are now adays in sheeps cloathing If an impudent contradicting blaspheming spirit If a persecuting spirit If an advancing of their own fictions before the pure and unspotted word of God If a rash impetuous zeal not moderated with discretion and the love of the truth and of the word of God which is rather madness and folly then zeal If unbelief Atheisms Heresies and most horrid blasphemies not to be mentioned If a living above Ordinances without the use of the Word Sacraments and Prayer If a coldnesse and deadnesse in affection to the things of God and a full bent of will to oppose Jesus Christ in his Saints and in his servants and a continual persisting therein though they are condemned in their own consciences and so are like to commit that unpardonable sin against the holy Ghost from which sin I heartily beseech God to preserve the Quakers of these times with many others who sin against the light of their own consciences If a hating of the power of godliness and of the pure worship of God If a want of self-denial and daily bearing the cross of Christ If an Apostacy from the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints If a setting up of false doctrines under the pretence of new discoveries If we are not fallen into the last times of the world wherein that place is too much verified wherein men shall be covetous lovers of themselves boasters proud blasphemers 2 Tim. 3.1.2 3 4 5. disobedient to parents unthankeful unholy Without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Having a form of Godliness but denying the power of it If these things be so as it is too apparent to the grief of many righteous persons who weep in secret for the iniquity of the times then we may as truly say that Turks Infidels and Pagans have the teachings of the spirit upon their hearts as the most part of our luke-warm proud opinionative and carnally-minded professors have Such evil principles and wicked practises as are now amongst those that goe for Saints cannot agree with the blessed spirit I am verily perswaded that if once the furnace of affliction should wax hot again and Christ should come to sift England again by the red fiery flaming sword of persecution and bring us under the hatchet and under the hand of Tyrannical persecutors and should come to purge his floor to distinguish between the precious and the vile between him that feareth God and him that feareth him not between him that serveth him out of an upright heart and him that serveth him but under a colour and pretence I am verily perswaded that the greatest part of profesting Christians now adays who make such a fair shew in the flesh who seem so beautiful and glorious in the outside who are so hot at the first onset and taking up a form of religion who pretend so much to the work of the spirit upon their hearts if they were singled out to undergoe the fiery tryal would fall the fowlest in the flesh No outward priviledge or benefit can afford a man any comfort under an afflicted condition but onely the sense of the love of God unto us in Jesus Christ by an act of the spirit sealing it to our souls is a certain sign that we shall continue unto the end For who God loves once he loves to the end And those whom God loves God will preserve unto himself as a peculiar treasure as precious jewels in his cabinet secretly and will make their mountains strong as strong as Mount Sion which shall never be moved that their faith and confidence shall be in the Lord Jehovah for ever and ever I beseech thee Christian for the good of thy soul to separate thy self from these deceiving creatures let not their hypocrisy their jugling with the world and their own consciences though they cannot mock God their seeming sanctity their pretended piety their high notions and deep interpretations far fetch from the simplicity of the truth which neither they themselves nor others well understand delude thee while they lay claim to the spirit they are in the bonds of iniquity Consider whether they have the spirit before thou closest with their sayings for truth that they are taught by the Spirit of Christ and that the light of the spirit reside within them Are they regenerated born again and renewed by the Spirit of Christ Do they grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ Have they the witness of Gods Spirit concurring with their spirits that they are the children of God Doth the spirit help their infirmities Was ever the spirit of prayer and supplicatton powred forth upon them Have they the preventing grace the renewing grace the establishing grace the comforting grace the quickning grace the healing grace the directive grace of the spirit Do they love the brethren because they are brethren and one with thee in Jesus Christ or because they are of such an opinion Do they acknowledge the spirit in others and magnifie Gods goodness unto their soul Did the spirit ever rarifie the scorching heat of their burning lusts Did the sanctifying influences of the spirit ever descend upon their hearts Did the spirit ever soften their hard hearts Cant. 7.7 fructifie their barren souls The brests of the spouse are like clusters of grapes Cant. 4 16 Did the spirit ever blow upon their gardens that the spices thereof may send forth a precious smell in the nostrils of God Do they bring forth fruits unto holiness that their end might be everlasting life Did the spirit ever quench the fire of hell within their consciences by powring in the sweet oyl of consolation made up of the blood of Christ Did the spirit ever cleanse their consciences from dead works that they may serve the everliving God Heb. 9.14 Ez. 36.25 The spirit is resembled by water I will pour clean water upon you and you shall be clean It is the nature of water to molifie to fructifie to quench to cleanse and purifie what zeal what heat what ardency of spirit what kindlings of affections are there in them towards God and the waies of his worship what lights do they hang abroad to others that others seeing their good works might glorifie God and what progress do they make in Christianity with what eagerness of spirit as if they were serious for their souls good do they lay hold on eternal life Nay rather do they not stand still as if they had already obtained perfection when they are on the declining hand In fire there is heat brightness and motion Ex. 13.22 What Dove-like qualifications have they Doth the spirit of meekness of love and of a sound mind reside amongst them The spirit of peace of unity of gentleness of fear of sonlike obedience to the commands of God The Spirit of God came down in the form
tell thee God hath sent the Spirit of his Son crying in our hearts Abba father The Spirit of God witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God Fourthly The Spirits teachings are irresistible teachings Acts 6.10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which Stephen spake i. e. the writings of God upon Stephens heart or the teachings of the Spirit were so evident upon him that they could not withstand him or oppose what he said When the Spirit comes it shall convince the world of sinne of judgement and of righteousness It shall convince if it doth not convert It shall either drive thee besides thy self ☜ and make thee despair of salvation or to go out of thy self and to trust in Jesus Christ There is no opposing the Spirit when he comes with the prevailings of grace upon thy heart It is said of Christ that he spake as one that had anthority Mat. 7.29 and not as the Scribes Why because he spake by the Spirit My words saith he they are spirit and they are life Joh. 6.63 Let there be never so much opposition in the heart never so much prevalency of sinne let the soul be kept never so fast bound and setter'd with the vanities of the world with the devices of Satan and with the deceitfulness of sinne Yea supposing thou wert fast asleep in the midnight of earnall security yet if the Spirit comes and joggs as the Angel did Peter we shall presently awake Act. 12.7 and the prison doors shall be open and our fetters shall be knockt off and we shall be set at liberty It is our misery that when God comes to deal with his Spirit for our souls good the Spirit doth not finde us sitting still and quiet and out of the way to heaven but posting with all speed in a quite contrary way as fast as we can to hell We do not only by nature not love God but we hate God and preferre sinne and the devil before him Now when the Spirit comes supposing we are at the very brink of hell just dropping in yet if we hear the voice of the Spirit that voice which Isaiah speaks of Isa 30.12 a voice behind thee saying This is the way walk in it we shall return and be as fire-brands pluckt out of the fire The Spirit when it comes to write the things of God upon our hearts it doth not finde our souls a rasa tabula a meer blank wherein there is nothing written but the rudiments of the world of the flesh and of sinne are naturally written upon them the devil is engravened and pourtrayed all abroad upon the heart of a wicked man Now the finger of God can presently blot out this writing and unteach us whatsoever the flesh the devil and the world hath taught us and write his own characters as it were with the juyce of an onyon never to be blotted out again Joh. 5.25 It is said in the Gospel of John the dead shall hear the voice of the Sonne of God and live that is those that are dead in sinnes and trespasses that are spiritually dead that have no spirituall life that do not relish the things of God that cannot move one foot towards heaven when the Spirit cals which is meant by the voice of Christ like those dry bones which the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of they shall arise and walk and live the life of faith Ezek. 36.27 I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my waies to do them When the Spirit teacheth Isa 32.4 the heart of the rash shall understand knowledge and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly No naturall impediment no indisposition can hinder the effects of the Spirit Fifthly They are arbitrary teachings As the winde bloweth where it listeth Joh. 3.8 so is every one that is born of the Spirit The Spirit teacheth when it listeth and where it listeth The Spirit is a free agent bound to none and whatsoever he doth Matth. 11.25 he doth it freely I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things frem the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father for so it seemeth good in thy sight By the same Spirit is given severall gists but all these worketh that one and the self same Spirit 1 Cor. 12.11 dividing to every man severally as he will The Spirit of God out of a family perhaps it teacheth the Master and leaveth the servant in darkness the childe and leaves the father in darkness And as Christ said in the Gospel of Matthew Matth. 24.41 there shall be two a grinding in the mill the one shall be taken and the other left so say I in the same seat at the same time there be many a hearing of the word together and the Spirit may come and teach one and leave all the rest in darkness What a mercy is it therefore to thee whosoever thou art to thee I say that art so highly honoured as to have the Spirit to be thy teacher that the Lord should open thine eyes to see the ugly nature of sinne and the excellency that is in Jesus Christ Why might'st thou not have been one of the ignorant prophane world one that never knewest experimentally and savingly what it is to beleeve in Jesus Christ what it is to sit down at Christs table and to eat of the feast of fat things which he hath prepared for thee Why maist thou not have lived under the dispensations of the old Law when the Patriarchs had but the glimmerings of the Spirit but that thou shouldst live under the Gospel And why under the Gospel shouldst thou have a more plentifull measure of the Spirit than others but because it is the Spirits pleasure it should be so Even so Father for so it seemeth good in thy sight As Christ said to his Apostles though in another sense Mat. 13.16 17. Blessed are the eyes which see the things which you see and the ears which hear the things which you hear so I may say to you that live under the teachings of the Spirit in these Gospel-times Blessed are the eyes which see the things which you see and the ears which hear the things which you hear And as Christ said to the woman that came to him saying Luke 11.27 Blessed is the womb which bare thee and the paps which gave thee suck Nay saith Christ rather blessed are they which hear the Word of God and do it So say I Blessed are they that hear the voice of the Spirit speaking in their hearts and walk up to this voice of the Spirit Sixthly They are determinating fixing and quieting teachings They fix the soul in the waies of God They resolve all the doubts and carnall reasonings which are in our hearts and quite stop the mouth of flesh and blood When Paul had received
hath an interest in Jesus Christ in the Covenant of grace and in all those priviledges which belong to the Saints because the spirit of sanctification abides upon him but meerly an opinionative self-conceited vain glorious presuming confidence that Christ is his and he is Christ though no regard be had to those qualifications which are required in those in whose hearts Christ dwells by his blessed spirit Every hypocrite that hath been once enlightned and tasted of the heavenly gift and of the powers of the world to come will lay claim to the priviledges of the Saints and of the benefits that flow upon the account of the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ though their hearts were never truely wrought upon to a full and a final closing with Jesus Christ and they never had the witnesse of the spirit upon their hearts that he is the childe of God but the teachings of the spirit bring in unto the soul solid reasons founded upon the word of God and upon the experience of the Saints whereby from the foregoing premises he can draw a true and a real conclusion that he is Christs and Christ is his Justification and sanctification are inseparable according to that golden chain of mans salvation Rom. 8.30 Whom he justified them he also sanctified so that besides the testimony of the spirit he hath those inherent principles of sanctification within him whereupon he may evidently conclude that he is no changeling but a new born creature a true Citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem a true son amongst the Native sons of Zion But some weak Believer may say how may I distinguish between the Witness and the testimony of the spirit that I am the childe of God and that vain confidence and presumption which is in wicked mens hearts who say they are the children of God when they are not 3. The spirit doth not onely bear witness but fully perswade us of this very thing upon solid reasons which we finde true by our own experience that we are the children of God therefore saith that knowing Apostle Saint John 1 John 3.14 1 Iohn 4.13 We know that we are passed from death to life because we love the brethren Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit But wicked men who are full of carnal confidence and sinful presumption have no sweet experience of saving grace upon their souls or any testimony much less a perswasion of the spirit that they are the children of God The grounds of carnal presumption but this presumption ariseth from a bare conceit of their good estate still hoping well of themselves or from the delusion of the Devil who hath besotted their minds with his sinfull Sophistry 2. The spirits testimony is founded upon Gods word and not upon any testimony from our selves 3 Wheresoever the spirits testimony is upon the hearts of any there follows a hatred of sin zeal for the glory of God a care and conscience to serve God in all well-pleasing for as some eminent Divines do say though I do not pin my faith upon any mans sleeve but onely as the light of the word and the light of the spirit teacheth me the doctrine of assurance will not make a Christian secure and idle in the work of the Lord ☜ but more watchful over his wayes and more thankful for so great a mercy being constrained by the love of God to the obedience of the truth and that the preaching of the Cross of Christ what love and mercy God the Father and Jesus Christ what power and wisdom was put forth in that great work of mans Redemption is of a more prevailing nature then to preach the terrors of the Law against sin and sinners to bring men out of their natural condition though both wayes must be used even by fear plucking them forth out of the fire of hell 2. Quere Whether or no are the spirits teachings or the light of the spirit in the heart of a Believer a sufficient plea for him to cast off all Ordinances means of grace as unprofitable things under so clear a dispensation I answer no 1. For as Jesus Christ in explaining the Law of Moses did not abrogate the law or derogate any thing from the use and majesty of it Mat. 6. but only clear it from those foul aspersions which the Pharisees had cast upon it so the spirit in teaching us the things of God and in enlightning our minds to understand his will doth not take away the use of the word but adds a further light unto it that we may understand the minde of the spirit in it and that all those prevarications by reason of the darkness of our understanding may be rightly placed The Sun is full of light but a blinde man cannot see it So the word is clear in it self but because our understandings are darkned we cannot understand it Now the spirit of God doth five things in order to the word of God 1. It explains it 2. It gives a further authority unto it 3. Shews us the majesty The spirits actings in reference to the word purity and excellency of it 4. Makes us to prize it above all things 5. Enables us to keep it 2. Because the word of God acknowledgeth no Spirit but what works in and by the word Gal. 5.2 Received ye the spirit by the Law or by the hearing of faith Did ye not receive the spirit by the preaching of the doctrine of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ The spirit teacheth which is consonant and agreeable to the word of God so that the word and the spirit both concurr together the spirit as the principal agent the word as the instrument which can do nothing without the spirit to teach us the will of God and to work in us all those saving Graces which accompany salvation 3. Because the word of God in the Scripture is set down as a standing rule according to which we must frame our lives unto the end of the world 1 Tim. 3.13 Till I come give attendance to Reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Attendere cum diligentia cu ram adhibere to Exhortation to Doctrine 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear unto all 16. Take heed unto thy self 1 Pet. 1.23 Mat. 5.18 and unto thy doctrine continue in them c. The word of God which liveth and abideth for ever Not the least tittle of the word of God shall fail till all things be accomplished some of which things will not be fulfilled till the end of the world The Sacraments also are in use and have their efficacy for that end for which they were appointed by God in his Church to the end of the world 1 Cor. 11.26 By the Sacrament of the Lords Supper we are to remember the Lords death till he come so that till Christ shall come againe at the
