good when it is conformable to that Rule which is the measure of its goodness namely God's Will revealed unto us in his Word which if it condemn an Action no Intention how good soever can warrant it 2. That it be duly Circumstantiated That is that all necessary circumstances be found in it For bonum ex integra causa malum ex quolibet defectu A thing may be evil upon one circumstance but it cannot be good but upon All and every partial defect in the Object End Manner or other such-like circumstances is sufficient to render the whole action bad but to make it good there must be an universal concurrence of all requisite conditions in every of these respects These principles being taken for granted as I think no good Christian will question the truth of them the Conclusion is clear and evident That no Intention how good soever in it self can make any Action good where either the Matter thereof is bad that is Repugnant to the revealed Will of God or it fails of those necessary circumstances that must concur to its goodness And the main Reason hereof is Because no good purpose can alter the nature of Good and Evil It can neither alter the nature nor change the degree of Sin so as to make it less in one Man than in another because the nature of Good and Evil depends not on Man but on the Will of God And the differences between Good and Evil and the several degrees of both doe spring from such Conditions as are intrinsecal to the things themselves which no outward Respects much less men's Opinions can vary nor sanctifie the use of them What is evil in some circumstances may be good in other but if the thing be wholly bad in it self it can never be made good till there come a cause as great to change the Nature as to make it Nor is sin de numero eligibilium It can neither be chosen for its own sake nor in reference to any farther end E malis minimum may hold true in Evils of pain but in Evils of fault or sin E malis nullum is the Rule For as there is neither form nor beauty in sin that we should desire it so neither any good use we can put it to For that Actio peccati non est Ordinabilis ad bonum finem is the common Resolution of the Schools 'T is true indeed that God can and many times doth order the very sins of Men to a good end but that is beyond our skill nor must we commit any though accidentally and in the event it may possibly turn to his glory We are not to tell a lye although through it the truth of God may more abound to his glory as St. Paul speaks Rom. 3. 7. And the reason is because God Himself whose Will ought to be our Rule hath expresly forbid us so to doe Will ye speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for Him says Job ch 13. 7. Will He borrow Patronage to his Cause from falsehood Or will he be glorified by those Sins which he forbids and abhorrs I find indeed a sort of people in Esay 66. 5. who when they hated their Brethren and cast them out for God's name sake either out of their company as not fit to be convers'd with by their lesser Excommunication or out of their Synagogue as deserving to be cut off from the Congregation of the Faithfull by their greater one could wipe off all their crime by saying The Lord be glorified But what says God Himself of them They have desired their own ways and their Soul delighteth in their Abominations They did evil before mine eye and chose that in which I delighted not ver 3 4. That is they did their own Will not mine and pretended to advance my Glory in such a way as themselves fancied but I never allow'd of God will as soon part with his Glory as have it thus promoted With Him it is much the same thing to be made the End as the Author of Sin and whether we doe good to a bad end as the Pharisees did or evil to a good one with these in the Text we are equally guilty in the sight of God who will be sure to punish us even for our good but unwarrantable Intentions As He did King Saul for reserving the best of the flocks of Ameleck which he had devoted to utter destruction though it were for a Sacrifice And King Uzzah for putting forth his hand to support the tottering Ark out of a very good intention as he thought because that was no part of his but of the Levites office Does St. Paul justifie himself for having persecuted the Church of God though with a very good intention So far was he from that that he calls himself the chiefest of sinners for the Commissions of that time wherein he says he served God with a pure conscience and did what he thought in his heart he was obliged to doe His good conscience could not then in his account sanctifie his actings nor make his bloudy hands undefiled 'T was blasphemy and persecution for all 't was Conscience I was before says he a blasphemer and a persecuter and injurious v. 13. So that a conscientious or which is here the same thing a well-meaning Man may for all that be the chiefest of sinners nor will it avail any one to shroud his soul actions under handsome intentions What more abominable than Idolatry or what more acceptable service to God than to destroy it And yet those Christians who in a preposterous Zeal and as they thought a good Intention brake down Heathen Images and deservedly suffered for it were never thought fit to be received by the Church into its Martyrology The persons here had as good a pretence as could be it was to doe God service What better Intention And yet they excommunicated and killed Christ's Disciples What Action could be worse Are they thankt for their pains Nay are they not therefore charged by our Lord with gross Ignorance with not knowing the Father nor Himself This may suffice to shew the Impiety of this opinion That a present Evil may be done in prospect of a future Good Give me leave now in a word to shew you also the Mischief of it the bad Influence it has on practice It is impossible for me to tell you what destruction it hath brought and daily brings upon the Earth How many Churches it hath devoured how many Countries depopulated how it hath filled the World with bloud and rapine and must of necessity still confound it by begetting and for ever perpetuating religious feuds and quarrels among Christians For while each Party thinks he has God on his side and that he has as good a right to his Opinion as he that opposeth it hath to his which is a strong persuasion that he is in the right till he be convinc'd that he is in the wrong There can be no end of
