are said to learn the Truth as it is in Jesus Eph. 4. 21. It is in Jesus originally and from really and from him it is communicated unto us by the Word We are thereby taught and do learn it for thereby as the Apostle proceeds we are renued in the Spirit of our mind and do put on the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness ver 23 24. First the Truth is in Jesus then it is expressed in the Word this Word learned and believed becomes Grace in the heart every way answering unto the Lord Christ his Image from whom this transforming Truth did thus proceed Nay this is carried by the Apostle yet higher namely unto God the Father himself whose Image Christ is and Believers his through the Word 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord whereunto add Chap. 4. 6. God who commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The first pattern or example of all Truth and Holiness is God himself hereof Christ is the Image ver 4. Christ is the Image of God The brightness of his glory and the express Image of his person Heb. 1. 3. The Image of the invisible God Col. 1. 15. Hence we are said to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ because he being his Image the Love Grace and Truth of the Father are represented and made conspicuous in him For we are said to behold it in his face because of the open and illustrious manifestation of the glory of God in him And how do we behold this glory in a Glass as in a glass that is in the Gospel which hath the Image and likeness of Christ who is the Image of God reflected upon it and communicated unto it So have we traced Truth and Grace from the Person of the Father unto the Son as Mediator and thence transfused into the Word In the Father it is Essentially in Jesus Christ originally and exemplarily and in the Word as in a transcript or Copy But doth it abide there No God by the Word of the Gospel shines into our hearts Chap. 4 6. He irradiates our minds with a saving light into it and apprehension of it And what thence ensues the soul of a believer is changed into the same Image by the effectual working of the Holy Ghost Chap. 3. 18. that is the likeness of Christ implanted on the Word is impressed on the soul it self whereby it is renewed into the Image of God whereunto it was at first created This brings all into a perfect Harmony There is not where Gospel Truth is effectually received and experienced in the soul only a consonancy meerly between the soul and the Word but between the soul and Christ by the Word and the soul and God by Christ. And this gives assured establishment unto the soul in the things that it doth believe Divine Truth so conveyed unto us is firm stable and immoveable And we can say of it in a spiritual sense that which we have heard that which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life we know to be true Yea a Believer is a Testimony to the certainty of truth in what he is much beyond what he is in all that he saith Words may be pretended Real effects have their Testimony inseparably annexed unto them 3. Hence it appears that there must needs be great Assurance of those Truths which are thus received and believed For hereby are the senses exercised to discern good and evil Heb. 15. 14. Where there is a spiritual sense of Truth of the Good and Evil that is in Doctrines from an inward experience of what is so good and from thence an Aversation unto the contrary and this obtained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of an habit or an habitual frame of heart there is strength there is stedfasiness and Assurance This is the teaching of the Unction which will not which cannot deceive Hence many of old and of late that could not dispute could yet dye for the truth He that came to another and went about to prove by Sophistical reasonings that there was no such thing as motion had only this return from him who either was not able to answer his cavilling or unwilling to put himself to trouble about it he arose and walking up and down gave him a real confutation of his Sophystrie It is so in this case when a soul hath a real experience of the Grace of God of the Pardon of sins of the Vertue and Efficacy of the death of Christ of Justification by his blood and peace with God by believing let men or Devils or Angels from Heaven oppose these things if it cannot answer their Sophisms yet he can rise up and walk he can with all holy confidence and Assurance oppose his own satisfying experience unto all their arguings and suggestions A man will not be disputed out of what he sees and feels And a Believer will abide as firmly by his spiritual sense as any man can by his natural This is the meaning of that Prayer of the Apostle Col. 2. 2. That your hearts might be comforted being knit together in love unto all riches of the full Assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mysterie of God and of the Father and of Christ. Understanding in the mysteries of the Gospel they had but he prayes that by a farther experience of it they might come to the Assurance of understanding To be true is the property of the Doctrine it self to be certain or assured is the property of our minds Now this experience doth so unite the mind and truth that we say such a Truth is most certain whereas certainty is indeed the property of our minds or their knowledge and not of the truth known It is certain unto us that is we have an assured knowledge of it by the Experience we have of it This is the Assurance of Understanding here mentioned And he further prayes that we may come to the Riches of this Assurance that is to an abundant plentiful Assurance And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the acknowledgement of the Mysterie of God owning it from a sense and experience of its excellency and worth And this is in the Nature of all Gospel Truths they are fitted and suited to be experienced by a believing soul. There is nothing in them so sublime and high nothing so mysterious nothing so seemingly low and outwardly contemptible but that a gracious soul hath experience of an Excellency Reality Power and Efficacy in it all For instance look on that which concerns the Order and Worship of the Gospel This seems to many to be a meer
