Disciples did is because they did not see him neither know him Though he be near unto them yea though he be in their hearts by his word yet they not minding nor contemplating this word of his nor regarding his motions in their souls but suffering the eyes of their minds to be fixed upon this present world and the sins and vanities thereof do not see him though he be near unto them and ready to do great things for them had they a mind to imploy him But their thoughts and mind being otherwise engaged and entangled they do by this means and during the Regency of such principles render themseles upon the matter in an utter incapacity of receiving the Spirit because they favour so much of the Spirit of this world and render themselves such a kind of sinners and such an unworthy generation that the Spirit of God can have no will or lust can take no pleasure or content to manifest himself unto them This is the second consideration by which you may perceive that unless men shall take a course to be filled with the Spirit of God they will lay themselves open and obnoxious to be filled with some unclean spirit or other If it be here objected Sect. 7 and said Is not the Spirit of God a gracious and free-working Spirit Objection And will he not doth he not for his own name sake as the Scriptures often speak put forth his might and strength to aide and assist men and women against Sathan and his evil practices towards them when and where he pleaseth without any motive or inducement from them by way of compliance with him or any goodness of behaviour in one kind or other towards him How then can we say that it doth depend upon any compliance of the creature Man with him or any kind of behaviour of his towards him I answer Answer most true it is That the Spirit of God is a most gracious and free-working Spirit exerting and putting forth himself rising up in his might and heavenly vigour where when and in whom he pleaseth Nor doth he receive Laws Terms or Directions from men for any of his motions or actions in the world but from himself his own grace and wisdom only Secondly I answer further That though the Spirit of God be most gracious and free in all his operations and workings Yet as the Apostle Peter speaking of the Promise of the Lord Christ concerning his coming saith The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise as some men count stackness 2 Pet. 3.9 Even so say I of the Spirit of Christ That he is neither gracious nor free-working as some men count gracious and free-working he is neither the one nor the other in any way of contrariety unto himself I mean either to his own holiness or his love of holiness in men nor yet to his wisdom or the interest of his glory but only in a direct and clear consistency with these Some mens imagination or notion concerning the gracious and free working disposition of the Spirit of God is 1. That there have been and are some men to whom he never hath nor ever will vouchsafe his gracious presence to the least degree and meerly out of his freedom hath willed never to have to do with them little or much not because of any peculiar strain of wickedness in them but meerly and only as I even now said from his own will and pleasure 2. On the other hand they conceive That God vouchsafeth such a presence unto some others so powerful and effectual that they are not able to resist the motions influences and workings of it but are necessitated thereby to repent believe and work righteousness 3. And lastly Others notion of this grace and working of the Spirit is such as if no course or strain of sin and wickedness whatsoever in men though still persisted in no impenitency no neglect or contempt whether precedent or present of the Gospel and of the great Salvation offered therein were or are any way considerable as to the obstructing or hindering the Spirit of God from vouchsafing even the richest highest and fullest measure of himself and his gracious presence unto them Now that Neither the grace of God nor the freedom of the Spirit in working is to be estimated measured or computed by any such notions or principles as these hath been already sufficiently evinced and proved and might here be done again would it not occasion too long a digression That graciousness and freedom of working which the Scripture any where yea and sound reason it self asserts unto the Spirit of God consists and shews it self in these particulars First All men without exception having sinned in Adam and thereby justly deprived themselves of all friendly converse and communion with God yea and justly incurred his high displeasure hatred and indignation There was nothing of any engaging or inviting much less of any obliging import in man to move or encline the God of Heaven to have any thing more to do with him in any way of love favour mercy goodness or the like to the daies of Eternity So that God having been pleased notwithanding this low and despicable condition of his Creature man to comport with him again upon terms of grace and reconciliation and to offer himself unto him namely to be re-enjoyed upon terms and these very possible to be performed by him and to put him into a capacity of blessedness and glory his former provocations notwithstanding must needs be matter of pure and meer grace and consequently of free grace so far as it was matter of grace at all If any shall say The misery and sad extremity of the Creature man Sect. 8 in the condition wherein he had now plunged himself Objection might be some moving cause unto God or upon God to look back again in mercy towards him And so in this respect there might be