up the Law of Nature each Pagan may confute an Infidel and each Sinner himself That there is a God to be worshipped is founded in that natural Dependence Rational Creatures have on their Creator and that Good and Evil are different things is the Voice and Dictate of Natural Reason too which he that contradicts unmans himself and is to be lookt on as a Monster in Nature Such there have been in all times and which is strange even in those of Divine Revelation for we find the Jews themselves upbraided here with this Impiety which was so much the grosser in them because besides the unwritten they had withall a written Law to instruct them better Both in effect the same the same Precepts in stone and in the heart The Mosaical Law being nothing else but a Digest of that of Nature where the only difference is in the Clearness of the Character For Moses did but display and enlarge the Phylacteries of Nature This was still the Text and all his Precepts but so many Commentaries on it He did but trim up that Candle of the Lord natural Reason which before burnt dim set off Vertue with a better Lustre and expose Vice in its proper shape and hue giving That all its natural Advantage to charm the Eye and painting out This in such lively Colours as might represent it in its utmost Deformity Yet such was the perverse blindness of some that they could see no difference here at all no distinction between an Angel of Light and a Fiend Good and Evil were to them both alike or rather not alike for they preferred Evil to Good did not only confound the Names and Nature of these things but in a cross manner misplace them putting Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness like those Antipodes to mankind who by their strange way of living turn Day into Night and Night into Day This is that abomination the Text takes notice of which drew this severe Imprecation from the Almighty uttered by the mouth of his Prophet Wo unto them that call Evil good c. Which words seem to point to the Jews but are indeed directly levelled at all those who remove the natural Land-marks and Boundaries of Moral Good and Evil and they present us with these three Observations 1. That there is a Real and Natural difference between Vertue and Vice called here Good and Evil. 2. That there always have been and still are such as labour to take away this Difference Men that call Good Evil and Evil Good 3. That to do so To endeavour to alter the Nature and Property of Moral Good and Evil is such a heinous provocation as will inevitably bring a Curse upon it Of these in their Order And 1. That there is a real and natural Difference between Vertue and Vice called here Good and Evil. It seems the Academician and Epicurean Sects were rife in the Prophet Esay's Days who being a loose sort of men and impatient of all natural and moral Restraints would fain perswade themselves and all others That nothing was in it self good or bad that there was no such distinction in Nature but only in the opinion of men who were pleased to make an inclosure where God and Nature had laid all in common Nec natura potest justo secernere iniquum was their fundamental Principle A Principle which because I find taken up and improved by some of the like depraved Judgment and it is the very Source and Fountain of much of that Corruption that is in the World deserves to be considered and the direct way to disprove it will be to make out a real and natural Difference between moral Good and Evil which I shall endeavour to do 1. From the Nature of a Divine Being 2. From our own Make and Constitution 3. From the natural Beauty of Good and Deformity of Evil whereof every Man's Reason is the proper Measure and Judge 4. From such contrary Effects as must of necessity argue a Contrariety in their Causes 1. The first proof of this Truth I shall fetch from God Himself in whose very Nature and Being the difference between Good and Evil is conspicuous For 't is evident that there is something simply Good and something simply Evil even to Divine Being something which God is by the Necessity of his Nature and something which by the same Necessity He cannot be For should I ask Epicurean Christians whether God can be other than what He now is or the Scripture represents Him They must needs resolve the question in the Negative unless they will deny Him to be God or which is the same thing grant him mutable Immutability being so essential to him that what he now is he ever was and what he ever was he ever shall be and cannot chuse but be so Now God from all Eternity was just mercifull good and true 'T is the Description he gives of Himself Exodus 34. 6. