ordinary Christian, as the ordinary Christian is
above the worldling. Believe me, the life of Divine Grace is no dead level, it is not a low country, a vast flat. There are
mountains and there are valleys. There are tribes of Christians who live in the valleys, like the poor Swiss of the Valais,
who live in the midst of the mist, where fever has its lair and the frame is languid and enfeebled. Such dwellers in the
lowlands of unbelief are forever doubting, fearing, troubled about their interest in Christ and tossed to and fro. But
there are other Believers, who, by God’s Grace, have climbed the mountain of full assurance and near communion. Their
place is with the eagle in his eyrie, high aloft.

The Westminster Confession speaks of an assurance (who can doubt this is the work of the Spirit?) which is not the same as saving faith:

I. Although hypocrites, and other unregenerate men, may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions: of being in the favor of God and estate of salvation; which hope of theirs shall perish: yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are in a state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God: which hope shall never make them ashamed.

II. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probably persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God; which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.

III. This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it: yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto. And therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure; that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance: so far is it from inclining men to looseness.

IV. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it; by falling into some special sin, which woundeth the conscience, and grieveth the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation; by God’s withdrawing the light of his countenance and suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light: yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived, and by the which, in the meantime, they are supported from utter despair (WCF, chapter 18).

The Spirit Produces Fruit by Exposure to the Son

There is a perpetual proneness to seek our fruitfulness from anything save a close, spiritual, and constant dealing with the cross of Jesus: but as well might we expect the earth to clothe itself with verdure, or the tree to blossom, and the blossom to ripen into fruit, without the sun’s genial warmth, as to look for fruitfulness in a regenerate soul, without a constant dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ; for, just what the sun is to the kingdom of nature, Jesus the Sun of righteousness is to the kingdom of grace – the blessed source of all its verdure, fragrance, and fruitfulness….Live upon the atoning blood of Jesus. Here is the fatness of thy soul found; this is that heals the wound, wins the heart, and hushes to repose every fear of condemnation…And when the spiritual seasons change – for it is not always spring-time with the soul of a child of God – when the summer’s sun withers, or the autumnal blast scatters the leave, and winter’s fiercer storm beats upon the smitten bough, the blood and righteousness of Christ, lived upon, loved, and cherished, will yet sustain the Divine life in the soul, and in due season the spring blossom and summer fruit shall again appear… (Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension, pp. 164-165).

The Unmortified Root

How few among the called of God are found confessing and mourning over the sin of their nature – the impure fountain from whence flows the stream, the unmortified root from whence originates the branch, and from which both are fed and nourished! This is what God looks at – the sin of our nature – and this is what we should look at, and mourn over. Indeed, true mortification of sin consists in a knowledge of our sinful nature, and its subjection to the power of Divine grace (Octavius Winslow, Personal Declension, p. 172).

The Heresy of Seeking False Assurance

The issue of assurance of salvation is a great one for many believers. Lack of assurance is often a problem that plagues us, hinders us, and stunts our spiritual growth and witness to the gospel. Assurance is something we should seek. But we must be careful not to seek it in the wrong way. A wrong-heading seeking for assurance can not only lead to false assurance on the one hand, and destroyed assurance on the other, it can also lead to a heretical confusing of the persons of the Godhead. This is how Octavius Winslow puts it:

It is the work of Jesus alone, his perfect obedience to the broken law of God, and his sacrificial death as a satisfaction of Divine justice, that form the ground of a sinner’s acceptance with God, – the source of his pardon, justification, and peace. The work of the Spirit is, not to atone, but to reveal the atonement; not to obey, but to make known the obedience; not to pardon and justify, but to bring the convinced, awakened, penitent soul to receive the pardon and embrace the justification already provided in the work of Jesus. Now, if there is any substitution of the Spirit’s work for Christ’s work, – any undue, unauthorized leaning upon the work within, instead of the work without, the believer, there is a dishonour done to Christ, and a consequent grieving of the Holy Spirit of God (Personal Declension and the Revival of Religion in the Soul, pp. 136-137).

He continues,

If I look to convictions of sin within me, to any motion of the indwelling Spirit, to any part of his work, as the legitimate source of healing, of comfort, or of evidence, I turn my back upon Christ, I remove my eye from the cross, and slight his great atoning work; I make a Christ of the Spirit! (Ibid, p. 137).

Does this mean that we are not to be diligent to make our calling and election sure? (2 Peter 1:10). By no means. But it means that we must, as Robert Murray M’Cheyne put it, look to Christ more often than we look to ourselves: ‘For every look at self, take ten looks at Christ.‘ A continual looking to the self, and to the Spirit’s work within us, is a looking away from Christ. The Spirit’s work is to glorify Christ, to reveal Christ, to point to Christ. How then can the Spirit do his work within us if we refuse to look away from his work within us and fix our eyes on Christ. As Dorothy Sayers put it,

We cannot really look at the movement of the Spirit, just because It is the Power by which we do the looking (The Mind of the Maker, p. 115).

Our ‘hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock I stand! All other ground is sinking sand.’ Build your assurance on self and become a miserable failure. Build your assurance upon the Spirit and you confuse the persons of the Godhead. Build your assurance upon Christ and find a bold stability.

Spiritual Slumps and the Presence of Christ

This is a recent readings post (so to speak). I am presently finishing up Personal Declension and the Revival of Religion in the Soul by Octavius Winslow. This is a meditation I put down in writing after reading chapter 1. For more on the allegorical and illustrative use of Song of Solomon, see HERE.
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Why is it that we go through spiritual peaks and valleys? Why is it that we may be disciplined readers of the Bible, that we may have discipline in prayer, that we may observe the means of grace week by week and yet still at times feel that our souls are declining? Perhaps, like me, you have found that there are times when it feels that you are spiritually dry, spiritually dull. There may be no gross sin in your life, nothing out of the ordinary (though I hate to put it that way), and yet your soul slumps. How can this be explained?

