commonly seen to do any thing and Man when he pleases to be vain and ungrateful may impute all Events to his own power and application Now 't is certain that God leaves this obscurity upon his Dispensations on purpose to administer an advantage and commendation to our Faith not an opportunity or Argument to our Doubting but yet if we will Doubt the Case is plain that we may as well doubt of any act of his Ordinary Providence as of his Sanctifying Grace and so by this method of Reasoning God will have no share left him in the managment of the world We allow again that there is another Obscurity upon the face of this Dispensation we know not the Philosophy of Sanctifying Grace not unto what Class of Beings to reduce it nor under what Modes to conceive its Operations And this is a speculation that our Saviour himself argues us Ignorant of as much as we are of the Issues and Retreats of the wind and yet he thought fit to leave us so Whether the knowledge of it were too Excellent for us or whether it were too useless as no way conducing to the ends of Practical wisdom For we may observe of our Saviour that in all his Discourses he never entertained his Auditory with any Doctrine that was purely speculative because such kind of Knowledge is apt to make us more Vain than Wise Had he led our Understandings through the whole Theory of Grace we could not have accommodated it better to our uses than an honest heart now can without any farther insight No more than if he had stoopt to teach us the Philosophy of the Wind any Mariner could have gathered it more commodiously into his Sheet It is not then our Emulation to determine How the work of Sanctification is done our only care is that it be done We pretend not to declare but thankfully to admire By what Ray the Divine Grace opens and shines in upon our understanding clearing it from worldly prejudices and the impostures of Flesh and rendring it Teachable Considerative and Firm By what Motion it inspires Good thoughts excites good purposes and suggests wholesome Counsels and Expedients By what welcome violence it draws our Wills steers our Appetites and checks our Passions By what Heat it kindles Love and Resolution and Chearfulness of Endeavours By what Discipline it extinguishes sinful Imaginations and loose Desires By what Power it aws the Devil and foils Temptations and removes Impediments and strengthens and exhilarates amidst all difficulties And finally by what patient Art it turns moulds and transforms our stubborn Nature into new Notions new Savours new Powers new Acts new Aims new Ioys as if we were entirely new Creatures and descended from another Race All these effects do as well by their wonder as their Benefit render Grace as our Apostle calls it the Unspeakable Gift a Gift surmounting our Apprehensions as well as it does our Merit That these are all the Esfects of Gods Grace we know because he has declared them to be so That they are so we know because many of them are wrought beside our Thinking many without our Seeking and all beyond the reach of our too well Known and experienced infirmity That they are so we know because their being so comports best with the great end of all things that is the Glory of their Maker For it tends much more to the Glory of the Mercy of God to watch over and lead and assist Infirm Creatures than to have made them strong And so I pass to my Second Head the distribution of Grace unto Men and the Measures of it The Doctrine whereof I shall form into this Proposition Viz. That God distributes his Grace to every Man in proportion to the measures of his Necessary Duty God who has laid our burden upon us and commanded us to be strong mocks us not but so far as we are weak offers us strength out of his own treasure with this prospect that receiving it thence we might behave our selves more reverently and thankfully under the sense of the Obligation To every one therefore that considers his want and values the supply and applies himself for the Gift with a worthy affection and through appointed Means God gives it liberally and the measure of his giving to each is that Rule of the Friend St. Luke 11. As much as he needeth For as Gods Providence has ordered a diversity of States in human life producing a diversity of Duty so the same Good Providence has ordained divers Sanctifying Gifts and divers Measures of the same gifts to be distributed respectively among Men that no man might Necessarily be wanting to the Duty of his particular state The Prophet Isaiah Cap. 11. 2. Speaking of that fulness of the Spirit that was to rest upon our Saviour distributes the Holy Spirit according to its operations into the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and Might the Spirit of Knowledge and the Fear oâ— the Lord Which the Church looks upon as a proper Enumeration of the Sanctifying Gifts of the Holy Spirit which God does diversly distribute unto men in order to the Common Salvation There is Wisdom for those that Teach and Understanding for those that Learn and Counsel for such as are in Perplexity and Might for such as are in Difficulty and Knowledge for them that Err and the fear of the Lord or Piety as other Versions read it for all that will be Pious Now of these Gifts God giveth such Kinds and Measures to every Man as he has need of To every Private person so much as is necessary for a private Salvation and to every one of a publick Character so much as is necessary to promote Salvation in the publick Salvation of Souls and the Advancement of Christs Kingdom being the only scope of all his