duty and more especially the duty of every Believer to desire and seek after part and fellowship in the highest Consolations which the Gospel administreth and which are attainable by men thereby because without being baptized with such a baptism as this men will not be in that singular and signal capacity to shew forth the vertues or pleasant and lovely things of God which they ought to lift up their hearts and desires unto That which as we said is asserted plainly in the Reason Sect. 8 is that without being filled with the Spirit men and women will never be able to reach the Consolations of the Gospel where they run high and carry in them a strong savour of life and immortality Now for the opening and clearing of this unto you you are to take knowledge and consider that men and women may so go to work may stand upon such terms before God and the Gospel for many years together that according to the ordinary and settled course of Divine Providence in the World and the exigency of second causes they will not be like I mean whilst they continue in such a way to know what the Consolations of the Gospel in those veins of it in which they are most soveraign rich and glorious mean Yea the truth is considering the present experiment which persons of both Sexes generally give of themselves in the World there is scarce one of a City or two of a Tribe whose hearts do in any measure serve them to live up to such terms which are like to render them capable of eating the fat and drinking the sweet of the Gospel For First men that savour as the Scripture speaks the things which are of men and love this present World are not in any likely capacity but only upon the changing of the frame of their mind and of their course of life ever to know what is the hope of their Calling as the Apostle speaks either in respect of the ground of it what pregnant lively and abundantly satisfactory arguments and grounds there are why they should hope for and expect all the great things which the Gospel promiseth or else what is his hope in respect of the object of it how glorious excellent and wonderful these things are which are now hoped for and will be found of all those that shall with Faith and Patience wait upon God for them Men and women I say that stick fast with their minds and hearts in the mire and clay of this present World are never like to know what the hope of the Gospel-calling is in either consideration and consequently not to inherit or enjoy in this World the riches of the glory of the Gospel Consolations The Reasons hereof are many we shall hint only two First Because when the intellectual powers and faculties of the Soul are drunk up with worldly and sensual engagements or over-acted upon the things which are seen they become aukward indisposed and unserviceable for spiritual negotiations and imployments about heavenly things By such low and mean Converse as this they contract an habit of a kind of intellectual rudeness and disingeniousness by reason whereof they know not how to quit or behave themselves about more noble and high-born objects nor indeed care not much to have to do with them or come into their company Even as persons that have been alwaies bred and brought up inter sordes amongst rude and rustical people of course and rough behaviour cannot presently change their temper and disposition and so become capable of conversing orderly and according to the principles of Civility with persons of better quality and more refined carriage and by reason of a consciousness to themselves in this kind they avoid as much as well they may the company of such persons In like manner those divine discoveries made in the Gospel those veins of wisdom and of the knowledge of God there upon which I mean upon the apprehension of which the high raisings and liftings up in Evangelical Consolations of which we speak chiefly depend being of a very fine spinning very spiritual and remote from the common thoughts and apprehensions of men and much more from the thoughts of such minds and understandings which have accustomed themselves wholly in a manner to this Worlds affairs persons of this Character knowing that these things lie out of the way of their Genius and that they are not able to conceive of them with much contentment to themselves nor to speak of them with contentment unto others in these respects take little or no pleasure to enquire after them nor to engage themselves to any purpose in the study of them So then this is one reason why such persons who are over-intent and bent upon this present World are not like to ascend in spirit into the Region of light where the Consolations we speak of have their dwelling and are to be found viz. because by continual digging in the earth with their reasons apprehensions and understandings they make them blunt and dull and altogether unapt to take the Genuine and through impressions of such Gospel-notions wherein the riches of the comforts thereof are laid up as in a store-house Secondly Another Reason hereof is because as we lately heard the revelations and discoveries of these Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge that are hid in the Gospel in the understanding and clear apprehension whereof as we lately likewise shewed the strength of the said Consolations lye are made over or as we may speak safely enough and yet more plainly are promised by God by way of reward unto those that love him and