proceed at all in the farther opening of the words they having all of them respect unto the Proposition first laid down I shall explain and confirm the truth contained in it that so it may be understood what we say and whereof we do affirm in the whole process of our Discourse It is a sad Truth that we have proposed unto consideration He that hears it ought to tremble in himself that he may rest in the day of trouble It speaks out the Apostles advice Rom. 11. 20. Be not high minded but fear and that also 1 Cor. 10. 12. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall When Peter had learned this truth by woful experience after all his boldness and forwardness he gives this Councel to all Saints that they would pass the time of their sojourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1. 14. Knowing how near in our greatest peace and serenity evil and danger may lye at the door Some few instances of the many that are left on record wherein this Truth is exemplified may be mentioned Gen. 6. 9. Noah was a just man perfect in his Generation and Noah walked with God He did so a long season and that in an evil time amidst all sorts of Temptations When all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth ver 12. This put an eminency upon his obedience and doubtless rendred the Communion which he had with God in walking before him most sweet and precious to him He was a gracious soul upon the redoubled Testimony of God himself But we know what befell this holy Person He that shall read the story that is recorded of him Gen. 9. 21. will easily grant that he was brought into inextricable distress on the account of sin His own drunkenness ver 21. with the consequent of it gives scandal unto and provokes the unnatural lust of his Son v. 22. and this leads him to the devoting of that Son and his Posterity unto Destruction v. 24 25. all which joyned with the sense of Gods just indignation from whom he had newly received that tremendously miraculous deliverance must needs overwhelm him with sorrow and anxiety of Spirit The matter is more clear in David Under the Old Testament none loved God more than he none was loved of God more than he The Paths of Faith and Love wherein he walked are unto the most of us like the way of an Eagle in the Air too high and hard for us Yet to this very day do the cryes of this Man after Gods own heart sound in our Ears Sometimes he complains of broken bones sometimes of drowning depths sometimes of waves and water-spouts sometimes of wounds and diseases sometimes of Wrath and the sorrows of Hell every where of his sins the burden and trouble of them Some of the occasions of his Depths Darkness Intanglements and Distresses we all know As no man had more Grace than he so none is a greater instance of the power of sin and the effects of its guilt upon the conscience than he But Instances of this kind are obvious and occurr to the thoughts of all so that they need not be repeated I shall then shew First What in particular is intended by the depths and intanglements on the account of sin whereinto gracious souls after much Communion with God may be cast Secondly Whence it comes to pass that so they may be and that oftentimes so they are First For the First some or all of these things following do concurr to the Depths here complained of First Loss of the wonted sense of the Love of God which the soul did formerly enjoy There is a twofold sense of the Love of God whereof Believers in this world may be made partakers There is the transient affecting of the heart by the Holy Ghost with ravishing unspeakable joyes in apprehension of Gods Love and our Relation unto him in Christ. This or the immediate effect of it is called joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1. 8. The Holy Ghost shining into the heart with a clear evidence of the souls interest in all Gospel Mercies causeth it to leap for joy to exult and triumph in the Lord as being for a season carried above all sense and thought of sin self temptation or trouble But as God gives the bread of his House unto all his Children so these dainties and high Cordials he reserveth only for the seasons and Persons wherein and to whom he knows them to be needful and useful Believers may be without this sense of Love and yet be in no depths A man may be strong and healthy who hath wholsom food though he never drink Spirits and Cordials Again There is an abiding dwelling sense of Gods Love upon the hearts of the most of those of whom we speak who have had long communion with God consisting in a prevailing Gospel perswasion that they are accepted with God in Christ. Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God I call it a prevailing perswasion denoting both the opposition that is made unto it by Satan and unbelief and its efficacy in the conquest thereof This is the root from whence all that peace and ordinary consolation which Believers in this world are made partakers of do spring and grow This is that which quickens and enlivens them unto Duty Psal. 116. 12 13. and is the salt that renders their Sacrifices and Performances savoury to God and refreshing to themselves This supports them under their tryals gives them peace hope and comfort in Life and Death Psal. 23. 4. Though I walk in the valley of the shaddow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me A sense of Gods Presence in Love is sufficient to rebuke all anxiety and fears in the worst and most dreadful condition And not only so but to give in the midst of them solid Consolation and Joy So the Prophet expresseth it Hab. 3. 17 18. Although the Fig-tree shall not blessom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flocks shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation And this is that sense of Love which the choicest Believers may lose on the account of sin This is one step into their depths They shall not retain any such Gospel apprehension of it as that it should give them rest peace or consolation that it should influence their souls with delight in Duty or supportment in tryal And the Nature hereof will be afterwards more fully explained Secondly Perplexed thoughtfulness about their great and wretched unkindness towards God are another part of the Depths of sin-intangled souls So David complains Psal. 77. 3. I remembred God saith he and was troubled How comes the Remembrance of God to be unto him a matter of trouble in other Places he
yet he must have done as we have shewed had he not designed to manifest and exercise forgiveness towards sinners Wherefore to confirm our faith from hence let us make a little search into these things in some particular enquiries 1. Seeing the Son of God dyed in that way and manner that he did according to the determinate Counsel and Will of God wherefore did he do so and what aimed he at therein Answ. It is plain that he dyed for our sins Rom. 4. 25. that is to make reconciliation for the sins of his people Heb. 2. 17 18. This Moses and the Prophets this the whole Scripture testifieth unto and without a supposal of it not one word of it can be aright believed Nor can we yield any due Obedience unto God without it 2. What then did God do unto him What was in transaction between God as the Judge of all and him that was the Mediator of the Church Answ. God indeed laid on him the iniquities of us all Isa. 53. 6. all the sins of all the Elect yea he made him a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. And making him a sin offering or an offering for sin he condemned sin in the flesh Rom. 8 3. 2 Cor. 5. 21. So that all that which the Justice or Law of God had to require about the punishment due unto sin was all laid and executed on him 3. What then did Christ do in his death What did he aim at and design What was his intention in submitting unto and undergoing the Will of God in these things Answ. He bare our sins in his own body upon the Tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. He took our sins upon him undertook to answer for them to pay our debts to make an end of the difference about them between God and sinners Dan. 9. 24. His aim undoubtedly was by all that he underwent and suffered so to make Attonement for sin as that no more could on that account be expected 4. Had God any more to require of sinners on the account of sin that his Justice might be satisfied his Holiness vindicated his Glory exalted his Honour be repaired than what he charged on Christ Did he lay somewhat of the penalty due to sin on him execute some part of the curse of the Law against him and yet reserve some wrath for sinners themselves Answ. No doubtless He came to do the whole Will of God Heb. 10. 7 8. And God spared him not any thing that in his holy will he had appointed to be done unto sin Rom. 8. 32. He would never have so dealt with his Son to have made an half work of it nor is the work of making satisfaction for sin such as that any the least part of it should ever be undertaken by another Nothing is more injurious or blasphemous against God and Christ than the foolish imagination among the Papists of works satisfactory for the punishment due to sin or any part of it As also is their Purgatory pains to expiate any remaining guilt after this life This work of making satisfaction for sin is such as no creature in Heaven or Earth can put forth an hand unto It was wholly committed to the Son of God who alone was able to undertake it and who hath perfectly accomplished it So that God now sayes fury is not in me he that will lay hold on my strength that he may have peace he shall have peace Isa. 21. 4. 5. What then became of the Lord Christ in his undertaking Did he go through with it or did he faint under it Did he only testifie his Love and shew his good will for our deliverance or did also effectually pursue it and not faint until he had made a way for the exercise of forgiveness Answ. It was not possible that he should be detained by the pains of death Acts 2. 24. He knew before hand that he should be carried through his work that he should not be forsaken in it nor saint under it Isa. 50. 