up into an ear the Spring improved to Autumn when the tongue discourses the hands act the feet run the way of Gods Commandments So I say the soul is the mother and the operations of soul and body the nurse of this Spirit in us and then who can hold in his Spirit without stifling from breaking out into that joyful acclamation Blessed is the womb that bears this incarnate Spirit and the paps that give him suck Now this inward principle this grace of regeneration though it be seated in the whole soul as it is an habit yet as it is an operative habit producing or rather enabling the man to produce several gracious works so it is peculiarly in every part and accordingly receives divers names according to several exercises of its power in those several parts As the soul of man sees in the eye hears in the ear understands in the brain chooses and desires in the heart and being but one soul yet works in every room every shop of the body in a several trade as it were and is accordingly called a seeing a hearing a willing or understanding soul thus doth the habit of grace seated in the whole express and evidence it self peculiarly in every act of it and is called by as several names as the reasonable soul hath distinct acts or objects In the understanding 't is first spiritual wisdom and discretion in holy things opposite to which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. i. 28. an unapproving as well as unapproved or reprobate mind and frequently in Scripture spiritual blindness Then as a branch of this it is belief or assent to the truth of the promises and the like in the practical judgment 't is spiritual prudence in ordering all our holy knowledge to holy practice in the will 't is a regular choice of whatsoever may prove available to salvation a holy love of the end and embracing of the means with courage and zeal Lastly in the outward man 't is an ordering of all our actions to a blessed conformity with a sanctified soul In brief 't is one principle within us doth every thing that is holy believes repents hopes loves obeys and what not And consequently is effectually in every part of body and soul sanctifying it to work spiritually as an holy instrument of a divine invisible cause that is the Holy Ghost that is in us and throughout us For the third question when this new principle enters first you are to know that comes into the heart in a three-fold condition 1. as an harbinger 2. as a private secret guest 3. as an inhabitant or house-keeper As 't is an harbinger so it comes to fit and prepare us for it self trims up and sweeps and sweetens the soul that it may be readier to entertain him when he comes to reside and that he doth as the ancient gladiators had their arma praelusoria by skirmishing with our corruptions before he comes to give them a pitch-battel he brandishes a flaming sword about our ears and as by a flash of lightning gives us a sense of a dismal hideous state and so somewhat restrains us from excess and fury first by a momentary remorse then by a more lasting yet not purifying flame the Spirit of bondage In sum every check of conscience every sigh for sin every fear of judgment every desire of grace every motion or inclination toward spiritual good he it never so short-winded is praeludium spiritus a kind of John Baptist to Christ something that God sent before to prepare the wayes of the Lord. And thus the Spirit comes very often in every affliction every disease which is part of Gods discipline to keep us in some order in brief at every Sermon that works upon us at the hearing then I say the lightning flashes in our eyes we have a glimpse of his Spirit but cannot come to a full sight of it and thus he appears to many whom he will never dwell with Unhappy men that they cannot lay hold on him when he comes so near them and yet somewhat more happy then they that never came within ken of him stopt their ears when he spake to them even at this distance Every man in the Christian Church hath frequently in his life a power to partake of Gods ordinary preparing graces and 't is some degree of obedience though no work of regeneration to make good use of them and if he without the Inhabitance of the Spirit cannot make such use as he should yet to make the best he can and thus I say the Spirit appears to the unregenerate almost every day of our lives 2. When this Spirit comes a guest to lodge with us then is he said to enter but till by actions and frequent obliging works he makes himself known to his neighbours as long as he keeps his chamber till he declare himself to be there so long he remains a private secret guest and that 's called the introduction of the form that makes a man to be truly regenerate when the seed is sown in his heart when the habit is infused and that is done sometimes discernibly sometimes not discernibly but seldom as when Saul was called in the midst of his madness Acts ix he was certainly able to tell a man the very minute of his change of his being made a new creature Thus they which have long lived in an enormous Antichristian course do many times find themselves strucken on a sudden and are able to date their regeneration and tell you punctually how old they are in the Spirit Yet because there be many preparations to this Spirit which are not this