of a dove upon our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Mat. 3.16 Were they ever truly affected with Gods distinguishing love and mercy in that his Spirit should teach them as they say and let others lie in darkness Did the spirit drive away from amongst them the dust and the chaff of their vain and frothy minds Did the spirit ever enable them to overcome the bent of their natural inclinations If Socrates by the help of moral instructions was able to bridle his loose disposition much more may they who are taught by the spirit Did the spirit ever make them of unwilling willing to receive Jesus Christ and to take his yoke upon them The Spirit is resembled by the wind which in its blowing is arbitrary Joh. 3.8 irresistible full of might and efficacy scattering the dust and dispolling the clouds Do their hearts burn within them at the hearing of the things of God as the two disciples hearts did with whom Christ had conference after his resurrection The Spirit of God came down upon the brethren in the form of fiery flaming tongues It is an easie thing for a man to say he is taught and enlightned by the Spirit of God but how few are they that are so indeed Beloved Christian I have given thee some light into this mystery concerning the teachings of the Spirit which if improved by thee will bring much comfort to thy precious soul and much joy to him who is thine and the truths friend I R. A Brief summary of those generall heads which are in this ensueing Treatise FIrst the readiest way to win dissenting brethren to the obedience of the truth is to deal with them in the spirit of meeknesse Under which head is containd the handling of those who are of a contumacious spirit still opposing the shinings forth of divine truth 1 Admonition which must be once again 2 Sharp reproof and that openly before many witnesses 3 A Disowning them and a rejecting them from being of the Church This admonition includes two things as 1 A demonstration of the absurdity of the things which they hold 2 A secret insinuating unto them the truth and the excellency of the opposite to which they hold 2 The best and the most precious doctrine that is meeting with an unsanctified heart is opposed and had in derision 3 That is the best preaching which works upon the affections stirring us up to our spirititual duty that we may serve God acceptably in reverence and godly fear all the daies of our life as well as informs our judgements 4 The Embassadors of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel of his grace must be men of peace and not study to make factions and parties in the Church of God 5 For believers to call themselves by the names of their spiritual guides be they never so holy and religious men or by strange names taken up by the contumelies of ungodly men is an unchristian thing and disagreeing to the minde of the spirit 6 The word of God considered absolutely in it self as the word of God ought to be the rule and ground of our faith 7 For men to preach their own inventions and new fangled notions and the fancies of their own intoxicated braines or for men to allegorize Scriptures according as their mind serves them neglecting the pure fountain of the word of God is to build mans faith upon humane wisedome and not upon the power of God 8 A servant of Jesus Christ must sute his style and matter according to the judgement and capacity of his hearers 9 There are secrets in Gods own keeping which all the learning in the world can never attain unto onely the spirit reveals them 10. Those that have the Spirit of God cannot but know the things of God 11 There is no other way but by the Spirit to know the things of God 12 Only the Saints have this priviledge to enjoy the Spirit which the world cannot receive 13 The Spirit of God comes by receiving as a free gift of God unto believers 14 The spirit of the world is acted with a divers spirit from the Spirit of God 15 The World hath a double evill spirit 1 Satan 2 That inbred spirit of wickednesse which is within it 16 Satan is a Spirit because of his working which is sutable to the nature of spirits He is the spirit of the world upon a double account 1 Because he acts in the world 2 Because the world is willingly acted by him A double Antichrist 1 Mystical sin 2 Personal That man of sin 17 Whatsoever opposeth Jesus Christ or sets it self up in the plaoe of Christ is Antichrist 1 Our own righteousness is Antichrist 2 The divel is Antichrist 3 The world is Antichrist 4 All moral wisdom and humane knowledge is Antichrist unless it be sanctified by the Spirit of God 18 The children of God are acted by a double spirit opposite to the spirit of the world 1 The Spirit of God 2 The regenerate part within them which is called a spirit 19 The Spirit the third person in the blessed Trinity proceedeth from the Father the Son 20 The Holy Spirit is God which is proved 1 By Scripture 2 By reason as 1 Because those attributes are applied to the Spirit which are only proper to God 2 Those works 3 That adoration and worship which only belongs to God 21 God gives all things freely in opposition to merit and in opposition to compulsion Under this conclusion is answered an objection arising from the death of Jesus Christ 22 None can know the things of God but those who have the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts Vnder this Conclusion is shewed 1 The various acceptations of the word Spirit in Scripture 2 What the teachings of the Spirit are 1 By way of praemonition that it is very difficult to know them 2 Positively 3 How the teachings of the Spirit may be distinguished from the motions and from the impressions of the Spirit 4 How the Spirit teacheth 1 By enlightning our understandings that we may see the things of God 2 By removing the enmity that is in our wills against them 5 What things more especially the Spirit teacheth 1 To know God 1 His love to believers in Jesus Christ 2 His holy nature 3 The exact justice of God against every sin 2 The Spirit only hath shewed us the mysterie of the blessed and incomprehensible Trinity 3 The mysterie of the Incarnation of Christ 4 The evil nature of sin Where is proved that the first motions to sin are sin and an objection arising from them dissolved 5 To understand the word of God aright 6 Several other things the Spirit teacheth Many other practical duties the Spirit teacheth 6 What manner of teachings the Spirits teachings are 1 Infallible teachings Here is shewed the difference between the Divels revelations and the teachings of the spirit Wherein is answered an objection arising from the insallibility of the Spirit 2
of John our blessed Saviour having termed himself the Bread of Life vers 35. And Jesus said unto them I am that Bread of Life he that cometh to me shall not bunger and he that beleeveth in me shall not thirst Verse 41. the hard-hearted Jews they murmured at him because he said I am that bread which came down from heaven The Jews who had as yet the vail upon their hearts and whose minds by their own wilfulness and disobedience Satan had blinded lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ should shine in their hearts had no other apprehensions of bread When Manna which was the type of Christ came down upon the earth there was old wondering at it and it was called Manna because they said by way of admiration Ma-hu What is this And they were very greedy for a time after it But when Jesus Christ the true Bread the true Manna came down from heaven to feed our souls there was no minding of him because his Divinity was over-vaild in his humanity they did not admire at Gods goodness as they ought to have done they rejected him He came to his own and his own received him not Indeed they made him the laughing-stock of the world And so Christ may be said to be the wonder of the world as the Prophet Isaiab saith I and my children are set for signes and wonders Isa 8.18 i. c. We are made the maygames of the world at whom all do deride and wonder But they did not admire his excellency and acknowledge him and seek to him as it behoved them to have done but as it fed the belly But Christ Jesus hath a higher mystery in it to wit that he was the true Manna the true heavenly Bread that feedeth their souls unto everlasting life In the succeeding verses 48 49 50 51. when Christ proceeds in declaring himself to be the Bread of Life that his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed Verse 52. the Jews strove amongst themselves saying How can this man give us his flesh to cat In the 60 Verse many of his Disciples when they heard this said This is a hard saying who can hear it Verse 66. From that time many of his Disciples went back and walked no more with him Hence you see what carnall reasonings and sinfull objections mens hearts do frame and invent to hinder and oppose the comfort of the sweetest and most comfortable Doctrine What more sweet to a hungry soul that longs after eternall life than to be fed and to be nourished with this Bread of Life It is an infallible sign that you are born of God ☜ and that your originall is from above and that God is your Father Christ is your Brother and that you have higher principles than the flesh and the world to walk by and that your life is hid with Christ in God if Jesus Christ the true Bread of Life doth nourish up your souls unto eternall Life For the axiom holds true in spirituall things as well as naturall A quo aliquid generatur ab eodem nutritur from the which any thing is begotten of the same it is nourished if you are born of God you will be nourished by the bread of God if your originall be heavenly your food will be heavenly if God were your Father Christ would be your nourishment and your food Therefore Christ tels the Jews who in the eighth of John vers 41. boasted that God was their Father vers 42. proved them not to be the children of God and that God was not their Father because they did not love him who was sent of God the Father If God were your Father then would you love me for I proceeded forth and came from God neither came I of my self but he sent me 1 Joh. 5.1 He that loves him that begets loves him also who is begotten and if we did love God the Father we should love Jesus Christ the only begotten Sonne of the Father and the Saints who are the spirituall sonnes of God begotten of the Spirit crying in their hearts Abba Father In the 44th vers he proves them positively to be the children of the devil because they serve him and do his works Christ turns all carnall things into spirituall uses and changes the nature of them and like a true Alchymist turneth brass into Gold but the Jews on the other side turned Gold into brass and of all those pretious spirituall truths which Christ had delivered unto them they had base carnall and low apprehensions of Blessed are they that by a lively faith feed heartily upon the spirituall Manna while others feed upon the husks with the swine they have bread in their fathers house In the beginning of the second Chapter the Apostle acquits himself in respect of those former contentions while one said he was of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas another of Christ shewing there was nothing in himself or in his Ministry that could occasion such divisions Chap. 2. v. 1. I came not to you with excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the power of God that is my preaching unto you was not in lofty strains of eloquence and high notions or in a plausible and alluring style fitter to please the ear and to humour mens fancies and to make them giddy and unstable in the truth or in the high flown Rhetorick of the world which is more sutable to an Orator or a Comedian upon a Stage than for a Minister of Jesus Christ not with the enticing words of mens vanities but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power that is he preacht plainly yet powerfully and effectually and feelingly to the conscience and to work upon their hearts and to inform their judgements If I seek to please men I am not the servant of Christ Gal. 1.10 That is the best preaching which stirres up the affections and desires ☜ and sets all the wheels a work and provokes us to duty and to the exercise of piety in our lives and conversations He is the best Preacher who by his powerfull delivering the Word of God can stirre up what affections he pleaseth in the hearts of his people as it is reported of excellent Bucholcer that though he were two hours in his Sermon yet none of the common people were aweary of him and that with such vehemency of spirit and earnest longing for the good of their souls he dispensed the Word unto them that he could stirre up what affection he pleased in the hearts of his hearers Neither was the matter he preacht so sublime as to make men to admire him and to cry him up Not Philosophicall notions or criticall points of Divinity or curious questions or needless Doctrines but the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified For I have determined not to know any thing among you 1 Cor. 2.2 save Jesus Christ and him crucified Neither was his delivery and outward carriage
superficiall piece of work and a light piece of business but the godly only we who have the Spirit of God Tit. 3.5 we only have our hearts washed with the water of Regeneration therefore we and we only have the Spirit of God Secondly Here is the way by which or after what manner they came to have the Spirit We have received it They came to have it by receiving It is not said we have purchased it or we have obtained it by our praiers or by our duties or the like or we have bought it with our money Act. 8.18 as Simon Magus thought to have bought the holy Ghost but we have received it 1. How the Spirit is received 1. The Spirit it is a free gift Luke 11.13 Gal. 4.6 As a free gift given by God to beleevers in Jesus Christ The Spirit it is a free gift God is said to give us his Spirit How much more shall your heavenly Father give his Spirit to them that ask it of him Because ye are sonnes God hath sent the Spirit of his Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father From this place we must not think our Sonship is the cause why we have the Spirit Quia pro ergo Because It is not causal but illative rational in this place or rather demonstrative for the Spirit goes before Adoption now the effect doth not go before the cause but follow it but because ye are sonnes that is to witness unto you that ye are the sonnes of God God hath sent the Spirit of his Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father 2. As a promise of Jesus Christ 2. We have received the Spirit as a promise of Jesus Christ at his departure Christ when he was to leave the world promised to send another Comforter even the Spirit of truth Christ deals with his Church as a loving friend doth with his friend You know when friends are going a long journey or a dangerous voyage by sea they use to leave behind them with their dearest friends some pledge or token of their love Some leave their pictures some a ring some a good book some one thing some another with this saying When you look on this remember me and though you should see me no more yet be not troubled here is a pledge of my love which I have left with you keep it be sure you keep it and do not part with it So our blessed Saviour that he might not leave his Church all-together comfortless at his departure Luk. 22.14 15 19. first of all he leaves his Sacraments with them as lively pictures and emblems of his death and sufferings so that in the Sacrament of the Communion of the body and blood of Christ when we see the bread broken we should remember and present to our view the breakings of Christs body upon the Cross and when we see the wine poured forth remember the pouring forth of Christs blood upon the Cross and this do remembring the Lords death till he come Secondly His Peace My peace in opposition to the sottish peace that the world giveth My peace I leave with you Ioh. 14.27 Ioh. 15.26 Thirdly His Spirit I will send you the Comforter so that we are to receive the Spirit as a promise of Jesus Christ 3. 3. As a redundancy of Gods love As a redundancy and fruit of the Fathers love As Christ is a most eminent fruit of the Fathers love so is the Spirit As Christ sends the Spirit so doth God 4. 4. As a testimony of our adoption Rom. 8.16 As a testimony of our Adoption The Spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God Our spirits do nothing avail to the grace of Adoption without the comforting Spirit of Jesus Christ The Spirit of God lindx if it withdraws its testimony for a while our souls are even in Hemans case Psal 88. at the brink of despair And before conversion before the Spirit witnesseth our spirits like Nabals are sottish and secure like a dead piece of flesh insensible of the greatest evil If the Spirit comes by receiving and not by any thing in us but is a fruit of the Fathers love what a Popish spirit are they of who think to procure the Spirit by their prayers and by their duties Though Christ hath promised to give the Spirit to those that pray yet not for their prayers We are to pray for the Spirit because God hath commanded it but not to expect it for our prayers because God hath promised it The Spirit of God comes by receiving therefore whosoever thou art that thinkest by thy endeavours to have the Spirit though I will not curse thee as Paul did Simon Magus for thinking to purchase the holy Ghost with money though he had but such a thought in 's heart yet I tell thee thou shalt never have it Pray for the Spirit but look not to obtain it by thy prayers but only by the way of receiving Thirdly The spirit of the world put in opposition to the Spirit of God 1. A remotione subjectorum infertur diversitas for marum quia lapis non est idem subjectum cum plantâ ergo habet diversam formam ratio quia in omni subjecto debet apta esse organizatio membrorum ut melius forma introducenda suo munere fungatur In omni vero subjecto promiscuè sic dicto non datur sufficiens organizatio membrorum quo quaelibet forma suas operationes exerceat In lapide non dantur organa satis quo anima sensitiva quod suum est exercere exerceat Non datur organum videndi in lapide nec inplantâ By way of remotion in respect of the subject We have recived not the spirit of the world i. e. The world hath its own spirit and the children of God have theirs different subjects have different forms Now the world is not only different but divers quite another thing and other men considered with the people of God therefore have they different spirits and not only different but divers The Spirit of God makes us altogether other men and other persons than we were before When the Spirit of God comes into the heart all old things are done away and all things are become new There is a Metamorphosis a transmutation non ex hoc sed ab hoc in aliud totalitèr diversum from corrupt nature to grace from the flesh to the Spirit from darkness to light from being the children of the devil to become the children of God from the power flavery and dominion of sinne and Satan unto the glorious liberty of the children of God from the fulness of the devil of sinne and of the world to that fulness which is in Christ to that fulness which is of God Joh. 1.16 Of his fulness have we received all grace for grace that is one degree of grace after another That ye may be filled with all the fulness of