6 7 8. And God hath given this unquestionable evidence of his discharge of the debt of sin to the utmost in that he was acquitted from the whole account when he was raised from the dead For he that is given up to prison upon the sentence of the Law for the debt of sin shall not be freed untill he have paid the utmost farthing This therefore he manifested himself to have done by his Resurrection from the dead 6. What then is now become of him Where is he and what doth he Hath he so done his work and laid it aside or doth he still continue to carry it on until it be brought unto its perfection Answ. It is true he was dead but he is alive and lives for ever and hath told us that because he liveth we shall live also And that because this is the end of his mediatory life in Heaven he lives for ever to make Intercession for us Heb. 7. 26 27. And to this end that the forgiveness of sin which he hath procured for us may be communicated unto us that we might be made partakers of it and live for ever What ground is left of questioning the Truth in hand What link of this Chain can unbelief break in or upon If men resolve notwithstanding all this Evidence and Assurance that is tendred unto them thereof that they will not yet believe that there is forgiveness with God or will not be encouraged to attempt the securing of it unto themselves or else despise it as a thing not worth the looking after It is enough for them that declare it that preach these things that they are a sweet savour unto God in them that perish as well as in them that are saved And I bless God that I have had this Opportunity to bear Testimony to the Grace of God in Christ which if it be not received it is because the God of this world hath blinded the eyes of men that the light of the Gospel of the Glory of God should not shine into their minds But Christ will be glorified in them that believe on these principles and foundations XIII Another Evidence of the same Truth may be taken from hence that God requires forgiveness in us that we should forgive one another and therefore doubtless there is forgiveness with him for us The sense of this Consideration unto our present purpose will be manifest in the ensuing Observations First It is certain that God hath required this of us The Testimonies hereof are many and known so that they need not particularly to be repeated or insisted on See Luke 17. 3 4. Ephes. 4. 32. Matth. 18 24. unto the end Only there are some things that put a singular Emphasis upon this Command manifesting the great importance of this duty in us which may be marked As 1. That our Saviour requires us to carry a sense of our Integrity and Sincerity in the discharge of this duty along with us in our Addresses unto God in
may he not do what he will with his own Shall we call him unto an account Is not what he doth good and holy because he doth it do any repining thoughts against the works of God arise in our hearts are any Complaints ready to break out of our mouths let us lay our hands on our hearts and our mouths in the dust with thoughts of his Greatness and absolute Soveraignty and it will work our whole souls into a better frame And this extends it self unto the manners Times and seasons of all things whatever As in earthly things If God will bring a dreadful Judgement of fire upon a people a Nation ah why must it be London If on London why so terrible raging and unconquerable Why the City not the Suburbs Why my house not my neighbours Why had such one help and I none all these things are wholly to be referred to Gods Soveraign pleasure There alone can the soul of Man find rest and peace It is so in spiritual dispensations also Thus Aaron upon the suddain death of his two eldest Sons being minded by Moses of Gods Soverainty and Holiness immediatly held his peace or quietly humbled himself under his mighty hand Levit. 10. 3 4. And David when things were brought into extream confusion by the Rebellion of Absolom followed by the Ungodly multitude of the whole Nation relinquisheth all other Arguments and Pleas and le ts goe complaints in a resignation of himself and all his Concernments unto the absolute pleasure of God 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. And this in all our extremities must we bring our souls unto before we can attain any rest or peace or the least comfortable perswasion that we may not yet fall under greater severities in the just Indignation of God against us 2. The Wisdom of God is also to be Considered and submitted unto Job 9. 4. He is wise in heart who hath hardened himself against him and prospered This the Prophet joyns with his Greatness and Soveraignty Isa. 40. 12 13 14. There is no searching of his understanding v. 28. And the Apostle winds up all his Considerations of the works of God in an holy Admiration of his Knowledge and Wisdom whence his Judgement becomes unsearchable and his wayes past finding out Rom. 11. 