chief matter is Gods Omnipotency and his Immensity or Omnipresence Consider these joyntly so they are a solid foundation for that Religious Worship that is due to God for both Omnipotency and Omnipresence are necessarily required in the proper object of Religious Adoration as is more fully shewn c. 4. § 2. C. 4. § 2. And Gods Omnipresence considered singly by its self and abstractly from the other is presented as a necessary Caution to less wary minds to secure them from all those unworthy thoughts that may any waies derogate from the Infiniteness of his Essence when they shall see a discovery made of Gods special Presence in the places of his Publick Worship under the Gospel For Gods special manifestation of himself either in Heaven or in the Temple of old or in his Church and faithful Servants now a daies as places of his peculiar residence is no waies inconsistent with his natural Immensity and being every where present as I shall more fully declare in the sequel of this ensuing Discourse § 4. If wee do again consider the manner of discovery of these two fore-mentioned Attributes viz. that it is by the very light of nature and by the improvement of right reason and understanding that common benefit that Christ enlightens every one withall that comes into the world Joh. 1.9 Quakers This may let that fond generation of people know who are so hugely enamoured with and do so superstitiously dote upon their so much admired and adored notion of A Light within That there is other work that God hath designed that inward Light for than by its native strength lustre and radiancy infallability to guide us if faithfully followed as they no less prophanely than ignorantly do imagine to the place of bliss and eternal happiness For consider this inward Light in its speculative part wee see in some measure what useful discoveries it may accommodate us withall by what hath been before mentioned And look upon it again in its practical office as it sparkles in mans natural conscience so it may be very serviceable to the design of Christianity when inward convictions of many gross sins repugnant to the very dictates of natural light do render us restless in our spirits till wee have found a more spiritual conviction of sin by the Law of God revealed in his Word and a conversion from them unto God through Christ by the Holy Spirit according to the tenour of the New and Gospel Covenant But that this Inward Light which the Wise man stiles the Candle of the Lord and at the best Pro. 20.27 burns but in the socket of a corrupt mind with very much dimness should ever discover the right and ready way to the New Jerusalem is the product onely of mens foolish fancies their pride and ignorance Would not from hence a strong impeachment of the Divine Wisdome be raised that hee should send Christ into the world to purchase salvation for lost and fallen man when by this inward Light hee might have obtained it well enough before § 5. Having thus briefly hinted the benefit of Self-Reflection and the true use of in Inward Light which as it is common to all men so it is but of common concernment in order to salvation of which more 〈◊〉 its proper place ch 12. § 8 9 I shall now in the close pursuit of my present intendment betake my self to Divine Revelation And what Caution I before handled from the light of nature is as necessary in the first place to be shewn from Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures viz. That God is every where present filling all places and spaces both real and imaginary by his Immensity 1 King 8.27 Behold the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee Psal 139.7 8 9 10 Isa 66.1 Jer. 23.24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I cannot see him do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Scripture doth not onely barely assert but with strength of Argument prove Gods Omnipresence Act. 17. Act. 17.27 28 Hee is not far from every one of us for in him wee live and move and have our being For indeed wee cannot otherwise know the presence of a Spiritual Being than by its operations And it seems no less impossible for one to produce any thing immediately where hee is not than when hee is not at all in being Now wee living and moving and having our being in and by God it must necessarily follow that God is present with us and every thing that either lives moves or hath a being § 6. But though God be every where present and so with every creature equally in regard of his Infinite Essence and of his Immensity Yet as to the Specialty and peculiar Efficacy of his presence hee is not with all either things or places and persons after the same manner present For it hath been observed that the Scriptures do evidently set out divers degrees of Gods special presence The first and chiefest Gods Presence 1 Of union is with the humane nature of Christ which God the Son the second person of the Trinity hath hypostatically united to himself and really taken into the unity of his own person Whence God is said to be made man the Word to be made flesh Joh. 1.14 This is the sublimest mystery in the world that two natures should be so united as to become one person And the highest and most wonderful degree of Gods presence that ever was A second degree and the lowest 2 Of Providence is that God is present with all his creatures as the preserver guider and governour of them A third degree is 3 Of Glory that God is present with the Glorified Saints and Angels in Heaven whom hee doth not only uphold in their Being but peculiarly vouchsafes to them the solace and sweetness of never fading bliss and happiness A fourth degree is 4 Of Grace Gods special Presence with his own people whose temporal life hee doth not onely preserve and sustain but also by his grace prepares them for life eternal This Special Presence of God is that which is promised to Gods people in his Church 2 Chron. 