proportionably the fuller measure of them to those that love him above the rate of his ordinary friends Now the Holy Ghost expresly informs us 1 Joh. 2.15 That if any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him Yea the Apostle James goeth somewhat further or at least speaketh more plainly affirming That the friendship of the World is enmity with God and that whosoever will be a friend unto the World is an enemy unto God James 4.4 If the love of the Father of God the Father be not in men the deep things of God in the Gospel such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard c. are not prepared or made ready to be communicated unto them nor indeed are they prepared or fit to receive and understand them This then in a word is another Reason why persons much addicted to this present World are not like to sit at the upper end of the Table which is spread with the Consolations of the Gospel Secondly Sect. 9 Neither are they like to taste of the Feast we speak of or be filled with the best and choycest of the comforts of the Gospel who are hard of bowels cruel unmerciful hard to forget and forgive injuries yea who have not eyes and hearts full of commiseration and of pity hearts well exercised with mercy For as mercy in the Apostle Jame's
an activeness for God but only theirs who are filled with the Spirit of God what course soever they may take otherwise Now the truth is that both these in effect and by clearness of consequence have been proved already The former in those discussions wherein we made it appear that every of the said four Priviledges were respectively the natural and proper fruits and consequences of the signal intergrity of mens hearts and waies in the sight of God The latter in those passages wherein in like manner we evinced such an integrity of heart and life before God to be the genuine and appropriate effect of a being filled with the Spirit Therefore we shall here only vindicate and clear those discussions and passages from such difficulties or objections which may seem to encumber them and to weaken the truth or authority of them First then That men may attain to a freedom from all troublesome and tormenting cares and fears and whatever of this nature is apt to render the life of a man less comfortable less desirable without any such high engagements for God as were spoken of and so consequently without being filled with the Spirit appears from hence that many Heathen Philosophers and Wise men especially of the Sect of the Stoicks by study and dealing with themselves and their hearts effectually from such Principles and Considerations as the light of Nature afforded them did attain this atchievement they did absolutely deliver themselves from that bondage and subjection we speak of and did live in a constant tranquillity and serenity of mind and thoughts and did not feel any pricking Thorne or grieving Brier of any troublesome passion Yea more generally they of the Schole and Sect of Epicurus lived free from all cares and fears yea there are many amongst our selves who as our Proverb expresseth it set Cock on hoop and as they put the evil day far from them so together herewith they put away all care fear and all troublesome thoughts to the same distance therefore it seems at least one of the four Priviledges wherein you placed the desirableness of a mans life and condition in this World viz. a freedom from all troublesome and tormenting fears and cares may be obtained and enjoyed without a being filled with the Spirit I reply first concerning Heathen Philosophers these things First That as Painters use to do very frequently viz. flatter and give beauty and comliness in the artificial face where they are wanting in the natural So many Historians when they have a person of note or worth or of any great name to represent or describe they do not so much set or bend themselves to inform the Reader of the truth of things concerning them as to shew the rareness of their own genius and parts by making them the most accomplished persons in the World As Sophocles the Tragedian made reply to him who demanded a reason why contrary to his Fellow Euripides he made all Women that he personated in his Tragedies so excellently vertuous and good I saith he represent them such as they should be In like manner we have great cause to suspect that they who have reported such glorious things of some Philosophers and others worthy men like enough in their Sphere rather represented and reported them such as they should have been than such as they were as Paterculus a Roman Historian speaking of Cato saith of him that he was Virtuti similimus qui rectè nunquam fecit ut facere videretur sed quia aliter facere non poterat He was a man most like unto virtue it self who never did that which was right that he might appear to do it but because he could not do otherwise as if he were a man unchangeably perfect and good After some other high Characters of commendation he saith of him that he was Homo omnibus humanis vitiis immunis A man that was far from the insirmities of a man with more of the same strain Yet that which the same Author reports of Scipio Aemylianus is much more viz. That he was a man Qui nunquam nisi laudandum aut fecit aut dixit aut sensit who all his life long never spake nor did nor thought any thing but that which was good And elsewhere this is said of another Solem faâ—ilius e Coelo dimovendum c. That it was a more