God Ephes 3.19 Not so as Christs humanity was filled with the fulness of God for the Spirit was not given unto him by measure Plenitudo gratiae est duplex 1. Respectu suipsius Quando aliquis consequitur ultimum gradum gratiae quoad essentiam quoad virtutem in tensivè extensivè ut aiunt qui habes gratiam juxta omnes illius effectus operationes secuudum quas se potest extendere Hoc modo Christus tantùm gratiam habebat 2. Respectu subjecti Quando aliquis habet plenitudinem gratiae secundum suum statum conditionem Sic Stephaum dicitur esse plenus Spiritu sancto And in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily But we as imperfect creatures in this life shall receive of that communicable fulness or of that fulness which can be communicated to creatures as creatures fulness of grace and fulness of the Spirit according as we are able to receive it Every thing which is received is received according to the capacity of the receiver a bucket can hold no more water than what is meet for a bucket to hold Now we who are but as the drop in the bucket and as the dust in the balance in his sight that are not able to receive all the fulness of God but only all that which may be communicated to the creature and that is very little in this life though in the lise to come our buckets shall be enlarged i. e. our souls made of a more capacious nature and we shall be able to draw more abundantly and to contain more of this ocean of happiness We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit Eph. 5.18 Be ye filled with the Spirit and as Commentaors observe the former clause of the verse being this Be not drunk with wine the later clause of this verse may be interpreted likewise But be ye drunken with the Spirit This is a good drunkenness to be drunk with the Spirit as those in the Acts were who were drunk in a spirituall sense though not in that carnall sense as they judged them to be because they were filled with the Spirit The world and the godly are quite Antipodes the world is acted by a worldly spirit and the people of God by the holy Ghost which appears by that malignity which hath been in the world since the Creation against the people of God the first actings of which were seen in Cains murdering his brother Abel Simile simili gaudet like rejoyceth in its like and if the world and the children of God were alike they would love one another Saith Christ If you were of the world Ioh. 15.19 the world would love you but seeing you are not of the world and I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Sed est particula discretiva seu disjunctiva apud Logicos 2. This opposition between the Spirit of God and the spirit of the world is implied in this particle But We have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God Here I should shew the difference and that vast discrepancy between the Spirit of God and the spirit of the world But because for the future when God shall enlarge my spirit and occasion may be offered this may be a fit subject for a future Discourse I shall omit this as not belonging to my present intent and purpose only by the way I shall distinguish between a double spirit by which the world is acted The world hath a double evil spirit 1. Satan that evil spirit Ephes 2.2 Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the ayr the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per modum eminentiae emphatically that now worketh in the children of disobedience Here we have two Epithetes ascribed to the devil and both as he hath relation to the world 1. He is called the Prince of the world the Prince of the power of the ayr i. e. the Prince of all the infernall brood that are in the world And the word Ayr is put Synecdochically as a part for the whole for the world and the inhabitants thereof because God hath given him power by his permission to raise commotions in the ayr and to do seeming miracles as appears in the story of Job Job 1. when he caused a wind to come from the four parts of the earth and to smite the four corners of the house when it fell down and killed the children of Job A strange wind that could smite all the four corners of the house all at once Now because the devils greatest power is seen in the ayr by doing his seeming miracles in that he is called the Prince of the power of the ayr is meant that he is the Prince of this world Agreeable to this is that place where he is called the God of this world and the Prince of darkness 2 Cor. 4.4 The god of this world hath blinded their eyes lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine in their hearts The devil is the great Master of misrule in the world and he it is that breedeth all the confusion which is in it He is that great sower of discord amongst men and he will sow his tares amongst the wheat Matth. 13.25 and breed quarrels and dissentions amongst the children of God he is a great slanderer a great accuser full of enmity against God and his Saints He is the envious one and all envious proud discontented lying persons are the devils subjects He is that cunning Politician wiser than all the Achitophels Judases and Maehiavillians that ever were and knows how to play his cards for the best advantage to allure souls to come under his government and ever since the Creation he hath been plotting and contriving how to root out the Gospel to persecute the Saints and to destroy the Church of God here upon earth He hath stirred up and provoked his evil instruments his great engines wicked Emperours and blood-sucking Popes the Power of the ayr in all ages to persecute the Church of God and to banish it out of the world But blessed be God who hath preserved himself a name upon the earth and though the Egyptians Babylonians Turks and Insidels and all the wicked men in the world did combine together under their leading Captain Satan against the Lord and against his anointed and against his pretious servants and thought to swallow them up alive at once and to devour them altogether that the name of God might be had no more in remembrance that yet God hath reserved himself a name upon the earth and a peculiar people to shew forth his praise and hath drowned the Egyptians in the red sea of eternall vengeance What is the reason that the Church hath been preserved against the cruell assaults of furious persecutors and against the rage
of the devil so many thousand years Why I will tell you as the devil is the Prince and God of this world so Christ Jesus is the King of Saints Rev. 15.3 and the Prince of the Church and God is the God of his people Now which do you think is strongest 1 Pet. 5.8 God or the devil that roaring lion the devil that goes about seeking night and day whom he may devour or the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Which more politick Rev. 5.5 Rev. 12.9 the serpent or Jesus Christ who is the wisdom of God the Father Prov. 8. Which is the likeliest to prevail or which party hath prevailed in all ages hath not the Church Vincit patiendo Ecclesia the Church overcomes by sufferings as the Israelites in Egypt the more they were afflicted the more they grew And though the Church hath been small in all ages in respect of the enemies and of Satans party yet the Saints of God might truly say Let the enemies part be never so numerous or great that there is more with them than against them and why because God is with them He is the Saviour of his people Exod. 24.24 That God who but with a look from heaven could destroy all the Egyptians that God who can destroy them but with the breath of his nostrils Iob 4.9 Exod. 10.12 who can cause weak and inconsiderable creatures to punish the foolishness of his adversaries Isa 40.12 That God who measureth the waters and spanneth the earth and holdeth it in the hollow of his hand that God who created all things and if will say but the word can loose the fabrick of heaven and earth and turn it to its first nothing Dan. 5.23 that God whose is our breath and in whose hands are all our waies that disposeth of Kingdoms and giveth them to whomsoever he pleaseth that taketh the crafty in their own deceit Job 5.12 and destroyeth the wisdom of the wise Last of all that God who hath at this time the devils fast bound in everlasting chains of darkness Jude v. 6. unto the day of judgement and hath thousands of cruell persecutors under his hands whipping them with Scorpions to all eternity Rom. 9.5 that God who is over all blessed for ever he is the God of the Saints and therefore no wonder if the Church prevails and hath prevailed and will prevail to all ages The gates of hell shall not prevail against it Matth. 16.18 We reade in the Book of the Revelation Rev. 12.12 that the devil is come upon the earth with great wrath and malice because he knows that his time is short Saith a Learned Commentator God may lengthen the devils chain and give him more liberty than formerly but he never quite looseneth it and lets him do what he listeth He knows that in these last times his Kingdom is going down and that Christ is fulfilling his work and that he will make but a short work upon the earth He knows it is best to be doing while the opportunity is put into his hand And what in former times he could not do by power and by persecution he endeavours in these later times to do by policy Formerly he was a red Dragon a ravenons Wolf a cruell Tiger but now he is become an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.14 and comes in a more secret and mysterious way yet his malice is as great as ever against the Church though he rides not upon the pale horse of death Rev. 6.8 and he endeavours by all means to increase his Kingdom to the everlasting destruction of poor souls O that there were a wise heart and a considering heart in Christians to consider this that now we are fallen into the last times and the devil now bestirres himself more than ever that he is doing all he can do with all his policy and subtilty to advance his Kingdom and to gain proselites to maintain his cause listing souldiers daily under his banner therefore we should be a more praying people and a more watchfull people continually pleading at the Throne of grace that God would accomplish his work upon the earth and hasten the coming of Jesus Christ the bringing in of the Jews the fulness of the Gentiles and the destruction of Gog and Magog Pope and Turk with all the rest of the antichristian party 2. He is called the spirit of the world the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience He may well be called a spirit because of his working The manner of Satans working upon the wicked He being a spirit hath a great influence upon our spirits and he can not only suggest his temptations and put evil things into our hearts but like a skilfull fouldier he can marshall them and put them in order before our eyes and set home the object upon the heart with all the delight if an evil thing and with all the detestation if a good thing that possibly he can He doth not only morally perswade us but by a secret indiscernable way for the operations of spirits especially of one spirit upon another are very mysterious and difficult to be understood but by a willing compulsion draw forth the heart to entertain the motion It is said that Satan stirred up David to number the people 1 Chron. 21.1 Joh. 13.2 And that Satan put it into Judas heart to betray Christ And that Satan hath blinded the mindes of them which beleeve not 2 Cor. 4.4 There is a threefold blindness in an unregenerate man A threefold blindness in the ungodly 1. A naturall blindness 2. A contracted blindness by their long continuance in ignorance Wicked men are wilfully ignorant concerning the Commandments of God 3. A blindness which Satan super-adds over and above those two Satan can work insensibly upon the passions of the body and the images in the fancy And as he can delude our outward senses making us beleeve we see such things when they are not such as they are presented unto us so he can delude our mindes and hoodwink our understandings and by his Paralogisms and false argumentations reason us to a hatred of God and his waies to embrace the pleasures of sinne and the works of darkness We reade of the Energy of the devil Eph. 2.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which worketh effectually in the children of disobedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Efficacia est verbum usitatissimè relitum actionibus formarum spirituum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operatio â—nima Arist The more spirituall any thing is the more force and power it hath to work and the more insensibly it sets home the impression upon another Conceit in many men worketh strange things A meer conceit of such a thing or of such an evil approaching hath driven men into deep melancholies and great sadness of spirit into strange diseases passions and furies If a meer conceit will do so
for him It is not agreeable to the everlasting providence of such a Father who is Lord of heaven and earth to see his childe to be in want command therefore that these stones be made bread do a miracle that we may see thou art the Sonne of God God the Father will work a miracle before he will see his childe to want This the devil did to take away his minde from the love of God his Father and to drive him from his faith and confidence in God Besides it had been a sinne in Christ if he had obeyed the devil Christ had another sore conflict with the devil though not immediatly yet mediatly by Peter observe the subtilty of the devil seeing he could not prevail upon him in a publick way he comes upon him in a more covert way tempting him in a beloved Disciple Jesus Christ speaking of his sufferings that were to come to him at Jerusalem Peter disswades him from going up thither but what answer did Christ make him Get thee behinde me Satan Matth. 16.23 for thou savourest not the things which be of God but the things which are of men Christ presently espied out Satan in Peter though a beloved Disciple though a Saint though one that spoke out of a good will to Jesus Christ and out of a desire not to have his Master die ☜ O that we could so suddenly espie the devil tempting us in his wicked instruments and when they tempt us cry out Avoid Satan as Christ did So that Satan is Antichrist and he is called Satan because he is Christs and the Churches adversary Apoliyon the Destroyer the roaring Lion the subtill Serpent As the world hath a double evil spirit to wit Satan and that inbred wickedness that is in the world so the children of God have a double Spirit 1. The holy Spirit of God 2. The Regenerate part within them As appears by those two places Joh. 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit The flesh lusteth against the Spirit By Spirit may be meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either the holy Spirit of God striving with us by his motions and impressions or the Regenerate part within us which is called a Spirit The unregenerate part the corrupt flesh is called a spirit saith James Jam. 4.5 The spirit within us lusteth to envy i.e. that fleshly part within us is full of envy Lusteth to envy the same word which is in the fore-mentioned place the flesh lusteth against the Spirit And it is observable that the same action that is applied to the flesh is applied to the Spirit the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh i.e. lusteth against the Spirit Now if the same action is applied to both the principles to flesh and Spirit to wit lusteth which action is a proper action of spirits therefore the unregenerate part is a spirit And if the unregenerate much more the regenerate But you will say it is a contradiction to call the flesh a spirit Indeed to say naturall flesh were a spirit it were a contradiction in the very terms but to say flesh i.e. corrupt flesh is a spirit is no contradiction but an abuse of the word But you will say Analogum per se positum stat pro famosiore significatu therefore seeing flesh is put alone by it self it must not be meant of corrupt and sinfull flesh but of naturall flesh To this I answer That the unregenerate part is not Analogically but Aequivocally called flesh It is improperly so called because originall sin by naturall generation is propagated from the parents to the children according to the series of generation sin running continually in a direct line though it self be the only obliquity Fourthly We have a divine attribute noting the Deity of the blessed Spirit in this particle Which is of God We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is of God this phrase in that the holy Spirit is said to be of God imports three things 1. That the Spirit proceeded after an ineffable manner from God the Father Hic processus apud Graecos dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abusivè tamen not excluding God the Sonne Agreeable to this is that axiom in the Schools Dius Pater est principium Sanctae Trinitatis non tamen causa Principium ordinis sive relationis non essentie seu Deitatis 2. Which is of God Per Hebraismum which is God But the Spirit which is of God i.e. but the Spirit which is God 3. Which is of God that is which came from God Saith Christ I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter Joh. 14.16 Hence note these two Observations which I shall briefly discuss and so pass over 1. That the Spirit the third Person in the blessed Trinity proceedeth from the Father and the Son Not from the Father excluding the Son as the Eastern Churches say but from the Father and the Son joyntly considered From the Father and so 't is called the Spirit of God Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you i. e. the Spirit of God he also shall quicken your mortall bodies From the Sonne and so 't is called the Spirit of Christ If any man hath not the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 i.e. which proceedeth from Christ he is none of his In that the holy Spirit is called the Spirit of God Sic Metaphrastes in Romanos Siquidem enim est spiritus Dei Patrīs non ipse pater sit necesse est tamen quia Dei Spiritus est verus Deus fit oportet and the Spirit of Christ is observed these three things 1. That the Spirit of God is God 2. That he is a distinct person from the Father and the Son 3. That he proceedeth from them both 2. That the Spirit of God is God Acts 5. Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the holy Ghost thou hast not lied unto men but unto God 2 Sam. 23.2 3. The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue The God of Israel said the reck of Israel spake to me 1 Cor. 12.6 But there are diversities of gifts but the same God which worketh all in all 1 John 5.7 For there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one 1. Consider the Scripture gives those attributes to the Spirit which are only proper to God 1. Eternity Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternall Spirit c. 2. Omniscience 1 Cor. 2.10 The Spirit searcheth all things 3. Omnipresence Psal 139.7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit 4. Almightiness 2 Tim. 2.7 Isa 11.2 2. Those works are applied to the Spirit which are onely proper to God 1. Creation Gen. 1.2 And the
unless Jesus Christ intercedes and makes up the difference VIII We reade of a spirit of infirmity Luke 13.11 There was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years i. e. she had a vehement and a great infirmity lying upon her IX We reade of a spirit of judgement and of a spirit of burning Isa 4.4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion by the spirit of judgement and by the spirit of burning i. e. by great judgements and by burning afflictions That Gods judgments are compared to fire appears by that place in the Prophet Ezekiel where God saith of wicked men Ezek. 21.32 I will bring them into the fire and there I will leave them You see the sad condition of wicked men God brings them into the fire of affliction and never takes them our again When God comes to deal with wicked men for their sinnes when he begins he makes an end Afflictions shall not rise up the second time saith the Prophet Nahum Nah. 1.9 But though God may bring sore judgements upon his own people and bring them into the fire of affliction he takes them out of the fire again and doth not leave them in it as he doth wicked men but when he hath accomplisht his own work upon them and they are fit vessels for his use he takes them out of the fire It is a sign thou art not reprobate silver but tried silver and a true Saint if thou canst patiently and beleevingly undergo the siery triall And though thou maiest be ready for the present to faint under the afflicting hand of God thinking that God hath forgotten thee and that he will be gracious to thee no more yet when Gods time is fully come and thy filth is throughly done away God will take thee out of the sire and thou shalt be a glorious Saint in the sight of God Indeed Gods people may be sorely smutted and besmeared with the fire of affliction as we see by experieuce that fire commonly blacks things before it makes them clear but yet they shall not be consumed as the wicked shall be but shall be delivered Ps 34 17. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the righteous out of all their afflictions Well may Gods judgements be compared to fire to the spirit of judgement and to the spirit of burning for these reasons 1. Fire purifies it separates the dross from the pure metall so afflictions they purifie the soul Gods children are afflicted that they might be made partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 Before affliction came upon us we were unclean we were worldly earthly minded we forgot our God we were impure instruments fit only for the devils service But by afflictions we are cleansed we are more spirituall and have learnt to minde heavenly things more watchfull more industrious to pump out sinne as fast as it comes into the soul and to be more diligent in Gods service afflictions are Gods files whereby he takes away that rust that defiles the soul How many hath a fit of sickness an outward cross in their estates relations good names the missing of their expectations the unfaithfulness of friends the deceit that is in the world or some grief which hath been as a continuall dropping upon their souls as the Stone Wind-cholick Falling sickness c. driven home from the house of their spirituall bondage and from this mysticall Egypt where there is nothing but pollution to bethink themselves of the house of their heavenly Father Before saies David Psal 119.67 I was afflicted I went astray but now have I learned thy righteous judgements Affliction it is Gods pruning knife whereby he lops off the superfluous branches it is Gods Razor whereby he shaves off the excrescencies of sinne it is Gods niter whereby he cleanseth our defiled garments They are Gods messengers sent to call us forth our of Sodom the spirituall Sodom where there is nothing but filthiness and wallowing in the mire of sinne to prepare our hearts to meet Jesus Christ our Bridegroom in the beavenly Canaan As the shepherd sets his dog at the sheep to fetch it out of the mire and dirt wherein it is plunged so afflictions are as it were Gods dogs to bark and hunt us out of the pollutions of the world that we may be made meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light 2. Fire melts some things and consumes others Afflictions melt the heart of Gods people but they consume the ungodly Josias heart melted when he heard the Law of the Lord read 2 King 22.19 though he did but hear what threatnings God had made against the breach of his Law his heart melted within him Manasses heart melted under Gods offliction Poverty of spirit comes often from poverty of purse in a childe of God But the afflictions of the wicked they do but perboyl them for hell they are but heralds of everlasting vengeance Gods pledges that he will never do them good they do but eat out their spirits their comforts their common graces against the eternall consumption of their spirits by that ever gnawing worm 3. Fire it softens some things and it hardens others So afflictions they soften the godly but harden the wicked the more God afflicted Ahaz the more he sinned and the more his heart was hardened therefore God hath put this brand of infamy upon him never to be wiped off again 2 Chron. 28.22 This is that King Ahaz So Pharachs heart was hardened by Gods judgements It is a most dreadfull sign God intends to make thee a brand of hell fire if thy heart is hardened under the afflicting hand of God How afflictions may be said to harden Fire it softens the wax but hardens the clay afflictions do not harden as considered absolutely in themselves but accidentally as they meet with the corruptions of mens wicked hearts A wicked man is like the Smiths Anvill the more he is smitten the more rebellious and stout hearted he is ☜ Affliction it is so farre from driving a wicked man to God that it drives him farther from him making him desperate in his wicked courses and like Julian the Apostate when the dart of Gods vengeance hath been upon them they have blasphemed and cursed the holy Name of God It is a most dreadfull thing and a great aggravation of our condemnation when we adde sinne to sinne under the afflicting hand of God As in Ames 4. saies the Lord I have brought such and such judgements upon you yet have you not returned unto me saith the Lord. But Gods people are of another disposition of a flexible and of a pliable nature ready to receive whatsoever God shall impart unto them they consider that God is their Father and that all their afflictions shall be for their good That God corrects them but in measure Enashim of a weak sickly crazy man and with the rods of a man and that it is either
Sermon pass if you can hear it let not your souls be famished for want of nourishment As you would not be said to murder your bodies so do not you murder your precious souls Many do quench the Spirit when they do not know it Some will hear a consciencious Minister a long while and highly commend him as most of our profane Esau's do but when once this Minister shall touch their beloved sinnes they presently fall off and hear him no more Mar. 6.20 Herod heard John gladly for a time and reformed many things but when once he touched his Herodias and toucht the apple of his eye he presently distates him and cuts off his head What a sad thing is it that men should shift off such an impression and wipe off the sweet and heavenly dew If you will not wait at the pool you are never like to have the Spirit descend upon you and if you will not mark the time of the Spirits coming down and comply with the Spirit at such a time you are never like to have any feeling effect wrought upon your souls Have a care therefore of withdrawing the Spirits fuell 2. When men cast their lusts in the Spirits face and damp the breathings of the Spirit by their lusts then they may be said to quench the Spirit As water quencheth fire so lusts they quench the Spirit Lust is the great quench coal of the Spirits motions As mud and filth doth damp up the course of the water so every lust doth dam up the course of the Spirit Yea every particular sinne which is committed with a high hand to the reproach of godliness and to the dishonour of God quencheth the Spirit for a time When David had committed those two great evils murder and adultery in the matter of Vriah upon the commission of these sinnes God withdraws his Spirit and the comfortable presence of his countenance Hence he complains of brokenness of bones and of wounds in his soul Psal 5.8 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness And he prayeth God to uphold him with his free Spirit ver 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit As the water free-zeth when the sun goeth down so your spiries wilk freeze when the spirit goes away from you What do you think will become of you when the Spirit departs from you You are in a dull lumpish condition you cannot pray nor hear the word nor do any spirituall duty with that rejoycing and freeness of spirit and alacrity of minde as formerly you did you are left in a sottish condition for a time Your spirits will be as heavy as lead very unapt and contrary to the service of God and if those sparks of grace which God hath put into your hearts did not inable you to do somewhat more than those who never knew what the saving work of the Spirit meant you would as wicked men do when the Spirit leaves them never seek to God for his Spirit any more As lusts choak the Word so they choak the Spirit Whence is it that many Christians do complain of the Spirits absence and of the departure of God from them as Saul did 1 Sam. 28.15 Wo is me for God is departed from me Why As Saul by his disobedience and rebellion caused God to depart from him so you by your disobedience and resisting of his motions have caused the Spirit to depart from you Search your hearts diligently and see whether there be not some abominable thing which the Spirit would pluck forth of thy heart Is there not a hankering after thy old beloved lusts Hast thou not an itching after past delights when thou wert in the flesh The Spirit doth not all its work upon a soul at the first work of conversion but still afterwards is imployed to purge out every abominable thing out of thy heart a child of God after conversion may fall into the same sinnes he committed before conversion yea the very same beloved sins the venomous humour is not throughly purged out in conversion and the Spirit by its good will would not leave a hoof or any root of bitterness in the heart but because we are in the body of this flesh we must grow by degrees and make progress daily Search I beseech you and examine your hearts whether there be not some lust the Spirit would give a deaths wound to and throughly mortifie and extinguish and you will not yield to the Spirit that you may be mortified I beseech you Christians to set about it The Spirit will never be quiet and let you alone if you belong to God till this root of hemlock and wormwood be rooted out i. e. whensoever it comes to thy soul the controversie shall be about thy lust whether thou wilt yet leave it or no whether thou wilt be throughly purged from thy old lees whether you would have this body of flesh throughly crucified It will never come with its comforting presence till thou closest with the Spirit in this great work Examine your hearts I beleeve if the business were throughly fifted there is some lust at the bottom some filth that lies below which keeps out the Spirit from coming into thy heart Sic ut fumus apes fater columbot sic Spiritum sanctum expellit grave oleus peccatum Basilius As smoke driveth away bees and an ill sent the doves so a noysom lust driveth away the Spirit As loth as thou art to go into a dungeon full of toads and serpents and venomous creatures so loth yea more loth is the Spirit to come into thy heart if there be a lust or an abominable thing at the bottom Yea I say the Spirit cannot come into thy heart while thy lust standeth out against him There is an opposition in respect of the things themselves What communion hath light with darkness God with Belial the pure Spirit with thy filthy lust The Spirit may come and knock long enough and Christ may knock long enough and to no purpose if thou art not willing that the Spirit should accomplish the work upon thy heart I beseech you examine your hearts in this matter Note this well A man may live a Professor all his daies and be as conscientious in the waies of God ☞ as any Christian in the world and think himself as fair for heaven as the best and yet at last perish for some unknown lust in his heart which if he had examined and found out it might have been mortified and his soul saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Besides consider you have not the influences of the Spirit at command The Spirit will not blow upon thy heart when thou wouldest have it but when it lifteth The Spirit comes down but upon certain times and those times are uncertain to thee how therefore doth it behoove thee Christian to take the Spirits time and to joyn with the work of
the Spirit upon thee Besides dost thou know how long the Spirit will move upon thy heart how long the prosperous gales will laft which if thou hadst sailed along with would have brought thee to heaven Dost thou know how long the Spirit will strive with thy heart crying out Why sinner how long shall it be ere Christ shall be thy Lord and Saviour Beloved Christian though there be hope as long as the pool is open and thou art alive and livest under the Ordinances of grace that the Spirit may descend again upon thee yet seeing thou hast sinned so often against the pleadings of the Spirit and hast quenched the Spirit so long who can tell whether ever he will come down in mercy again upon thy soul for ever For God hath a time in this life to bid his Spirit to let sinners alone and never to strive with them more but let them be filthy if they will be filthy Though this time God hath reserved in his own wisdom secret from men that they should not know it The black book of reprobation is known only to God and none may say positively God hath rejected him unless he is certain he hath sinned against the holy Ghost as too many weak Christians under desertion are apt to say and how knowest thou thou hast sinned the sin against the holy Ghost if thou hast a desire to repent for thy sinnes if thou art willing to receive Jesus Christ for thy Lord and Saviour never fear it Christian all is well thou art in a good condition yet I beseech thee do not quench the motions of the Spirit upon thy heart XI The Spirit is put for a state or a condition or a calling as some interpret We have not received the spirit of bondage Rom. S. but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father i. e. not a state or condition of bondage but a state of adoption so Ravanellus Likewise when Christ said to his Disciples You know not of what spirit ye are of Luk. 9.55 i. e. of what state of what calling of what condition ye are of It is not suitable to men of your profession of your coat to be so fiery and so impatient so Aretius Yet I rather follow the judgement of a judicious Divine in our daies who in the forementioned place in the Romans means by spirit not a state there but a person i. e. the third person in the blessed Trinity very judiciously explaining the words after this manner Shewing that when once the Spirit hath been the Spirit of adoption that Spirit is never after the spirit of bondage again unto us this in no waies hindering but that a childe of God after the Spirit of adoption may have the fears of bondage again for though the Spirit doth not contradict his testunony yet he may withdraw his rest mony for a time and leave us in the dark yea the devil may trouble and affright us and our own consciences may condemn us XII By Spirit may be meant a pretence and opinion of some revelation Dr. Goodwin in his excellent Book called A childe of light walking in darknels concerning something which a mans own private conceit or imagination inclined him so to think 2 Thess 2.1 Be not troubled neither by spirit nor by word to think the day of judgement is at hand By spirit i. e. if any pretend a revelation that the day of judgement is at hand do not beleeve him 1 John 4.1 Try the spirits i. e. those pretended revelations which men feign and see whether they are of God or no. Beleeve not every spirit because that many false Prophets are gone out into the world XIII The Spirit is taken for the graces of the Spirit in you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revel 1. To the seven Spirits of the seven Churches i. e. to that Spirit which is seven-fold in respect of its graces to the seven Churches The Spirit of God dwelleth within you that is according to some not the Spirit it self but the graces of the Spirit Gal. 5. These are the fruits of the Spirit love joy peace meekness temperance patience c. XIV The Spirit is taken for those unclean lusts which the devil brings along with him in the hearts of those in whom he lodgeth Matth. 12.45 When the unclean spirit returneth he bringeth with him seven other spirits worse than the former i. e. many other filthy lusts more abominable than the former XV. Consule Pareum in Genesin na hunc locum interpretatur viz. Spiritum illic accipi pro vi seu officacia divina Cap. 1. Geneseos The Spirit is taken for Divine force and efficacy Judg. 14.19 And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him i. e. a Divine force from on high came upon Sampsons spirit whereby he set upon the enterprize of killing the Ashkelonites XVI The word Spirit fignifieth a new quality of holiness created and wrought in all the Elect by the Spirit of God whereby all the powers and faculties of the soul and body are renewed according to the Image of God in wisdom holiness and righteousness otherwise called the Regenerate part Rom. 8. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit XVII Spirit is taken for the chief and excellent faculties of the soul called reason and understanding 1 Cor. 2.11 XVIII The Spirit is taken for the vigour and efficacy of the understanding Be ye renewed in the spirit of your minde More particularly First The Angels are called spirits 1. Good Who maketh his Angels spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire Heb. 1. 2. Evil Mark 5.4 We reade of a man possessed with an unclean spirit and saith Christ What is thy name saith the unclean spirit again My name is Legion for we are many A Legion of devils in one poor man Secondly By way of eminency God is called a Spirit John 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth God is a Spirit if you take God essentially for the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or personally for the three persons Father Sonne and holy Ghost Thirdly More particularly the third Person in the blessed Trinity distinguished from the Father and the Sonne is called a Spirit Often times in Scripture he is called by the Name of the holy Ghost Matth. 3.16 I saw the holy Ghost descend upon him like a Dove Having done with the ambiguity of the word Spirit I come to shew what are the teachings of the Spirit upon the hearts of Beleevers In handling of this I shall premise That it is a very difficult thing to know what the teachings of the Spirit are As thou canst not tell how the bones grow in her that is with child or what properly be the influences of the starres Eccl. 11.5 or how-one spirit communicates its minde to another or the causes of naturall sympathy or antipathy as thou canst not tell whence the winde cometh John
into their mindes and in their hearts will I write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people 2 Cor. 3.2 3. In that you are manifest to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us and written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in the fleshly tables of the heart Jer. 31.33 34. But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those daies saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord. You see that the Law must be first written in their hearts by the finger of God i. e. by the Spirit before they can know the things of God Ezek. 36.27 And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them the Spirit doth not only write upon our hearts the Law of God but all things which accompany salvation John 17. And when the Spirit comes he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you There is no truth which accompanieth salvation in the Word of God but the very same is written by the finger of God upon the hearts of beleevets That even as you see in a seal when you have put the seal upon the wax and taken it away again you shall see it stamp answering to stamp character to character print to print so it is in the hearts of the faithfull after their hearts are softned the Spirit of God writes the Law in their hearts So that there is a Law within answerable to the Law without i. e. an inward aptness and disposition whereby a man is inclined to keep the Law in all points which Law within us is called the Law of the minde Rom. 7. I see a Law in my members warring against the Law of my minde The teachings of the Spirit do not only put the things of God into our mindes but ingraff them as naturall dispositions in our hearts yea the Spirit of God ingravens them As when letters are engraved in marble so the teachings of the Spirit engraven the things of God upon our hearts I call them the writings the engravings of the things of God upon our hearts to distinguish the teachings of the Spirit from the motions impressions flashes illuminations of the pirit These are but light superficiall transient works they reach not to the bottom of the soul but they float at the top These impressions are suddenly begun and suddenly ended They are but as a flash of lightning which is no sooner seen but vanisheth They are but as the morning cloud and as the early dew which suddenly pass away as the winde presently scatters the clouds and the sunne takes away the dew so all these common works of the Spirit pass away and melt as the dew before the sunne The best seeming professors that want the teachings of the Spirit they are but as blazing comets which appear for a while and presently disappear Wandring starres Jude 13. to whom is reserved the blackness of darkenss for ever Heb. 6.5 Psal 34.8 They do but taste of the goodness of God and so away But the teachings of the Spirit make a Christian not only to taste but to see the goodness of God They are permanent upon the soul never to be blotted out again They are not as the flash of lightning but as the noon-day full of brightness and comfort They are riveted in the soul and imprinted in it 2. I say they are the Printings of the things of God upon the hearts of beleevers Beleevers only have the teachings of the Spirit And ye shall be all taught of God Joh. 6.45 i. e. all ye who are under the Covenant of grace and are interrested in Jesus Christ shall have the teachings of the Spirit Unbeleevers may have the motions the breathings the quicknings the flashes and the illuminations of the Spirit but not the teachings 3. I say these printings and writings of the things of God are done by a secret method unknown to us yet known to the Spirit What he 〈…〉 tell but how he writes we cannot tell what he prints we can tell but how he prints we cannot tell Dan. 5 5. As Belshazzar saw the hand when it wrot but could not tell what the hand did write so beleevers on the other side they see the writing of the Spirit but cannot see the hand that writes nor understand how the Spirit writes yet we are in a farre better condition than Belshazzar was For t is better to understand the writing than to know how the hand doth write what is printed than how the Spirit prints as it is farre better to know that we are elected that we are justified that we are renewed in the Spirit of our mindes considered in themselves than to know what Justification and Adoption is though we may know what Justification is and that we are justified by the Spirit 4. Only we see the effect of the Spirits teachings upon our hearts as a woman may know she is with childe because the infant moves in her belly so we may know what the Spirit hath been doing on our hearts by that knowledge zeal life heat motion activity and courage we find in our spirits towards Gods waies We hear the clock strike though we do not see the hand or the wheels that set it a going so we may see our hearts eccho back to the Spirit though we do not see the Spirit setting them on work Ezek. 1.20 As Ezekiels wheels wheresoever the Spirit went the wheels went for the spirits of the living creature was in the wheels So because the Spirit of God is in us wheresoever the Spirit carries us we are carried The Spirit moves and we are moved the Spirit praies when we pray the Spirit witnesseth when our spirit witnesseth the Spirit sets the wheels going and we go God is of a truth in every Saint though they cannot see him but in his operations We know that God is in us of a truth because we act for God and have the principle of spirituall life from him As we know the evil man hath been teaching of us when we see his evil tares and heresies and prophaneness to spring up so we may know the Spirit hath been teaching of us when we see the wheat to grow apace Otherwise The Spirits teachings is the Spirits creating a new light within us by a secret way unknown unto us at the first which light in our consciences enkindled by the Spirit doth in all things correspond with the light of the