Spirit many presumptions in our hearts false-grounded many tremblings and jealousies in those that have it great affinity between faith natural and spiritual seeing 't is a Spirit that thus enters and not as it did light on the Disciples in a bodily shape 't is not an easie matter for any one to define the time of his conversion Some may guess somewhat nearer then others as remembring a sensible change in themselves but in a word the surest discerning of it is in its working not at its entring I may know that now I have the Spirit better then at what time I came to it Undiscernibly Gods supernatural agency interposes sometimes in the mothers womb as in John Baptist springing in Elizabeth at Maryes salutation Luke i. 41. and perhaps in Jeremy Jer. i. 5. Before thou camest out of the womb I Sanctified thee and in Isaiah Isa xlix 5. The Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant But this divine address attends most ordinarily till the time of our Baptism when the Spirit accompanying the outward sign infuses it self into their hearts and there seats and plants it self and grows up with the reasonable soul keeping even their most luxuriant years within bounds and as they come to an use of their reason to a more and more multiplying this habit of
Psal li. 10. A wound cured up by repentance and differs only from the former purity as a scar from a skin never cut wanting somewhat of the beauty and outward clearness but nothing of either the strength or health of it Optandum esset ut in simplici Virginitate servaretur navis c. It were to be wished that the Ship our Souls could be kept in its simple Virginity never be in danger of either leak or shipwrack But this perpetual integrity being a desperate impossible wish there is one only remedy which though it cannot prevent a leak can stop it And this is repentance after sin committed Post naufragium tabula a means to secure one after a shipwrack to deliver him even in the deep Waters And this we call a restored Virginity of the Soul which Christ also vouchsafes to be conceived and born in The first degree of Innocence being not to have sinned the second to have repented In the second place The Mother of Christ in the flesh was a Virgin not only till the time of Christ's conception but also till the time of his birth Matth. i. 25. He knew her not till she had brought forth c. And farther as we may probably believe remained a Virgin all the days of her life after For to her is applied by the Learned that which is typically spoken of the East-gate of the Sanctuary Ezek. xliv 2. This gate shall be shut it shall not be opened no man shall enter in by it because the Lord the God of Israel hath entred in by it therefore it shall be shut A place if appliable very apposite for the expression Hence is she called by the Fathers Councils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Perpetual Virgin against the Heresie of Helvidius The probability of this might be farther proved if it were needful And ought not upon all principles of nature and of justice the Virgin Soul after Christ once conceived in it remain pure stanch till Christ be born in it nay be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Perpetual Virgin never indulge to sensual pleasures or cast away that purity which Christ either found orwrought in it If it were a respective purity then ought it not perpetually retain and encrease it and never fall off to those disorders that other men supinely live in If it were a recovered purity hold it fast and never turn again As a Dog to his vomit or d Sow to her wallowing in the mire For this conception and birth of Christ in the Soul would not only wash a way the filth that the Swine was formerly mired in but also take away the Swinish nature that she shall never have any strong propension to return again to her former inordinate delights Now this continuance of the Soul in this its recovered Virginity is not from the firm constant stable nature of the Soul but as Eusebius saith in another case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From a more strong able Band the Union of Christ to the Soul his Spiritual Incarnation in it Because the Lord the God of Israel hath entred in by it therefore it shall be shut Ezek. xliv 2. i. e. It shall not be opened either in consent or practise to the lusts and pollutions of the World or Flesh because Christ by being born in it hath cleansed it because he the Word of God said the Word therefore the leprosie is cured in whom he enters he dwells and on whom he makes his real impression he seals them up to the day of redemption unless we unbuild our selves and change our shape we must be his In the third place if we look on the agent in this conception we shall find it both in Mary and in the Soul of Man to be the Holy Ghost that which is conceived in either of them is of the Holy Ghost Mat. i. 20. Nothing in this business of Christs birth with us to be imputed to natural power or causes the whole contrivance and final production of it the preparations to and laboring of it is all the workmanship of the Spirit So that as Mary was called by an Ancient so may the Soul without an Hyperbole by us be styled The Shop of Miracles and The Work-house of the Holy Ghost in which every operation is a miracle to