Distributions We may take an Instance of the whole from our Bishop in the Text He was a Good Man and endowed with Grace sufficient for a private Salvation before the laying on of Hands as the foregoing Verse implies but being now by that Sacramental Rite to enter upon a new Station of life where greater measures of the Divine assistance were but necessary for the discharge of his duty God confers greater measures of his Grace upon him through the same Rite God confers I say both Grace and Duty through the same Rite to put us in mind that they are Two things morally inseparable For he that does more Duty shall have more Grace and he that receives more Grace receives an Obligation to do more Duty But here it is of importance to observe the Restriction of the Proposition I say it is Necessary Duty to which God apportions the measures of his Grace Where by necessary Duty I mean the Duty of that State or those Circumstances which Gods Providence does assign us For instance If a man shall fall under an unavoidable perplexity of Wordly affairs such a state does bring new
Difficulties upon his Duty and requires new measures of Grace to support him under it and accordingly such a person may safely depend upon God for such measures Or supposing a Man to want the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the happiness of Natural temper and to lay under complexional indispositions to Virtue this state brings unavoidable difficulties upon his Duty and requires greater Measures of Grace to be able to live well and accordingly such a person may safely depend upon God for such measures God Almighty taketh pleasure to manifest the strength of his Grace in such opportunities of humane weakness But on the other hand if a man shall affect such Difficulties and run himself by choice into such Indispositions such a one certainly brings a check upon the Divine assistance For in all the dispensations of Gods mercy the Wise Man's Rule is to be observed That God is found of those that tempt him not And so likewise in the Case of publick Charges which necessarily enlarge both the difficulty and the measures of human Duty the Conduct of Providence is always to be regarded We may safely follow Providence through any Difficulties for there God shall be with us and his right hand shall help us But if we advance to Difficulties as Ahab did to Ramoth Gilead onely directed by some false Prophet of our own Passions we Tempt God beyond a reasonable assurance of finding him in our Undertaking And this is the Reason why Pious Men of all Ages have trembled at the thoughts of seeking the Episcopal Charge lest by running officiously into the obligation of a mighty Duty they might tempt God and provoke him to withold that measure of Grace which was necessary for the due discharge of it I know that Our Apostle has said If a man desire the Office of a Bishop be desireth a Good Work Implying that it sometimes may lawfully be desired And without doubt it has sometimes been so and possibly may be so still It was so in those Times when Persecution raging against the Church fell always most severely upon her Bishops When the Office was accounted a Degree of Martyrdom when there were no splendid advantages annext to it which might tempt the carnal affections of Men to regard them more than they did the Duty At that time to desire it was to deserve it and a sufficient proof of an Inward Call or rather Animation to the Charge But as soon as it came to be baited with Honours and advantages then all Good Men became Iealous of themselves lest in desiring the Office of a Bishop they might not so much desire a Good Work as a Good Accommodation lest their Passions should draw them more prevalently than their Consciences which must necessarily have brought a check upon the Divine Blessing for the want whereof no Parts nor Wisdom nor Industry in their Administration could ever compensate From this pious Iealousie of theirs it followed that the Greatest Bishops have been not only Wisht and Nominated but Sought Woo'd and Commanded out of their Retirement to the Undertaking of their Charge Where after they had Undertaken it we find them bewailing themselves upon the Tremendous prospect of its duty and Crying that it was in punishment to their sins that God had committed the Helm of a Diocess into their hands Teaching the World what Caution is needful lest in a Charge of the most important service of God where it is impossible for a Man to acquit himself well without Gods particular Blessing and yet if he does not acquit himself well the miscarriage must needs be damnable any one should enter upon such a Charge with any other Motives than such as were conciliative of Gods Blessing and assistance For Who is sufficient for these things Says our Apostle and having left the Question undetermined he has left men under the obligation of a long suspense before they determine it in their own behalfs But when God who makes those whom he pleases sufficient shall determine it for any Man then Compliance is safe and the Blessing indubitable And thus it was in the Instance of our Bishop in the Text upon whom this discourse is grounded Of whom you may observe that he had a Providential designation to his Charge before Hands were laid upon him to Invest him in it He had his Designation from Prophecy Says the Text that is from the declaration of the Holy Ghost through the Mouth of some inspired Christians Now what was extraordinary in this Instance and proper only for an Age of Miracles we must not draw into Precedent but from what was Ordinary in