33 34. He seeth and knoweth all things in all their Causes Effects consequences and circumstances in their utmost reach and tendency in their correspondencies one unto another and suitableness unto his own Glory and so alone judgeth aright of all things The wisest of men as David speaks walk in a shade We see little we know little and that but of a very few things and in an imperfect manner and that of their present appearances abstracted from their Issues Successes Ends and Relations unto other things And if we would be further wise in the works of God we shall be found to be like the wild Asses Colt What is good for us or the Church of God what is evil to it or us we know not at all but all things are open and naked unto God The day will come indeed wherein we shall have such a prospect of the works of God see one thing so set against another as to find Goodness Beauty and Order in them all that they were all done in number weight and measure that nothing could have been otherwise without an abridgement of his glory and disadvantage of them that believe in him But for the present all our wisdom consists in referring all unto him He who doth these things is infinitely wise he knows what he doth and why and what will be the end of all We are apt it may be to think that at such seasons all things will go to wrack with our selves with the Church or with the whole world how can this breach be repaired this loss made up this ruine recovered peace is gone trade is gone our substance is gone the Church is gone all is gone confusion and utter desolation lye at the door But if a man who is unskilled and unexperienced should be at Sea it may be every time the vessel wherein he is seems to decline on either side he would be apt to conceive they should be all cast away but yet if he be not childishly timerous when the Master shall tell him that there is no danger bid him trust to his skill and it shall be well with him it will yield quietness and satisfaction We are indeed in a storm the whole earth seems to reel and stagger like à drunken man but yet our souls may rest in the infinite skill and wisdom of the great Pilot of the whole Creation who stears all things according to the Counsel of his Will His works are manifold in Wisdom hath he made all these things Psal. 104. 24. And in the same wisdom doth he dispose of them All these things come forth from the Lord of Hosts who is wonderfully in counsel and excellent in working Isa. 28. 29. What is good meet usefull for us for ours for the Churches for the City for the Land of our Nativity he knows and of Creatures not one This infinite Wisdom of God also are we therefore to resign and submit our selves unto His hand in all his works is guided by Infinite Wisdom In thoughts thereof in humbling our selves thereunto shall we find rest and peace and this in all our pressures will work us to a waiting for him 3. The Righteousness of God is also to be considered in this matter That name in the Scripture is used to denote many Excellencies of God all which are reducible unto the infinite Rectitude of his Nature I intend that at present which is called Justitia Regiminis his Righteousness in Rule or Government This is remembred by Abraham Gen. 18. 25. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right And by the Apostle Is God unjust who taketh vengeance God forbid This our souls are to own in all the works of God They are all righteous all his who will do no iniquity whose Throne is established in Judgement However they may be dreadfull grievous and seem severe yet they are all righteous It is true he will sometimes rise up and do strange acts strange works Isa. 28. 21. Such as he will not do often nor ordinarily such as shall fill the world with dread and amazement He will answer his people in terrible things But yet all shall be in Righteousness And to complain of that which is righteous to repine against it is the highest unrighteousness that may be Faith then fixing the soul on the Righteousness of God is an effectual means to humble it under his mighty hand And to help us herein we may consider 1. That God judgeth not as man judgeth We judge by the seeing of the Eye and hearing of the Ear according to outward appearances and evidences But God searcheth the heart We judge upon what is between man and man God principally upon what is between
unto Christ as our head because it consists in a vital effectual influence from him and his fulness And this kind of Relation unto Christ all Grace that is or may be in unregenerate men is incapable of Thirdly The Grace of Regeneration and the fruits of it are administred in and by the Covenant This is the promise of the Covenant That God will write his Law in our hearts and put his fear in our inward parts that we shall not depart from him Jer. 32. This is that Grace whereof we speak whatever it be or of what kind soever It is bestowed on none but those who are taken into Covenant with God for unto them alone it is promised and by virtue thereof is it wrought in and upon their souls Now all Unregenerate men are strangers from the Covenant and are not made partakers of that Grace which is peculiarly and only promised thereby and exhibited therein Fourthly the least spark of saving Regenerating Grace is wrought in the soul by the Holy Ghost as given unto men to dwell in them and to abide with them He is the water given by Jesus Christ unto Believers which is in them a well of water springing up to everlasting life John 4. 