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth And were not these his essential and unalterable Properties the Reverse of that Description might as well befit him which were the highest Blasphemy imaginable and the Manichees needed not to have invented two distinct Principles of Good and Evil when by the Epicurean Doctrine these so contrary things might well enough be reconciled to one and the same Divine Being whereas the Scripture tells us that some things are impossible for God to do As to lye and to be unjust And surely what He cannot Man ought not What is good or bad to Him must be so to us too and what is contrary to the divine can never be a part of humane Perfection If God cannot be other than good mercifull and just Man who was created after his Image must of necessity resemble his Creator and the Copy to be complete in all points answer its Original 2. As indeed it does For upon this account of a natural resemblance 't is that we are said to be Partakers of the divine Nature and God has so wrought and woven his Image into the very frame of our being that like Phidias his Picture in Minerva's Shield it can never be totally defaced without the ruine of that frame And herein also the differences of Good and Evil are apparent For our Passions Fear and Shame especially do manifestly betray them Omne malum aut timore aut pudore persudit natura Nature saith Tertullian hath dasht every Vice with Fear or Shame As for the first of these Fear The continual Frights the pale Countenances and broken Sleeps of wicked Men do plainly argue the inward dissatisfactions of natural Conscience when they doe amiss the guilt of the heart usually spreading it self over the face As on the other side Innocence is ever quiet and bold and they who act by the rules of right reason always calm and serene Of which so apparent contrary effects no better account can be given than
charitable as to relieve them The poor wounded Man in the Gospel who fell among Thieves though he found no help from the Priest and Levite that passed by but only from the good Samaritan yet even they went near and lookt upon him Luke 10. 32. We need no other Motive to pity any Lazar that lyes in the streets than his wounds and sores exposed to our view These sensible Arguments usually work upon and soften the hardest Hearts Nay the vilest Malefactors when led to the Scaffold or the Gallows draw Tears from our Eyes though we know they suffer but what they deserve Common humanity inclines us to compassionate them and we consider not then so much who they are as what they are to endure Thus Pilate to move the Jews pity thought it enough to expose Christ to them all bruised and besmeared with Bloud as conceiving that such a fight would stifle their Malice and raise their Compassion towards him This in his opinion was enough to make a Jew relent And can we consider our blessed Lord all bruised as he was for us and not so much as pity him There are three things which usually dispose us to pity suffering persons The greatness of their Misery and the dignity and innocence of their Persons Extraordinary Misery calls for extraordinary Pity towards any but who can behold an innocent and withall a great Person in distress and yet be insensible of it especially when himself is the cause of it Even Herod and Pilate and one of the Thieves too proclaim'd our Lord's innocence they took him for an innocent Man and we who know him to be no less than the Son of God who took upon him the form of a servant and yet humbled himself even to the death of the Cross and that meerly for our sakes ought to melt into Compassion as oft as we reflect on his direfull Sufferings and with St. Paul be crucified with him at least by a most sensible fellow-feeling of what he endured by our procurement that he may not complain of us as he does of those hard-hearted Passengers Lament 1. 12. Have ye no regard all ye that pass by the way Nay since there never was any sorrow like his sorrow nor any Person like Him that endured it our Compassion ought in some measure to bear proportion to that his Sorrow especially since we our selves were the Authors of it And so 2. Ought our Sorrow also to be answerable to his They shall look on him whom they have pierced so look on Him as to be themselves pierced too with sorrow and grief for having pierced Him This in the Original Text Zach. 12. 10. was a Prophecy of what Christ's crucifiers should doe and in the following verse it is said In that day there shall be a mourning in Jerusalem which some construe of the day of God's vengeance upon the Jews for their Sins especially for that of piercing Christ by reason of the Calamities it should bring upon them This is Theodoret and St. Hierom's Interpretation on this place followed by our Dr. Hammond on Revel 1. 7. That when the Jews should see Christ coming with Majesty to execute Vengeance upon his Crucifiers in the day of his visiting Jerusalem they should then though too late bemoan their own folly and madness Which Prophecy so taken is the same with that of our Saviour Matth. 24. 34. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in the Heavens and all the Tribes of the Earth shall mourn and with that of St. John Revel 1. 7. Behold he cometh with Clouds and every eye shall see him and they also that pierced him and all kindreds of the Earth shall wail because of him Which last prediction began to be accomplished in that day when Christ came in power to execute Vengeance on Jerusalem by the Roman Army at which time no doubt they experienced that fatal ruine which they had imprecated upon themselves His bloud be upon us and upon our Children Matth. 27. 