Publick employment and enable him to lead and to warn others by becoming a burning and shining Light in his Generation and inspiring his Charge by a pious Example And even in the most private Station as Temptations and Tryals assault a Man so there is more pressing want of Faith And of a greater steadiness and abundance still the thicker those Darts of the Wicked are shot against us and the more furious and fiery they are which this Faith alone can quench The Wisdom of Governours does not think the same preparations necessary in time of Peace as when actually in a State of War But provides against Surprises and is content to defer the Arming or drawing out their Forces till Action calls for them And thus it is sufficient to be assured that upon great Emergencies God's Strength shall be always ready at hand and made perfect in our weakness provided we be diligent and honest that is if we use the Strength we have and do not indulge nor industriously contribute to our own Weakness Let it be allowed then that a Man is not deceived in these Apprehensions of himself And that his Faith do not make any considerable Advance yet if his Condition be such as does not call for any extraordinary Additions the Case is still well enough For as no Man hath need to call his Health in question who feels no indisposition of Body though he do not perceive himself to grow every day stronger So if our Faith be but a preservative from Lapses and Errors and secure us against Spiritual Sickness and Death if we do not Languish and become manifestly cold and feeble in God's Service nor find our Souls infected with Sin and Lust This is a good Argument that our Spiritual Health is good And though a greater Degree and higher perfections may be Desirable perhaps yet still they are not Necessary nor shall we perish for the want of them Besides where all these Blessings depend upon the mere Bounty and free Gift of our Master we ought not to disquiet our selves with Reflections upon what we have not but rejoyce and be thankful for what we have It is enough that we are admitted into his Favour that he snatches us from Ruine and allows us any place at all in his presence and will much better become us to sit down pleased and take the lowest Room than to discontent our selves and lose the comfort of what we Enjoy by repining that we are not taken to sit on his right hand and an his left in his Kingdom 2. But then we are to consider in the next place that our Faith and other Graces do very often increase and we in the mean while perceive it not What our Church in one of her Articles teaches us to confess is most certain Acts XII That Good Works do naturally flow from Faith so that by them a true Faith may be known as evidently as a Tree by its Fruit. The meaning whereof is this that what we call Faith if it produce no good Deeds is no better than Dead and none at all But it is by no means a just Consequence from hence that no Faith is lively and true which is not perpetually exerting it self in New instances any more than that the Tree is Dead which is not always Green and always bearing For our Souls have in some sense their Winters too and the Seasons of sprouting again into Verdancy and Fruitfulness If therefore either want of Opportunities to shew it self keep it hid or the Storms of Affliction suppress and put it back for a while we have no reason to be discouraged or despair of its Life But may conclude that as the Corn lies covered and yet gathers Strength when under Ground so this Faith may grow and flourish and fit it self for great and glorious undertakings even when we have no visible signs nor sensible proofs of its doing so And such indeed is the nature of all Habits whatsoever whose Excellency consists not in perpetual Action but in a Readiness and masterly Disposition to act as becomes them so often only as proper occasions are offered to exercise them Nay farther yet I add that though some things should appear to us which look very suspicious and seem to argue great Decays at least if not absolute Deadness of Faith such as the being sometimes indisposed to the Duties of Religion and feeling our Zeal less warm and vigorous than formerly yet are not these Symptoms of so fatal Consequence that we should conclude against the Reality of our Faith or at all despair of our Spiritual Health and Safety from them Were the Soul indeed single by it self and in a Condition to exert its own Powers without any Lett or Contradiction then we might expect that it should be steddy and uniform in all its Operations But here the Wise-Man's Observation takes place That * Wisd IX 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the corruptible body presseth down the Soul and the Earthly tabernacle weigheth down the Mind that museth upon many things or as the word might properly enough be render'd the mind encumbred with many cares And This in truth is Our Case We are Subject to all the Necessities and detain'd by all the Clogs and Hindrances of a Body Exposed to all the Trouble of supplying its Wants and by that means to all the Uncertainties and all the Anxieties of the World subject to all its Disorders and Infirmities forced to act by as well as with it and so liable to be obstructed and diverted by its Passions and Pleasures its Pains and its Diseases This is the very Reason Not only why One Man differs so vastly from Another but why the Same Man differs sometimes so strangely from Himself that he scarce appears to be the Same And since the very