14. First they receive the water the spring it self that is the Holy Spirit and from thence living waters do arise up in them they are wrought effected produced by the Spirit which is given unto them Now although the common Gifts and Graces of men Unregenerate are effects of the power of the Holy Ghost wrought in them and bestowed on them as are all other works of Gods Providence yet it doth not work in them as received by them to dwell in them and abide with them as a Never-failing spring of spiritual life For so our Saviour sayes expresly that the World or Unbelievers do not know the Spirit nor can receive him or have him abiding in them All which in a contradistinction unto all Unregenerate persons are affirmed of all them that do believe Fifthly The least of saving Grace such as is peculiar unto them that are Regenerate is Spirit Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Whatever it is that is so born it is Spirit it hath a spiritual being and it is not educible by any means out of the principles of Nature So it is said to be a new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. Be it never so little or so great however it may differ in degrees in one and in another yet the nature of it is the same in all It is a new Creature As the least Worm of the Earth in the order of the old Creation is no less a creature than the Sun yea or the most glorious Angel in Heaven So in the order of the new Creation the least spark or dram of true grace that is from the sanctifying Spirit is a new Creature no less than the highest Faith or Love that ever were in the chiefest of the Apostles Now that which is Spirit and that which is not Spirit that which hath a new spiritual being and that which hath none whatever appearance of agreement there may be among them do yet differ specifically from one another And thus it is with the saving Grace that is in a Regenerate and those common Graces that are in others which are not so So that as these are divers States so they are eminently different and distinct the one from the other and this answers the second thing laid down in the Objections taken from the Uncertainty of these States and of Regeneration it self and the real difference of it from the contrary State which is exclusive of an interest in forgiveness Thirdly This is laid down in the Enquiry whether this State may be known unto him who is really partaker of it or translated into it or unto others that may be concerned therein to which I say the difference that is between these two States and the constitutive causes of them as it is real so it is discernable It may be known by themselves who are in those states and others It may be known who are born of God and who are yet Children of the Devil who are quickned by Christ and who are yet dead in Trespasses and Sin But here also Observe 1. That I do not say This is alwayes known to the persons themselves concerned in this distribution Many cry peace peace when suddain destruction is at hand These either think themselves regenerate when they are not or else wilfully despise the consideration of what is required in them that they may have peace and so delude their own souls unto their ruine And many that are truly born of God yet know it not They may for a season walk in darkness and have no light Nor 2. That this is alwayes known to others It is not known unto Unregenerate men in respect of them that are so For they know not really and substantially what it is to be so Natural men perceive not the things of God that is spiritually in their own light and nature 2 Cor. 2. And as they cannot aright discern the things which put men into that condition for they are foolishness unto them so they cannot Judge aright of their persons in whom they are And if they do at any time Judge aright nationally concerning any things or Persons Yet they do not Judge so upon right grounds nor with any Evidence in or unto themselves of what they do Judge Wherefore Generally they Judge amiss of such persons And because they make profession of somewhat which they find not in themselves they Judge them Hypocrites and false pretenders unto what is not For those things which evince their Union with Christ and which evidence their being born of God they savour them not nor can receive them Nor is this alwayes known unto or discerned by them that are Regenerate They may sometime with Peter think a Symon Magus to be a true believer or with Eli an Hannah to be a daughter of Belial Many Hypocrites are so set forth with gifts common Graces Light and profession that they pass amongst all believers for such as are born of God And many poor Saints may be so disguised under Darkness Temptation Sin as to be looked on as strangers from that family whereunto indeed they do belong The Judgement of man may fail but the Judgement of God is according unto Righteousness wherefore 3. This is that we say it may be known in the Sedulous use of means appointed for that end to a man's self and others which of the Conditions mentioned he doth belong unto that is whether he be regenerate or no so far as his or their concernment lies therein This I say may be known and that infallibly and assuredly with reference unto any duty wherein from hence we are concerned The discharge of some duties in our selves and toward others depends on this knowledge and therefore we may attain it so far
as it is necessary for the discharge of such duties unto the Glory of God Now because it is not directly in our way yet having been mentioned I shall briefly in our passage touch upon the latter or what duties do depend upon our Judging of others to be regenerate and the way or Principles whereby such a Judgement may be made 1. There are many duties incumbent on us to be performed with and towards Professors which without admitting a Judgement to be made of their State and Condition cannot be performed in faith And in reference unto these duties alone it is that we are called to Judge the State of others For we are not giving Countenance unto a rash uncharitable censuring of mens spiritual conditions nor unto any Judging of any men any other than what our own duty towards them doth indispensably require Thus if we are to lay