and no Man can ever be said to walk with GOD as Enoch was said to do to be translated and yet resist him But for the better purifying your self I shall now explain a little the Nature of the Grace of GOD to shew you how it leads you Of Grace and how you ought to follow it Know then that whatever may seem to us to GOD there is no Accident but he tries us in all things thus there is not an Example or Meditation that he will not make us Answer for as Talents nay whatever our Conscience recommends to us whether by Reading Hearing or Recollection t is all one he will charge it all to Account against us as well as the Grace that he imparts to us by a more immediate Revelation Nay and even in Revelations think you that Socrates was not a Prophet as well as Micha If his Order and Dispensation was not so Glorious yet his Divine Assistance was as just in its degree And this we may assuredly learn further that he that with Socrates will not cherish the beginnings of Grace and take it in every Opportunity that it offers it self shall never be able to improve himself in it or to grow in it to the perfection of Christianity How wonderful may I say therefore are GOD's Methods in bringing his Sons to Glory I might add did not our Darling Lusts ungratefully blind us we should be even ravished with GOD's Wisdom but our Eyes are gross and we have no Faith to see those ordinary Graces of GOD indeed the more extraordinary ones of Visions Miracles and Tongues we admire but will not hazard an extraordinary Tryal to attain them But to proceed 't is the same Grace that gave us our Philosophy of old and our Divinity of late as I have said the Dispensation now indeed is more glorious but the Spirit is the same nor indeed in this his more glorious Dispensation are his Gifts always the same 't is plain from 1 Cor. 12. that the Apostles had not all the same Powers one had Prophecy another had Tongues and a third Miracles and no one was compleat in Grace but Christ Jesus only And yet even in this Imperfection the variety became a Beauty in the Church and the several different Members yet made a Body uniform and compleat But as for the meaner Dispensations of Grace they are infinite thus the gentle GOD moves through Advice the Obstinate through Afflictions some like Job he purifies by Miseries others like Pharaoh he hardens by his Rod and thus sometimes he punishes the Wicked for Example sometimes he suffers the Righteous to have his Judgments for a blind sometimes he raises the Wicked as a Scourge to the Luke-warm and sometimes he flatters them in their Prosperity so sometimes he takes away the Righteous in Curse to the Wicked and all this doth one and the same Spirit actuated by a variety suitable to the Wisdom of GOD and only to be discerned by an Eye of Purity and Faith Now our Reflections in this matter are these First That though GOD thus gradually hastens our Tryal yet withal he has promised us That all things shall work together for the best for them that fear him Rom. 8.28 Our use of them is that we learn and follow our Duty to GOD by his first and gentle means of Grace not only that his Grace may the more freely work on us but that we may avoid his Rod to force us and as it is easier to kill a Lion's Whelp than a Lion and to root up a young Oak than an old one so in sins also the first act is easily hindred but we may bear the lash of many an heavy Affliction e're we are cured of an Habit. But besides GOD's Grace and our own Endeavours we must add Prayers likewise if ever we intend for a real Purity and the Kingdom of GOD not Of Prayer I mean that we should think proudly through Importunity to Storm GOD's Throne by it neither but we ought with an humble Application to Pray without ceasing and as the Scriptures tell us that the Kingdom of GOD comes not with Observation and we cannot know its time though we are assured it will come so not only in Prayers but Purity we ought not to be backwards whenever the Heavenly Spirit shall see good to visit us Remember thy Victory is through Prayer and not through Study only not that we should neglect the Study of Wisdom neither and besides that Prayer through Importunity will make a real change in our Lives for as we know to Pray in our sins or for a thing unlawful is vain so by our constant Prayer we shall do a double Duty and force our selves into Purity as well as obtain the Blessings we desire Besides the Kingdom of Heaven is as Journey of a Thousand steps in Faith and therefore we must allow so many Prayers at least to our Importunity for believe me if you faint at the first Tenth or Hundredth asking you will never attain it so that though thy Prayers obtain not immediately neither faint nor expostulate arrogantly with GOD but humbly know thy fault and pray his Mercy and his Will be done nor despair ever for Faith has good grounds and has overcome study therefore to purifie thy self for ever on and then by thy Importunity thou must prevail and GOD will cleanse thee for thy Constancy and Sincerity's sake for though no Man can merit before him yet he has promised to Reward every Man according to his Works Remember also that GOD hates Passion the Sacrifice of Fools and as he