15.2 in his Ordinances Thus Azariah told Asa and Judah and Benjamin The Lord is with you while yee be with him The presence of Gods Grace and his singular Favour is assured to those that continue in Gods waies Thus David in banishment earnestly and importunately breathes after the enjoyment of God in his Church and Ordinances Psa 42.1 As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God David knew that God who was every where could not but be present with him in his exile But his desire here is for Gods special presence in his Church He acknowledges therefore Pareus Advers that there is a very great use of Publick Holy Assemblies and that there is none so holy and perfect but that stands in need of
taught to walk in the best way To aim at the best ends Pages 206 SHECINAH OR A Demonstration of the Divine Presence in the places of Religious Worship CHAP. I. Self-Reflection discovers the being of an Omnipotent God Gods Omnipresence These two introductory to this Discourse The right use of a Light within The Scriptures declare and prove Gods Omnipresence Several degrees of Gods special presence The Design of this Treatise § 1. MAns rational Reflection upon himself if faithfully improved would with convincing evidence secure him both against Atheism and Irreligion The sound acknowledgement of a Deity presently leads the mind to a Religious Apprehension of him For that comes short of a truly Divine Being and cannot rationally be owned as God which when discovered doth not forthwith present it self to intelligent creatures as the true object of their Religious Worship and Sacred Adoration Now Self-reflection may easily discover that there is a God and this may serve to rout Atheism And that same mind that is able thus to discover a Deity doth also naturally prompt us to an acknowledgement of that undoubted homage which is the unquestionable right of the Supream Soveraign of the world viz. Religious Worship and Adoration And this speaks Religion to be highly rational as that which is connatural to intelligent creatures and withall brands Irreligion with the greatest unreasonableness in the world Let us a little consider now what Self-reflection can do towards the discovery of a Deity 'T is evident that mans soul is not limited and restrained onely to direct Acts in its operation but it is usually as able to reflect upon its own Actions and take a review of them as it is at the first in a direct Act of knowledge to apply its self to any peculiar intelligible Object As Scripture plainly intimates a distinction 'twixt the direct and reflect Acts of Faith 1 Joh 5.13 So the constant experience of a rational soul evidences a clear distinction of the reflect Acts of knowledge from those that are direct For the mind in its reflection peculiarly fixes upon its own former Actions as the proper object it converses about But as it exerts direct Acts of knowledge its circumference is as large as the latitude of Beings or objects that are in themselves intelligible Suppose now a contemplative mind setting it self to take a true scantling of mans nature it must needs abstract the humane nature from all those conditions that would limit it to individual persons and it must conceive it as somewhat common to all men here is a direct act of the mind But when he reviews this Action and narrowly searches into the manner of apprehending and distinct understanding of the humane nature and takes notice of the power and species by which the act of the mind was exerted this is properly Reflection Now the mind by this may clearly perceive that those intellectual Images which represented the nature of man as abstracted from all material accidents cannot be corporeal and material themselves but immaterial and refined from the dreggs and dross of matter These being immaterial do necessarily require a Spiritual Power and Incorporeal Substance to reside in as their proper subject Therefore it follows the rational soul that thus reflects upon its self can be no other than an incorporeal and immaterial substance If it further searches into the Original of an immaterial substance as the soul of man is concluded to be it cannot but conclude that it could not possibly be made of any pre-existent matter when in its own nature it is immaterial or spiritual Besides the nobleness of its being and the excellency of its operations speaks it to be of no mean earthly or sublunary extraction If the soul being immaterial cannot be generated or made by any material production it remains it must have its being immediately raised out of nothing which being a work of Omnipotency will evidently demonstrate the being of an Infinite and Omnipotent Agent which first gave life and being to an immortal and immaterial soul which can be no other than God himself § 2. Having thus discovered the Being of God and that hee must be of an Infinite Power to create an incorporeal substance out of nothing it were no difficult task to demonstrate the rest of Gods Attributes from this that hee is Omnipotent or of an Infinite Power But to pass by all other Attributes I shall onely consider the necessary Inference of Gods Immensity or Omnipresence from the presupposed Being of his Infinite Power For a