nature and no tools are used but what the Spirit forged and moves Mary conceived Christ but it was above her own reach to apprehend the manner how for so she questions the Angel Luk. i. 34. How shall this be c So doth the Soul of Man conceive and grow big and bring forth Christ yet not it self fully perceives how this work is wrought Christ being for the most part insensibly begotten in us and to be discerned only spiritually not at his entrance but in his fruits In the fourth place That Mary was chosen and appointed among all the Families of the Earth to be the Mother of the Christ was no manner of desert of hers but Gods special favor and dignation whence the words run truly interpreted Luk. i. 28. Hail thou that art highly favored not as the Vulgar read Gratiâ plena full of Grace And again Vers 30. Thou hast found favor with God So is it in the case of Mans Soul there is no power of nature no preparation of Morality no art that all the Philosophy or Learning in the World can teach a man which can deserve this grace at Christs hands that can any way woo or allure God to be born spiritually in us which can perswade or entice the Holy Ghost to conceive and beget Christ in us but only the meer favor good pleasure of God which may be obtained by our prayers but can never be challenged by our merits may be comfortably expected and hoped for as a largess given to our necessities and wants but can never be required as a reward of our deserts For it was no high pitch of perfection which Mary observed in her self as the motive to this favour but only the meer mercy of God which regarded the lowliness of his hand-maid Luke i. 48. Whence in the fifth place This Soul in which Christ will vouchsafe to be born must be a lowly humble soul or else it will not perfectly answer Maries temper nor fully bear a part in her Magnificat where in the midst of her glory she humbly specifies the lowliness of his hand-maid But this by the way In the sixth place If we consider here with John the Baptist his forerunner coming to prepare his way and his Preaching repentance as a necessary requisite to Christs being born received in the World Then we shall drive the matter to a further issue and find repentance a necessary preparation for the birth of Christ in our hearts For so the Baptist's Message set down Isa xl 3. Prepare the ways c. is here interpreted by the event Mat. iii. 2. Repent
It makes him apply himself c. we mean not that the encrease of sin produces faith formally but only inciteth to believe by way of instruction by shewing us what distress we are in and consequently in what a necessity of a deliverer The meditation of our sinful courses may disclose our misery not redress it may explore not mend a sinner like a touchstone to try not any way to alter him It is the controuling Spirit which must effectually renew our spirits and lead us to the Christ which our sins told us we had need of The sense of sin may rouze the soul but it is the Spirit of God that layes the toils the feeling of our guilt may beat the waters but it is the great fisher of our souls which spreads the nets which entraps us as we are in our way to Hell and leads us captive to salvation The mere gripings of our Conscience being not produced by any Pharmacon of the spirit but by some distemper arising from sin what anxiety doth it cause within us What pangs and twinges to the soul O Lord do thou regenerate us and then thy Holy Spirit shall sanctifie even our sins unto our good and if thy grace may lead us our sins shall pursue and drive us unto Christ Secondly by way of character how to distinguish a true convert from a false A man which from an inveterate desperate malady shall meet with a miraculous unexpected cure will naturally have some art of expression above an ordinary joy you shall see him in an extasie of thanksgiving and exultancy whilst another which was never in that distress quietly enjoys the same health and gives thanks softly by himself to his preserver So is it in the distresses of the soul which if they have been excessive and almost beyond hope of recovery as the miracle must so will the expression of this deliverance be somewhat extraordinary The soul which from a good moral or less sinful natural estate is magis immutata quam genita rather chang'd then regenerate into a spiritual goes through this business without any great noise the Spirit entring into it in a still small voice or at a breathing but when a robustous obdurate sinner shall be rather apprehended then called when the Sea shall be commanded to give up his ship-wrack't and the Sepulchre to restore her dead the soul surely which thus escapeth shall not be content with a mean expression but will practice all the Hallelujahs and Magnificats which the triumphant Liturgies of the Saints can afford it Wherefore I say if any one out of a full violent course of sinning conceive himself converted and regenerated let him examine what a degree of spiritual exultancy he hath attained to and if he find it but mean and slight and perfunctory let him somewhat suspect that he may the more confirm the evidence of his calling Now this spiritual exultancy of the regenerate consists both in a solemn humiliation of himself and a spiritual rejoycing in God his Saviour both exprest