may be perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. iii. 16 17. Inspir'd purposely by this Spirit to be a way to guide us into all truth and goodness But this may all pretend to and every one turns it how he lists We must adde a second And the second is the Church for we must know this says St. Peter know it first too 2 Pet. i. 20. That no Scripture is of any private interpretation There are some things so hard to be understood both in St. Pauls Epistles and also other Scriptures says he that they that are unlearned and unstable wrest them unto their own destruction 2 Tim. iii. 16. and therefore presently his advice follows to beware least we be led away with that error the error as he calls it of the wicked and so fall from our own stedfastness ver 17. When men unlearned or ungrounded presume to be interpreters or even learned men to prefer their private senses before the received ones of the Church 't is never like to produce better The pillar and ground upon which truth stands and stays is the Church if St. Paul may be allowed the judge 1 Tim. iii. 16. The pillar and ground of truth In matters of discipline when a brother has done disorderly tell it to the Church says Christ St. Mat. 18. 17. and if he neglect to hear that let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a Publican He is no Christian. In matters 2. of doubt and controversie send to the Church to Hierusalem to the Apostles and Elders there conven'd in Counsel and let them determine it so we find it done Acts xv 2 28. In a lawful and full assembly of the learned Fathers of the Church such shall be determined that 's the was to settle truth In matters 3. of Rites and Ceremonies the Spirit guides us also by the Church If any man seem to be contentious about them St. Pauls appeal is presently to the Churches Customs We have no such custom neither the Churches of God that 's answer enough full and sufficient thinks the Apostle 1 Cor. xi 16. If the Churches custom be for us then 't is good and true we think or speak or do If against us 't is all naught and wrong whatever purity or piety be pretended in it Nay so careful was the Apostle to preserve the publick Authority of the Church and beat down all private ways and fancies by which ways only Schism and Heresie creep in that he tells Timothy though a Bishop and one well read and exercised in the Scriptures from a child 2 Tim. iii. 14. of a form of sound words he would have even him hold fast to 2 Tim. i. 13. and the Romans he tells of a form of Doctrine to be obeyed Rom. 6. 17. so far was that great and eloquent Apostle from being against forms any forms of the Church though he could have prayed and preached ex tempore with the best had tongues and eloquence and the gift of interpretation to do it too so far from leaving truth to any private interpretation or sudden motion whatsoever Nor is this appeal to the Fathers any whit strange or in Christian Religion only first to be heard of it was Gods direction from the first For ask now says Moses of the days that are past that were before thee Deut. iv 32. Stand you in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where is the good way says God Ier. vi 16. As if he had said Look about and see and examine all the ways you can yet the old way that 's the good one For enquire I pray thee of the former Age and prepare thy self to the search of their Fathers for we are but of yesterday and know nothing Iob viii 8. See how slightly things of yesterday new interpretations new devices new guides are accounted of And indeed in it self 't is most ridiculous to think the custom and practice and order and interpretation of all times and Churches should be false and those of yesterday only true unless we can think the Spirit of truth has been fifteen or sixteen hundred years asleep and never wak'd till now of late or can imagine that Christ should found a Church and promise to be with it to the end of the World and then leave it presently to Antichrist to be guided by him for above fifteen hundred years together Nor can I see why the Spirit of truth should now of late only begin to move and stir except I should think he were awak'd or delighted with noise and fury Nor is it reasonable to conceive a few private Spirits neither holier nor wiser than others for ought appears nor arm'd with Miracles to confirm their Doctrines should be more guided by the Spirit of truth than the whole Church and succession of Christians and Christian Fathers especially wherein at any time they agree Yet 3. not always to go so high Thou leadest thy people like sheep says the Psalmist by the hand of Moses and Aaron Psal. lxxvii 20. Moses and Aaron were the Governours of the Church the one a Priest the other a Prophet by such God leads his People by their lawful Pastours and Teachers The one the Civil Governour is the cloud to cover them from the heat The other the Spiritual is the light to lead them in the way The first protects the other guides us and we are bid to obey them those especially that watch for our souls Heb. xiii 17. Such as labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. v. 17. By such as God sets over us in the Church to teach and guide us into truth we must be guided if we will come into it In things unlawful nor one nor other is to be obeyed In things indifferent they always are In things doubtful 't is our safest course to have recourse to them provided that they be not of Corahs company that they exalt not themselves against Moses and Aaron nor draw us to it If they do we may say to them as Moses did to those Ye take too much upon you you Sons of Levi. God leads his People like a flock in peace and unity and by the hands of Moses and Aaron Thus 3. the Spirit guides into all truth because the Spirit is God and God so guides You have heard the way and means the first part of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Spirits guiding The Second follows his act and motion 1. He leads or guides us only he does not drive us that 's not the way to plant truth by force and violence fire and fagots not the Spirits sure which is the Spirit of love 2. Yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is we told you in it Some Act of the Spirit He moves and stirs up to it enlightens our understandings actuates our wills disposes ways and times occasions and opportunities to it that 's the reason we hear the truth more willingly at some time than other Paul