easie matter to turn the Sun out of his way than to turn him Therefore we are not bound to believe all that we have received by Tradition concerning the high Strains and Heroick attainments and Enjoyments of Heathen Philosophers and others famous for virtue although on the other hand there is little question to be made but that there were many of excellent Principles and deportments amongst them and such who shall rise up in Judgment against the common sort of Professors of Christianity amongst us and condemn them However there is no certainty of any such thing as absolute freedom from cares and fears enjoyed by and of them as that pretended in the Objection Secondly Suppose that as far as an estimate can be made Sect. 8 either by some passages of speech or discourse upon occasion uttered by some of them or else by many Sayings yet found in their Writings that they did some of them enjoy such a Priviledge as a freedom from cares and fears c. yet such an estimate as this is far from certainty or infallibility Though we should hear them utter sayings or speak of their security like that of Angels it doth not follow that they spaâ—e truth For as Aristotle speaking of many excellent Principles of Temperance and Sobriety saith of young men that they use to speak and discourse of these things but do not believe them In like manner men of Learning and Parts may hammer out many excellent Sayings and Strains of a very high nature and yet not believe them themselves David sometimes indeed said I believed and therefore I spake Psal 116.10 but the truth is that men may and frequently do speak and utter many things which they do not believe Our English Story reports of one John Cremâ—nsis who was sent over by the Pope to perswade the Priests from Marrying that the very next night after he had delivered his Message and in an eloquent Oration commended Chastity to the Clergy he was found in Adultery So that it is no great matter for men to write excellent things to talk of freedom from fears and cares but to get this into the heart and to make this real is another manner of thing Thirdly and lastly Though some of those we speak of might seem to enjoy such a Priviledge as that formerly described of a dreadless and fearless mind whilest either they were free from danger or under the arrest of some evil more tolerable and more easie to be born yet when they came to encounter with the King of Fears viz. Death their inward security and height of confidence and resolution was much
an incumbrance upon the mind and spirit of a man and so an hindrance unto him from attending chearfully to any thing given by way of satisfaction touching the manner and means of obtaining a thing when the thought of his heart is that the thing is impossible to be obtained Therefore as to the Question propounded about this how such a thing can be or is likely to be that the Holy Ghost and much more a fulness with the Holy Ghost should be obtained by the endeavours of men I reply First That he is not to be obtained by the endeavours of men upon any such terms as if men were stronger than he or could compel or necessitate him by any force or strength properly so called to turn in unto them or the like but this I suppose is the thought of no mans heart Are we stronger than he saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.22 therefore certainly it is not to be obtained upon any such terms Secondly Neither is the Holy Ghost nor a fulness with him to be obtained by the endeavours of men upon any such terms or in any such consideration as if there were any thing of any worth goodness or the like in the endeavours of men in one kind or other which might in a way of merit challenge the gift of the Holy Ghost from God much less such a measure of the Spirit as the being filled with him importeth No the obtaining of the gift of the Holy Ghost upon such terms as these is like the redeeming of the Life or Soul of a man's Brother from the Grave Psal 49.7 which as the Prophet saith must cease for ever and such a thought of heart in any man is not much better than that of Simon Magus when as Peter chargeth him he thought the gift of the Holy Ghost might be purchased with money Therefore there is no such thing as this any waies implied in the Doctrine in hand Thirdly Neither is the Holy Ghost or any fulness with him to be obtained by any endeavours of men which originally spring from themselves or whereof they are the Authors Not saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.5 that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing or to reason any thing as the word signifieth meaning in the Ministry of the Gospel as of our selves i. e. as originally or radically of our selves He doth not deny but plainly supposeth and granteth that in a sense and in some consideration we are sufficient of our selves viz. by vertue of those abilities which are properly our own being given us by God to reason or think after such a manner as he speaketh of Only he denies that in such a sense or consideration as this we have any sufficiency in this kind viz. As if we our selves were the Authors of that sufficiency that is in us either by way of nature or of any meritorious procurement because as he immediately adds our sufficiency is of God namely originally fundamentally and radically not only by way of Creation as he that raiseth or worketh it in us but also as he that worketh it graciously