same Affections are the Springs of our Actions and Resentments in Religious Matters which are in all Other Affairs it must needs follow that as those Springs are differently set and we differently moved by them the alterations we feel in point of Duty and Devotion as they belong to the same Causes so they will vary in like proportions as in our common and worldly Concerns So that as we have differing Constitutions given us at first or as any Accidents afterwards change those we have it ought not to seem strange much less to create us any great Trouble or Disquiet if the Temper of our Minds and our Dispositions to God and Goodness shall happen to vary accordingly The Cold and Phlegmatick will not find all those sprightly Emotions of Heart as the Sanguine and Airy Man Nor will This Man again feel the same Depth of Godly Sorrow and sad Remorse nor the like complacency in the Austerities and Mortifications of a penitent State with one of a blacker and more heavy Blood Thus Fear and Love of God and a stedfast Affiance in him and Charity and Kindness to one another though they be general Duties such as All are
Commander will needs march up as it were to the mouth of a loaded Cannon by turning their own Tempters This is not Courage but Fool-hardiness And whatever Expectations these Men may cherish of God's Assistance in such Cases they are not the Effects of a vigorous Faith and well grounded Trust but of a blind and hot-headed Presumption For all the Promises of Grace and our Belief of them suppose the Use of proper Means And of those means the First and Best is To prevent our danger And as no Man in his Senses would venture the breaking a Leg or an Arm in Confidence of his Chirurgeon's Skill to set it again So neither will any considerate Christian lay himself open to Sin or make needless Approaches toward it because he knows that God is more powerful to preserve than the Devil can be to destroy For it is not the Power of God that is our Security but the Knowing that he will exert that Power on our Behalf And this we cannot know but rather the direct contrary when the Temptation is our own act and deed For the dangers which We chuse have no right to his Protection and it is a righteous thing with Him to suffer such men as wantonly set their Souls at stake to eat the bitter fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own foolish devices 3. Thirdly The Wariness I have been advising to keep aloof from Temptation may yet be farther inforced by considering from this Instance of the Apostle before us how the Commission of one Sin draws us on to more and greater Thus He after One denyal proceeded to a Second and a Third and did not stick to strengthen them with false Oaths and horrid Curses And thus in Other cases when men have once let go their hold they are carried as it were down the stream and let themselves drive till at last they sink into the grossest Impieties This is the natural effect of sinful Acts that they quickly grow into Habits weaken and waste the Conscience harden men by Custom and by degrees destroy their very Principles But especially when they suffer themselves to do an ill thing for the escaping some present Inconvenience if then they feel their Danger continue or increase they imagine themselves under a necessity of growing bolder as they are more press'd And having gone too far to retreat with Honour or Safety endeavour to disengage themselves by more grievous and obstinate degrees of Sin There is not in the whole World a more abandoned Wretch than He that is forced to drudge on in a Course of Wickedness by the difficulty and the shame of retracting his former Errours No man knows what such an embroyled State will grow to or where the Man will stop That Principle which should have preserved him is given up and when the Reproaches of his own mind are broken through he lies at the mercy of every fresh Temptation and wants only opportunities of becoming every day worse and more profligate And This is very observable as in all other cases so particularly in the case of Lying which comes nearest to St. Peter's in my Text. How confidently men will stand in defence of Falshood and what pains they often take to gain Credit by repeating and confirming what they have said or done amiss and how quickly this settles into a habit of Falshood till they seem at last to have lost and laid aside all regard to Honesty and Truth the Checks of Conscience or the Vengeance of Almighty God And yet the Event at last is like that of St. Peter's Denials here to entangle themselves faster in the snare and the more they struggle to get quit of their Difficulties the more to aggravate their Sin and expose their Reputations So that after all the wisest and safest as well as the shortest Course is to stick fast to our Duty For Truth and Honesty will carry us through where all the Shifts and Shufflings of wicked Craft will forsake and betray us And it were well if Servants and Children and such as are under Authority or indeed Any who lie under the fears of danger or displeasure would observe this matter duly For besides the great Offence which lying Excuses are to Almighty God every Master or Person with whom we have to deal cannot but think the Fault and Provocation doubled by this means And no Man of Reason or common Sense can suppose himself secure of our Faithfulness to his Service or Interest if he discover in us a disposition upon every slight occasion to deal indirectly that we make no bones of sacrificing