in Maries Magnificat where she specifies in the midst of her joy the lowliness of his handmaid and in St. Pauls victory-song over death So that if the conversion of an inordinate sinner be not accompanied with unwonted joy and sorrow with a godly sense of his past distress and a godly triumph for his delivery if it be not followed with a violent eagerness to fasten on Christ finally if there be not somewhat above ordinary in the expression then I counsel not to distrust but fear that is with a sollicitous not suspicious trembling to labour to make thy calling and election sure to pray to that Holy Spirit to strike our hearts with a measure of holy joy and holy sorrow some way proportionable to the size of those sins which in our unregeneracy reigned in us and for those of us whom our sins have separated far from him but his grace hath called home to him that he will not suffer us to be content with a distance but draw us close unto himself make us press toward the mark and fasten our selves on that Saviour which hath redeemed us from the body and guilt of this so great death The third Use is of comfort and confirmation to some tender souls who are incorporated into Christ yet finding not in themselves that excessive measure of humiliation which they observe in others suspect their own state and infinitely grieve that they can grieve no more Whereas this doctrine being observed will be an allay to their sorrow and wipe some unnecessary tears from their eyes For if the greatness of sin past or the plentiful relicks of sin remaining do require so great a measure of sorrow to expiate the one and subdue the other if it be a deliverance from an habituate servitude to all manner of sin which provokes this extraordinary pains of expression then certainly they who have been brought up with the spirit which were from their baptism never wholly deprived of it need not to be bound over to this trade of sorrow need not to be set apart to that perpetual humiliation which a more stubborn sin or Devil is wont to be cast out by I doubt not but a soul educated in familiarity with the spirit may at once enjoy her self and it and so that if it have an humble conceit of it self and a filial of God may in earth possess God with some clearness of look some serenity of affections some alacrity of heart and tranquility of spirit God delights not in the torment of his children though some are so to be humbled yea he delights not in such burnt offerings as they bestow upon him who destroy and consume and sacrifice themselves but the Lords delight is in them that fear him filially and put their trust i. e. assurance confidence in his mercy in them that rejoyce that make their service a pleasure not an affliction and thereby possess Heaven before they come to it 'T is observed in husbandry that soil laid on hard barren starved ground doth improve it and at once deface and enrich it which yet in ground naturally fruitful and kept in heart and good case is esteemed unnecessary and burthensome You need not the application Again the husbandman can mend a dry stubborn wayward fruitless earth by overflowing of it and on such indeed is his ordinary requisite discipline to punish it for its amendment But there is a ground otherwise well tempered which they call a weeping ground whence continually water soaks out and this proves seldom fruitful if our learned husbandmen observe aright whereof there is sometime need of draining as well as watering The application is that your soul which either hath been naturally dry and barren or else over-wrought in the business of the world needs a flood of tears to soften and purge it But the well temper'd soul which hath never been out of heart but hath alwayes had some inward life some fatness of
for him i. e. as the consequents interpret it quarrel not with God for any thing that happens according to his will but against thine as the prosperity of the wicked and the like Fifthly a confirmation of the mind as making our hope the anchor of our soul sure and stedfast Heb. vi 17. that we may thereby in patience possess our souls Luke xxi 19. And lastly a desire of sanctifying our selves according to that 1 Joh. iii. 3. Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as Christ is pure These six effects briefly set down may be certain marks to you by which you may judge how just grounds your assurance stands on and whereby it is to be distinguished from presumption O Lord let the fulness of thy Holy Spirit overshadow us and encrease our weaker faith into a richer measure of assurance and our more fearful hopes into a degree of full perswasion and certain expectation of those visions that thou shalt reveal and that blest estate that thou shalt bestow upon us and lest our confidence may either be or seem but a presumption work in us those effects of patience of silence of joy of delight of confirmation of mind and above all a desire and ability of sanctifying our lives unto thee Thus have I with all possible haste made an end of these words and at this time out of the cadence of them observed to you the tenderness of St. Paul and every regenerate man at the least mention of a sin or sinner illustrâ—ted by the opposite hardness of heart proved of soft tender parts of our body and made use of for a crisis