Being or Agent of Infinite Power must of necessity be of an Infinite Essence because otherwise the principle of operation would transcend the nature of the Essence and Being and a Finite Essence would absolutely and simply be invested with an Infinite Power which is as repugnant to right reason as derogatory to the nature of the Supreme Being or Being of Beings God blessed for evermore If the Essence be infinite that is of Infinite Power it follows that that Essence cannot be limited or restrained to any finite space For that which is any waies limited cannot every waies and absolutely be Infinite If an Infinite Essence be not limited by any finite space then this created Fabrick of the world being finite because created cannot contain it within its bounds But as it is every where present in the world so being infinite it must needs exceed the limits of every creature and so also the largest bounds of the highest Heavens So that God which is Infinite and illimited in his Essence must necessarily be granted to be in that boundless Imaginary space which must be supposed beyond the surface of the world This may further be proved thus either God can produce another creature in that supposed space or hee cannot If hee cannot then he would not be Infinite in his Power which would be repugnant to his Being and the contrary hath already been evinced If hee can then hee would either be present with that creature or not If not his Essence would not be Infinite because excluded from that space where the creature is supposed to be If hee be present then either newly present with it or he was eternally so If newly then there would be a real mutation in his Being being present now where hee was not before which is as derogatory to Gods Infinite Perfection as a local restraint and limitation is to the Infiniteness of his Essence It remains then that hee was eternally present there and if so then hee alwaies was in that boundless Imaginary space where the creature was supposed to be produced which was the matter to be proved § 3. That this Introduction thus industriously designed may not to any one seem wholly unsuitable to the ensuing discourse concerning the special Presence of God I would advise the Reader seriously to weigh both the matter expressed and the manner of its discovery and hee shall finde both highly subservient to my main design The
from a general and calls that Scripture that comes by a clear consequence from it It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God And Further our Saviour sticks not to say It is written And him onely thou shalt serve Though it be but implied in that place of Moses Spanhem Dub. Evang Par. 3. D. 65. p. 292 For indeed the very nature of the subject spoken of implies a peculiar reference unto God alone Because those things such as worship and fear which are due unto God as God are due onely unto God with whom no creature can claim a partnership in Divine Adoration without great Sacriledge and none can be admitted to it without gross Idolatry Argum. 2. If the necessary requisites of the proper object of Adoration be onely in God then Adorability is proper onely unto God For how can that be the object of Divine Worship which is not qualified with those properties and attributes that are necessary for its constitution in such a capacity but in God alone are those requisites found Which are these three Frist Omniscience that hee that is worshipped should know all our wants our sighs and groans and know the deepest secrets of the most retired thoughts of our hearts As true Worship may inwardly be performed many times by the secret thoughts of the mind so it is necessary that hee that is thus worshipped should have a peircing and omniscient eye to have a clear and full view of those very thoughts For otherwise hee may be worshipped and hee not know it And then what small comfort would it be for the most spiritual worshippers to serve him with their hearts who unless hee be omniscient would be ignorant whether they worshipped him or no. Secondly Omnipotency that hee should be able to help us in our wants and give in a supply suitable to our greatest grievances and necessities Why should I worship one that is not able to help mee or why should I not worship and adore any thing else besides God if that were as able to supply my wants and relieve mee in any kinde of misery as God is who is Omnipotent Thirdly Omnipresence that hee should every where hear our prayers and answer our requests This was one great peece of unreasonableness in the worship of the Heathens that they made choice of such Gods to worship which they themselves acknowledged were confined to particular places and so could not be present to help them under any sudden emergency and because they wanted power their worshippers would remain helpless still though they were present in their very Temples the places of their confinement Now God the God of Israel the Onely Being in the world that is both Omniscient Omnipotent and Omnipresent and therefore Adorability is proper onely to him § 3. This Proposition being thus proved it may easily be improved to convince the Papists of grievous Idolatry in worshipping those things with a Religious Worship which are not proper objects of Adoration as Images Saints and the like As also to condemn the Socinians those great Patrons of Reason of their gross absurdity and unreasonableness in devesting Christ of his Divinity and yet of attributing Divine Worship and Adoration to him notwithstanding hee is held but a Creature But I had rather