25. Though the final accomplishment shall not be till the last and great Day of Judgment when He shall come in Person to inflict that heavy Doom of Condemnation not only upon those who actually crucified but upon All that reject Him At which time it is impossible to imagine what weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth what howling and wringing of hands what despair horrour and astonishment what a bitter mourning and lamentation there shall be I could wish this were seriously speedily and sadly thought on by all sorts of impenitent Sinners that as they have their day of sinning God will sooner or later have his day of punishing And as the day of a Sinner's Impenitency is a day of carnal rejoycing so the day of God's vengeance shall be a day of bitter mourning Wo unto you saith our blessed Saviour who now laugh for you shall mourn and weep Luke 6. 25. But although this be an usefull Meditation I conceive that other interpretation to be more genuine and pertinent here which construes this Mourning mentioned in the parallel Text of Zachary not to be penal but penitential Indeed some Expositors glance at the Mourning of the Women which was in the day of our Saviour's Passion when beholding his sorrows their Bowels yearned and their Eyes melted with Tears At which time also others of the Spectators smote their Breasts and were astonished But this Mourning here relates not so much to the Spectators as to the Actors in the Tragedy to those not who saw but who pierced him And since in the fore-cited place of Zach. 12. 10. it is set down as an effect of the Spirit of Grace and Supplication or as some reade it Lamentation which was to be poured out upon them and is mentioned there rather as a Promise than as a Threat It cannot rationally be expounded any otherwise than to intend that godly sorrow which shall in that day in the day of the Jews conversion be expressed by them for so heinous a crime And doe we not find this Prophecy in part accomplished in St. Peter's Auditors when they felt the very Nails and Lance wherewith they had pierced Christ sticking fast in their own hearts and piercing them with horrour For so we reade Acts 2. 37. that at his Sermon they were pricked at their hearts and said unto Peter and unto the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we doe The Spirit of Grace was then poured upon them and so at once their Ears Eyes and Hearts were opened to hear reproof to see and bewail their wickedness Nor was it a slight and superficial Sorrow but a great and deep Mourning so deep that it went to their heart and so great that according to the Emphasis of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used it was as if the sharpest points of many poysoned Daggers and Scorpion's stings had been all at once fastned in their hearts Thus they who had shed the bloud of
turn'd Men into destruction to say Come again ye Children of Men. If the Disputer of this World the conceited Rationalist should deny a possibility of a return from a privation to a habit a re-production of the same thing once corrupted Let me ask him why that God who created our Bodies out of nothing cannot be able to recall them out of something For since even Philosophy its self will grant that in every dissolution the parts dissolved doe not perish the Materials still continuing All the Skill here will be but to join and reunite the scattered parcels Quasi non majoris miraculi sit animare quà m jungere Tertullian's reasoning here is very concluding and we cannot resist the argument Utique idoneus est reficere qui fecit quanto plus est fecisse quam refecisse initium dedisse quà m reddidisse Ita restitutionem carnis faciliorem credas institutione An Artificer can take a Watch or Clock asunder and put it together again and shall not the great Creator be able to doe as much here to re-unite what he has severed having still reserved the loose scattered pieces and fragments The separation of our Bodies and Souls by death as 't was violent so their desire of re-union being natural shall not be frustrated They are incompleat Substances in that state and long for their perfection which is their re-union for by that are the spirits of just Men departed made perfect and God will not leave them in an imperfect condition lest a power and inclination should for ever be in the root and never rise up to fruit This may suffice to silence though not to satisfie Natural reason especially if we consider that many Philosophers have had strong apprehensions of a Resurrection upon the dissolution of the World by fire a reduction of all things to a better state as Seneca terms it Nor was there any Article of the Faith more generally believed among the Jews than this as appears by Joh. 12. 24. and Act. 23. 8. The Patriarchs were certain of it witness their great care before their death to have their Bones carried away by the Children of Israel out of Egypt that they might be buried in Abraham's Field out of a hope no doubt of being the first that by vertue of Christ's Resurrection might rise from the dead as 't is very probable they were of the Number of those many Saints which arose and came out of their Graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Matth. 27. 53. But then to the Faith of a Christian nothing is so easie as a Resurrection since God's Word clearly tells us That Christ is our Resurrection and our Life Joh. 11. 25. and that our life which is now hid with him in God shall one day be revealed Colos. 3. 3. That God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. 32. Nay the Lord of dead and living Rom. 14. 