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A92054 The spirits touchstone: or, The teachings of Christs spirit on the hearts of believers. Being a cleare discovery, how a man may certainly know whether he be really taught of the spirit of God, being very useful for these times. / By J.R. late student of Merton Colledge in Oxford. Roys, Job, 1633-1663. 1657 (1657) Wing R2161; Thomason E1663_1; ESTC R203429 176,299 389

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unclean heart Besides the Spirit takes away those objections which are in carnall mens hearts against the purity of religion What needs this preciseness this Pharisaism muchness in duty to be alwaies praying and alwaies hearing and the like It is a wearisomness to the flesh it duls the spirit and makes one melancholy it is more then needs be required As long as our hearts are upright with God and we desire to glorifie him in all his waies and we have upright intentions this is sufficient for heaven though we are not so much in duty as the pharisaicall men are Now the Spirit setting home the love of Christ upon our hearts and shewing us what he hath done for us brings us off from this lure to a perfect resignation of body and soul to his service Moreover he sheweth us that we must be holy in all manner of conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we must walk exactly and as much as in us lies keep every circumstance that is contained in the Law of God And truly there is not a more certain sign of an upright heart than to have an universall respect to all the Commandments of God When out of a conscience to the command of God we would not commit the least sin or omit the smallest duty When the enmity is removed and the prejudice taken out of our hearts and all our misgivings and misapprehensions rightly placed we can easily hearken to the voice of the Spirit What things more peculiarly the Spirit teacheth 1. Thou canst not know God aright without the Spirits teachings Malè vivitur ubi de Deo non benè creditur A childe of God may know more of God in one Chapter of the Book of God which is the minde of the Spirit than all the writings of all the men in the world are able to shew forth without this word of God It is the Spirit alone that can ravish our hearts to the love of God in Jesus Christ 1. Gods love That can make us see the heighth depth and breadth of Gods love unto us Who would ever have thought that apostates rebels enemies should ever have become the sonnes of God heirs joynt-heirs and coheirs with Jesus Christ but that the Spirit hath made it clear Behold with what manner of love hath the Father loved us that we should be called the sonnes of God Philosophers could tell you that the Being of beings the first mover the first Cause of all causes must be infinite just mercifull and the like but that God through Jesus Christ should finde out such a way of reconciliation that sinners should be called the sonnes of God and that they should be one with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ and that they should have communion with him for ever and ever this only the Spirit teacheth It is the Spirit only which sheweth the most holy nature of God 2. The holy nature of God 1 Joh. 1.5 In God is light and in him there is no darkness He is holiness it self therefore saith God Be ye holy as I am holy We are apt to think that God is such an one as our selves that he mindes not our iniquities that he walks aloft in the heavens and cares not for the things which are done upon the earth but the Spirit hath declared unto us Hab. 1. That God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity Psal 5. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity I have read of some Nations that because they have thought their Gods to have delighted in some vice therefore they have addicted themselves in the imitation of their Gods to the same vice Some have thought their Gods delighted in uncleanness some in drunkenness others in cruelty and therefore they have been drunken unclean and cruell but we have learned God otherwise by the mind of the Spirit that there is no iniquity in the God of Israel Mercy and truth goes before his face justice and judgement is the habitation of his Throne The Spirit alone hath shewed us the exact justice of God against every sinne 3. The exact justice of God that the least sinne unrepented of and not washed away by the blood of Christ though it be but an evil thought or an idle word shall be punished with everlasting destruction Origin with some others have thought that it could not stand with the mercy of God to punish a sinner everlastingly in hell and therefore they have jumpt in with the Popish purgatory thinking that after the soul hath been punished so many years in hell fire it shall be released and set at liberty But this is contrary to the Spirit of God in many places of Scripture 2. The mystery of the blessed Trinity The Spirit only hath shewed us the mystery of the blessed and incomprehensible Trinity That there should be three persons Father Sonne and holy Ghost and yet these three but one God There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one All the great Rabbies of the world will never attain this mystery it is only the Spirit that teacheth it What Pla. to writes of the blessed Trinity it is supposed he had it out of Moses his writings or else some other way This doctrine of the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity that there should be three persons and but one God and one God and yet three persons that the Father should be God the Son should be God and the holy Ghost should be God it is a doctrine of faith and not of reason a doctrine which ought to be beleeved because the Spirit hath revealed it and therefore not to be disputed of The Schoolmen whose foolish hearts are darkned have become vain in their imaginations concerning this transcendent and exceeding great mystery 3. It is the Spirit alone that teaches us the great mystery of the incarnation of Christ that there should be two natures the humane and the Divine united together and yet but one person The union or the two natures in Christ is 〈…〉 by a fiery flaming sword or rather by the similitude of a branch engrafted into a stock of another tree where there is not a mixture of the nature of these trees nor a constitution of a ●hird out of them but a drawing of one of them into the others subsistance Dr Field this is the mystery of mysteries And without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels beleeved on in the world and received up into glory John 1.14 The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we saw the glory as the glory of the only begotten Sonne full of grace and truth Was made flesh This destroys the Heresie of the Marcionists who said that Christ was not made flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est articulus