prevent a mistake and miscarriage amongst ordinary Christians than stand to confute those that are visibly the Disciples of Antichrist as the former or those that have really forfeited the very name of Christians as the Latter The mistake is this when Christ our Mediator God and Man is propounded in Scripture as the Object of our Religious Worship and Adoration less wary minds may be apt to terminate their Worship upon his humane nature When as 't is evident the humane nature and flesh of Christ is not God though it be the flesh of God viz. of God the Son and personally united to him But the personal union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ the Mediator doth neither destroy nor confound the proprieties of either but leaves them entire as they are in themselves And Adorability is no less a propriety of the Divine Nature than Omniscience Omnipotence Omnipresence and Eternity are God therefore manifest in the flesh is to be worshipped with a Religious Worship but his flesh ought not thus to be worshipped As the King may be civilly worshipped who wears a Crown or Diadem upon his head and bears a Scepter the emblem of Majesty in his hand yet neither Crown nor Diadem nor Scepter can be said to be honoured with a civil worship And the godly are then said to have worshipped Christ when they knew clearly his Divinity that hee was God as well as Man As the blinde man made whole when Christ had told him hee was the Son of God that cured him Then hee said Joh. 9.37 38 Lord I beleeve and hee worshipped him Thus those that saw Christ walking upon the Sea and quieting of it Mat. 14.33 Then they that were in the Ship came and worshipped him saying of a truth thou art the Son of God See also the example of Peter Luke 5.8 And the Women that sought Christ in the Sepulchre Matth. 28.9 And the Apsstles that were gathered together in the Mount when Christ took his leave of them Vers 17. When they saw him they worshipped him whom they knew now to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead § 4. Before I pass to the next Proposition wee may here from this first learn a true account why Heathenish Worshippers would never admit the Worship of the True God of Israel under the Old Testament or of Jesus Christ revealed under the New Testament dispensation but would willingly entertain the Worship of all other Gods whatsoever One would have thought the True God who truly is the proper object of Adoration might as well have been entertained as any of the false and fained Deities The reason was this because it was very indifferent to Satan after what manner hee was worshipped so hee was but worshipped at all hee could easily admit a multiplicity of Gods But The God of Israel and Jesus Christ when they are worshipped they must be worshipped alone they and none other all else must be excluded it being the first and chiefest of all Gods Commands Thou shalt not have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any other Gods before my face But the Worship of false Gods did not at all hinder but that worship might be given to other Idols so that the kind and degree of it peculiar to each Idoll was but distinguished by their Disciples § 5. Propos 2. Actual Adoration or Worship is due to God from all intelligent creatures by the obligation of nature Actual Adoration and the formal exhibition of Worship is neither essential to God to have it or to the creatures to give it Not to God to have it because God was before there were any creatures to worship and adore him And it
was no less possible for God to have continued in his Essential Perfections without Adoration than for him to have been without Actual Creation which was an Action as arbitrary unto God and as far short from absolute necessity in its production as any creature is from an absolute necessity and independency in its being Nor to the creature to give it There being many intelligent creatures as Apostate Angels damned spirits and the like which do not exhibit this Actual Worship unto God and yet remain in their being still But an Actual Obligation to give God this Worship is Essential to all both Angels and Men. The creatures moral degeneracy not at all lessening or diminishing their natural obligation to duty And that this obligation lyes upon all intelligent creatures will appear 1. Because they are Gods Creatures A Creature as such must needs own his Being Dependence and Preservation as the Product of his Creators goodness And is any thing more just and equitable than for such a depending Being as a Creature is to worship and adore the fountain of his Being and the foundation of his present and all future welfare And is there any higher peece of unreasonable injustice than for the Creatures to slight him from whom they drew life and breath and all 2. Because they are Rational Creatures God hath endowed Angels and Men with minds and understandings that they might know honour and adore him As God made all things so more especially intelligent Creatures for himself to do homage to him and herein lyes their Natural Obligation to serve and worship God § 6. Propos 3. Pure Spiritual Beings such as Angels are need not be circumstantiated to time Thes Salmar par 3. p. 412. § 4 5. and place in rendring Actual Worship unto God The Holy Angels being not properly the parts of the Church for which Christ died for the directing and perfecting of which the revelation of the mind of God was given to us in the Scriptures because the foundation of the union of the Members of the Church and Christ lyes in the