has given thee good grounds for Faith so thou must allow for Importunity for even Christ was forced to prevail with him with Tears and Moses to hold up his Hands all day if he would that the Israelites should prevail And besides if thou art not answered in thy Prayers may be thou wilt see some Reason and Corruption if thou waitest with Patience why thou art not and if not thou seest that thou hast this new Lesson to learn that thou art to Conquer through long and humble begging and not as if you intended to Command GOD. Was not even Christ himself forced to wait like Jonas in the Whale's Belly till his time was come In this therefore Pray to GOD himself to direct you as Moses Samuel and the rest of the Prophets have done before you GOD will not be rob'd of his Glory and therefore if thou wilt not act purely in resignation to his Grace thou mayst be lost a thousand times e're thou arrive at Glory are you sure you Pray right when you do not add withal Thy Will be done Pray rather therefore that thou mayst be cursed in this World to be happy in the next and seek wholly for the Glory of GOD and to be resigned to his Will nor be impatient remember Moses was forced to wait after that he had fled for designing to be a deliverer But for Example I
Infidelity and by our false Casuism and Controversies keep out the Kingdom of GOD from amongst us Did we like the Noble Bereans search the Scriptures throughly and not like little foolish Sects take our Faith on trust and spend our time on Quarrels at Discipline that ought to be employed in purifying our Lives and Practices Did we hearken when GOD teaches us in our Consciences and step into the Spiritual Bethesda when the Spirit of GOD moves in our Meditations 't were impossible but that GOD should lead us right So did we consider also that our Sins and Impurities are as much in our Hearts and Eyes as our Hands and Actions we should be more cautious of our Adulteries against the Law of GOD but alas we walk in blindness and will not see we waste our Zeal in Controversie that should be spent in true Piety we cast Mists of Tradition and Church-Authority before us in distraction of our Brotherly Love so that if we would we can't see In truth were our Eye single we might hope for it but alas 't is double and our Lusts will not let us remove the Beam and pluck out our right Eyes that offend us we are too far enamoured with the Silver and Gold of the Whore and the Lusts and Pride of Life to be Disciples of so great Resignation And what but this is it that forces God to afflict us to see And what but this is it that makes us reform and reform again Because our Corruptions fling us into our unaccountable Divisions and will not let us see the guilt of them Alas how can we as St. John tells us pretend to love our Heavenly Father that we have not seen when our Discords are so unreasonable with our Brethren that we have seen Surely if we ever intend to approach to God we must learn to lay a deeper Foundation in our mutual Love and Charity towards it Further in seeking this Kingdom also we must learn to avoid Idleness as bane and seek heartily for Wisdom Spare not therefore to rise early and to be up late for it Nor must you admit the least prejudice in your Wisdom wilful Error and Piety can never subsist together and yet remember withal that 't is not your large Bodies of Divinity so much as 't is GOD must lead you not I mean that you should tempt GOD neither for that Knowledge which Industry ought to attain but that you ought to Pray and Meditate as well as Study and hearken as well to the sincere checks of thy Conscience as Notions of Books nor slight this Advice for know GOD thus first illuminates those Souls that he intends to inhabit And yet let not this diligent Sincerity run thee into Care neither but trust wholly on GOD without Anxiety after thy best Endeavours and yet be still on thy Guard and ever aiming at the highest pitch of Sincerity and Purity indeed forfeit not thine Integrity though but even in a Trifle for how dost thou know O Man but that that may be thy fatal Tryal And to crown all this add the Charity of a courageable Advice to Mankind fear not the face of Man but rebuke him throughly and rescue the Honour of GOD from his Errors and yet not that I would have thee disturb Men by thy Advice or cast Pearls before Swine or go about to Preach as Christ did till sent but I would have thee to seek all Prudent Occasions to Advise thy Brother to rescue the Honour of GOD advance his Kingdom and save the Soul of thy Brother if it offers And if thou dost thus thou needest not fear thy Success for if Christ could tell the Scribe for his discreet Answer Luke 12.34 that he was not far from the Kingdom of GOD thou if thou hazardest thus all for his Glory needest not doubt it surely but else if thou forsake not all thou canst not be his Disciple Luke 14.33 As our Saviour says The Children of this World are wiser than the Children of Light Luke 16.8 Or else they could never be mistaken so much in their Methods to Salvation as they are 'T is true GOD requires a Self-denyal in this beyond a little passionate spurt I mean a real and continual one but what then dare we not