or freely without any meritorious engagement laid upon him by us to work it in us or give it unto us For that in Scripture Phrase is said properly and precisely to be of God not simply which he acteth or worketh but that which he acteth or worketh freely without any either meritorious or demeritorious engagement laid upon him by the Creature As for example in case either Adam or Abraham or any other person had continued in all things that are written in the Law to do them I mean had perfectly fulfilled the Law God would have justified them or declared them righteous upon it yet had not this their justification in strictness or propriety of Scripture Phrase been of God but of themselves though he had justified them because they had wrought for it and God in strictness and rigour of justice could not have denied it them And so that of our Apostle concerning Abraham is I conceive to be understood Rom. 4.2 For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It should not be translated but not before God as we have it but thus rather he hath whereof to glory but not concerning God concerning any grace or favour received from God in his Justification If his Justification had been by works it had not been from God but from himself Upon the account of that Principle which we now plead the condemnation and destruction of wicked and impenitent men though the execution be done by God yet in emphaticalness of Scripture Phrase it is said to be procured from themselves and is disowned by God viz. because there is a demeritorious engagement layed upon God by the Creature to inflict it Hos 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self So that neither in this respect or sense is it a truth that the Holy Ghost or a being filled with him is procured by the endeavours of men in a meritorious way or as if any thing that men can do did any waies oblige God in way of justice to fill any man with the Spirit Therefore Fourthly When we teach and affirm that men may take a course or use means to be filled with the Spirit we do not make the Spirit obnoxious unto men or unto their endeavours but unto his own most gracious and free promise unto his infinite goodness unto poor Creatures only lead and guided by his infinite wisdom Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name Psal 138.2 that is he had subjected all his Attributes unto his Promise and unto the Word that is gone out of his mouth so that they shall serve the World and bless the Sons and daughters of men according to what he hath declared in his Word So that the reason why any man by taking such or such a course Sect. 4 or by using such or such endeavours comes to be filled with the Spirit is not because he doth these things there is no such vertue vigour or strength in them in any thing that men can do or are in a capacity of doing in this kind which is able to produce an effect so glorious as the filling of the heart or soul of a man with the Spirit of the living God But only because the Will of God and Word of God which are potent and wonderful in their operation do here interpose therefore doth it so come to pass And if God will give his Spirit or a fulness of his Spirit unto men and women upon their observation of such and such directions from his mouth who shall ask him Why dost thou so That which men do for the obtaining of that fulness with the Spirit which we speak of is little other than Sacramental Now such causes which work and contribute towards their effects Sacramentally only are in respect of that which is litteral or natural in them the poorest and lowest of all causes being of
be praised so shall I be saved from mine Enemies I will pray saith he and then I do expect as it were of course Salvation and deliverance from God And so again in ver 5 6. The sorrows of hell compassed me about And what did he in this case When he saw no way of escape he dispatches his Angel unto Heaven and his Angel was sent back with deliverance he heard my voice out of his Temple and my cry came before him even into his ears And then what follows What a tempest and storm doth God presently raise against his Enemies Ver. 7 8 c. Then the Earth shook and trembled the foundations of the Hills moved and were shaken c. And so again ver 18.19 They prevented me in the day of my calamity But the Lord was my stay he delivered me because he delighted in me We know it is a thing usual with men and that which is but equal and no mans reproach or shame to be more kind and more enclinable to help those that are willing to serve them those that are respectful of them and charge their minds and thoughts with their Affairs and Concernments I say it is but reasonable that a man who is thus respected by another should shew and measure out respects proportionably to him again So God it seems uses to deal with men in this case ver 20 21. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me for I have kept the waies of the Lord and not wickedly departed from my God We see that it was not simply Prayer or David's crying unto the Lord that brought this deliverance down from Heaven unto him with so high an hand no but it was his righteousness the cleanness of his hands the keeping of himself clean in the sight of God this was that which gave power to his Prayer and caused it to prevail at that high rate with him And so Psal 6.9 10. The Lord saith he hath heard my Supplication and he will receive my Prayer And what then Let all mine Enemies be ashamed and sore vexed c. As if he had said Let them look to it all mine Enemies for I am resolved that I will pray and call upon God and I know then what will fall to their portion and therefore let them look for nothing nor expect nothing but ruine and destruction when I shall do it And in Rev. 11.5 6. It is said there concerning the two Witnesses That if any man would hurt them fire proceeded out of their mouth and devoured their Enemies and if any man will hurt them be must in this manner be killed As if he had said there is no way with them but one if they attempt any thing cruelly and unmercifully against my Witnesses their fiery Prayers and Supplications which proceed out of their mouths will destroy them And so he goes on ver 6. These have power to shut Heaven that it rain not in the day of their Prophesie and have power over waters to turn them into bleud c. Ye have heard that this Book of the Revelations runneth much upon Allegories and Types which it borrows from the Old Testament but the plain meaning of these Expressions is only this that those that should stand it out against Antichrist his Apostacies and the Idolatrous doings in those times should be able to do as great things and to bring to pass things of the like nature and consideration in their kind with those great works in the daies of Elijah and of Moses c. Ezek. 14.14 where God speaks of Noah Daniel and Job that if these men should stand before him yet they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness It is very likely that it was a received Principle amongst the Israelites that men like unto these could prevail for what they would with God and God would not deny them any thing that they asked of him For otherwise it was to no purpose to affect the people and to take them off from expectation of any help from the mediation of them or such as they were unless they had hoped for deliverance by the means of such men But now saith he it is true indeed if these men or any like unto them should stand up and intercede with me they should have somewhat more than other men they should prevail with me for themselves But as to the saving of the Nation and the preventing of the Judgment which I am now fully resolved to execute upon you it is such of such a nature and consequence that it is not fit for me to grant neither indeed would these men ask any such things at my hand if they knew the state of things between me and you and how repugnant it is to those Principles of Holiness Wisdom and Justice by which I govern the World and must govern it if I govern it like my self So God likewise telleth Jeremiah Neither lift up a cry for this people for if they pray I will not hear them Jer. 11.14 14.11 7.16 As if Jeremiah had had such an opinion that this people might have been brought off from that Judgment which God intended towards them and that God should have suffered some kind of inconveniency to have denied him if he had prayed for them and therefore to prevent him he plainly tells him that he would not have him pray for them As if God had said it is not at all out of my way to deny such Petitions and Suits as they that are wicked and stubborn put up but it would be otherwise with me in case thou shouldst pray and I must go somewhat out of my way to deny thee and therefore saith he do it not Now this passage plainly shews that such persons who excell in righteousness and that are wont to lay out themselves freely for God he is wont to express himself with an answerable freedom and bounty to them and consequently to give them power at the Throne of Grace and interest there Thus then we see how and upon what account Persons filled with the Spirit of God must needs according to the Scriptures have a great interest in God and carry a great stroke by their Prayers at the Throne of Grace viz. because they keep his Commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight Now it is a matter of easie and ready apprehension to conceive of how rich a consequence such an high Priviledge as this we have mentioned Sect. 5 and found men and women filled with the Spirit to stand possessed of must needs be to make the life of a man most desirable in this World We know for a man to have the Ear of a King or a great Potentate of the Earth so as to be able to procure his Arm to be stretched forth on his behalf as oft as he should reasonably desire it is esteemed and not altogether without cause to
be a great piece of wordly Felicity But alas What is such an interest in the greatest or mightiest King or Prince under the Heavens being compared with that interest which such a person as we have spoken of hath in God The gleanings of him that hath the Ear of the Great God of all the Earth open to his Prayer are better than the Vintage of him that hath the Ear of the greatest Monarch in the World open unto him They who have the Ear of God open upon such terms as persons filled with the Spirit have it are in a capacity hereby not only to provide or procure for themselves as oft as they desire all accommodations regularly necessary to render their lives full of peace comfort and contentment but likewise to Umpire and order the great Affairs of the World round about them yea and to give Laws unto Nations and to rule them with a Rod of Iron For such persons as we now speak of are a first fruits of that World to come which in Scriptures is called the new