The Ordinary Operations of the Holy Spirit

In the power of the Holy Ghost resteth an ability to know God, and to please him. It is he, that purifieth the mind by his secret working. He enlighteneth the heart to conceive,worthy thoughts of Almighty God."  ~George Stanley Faber

A
PRACTICAL TREATISE
THE ORDINARY OPERATIONS
OF
THE HOLY SPIRIT

By the Reverend George Stanley Faber (1773-1854)
Published in London, England 1814

Description: A thoughtfully-distilled but unforgiving assertion of the valuelessness of superficial religiousness. George Faber (1773-1854) was educated at Oxford, where he was made a fellow of University College in 1793. He resigned his fellowship a decade later in order to marry, and took up a series of livings (including Long Newton, to which he is identified as being rector in this edition) before becoming prebendary of Salisbury in 1830. Faber was an evangelical (but not a dissenter) who stressed the importance of faith as faith's own justification, and the absolute authority of the scriptures. Faber completed his treatise on the Holy Spirit in 1800, but was by his own definition 'in no hurry' to publish, preferring instead to reflect on and digest what he had written. The work finally appeared c1813-14. Within, he asserts that people are 'no better than heathens' if their Christianity is outward only. Instead, he advocates a 'radical change of heart' accompanied by a concerted change in 'outward manners.

A PRACTICAL TREATISE
THE ORDINARY OPERATIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

PREFACE

Every person, who is in the least degree acquainted with the corruption of the human heart, will readily acknowledge, that his own unassisted abilities are totally unequal to the task of faithfully serving God. Repeated violations of the most solemn resolutions of amendment have shown him his weakness ; and his numerous lapses have wofully convinced him, that he stands in need of some divine conductor to lead him in safety through the perilous journey of life. Such a guide is promised in Scripture to every sincere Christian.

 We are not to suppose, that the ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit were confined to the apostolic age. Human nature is much alike, at all periods, and in all countries. Though Christianity is now established, and though miraculous interference is no longer necessary to the well-being of the Church ; yet the present race of men will never be essentially better than their heathen predecessors, so long as they rest satisfied with having only outwardly embraced the religion of the Messiah. A mere hypocritical and external profession of faith cannot be pleasing to that God, who regards motives no less than actions. A radical change must take place in the heart, as well as an outward reformation in the manners; and this change can only be effected by the agency of some superior power. The heart is as much averse now to the genuine practice of piety, as it was in the days of the Apostles; and, though we have no longer to combat the horrors of persecution, we have still to struggle with the unwillingness and corruption of the soul. If the whole of religion consisted in the bare belief of certain tenets and in the due observance of certain ceremonies, we should find very little difficulty in becoming thoroughly religious characters. But,

when we are called upon to begin the work of self- reformation: when we are required to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength ; when we are enjoined to prefer, upon all occasions, his will to our own, and to sacrifice our bosom sins, our darling vices, upon the altar of Christianity; then commences the struggle: the inbred venom of our nature immediately shows itself; our very spirit rises both against the law and the lawgiver; and we discover the utter impossibility of working any change in our affections merely by our own efforts. No human arguments can persuade a man to love what he hates, and to delight in what he detests. Submission they may perhaps teach him; but it will be the sullen submission of a slave, not the cheerful acquiescence of a son. To produce this change is the peculiar office of the Holy Spirit; and, since none but he can produce it, his ordinary influence is absolutely and universally necessary at present, and will be equally so even to the very end of the world.

In the following pages, I have endeavored to state what appears to me the plain doctrine of Scripture and the Church of England. Though we are repeatedly assured by the word of God, that of ourselves we can do no good thing; yet we. are never represented as mere machines, subjected to an overwhelming and irresistible influence. The aid of the Holy Spirit is freely offered unto all; nor does that blessed Person

cease to strive even with the most profligate, till they have obstinately rejected the counsel of God against themselves. The still small voice of conscience, which is in effect the voice of God, long continues to admonish them: and the extreme difficulty, which they find in silencing it, sufficiently shows how unwilling the Almighty is that any should perish. All that will, may be saved; for our Lord hath expressly declared, that, whosoever cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast him out. Let none therefore despair on the ground of their being rejected by a tremendous and irreversible decree of exclusion: for surely, if such a decree existed, God's repeated expostulations with sinners for slighting his gracious offers, when at the same time they lay under a fatal necessity of slighting them, would be a solemn mockery, unworthy of a being of infinite mercy and holiness.

In fact, the general experience of mankind perfectly agrees with scripture. There never yet was a good man who did not find that he both required and received divine assistance to enable him to overcome his corruptions; and there never yet was a bad man, who did not perceive somewhat within him forcibly restraining him from the commission of sin, and warmly urging him to the practice of holiness. Half of the follies and vanities of the world are mere contrivances to silence this troublesome monitor. Men love darkness rather than lights simply because their deeds are evil.

Reverend George Stanley Faber
May 31, 1800