somewhat in man inviting him unto that merciful compliance with him which now he hath vouchsafed and consequently his grace in this vouchsafement is not so absolutely and purely free To this I answer Answers That no man as I suppose ever oppoed misery unto grace or freeness of grace in him that sheweth mercy or relieveth It is not repugnant to the greatest freeness of grace that can be imagined that a man should be induced to vouchsafe help shew mercy and relieve a person that is in misery yea upon the occasion thereof or that his misery should be an inducement thereunto 2. That compliance which God vouchsafed unto his Creature man considered as now misrable is not properly matter of grace or an act of grace but of mercy so that though the mercy of God out of which he hath vouchsafed means of relief unto man may be said to have been invited or wrought upon by his misery and in this respect not so absolutely free Yet this hinders not but that the grace of God properly so called out of which he hath been
foreseen such a case or cases wherein a suspension of a just and good Law could be necessary it would not have been their wisdom nor for the interest of the people to make mention of it in their Law but to leave the regulation of such cases to that supreme Law we speak of In like manner when the Holy Ghost cometh in unto or falls upon any person man or woman on the sudden when they have been formerly and untill then vain loose and prophane it is upon some special and weighty occasion and of high importance for the benefit of the generallity of men not so much for the benefit of any single or particular person no but for matter of greater consequence and more comprehensive than the good or benefit of any one I say when ever God varies from a general Rule it is alwaies in order to the benefit and relief of the communities of men as for example for the preserving and keeping alive in the judgments and consciences of men some great principle of truth one or other which was ready to dye and so be lost in those parts of the world where his providence so acted Now to preserve and keep such a principle alive in the souls and consciences of men if God shall appear in an extraordinary manner or the Holy Ghost work out of course it is a sign that it was not likely to be preserved by any other means or however not by any means so proper or so well consistent with the wisdom of God as this For that is to be minded when there is any ordinary way or means to accomplish any end as to instance in our present case to preserve and keep alive any great truth then and in such cases God never betaketh himself to that which is extraordinary But as to the business in hand an instance may be in the Apostle Paul his Case he giveth this account of Gods going out of his ordinary way of Grace in bringing him unto himself viz. That it was for the benefit of men yea of such men who were not like to be wrought upon otherwise For this cause saith he I obtained mercy not so much for mine own sake principally but that in me Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them that should afterward believe on him to eternal life 1 Tim. 1.16 As if he should have said God in vouchsafing that extraordinary grace to me in my conversion in bringing me to the knowledge of Christ did not look so much on my salvation nor upon the great benefit that I should receive from it but was pleased to pitch upon me that he might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them that should afterwards believe he speaks here of his own Countrymen the Jews that were called or to be called to believe on Christ And because God would give an advantage unto them for their believing being a stubborn and stiff-necked Generation a people that had desperately rebelled against the Gospel he was pleased to set this Apostle as a Pattern for them that when they had such a Pattern before them they might conceive thus with themselves There was a man every whit as wicked as we as unworthy as great an enemy to Christ and the Gospel as we yet he was called and with a high hand of acceptation received therefore doubtless we may trust in him and expect that if we will subject to him and come in and accept of mercy we shall be received into grace and favour also So now if there can be any such instance produced in our daies or in the places where we have conversed viz. That any extraordinary thing hath been done for men in a way of a real and through repentance and conversion for a seeming repentance and conversion may be in many where true repentance is seldom wrought but if I say there can be the truth and reality of any such unusual work of the Holy Ghost demonstrated doubtless there was or is some great principle one or other some important truth in a declining condition in those parts and places where any such extraordinary power of God and of his Spirit doth appear and it is to keep alive and in power and authority such a Doctrine As for instance it may be the free grace and mercy of God and that readiness in him to entertain and receive Sinners when-ever they shall return unto him this great truth I say may be so weakened in the judgments and minds of men that it may need more than an ordinary confirmation And so that men have no cause to be jealous of their former courses as if these having been so wretched and vile they might repent and yet be cast out from God Again That wicked men have as much right unto as much to do if not more with the Promises of the Gospel as Believers themselves and so that persons that have not been so or so humbled or terrified by the Law may as lawfully