unclean heart Besides the Spirit takes away those objections which are in carnall mens hearts against the purity of religion What needs this preciseness this Pharisaism muchness in duty to be alwaies praying and alwaies hearing and the like It is a wearisomness to the flesh it duls the spirit and makes one melancholy it is more then needs be required As long as our hearts are upright with God and we desire to glorifie him in all his waies and we have upright intentions this is sufficient for heaven though we are not so much in duty as the pharisaicall men are Now the Spirit setting home the love of Christ upon our hearts and shewing us what he hath done for us brings us off from this lure to a perfect resignation of body and soul to his service Moreover he sheweth us that we must be holy in all manner of conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we must walk exactly and as much as in us lies keep every circumstance that is contained in the Law of God And truly there is not a more certain sign of an upright heart than to have an universall respect to all the Commandments of God When out of a conscience to the command of God we would not commit the least sin or omit the smallest duty When the enmity is removed and the prejudice taken out of our hearts and all our misgivings and misapprehensions rightly placed we can easily hearken to the voice of the Spirit What things more peculiarly the Spirit teacheth 1. Thou canst not know God aright without the Spirits teachings Malè vivitur ubi de Deo non benè creditur A childe of God may know more of God in one Chapter of the Book of God which is the minde of the Spirit than all the writings of all the men in the world are able to shew forth without this word of God It is the Spirit alone that can ravish our hearts to the love of God in Jesus Christ 1. Gods love That can make us see the heighth depth and breadth of Gods love unto us Who would ever have thought that apostates rebels enemies should ever have become the sonnes of God heirs joynt-heirs and coheirs with Jesus Christ but that the Spirit hath made it clear Behold with what manner of love hath the Father loved us that we should be called the sonnes of God Philosophers could tell you that the Being of beings the first mover the first Cause of all causes must be infinite just mercifull and the like but that God through Jesus Christ should finde out such a way of reconciliation that sinners should be called the sonnes of God and that they should be one with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ and that they should have communion with him for ever and ever this only the Spirit teacheth It is the Spirit only which sheweth the most holy nature of God 2. The holy nature of God 1 Joh. 1.5 In God is light and in him there is no darkness He is holiness it self therefore saith God Be ye holy as I am holy We are apt to think that God is such an one as our selves that he mindes not our iniquities that he walks aloft in the heavens and cares not for the things which are done upon the earth but the Spirit hath declared unto us Hab. 1. That God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity Psal 5. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity I have read of some Nations that because they have thought their Gods to have delighted in some vice therefore they have addicted themselves in the imitation of their Gods to the same vice Some have thought their Gods delighted in uncleanness some in drunkenness others in cruelty and therefore they have been drunken unclean and cruell but we have learned God otherwise by the mind of the Spirit that there is no iniquity in the God of Israel Mercy and truth goes before his face justice and judgement is the habitation of his Throne The Spirit alone hath shewed us the exact justice of God against every sinne 3. The exact justice of God that the least sinne unrepented of and not washed away by the blood of Christ though it be but an evil thought or an idle word shall be punished with everlasting destruction Origin with some others have thought that it could not stand with the mercy of God to punish a sinner everlastingly in hell and therefore they have jumpt in with the Popish purgatory thinking that after the soul hath been punished so many years in hell fire it shall be released and set at liberty But this is contrary to the Spirit of God in many places of Scripture 2. The mystery of the blessed Trinity The Spirit only hath shewed us the mystery of the blessed and incomprehensible Trinity That there should be three persons Father Sonne and holy Ghost and yet these three but one God There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one All the great Rabbies of the world will never attain this mystery it is only the Spirit that teacheth it What Pla. to writes of the blessed Trinity it is supposed he had it out of Moses his writings or else some other way This doctrine of the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity that there should be three persons and but one God and one God and yet three persons that the Father should be God the Son should be God and the holy Ghost should be God it is a doctrine of faith and not of reason a doctrine which ought to be beleeved because the Spirit hath revealed it and therefore not to be disputed of The Schoolmen whose foolish hearts are darkned have become vain in their imaginations concerning this transcendent and exceeding great mystery 3. It is the Spirit alone that teaches us the great mystery of the incarnation of Christ that there should be two natures the humane and the Divine united together and yet but one person The union or the two natures in Christ is 〈…〉 by a fiery flaming sword or rather by the similitude of a branch engrafted into a stock of another tree where there is not a mixture of the nature of these trees nor a constitution of a â—hird out of them but a drawing of one of them into the others subsistance Dr Field this is the mystery of mysteries And without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels beleeved on in the world and received up into glory John 1.14 The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we saw the glory as the glory of the only begotten Sonne full of grace and truth Was made flesh This destroys the Heresie of the Marcionists who said that Christ was not made flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est articulus
of the word of life that I speak Rom. 9. and 't is a certain truth that a godly poor man let him be unskilfull in humane Learning yet if he hath but that unction of the Spirit that St John speaks of he is able to discourse of the things of God more savingly experimentally and powersully than the greatest Clerks and Rulers of the world 1 Cor. 1.20 Not many mighty not many wise not many noble are called but God hath chosen the base things of the world to confound the honourable and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty God did chuse for his disciples not the learned Rabbies of the world as the Scribes and Pharisees were but a poor company of Fisher-men and Tent-makers delivered this Book unto us God called Amos from following the sheep to go and Prophesie to Amaziab And this God did to stain the pride of worldly wisdom shewing that he stood not in need of an arm of flesh to accomplish his design upon the earth but that by weak and inconsiderable means in themselves he was able to bring about the greatest designes What is the reason that the greatest Scholars are most to seek in the things of God especially in those things which accompany salvation Why as Solomon speaks they leaning to their own understandings and exalting themselves in the pride of their parts and abillities do justly cause God to leave them to themselves and in the dark because they seek not after the Spirit of God which is the chief thing to be desired if they will know the will of God We usually say that he that made the Laws can best tell how to interpret them so the Spirit of God which made the Word of God for holy men of God spake as they were inspired by the Spirit knows best how to explain it We are to compare spirituall things with spirituall and the Spirit of God speaking in one place with the Spirit speaking in another if we would know the scope and intent of the Word No man can say Jesus is the Christ but by the Spirit Saith Christ to Peter when he confessed him to be the Christ Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jona for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in heaven Now the Father as it is clear from Ephes 3.5 declared this mystery by the Spirit Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy Prophets and Apostles by his Spirit As for practicall duties 't is the Spirit only that inflames the heart enlightens the minde breeds compunction and brings sundry comforts That teacheth us to despise earthly things to leath things present and to seek after things eternall to fly honours and to suffer scandals and to place our hope and confidence in God That teacheth us that great duty of mortification If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the flesh to subdue our lusts to overcome the world to live a life of faith and not of sense to endure afflictions and to resist temptations The Spirit helpeth us to pray We know not how to pray as we ought but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities by making intercessions for us with groanings which cannot be uttered He helpeth together with and over-against us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 collaborantes adjuvat The originall word imports as when another man sets his shoulder to bear a part with us in the lifting up of any burden The Spirit of God removes those clogs and weights which be upon our spirits and puts life into the Chariot wheels of our souls by raising up our affections by stirring up the gift of God that is within us that we may pray with readiness of minde And maketh intexcession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Not that the holy Spirit is a Mediator of intercessions that is properly the office of the Sonne who is therefore stiled our Advocate 1 Joh. 2.1 But because the Spirit of God doth stirre up our hearts to prayer and infuse into us holy desires stirring us up and instructing us in this duty therefore he is said to intercede for us The Spirit likewise by causing us to groan and sigh for our sinnes is said to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered It is the Spirit alone that must convince us of our sinnes When the Spirit shall come be shall convince the world of sinne Joh. 16.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corripio pervim demonstrationis of righteausness and judgement The Spirit convinceth plainly by a demonstration shewing Thou art the man as Nathan said to David and powerfully to the conscience It is the Spirit that unites us to Jesus Christ he is the bond of our spirituall union He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his It is the Spirit that quickens The Spirit quickneth Joh. 6.63 the Word profiteth nothing It is the Spirit that sanctifieth and that regenerates the hearts of beleevers 1 John 5.18 He that is born of God sinneth not i.e. he that is born of the sanctifying Spirit of God sinneth not that great sinne against the holy Ghost which is unpardonable It is the Spirit that is the true Comforter Hence he is called by way of eminency John 16. The Comforter The earnest of our inheritance Eph. 1.14 because of his inward testifying act upon our spirits that we are Gods children It is the Spirit that driveth out that slavish fear out of our hearts making us to come with boldness and with confidence to God Psal 51. Vphold me with thy free Spirit It is the Spirit that justifies 1 Cor. 6.10 But ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God It is the Spirit that preserves the faithfull from falling away by his preventing and establishing grace from that hope that is within them unto the day of their appearance before Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ What manner of teachings the Spirits teachings are First They are infallible teachings The Spirit teacheth truly without the least errour or deceit He is called the Spirit of truth because whatever the Spirit teacheth it cannot but be truth John 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter which shall abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth The Spirit is said to lead us into all truth Joh. 16.13 When the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dux vobis erit Dux viae He shall lead you by the hand as the Nurse doth a weak sickly childe and be a guide unto you in your way In the way of truth but what he hath heara of me that
shall he speak and he shall shew you things to come If truth it self can lie and deceive then the Spirit may deceive you but it is impossible that truth it self should deceive God is not as man that he should lie or the sonne of man that he should repent The Spirit it is God as I have proved already and therefore 't is impossible he should lie i. e. deceive or fail us in our expectations when we wait upon him If we think the Spirit to be God and take him for our guide and we acknowledge him for to be our councellour it is impossible that the Spirit should deceive us of our expectations Matth. 24.24 There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes and wonders and if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect if it were possible but 't is impossible they should deceive the elect 1 John 2.20 They have the unction from the holy one and they shall know all things i. e. all things that pertain to life and godliness What is the reason why we beleeve the Word of God to be true and as Chrift saith not the least tittle thereof shall fall till all things shall be accomplished but only because it hath the stamp of the divine authority of the blessed Spirit 1 Cor. 2. The Spirit teacheth all things yea tho deep things of God It is called the Spirit of wisdom Isa 11.21 It is prophesied of Christ That the Spirit of wisdom and understanding the Spirit of counsell and might and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord shall rest upon him Wisdom it self it cannot erre it cannot deceive The Spirit it is the fountain of all wisdom Isa 40.13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord and being his counsellour hath taught him v. 14. With whom took he counsell and who instructed him and taught him in the paths of judgement and taught him knowledge and shewed to him the way of understanding If wisdom it self and the fountain of all wisdom teacheth you you need not fear that you shall be taught amiss Popes and generall Counsels and all men yea the best men may be sound liars and may deceive and put darkness for light and light for darkness and may call good evil and evil good and may put truth for errour and errour for truth but it is quite otherwise with the Spirit of truth which shall lead you into all truth Quest Do not the people of God erre some times and fall into error how then are the Spirits teachings infallible Ans 1. As farre as they are taught of the Spirit they do not erre or fall into any heresie Gal. 5. Heresies are reckoned amongst the fruits of the flesh These are the fruits of the flesn envyings strifes emulations heresies so that errours are not fruits of the Spirit but fruits of the flesh A childe of God may be led away with an errour for a time Gal. 2.13 As Barnabas was led away by their dissimulation so a childe of God may be led away 2. God sometimes out of his justice may permit a childe of God to runne into waies contrary to the truth because he did not prize the Word of God as he ought to do and seek it with his whole heart that afterwards being recovered out of the snare of the devil he may more esteem the Word of God than formerly If a Christian who hath lived in England under the means of grace by providence should be cast among the Heathen where there is no knowledge of the true God but idolatry and false worship set up in place of it how would he esteem the Ordinances of Christ So when a gracious soul shall be given up to the delusions of Satan for a time and afterwards be recovered certainly he would let go all ere he would lose this pretious jewel of truth Quest It is said that the unction of the Spirit teacheth them all things How can they erre therefore Ans It is true that is there is nothing that belongs to life and salvation but some time or other shall be revealed to the children of God The Spirit doth not teach us all the mysteries of God at once but successively as we are able to receive them We are not capable to receive all truths at one time It is with truth as it is with light the light grows by degrees as the sun ascends higher and higher in the firmament so the greater is the light The Spirit teacheth successively and the more it is dispersed Truth comes not all at once into the understanding but first one truth comes in and then another The Logicians say that upon the receiving one absurdity a thousand follow so one truth makes way for another Therefore the perfectionists of these times who think because they say they have the teachings of the Spirit they know all things and that they need not have any body to teach them they are in a gross mistake and as the Apostle faith while they think they know all things they know nothing as they ought to know Those that are above the Ordinances are beneath salvation and those that contemn the ordinary teachings of the Spirit in his Word and Ministers are farre to seek in the extraordinary The Spirit hath babes to nurture as well as strong Christians it hath several books to reade to those that are in the lowest form in the School of Christ and not so high and lofty as to those that are in a higher degree The former he teacheth the principles of the doctrine of God the later those mysteries which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world The former he deals with in a more gentle and tender way to these he is more rough and more severe Christ hath his Lambs as well as his Sheep and what doth he do with them Isa 40.11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd he shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently leade those that are with young Christ and his Spirit drives on as Jacob did Gen. 33.13 My Lord knoweth that the children are tender and the flocks and herds with young are with me and if men should drive them over-hard one day all the flock would die Let my Lord I pray thee pass over before his servant and I will lead on softly according as the cattell that go before me and the children are able to bear Christ leads us as we are able to bear and the Spirit teacheth us as we are able to learn The light breaks in upon us by little and little and Christ said unto the Apostles he had many things to say unto them but they could not bear them yet so the Spirit hath many things to teach us but we are not sufficiently humbled to receive them Isa 42.2 3 As it is said of Christ so it may be said of his Spirit He will not break the brnised reed nor quench