trust him And has he not assured us of Protection and that we shall not lose by it even in this World and that though we fail in the Attempt And what remains then but that we believe either that he can't help us or is not Faithful Now to say he can't help us is manifestly a Lye for even the Coelestial Orbs bigger than the Earth move at this instant by his Providence much more then can be move a little Mountain or do any less Act to save us And wilt thou charge him with being unfaithful Pray tell me then whom it is that he has deceived if thou canst not dost not thou calumniate him What then remains but that you think 't is not possible for a Man to purifie himself to that degree that I prescribe But as to that I say 't is false he may no Man I believe can purifie himself from Frailties for they are Humane but from wilful Guilts of all kinds they may or else GOD is unjust to require it and which I am sure he is not if so therefore provided we are wary against all wilful Omissions or Commissions we need not fear the injury of Frailties St. James tells us Cap. 5. Ver. 17 18. That Elias was a man subject to like Passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the Earth for the space of three Years and six Months And he prayed again and the Heavens gave rain and the Earth brought forth her fruit And indeed it was the same Elias that was afterwards translated If this Power were given to Elias therefore who had not the advantages of Christianity to help him where lyes any just grounds for our doubt of it You will say sometimes in doubts you are forced to dissatisfie your Conscience where you know not how to resolve it But as to that as I have before directed thee when with thy sincerest Judgment thou hast chosen the good resolve and sink not into scruple but rather rejoyce in thy Resolution and that thou art sure that if after thine hearty Industry thou errest that even GOD himself will reveal it to thee rather than thine Error should injure thee Phil. 3.15 or else indeed as the Apostle hath said 't is damnable To be short therefore learn to be even obstinately constant in thy Devotions and remember to do all things for the Glory and Honour of GOD even to eat drink and be merry without Faith is Sin For who gives us these Blessings Is not that worth our care Much more therefore when we seek our own Glory GOD may justly Sacrifice us in our best Actions So never act in doubt to stifle Doubts is to quench GOD's Spirit
that any Man may easily judge whether he is in Enthusiasm or not if in his Zeal he errs wilfully 't is fatal but if ignorantly like St. Paul and Abraham he need not fear but that GOD will rather by a Miracle save our Son and Convert us than let us suffer damage but then if with the Jewish Exorcists and Simon Magus with the love of the World in our hearts we seek to hold the Truth in unrighteousness methinks we have no reason to complain that our desires have succeeded against us and we are lost in Enthusiasm And yet not but that there are extreams on the other side too there are Men that lye dead in Forms as well as such as are mad in Superstition and that have not Patience for their Tryals nor are they less to be reproved for burying their Talents than the others for making every whimsey that crosses their Thoughts to come from GOD I must confess the latter is chiefly proper to my Subject here and yet the former also stands justly in my way of Reproof To return therefore how easie a Test have we against any man's pretence for feeling Truth Alas GOD's Holy Suggestions and right Reason are never discernable asunder we are only to know Trees by their Fruits and not to believe even an Angel from Heaven if he Preach other Doctrine than Truth what hazard are we at then whether a Man be an Enthusiast or not if we follow him with a blind implicit Submission indeed we are but we ought to be always on our Guard and to have such a Respect for no man's Person And thus though 't were the Devil that perswaded or convinced me of my Duty as 't is said of Luther I would not neglect it not but that I would perish too before that I would seek to him for it And on the contrary were I sure he were an Angel or a Prophet that perswaded me to what I knew or but thought in my Conscience to be evil I would certainly disobey him What danger have we then left of falling into Delusions Or what good will even the confidence of a Mountebank do our feeling Enthusiasts Alas nothing but betray them GOD's Spirit is meek and lowly he tells us that he resists the Proud And hence St. Paul says modestly in one place of his Epistles that he believes only that he has the Spirit of GOD 1 Cor. 7.40 And had not our new Spirit Men that I am perswaded have not his Warrant better say ingenuously then that their Silence and Meditation leaves room for that Holy Spirit whose Assistance they hope they may have at least in some degree rather than by an haughty and proud Arrogance thus burst the growth of those Holy Seeds that ought only to be cherished through Humility Nay and do not they as good as grant this when they not only say they do but even we see that they err grosly in their best Exercises If you will be free therefore