it we must form our Rule and that Rule is this viz. That when the Authority to whom the outward care of the Church is committed by God shall from the good Report of a Person as of One of Unfeigned Faith call such a Person to the Charge this is a Providential designation and such a Person going in the Conscience of his Duty to the subsequent Rite of Laying on of Hands needs not doubt of such an Effusion of Grace as shall enable him to give a cheerful account of his Duty This only Caution being born in Remembrance That the Grace so given must be stirr'd up Which is my third and last Head The Original word signifies primitively the stirring up of Fire Grace being sometimes in the Scripture compared to Fire which by reason of its properties of Lighting Warming and Purging bears a just Analogy to those Aids that Grace brings in to reform the disorder of each faculty of our Souls But beside these Grace resembles Fire in another property and that is Unless it be stirr'd up and blow'd and Matter rightly apply'd it will go out The Natural Agency of the Fire and the Moral Agency of Grace agreeing in this That neither will serve our uses unless we work with them We may therefore receive the Heavenly gift in vain Nay the Negligent do always do so but if we stir it up by exercise and use we make it spread and improve and secure it's Aids to the full accomplishing of our Duty So that Grace and the Soul are like two Free Agents combining discâ—etionally to the same effect the one acting out of Duty and the other out of Compassion and both requiring mutual excitements and mutual endeavours Humane Diligence engages Grace because it is not consistent with the Laws of Mercy that they who are sincere should miscarry for want of assistance and Grace engages diligence because it is not consistent with the Laws of Virtue that they who are slothful should either succeed or be assisted I shall exemplifie the Doctrine in the Instance of the Text. Where we are inform'd that Timothy at his Consecration received a Gift or Effusion from the Holy Ghost and this Effusion our Apostle distributes in the following Verse into three particular Graces all necessary for the discharge of the Episcopal Office viz. Might Love and a sound mind
of Members some Eyes some Hands some Feet c. some of more curious contexture and more noble Offices than others but the Grace from the Head is the common Soul and animation of them all insomuch that whosoever is any way obstructed from the participation of this Divine Influence he must in the same proportion languish and fall off from his Duty and degenerate into the bare figure of a Member of Christ. Thus the Holy Scriptures do instruct us in the Existence of Grace as they do 2. In the necessity of it And the necessity of Grace is founded in the Scriptures upon Mans weakness and insufficiency to do his own Duty So our Saviour has laid down this Truth as the first step to Practical Wisdom viz. That without Him we can do nothing For although it may undoubtedly appear from the lives both of Heathens and Hypocrites That Man is not without a considerable Talent of Natural power to do Good though it may be demonstrated to the Reproach of Christian Professours That All men may advance farther into the state of Goodness by the bare conduct of Civil Prudence and the force of such Resolutions as are meerly Human than most Christians do arrive amidst the great but neglected advantages of Divine Grace Yet when we consider that in Religion it is not enough to do Good unless it be done well in its Circumstances and Uniformly in its parts when we consider that Religion is not satisfyed with many good Acts no nor many Good Habits but only with an Integrity of Goodness and equal respect to all that is commanded when we consider that our Partial Understandings are never well reconciled to the Principal duties of Christianity I mean the Duties of the Cross but are apt to look upon them sometimes â—s Needless sometimes as Indiscreet sometimes as Cruel and so are always ready to shift their Obligation when we consider how haâ—d it is for weak unsteady Souls to refine themselves to such a pitch as to Love God above all those Idols after which we naturally go astray from the Womb and yet if we do not Love God so we have no Principle in us that can either support or recommend our services When we consider all these difficulties the great Task before us the great indispositions within us and the Avocations seductions snaâ—es and violences that are alway ready to divert us from our work we must confess that they are Difficulties purely insuperable by our own strength Nature must start aside from their Level like a Bow broken with too strong intention we must confess that in Equivalence to our Duty and in proportion to Acceptance We can do nothing 'T is true indeed that there are other Graces of God beside this inward Operation we now treat of There is soundness of faculties Happiness of Temper a sober Education Choice of Imployments and Friends the light of the Holy Scriptures the prospect of future Punishments and Rewards the opportunities of Religious Advices and the Monitions of Providential Events all these are mighty Graces of God in their kinds and we speak of Men as living under the possible advantages of all these and yet nevertheless when we consider in ballance to these How the Tempers even of the Best Men are not exempt from treacherous propensions to ill How the Presence of things does work much more forcibly upon our Affections than any Reasonings about things distant can How strong and