superficiall piece of work and a light piece of business but the godly only we who have the Spirit of God Tit. 3.5 we only have our hearts washed with the water of Regeneration therefore we and we only have the Spirit of God Secondly Here is the way by which or after what manner they came to have the Spirit We have received it They came to have it by receiving It is not said we have purchased it or we have obtained it by our praiers or by our duties or the like or we have bought it with our money Act. 8.18 as Simon Magus thought to have bought the holy Ghost but we have received it 1. How the Spirit is received 1. The Spirit it is a free gift Luke 11.13 Gal. 4.6 As a free gift given by God to beleevers in Jesus Christ The Spirit it is a free gift God is said to give us his Spirit How much more shall your heavenly Father give his Spirit to them that ask it of him Because ye are sonnes God hath sent the Spirit of his Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father From this place we must not think our Sonship is the cause why we have the Spirit Quia pro ergo Because It is not causal but illative rational in this place or rather demonstrative for the Spirit goes before Adoption now the effect doth not go before the cause but follow it but because ye are sonnes that is to witness unto you that ye are the sonnes of God God hath sent the Spirit of his Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father 2. As a promise of Jesus Christ 2. We have received the Spirit as a promise of Jesus Christ at his departure Christ when he was to leave the world promised to send another Comforter even the Spirit of truth Christ deals with his Church as a loving friend doth with his friend You know when friends are going a long journey or a dangerous voyage by sea they use to leave behind them with their dearest friends some pledge or token of their love Some leave their pictures some a ring some a good book some one thing some another with this saying When you look on this remember me and though you should see me no more yet be not troubled here is a pledge of my love which I have left with you keep it be sure you keep it and do not part with it So our blessed Saviour that he might not leave his Church all-together comfortless at his departure Luk. 22.14 15 19. first of all he leaves his Sacraments with them as lively pictures and emblems of his death and sufferings so that in the Sacrament of the Communion of the body and blood of Christ when we see the bread broken we should remember and present to our view the breakings of Christs body upon the Cross and when we see the wine poured forth remember the pouring forth of Christs blood upon the Cross and this do remembring the Lords death till he come Secondly His Peace My peace in opposition to the sottish peace that the world giveth My peace I leave with you Ioh. 14.27 Ioh. 15.26 Thirdly His Spirit I will send you the Comforter so that we are to receive the Spirit as a promise of Jesus Christ 3. 3. As a redundancy of Gods love As a redundancy and fruit of the Fathers love As Christ is a most eminent fruit of the Fathers love so is the Spirit As Christ sends the Spirit so doth God 4. 4. As a testimony of our adoption Rom. 8.16 As a testimony of our Adoption The Spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God Our spirits do nothing avail to the grace of Adoption without the comforting Spirit of Jesus Christ The Spirit of God lindx if it withdraws its testimony for a while our souls are even in Hemans case Psal 88. at the brink of despair And before conversion before the Spirit witnesseth our spirits like Nabals are sottish and secure like a dead piece of flesh insensible of the greatest evil If the Spirit comes by receiving and not by any thing in us but is a fruit of the Fathers love what a Popish spirit are they of who think to procure the Spirit by their prayers and by their duties Though Christ hath promised to give the Spirit to those that pray yet not for their prayers We are to pray for the Spirit because God hath commanded it but not to expect it for our prayers because God hath promised it The Spirit of God comes by receiving therefore whosoever thou art that thinkest by thy endeavours to have the Spirit though I will not curse thee as Paul did Simon Magus for thinking to purchase the holy Ghost with money though he had but such a thought in 's heart yet I tell thee thou shalt never have it Pray for the Spirit but look not to obtain it by thy prayers but only by the way of receiving Thirdly The spirit of the world put in opposition to the Spirit of God 1. A remotione subjectorum infertur diversitas for marum quia lapis non est idem subjectum cum plantâ ergo habet diversam formam ratio quia in omni subjecto debet apta esse organizatio membrorum ut melius forma introducenda suo munere fungatur In omni vero subjecto promiscuè sic dicto non datur sufficiens organizatio membrorum quo quaelibet forma suas operationes exerceat In lapide non dantur organa satis quo anima sensitiva quod suum est exercere exerceat Non datur organum videndi in lapide nec inplantâ By way of remotion in respect of the subject We have recived not the spirit of the world i. e. The world hath its own spirit and the children of God have theirs different subjects have different forms Now the world is not only different but divers quite another thing and other men considered with the people of God therefore have they different spirits and not only different but divers The Spirit of God makes us altogether other men and other persons than we were before When the Spirit of God comes into the heart all old things are done away and all things are become new There is a Metamorphosis a transmutation non ex hoc sed ab hoc in aliud totalitèr diversum from corrupt nature to grace from the flesh to the Spirit from darkness to light from being the children of the devil to become the children of God from the power flavery and dominion of sinne and Satan unto the glorious liberty of the children of God from the fulness of the devil of sinne and of the world to that fulness which is in Christ to that fulness which is of God Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness have we received all grace for grace that is one degree of grace after another That ye may be filled with all the fulness of