yea and as truly believe as those that have been in the greatest terrours of Conscience by means of it Now for the relieving and reviving of such Evangelical Principles and Conclusions as these and the like in the hearts and Consciences of men there may possibly be some extraordinary working of the Holy Ghost in and about the conversion of some man or some few Fourthly Sect. 15 When God beginneth or first entreth upon a new kind of Dispensation or series of Providence or Administrations in the world the first instance or example of such a kind of dispensation is not to be indeed in some particular Cases cannot be regulated by such Laws unto which the subsequent practice of the same Administrations are to be governed afterwards I say the first Dispensation in any kind cannot be a reasonable or perfect measure by which all other after Administrations are to be measured Men of reason and learning have delivered this for a Maxime Primum in unoquoque genere est excipiendum That the first of every kind of things is to be excepted meaning from the Common Law of the rest So that in this case God doth go along with men in their own manner of proceedings To make the observation clear When God gave being to the first man Adam intending by him the propagation of great numbers of men he did not observe the decrees or Laws of nature or natural production which he doth in giving life and being to other men So when he began that Church the members of which were afterwards numerous even the whole Nation of the Jews he appeared unto and called Abraham in somewhat an extraordinary manner This was the first beginning the head of that kind of dispensation in the world For God had not a peculiar Church raised out of any stock or generation in the world before it was to him the beginning of Churches No marvel then that he should begin this Church after another manner and in a method somewhat
moved to do any thing for the good of this Creature of his may be absolute and in all respects every way free For the object or opportunity for grace to shew it self or for to act is not in strictness of consideration misery or extremity these are the appropriate objects and opportunities of mercy But the proper opportunity for grace to shew it self is either 1. A flat or dead irrelativeness in point of merit in him to whom grace is shewn or to be shewn in reference unto him that is supposed to shew grace so that the person is no waies beholding no waies debtor unto him to whom he is willing to shew himself gracious Or else 2. A relation of demerit injury or provocation in him to whom grace is shewed towards him that sheweth grace or dealeth graciously by him So that he that sheweth grace hath not only no tye or ingagement at all upon him to shew any such thing but on the other hand hath much before him to disswade and take him off from it Now if he shall be pleased to overlook all these injuries and shall these notwithstanding deal graciously and shew kindness this is properly an act of grace 3. Neither was it simply or only the misery wherein men lay plunged that wrought upon the mercy of God so far as to move and prevail with him to open that door of relief and deliverance unto him which now he hath done but it was his misery so and so circumstantiated in one respect or other as is evident from hence because otherwise the misery whereinto those more excellent Creatures of his the lapsed Angels are fallen being every whit as great if not far greater than that of man would have had the same motive or operation upon the mercy of God to do the like for them which the misery of man had and so have prevailed with him to have provided deliverance for them also But this only by the way 4. And lastly for this That which was properly matter of grace in God towards man being fallen was not procured or drawn from him by any thing in man any waies obliging him thereunto or by any consideration whatsoever relating unto man or his condition But was every way free meerly intirely and absolutely from himself And this is one thing and the first thing wherein the graciousness and freeness of acting in the Spirit of God consists viz. That without any moving or obliging cause whatsoever from without or on mans part He is pleased to intreat him sweetly and lovingly and to come unto him as it were from heaven to visit him to converse with the Children of men in the secret of their hearts and souls to instruct and teach them the things of their eternal peace to admonish and excite them to the imbracing and prosecuting of them yea and to follow them with his Promise to look after them and assist them And these things he doth to all men without exception to a certain degree when they first come by the use of their judgments and understanding and by the putting forth of their consciences to be capable of them yea and doth increase and advance these his gracious workings in them untill either by a long continued neglect of his presence with them or by some higher hand of sin and wickedness practiced in opposition to such gracious motions and transactions of his within them they weary him and quench those gracious operations which his presence affordeth unto them and bring it so to pass that he taketh no pleasure or delight in them Secondly Sect. 9 Another thing and that which already in part hath been mentioned wherein the graciousness and freedom of the Spirit of God in his working consists is this viz. That he is pleased sweetly and graciously to intreat men not only without any cause on their part moving or obliging him thereunto But against many provocations that might in reason