the smoaking flax untill he bring forth judgement into victory that is he will cherish grace and knowledge though covered over with manifold imperfections and very small till they shall come to that measure of perfection which is appointed for them Reply Doth the Spirit teach successively though he will teach us all things which pertain to life and godliness What hindereth but that a childe of God may erre in many things and yet the Spirit of God be said to teach him all things v. g. A Schoolmaster is said to instruct his scholar in all the rudiments of Grammar yet the scholar may commit solecismes and false concordance and why because the Master doth not teach him all the elements at once but by degrees So the Spirit though it teacheth all things which pertain to life and salvation in time yet because it teacheth by degrees a childe of God may in the mean time fall into errour till the Spirit of God shall give in a further light into his soul declaring unto him that his tenent is an errour Secondly They are inward teachings that is they reach to the heart Many times Ministers teach but 't is not from the heart to the heart but from the heart to the head We may inform your judgments but we cannot enkindle your affections and inflame your hearts with an ardent desire and fervent love of the things delivered unto you The Spirit makes you not only to know the things of God but in love with the things of God A spirituall man can finde more sweetness in reading one of the Psalms penned by that sweet Psalmist of Israel Davia than in reading all the merry books in the world besides Another man may reade the Word of God but it is only the Spirit that can make us delight in the Law of God according to the inward man Another man may hear of the excellency of Jesus Christ but it is only the spirituall man that esteems him the chiefest of ten thousand and desires him above all things When the Spirit teacheth the soul let it be never so dull of apprehension let its affections be as cold as a stone to heavenly things let him be as Epraim like a silly Dove without a heart let him be altogether averse from any thing that is good yet the Spirit shall produce inward heat life and motion to runne in the waies of God and not to be weary to go on and not faint The Spirits teachings will make hearts as hard as rocks to flow forth with rivers of living water they will cause floods to come into the wilderness where no water is It is unexpressible what are the kindlings of love and meltings of heart in a soul towards God that hath once been toucht with this heavenly light of the Spirit from heaven What is the reason we remain so dull and so cold under such powerfull Ordinances and such plenteous showrs of grace Why I will tell you you want the inward teachings of the Spirit upon your hearts In the Word preached you may have light but you can have no heat you may have motion but you can have no zeal Where the Spirit is there is light and heat you will be burning and shining lights Thirdly They are evident teachings 1 Cor. 2.4 We reade of the demonstration of the Spirit the Spirit when it comes it makes a demonstration from the effect to the cause because the Spirit worketh in us what it teacheth The way to faith is by working knowledge in our hearts and by opening our eyes to see in what a case we are in by nature and into what a good condition we are instated into by Jesus Christ Knowledge is put for faith This is life eternall to know thee Joh. 17.3 and Jesus Christ whom thou bast sent that is to beleeve on thee and Jesus Christ We may know we are taught by the Spirit if we live in the Spirit if we walk in the Spirit if we warre after the Spirit and not after the flesh 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our Warfare are not carnall but spirituall and mighty to the throwing down of sinne and Satan The Spirits writing upon the heart is in great letters not in small so that he that runnes may reade it as it is spoken of the vision in Habakkuk grace is written in legible characters The Saints of God generally stand in their own light By others I do not understand the world the wicked world but the Saints of God The true Saints are hid to the world The life of every Saint is hid with Christ in God But one spirituall Christian may easily discern another because of that likeness which each hath one to another and the conformity both of them have no Jesus Christ their head that they cannot see those graces in themselves which to others are very plain and visible True grace loves to lie hid under the vail of humility the more it seeks to hide it self the more it is discovered The Saints are the Epistle of Christ known and read of all men The Spirit doth not teach by tipes and figures and by shadows but it teacheth the very thing the very substance We reade of the manifestation of the Spirit 1 Cor. 12.7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall Ephes 1.17 So the Spirit of revelation That the God of our Lord Jesus and the Father of glory might give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him The Spirit it is our remembrancer to bring all things to our remembrance which Christ and his Apostles have spoken unto us in the word Saith Christ John 14.26 When the Spirit comes he shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have spoken unto you that is the things of God shall be made so plain unto them as if they had known them of old as if they were well verst in them and the things deeply rooted in their memories This is quite contrary to those who say the Spirits teachings are full of mysteries dark and obscure and hard to be understood What is this but to make the Spirit of God like the impure spirit the devil Indeed when Oracles were in use the devils answers were very obscure witness when Pyrrhus sent to the Oracle to know whether he should overcome the Romans or the Romans overcome him the answer was so dubious that he could not understand either of them before the sword decided the doubt on the Romans part Aiote Aeacida Romanos vincere posse But the Spirit of God teacheth plainly and when he speaks he speaks to the purpose If the Spirits teachings should be obscure who should interpret the minde of the Spirit there is none that can resolve the Spirits meanings but the Spirit it self this is the great resolver of all doubts and questions Wouldst thou be resolved whether thou art a childe of God or no Gal. 4. the Spirit will
many of them and speak not soberly enough of the great mystery of the Trinity bringing in Philosophicall reasons whereas these mysteries should rather be adored than searched after They distinguish were God disting uisheth not being full of vain Philosophy and needless doctrines Weems that seeing they might not see who are called men of corrupt mindes reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3.8 But by the naturall man is understood every man whatsoever that is not taught and inlightened by the Spirit As fleshly is opposed to spirituall so animall or naturall is opposed to spirituall So that whosoever he be let him have the highest perfections of nature or morality or common endowments he is an ignoramus in the things of God if he be void of the Spirit Wicked men they count spirituall things foolishness As the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God so the wisdom of God is foolishness with the world 1 Cor. 1.25 Though the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men So we reade of the foolishness of preaching in the 21 verse of the same Chapter Wicked men count preaching of the Word of God foolishness and Religion but a toy a bable and as a bug-bear to keep us in awe they cannot savour or relish any spirituall thing Besides saies the Apostle they are spiritually discerned Now wicked men who are void of the Spirit they have not that Spirit of discerning which other men have As a man who hath a vitious humour in his eye whatsoever he looks upon it is represented under that humour as if a man hath the Jaundis in his eyes all things are presented to his sight under a yellow colour So wicked men because they are sensuall and have not the Spirit as Jude speaks they look upon all things with a carnall eye and so are not able to discern aright Many times naturall men they judge of things according to their bulk and quantity they judge of the goodness of a prayer by the length of it of faith by a meer casting of themselves at all adventures upon Jesus Christ for salvation never seeing whether their hearts are purified by faith or no Indeed the wicked that have learning may perceive and know those things of the Spirit but they know them in a carnall manner not in a spirituall manner and howbeit they may reform their outward courses and cut off many acts of sin and like grace somewhat in their hearts thus farre and farther may a carnall man go being but changed not renewed Now they cannot spiritually discern grace for in regard of spirituall discerning they are in the dark even as the eyes if they would see without light the eye-sight and the goodness and the excellency of the ball will not avail to make them see so the wicked even the learned'st of them all they cannot see grace because they have not the Spirit of discerning light their learning their wit and all their good parts cannot suffice to descry the things of God as they are seen by the godly They seeing see not and hearing they might hear and not understand This knowledge of the things of God this spirituall knowledge it is called the Unction of the holy Ghost 1 John 2.20 You have an Unction from the holy One and you know all things It is called eye-salve Rev. 3.18 It is called the opening of the eyes Psal 119.18 Open thou mine eyes that I may behold the wondrous things in thy Law It is called the lightning of the eyes Psal 13.3 Lighten my eyes It is called seeing Isa 29.18 And the eyes of the blinde shall see out of darkness Mr. Feuner in his mystery of saving grace or joyned with a true love unto him They mistake common grace for speciall grace and rest satisfied with the common graces of the Spirit never minding whether they have that prevailing degree of grace to love God and Jesus Christ above all things They are ready to think themselves the children of God because they prosper in the world and have not crosses as other men because they are quiet in respect of sinne and have no trouble of conscience upon their hearts as other men have They are apt to conclude that God loves them and delights in them because they have sometimes more than ordinary raptures of Spirit and are sometimes stirred up to prayer and the like because they have more head-knowledge than many other honest-hearted Christians have All these false conclusions come from corrupt flesh because they are not inlightened by the Spirit of God John 2.11 He that walketh in the dark knoweth not whither he goeth You are all in the dark unless you have the Spirit If the people of the world had the eyes of the children of God they could not but love grace and holiness and Christ and the Word and the Ministers for the beauty and the excellency that is in them Then they would say with David Psal 84. I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness a thonsand years Psal 42.1 As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God when shall I come and appear before God! They would hate sinne for that odious nature and that vileness that is in it but their eyes are vitiated and in stead of the Doves eyes of the spouse of Christ their eyes are bewitched with the things of this world Gal. 3.1 O ye Galatians who hath bewitched you It is a bewitching with the eyes as the Greek word imports It is said of Agar that when she was in the wilderness and the Lad was ready to die for thirst that God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water So though Jesus Christ that fountain which is open to Judah and Jerusalem for sinne and for uncleanness be daily put before our eyes yet if God doth not open our eyes we shall never see it we shall never taste of the waters of life What is the reason that David prayed so often Psal 119. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold the wondrous things of thy Law Teach me thy statutes Make me to understand the way of thy precepts I am thy servant give me understanding that I may know thy precepts Why Because David knew that he could not understand the things of God unless he were taught by the Spirit When the earnall men of the world condemn the children of God for their zeal and constancy in his waies and for their preciseness in living up to the terms of the Gospel they may answer them as one did his fellow in another case for looking upon a picture said his fellow Why dost thou gaze upon it so long O saith he if you did see with my eyes and had that skill to discern as I have you would gaze upon it as long too So if you did see with our light and had that Spirit of
discerning which we have you would be as eager in the waies of God as we possibly can be Wicked men are not able to judge aright of the worth of grace and of the excellency of the things above as they should do therefore they preferre Barabbas before Christ and sinne before grace but the godly on the contrary they cry out with that godly Martyr Lambert None but Christ Nothing but grace Give us grace and Christ and it sufficeth us Do you think that men that are bewitched or that are besotted or that are overcome by the power of luft or that are drunken by the pleasures of sinne or that have no other light to judge by but that little spark which is left within them since the fall which is over-pressed with the corruptions of sinne these men are not fit to be competent judges of the minde of the Spirit Now all men that have not the teachings of the Spirit they are either drunken men drunk with the pleasures of sinne Eph. 4. Be not drunk with wine but be ye filled with the Spirit Or drunken with the cares of the world as Martha was who was cumbred about so many things There is a drunkenness wherein Nazarites themselves may be overcome The very cares of this world and voluptuous living have a kinde of inebriating power with them The excess of our affections in the pursuit and use of any earthly thing may be called drunkenness Dr. Sclater that she could not have time to attend to the sweet words which dropped forth from Christs-mouth Or they are drunken with self-love with self-pride with self-admiration with self-applause and so they lift up themselves before Jesus Christ The excess and immoderate use of a thing especially when the thing is unlawfull in it self may be called drunkenness as the Prophet cries forth O ye that are drunken but not with wine Isa 29.9 As wise Abigail did not discover the intent of David over night to Nabal A simile till the drink was out of his head and he had slept his sleep so these swinish men cannot understand the things of God till the Spirit of God of swines makes them men and of men Christians Many are sottish children that consider not the Lord nor the operations of his hands Isa 1.3 The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider They are benummed the devil having seared their consciences with a hot iron Now for sots and innocents to know the things of God it implies a thing impossible to flesh and blood Indeed according to the things of the world they may be wiser than the children of light but in respect of heavenly things they are sottish children Ask them what Regeneration is and about the new birth they are as great strangers to it as Nicodemus was Ioh. 3.9 Ask them concerning the teachings of the Spirit and like those in the Acts Act. 19.2 they will answer you they never heard of the teachings of the Spirit before Likewise men that are sensuall who are led by sense and not by faith who can believe nothing but what they see and can yield to no truth but what their blinde understandings can reach unto Arabicum Proverbium Obstrue quinque fenestras ut luceat domus qui sunt in eâ Shut your five windows that the house and all that are therein may shine i. e. Consult not with your senses with carnall reason which like Sarah laughs at heavenly promises and looks only to earthly possibilities and as the Sunne whose rising discovers the terrestiail globe to our sight but hides the starres and the celestiall Dr. Stoughton what they are able to apprehend these are not able to distinguish between light and darkness Now the Spirit subjects our sense to reason and reason to faith that what before we could not close withall for truth because it was above our capacity to understand by the Spirits witnessing with our spirits we can more certainly and resolvedly comply withall and beleeve than with those things we see with our naturall eyes The more we have to do with sense the less we have to do with God We finde it in naturall things that the more retired our souls are and the freer from this body of flesh and the more contracted within it self the higher it soars in the meditation of heavenly things Pleasant walks and solitary places where there is no recourse are fittest for the soul to be busie within it self by viewing Gods goodness and raising sweet experiences from severall creatures and divers objects of the infinite wisdom goodness and mercy of God in his providence over the world St Bernard that spirituall Father who had sweet Soliloquies between God and his own soul much delighted in fragrant places separate from all company that thereby he might have the more freedom of spirit to have communion with his God If a soul desires to be guided by the Spirit let it get from sense as high as it can lest like Anselm's bird intangled with the bird -lime of the world the more it flutters to escape the more it is intangled with the pollutions of it Those which have only that little spark of light within them since the fall ☜ which is like the snuff of a candle in a dark lanthorn these are to seek in the things of God They may have as it were an Owl-light but to have the Sun-light which is promised under the daies of the Gospel that the light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun sevenfold Isa 30.26 this they cannot have But when the candle of the Lord which is within us For the Spirit of man it is the candle of the Lord Pro. 20.27 is inlightned by a further light superadded by the Spirit from the book of providence from the book of the creatures from the book of our own hearts we are able to draw many spirituall conclusions and are enabled to know the mind of the Spirit in the Word of God Is it so Vses That none can know the things of God but they that have the teachings of the Spirit Then First It shews us this that blindness lies upon the minde of the greatest part of the world of the greatest part of Christians because the greatest part of them are void of the Spirit That they are so I shall prove by Scripture 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty There is no inslavery no thraldom no bondage and therefore in Rom. 8. the Spirit of adoption is put in opposition to the spirit of bondage The Spirit is called a Spirit of liberty in three respects 1. The Spirit of liberty Because it hath rescued us from a state of bondage 2. Because it hath put us into a state of liberty 3. Because it gives us liberty and freedom of spirit to come with