to unsaint the Saints to deny them their proper titles to level them with the meanest of our Servants We might learn better manners from the Angel here manners I say if it were nothing else for we dare not speak so to any here that are above us and we think much to be Thou'd without our titles by that new generation of possessed men who yet with more reason may call the best man thou then we the Apostles Iohn or Thomas But to descend to a particular survey of these Titles here Thou that art highly favoured so our new Translation renders it Full of grace so our old one hath it from the Latin Gratia plena and both right for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will carry both Grace is favour God's Grace is divine favour high in grace high in his favour full of his grace full of his favour all comes to one Now there is Gratia Creata and Increata Created grace and uncreated grace Created grace is either sanctifying or edifying the gifts of the Holy Spirit that sanctifie and make us holy or the gifts that make us serviceable to make others so The first to serve God in our selves as Faith Hope Charity and other graces The second to serve him in the Church such as the gift of Tongues of Prophesie of Healing and the like of each kind she had her fulness according to her measure and the designation that God appointed her For sanctifying Graces none fuller Solo Deo excepto God only excepted saith Epiphanius And 't is fit enough to believe that she vvho vvas so highly honoured to have her Womb filled vvith the body of the Lord had her soul as fully fill'd by the Holy Ghost For edifying Graces as they came not all into her measure she vvas not to preach to administer to govern to play the Apostle and therefore no necessity she should be full of all those gifts being those are not distributed all to any but unicuique secundum mensuram to every one according to his measure and employment and not at all times neither so neither is she said to be less ful for vvanting them There is one fulness of the Fountain another of the Brook another of a Vessel one fulnes of the Sea another of the River another of the Pond and yet all may be full Christ himself is said to be full of the Holy Ghost and St. Stephen is said to be full and others said to be full yet Christ as the Sea or Fountain they as the Rivulets or Rivers and yet all as they can hold 'T is so in Earth 't is so in Heaven And vvith such a fulness as the Brooks or Rivers is our Virgin full and with no other Where any edifying Grace vvas necessary for her she had it as well as others more perhaps than others Where it vvas not necessary it vvas no vvay to the impairing of her fulness though she had it not as the banks of the Rivers rose or the Channel was enlarged so were those graces but inter mulieres among women at the end makes me incline to think the fulness of Apostolick endowments do not any way belong to her women not being suffered in the times of the Apostles but to teach their children or servants at home never thought so full of the Spirit as to be sent to blow it all abroad And indeed it is not said here full of the Spirit but full of Grace and that is commonly understood of sanctifying Grace of which it is very convenient that we believe none fuller than she and the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not inforce it much higher in the business of created grace But in respect of the increated Grace that is of Christ with whom she was now so highly favoured as to be with Child none ever so filled with Grace indeed This was a grace of the highest nature of which created nature was never capable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well rendred highly highly favoured for 't is most highly can be imagined and this is her first title O thou that art highly favoured high in Gods grace and favour so high as to be made his Mother then sure made a fit receptacle for so great so holy a guest by the fulness of all grace and goodness From this follows the second Title Blessed blessed of God blessed of men blessed in the City and blessed in the Field Cities and Countreys call her blessed Blessed in the fruit of her body in her blessed Child Iesus Blessed in the fruit of her Ground her Cattel her Kine and her Sheep in the inferiour faculties of her soul and body all fructifie to Christ. Blessed her Basket and her Store her Womb and her Breasts the Womb that bare him and the Paps that gave him suck Blessed in her going out and in her coming in the Lord still being with her The good treasure of Heaven still open to her showring down upon her and the Earth fill'd with the blessings which she brought into the world when she brought forth the Son of God Blessed she indeed that was the Conduit of so great blessings though blessed most in the bearing him in her soul much more than bearing him in her body So Christ intimates to the woman that began to bless the Womb that is the Mother that bear him St. Luke xi 27. yea rather says he they that hear the word of God and keep it As if he had said she is more blessed in bearing the word in her soul than in her body But blessed she is Elizabeth by the Holy Spirit fell a blessing her when she came to see her And she her self by the same Spirit tells us all generations shall call her blessed ver 28. So we have sufficient example and authority to do it And I hope we will not suffer the Scripture to speak false but do it And 3. do it to her above all women Benedicta tu in mulieribus That 's her third Title Most blessed none so blessed none ever had Child so blessed none ever bore or brought forth Child as she Benedicta in mulieribus Blessed among women She indeed only blessed all others subject to the curse of in dolore paries of conceiving and bringing forth in sorrow She wholly free from that she a perpetual Virgin before and in and after Child-birth Christ came into her Womb insensibly came forth as it were insensibly too without groan or sorrow to her Blessed 2. among women they all henceforth saved by her Child-bearing notwithstanding she that is woman shall be saved in child-bearing 1 Tim. ii ie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by her child-bearing says a learned Commentator not their own but hers by the Child she bore and they therefore shall call her blessed Blessed 3. among women that is none more blessed then the best the highest of them none above the Mother of God none sure so good as she which now brings me to consider the grounds of all this honour