9. For that he will one day raise them up to life again For the dead Bodies of Saints while they lye rotting in the Grave being still united to Christ as his Body there was to the Deity cannot be for ever separate from him the Members must at last be joined to their Head If the first-fruits be risen the whole lump shall follow Not one hair of our head shall perish He that numbers the sand of the Sea numbers our dust nor can the least Attom escape him All our members are written in God's book He that puts our tears into his bottle locks up the pretious dust of his Saints in his Cabinet can recall our dispers'd Ashes and require our Bloud of every Beast that has drunk it fetch those several parcels of us which have been buried in a thousand living Graves and been made a part of those Graves which have devoured them God can make the Earth cast out her dead cause the Sea to disgorge them and our dry bones to gather together as in Ezekiel's Vision ch 37. He that calleth all the Stars by their names knows his by name for their names are written in Heaven and will call them by their names as he did Lazarus bid them come forth and by bidding enable them to doe so in spight of all their bands Now that we may be of the number and partake of the lot of these happy ones we must hear Christ's voice here calling us to repentance and newness of life that we may hear that with comfort which shall hereafter call us to Judgment and be able to answer it with joy and confidence Here we are Let us be sure of our part in the first Resurrection that the second death may have no power over us All shall one day be raised All must one day appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ good and bad But there is a Resurrection of damnation for these and for those of life Both shall come out of their Dungeons but the one like Pharaoh's Baker to an Execution the other like his Butler to an Exaltation The former shall have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sinners shall arise but the godly be quickned How happy would it be for wicked Men if they should never have been born or should never rise again since they shall rise no otherwise than as drowsie Malefactors who lying down with their Sentence are afterwards awakened to be set on the Rack But 't is not so with the Godly who sleeping in Christ doe rest in hope I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep says St. Paul that ye sorrow not even as other which have no hope For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him What doest thou fear then O good Christian Sin Behold the Resurrection of thy Redeemer publishes thy discharge Thy Surety has been arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave for thee Had not the utmost farthing of thine Arrearages been paid he could not have come forth But now that thou seest he is come forth now that the summ is fully satisfied what danger can there be of a discharged debt Or is it the Wrath of God thou dreadest Wherefore is that but for Sin And if thy Sin be defrayed that quarrel is at an end And if thy Saviour suffered it for thee how canst thou fear to suffer it in thy self Surely that infinite Justice hates to be twice paid He is risen and therefore he hath satisfied Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Rom. 8. 34. Lastly Is it Death that affrights thee Behold thy Saviour overcoming Death by dying and triumphing over it in his Resurrection And canst thou fear a conquered Enemy What harm is there in this Serpent but for his sting The sting of death is sin And when thou seest
therefore this truth for granted I shall only speak to his Office described here by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies two things 1. A Comforter 2. An Advocate 1. A Comforter and such He was to be 1. To the Apostles themselves 2. To the whole Church 3. To each faithfull Believer 1. To the Apostles themselves It was indeed a seasonable time to talk to them of a Comforter when sorrow and distress were coming upon them and they were to be as sheep without a shepherd They had left all for Christ but while he was with them they found all in Him who was dearer to them than all their possessions While He lived with them their joy and satisfaction was full and compleat but a joy that was to last no longer than his Corporal presence which the Holy Spirit was to supply and that abundantly For although they could no longer have recourse to their Lord for Resolution of Doubts or Protection from Dangers yet should they not want an Oracle to clear the one nor a Sanctuary to secure them from the other The Holy Ghost should both enlighten their Understandings and dispell their Fears Being endewed with power from on high Afflictions themselves should prove Consolations unto them and they should find more satisfaction in their very Sufferings than worldly Men in their highest Enjoyments as we find they did Act. 5. 41. when departing from the presence of the Counsel they rejoyced and that with joy unspeakable that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's Name But then 2. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter not only to the Apostles but to the whole Church of God The Father under the ancient legal Dispensation was a severe Law-giver rewarding Obedience and strictly punishing Rebellion He appeared terrible on Mount Sinai Nothing was to be seen there but Fire and Smoak and thick Darkness Nothing to be heard but Thunder and the Trump of an Angel insomuch that Moses himself trembled and quaked Such an Appearance suiting well with the Promulgation of the Law as denouncing nothing but Woes and Curses to Offenders But under the Gospel-Oeconomy there was another face of things The Son of God while in the Flesh had no such marks of terror and severity attending him more proper to a Creator than a Redeemer He came not with a Rod but in the Spirit of Meekness His condition was a condition of Humility agreeable to one whose Kingdom was not of this World and suitable to his appearance in the Flesh was that of the Holy Ghost whose descent was indeed in Fire but to warm and cherish not to consume In a mighty