Communion in the humane nature of which the Angels are not capable naturally And hence it was that our Saviour bore the sins of men and not of Angels upon his body on the Tree For that Christ redeemed not the Angels it was not onely because they stood not in need of redemption I speak of the holy Angels that never left their first state but because Christ took not upon him that nature in which hee might undergo the punishment due to Angels in case of sin I say for these and other reasons mentioned by Amyraldus Loco supra citato the Angels being not genuine parts of the Church for which Christ dyed and to which the Scriptures were given 'T is no wonder at all why the Scriptures have so deep a silence of the manner and circumstances of the Angels worshipping and adoring of God And 't is but a learned Ignorance for us to sit down satisfied and contented without the knowledge of that which God thought unnecessary to be revealed in Scripture How the Angels then do worship God wee need not much trouble our selves to inquire after since wee have not evident manifestations of it in the Written Word But this seems to be clear they are not tyed to any time strictly so called because their very nature is measured by aviternity and not by time And being of a pure Spiritual Nature they have neither those avocations by any particular calling nor necessary diversions from Gods Immediate Worship as Man if hee had continued innocent must have had for the very sustaining of his life and being which would have been by seasonable food The fruits in the Garden of Paradise being a sufficient evidence that God intended innocent immortality to have been supported by ordinary means It is probable therefore they have no set times but continue constant in the Immediate Worship of God unless when God imploys them as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his Ministring Spirits for the service of his Church And perhaps even then their imployment speaks them onely distant from the other Angels their fellow-worshippers and not absent from the real worship and service of God And thus it appears they are not tyed to any place neither as they are not to any limited time of Worship For they being Spirits are uncapable of any local circumscription And to enquire any further may run us upon the Rocks of bold and unsafe and unwarrantable conjectures in those matters the knowledge of which wee may very well spare without the least prejudice of our present comfort or future salvation § 7. Propos 4. The Sons of Men which are of a mixt nature partly Spirit and partly Body are by their very Beings determined both to time and place in their rendring Actual Worship unto God For man to worship God is immediately consequent upon his Being as a rational creature and for man to worship God in some time and place is necessarily involved in the very Worship it self that man is obliged to give unto God And the very same reasons that do evince a necessity of Worship to be given unto God by Creatures that are partly Body and partly Spirit will infer a necessity of making time and place the inseparable adjuncts of that Worship So that these two time and place in the general as appertaining to Divine Worship are not to be esteemed therefore good because God hath appointed them but God hath therefore appointed them and commanded them because they are in themselves good that is necessary to Divine Worship that man must yeeld unto God 1. That some time is necessary for man to worship God in is the clear dictate of natural light For man being partly Body as well as Spirit and being naturally obliged to worship God with both external as well as internal Worship is necessarily required of him Now all Actions of man especially those which are external must of natural necessity lay claim to some time for the performance of them Neither can man conveniently attend upon the Worship of God unless some time be set apart in the which hee may be freely disintangled from his ordinary work and employment Thus far time and the Worship of God seem to fall under one and the same command For as God in creating of the world did concreate and make time together with the world So also when God commands and appoints any Religious Worship to be performed by any actions of men hee doth withall command and appoint that necessary circumstance of some time wherein they should be dispatched And that man might not be left wholly undetermined as to the time of Worship in regard some time in general was necessary and it being highly rational that the disposal of the time for Worship should be at the pleasure of God the Supream Soveraign and Creator of man who made him an intelligent creature capable of worshipping God It