have perswaded him to the contrary I mean to have absented himself from them and to have abandoned and abhorred them for ever and left them to have perished in their sin eternally Who can number all that variety of sins and provocations which centred and met together in and about that first and great transgression of Adam What strain of sin and wickedness was there wanting There was unthankfulness pride unbelief contempt of God sensuality murther of Posterity and that without end and what not almost of all that the soul of God abhorreth And all this great concourse and assembly of all sorts of Impieties and Provocations from the greatest to the least of them were as so many Orators and Pleaders against man before God and disswaders of him from ever respecting or taking the least care or thought what became of him and yet the grace of God and of the good Spirit as we have both heard and known to our comfort hath through that abundant freeness thereof magnified it self against them all It had been grace yea freeness of grace in the strictest consideration of both words if God or the Spirit of God should have moved in mercy or love towards his creature Man upon a level or plain ground I mean without any worthiness or desert or any inviting consideration in man But that the Spirit of God should be in his visiting of men like a river of water running up a steep hill my meaning is should vouchsafe to make applications of himself unto them in order to their eternal peace against such height and fierceness of demerit injury and provocation is indeed somewhat more than simply and meerly free grace if we had a word of more excellent signification to express it by and the truth is we want words to express it For that grace which God hath vouchsafed unto men in their salvation and in the means thereof and in the great condescension of the Spirit of God unto men is more and somewhat of a higher nature it carries a richer and more glorious notion in it than simply of grace of meer grace or of free grace because this free grace might have been shewed unto men in case they had never sinned It was the grace of God to create man upon those terms that he did to put him in a capacity of continuing in that honour and happiness wherein he was created and to adorn him with such rich and excellent qualifications because the Creature could deserve none of these things it could deserve nothing before it was But having sinned for God to exhibit such terms of love and goodness and bounty as he hath done this is somewhat more if we know what to call it than meer grace or free grace The Apostle Paul makes it more than so and an higher expression of it than his I think could not have been given down from Heaven at least 2 Amat compositiones Paulus cum Prepositione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that should in any degree have been intelligible by men a For he takes
watch their opportunity and sooner or later will break out and shew themselves in the world Or if they should not break out into action yet they will greatly incumber and break the very heart and cut the sinews of the motions and excitations of the Spirit of God in men The motions of the Spirit of God where these inmates are hardly thrive or come to any maturity but will be as the untimely fruit of a woman which never comes to see the Sun There are some actions so necessary to be atchieved for the honour of Christ that this is like to suffer much unless they be performed And these are of such a contrariety to the flesh that unless men be filled with the Spirit of God the flesh will never give way for the performance of them because they have such a desperate antipathy to it and to the works thereof But when a man is full of the Holy Ghost he is now so full of the sense of the goodness of those honourable purposes that are conceived in his soul and of all high atchievements in the service of God which he judgeth will be both for the glory of God the advancement of the Gospel and for the good of mankind as also for his own peace and comfort that there is no place left within him for the flesh to suggest any thing to the contrary either to take him him off from or to retard him in the prosecution thereof He is as full of such occasions and ingagements as these as ever he can hold which keep out the motions and insinuations of the flesh Whereas if there were room for them to interpose it is a thousand to one but they would strangle or stifle all good purposes and resolutions within him You may the better understand what it is to be filled with the Spirit of God Sect. 2 in reference to the matter in hand by considering the contrary namely what it is to be filled with an evil spirit Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lye to the Holy Ghost saith the Apostle to Annanias Acts 5.3 The Apostle supposes that Satan had filled his heart upon this ground because he had reason and grounds in abundance to speak the truth in as much as he saw and knew that Peter was indued with a miraculous and extraordinary presence of the Spirit of God whereby he could discern whether he spake the truth or not but Satan had filled his heart with foolish imaginations and vain conceits about the profit or benefit that he presumed would accrue unto him by his lye that there was no room for the consideration of those grounds and reasons as were before him to speak the truth though these were pregnant and near at hand So on the contrary when a man is so full of the consideration of the high services of God and of purposes and resolutions to quit himself worthily therein that there is no place left in his soul to encertain any contrary thoughts or suggestions that might insnare him and turn him aside now is he full of the Spirit and in a meet frame and posture to lift up his heart and his hands to the great and high Commandments of Jesus Christ It is said Acts 4 8. Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said unto them ye Rulers of the people and Elders of Israel c And Acts 13.9 10. Then Paul filled with the Holy Ghost sit his eyes on him viz. Elimas the Sorcerer and said O full of all subtilty and all mischief thou child of the Devil thou enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right waies of the Lord The reason why here is mention made of the Apostles being filled with the Holy Ghost when he was ingaged in such a notable service for Jesus Christ as to reprove a man of that great authority and esteem which Elimas was of amongst them the reason hereof I say was to shew that he was not like to have performed such a work as this had he not been so full of the Spirit of God that there was no room in his heart for any fearful apprehensions nor thoughts of danger or reward to obstruct him herein So elsewhere the Apostle in a Phrase a little differing saith Behold I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem Acts 20.22 To be bound in the Spirit is upon the matter to be filled with the Spirit As a man that is bound hand and foot may be ordered any way he can make no resistance any man may carry him whither he will So saith Paul I go bound in the Spirit or by means of the Spirit He hath brought me into these bonds having filled me with satisfaction touching the excellency of the service that I shall do unto Christ by going to Jerusalem in the face of all those great Enemies I shall there meet with Yet saith he notwithstanding any danger that may befall me I go bound in the Spirit so filled with what the Spirit hath put into my judgment and conscience and soul touching the acceptableness of the service that I can give no audience to any reasons or proposals against it I cannot resist the motion carrying me to it And 2 Cor. 5.13 The same Apostle speaks of being besides themselves For whether we be besides our selves it is unto God or whether we be sober it is for your cause For the love of Christ constraineth us c. Constraineth us namely to both kinds of practices those wherein they should seem unto many to be besides themselves and those also wherein they should seem to be sober wherein he supposeth that there are many turns wherein the honour of Jesus Christ cannot be provided for as it ought but some men must act like unto men besides themselves to make the provision And of all kind of actions and services these are the highest and most spiritual and of the greatest consequence unto the interest of Jesus Christ and his affairs And the truth is that setting a very few persons aside that are more spiritually wise than the common sort of men yea of Christians themselves there are not sufficient witnesses of the worthiness of such actions but Jesus Christ himself because the grounds and reasons by which such actions must be promoted are so high and have so much of God in them that persons of an ordinary understanding have no skill of them they cannot cast it or conceive in their minds but that such a man might have done better might have been wiser and might have kept a good conscience though he had not run such an hazard and exposed himself to such or such a trouble or loss c. Sect. 3 Now it is only the Holy Ghost that can enable men to do that can inlarge their hearts unto such actions and services as those wherein they shall be looked upon as men besides themselves And when the Holy Ghost shall come and fill the heart and display the worthiness and glory of such
turn to the praise of the Spirit But we must do them with a desire and purpose of heart that they may be to his praise So that to sow to the Spirit denoteth fruitfulness in good works especially in such good works wherein more particularly the glorious goodness and power c. of the Spirit may be discovered unto the World and when men are addicted unto such waies and such works which have a proper and clear tendency to discover the goodness bounty power and excellency c. of the Spirit of God then they may be said to sow unto the Spirit especially when they do these things with an intention to commend his goodness and power unto the World So to sow to the Flesh is to do that which tendeth to please the sensual part of man and this with an intent to gratifie the Flesh whether we understand it in respect of the outward Actions of the body or the corrupt workings of the mind it is clear that men in either of them do sow to the Flesh Only this is to be minded that the taking care of the outward man and the doing of such things which in a regular way tend to the maintenance and comfortable subsistence thereof are never said to be a sowing to the Flesh in opposition to the Spirit but only when men are inordinate in the use of these things then and only then doth the Interest of the Flesh come in For whilst men and women are providing for the comfortable being of the outward man they all this while walk by the Rule of the Word of God and comport with the Spirit of God These kind of doings are not properly the works of the Flesh but may be more truly said to be the works of the Spirit For the Spirit of God requireth that all things should be done in a regular manner that the outward man may not be disadvantaged unto spiritual Services therefore the Spirit of God doth charge men with particular care and circumspection over their Bodies