delusive the Injections of Satan are and how stupifying and deliriative every Act of Sin How great a distance there is between keeping our selves from scandalous sins and Raising our selves to the height of a fervent Piety and Resigned Will When we consider how our Saviour amidst all his Preaching and Miracles crys our None can come to Me except the Father draw him that is He himself could not draw men as a Prophet but only as a God we must still conclude that without this Inward Principle of Sanctification supernaturally aiding us we can do nothing 'T is true indeed and we readily acknowledge that there is an Obscurity fitting upon the face of this Dispensation of Grace For we cannot feel the Impressions nor trace the footsteps of its distinct working in us The Measures of our Proficiency in Goodness seem to depend entirely upon those of our Own Diligence And God requires as much Diligence as if he gave no Grace at all All this we acknowledge and that it renders the Dispensation obscure But then on the other side it is as plain That there is the same obscurity upon every dispensation of Gods Temporal Providence and so there is no more Reason for doubting of the one than of the other They that will not allow that God does by any inward efficacy confer a sound Mind allow nevertheless that he gives Temporal good things but how in the mean time does this Dispensation appear more than the former For when God intends to bless a Man with Riches he does not open Windows in Heaven and pour them into his Treasure he does not enrich him with such distinguishable Providences as that wherewith he water'd Gideon's Fleece when the Earth about it was dry but he endows such a Man with Diligence and frugality or else adorns him with such acceptable qualifications as may recommend him to the opportunities of advancement and thus his Rise to Fortunes is made purely Natural and the distinct working of God in it does not appear When God intends to deliver or enlarge a people he does not thereupon destroy their Enemies as he did once the Assyrians by an Angel or the Moabites by their own Sword but he inspires such a people with a Couragious Virtue and raises up among them Spirits fit to command and abandons their Enemies to luxury and softness and so the method of their Raising becomes absolutely Natural and the distinct work of God in it does not appear And in the same manner when God does by the inward Operation of his Grace promote a Man to Spiritual Good and bring him to the state of undefiled Religion he does not thereupon suddenly change the whole frame of his Temper and chain up all the movements of his natural affections and infuse into him such a System of Virtuous habits as may make him Good without application and pains but he works his Spiritual work by a gradual process and human methods instilling into such a Man first a considering mind and then a sober Resolution and then a diligent use of all such moral means as conduce to the forming and perfecting of every particular virtue And now while God in all these Instances does work in a human and ordinary way and never supersedes the power of Nature but requires her utmost Actings and only moves and directs and assists her where she is weak and incompetent for her work both his Grace and his Providence are like a little spring covered with a great Wheel though they do all they are not
We may conceive his Soul was at that time touched with some supernatural Motion that carried it forth in a strong ardor after these Episcopal Graces and likewise that it was then endowed with such a Virtual power as if stirr'd up should render him eminent in the Practice of them And now I will shew what Timothy was particularly obliged to do in order to the stirring up of this His Gift beginning with the first Branch of the Effusion Might By Might here is meant no other than Religious fortitude and Courage to do our Duty the First Requisite of a Good Governour Whence it is that we hardly meet with any Commissionated by God for any special service but that he has this given him in principal charge To be strong To be Courageous Our Apostle-here opposes it to Fear or Pusillanimity that most Treacherous of all Vices entangling Men into such necessities of sinning that the Fearful are therefore set by St. Iohn in the head of all those who have their part in the Fiery Lake And now if Timothy will stir up this Spirit of Courage he must in the first place bethink himself well of his Undertaking He must imagine himself a Champion of War enter'd into the Lists as David heretofore into the Valley of Elah where he must either Conquer or Die not a single Man but an Army Both the Israelites and Philistines surveying him in the mean time with different Hopes and Censures whereof the most as Envy will always have it are against Him Some blame his Youth some his Confidence some his want of Arms and some like Goliah curse him by their Gods But as these casual forms of popular breath cannot in themselves affect his Success so neither must he suffer them to affect his Thoughts he must wisely Keep them beneath his concern while he composes his behaviour to the approbation of God and rests in his Providence whom he considers with awful joy not to be a bare Spectator of what he does but a helper and Deliverer a Horn of Salvation and a Refuge as that Royal Champion speaks him from experience in his own affairs The next step is to bring his Courage into action He must set himself to work to check the Range of Satan in the World to awe Men out of ill manners to oppose Vice Vigorously