confidence and boldness into the presence of God Before we have the Spirit we are in bondage 1. To sinne 2. To the beggarly and slavish rudiments and customs of the world To sinne and so the Spirit as it delivers us from the state of bondage 't is called a Spirit of holiness a Spirit of sanctification His servants we are whom we obey in the service of God there is perfect freedom but in the service of the devil there is the greatest slavery What more slavish than to serve a lust What greater bondage can there be than to have the devil our Master When the Spirit of God hath sanctified us and renewed us then we bear the Image of our heavenly Father according to that place in John He that is born of the flesh is flesh Joh. 3.6 and he that is born of the Spirit is spirit that is he that is born of the flesh bears the image of the flesh and he that is born of the Spirit the image of the Spirit As he that is born of corrupt flesh is corrupt so he that is born of the holy Spirit of God is holy Likewise we are delivered from the rudiments of the world and those superstitious waies wherein the world walketh How many are there kept in bondage to old customs in the worship of God to Ceremonies and serving of God after the tradition of their fathers that stand upon places and outward form more than the inward and more spirituall part of worship Some cavil at the Churches calling them Steeple-houses and the Pulpit a Tub and the servants of God Tub-preachers If the Church of God be a Steeple-house what place may we term their private meetings wherein the subject matter of their discourse is to broach and vent forth new fangled notions nothing materiall to the salvation of their souls and how they may vilifie and cast contempt upon the true worship of God and upon the servants of Jesus Christ Others put too much upon these places as if there were an inward holiness in them as if God would rather hear them there and answer them for the place sake rather than at another place Under the Gospel there is no place more holy than another for it is not the place that makes the duty holy as it was under the Law when the Altar sanctified the gift and not the gift the Altar but duties now put a dignity upon the place and not the place put a dignity upon the duties So that this place the Church while we are praying it may be called the house of prayer and while we are doing Gods work and God is manifesting himself unto us it may be called the house of God As Jacob called the place where he had his vision The house of God But yet you must observe this by the way that under the Gospel-dispensation there is not so much put upon places as there was under the Law God under the former dispensation did more immediatly limit his presence to one place though not alwaies for God is found of all them that diligently seek him but his visible presence is more reserved to the Temple and to his shining forth between the Cherubims over the Mercy-seat 2 Chron. 6.20 God is said to put his Name into the Temple and the Psasmist saith Psal 80.1 O thou that shinest forth between the Cherubims in allusion to Gods manifesting himself over the Mercy-seat Therefore it was Jeroboams sin which the Prophet Hosea reproves that he did not only set up Calves to be worshipped instead of the true God but that he set them up in Dan and Bethel keeping the people from the place of Gods worship where God had put his Name Yet under this dispensation the Church it may be called a holy place as under the old Law many things are called holy in that it is separated and set apart in a publick way in opposition to meeting houses for the pure worship of God and a joynt calling upon him in his own way The Spirit likewise puts us into a state of liberty A state of Sonship it is a state of liberty Rom. 8.11 Therefore we are said to be translated from the Kingdom of darkness into the glorious liberty of the children of God If children then heirs joynt heirs with Jesus Christ Now you know a childe when he is under age he differs nothing from a servant but is under Governours and Tutors till he comes to be heir and Lord of all things A reverent Divine whom I heard occasionally said that there were four priviledges which attend Adoption 1. Liberty 2. Right and title 3. Correction and 4. Boldness Now how come we to be the Sons of God but by the Spirit the Spirit witnesseth with our spirits that we are the children of God This spirituall freedom it is not such a freedom as the world dreams of ☞ it doth not exempt us from the obedience to the Laws either of God or man The Spirits liberty what it i. it is not a freeing us from obeying the Civil Magistrate it is not a freeing us from afflictions and crosses in the world Nay rather it is a sign thou art a child of God and that thou art instated into this liberty if thou art corrected God chastneth every son whom he receiveth The Spirit likewise gives us freedom and liberty to come with confidence by faith into the presence of God Eph. 2. For through him we both have access through one spirit unto the Father By the Spirit we have access by Christ unto God the Father so that whatsoever prayer you put up to God the Father What prayer is accepted by God if it be not a fruit of the Spirit and tendred up in Christs Name it shall never be accepted God owns nothing but what is his own Whatsoever is not of the Spirit it is of the flesh Men may be moved with fait speeches enticing words eloquent phrases as the people of Tyrus and Sidon with Herods eloquent Oration Act. 12.21 but all the eloquence in the world is no more to God than the lowing of an Ox or the howling of a Dog if it come not from the Spirit Dr. Gouge in his whole Armour of God and whatsoever is of the flesh it is our own it comes from us and not from God A childe of God he is partly flesh and partly spirit Now God the Father for Jesus Christs sake in whom they are in Covenant with him he over-looks all the fleshly part all their infirmities all the wandrings and gaddings of spirit in their prayer and what is the fruit of his own spirit that he receives and looks upon it as a spirituall prayer in and for the sake of Jesus Christ and because some of the actings of the Spirit have been seen in it God severs the light from the smoak when it ascends up into heaven the light is the Spirits the smoak is ours Having the Spirit we must go along
with him pouring forth those desires which he suggesteth unto us the fire which God would have continually to burn upon his Altar came out from the Lord Rev. 9.24 If sacrifices were offered up with any other fire that fire was counted strange and the sacrifices no whit acceptable but abominable to the Lord the heavenly fire whereby our spirituall sacrifices of prayer must be offered up is that holy Spirit which cometh out from God he carrieth the very Image of God we must therefore give unto God that which is Gods A childe of God upon this ground may come with boldness to the throne of grace that God will accept his prayer because it is a fruit of his Spirit He may wrastle with God and never let him alone till he obtain the blessing or some gracious answer to his prayer though not in the same kind he petitioned for He can say I am thy childe thou art my father I am one with thee by thy Spirit I belong to thy family both in heaven and in earth I am one of them for whom Christ sweat drops of blood for I have thy Spirit interceding for me with sighs and groans which cannot be uttered and therefore Lord I know that thou canst not deny me my petition if it be for my good and for the glory of thy Name Now is it so that where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty is it not too too evident that the greatest part of professing Christians are void of the Spirit Are they not in bondage to some secret lust Doth not their speech bewray them in stead of speaking the language of Canaan do they not speak the language of Ashdod In stead of being led by the Spirit of God are they not led by the spirit of the world While they talk of the Spirit do they not walk after the flesh Have they not the Spirit to talk by and the world to walk by Are they not in love with the fashion of the world and intangled with the rudiments of it Can they pray in the Spirit can they sing in the Spirit can they restore a fallen brother in the evidence of their own spirit If they can What means these swarms of lusts in their hearts of pride envy self-love contempt of their poor weak brethren and little regard they have to the promoting the work of the Spirit in the hearts of others These with many others are true notes that the greatest part of Christians are void of the Spirit Secondly Is it so That none can know the things of God but they that have the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts Then I beseech you to desire God to give you the teachings of his Spirit Pray earnestly for that wisdom which comes from above that St James speaks of Jam. 3.17 Which is first pure then gentle then easie to be intreated which is full of good works If any man lack wisdom let him ask it of God for he giveth liberally and upbraideth none He will not upbraid thy ignorance thy poverty thy former unwillingness and disrespect if thou wilt ask it of him If the Lord blessed Solomon so much for asking wisdom before riches 1 King 3.11 honour life that the Lord gave him a wise heart together with riches honour and life as an over-plus into the bargain how much more pleasant and wellcom will thy petition be to God if thou askest of him spirituall wisdom which is not to be compared with the most precious Rubies or with the finest Gold If thou would'st have spirituall wisdom desire God to give thee the Spirit of wisdom to give thee the grace of unction as well as the grace of union that as Jesus Christ had the Spirit of wisdom resting upon him so thou maiest have likewise To stirre thee up to this main duty Consider first of all Fidelis mater utra que praebet infautulo ubera Sic Deus pater non solum dedit filium sed ctiam dedit Spiritum sanctum Haec duo ubera vino sunt pulchriora That thou askest nothing but what is agreeable to the will of God Matth. 7.11 If ye being evil know how to give good things to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Spirit to them that ask it of him 2. Thou askest nothing but what Christ hath promised Saith Christ when I go away the Comforter shall come unto you So likewise I will pray the Father and he shall fend you another Comforter If Christ who is the Amen of all the promises Rev. 1.5 who is the true and faithfull witness who is truth it self Saith he John 14. I am the way the truth and the life who hath sealed the Covenant with his own blood if he hath promised the Spirit he will not be worse than his word if thou ask it of him 3. Consider that Christ was anointed with the Spirit and received a more plentifull measure of it for our sakes that we might partake of his fulness he was filled with the Spirit that we might partake of the same Spirit with him Joh. 3.34 Non ad mensuram i. e siue mensurâ The Spirit was not given unto him by measure that we might have a measure of his Spirit 4 Consider that we are to ask nothing but what we are to expect at Gods hand under the Gospel It is said that the Spirit was not yet given because that Christ was not yet glorified Joh. 7.39 that is it was not poured forth in that measure and abundance as it was to be given after Christs ascension Now Christ being ascended and sitting at the right hand of God on high the Apostles long ago and the Saints in the primitive times having had the first-fruits of the Spirit When the holy Ghost descended in the form of cloven tongues we also may expect the gleanings of so plentifull a harvest Sicut unctio à capite Aaronis in ipsius membra descendebat fic à Christo capite vigor Spiritus sancti in omnia membra dimanat As the oyntment did runne down from Aarons head to the rest of his members So from Christ the Head the efficacy of the Spirit flows forth upon all the members To stirre you up to desire the Spirits teachings consider this that it is a singular mercy to be taught by the Spirit Blessed is the soul that heareth the Lord in or by his Spirit and that receiveth from his mouth the word of comfort If the Queen of Sheba 2 Châ—on 9.7 after she had made triall of Solomons wisdom cried out with admiration Happy are thy men and happy are these thy servants that stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom How much happier are they then that heard the gracious words which proceeded from the mouth of Christ when he was upon the earth and that have the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts All other teachings besides the Spirits teachings will avail
was as fire in his bones till it was revealed Jer. 20.9 It is a great burden to a gracious soul that he cannot hold forth the truths of God as the Spirit hath held them forth to his own soul It is one of the greatest troubles to a saithful soul when he comes to dye that he hath not been so serviceable to the Church of God as he might have been if he had improved that light and those talents which God hath given him to the best advantage We must have charity towards all we must wish well to all pray for all relieve all according to our abilities we must love all we must love our enemies but familiarity with all is not expedient we must edifie all and strive to convert all to the faith of Jesus Christ Now there be none so fit to edifie others as those who have the spirits teachings upon their hearts Gal. 6.1 Yee which are spiritual restore a fallen brother in the spirit of meekeness A spiritual man is best acquainted with the evil nature of sin and what shame and sorrow it brings along with it with the wrath of God and with the excellency of Jesus Christ and that beauty and comeliness which is in his wayes 4. If thou art taught by the spirit thou art a man of another spirit then thou wert heretofore as it was said of Caleb he was a man of another spirit Num. 14.24 so thou wilt be of another spirit Wert thou before carnal now thou shalt be spiritual Wert thou of a malicious spirit thou shalt have a spirit of love Wert thou of a proud spirit contentious high minded spirit thou shalt be of an humble and of a meek spirit Wert thou under a spirit of bondage thou shalt be under a spirit of liberty a spirit of adoption Wert thou of an unclean froward perverse foolish spirit thou shalt be of a clean milde and of a wise spirit Wert thou of a base cowardly frame of spirit that thou wert ashamed to make mention of the name of the Lord thou shalt be of a couragious spirit full of a holy zeal for the glory of God Wert thou of a fearful doubting drooping sad sorrowful dejected spirit thou shalt be of a merry joyful and of a lightsome spirit It is said that after Moses came down from the Mount his face did shine he had been a talking with God and afterward his face did shine So every faithful soul after he hath been in the Mount of contemplation and hath had the spirit instructing him in the things of God his heart doth shine with the oyle of Grace and his life doth shew forth the praise of him who hath called him out of this state of darkness into this marvellous light 5. He is of a meek spirit that hath the teachings of the spirit upon his heart Psal 25.8 The meek will he guide in judgement and the meek will he teach his way Isa 28.18 19. In the day shall the deaf hear the words of this book and the eyes of the blinde shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness The meek also shall encrease their joy in the Lord and the poor among men shall rejoyce in the holy one of Israel Psa 149.4 The Lord taketh pleasure in his people he will beautifie the meek with salvation Isa 61.1 The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach glad tidings to the meek to binde up the broken spirit Moses Numb 11.3 Who is called the meekest man of all the men that were upon the earth had the neerest approach to God of any that we read of in the book of God he spoke with God as a man speaks with his friend or as one man speaks to another He spoke with God face to face We must be children in our own account if we would be taught by the spirit Psal 131.2 Surely I have behaved and quieted my self as a childe that is weaned of his mother my soul is even as a weaned childe i. e. As a childe is gentle and submissive you may do what you will with a weaned childe so he was of a tractable spirit ready to yeeld and to submit to Gods dispensations whatsoever they might be unto him Saith he Mat. 18.4 He that is not as a little childe shall never enter into the Kingdom of heaven 1 Cor. 14.20 A little childe in respect of meekness and gentleness and love and amity according to the Apostle In malice be ye as children but in understanding be ye men The poor receive the Gospel The poor in spirit that tremble at the word of God that are wrought upon by a kinde work of the spirit upon their hearts that dread the exceeding goodness of God and thinke themselves unworthy of any mercy at all at Gods hands who can undergoe any thing what God is pleased to impose upon them confessing that God punisheth them far less then their iniquities deserve that God cannot inflict too severe a punishment on them for their sins Signes of poverty of spirit and that if any thing besides hell it is a fruit of mercy and who groan under the burden of their sins and under the apprehension of Gods love unto them who are willing to receive any thing from Gods hand These are the fittest men to be instructed from heaven if we could perfectly go out of our selves and purge our selves of all created love we should have the flowings in of Divine grace upon our hearts abundantly If the spirit should teach wicked men it were but to cast darts against a rock It is reported of Tygers that they enter into a rage upon the sent of fragrant spices so do ungodly men at the blessed savour of Godliness It is reported of some Barbarous Nations who when the Sun shines upon them shoot their Aâ—â—ows against it so do wicked men at the light and heat of godliness Burroughes which are so far from admitting any entrance that they cast back the darts against him that shoots them but the meek spirited man is ready to receive whatsoever the spirit shall dictate unto him What ever is written upon a proud and a carnal heart it is as if it were written upon the sand now you know what is written upon the sand every blast of winde is apt to deface so every blast of temptation will blot out whatsoever is written upon a carnal mans heart but what is written by the finger of God upon a meek spirit it is as it were engraven in marble never to be done out again Therefore I know no greater signe that some that pretend most of all to the spirit in these times are most of all void of it because they are of such a railing contentious froward perverse malicious spirit I am sure they were never so taught by the spirit of God for the spirit of God is a spirit of love a spirit of meekness a spirit of gentleness meekness is a