Truth to Respect and being unfaithful to the Witness within our own Breasts and our great Lord and Master in Heaven 4. Fourthly From hence we may be able to satisfy our selves of the Wisdom and Goodness of God in causing the Faults and Infirmities of his Saints to be recorded in Holy Scripture and the Use we ought to make of their Failings and Temptations Not to flatter our selves in any manner of Evil as if We might notwithstanding be dear and acceptable to God For these men were so upon the account of their Eminent Virtues and their as Eminent Repentance where they did amiss Otherwise the Threatning in Ezekiel had been their Portion Ezek. XVIII 24. All their former Righteousness should not have been mentioned in the Day of Account but in the trespass and the Sin which they have sinned in these they should have died But This was done for a seasoable Warning and to be an effectual Humiliation to all future Ages by letting us see that the most Perfect of Men are still but Men Subject to mighty Blemishes and Imperfections and that the highest and most purified State we can possibly arrive at in this World is no Security from Danger This should make us very tender how we judge and despise our Brethren Whose Faults how severely soever we may think fit to censure it is highly probable would be our own were Their Circumstances and Their Temptations Ours This also confutes the Imagination of Some who teach that They who have true Faith and true Grace can never fall from it An Opinion extreamly false and groundless For What is true Faith and true Grace if that Confession of St. Peter did not shew it which our Lord so highly commended declared he would build his Church upon and pronounced him Blessed for And What is Falling from such Grace and Faith if the obstinate repeated denying and abjuring of Christ be not These Instances therefore of such Worthies miscarrying so grosly ring in our Ears those Admonitions of St. Paul Rom. XI 20. 1 Cor. X. 12. Gal. VI. 1. Be not high-minded but fear and Let Him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall and If a man be overtaken in a Fault restore such a one with the Spirit of Meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted They forbid us to promise our selves Safety and Freedom from Temptation in
to let them know that all things were now ready the Provision brought in and nothing but Guests wanting That is The Apostles after our Saviour's Death made the Jews fresh and more pressing tenders of Salvation They acquainted them that the Oxen and Fatlings were killed that is the Son of God was crucified the true Paschal Lamb was slain and the Feast waited for them So that now the Master of the Entertainment had done His part and only waited for Their Acceptance and Appearance But neither was This Message any more successful than the former Some †Vers 5. thought Scorn of the Proffer as not worth their hearkening to Some again had engaged themselves in Affairs of another kind and would not permit their Worldly business to give way or allow them leisure for this Spiritual Entertainment And a Third sort * Vers 6. yet worse than both these received those gracious Messages with Rage and Spight flew upon the Servants that brought them and with a Malice as unreasonable as it was implacable abused and tormented and murdered them This was an Indignity so great an Obstinacy so affected and invincible that the King was provoked beyond all †Vers 7. Patience and resolved to take Vengeance on these disobedient and bloody men i. e. God gave up the Jews to utter Excision for their Perverseness and Persecutions He issued out his Commission to the Romans and by Them did not only slay those murderous Wretches but delivered up their City and Common-wealth to irretrievable Destruction But after he had done himself and his Honour Justice upon these base these bold Contemners of his Majesty and his Mercy it was not fit that all his bountiful Preparations should be defeated and lost And therefore ‖ Vers 8 9. the Servants are dismist once more with Orders to pick up all the Stragglers and Poor for such in effect were the vagabond Gentiles These received eagerly what the Former refused with disdain and * Vers 10. a vast promiscuous number came in so as to fill the Table and answer the largeness of the Provision Thus far the Purport of several other Parables reaches but This carries the Matter on yet farther And shews that the bare Coming in and accepting the Invitation is not sufficient unless the Dignity of the Person and of the Feast be consulted and Men come as so solemn an Entertainment requires And therefore †Vers 11 12. by the King 's coming in to take an account of the Guests and punishing the Man that wanted a Wedding Garment is represented that strict and particular Examination which shall pass upon every Christian at the last Day That Then the professing the same Faith being Members of the same visible Church receiving the same Sacraments and enjoying the same Privileges will profit Men nothing if their Souls in the mean while be either foul or naked stained with Evil Works or not adorned with good ones That however Some may pass upon their Brethren and not be distinguisht in a Crowd of Believers yet there will come a time of stricter search and they must be brought before a more discerning Eye One that will separate not only between Infidels and Believers those that come and those that refuse but even of them that do come between the Hypocrites and real Good Men. And though