rushing Wind to represent his divine Power and Efficacy not his Impetuosity 'T was not such a Wind as God came to Elijah in which rent the Mountains and brake the Rocks in pieces The motions of the Holy Spirit are not violent He does not affright those He lights on nor create Fear but Love in that Heart he fills 'T is He that makes us cry Abba Father That begets in us a holy generous Confidence and speaks peace to his People The cords he brings with Him are those of a Man such as chain and captivate Hearts The Oeconomy of the Divine Spirit was to be an Oeconomy of Sweetness and Consolation to the Church becoming the Gospel of Peace and the God of all Consolation 3. The Holy Ghost was to be a Comforter to all true Believers not only as begetting Faith in their Hearts and dispelling that Darkness which naturally possesseth their Understandings but as giving them Peace of Conscience and that unspeakable joy which the World is unacquainted with and cannot take from them Hence He is said to seal them unto the day of their Redemption Ephes. 4. 30. To be the Earnest of their heavenly Inheritance and to make them fore-tast the joys of Heaven here on Earth What comfort what ravishing joys does he still raise in the Souls of all the Faithfull by the apprehension and sense he gives them of the Love of God and that certain hope they have by him of enjoying Him in Heaven Grace is the Paradise of the Soul Holiness its Crown and the assurance it has of God's Love to it the choicest flower of that Crown Nor is he thus only a Comforter to each true Believer but he is so too as his Teacher and another-guess Teacher than Men are to one another For let their Methods of Teaching be never so perspicuous and their care and pains to inform us never so great yet when all is done they cannot communicate unto us either clearness of Apprehension faithfulness of Memory or soundness of Judgment and where they find us dull or stupid all their pains and skill are but thrown away upon us But the Holy Ghost does so teach as withall to change the natural temper and disposition of men's Minds working so upon their Understandings by the clearness and evidence of those Reasons he proposeth that they are not able to resist or stand out against the force of his Demonstrations drawing them to Him in so sweet and yet effectual a manner that although sensible of the effect yet the way of his Attraction is as imperceptible to them as the power thereof is uncontroulable The Manner of the Holy Spirit 's operation on Believers now is very different from that on the Prophets of old which was so forcible that Elisha could not Prophecy without the help of Musick to compose and tune his Spirit But under the Gospel-Dispensation the Holy Ghost deals otherwise with his Servants No such Enthusiasms or Transports here Their Understandings are enlightned without any disturbance to their Bodies They receive the Holy Ghost's Inspirations without the least astonishment or discomposure while he gently glides and descends into them like rain into a fleece of wool in the Prophet David's expression Psal. 72. 6. And thus the Holy Ghost is a Comforter But then 2dly He is withall an Advocate The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies so much one that maintains the Cause of a Criminal or at least of an Accused Person Now the Spirit does so by justifying our Persons and pleading our Causes against the Accusations of our Spiritual Enemies 1. Against the Severity of God's Law and that most righteous undeniable Charge of Sin laid thereby upon us 2dly Against the Devil who we know is styled the Accuser of the Brethren and doth not only load our Sins upon our Consciences but farther endeavoureth to exclude us from the benefit of Christ by charging us with Impenitency and Unbelief Here the Spirit enableth us to clear our selves against this Father of lyes to secure our Title to Heaven against the Sophistical Exceptions of this our subtle Adversary and when by Temptations our Eye is dimmed or by the mixture of Corruptions our Evidences defaced he by his Skill helpeth our infirmities and bringeth those things which are blotted out and forgotten into our
advantage 3. Besides to make our Estate good is required Investiture so that although Christ hath made a purchase and paid a price for us yet what would this advantage us without Livery and Seizin which the same Apostle calls The Earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 5. Lastly What are we at all the better for what Christ did for us if we be not joined to Him as He was to us and 't is by his Spirit that we are joined unto Him For he that hath not Christ's Spirit is none of his Rom. 8. 9. and then Christ will profit him nothing From whence it plainly appears That what the Father and the Son did for us could not be compleat or available without the concurrence of the Holy Ghost They could doe nothing for us without Him nor we any thing for our selves in order to our Salvation For first without Holiness we cannot see God who is therefore called Holy because he is the cause of Holiness in us his Office consisting in the sanctifying of us We are by Nature void of all saving Truth 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. None knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God And 't is the Spirit that searcheth all things and revealeth them unto the Sons of Men That dispells their Darkness enlightens their Understandings with the knowledge of God and works in them an assent unto that which by the Word is propounded unto them Again 2dly Unless they be regenerate and renewed they are still in a state of natural Corruption Now 't is the Holy Spirit that regenerates and renews us According to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. And Except a man be born again of Water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 5. We are all at first defiled by the corruption of our Nature and the pollution of our Sins but we are washed but we are sanctified but we are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 11. Thirdly We are not able to guide our selves and 't is the Spirit that leads directs and governs us in our Actions and Conversations that we may perform what is acceptable in the sight of God 'T is He that giveth both to will and to doe and As many as are thus led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. 