I have put into thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever In this full place God hath joyned his Spirit and his Word together God hath left the footsteps of his bounty every where for the advantage of the Church yet no greater than this to have his Word and Spirit to guide them unto Heaven The Spirit is joyned with the Word because without the Efficacy and Presence of the Spirit the Word preached would be unprofitable And the Word too must be joyned with the Spirit because as one observes Calvin in Locum Est Satanae spiritus qui divellitur a verbo it is no better nor worse if worse could be than the Spirit of the Devil that is separated from the Word of God Wee may have the Devil deluding but no promise of Gods teaching when the Spirit is pretended without the Word Now where are wee to have this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In thy mouth Spoken to the Prophet implying a Ministry of the Word under the Gospel to hold this out God might indeed speak to us immediately from Heaven or use the Ministry of Angels But God consulting with our weakness useth the Ministry of Man rather like our selves to deliver his mind to us that by that means wee may the more familiarly be drawn unto him In vain do any boast that they obey God when they reject his Ministers If they obey God why not in Gods way who hath appointed Gospel-Ministers to hold out his Word and hath promised the Presence of his Spirit to beat us off from such fancies and delusions which would make us gape after revelations without and many times contrary to the Word of God § 3. Another place of the same Prophet Isa 54.13 And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. God is wont to teach his children two waies by the outward Word preached and by the secret revelation of his Spirit working by the Word Now which is meant here the Evangelist John Joh. 6.45 shews us The Father draws souls to Christ But how It is written they shall be all taught of God All Gods children shall be clearly taught by the Spirit of God The elect ones that are drawn home to Christ are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught of God not in opposition but in subordination to the Word 'T is not to deny the Ministry of the Word but to assert the essicacy of the Spirit Mares L. Com. Lo. 1. ss 51. For as one well observes wee are said to be taught of God in that place of Joh. 6.45 So far as that the Doctrine which outwardly sounds in the Scripture and Ministry of the Word is imprinted in our minds by the Spirit of God not as if wee should receive new revelations without the use of these outward means Wee must so distinguish the Ministry of the Word and the teaching of the Spirit so as not to give the efficacious teaching of the heart unto man who preaches the Word For so the Prophet sayes the Sons of the Church of Christ are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taught of God And as Augustine Augustinus Cathedram in coelis habet qui corda docet Hee that teaches the heart is Doctor of the Chair in the New Jerusalem Yet wee must not divide and separate them as if Gods teaching and the Spirits teaching in Gospel-times were without the Word preached The Spirit of God teaches in the Church and Ordinances there Discipuli sunt Diaboli non Dei Calvinus in Isa 54.13 qui ordinem a Deo institutum repudiant They are the Devils Scholars and none of Gods Disciples who do reject that order that God hath appointed Wee see these joyned together the Children of the Church and taught of God so that they are not the Disciples and Children of God that will not be taught in the Church § 4. Another place is that of St. Paul to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 4.9 As touching Brotherly Love I need not write unto you for yee are all taught of God to love one another The meaning is I need not now use many words to you to treat at large about brotherly Love A word is enough to the wise You that are made wise by the Spirit of God know at first what the duty means an admonition is enough God teaches you by the Word and you know what that is by the Spirit Hee doth not so speak as if they that were taught of God had no need of the Word But onely thus much hee intends that when once the Spirit teaches in the Word there is less labour on the Ministers parts to teach than where the Spirit hath not taught at all And truly woful experience doth demonstrate this A gracious heart that is taught by the Spirit in the Word apprehends a Divine Truth or Gospel-duty at first mentioning As the Thessalonians that were taught of God needed onely the very mentioning of the duty of Brotherly Love But what ado have wee to beat a Gospel-Truth into the head or heart or memory of a carnal wretch Gospel-Truths are hidden Mysteries dark sayings obscure parables to natural hearts They cannot apprehend what they mean and whither they tend ordinarily Or suppose a Minister hath been beating a long time upon such Truths possibly a carnal mans understanding may under the preaching of the Word obtain the common work of Illumination and hee may know many things yea but what is this all this while to the reformation of the heart to the working upon the affections this must be by the teaching of the Spirit of God in his Ordinances Mans preaching may fill the head full of notions but the Spirits teaching must fill the heart with real notions of grace and goodness towards God As long as you hear onely with the hearing of the ear the Word preached profiteth not but when you are taught of God by his Spirit then the Word gets within you into your very hearts § 5. Look also into that place of John It is the Spirit that quickeneth Joh. 6.63 the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life The Disciples thought it an hard saying Vers 55. My flesh is meat indeed Though it was not the saying but the hardness of their hearts that made it so But Christ here answers The flesh profiteth nothing that is my Humane Nature without the Spirit without my Divine Nature can never obtain you life All that I have done or suffered in the flesh is worth nothing to purchase life and salvation unless I were God as well as man 'T is the Spirit that quickeneth my Deity as I am God that makes mee capable of obtaining life for souls by offering my flesh a sacrifice to Divine Justice And the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life