but One such be mentioned here yet that One is the common Representative of all disorderly and careless of all dissembling and formal Livers the Type of Their Wickedness and of Their Doom Upon the whole of which Matter the Refusals of them who would not come and the Neglect and Miscarriage of Him that did come but came not duly qualified our Blessed Lord passes this Reflection in the words now read that Many are called but few are chosen So that any Man who considers at all the Circumstances of this Case may very easily resolve himself who in this Parable are the Called and who the Chosen of God All to whom his Servants are sent whether they receive his Invitations or no And All who do receive them though the gracious End of those Messages be not fully attained All that are bidden and do not come and all that come and are thrust out again for not coming as they ought These are the Called and these are Many But those that thankfully embrace the good Proffers of Salvation and come when they are called that come with Reverence and Decency clothed with the Wedding Garment the white Robe of Righteousness and Innocence that is who take care to * Ephes IV. 1. walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called as St. Paul expresses it These and These only are the Chosen and They it seems are but Few In Comparison God knows but very Few Concerning this Notion then and Who are to be ranked under each of these Divisions the Controversy is not very considerable But what should be the Cause of such Disparity in their numbers mighty Doubts and Disputes have risen Whence it is that so many of the Called are not yet of the Chosen whether from Him who calls but never intends to chuse all that he calls or whether from Them who are Called but are not fit or do not qualify themselves for being Chosen Which is as much as to say whether the Damnation of Mens Souls ought to lie at God's or their own Door whether His Election be Absolute and Arbitrary and Unconditional so that Some shall not be chosen though they would never so fain Or whether it proceed upon Terms of Equity and such Justice as we can judge of so that no Man is rejected without his own Fault and even those who are not chosen might have been if they had not been wanting to themselves This is an Enquiry of great Consequence And to Them who are unprepossest and will submit to consider the thing fairly this Parable I take it is capable of giving great Satisfaction For it shews us plainly what the King did and what his Subjects did not do Why many of those who were called did not come at all and Why of those that did come all were not chosen that is not approved and admitted to partake of the Feast The design of which is to hint at the Reasons of the Gospel's being unsuccessful in any respect Either to Them that are without or to Them that are within and under its Dispensation And what hinders that Some to whom it is preached do not believe and that some Believers are yet not saved by that Belief For the Former sort are represented by the Jews and the Latter by the person without a wedding garment And to satisfy this Argument I shall handle each of the Cases distinctly and consider what Circumstances the Parable takes notice of in Either of them both Those which relate to the Person calling and choosing and those which concern the Persons called but not chosen First We are to examine the Case of the Jews set
nor Leisure for nice Enquiries believe it as firmly and know it as assuredly as They. In like manner if there be certain Marks by which a Man born of the Spirit is evidently discerned and distinguished from another that is not so born We may from those Marks conclude that such a Man is Regenerate though we could not positively determine from whence this Principle of new Life took its rise Or if we knew as know we may that it could be owing to no other Cause but the Operations of the Holy Ghost we may then where such Marks appear be confident that the sanctifying Operations of the Holy Ghost have passed upon that Person though neither We who were Standers-by nor perhaps the Man himself was conscious of the Manner in which they were begun and carried on in his mind 2. Secondly A thing may be sufficiently perceivable One way which is not at all so in another For in all Objects of Knowledge there is something of Agreement and Proportion betwixt that Object and the Organ or Faculty that is contrived to apprehend it and upon this mutual Suitableness depends the Perception Thus it is with our Bodily Senses Each of them have parts fitted for receiving such Impressions as are proper to their purpose and the Qualities of Bodies are not applied to All these parts indifferently but severally to Each as Each is by Nature accommodated for the entertaining and making a Report of them to the Soul Thus we do not hear Colours nor see Perfumes nor smell Sounds and yet we are as fully satisfied that there are Sounds though we hear them only as if we saw and smelt them too To the same purpose it is that our Saviour argues in the Text. A Man sees not either any Shape or any Motion of the Wind it self All that he knows of this kind is only the motion of other Bodies agitated by it And yet he makes no difficulty to allow that it blows when he hears the sound of it because the Wind is not an Object proportioned to the Eye but the noise of it is to the Ear and therefore he receives the Testimony of that Sense which has a Competent Knowledge without troubling himself that this is