8. 14. Fourthly If we be separate from Christ we are as branches cut off from the Tree which presently wither away for want of sap to nourish them Now 't is the Spirit that joins us to Christ and makes us Members of that Body whereof he is the Head For by one Spirit we are all baptized into that one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. And hereby we know that God abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 Joh. 3. 24. Fifthly Till we be assured of the Adoption of Sons we have no comfort no hope for 't is that which creates in us a sense of the Paternal love of God towards us The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us Rom. 5. 5. And the Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God Rom. 8. 16. who is therefore said to be the Pledge and the Earnest of our Inheritance In a word had not the Holy Ghost been sent to us we could have done nothing to any purpose no means on our part would have availed us Not Baptism which might wash spots from our Skins nor stains from our Souls No laver of Regeneration without renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. Not the Word which without the Spirit would have proved but a killing letter Not the Sacrament The Flesh profiteth nothing 't is the Spirit that quickneth Joh. 6. 63. Lastly Not Prayer which without the Spirit is but lip-labour For unless he help our infirmities and make intercession for and with us we know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. 8. 26. To summ up all It was expedient nay absolutely necessary that the Spirit should have his Advent as well as Christ. Christ's Advent was necessary for the fulfilling of the Law and the Spirit 's for the compleating of the Gospel Christ's to redeem the Church and the Spirit 's to teach it Christ's to shed his bloud for it and the Spirit 's to wash and purge it in that bloud Christ's to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the Spirit 's to interpret it The one without the other is imperfect Christ's Birth Death Passion Resurrection are good news but sealed up a Gospel hid till the Spirit come and open it Of such importance was his coming and so expedient yea and necessary for us it was that our Lord should go away to send Him to us And as he did send Him to the Apostles in an extraordinary manner in cloven tongues like as of fire as at this time so all Christians have a promise of the Comforter though not of the firey tongues The promise is to you and to your Children and to all that are a-far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Act. 2. 39. That is To all that wait for and are in such a fit posture and condition to receive Him as the Apostles themselves were To all that are like Him Holy Pure Charitable Peaceable That have those fruits of the Spirit mentioned Gal. 5. 22 23. That are void of carnal sensual Affections than which nothing will more obstruct his entrance He being a Spirit and having therefore no commerce with the Flesh. Christ carnally apprehended we see could not avail any thing and so long as our Thoughts and Desires run after things here below his Spirit from above will not fill or inflame them Therefore sur sum corda let us lift up our hearts towards Him He will meet us and Christ will send Him to us if we meet Him in his way Send Him if we send for Him too if we send up our Prayers to fetch Him down For being a Spirit of supplication Zach. 12. 10. the proper means to obtain Him is Prayer And surely He is worth the asking for being the greatest gift God can give us or we receive In giving whereof He is said to give us all things Mat. 7. 11. In whom we have a Teacher to instruct The Spirit of Truth to lead us into all Truth necessary for us An Advocate to plead for and defend us A Comforter in all our outward and inward distresses so that Direction Protection Consolation and all that is beneficial to us or we can desire we have in Him But then when we have got let us be sure to retain and to cherish Him not chase Him away for then we had better never to have had Him Be sure not to resist Him by our Pride quench Him by our Carnality and so grieve Him
Vertue to its conservation and that not only by a divine benediction but by a natural efficiency Let us then cast up our several mischiefs and see how many of them are owing to our vertues whether Temperance did ever drown our parts or Chastity make us roar under the Chirurgeon's hand whether the sleeps of sober men be not sweet and their appetites constant whether the symmetry of Passions in the meek their freedome from the rage of them with that admirable harmony and sweetness of content do not by making them chearfull render them healthy too Whereas the contrary of these do manifestly impair our bodies waste our estates and ruine our reputations For what are the fruits of Intemperance but Collicks Surfeits Aches and the like Who hath woe and sorrow redness of eyes contention and wounds but the Drunkard What vast expence doth the Glutton put himself to not