to Life Everlasting but he that believes by a special mercy to him in particular his sins are forgiven or which is all one that he is elected for without that there is no remission The Faith of the Gospel they think is too general without life and common to the Devils who believe and tremble they are Believers and Quakers too and yet are Devils I cannot say how much of the Gospel they believe but by their trembling and their own confession to our Saviour Art thou come to torment us before our time that they believed the Article of the last Judgment that they shall be one day tormented for their sins By the way the Devils may shame them that have not learned so far in their Creed But notwithstanding this we must not be so kind to the Devils as to think they have the Faith of the Gospel because that works by love Circumcision availeth not any thing nor uncircumcision but faith that worketh by love Gal. 5.6 I think no man hath so much charity for the Devils as to think they have any There is no reason therefore why the Faith of the Gospel should suffer for their sakes The word of Faith saith St. Paul Rom. 10.8 is that which we preach and that was the Gospel Our particular election may be written in the Book of Life in Heaven but it is no where to be found written in the Book of the Gospel True Faith is that which we preach saith the Apostle but this Faith of Election no man can preach for who can say and say truly of his own knowledge that I or you or any man by name is elected Now if this Faith cannot come by hearing what will become of our Sermons indeed of any thing that can be called Religion or Sowing to the Spirit for that leads us a way to Heaven through believing some mysteries we understand not through many a heavy and hard law of mortification and denying our selves whereas this Faith cuts off all that and may well go for sowing to the flesh For first in favour to this it shrinks up all the duties of the Gospel into Faith and then all Faith into one Article and that not in the Creed neither and something they pare from that too it works not as an act which we may call ours for that will prejudice Gods free Grace but as a relation to Christ and in the Logick Schools it is disputed whether Relations have any real being or no. And thus all hangs upon a Pins point and leaves not a Corn to be sown to the Spirit We may therefore conclude that this and the other Pretenders are all deceived mistake the Field of the Spirit which is the Gospel and sowe quite beside it It will be now time to enter into the Field it self and see what work the Spirit there sets us to It is a large Field and reaches as far as the Gospel indeed too large to be passed through at one time But this as a great Country may be seen in a little Chart. 1. One of the works and a chief design of the Spirit in the Gospel is a godly righteous and vertuous life 2. And a second is like to it A right Faith in the Mystery of Christ and Salvation 3. A third is a devout and reverent worship of God in Prayers Praises and Confessions 4. A fourth is a careful use of the auxiliaries of Grace Sacraments Fastings and other acts of Humiliation 5. Fifthly Then we have the adorning all these with comely and decent Ceremonies This last though far from the Heart of Religion is yet within the Body of it as well as the rest One thing more I have not yet named which seems at a farther distance from the great duties of the Gospel and yet hath the advantage above the rest that it is here expresly called sowing to the Spirit and what that is we shall learn from the Verse precedent where 6. The Apostle exhorts him that is taught in the Word to communicate to him that teacheth in all good things If there be any coherence in the discourse any reason in the rational Particle for For he that soweth unto the Spirit The communicating our Goods for the Gospel is true sowing to the Spirit This duty therefore together with those already named are all Sowing to the Spirit and have a joint tendency to life everlasting For the meaning is not that any of them apart make a full Title to it but according to their quality and degree carry us their part in the way towards it It is therefore but a piece of fraud and Sophistry to discountenance one duty by setting up a greater against it as the manner is that the main purpose of the Gospel looks another way And so run down one duty with another the less with the greater as Great Persons do their Inferiors This is not onely a Deceit but plain mocking of God who commands both and a setting him against himself I note this Fallacy in common that it be not made use of here on our particular to mislead us from the due regard ought to be given to the maintenance of those that minister in the Gospel though it be not the accomplishment of the great duties yet hath a remote influence upon all Set it in as low a place in Gods House as you please but for the Spirits sake let it not be turned out of dores I single out this duty from the rest that may deserve our care more and need it less It hath fewer friends to speak for it I confess but the true reason why I do it is because it was the particular occasion of the Apostles delivering this doctrine and in this I shall keep both a better measure with the Time and with the Apostles intention and it is a point too wherein we are as much deceived as in any Our worldly Goods by nature and kind are Carnal yet being sown to the Spirit become spiritual they are infranchised and incorporate into the Family and Retinue of the Spirit they alter their property not by imprinting any real indelible character into them as envy and ill-will objects but giving onely the respect that persons of low birth have when they are adopted or affianced into a more noble Stock When the Flesh serves the Spirit it is advanced above her condition the Volatile nature of the Flesh is fixed by the Spirit and helps to make up the title to everlasting life This is warrant enough for me to make a Suit and reward enough for those that grant it That for Gods sake and the Spirits when the Church Revenue comes into your thoughts to cast an eye if not of duty of compassion upon such miserable places where there is but too much necessity for it I can speak of my own knowledge that there are many hundreds of Parishes in this Kingdom where there is not so much yearly maintenance for serving the Cure as one of your Foot-men stand