Heavens and the new Earth the Kingdom of Christ and of the Saints and is much discoursed amongst us under the name of the Fifth Monarchy a Name and Notion proper enough for it and have a first-fruit granted unto them by God of those glorious Priviledges of that Interest of Power and Grandeur which shall be vested in the great Body or whole Community of the Saints in that day of which we may have occasion ere long to speak more particularly So as this shall be the Priviledge and Prerogative of all the Saints in that day that they shall rule the Nations as it were with a Rod of Iron and break them in pieces like a Potters Vessel meaning that the whole Earth shall be given unto them as it is in Daniel Dan. 7.18.27 Even so shall the persons we speak of before the Dawning of that Day before the New Heaven and the New Earth taste of the great happiness and felicity of the Chosen of God in those daies and they shall Umpire and Rule and carry and sway the great Affairs of the World as we have it in Rev. 2.26 27. He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end that man that standeth it out in my Cause and fights it out unto death to him will I give power over the Nations and he shall rule with a Rod of Iron c. meaning that he shall have part in the great felicity of that day You know that passage in Jam. 5.17 where it is said that Elijah who was a man subject to the like passions and the like infirmities with other men I suppose he means not so much if at all sinful infirmities as corporal he was a man subject to sorrow and sickness and death as well as we or any of us are and yet he did thus by Prayer he prayed and he shut the Heavens and again he prayed and he opened the Heavens and provided rain for the Earth by his Prayer Now I suppose the Apostle inserts these words A man subject to like passions as we are to remove that great stumbling stone which might be in the minds and thoughts of ordinary Christians that are weak and poor that carry about with them a body of sickness and death and are despised in the World and not regarded and set by by the great men in the World How then should they expect that a God of that infinite Majesty which he is to whom they should pray and make their requests should regard them Especially in the gratifying of them upon any such terms that he should do any great or excellent thing more than ordinary for them Now to such the Holy Ghost here saith do not be troubled let no such thought as this arise within you upon such an occasion for I tell you that Elijah was a man as weak as you cloathed with the same flesh subject to sicknesses and pain and to be contemned and slighted by men as he was by Ahab and others yet this did not at all obstruct his interest with God his Prayer was potent and powerful with him for he did very great things as you know by his Prayer he shut the Heaven being highly offended with the wickedness of the People and their Idolatry He interceded as it were against them and sought to draw down Judgments upon them indeed he sought hereby to humble them and to bring them to the sight of their sins as it seems he did and accordingly when he saw that they did repent and were reformed in their waies he did by another Prayer turn the course of the Displeasure of God another way and drew down the love and favour of God out of Heaven upon them And Sect. 6 my Brethren doubtless the reason why the interest of Prayer is fallen so low and sunk as it were in the Christian World in comparison of what it was in the Primitive times in the daies of the Apostles and in the Ages next after them the reason I say why so little is done in the World by means of Prayer is because the Generation of those who in the Primitive times were wont to be filled with the Spirit and to be large hearted towards God is in a manner extinct and that heavenly vigour which possessed the hearts and reins and brake forth and shewed it self in the lives and waies of the First and Second Ages of Primitive Christians was not lookt after in the Generations afterwards but instead thereof many of them suffered a Spirit of ignorance and blind zeal to enter into them and to possess them which under a pretense of bestirring it self and acting for God and Jesus Christ made wrack and havock of their interest in the World And there is more than enough of this kind of spirit and vigour that is gotten into the the hearts and inward parts of many Professors amongst us who like to the Jews of old have a great zeal for God but not according to knowledge yea there is a great variety of several shapes and forms of this kind of zeal amongst us The Antinomian he laies out himself effectually for the advancement of his Opinion and waies and thinks he doth God and his Gospel the only service in the World A second sort of Professor he is as a flame of fire he is content to spend and to be spent in the Service of his way being full of confidence that even whilest he treads and tramples under foot the peace and comforts of the Children and dear Servants of Christ yet he is the only Benefactor to his Throne and Kingdom amongst men A third Party abominating the Zeal of the former riseth up early and goeth to bed late and eats the bread of much carefulness to mount upon the back of Secular Authority and if he get but his foot fast and sure upon this ground he makes account that by turning the edge of the Magistrates Sword against all that he conceipts