to allay his hunger but to provoke it How dearly doth he buy new wants when a small cost would relieve nature how much is he at to oppress it And how does he many times pay more than one Farm for a Fever And yet when all this is done the best that can be expected is that the feast must be fasted of Whereas it often proves worse than so that a horrid potion must purge off the too full goblet and it shall cost as much to remove the Surfeit as to procure it and yet after all this charge and trouble the Man can scarce hope to be so well as he was before it such enemies are Vices to our health and they are no less to our reason For whereas Vertues improve our understandings by subduing our lusts and moderating our passions These fully and darken our minds and by clogging our spirits render them unapt for higher and nobler acts of reason Even the most refined ones such as envy hatred pride and malice tincture the mind with false colours and so fill it with prejudice and undue apprehensions of things Let experience here give in its verdict and if it be so that Vertue preserves Nature and Vice destroys it they cannot possibly be the same things such different effects arguing a manifest contrariety in their causes And were it not so were not the opposition here very natural I know not how natural Men without any help of divine Revelation should by the mere Light of their reason be able so clearly to discern and so exactly to make it out as some of them have done A task well performed by Tully in his Offices Et de finibus bonorum malorum wherein the several bounds of moral good and evil are so precisely set out as they have been by some ancient Philosophers especially Aristotle that Reason and Scripture do herein little differ Non aliud natura aliud sapientia dicit Nature and Revelation speak the same things and we may well say with Tertullian Tam facilè pronuncias quà m Christiano necesse est Reason here utters baptized truth and each man's Soul is Christian And therefore the same Father in his Book De Testimonio Animae draws such a plain Confession of these Truths from a Heathen Soul that he wonders how a thing not Christian should have so much Christianity as to rejoyce at good actions and to grow sullen after bad to promise itself a reward for Vertue and fear a judgment to come for Vice Rather than be an Atheist to commit Idolatry and rather than God should not be worshipped to offer Sacrifices to the Devil and then concludes That 't is all one here to go by Reason or Revelation Nec multum referre an à Deo formata sit Animae conscientia an à literis Dei that the difference is little between the Book of the Law and the Conscience of a Man Some Principles of Law breathed into us with our Soul being so manifest that they are seen by their own light and stand upon their own bottom Nature approves them and condemns the contrary and this we learn from St. Paul himself For as Rom. 1. 26. he brands some vile Practices of the Gentile Romans as so many Violences and Contumelies to Nature and Ephes. 5. 12. mentions other things done by them in secret which 't was a shame to name that is such as were in the very Nature and Constitution of them shamefull So Phil. 4. 8. He speaks of other things that were true and honest just praise-worthy and of good report and to shew the difference of such things to be natural he appeals in a certain case to the Judgment of Nature 1 Cor. 11. 14. Doth not even nature it self teach you not general custome as Grotius there the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 refuseth that interpretation and the learned Salmasius clearly confutes it And our Lord himself doth the same too Luke 12. 57. Why even of your selves judge ye not what is right As if he should have said you need go no further than your selves to learn your Duty your own Reason is able to tell you what is right and what not But there are whom nothing can satisfie and though God and Nature the general Sense and Reason of Mankind and Scripture to boot do make a plain difference between Good and Evil yet either will own none in the Nature of the things themselves or else are so partial as to give Evil the precedency to Good if we may measure their Judgments by their Lives and Conversations Those I may term speculative and these practical Epicureans 1. Of the first sort are they who resolve all Morality into the Wills and Pleasures of Legislators that will allow nothing to be good or bad but what civil Magistrates in order to politick Ends shall declare to be so making all under them with the first matter equally susceptible of whatsoever Forms they shall please to introduce As if Vertue and Vice like Coin were to have a publick stamp upon them to make them currant or that Morality like changeable Taffety were to vary according to the different Reflection of that Light men cast upon it An opinion which if it should prevail would leave no moral Honesty much less Religion in the World For should Governors be as bad as they who broach this Doctrine are and would have them to be what a strange Rule should Mankind have to go by And if publick Interest were to be the Measure and Standard of Good and Evil when that should alter as nothing is more variable what is now a Vertue might perhaps in a short time become a Vice and so Rewards and Punishments have their Vicissitudes also and at last interfere 'T is certain that some Laws have been enacted that were so many direct Violations of the Law of Nature and contrary to the general Sense of Mankind and that such might still be made 't is not impossible while there remain in men the same unreasonable Lusts and Passions whereof such Laws were the results and yet these if