that by this means he may rejoyce with so much the greater Joy where he findeth men manage themselves so that they may be in a good capacity to do such things which are holy just and good and that are righteous and of a good report Now the reason why such things as these must needs be matter of praise unto the Spirit of God is because the hearts of men cannot lightly when they see men full of good works but acknowledge that these things do come from the Spirit of God because such works as these being in goodness and glory above the Line of men plainly assert their Original to be Divine and plainly inform the World that God by his Spirit vouchsafeth to dwell and to act in men and women from whom such excellent works as these proceed But more particularly such waies and works which outstrip the generality of men yea of Christians and which they are not at present able to understand nor to see the reason of them such were some of the actions and waies of the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 5.13 For whether we be besides our selves it is for God or whether we be sober it is for your cause For the love of Christ constraineth us c. Paul seemed in some of his Actions as a man half-witted or besides himself and as a man bereaved of his senses yet this doubtless was of the best and choicest seed the best kind of sowing unto the Spirit of God it is true that at the first performance of them the World did not understand no nor Christians neither of an ordinary anointing as was even now hinted nor could-resolve them into their proper Principles so as to say that this was the Spirit of God that moved and stirred him up As the Seed for a while lieth buried in the ground and afterwards springeth up Even so when the reasons of such actions should be manifest unto them then they should confess that he had a great and mighty assistance of the Spirit of God with him There are some things which are above the ordinary reach of natural and moral men though the truth is there hath been here and there a Son of Nature Philosophers and such like men that have gone very far and as high it is likely as many of the Sons and Daughters of God have done or do as in that great work and strain of excellency in forgetting and forgiving of injuries and passing by all matters of unkindness disparagement and contempt which they have met withal from the hands of men Now for men and women to take no knowledge of such things from any nor to draw back from them or to withhold the hand of their goodness bounty or good will in any kind from them upon the account of any such hard measure received this is one of the highest and one of the most spiritual strains that can be that the nature of man is likely to partake of To be able to do good in the presence of all these discouragements doth argue even to the generality of men that such a man is of an excellent spirit and that he hath a great presence of the Spirit of God with him And doubtless though there may be excellent things written in this kind concerning those that have not been seasoned with the Gospel of Jesus Christ at least in so explicite a manner yet is there a more peculiar and a more rich presence of the Spirit vouchsafed unto those who enjoy the Gospel and which moveth them more strongly to spiritual actions and which have a more immediate and strong connexion with their present joy and comfort and also with their Eternal life and good of their souls But besides this there are other things of an excellent import Let your moderation saith the Apostle Phil. 4.5 be known unto all men The word signifieth let your yieldingness or comportance and compliance be known unto all men he meaneth sweetness and gentleness of disposition a readiness in men ever and anon to give away their own right to deny themselves in many things which according to strict terms and the rigour of the Law they might stand upon When ever there is danger that upon their account the Gospel is like to suffer in the hearts and consciences of men in case they should stand stifly upon their own rights then the opportunity is before a man then hath he a call to practice that moderation and that yieldingness and gentleness of Spirit which the Apostle calleth for at the hands of Christians We might instance in many more particulars of this nature but you see by that little which we have insisted upon what we mean by sowing to the Spirit But if you ask How should such a thing as this be any way or means to help us forwards in this viz. A being filled with the Spirit or any waies promote such an end I answer This is clear from the Principle insisted upon in the former
that are as bad as these that may have a standing in the hearts of men and have place and room to abide there There is the same Reason and Consideration of all other Purposes Intentions and Designs that are of such a particular and limited nature as this But that design or engagement which in the present Motive we commend unto you viz. to be filled with the Spirit is more comprehensive and where it hath taken the heart or soul with strength and power it extendeth its Jurisdiction and Command to all a man's Thoughts Purposes Counsels mental Agitations Ends and Aims whatsoever Regulating Restraining Ordering Umpiring setting up and casting down according to the exigency and import of it This is the very nature of this design that he that hath espoused it hath upon the matter threatned all vain Thoughts all loose Cogitations he hath threatned them all with ruine and destruction and with the casting them out of his heart for ever The Reason hereof is because the