Octavius Winslow put it like this:

This incipient state of declension may not involve any lowering of the standard of holiness; and yet there shall be no ascending of the heart, no reaching forth of the mind towards a practical conformity to that standard…there shall be no panting after conformity to Christ, no breathing after holiness…when there is more knowledge of the truth than experience of its power, – more light in the understanding than grace in the affections…The state of secret departure from God may exist in connexion with an outward and rigid observance of the means of grace; and yet there shall be no spiritual use of or enjoyment in, the means. And this, it may be, is the great lullaby of his soul. Rocked to sleep by a mere formal religion, the believer is beguiled into the delusion that his heart is right,k and his soul prosperous in the sight of God (pp. 15-16).

That’s the state we’re talking about – a dry, powerless state which is religious nonetheless. What is the answer to such a position? Winslow finds it only in the presence of Christ, mediated by the Holy Spirit. And Song of Solomon illustrates such a condition and its cure. First, from Song of Solomon 5:2-6:

  • Song of Solomon 5:2 I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking. “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.” 3 I had put off my garment; how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them? 4 My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me. 5 I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt. 6 I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer.

Winslow uses this as an illustration:

‘I sleep, but my heart waketh.’ Here was the existence of the Divine life in the soul, and yet that life was on the decline. She knew that she had fallen into a careless and slumbering state, that the work of grace in her soul was decaying, that the spirit of slumber had come over her; but the awful feature was, she was content to be so. She heard her Beloved knock: but, so enamoured was she with her state of drowsiness, she gave no heed to it – she opened not to him…A believer may fall into a drowsy sate of soul, not so profound as to be entirely lost to the voice of his Beloved speaking by conscience, by the word, and by providences: and yet so far may his grace have decayed, so cold may his love have grown, and so hardening may have been this declension, he shall be content that this should be his state (pp. 21-22).

The Shulamite had had the presence of her beloved before. She had experienced his love, his intimate presence, yet this presence was not static. This time sleep overcame her. Behold, he stood at the door and knocked. She heard his voice. But she was too drowsy to open the door that he might come in and commune with her.

This was a familiar occurrence for the Shulamite. Consider the first verse of Song of Solomon 3, and Winslow’s comment on it:

‘By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought him, but I found him not.’ And the reason why she found him not, was her slothful posture, and her drowsy spirit in seeking him! Guard against a slothful seeking of Jesus…Seek him as that which can supply the absence of all other good, without whom nothing is good (p. 25).

How often I have lay in my bed, realizing that I had not sought Christ as I ought in the day that had passed. And so, when you find yourself in such a position, will you seek communion now as your eyes get heavy, as you prepare to fall asleep?

Spiritual slumps, backsliding, lethargy of the soul, call it what you will, is often the result of a loss of, as Winslow calls it, the ‘sensible presence’ of Christ. This is why Jesus tells the lukewarm church in Revelation 3:20 that he stands at the door and knocks. This was not an evangelistic statement per se. It was a statement of possibility to those who had already been evangelized. A deeper fellowship awaited them, it was there for the seeking. This is why the Apostle prayed for the Ephesians,

  • ‘that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God’ (3:17-19).

How could the Apostle pray that those who were already believers, who were already in Christ, and Christ in them, would have a future experience of Christ dwelling in the heart which they had not yet known. He was praying for a ‘sensible presence,’ for a deeper communion, for the most intimate of fellowship. That’s the answer to spiritual slumps – only the presence of Christ through the mediation of the Spirit.

George MacDonald put it this way:

Sometimes I wake, and, lo! I have forgot
And drifted out upon an ebbing sea!
My soul that was at rest now resteth not,
For I am with myself and not with thee (Diary of an Old Soul, 1.3).

Heed the words of Isaiah:

  • Isaiah 55:6 “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;

And remember the words of Spurgeon:

There is a point in grace as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling. (from Spurgeon’s sermon on Jeremiah 5:24, The Former and the Latter Rain).

Why was it better for his disciples that Jesus go away? (John 16:7) Because the Spirit now bears witness of Jesus – not only of his words, but of his presence. And that presence can lift up to heights we know little or nothing of. This is what explains the slumps – this presence, by the Spirit – this point in grace so far above the experience of the ordinary Christian (because the ordinary Christian doesn’t care to seek it).

This does not mean signs and wonders. It doesn’t mean chills and goosebumps necessarily. It means a spiritual presence of a real Christ with his people. And we don’t seek it nearly enough. What joy there could be if we did.

  • Acts 3:19 Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus…

There is a Point in Grace as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the Wordling

Some Christians, says C.H. Spurgeon, live in the valleys and some fly with the eagles. The Christian experience is not static or cookie-cutter-like. Some lack assurance while others ‘have climbed the mountain of full assurance and near communion.’ Even our own experience of communion with God varies from day to day and from season to season. But the quote, following this line of thought, that I want to record here is this:

There is a point in grace as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling. (from Spurgeon’s sermon on Jeremiah 5:24, The Former and the Latter Rain).

This quote struck me years ago when I first read it as very profound and important, and certainly worth remembering. Let me offer a paraphrase: There can be as much difference between one Christian and another in their communion with God as there is between a Christian and a non-believer.

I record this quote because it will come up in the the near future as I begin to discuss Octavius Winslow’s book, Personal Declension and the Revival of Religion in the Soul. Until then, here are a couple of Bible passages that demonstrate the availability of progression of intimacy and experience in communion with Christ:

  • Revelation 3:15 ¶ “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
  • Ephesians 3:16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.