and his greatness Contrary to the Prophet who saith Fear the Lord and his goodness Hos 3.5 When they fear God as a consuming fire but not as a gracious Father When they fear to offend out of a sense of hell and not out of any love they bear to God 3. A filiall fear when men fear to offend God who hath been so gracious a Father unto them who hath done them so much good and shewed them so much mercy When they consider what an ocean of love was shewed unto them by God when they lay wallowing in their blood by pitying them in their condition and shewing them mercy in Jesus Christ The love of God constrains a Saint to an obedience of him And a childe of God hath such ingenuity in him and such a son-like affection to God his Father that he would not willingly grieve him for the whole world 4. A reverentiall fear so the Angels in heaven they are said to fear God because they do him reverence The Saints reverence God Rev. 4.10 casting down their Crowns before him that sitteth upon the Throne That vast disproportion between God and the creature he being the fountain and we the streams who hath his being of himself depending upon none and we continually depending upon him cannot but work a reverence and a godly sear in the hearts of those that love him and embrace him 7. If thou hast the Spirits teachings upon thy spirit upon thy heart thou wilt still desire to have further discoveries of the Spirit upon thy heart Thou wilt much be exercised in all those waies and means the Spirit useth to come down Much in private prayer in that heavenly duty of spirituall meditation much at home with thy self and less gadding abroad in thy desires and affections There was a time when the children of Israel said unto Moses Exod. 20.19 Speak thou unto us and we shall hear let not the Lord speak unto us lest perhaps we die But when was this When the Lord came down upon mount Sinai with thunderings and lightnings to give his Law unto his people But now under the Gospel when the Spirit is poured forth abundantly a childe of God rather cries out with the Prophet Samuel Speak Lord 1 Sam. 3.10 for thy servant heareth Let not Moses or thy servants only instruct me but rather do thou speak my Lord God by thy Spirit in my heart who art the enlightner of all the Prophets for thou alone with them canst perfectly instruct me but they without thee can profit nothing As Mary sate down at Christs feet to hear the gracious words which proceeded from his mouth so thou wilt wait at the Ordinances to have more flowings in of the Spirit upon thee ☜ When a soul shall remember at such a time such a spirituall truth was imparted unto me at such a time and in such a place I was convinced that such a thing was a sinne and by the power of the Spirit overcome to a forsaking of it that such a thing was a duty that I was setled in my mind concerning such a Tenet that I had a fuller assurance of Gods love upon my heart than formerly this will make the soul pant and breath after a more full manifestation of spirituall things As David cries out Psal 42.2 When shall I come and appear before God so thou wilt cry out When will the time be that I shall have another teaching of the Spirit upon my heart Psal 63.2 Lord let me see thy outgoings in the Sanctuary as formerly I have seen Let me hear thy voice O blessed Saviour for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely Teach me thy statutes shew me wisdoms path Instruct me in the way that I should walk in Shew unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit 8. He that hath the Spirits teachings upon his heart is of a heavenly minde and can perform all duties in a spirituall manner As it is impossible for a man at once to look upwards towards heaven and downwards towards the earth so it is impossible for a Christian with one and the same judgement and affection to look upon earthly and heavenly things He counts the riches and honours and pleasures of the world but as crumbs cast to dogs but as triviall things not worth the mentioning in comparison of the enjoyment of God in Christ He is resolved not to be put off with those common mercies and not to receive his good things in this life but he tramples upon all these things under the Moon as mutable and that pass away having his eye fixt upon that eternall weight of glory in heaven and upon that Crown of bliss and happiness reserved for him A simile As children when they come to be men they put away childish things bowling-stones counters and all other vain and foolish sports and pleasures and become more serious and solid weighing what will become of them and how they may live in the world so when thou art taught of the Spirit thou wilt abandon all former delights when thou wert in the flesh and count the world thy enemy which would have kept thee from Jesus Christ yea the memory of thy vain conversation when thou livedst according to the course of the world will be bitter unto thee and thou wilt count all the things of this world but toys and trifles in comparison of the true and the heavenly riches When a spirituall man hath the things of this life he doth not set his heart upon them he doth not trust in them Mat. 6.33 he looks upon them but as additionals and as a handfull over and above into the bargain of eternall life but his heart is where is treasure is even in heaven In the fulness of all things his heart is empty and in the want of all things he can enjoy all things in Jesus Christ The more the understanding is enlightned to see the excellency of a thing and the necessity of it Whether the will follows the last dictate of the practicall understanding presently the will closeth with it And though in outward things the will doth alwaies follow the last dictate of the practicall understanding for Medea said Video meliora probóque Deteriora sequor Yet the will of a Saint cannot but follow the last dictate of the practicall understanding taught by the Spirit Now the Spirit it puts a new face upon things it takes away the false painted mask which the world and our own corrupt hearts had cast upon those transitory things and that vizard Satan had put upon them and shews us the emptiness the insufficiency the vanity the mutableness the inconstancy and the perishing nature of them that they are weak inconsiderable things which cannot afford the least solid joy and comfort That the pleasures of sin and the world are but as the cracklings of thorns under a pot which blaze for the
say For the holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say Whether the Saints in the Primitive times who suffered for the Gospel or the Martyrs in Queen Maries daies had not these influences of the Spirit upon their sad exigencies when they were brought before their cruell persecutors to answer for themselves is beyond all controversie Certainly silly men and women I mean in respect of any deep knowledge could never on a sudden express their mindes so excellently concerning the things of God had they not more than ordinary at such a time the teachings of the Spirit upon their hearts witness that woman of Exeter mentioned in the Book of Martyrs with many others The times wherein the Spirits teachings are most manifest 1. In times of affliction thou art most of all sensible of the teachings of the Spirit upon thy heart In themselves they manifest nothing to the soul but the displeasure of an angry Judge intending to destroy them but the Spirit concurring along with them and shewing us the minde and will of God they are precious cordials and purgations for the sinne of our souls If afflictions could make us hearken to the voice of God and savingly instruct us and teach us those things which concern our everlasting peace why do not many wicked wretches who live under the scourge of the Almighty all their daies who have one wave of affliction after another upon them learn obedience by the rod and understand the minde and intent of God Afflictions in themselves are neither good nor evil but accordingly as they are improved by us through the help of the Spirit according to the will of God Now although the Spirit hath written the things of God long before upon our hearts yet the manifestation of those things most of all is apparent to us when God doth instruct us by his rod together with his Spirit that those graces which for a long time were not discerned by us being pressed down by affliction may send forth a precious smell in the nostrils of our God and to the sense of others We learn by afflictions 1. To see those things which we never perceived to be in us before to wit the actings of divine grace in us supporting us and carrying us along chearfully through this valley of Baca and the actings of our spirit towards God again in way of filiall affection and son-like obedience under his hand being taught by the Spirit what the mind of God is concerning them As no man knoweth the vileness of his heart till God is pleased to let Satan have his liberty to tempt him and his own hearts lusts to draw him aside So none can know the prevailings of grace upon his own heart and the efficacy of divine teachings and the triall and experience of those things which are written upon his heart till God shall bring him under the fiery triall The Spirit hath taught us that all trust and confidence is to be reposed in God alone because God alone is able to deliver us and that we may thereby be quit and set free from all those distracting fears which do molest us Psal 37.5 Commit thy waies unto the Lord that thy thoughts may be established Now our confidence in God is then most of all exercised when all other props and staies do fail us and we cast our selves under the arms of Almighty God We know not our own strength against the temptations of sinne and Satan that we are fortified with the whole armour of God Ephes 6. to wit the shield of faith the helmet of hope the breast-plate of righteousness the sword of the Spirit the Spirit of prayer and supplication the inward support and aid of the Spirit of God and the continuall prayers of Jesus Christ interceding for us at the right hand of his Father that our graces fail not in the hour of tribulation till God shall smite us with his rod. By afflictions the teachings of the Spirit of God upon our hearts are most known to others Rev. 14.12 Here we may reade the patience of the Saints the sincerity of their hearts the power of divine grace and the sweetness of the comforts of the Spirit upon their hearts when we see them cheerfully willingly and joyfully submitting themselves to the good pleasure of God 2. By afflictions we are more and more acquainted with the evil nature of sinne which hath brought such afflictions upon us with the holiness of God which cannot away with sinne and sinners and with the exact justice of God against it in so severely punishing of it with the benefit that comes by seeking Gods face and by walking up to the light which God hath put within us 3. The Spirit of God is very active upon the hearts of believers at such a time in rooting out the remainders of originall corruption and in the exciting of those things which he hath put within them 2. Near the time of death Sweet have been the discoveries of Gods Spirit upon the hearts of his children when they have been near the time of their dissolution for these reasons 1. Because near such a time Satan and all our spirituall enemies will muster up all their assaults to weaken a believers faith hope and confidence in God especially when the believer hath been a hainous sinner formerly and after his conversion hath fallen into some gross sinne to the wounding of his own conscience and to the quenching of the blessed Spirit for a time though the sin is done away by the blood of Jesus Christ and the pardon of it sealed by the testimony of the Spirit yet the devil will be pudling in this old sore and perswading him to the contrary telling him that his conversion was never reall because since he hath fallen so foully in the flesh The devil tempted Christ when he was near the time of his suffering to drive him from his hope and confidence in God his Father Saith Christ The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Joh. 14.30 Christ was perfectly holy so that no temptation could take hold of him to overcome him ☞ or to taint him with the least sinne But we poor creatures when the devil comes to tempt us have something in us we have a great deal of unbelief abiding in us we have a body of sinne and of death and hereupon our bullwarks would easily fall our confidence in God would easily give place to unbelief were not the Spirit of God which is in us stronger than him who by way of eminency is in the world 1 Joh. 4.4 to wit the devil Now God on the other side fils a believer with continuall fresh and renewed supplies of his Spirit and with new experiences of his love unto him bringing unto his remembrance all former loving kindnesses past between God and his soul what a great work was wrought upon him in the work of conversion what various dispensations of
afforded me alwayes praying reading doing good and working out my salvation with fear and trembling But alas there is no more time there are no more seasons of grace afforded me God is departed from me in respect of any future mery for ever hell hath shut her mouth upon me and therefore O that I had to my everlasting comfort complyed and hearkened to the voice of the spirit contending with me That I had walked up to the light of the spirit then it had been otherwise with me to my perpetual joy then it is now to my eternal misery Thus the wretched sinner laments it self when it is too late and wishes it had never been unless he had been better because he improved not those talents and walked not up to that light which God had given him Reasons why every soul ought to walke up according to its Light 1. Because God judgeth every one according to his light Rom. 2.12 For as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law that is those that are without the moral Law written upon tables of stone but have onely the Law of nature written upon their hearts though the moral Law is nothing but what is founded upon nature as appears in the 15. verse For the Gentiles which have not the Law i. e. the moral Law do by nature the things contained in the Law if they sin against the Law written in their consciences shall onely be judged according to that Law and those that have the moral Law shall be judged according to the moral Law but those who have the light of the Gospel shall be judged according to the light of the Gospel 16. v. In the day when God shal judge the secrets of mens hearts according to my Gospel And those that have sinned against the light of conviction and the strivings of the spirit shall be judged according to that light and according as our light is so will be our condemnation Mat. 11.22 It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement then for us who live under the light of the Gospel and the spirits convictions because our light is the greater And for those who live under Gospel light it will be more tolerable for those at the day of judgement who have lived under a powerful Ministery all their dayes and have had more influences of the spirit upon their hearts and have had the spiritual Manna continually falling round about their houses as the inhabitants of the famous City of London have who are blessed above all other Nations with spiritual blessings then those who are less watred with showers of Grace from heaven if they shall let slip their opportunities and sleep out the day of visitation which is afforded them The Lord takes notice of every Sermon we hear and of every prayer we have prayed of every time we have received the Sacrament of every impression we have had upon our spirits of all those counsels exhortations admonitions reproofs corrections instructions we have had of all that naturall knowledge we had with the improvements of it of all the prayers and beseechings others have made and put to God for us of all those secret checks of conscience of all those various acts of providence in the course of our lives marvellous deliverances from dangers from sicknesses from imprisonments in providing for us when all other helps and means have failed of all those resolutions we have made of better obedience upon some notable conviction upon our spirits of all our services performed unto him in private and in publick and of all that conference and communion we have had with the Saints of all that progress we have towards heaven and that if we had gone but a step or two further we might have been happy and according to the severall gradations of our spirituall advantages upon the neglect of them so shall our condemnation be God will judge us for every Sermon wherein we have not met him in a Sermon for every prayer wherein we have not met him in a prayer for every receiving of the Sacrament wherein we have not met Christ in that Sacrament We are then said to meet God in a duty when upon the right improvement of it God comes nigher to us in waies of further discoveries upon our hearts or our hearts are drawn nigher to God and to Jesus Christ in way of heavenly mindedness and son-like obedience 2. We ought to walk up to that light which we have because God hath to this end given this light unto us that our evil deeds being made manifest we may loath our selves for them and avoid them for the time to come Wicked men they hate the light Joh. 3.20 because their deeds are evil they know that it is the nature of light to make manifest and thereupon if they should come to the light their consciences would be awakened and the peace of their besotted spirits lul'd asleep in gross ignorance carnall security the pleasures of sinne and by the devil would be disturbed But the godly on the other side they rejoyce in the light in the light of the Word in the light of the Spirit and bless God for the time that ever they were acquainted with the evil nature of their sinnes and with the experience of Gods infinite goodness unto them in Jesus Christ A righteous man fears not the terrours of the Law 1 Tim. 1.9 for the Law was not made for him but for the rebellious disobedient murtherers of fathers and murtherers of mothers And he rejoyceth in the glad tidings of the Spirit He desires to be taught by the Spirit and daily to be nurtured up in the School of Christ till he shall come to the perfection of the Saints in glory He that doth truth cometh to the light Joh. 3.21 that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wronght in God 3. Because if a mans spirit gives him in that such a thing is a duty though it be nor or such a thing is a sinne though in it self it be not a sinne yet if he walk not up according to that verdict his conscience gives in of it unless the Word of God speaks directly against it and it be directly opposite to the analogy and proportion of faith he sinnes in not so doing Saith the Apostle Whatsoever is not of faith is sinne Rom. 14.23 that is whatsoever we do doubtingly and ambiguously being in distrust whether the thing ought to be done or no if we do it we sinne in so doing We should do nothing but what we verily believe ought to be done In these two cases we may follow the light of our own consciences 1. In things indifferent which are neither simply commanded nor simply for bidden 2. In things which do not positively contradict the doctrine of faith and piety and the express Word of God or a direct and an immediate consequence plain to the capacity of all understanding men void of any prejudice against the truth drawn from solid and evident places of Scripture pat to the purpose we have in hand But if any man shall pretend a Tenet or a Custom or a Doctrine to be received believed performed and practised because his own conscience gives him in it is so or ought to be believed and practised though he hath an express command to the contrary in Gods Word I say that this mans heart is full of Atheism and unbelief and grosly deluded by the devil and though his erroneous conscience gives him in it must be so yet he sinnes if he doth it because it is directly contrary to the Word of God Now if a man sinnes if he walks not up to the light of his conscience in some cases though it may be erroneous then much more he walks not up to the light of the Word and of the Spirit these are infallible lights without the least errour and deceit Lord God we beseech thee that seeing our hearts are so apt to deceive us and to be deceived the world to flatter us and the devil to beguile us and because we live in unstable times full of delusions wherein the mystery of iniquity begins to work and Satans agents are now transformed into Angels of light that our hearts might not be bewitched with these meer phantasmes and ghosts of piety with these shadows in stead of substance but give us that spirituall eye-salve whereby we may discern the cunning sleights of men who lye in wait to deceive and that Christian prudence to foresee the evils that are coming upon the earth Psal 43.3 Send forth thy light and thy truth we beseech thee thy light is a true light and thy truth is light that by thy light we may see light and by the teachings of thy Spirit upon our hearts we may be so established in the waies of God that neither the Errours Heresies and Blasphemies that are abroad in the world may taint us nor that desolation which is coming upon us for our sinnes unless they be washed away with the tears of repentance and with amendment of life may drive us from our hope and confidence of God but that patiently enduring the chastening of the Lord because we have sinned against him by that witnessing act of thy Spirit evidently teaching us that we are thy children in the midst of all these heart-quaking times we may rejoyce in the expectation of future happiness FINIS