of Enthusiasm beware of this Pride and beware of a proud and needless Separation from others on the too common but groundless pretences that we are more Holy than you 'T was prophesied of old that we should not be able to endure sound Doctrine but heap up to our selves Teachers having itching Ears 2 Tim. 2.4 But remember 't is no slight Offence to forsake a Publick Church too easily 't was what all the Corruptions of the Jews could not make Christ do who always Taught in their Synagogues and Temples John 18.20 Publick Communion is so Sacred a Bond Heb 10.26 that nothing I know but flat Idolatry with Elijah Shadrack Meshack and Abednego is able to excuse thee from it Besides consider how many GOD has laid his Judgments on for this separating Pride and how he has often let the Devil inspire them instead of the Holy Ghost nay and remember too that Christ made it his business to converse with Sinners and thou for all thy Pride art but a Man and much meaner sure than he and if so as all Mankind are thy Brethren at worst they require thy Advice and Reproof and fear not like Lot thou wilt not be the sooner destroy'd for living amongst them if thou continuest pure thy self but if having but a seeming Holiness thou glory in a proud and uncharitable Singularity know that Delusion will ruine thee The Soul that has not a Love Faith and Purity as large as GOD's at least in good will has not his Spirit By what has been wrote therefore I think it is plain that our discerning of Spirits is no such Work to be despair'd at as is suppos'd if we keep our selves but pure Our Wickedness indeed may forfeit God's Protection of us or else we may be sure he will not let us be fool'd out of the Glory that he has prepared for us And thus as GOD ordinarily has appeared to his Prophets both by Dreams and Visions and as he did to Adam in Paradice so he requires our Obedience to them also as he has done with them and as well he may where he has done but the same to others and I say it is justly also even at our Peril to discern Faith from Presumption in them since we cannot be deceiv'd but thro' our own fault and neglect As I have said before Certainty and Perfection belong only to Translation and Fruition not I mean that if we trust wholly in God we are at any hazard neither as GOD has promis'd us not to let us be tempted beyond our Strength 1 Cor. 10.13 And surely we may let GOD be true tho' every Man be a Lyar But we must learn from thence to abate all overweening Pride and for our own Safety in pursuance of our Trials to resign our selves wholly and entirely to the Will of GOD. And thus had the Magicians exceeded Moses in Wonders as much as there were hundreds of Baalites to one Elijah yet Moses and Elijah tho' the only Prophets of GOD left must needs be discernable thro' their Sincerity And that Man or Prophet that shall unsincerely and disobediently hearken even to a true Prophet against his known Duty and Conscience shall have a Lion provided to tear him in pieces in his way as he returns and as even the Scriptures themselves have given us in Example To be short we may conclude upon the whole matter that not only if we obey not the lesser and first tendings of the Holy Spirit we are weak to expect the greater but we are presumptuous also if we seek greater certainty than others have had before us Suppose I am to obey GOD on these terms do I hazard more than others have done before me And thus could it be any thing but the Innocence of Moses in his own Conscience that could assure him that the Angel that appeared unto him in the Bush was not other than an Angel of Light And shall I expect then to trust GOD on surer grounds And even so in Natural Religion
also I have full as good a Warrant in obeying an upright Conscience as the best of Prophets can have in following his Revelation Further by what has been wrote also we may see what Authority and Regard we are to pay even the Scriptures themselves Of Scripture Thus in whatever words the Prophets or Apostles wrote as they had them from some Vision or Revelation or from Christ we ought to pay them an absolute regard as coming immediately from the Spirit of GOD himself but whatever Truths they delivered prudentially and as from their own Reasoning we ought to take them as such and wherein we have the Advice of the most Holy and Sincere Men and as the Apostle St. Paul himself acquaints us And hence also we see plainly that the Apostles not only advised to study 1 Tim. 4.13 and understood Christ's words by degrees as the Spirit occasionally operating with their own Reasoning explained them but even in their Citations out of the Old Testament they both trusted their Memories and rather regarded sense than words and hence St. Matthew cites Jeremiah for Zechariah and hence St. Luke is so modest that in the very beginning of his Gospel he rather shews you that he writes to be credited as a fair Witness than one that in every word would Command you by an Infallible Inspiration Not that I would insinuate hereby by any means neither as the Judicious Lowth in this case has very well observed as if the Inspiration of Holy Writ were imperfect or that the Scriptures were not a most