So that now we have gain'd the knowledge not only of his temporal but his eternal coming to his eternal Procession which though it be not the coming promised or intended here yet coming here upon the Context and Coherence relating so evidently to sending gives us but a just occasion both to remember to whom we owe this benefit the Father and the Son the greatness of it in that it is no less than infinite the Spirit of God God himself And 't is but fit here and every where to take notice of it that as the whence is above so the whither is beneath very much beneath him But we reserve that to a fitter place when we come to the persons that are guided by him 'T is best now to suspend a while the search of the nature to enquire into the time and manner of his coming But the time is next When he is come 3. Yea but when is that Sane novum supervenisse spiritum nova desideria demonstrant says St. Bernard you may know he is come by the desires he works in you when those begin to be spiritual hearty sincere and true to God then is the Spirit of truth come into you if you begin to long and breath and gasp after heaven 't is a sign some heavenly breath of the Spirit at least is slipt into you 2. When this Spirit that pants and beats after God within breaths out at the lips too ere it be long in prayers to God and praises of him in good communication all bitterness and malice and evil speaking and vanity too being laid aside as becommeth Saints This is a good sign too a true sign too if it be not meerly godly Phrases taken up to make a shew or to deceive if it proceed from the heart and inward Spirit 3. But the surest sign of it is in the hand in the works if they be such as are the genuine fruits of the Spirit Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance Gal. v. 23. These are the Spirits perpetual attendants when he comes Boast men may of the Spirit but if they have no love if they be not the Sons of peace if patience and long-suffering be no vertue with them if gentleness appear not in their carriage if goodness and bounty to the poor abound not in them as well as faith if they be not meek and humble and sober and temperate temperate in diet in apparel in language in passion and affections and all things else boast they while they will of the Spirit and the Spirit of truth that they have it work and move by it are guided by it it will prove but the Spirit of error or the Spirit of giddiness or the Spirit of slumber they do but dream it or but their own Spirit at the best for such a one we read of and of Prophets that went according to it Ezek. xiii 3. foolish Prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing ignorant Prophets who know nothing yet pretend they know more than all the Learned all the Fathers that are gone crafty Foxes only they are says the Prophet ver 4. cunning to spoil and ravine that seduce the people saying peace when there is no peace ver 8. they build and dawb with untempered morter ver 10. build up Babel the house of confusion and plaister up all the Scriptures Texts that are against them with incoherent Comments wild distinctions and interpretations that stick together like untempered mortar they make the righteous sad and strengthen the hands of the wicked that he should not return from his wicked way by promising him life ver 22. and yet they there pretended the Spirit that he was come to them and God had sent them when indeed it was no other Spirit from the Lord than such a one as came from him upon Saul when the good Spirit was departed from him The Spirit of truth wants no such covering no such morter makes not the righteous sad makes no body sad by any oppression joy is the fruit of it strengthens not the wicked in his wickedness it is all for justice and righteous dealing And where it comes upon any it as Samuel foretold it 1 Sam. x. 6. and Saul found it 1 Sam. x. 9. gives him another heart turns him into another man The new man St. Paul calls it created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. iv 2. Indeed there was another kind of coming of his this Day He came to day not only into the hearts but upon the heads of the Apostles sate there and thence disperst his heavenly light into rays and flames came down in wind and fire and tongues in wind to shew that it was the Holy Spirit the very breath of heaven that came in fire to signifie the light of truth it brought and in tongues to express it to the world But it was his Inauguration day the first solemnity of his appearance that so both the Disciples and the World might know that come he was whom Christ had promised and be convinced by a visible apparition who else would not have been convicted by any inward evidence which had been without it But thus he appeared but only once In the effect of Tongues indeed but not in the appearance of them he twice afterwards fell upon some Disciples upon the Centurion and his Company the first fruits of the Gentiles Acts x. 46. and upon those Disciples at Ephesus who knew nothing but Iohn's Baptism that so they might sensibly find the difference of Iohn's Baptism and Christs Acts xix 6. They both assoon as they were baptized spake with tongues says the Text the one so honour'd to teach this truth that in all Nations whoever doth righteousness shall be accepted the Gentiles now in Christ as well accepted as the Iews the other so highly favoured that imperfect Christians might be encouraged to go on and not be dismaied to see so many glorious Professors so exceedingly transcend them These comings were miraculous only to found Christianity and settle an Article of Faith the Article of the Holy Ghost never distinctly known to the world till Christianity arose Christ himself was fain to confirm his Divinity by signs and miracles and the God-head of the Holy Ghost can be perswaded by no less But this once done he was to lead us by an ordinary tract no longer now by sight but faith that salvation might be through faith 1 Pet. i. 5. and the blessing upon them who have not seen and yet have believed St. Iohn xx 29. This I must needs say seems the prime and proxime meaning of the words but not the full When he is come points chiefly and nearest at this his first and nearest coming but not only at it Else are we in an ill case now if no spirit to come to us no guide to lead us no truth to settle us It must extend beyond that his visible coming to the ways of his coming unto us