down our lives for the Brethren it is very meet we should so far know them so to be as that we may hazard our lives in faith when we are called thereunto We are also to Joyn with them in those Ordinances wherein we make a Solemn profession that we are members of the same body with them that we have the same head the same Spirit faith and love We must love them because they are begotten of God Children of our heavenly Father and therefore must on some good ground believe them so to be In a word the due performance of all principal mutual Gospel Duties to the Glory of God and our own Edification depends on this supposition that we may have such a satisfying perswasion concerning the spiritual condition of others as that from thence we may take our ayme in what we do 2. For the grounds hereof I shall mention one only which all others do lean upon This is pressed 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all Baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit They are all united unto and hold of one head For as are the members of the body natural under one head So is Christ mystical that is all believers under Christ their head And this Union they have by the inhabitation of the same quickning Spirit which is in Christ their head and by him they are brought all into the same spiritual state and frame they are made to drink into one and the same Spirit for this same Spirit produceth the same Effects in them all the same in kind though differing in degrees as the Apostle fully declares Ephes. 4. 3 4 5 6. And this Spirit is in them and not in the world John 16. And as this gives them a naturalness in their duties one towards another or in mutual caring for rejoycing and sorrowing with one another as members one of another 1 Cor. 12. 25 26. So it reveals and discovers them to each other so far as is necessary for the performance of the Duties mentioned in such a manner as becomes members of the same body There is on this account a spiritually natural Answering of one to another as face answereth face in the Water They can see and discern that in others whereof they have Experience in themselves they can tast and relish that in others which they feed upon in themselves and wherein the lives of their souls do consist the same spirit of life being in them they have the same spiritual tast and Savour And unless their pallats are distempered by Temptations or false opinions or prejudices they can in their Communion tast of that Spirit in each other which they are all made to drink into This gives them the same likeness and Image in the Inward man the same heavenly light in their minds the same affections and being thus prepared and enabled to Judge and discern of the State of each other in reference unto their mutual duties they have moreover the true Rule of the Word to Judge of all Spirits and Spiritual effects by And this is the ground of all that love without dissimulation and real Communion that is among the Saints of God in this World But here two Cautions must be allowed 1. That we would not Judge the State and Condition of any men in the world no further than we are called thereunto in a way of Duty and we are so called only with reference unto the Duties that we are to perform towards them What have we to do to Judge them that are without that is any one that we have not a call to consider in reference unto our own Duty Herein that great Rule takes place Judge not that ye be not Judged Let us leave all men the worst of men unless where evident duty requires other actings to the Judgement seat of God They are the Servants of another and they stand or fall unto their own Master There have been great miscarriages amongst us in this matter some have been ready to condemn all that go not along with them in every principle yea opinion or practice And every day slight occasions and provocations are made the grounds and reasons of severe censures But nothing is more contrary to the conduct of the meek and holy Spirit of Christ. This is our Rule are we called to Act towards any as Saints as living Members of the body of Christ and that in such Duties as we cannot perform in faith unless we are perswaded that so they are then are we on the grounds and by the wayes before mentioned to satisfie our selves in one another 2. Do we endeavour mutually to discern the condition of one another in reference unto such Ends Let us be sure to look unto and pursue those ends when we have attained our Satisfaction What these ends are hath been shewed It is that we may love them without dissimulation as members of the same mystical body with us that we may naturally take care of them and for them that we may delight sincerely in them that we may minister unto their wants Temporal and Spiritual that we may watch over them with pitty and compassion These and the like are the only ends for which we are at any time called to the consideration of the spiritual condition of one another if these be neglected the other is useless And here lyes a great aggravation of that neglect in that such a way is made for the avoidance of it Here lyes the life or death of all Church Society All Church Society and Relation is built on this supposition that the members of it are all Regenerate some lay this foundation in Baptism only professing that all that are baptized are Regenerate Others require a farther Satisfaction in the real work it self But all build on the same foundation that all Church members are to be Regenerate And