not confirmed by the other Senses which are incapable of knowing any thing in the matter This is the force of the Allusion and that which by Parity of Reason arises from it is this That the Case is the same between the Intellectual Faculties and the Sensitive in general with that betwixt One Sense and Another And if we acknowledge a thing 's Reality when we hear the Sound but see no Shape of it because it is in Nature fitted to affect our Hearing but not our Sight There is the same Reason why we should assent to what our Understanding can apprehend though our Senses do not if it be of that kind which may give evidence to the mind and make it self understood though it cannot make it self seen or heard or felt by us Now a Spirit cannot work upon the outward Organs which can never be moved by any other Impressions than those of Body and Matter But if by help of Meditation by laying and comparing things together and considering the Consequences that naturally result from them we find that such a thing there is and such Footsteps there are of its Working we then may and ought to rest satisfied both of the Existence and the Operation of that Spirit Because we have the Evidence proper for the Condition of the thing such as it is capable of And the Intellectual Faculties of the Mind were intended by God for Helps and Instruments of attaining Knowledge no less than the Sensitive Organs of the Body Different Objects require different Perceptions and * 1 Cor. XII St. Paul hath observed it as an Ornament and Excellence rather than any Imperfection of Humane Nature that the several Parts have their several Offices allotted to them 3. Thirdly It is implyed by this Similitude that some things are capable of being known by the Essects which we cannot come to the Knowledge of any other way No man need go far for Proof of This. Intùs habes quod poscis We all are sure that we carry somewhat about us which we call a Soul Somewhat that thinks and deliberates and chuses that imagines and judges and remembers that fears and hopes and loves and hates and desires and refuses and grieves and rejoyces according to the different Apprehensions we receive of the Objects about which we are conversant This we know from our own Feeling and Experience And yet the Wisest of us all do not know the time when or the manner how this Soul was created and united to our Bodies nor a Thousand Difficulties more which might be started but yet stagger not any reasonable Man's assent because he is satisfied that these Effects must have a Cause adequate to them So likewise Our Saviour takes for granted that the noise and Sound was Proof sufficient that the Wind blows the shakings and rattlings of Boughs the raising Storms at Sea the tearing up Trees and rocking of Houses All convince us that the Air is in a Violent Agitation and yet we are not privy to the first beginnings of it We cannot tell what raised this mighty Ferment nor where it set out nor how far it intends nor what becomes of it when it ceases The Mariners are sure they are carried up to the Heaven and down again to the deep they see the Waves boil and foam like a Pot and feel their Vessel stagger like a drunken Man and they doubt not to conclude the Wind is the doer of it without ever disputing how it was able to disturb the face of the Deep or blow up the Waters into such Rage and Tumult And it is here urged to Nicodemus as a thing equally agreeable to Reason that men should submit to the Belief of a Second Birth if the Effects of that Birth appear though the Cause and Progress of it do not For instance St. John says He * 1 John III. 9 10. that doth Righteousness is born of God in this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil St. Paul acquaints us That * Gal. V. 6. VI. 15. the New Creature is Faith which worketh by Love †Gal. V. 22. that the Fruits of the Spirit are Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness and Temperance We are likewise told ‖ Phil. II. 13. That it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Now from hence it follows most undeniably that let Moral Duties be never so much disparaged as mean and low and Legal Yet wheresoever we see any Man living Righteously where we find such a mixture of Faith and Charity and all that bright Constellation of Virtues mentioned just now we may and ought to pronounce that Man born of the Spirit For though the Tree be
not visible to us yet the Fruits are and since those Practices are the Genuine Product of the Influences of the Spirit and cannot be produced from any other Principle to attribute them to Nature or to any thing besides is in effect to say that Grapes may be gathered of Thorns and Figs of Thistles For it is this good Tree alone that can bring forth those good Fruits And if by the Fruits it were not sufficiently to be known our Saviour would never have confirmed nor the Common Sense of Mankind have agreed in making Good and Evil Actions an infallible Character whereby to distinguish the Spirits and Principles from whence they flow And a necessary Consequence of this Particular is That if such Good Practices where they are conspicuous declare that they are wrought by the Spirit and that God hath renewed that Man and did and does still act and dwell in him Then it is no less certain that where the Contrary Vices and Dispositions are predominant those men are not Regenerate nor does the Spirit of God work in them Let no man deceive you says the Apostle * 1 John III. 10. whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother Men may delude themselves and their ignorant Followers with boasting pretences they may have the Impiety even to sanctify their blackest Crimes by fathering them upon Divine Impulse and Inspiration But while we see them turbulent and factious proud and disobedient censorious and bitter unjust and uncharitable can we think that God is the Author of or dwells with these froward Dispositions It were a Contradiction to all Religion to suppose so and however they may be exalted by their own vain Imaginations yet alas they know not themselves nor what Spirit they are of 4. There is yet a Fourth Consideration easy to be gathered from the Similitude before us which is That when once we know all that is needful for our purpose we ought to make the best Improvement of that and not raise Mists and perplex our Minds and neglect our Duty by indulging unprofitable Enquiries after what we cannot or need not know The End of all Knowledge whether Natural or Revealed is not Curiosity but Use And while we want no degree that may be serviceable it is not only Folly but Impiety to dwell upon Niceties and mere Speculations Let us put the Case that a Pilot or a Husbandman were admitted into the dark Caverns of the Earth and saw Vapours there engender into Winds What Benefit would Humane Life receive from any Intelligence he could bring from thence Could such a one swell his Sails or make more way with a Convenient Gale Could he bid the Tempests be still or smooth the face of the Deep for being let into this Secret Could the Farmer secure his Fruits from a Blast any more than he can now The same Methods would still obtain in each Profession and the same degrees of Efficacy they would have Why should it not be so in Religion too The Causes when seen would be the same they are now Our Knowledge could not add new Force and Vigour but they must act neither more nor less than they do unseen Could we distinctly feel and see and make Reflections upon our Second Birth this would profit us no more the want of it can prejudice us no more than it does in the Natural The Infant is perfectly in the dark while he is in the Womb He knows not what is doing when the Embryo is formed and nourished there He comes to Maturity and struggles for Freedom and forces his Passage into the World without being sensible why or how this is done When he arrives at the use of Reason he hath not the least Remembrance of this kind yet Nature keeps her Course and performs her Charge faithfully and with great Exactness and All he can collect is that he is born a Man And This he is infallibly sure of because he lives and moves and acts as a Man In like manner the Children of God know they are born of Him because they govern themselves by a Spiritual and Divine Principle And this they do not one whit the less notwithstanding they cannot enter into the Causes and Methods of this Birth The Efficient Cause they know was the Spirit and could be none else and the Dignity of His Person is the Consideration which must deterr them from resisting his Motions and doing despight to his Grace and quenching that Life he hath given them They can show all the Signs of such a Birth the meek and Dove-like Disposition the pious and Heavenly Conversation which none but They who are of God can have And the Advantages at last will be the same too For as the Husbandman gathers in that Corn which though of his own sowing comes up he knows not how so they who sow to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life Everlasting Galat. VI. 8. though they understand not all the mysterious ways by which they were enabled to grow in Grace and put forth the precious fruits of righteousness Well were it if these few Considerations were duly weighed and discreetly observed They would restrain that bold and busy temper that insolent licentious arguing which under colour of Reason and free Thinking brings holy Mysteries into Contempt and shipwracks numbers of unwary Souls Those divine Truths above our Comprehension would then be received with Meekness or at least disputed with Modesty For though we cannot fathom this Abyss yet it comes to us confirmed with proper Testimonies and such as How can these things be does by no means confute or weaken This Nicodemus urged to Christ against a Spiritual and Second Birth and yet our Lord did not allow the Objection Nay even this Birth it self hath suffered too and been ill represented by daring Attempts of Men who have undertaken to shew the manner of it and speak very positively where God was silent In Opposition to whose dangerous Errors I shall now come to my II. Second Head and from the Application will consider how far the Properties of the Wind mentioned in this Similitude will give us any just ground to judge of the Holy Spirit 's workings upon the minds of men The Application is contained in the last Clause of the Verse So is every one that is born of the Spirit That is The work of Regeneration carries great Resemblance to what is observed of the Wind for as There we gather its Blowing from the Sound and other Effects though we do not see the Blast nor its Rise and Passage nor are acquainted with the Cause that sets it on So may a Child of God know he is such by the Effects and Characters of that Relation though he do not see the Spirit that renews him though the Operations by which he is renewed be such as fall not under the Observation of his outward Senses nor is perhaps his own mind conscious to many things by