perfect Rule of Faith Surely he 's mad that once believes the History of the Apostles Miracles can ever think their Doctrines were not thereby confirmed by God But whether such Testimony of God must argue their Inspiration Verbatim or their Instruction of us to a literal Infallibility as he likewise observes let the Reader judge Nay and besides I may add for the Holy Ghost to have made the Prophets and Evangelists his Secretaries Verbatim would not only have done violence to their Tryals but were to no purpose neither For what needed he to have shewn-those things by Revelation that Reason could find out So also if he had dictated to them Verbatim as Truth is one and Wisdom is one in Perfection so it were impossible that there should be a letter varying in what they wrote nay and if he had why should we think of them that they should rather only Historically deliver the Precepts of Christ then than dispose them in order and as from themselves had not they thought that his Authority in giving them was greater than their own And so what but this Fallibility was it may I say made the Apostles meet together to dispute in Council had they like the Prophets in their particular Messages gotten GOD's immediate Instructions in all things One had spoke the Mind of all and there could never have been any occasion to assemble to dispute since they could never vary in Judgment but like our Saviour who had the Spirit without measure they would have proceeded on in Eternal paths of Love Truth and Unity Nor is their Credit even as thus and from their very Sincerity little as it is as a Heathen reflected when he read their Morals I wish all the World had believed them So indeed they have such an Integrity that they cannot but command a Respect where ever they come And as for their Errors and mutual lesser Variances they rather benefit than injure them for where there is a fallible Integrity that varies in Trifles and agrees in the Main it even lustres Truth by cutting off the very grounds of all Suspicion and Confederacy We ought therefore always to remember as well in the Writings of the Apostles as Prophets rather to follow their sincere sense and purport than their Grammatical and forced Expositions for not only the Apostles as I have shewn you have cited the Old Testament by their Memories but even the Prophets also as Luther observes in his Table-talk p. 362. had none of their Revelations Verbatim but when they delivered their Visions did it in their own way and their own stile and words thus one as a Noble and another as a Husbandman and if they had any Expressions immediately from God 't was very rarely And hence also you see that the Prophets were so far from an absolute Inspiration or a perfect Freedom with GOD that very often they could scarce understand the dark and Hieroglyphical Prophesies they received themselves and whether they did at all in some cases I will not determine for though all Prophesies can have but one clear sincere rational and coherent meaning as Truth especially in the Fountain is not doubtful and as so they were dictated by GOD to be understood one time or other yet it does not follow therefore that they must understand them for surely he may justly reserve their Interpretation to what Time or Season he shall think best Nor is this an inconsiderable Lesson that we may learn from a due consideration in this matter for surely it must make no small tendency to the Progress of the true Gospel-Precepts and Piety to cut off all occasion of little Capricio's and Criticism the great and main Lesson of Christ and his Apostles and what was truly confirmed from God by Miracles is too well and securely delivered to be injured by little Cavils or the variance of Copies But to return as to what may be more particularly said relating to the state of Prophecy we may add that The State of Prophecy as I have before observed Adam was to stand a while e're he became translated and if so since the degradation of our Fall we may well expect even to stand a further Tryal also e're we become Prophets thus Christ was near Thirty e're he entred his first Stage and Enoch and Elijah not young when they were translated and can we expect otherwise then Nor need we to be dismay'd though we have no notice of our being either to be Prophets or Translated had Adam either such notice in Paradise or Elijah almost to the very day Nor is it unworthy Observation in this case how like and parallel the course of Moses Christ and Elijah has been Say the Scriptures Moses is not a Prophet in dark Dreams and Visions only but God spoke clearly and Face to Face to him and did he not so to Christ and Elijah also So how exactly likewise Moses and Christ agreed in their Transfiguration and Christ and Elijah in their Miracles one raised the Dead and so did the other the one multiplyed and fed with Bread miraculously and so did the other the one was translated and the other ascended into Heaven within a very few days after his Death nor had he dyed had it not been fore-ordered Nor could they that would have imitated these Patterns have failed had they taken more care to have purified themselves and to have been more curious in that