nature of this Engagement is such that it cannot be effectually promoted or carried on but by a diligent and vigilant superintendency and inspection over all a man's thoughts and all that stirreth or moveth or that is conceived in him For the Spirit taketh check and is grieved at least to a degree at every connivance or indulgence of any thing that is impertinent unsavoury and foolish inordinate or irregular in the heart or inward part of a man and must have nothing cherished favoured or so much as tolerated here but what is sober holy just and every waies conformable to the Law and Mind of God otherwise he will not advance or lift up himself in the mind and soul of a man upon any such terms as he is ready to do when he is pleased and accommodated to his mind in all things It is true it is not the meer conceiving or rising up of foolish vain and irregular thoughts in the heart or mind of a man or woman which is distasteful to the Holy Ghost so as to offend or grieve him for then he should take pleasure in no man whatsoever but it is the indulging of them and when nothing is done to suppress them it is not simply their rising up in the minds of men but the approving of them or at least the not endeavouring to suppress them which causeth the Spirit of God that he will not cannot work mightily Eph. 4.29 30. Where the Apostle exhorts the Ephesians that no corrupt communication should proceed out of their mouths He adds And grieve not the holy Spirit of God by which ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Corrupt Communication doth argue that the root of bitterness within a man is let alone and winked at for otherwise if it had been taken while it was a lust while only in the bud it would never have proceeded so high let therefore no corrupt Communication proceed out of your mouths and grieve not the holy Spirit c. When foolish dispositions are let alone they will grow as weeds which if plucked up whilest young would keep from seeding So if Lust and sinful motions be rejected at first coming they will never shew themselves out of doors Therefore when any person man or woman shall have espoused that most honourable and heavenly design we speak of of being filled with the Spirit if they be loyal and true to their Espousals in this kind they must and cannot but abstain from and suppress all absurd foolish and extravagant thoughts On the contrary It is very considerable that these importune and troublesome Guests or Inmates we speak of vain wilde foolish and impertinent motions and thoughts will hardly ever be reduced or brought to leave the mind or soul of a man unless it be by the interposure of some-great and worthy design cordially entertained and resolved on by the Soul there is hardly any other course will do it And when any man or woman shall for some tolerable time have practised this suppression and rejection of vain and foolish thoughts as they arise and put forth in them they shall for the future have less and less trouble with them they will not be so apt to rise in that heart or soul which is not wont to give them entertainment where they are like to die as soon as they begin to live Even as weeds by oft removing and cutting their roots are quite killed in time their root is discouraged and dieth or as hurtful flocks of Birds by being oft frighted or driven away from the Corn grow weary of coming there where they are continually frighted and not suffered to have any rest or peace Thus we see the truth of the Motive in hand viz. Sect. 3 That the very exercise of the heart mind and soul about the business or engagement of being filled with the Spirit is of a rich and excellent concernment unto you not only in reference to the grand prize or end of being filled with the Spirit but also in respect of other services it will do you by the way It will as you have heard put you upon another blessed exercise I mean to keep your hearts and minds free from a troublesome and ignoble Rabble of foolish vain unprofitable and noysome thoughts Let us only for a close of this Motive weigh and ponder a little of how happy and worthy a consequence and concernment it is for men and women to have ease and freedom in this kind to be delivered from such cogitations and thoughts which are apt without end to infest and molest their minds and hearts which ought to be a Temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in being good for nothing but to dishonour pollute and defile wherever they come and to put by their betters My Brethren to make you see of what great concernment it is to you you may please to consider that your minds and understandings are the most noble and divine part of our nature and the puttings forth of them are the best Trees in our Orchard and those that will bear the best and largest fruit Now then for these to give out their strength in things that be unprofitable and not only so but in that which annoyeth molesteth and defileth a man is so great an imbasement of them and will turn to so great damage and loss that it cannot in reason but be apprehended a mighty accommodation to be free from the cause hereof Now then inasmuch as we are not born free nor can be free in this kind but by much labour My Brethren If any of you as it is said of Lot that he vexed his righteous soul with the unclean Conversation of the Sodomites 2 Pet. 2.7 have vexed your souls with these impure thoughts and malignant cogitations if you have been truly sensible and have taken knowledge of them it is impossible but that you should much lament the loss and damage your minds and understandings do you when they bring forth such rotten