or judgment of our estate and livelyhood in grace Secondly out of the words themselves we observed the necessity and method of aggravating our sins especially original sin against our selves which we made use of against those that are more quicksighted in other mens estates and guilts then their own Thirdly we closed all with that comfortable doctrine of assurance discussed to you in brief with six effects of it proposed for an example to your care and imitation Now the God which hath created us redeemed called justified us will sanctifie in his time will prosper this his ordinance to that end will direct us by his grace to his glory To him be ascribed due the honour the praise the glory the dominion which through all ages of the world have been given to him that sitteth on the Throne to the Holy Spirit and to the Lamb for evermore FINIS A Catalogue of some Books printed for and sold by Robert Pawlett at the Bible in Chancery-lane near Fleetstreet THE Whole Duty of Man laid down in a plain and familiar way for the use of all but especially the meanest reader Necessary for all families with private Devotions for several occasions The Gentlemans Calling Written by the Author of the Whole Duty of Man The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety Or an Impartial Survey of the Ruins of Christian Religion undermined by Unchristian Practice By the Author of the Whole Duty of Man A Scholastical History of the Canon of the Holy Scripture Or the certain and indubitate books thereof as they are received in the Church of England by Dr. Cosin Lord Bishop of Durham Divine Breathings or a Pious Soul thirsting after Christ in One hundred excellent Meditations Hugo Grotius de Rebus Belgicis Or the Annals and History of the Low-Country Wars in English wherein is manifested that the United Netherlands are indebted for the glory of their Conquests to the Valour of the English A Treatise of the English Particles shewing much of the variety of their significations and uses in English and how to render them into Latin according to the propriety and elegancy of that language with a praxis upon the same by William Walker B. D. Schoolmaster of Grantham The Royal Grammer commonly called Lillyes Grammar explained opening the meaning of the Rules with great plainness to the under standing of Children of the meanest capacity with choice observations on the same from the best Authors by W. Walker B. D. Author of the Treatise of English Particles A Treatise proving Spirits Witches and supernatural operations by pregnant Instances and Evidences by Meric Casaubon D. D. A Catalogue of the names of all the Parliaments or reputed Parliaments from the year 1640. A Narrative of some Passages in or relating to the Long Parliament by a Person of Honour Nemesius ' s Nature of Man in English by G. Withers Gent. Inconveniences of Toleration Tolleration Intollerable A Letter about Comprehension A Rationale on the Book of Common-prayer of the Church of England by Anthony Sparrow Lord Bishop of Exon. A Collection of Canons Articles and Injunctions of the Church of England by Anthony Sparrow Lord Bishop of Exon. Golden Remains of the ever memorable Mr. John Hales of Eaton-Colledge c. The second Impression with Additions from the Authors own Copy also more Letters and Expresses concerning the Synod of Dort from an Authentick hand not before publisht Mr. Chillingworth 's Reasons against Popery Book of Homilies appointed to be read in Churches Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical Episcopacy as establisht by Law in England written by the special Command of the late King by R. Sanderson late Lord Bishop of Lincoln Petavius ' s History of the World Military and Maritime Discipline The Bishop of Exons Caution to his Diocess against false doctrines delivered in a Sermon at his Primary Visitation A Thanksgiving Sermon preach'd before the King by J. Dolben D. D. Dean of Westminster and Clerk of the Closet Bishop Brownrigs Sermon on the Gunpowder Treason A Letter to a Person of Quality concerning the Fines received by the Church at its Restauration wherein by the Instance of one of the richest Cathedrals a fair guess may be made at the receipts and disbursments of all the rest A Narrative or Journal of the Proceedings of the Lord Holles and the Lord Coventry Ambassadors Plenipotentiary for the Treaty at Breda written by a Person of Quality concerned in that Ambassy A Narrative of the Burning of London 1666. with an account of the Losses and a most remarkable Parallel between it and MOSCO both as to the Plague and Fire Lluellyns three Sermons on the Kings Murder A Collection of the Rules and Orders now used in Chancery Iter Lusitanicum Or the Portugal Voyage with what memorable passages interven'd at the shipping and in the Transportation of her Sacred Majesty Katherine Queen of Great Britain from Lisbon to England by Dr. Samuel Hynde A Charge given by the most Eminent and Learned Sir Francis Bacon at a Sessions for the Verge declaring the Jurisdiction thereof and the offences therein inquirable as well by the Common Law as by several Statutes Mr. White ' s learned Tract of the Laws of England Graphice Or the use of the Pen and Pensil in Designing Drawing and Painting by Sir William Sanderson Knight Hypocrates Aphorismes