Note 281 — CASES OF CONSCIENCE, ABOUT MATTERS ECCLESIASTICAL. (continued 3)
Reading edition
Matt. xxviii. 19, 20; 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13; Eph. iv. 4, 5.
[282] The Spirit is not given radically or immediately to any christian, but to Christ our Head alone, and from him to us.
[283] Acts xxvi. 8; 2 Tim. iv. 7; Rom. viii. 30; Gal. iv. 6.
[284] Rom. viii. 9, 16, 26.
[285] Mr. Whiston, p. 60, showeth, That even the promises of a new heart, &c. Ezek. xxxvi. xxxvii. &c. though they may run in the external tenor of them absolutely, yet are not absolutely absolute, but have a subordinate condition, and that is, that the parties concerned in them do faithfully use the means appointed of God in a subserviency to his working in or bestowing on them the good promised.
[286] God's being a God to any individual person doth require and presuppose that they do for the present, supposing them capable, or for the future as soon as capable, take God in Christ as their God. Ibid. p. 61.