and Impartially without any glozing or fear of the Great without any Unthankful Indulgence to Benefactor or Friend He must awe it out of Countenance and beat it off the Stage with his Looks Intimations Discourses Interests Monitions and Rebukes and if it bear up head against all these He must then separate the Leaper from the Camp and turn the Sacred Key against the Refractory Sinner And he that on this manner is strong God shall strengthen his heart As the Psalmist has exprest the Doctrine of this point But the Philosopher in his Ethicks treating of Courage has observ'd That Anger though it be very like Courage and incites Men to vigor in undertakings yet it is a pure Depravation of Courage and makes it lose both its Honesty and its Ends And for this reason it is that the Courage which is inspired from God is never mixt with Anger it is always accompanyed and temper'd with Love which is therefore the second Branch of the Episcopal Effusion Advices when without Love seem only Reproaches and Rebukes Peevishness and Censures Tyranny Like vitiated Oyntments they have fum'd out all their healing qualities and retain those only that fret and exasperate And hence it has come to pass in the Church that when that most awful Iudgment of Excommunication came to be executed in such manner and Circumstances as that a great mixture of human Passions appear'd in the executing of it The Censure lost its awe and never reach't the Consciences of Men and all the Terrour implor'd from the Secular Arm could never make it otherwise than more contemptible Whereas when a sincere Godly Love and a Paternal Commiseration appears at the head of such a Censure it cannot but make the Correction sink deep into the Conscience and make Men believe it to be as it is a Delivery unto Satan And if Timothy will stir up this Divine Gift of Love he must daily contemplate the value of all those for whom Christ died He must espouse them into the Intimacy of his bosom his Care his Affability his Provision his Prayers Considering with himself what a mighty advantage he has from the height of his place to recommend and endear his Love For Love in an Inferiour station may possibly look more mercenary and so affect less but Love condescending from such a height of place wins and captivates and makes a Man look like God both in Temper and Beneficence Like God I say whose most amiable and endearing Character to the Sons of Men is this That He is a Lover of Souls And he that thus Loves Love shall be perfected in him As St. Iohn has expressed the Doctrine of this point And yet Courage and Love are but like the Inferiour Faculties the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Principal Spirit is still wanting and follows in the third Branch of this Holy Effusion a sound Mind If we consider the Native sense of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and how the Greek Authors do use it to signifie Actively such a Castigation as does naturally produce a sound mind rather than the effect it self produced it will seem that the sense of it in this place may be not unhappily exprest by The Discipline of Wisdom That Blessing which the Son of Sirach prays for Cap. 23. 2. Where he cry's who will set the Discipline of Wisdom over my Heart That Discipline that does both castigate and reform both Purge and Illuminate both make Good and make Wise at the same Act For it clears the Understanding by dispelling all Mists of the lower Appetite It renders the mind sound and discreet by possessing it with awful sentiments of God and of Duty and of a Future Account and it makes a Man fit to Govern in the Church because it makes him Free and unbyast by the World These are the fruits of the Wisdom from above and if Timothy will stir up this part of his Gift He must be Diligent and Exemplary he must take care that the Light of his Life and the Salt the Grace of his Lips do render his Authority venerable and such as cannot easily be despised He must be Watchful Sagacious and Prudent While his Hands are upon the Helm his Eyes must be upon the Needle and the Chart He must observe the Pointings of Providence the Opportunities of Action the Seasons of Counsel the differences of Place the Varieties of Temper and the accommodations of Address that he may ever be gaining some And in the mean time he must keep his Soul steady by the frequent Recourse of this Thought That all is Foolishness but the Doing of our Duty And he that takes care thus to insist in the Offices of Wisdom God will make him consummately wise For the Eyes of them that see shall not be dimm as the Prophet Isaiah has expressed the Doctrine of this Point And now O Timothy see here are the Arts of thy Government Continue in These and thou needest no other Policy God will take all the other care that is necessary for the establishment of his own Church Do thou stir up the Gift of God that is in Thee Do thou quicken and Divine Coal that Toucheth thee and thy Coal shall blaze into a Flame and thy Flame shall be enobled into a Star a vast Orb of Glory such as shall Crown the heads of all those happy Men who by their Conduct and Example Turn many unto Righteousness FINIS De Cur. Graec. Affeâ—t Serm. 9. 1 Ioh. 3. 9. Eph. 4. 16. Col. 2. 19. St. Ioh. 15 5. St. Ioh. 6. 44. 2 Cor. 9.15 Wisd. 1. 2. 3 Tim. 3. 1. St. August Ep. 148. ad Valer. 2 Cor. 2.16 1 Tim. 4.14 2 Cor. 6. 1. Iosh. 1. 7. and 2 Chron. 18. 10. Rev. 21. 8. Psal. 27.14 Arist. ad Nicom l. 3. cap. 8. Wisd. 11. 26. 1 Ioh. 4.12 Psal. 51.12 Apud septueg Vulga Matt. 5. 13 14. and Col 4. 5. 1 Cor. 9. 22. Isa. 6. 6. Dan. 12. 3.