and just That if the Pope would not know his business that Princes should know theirs This is my First Instance of the Troubles that by this means brake into the whole Church We need not go far from home for another We were in a sad case not long since in this Kingdom by a Civil War I meddle not with the fault let that sleep under the Act of Oblivion We may I trust without offence enquire into the cause of it What were they doing that gave us that disquiet Look upon the Standard set up for the War I mean the most Execrable COVENANT Quomodo legis how read you there was it not medling with business was none of their own They Covenanted first to extirpate the Government of the Church established by Law That Law with hands lifted up to Heaven they swore they would abolish The Legislative Power we know in whom it is to make or mend Laws it was none of their business In this they were certainly too bold with the Kings Scepter At the next turn they take hold of his Sword too and engage themselves to a mutual Defence against all Opposition This also was none of their business For though a Self-defence may be allow'd as natural to all it is against private not publick Opposition and then too as Divines generally resolve Cum moderamine inculpatae Tutelae never to the hurt of others that is Every man may defend himself clypeo but not every one gladio The Sword is the Kings and He that takes it from any hand but His where God hath plac'd it shall perish with the Sword In this the Covenanters as ill as they like Bishops would be in the Apostles phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 4.15 the worst sort of Bishops that is medlers in business was none of their own The Worshippers of the Covenant have therefore been well dealt with as the worshippers of the Golden Calf were by Moses Exod. 32.20 As he made them drink that so have they been made to eat this though some of them be found of so foolishly distempered stomacks that they choose rather to part with that which is their own than renounce a Business was none of their own But the Covenant is past and let it go I wish for quiet sake we may never hear of the like again This was transient But there still remains a permanent and habitual Disturbance of our Peace in the multitude and swarms of SECTS and Factions in Religion to which it is naturally and inseparably inherent An incurable mischief like the Leprosie on the walls that could not be cleansed but by pulling down the House From these we have felt already but too much and have cause yet to fear more But can we charge them with doing a business is none of their own Can any thing be more properly our own business than the care of our souls and to serve God in the best manner that our understandings and Consciences shall direct us They are mistaken that think the Charge lies upon this issue what every man may do for himself and his own salvation He may without question do very much for he may keep all Gods Commandments if he can and when he cannot he may be truly contrite and penitent for breaking them and then he may assuredly believe his sins shall be forgiven him by the merits and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ And again He may serve and worship God with as much fervency and devotion as he can and will he may abound in Charity Meekness Humility Patience and Temperance and all other Christian vertues And so long as ye thus follow that which is good saith S. Peter who will harm you And I may say too 1 Pet. 3.13 who can hinder you in all this but if he makes himself a party in a Sect if there be assembling together in companies gather Congregations incorporate in a Body module Churches give Laws of Doctrine and Worship set up Teachers and Leaders of their own to all this they have as little Right as they have need A man may go far ye see in Religion without troubling any and if then they fall into some Error or Misbelief in Religion they ought not to be severely handled but when they betake themselves to a Sect that alters the case it will then be compassion mistaken A Locust alone is no such perilous beast to be fear'd or regarded by any but when they come in shoals and swarms and cover the face of the earth they are a plague to the Countrey where they light So to look upon a Sectary single who out of simplicity and good meaning follows his Conscience our hearts should be every whit as tender for them as their Consciences are But if we look upon them in Company they are as ill and dangerous as the company they are found in and the danger of all popular Meetings and Associations to a State makes it the proper business of a King and his Ministers to look to it and to provide against it wherein the care hath been taken deserves a just commendation And yet when I assert and refer this business to the KING I look to be call'd to an account for that For they take the boldness by way of recrimination to turn the Text upon the King himself That His Power is Civil and Matters of the Church and Religion are Ecclesiastical and so none of his business This is I confess too weighty a matter to be here thrust into the corner of a Sermon yet it will be necessary to say so much as may somewhat lay that loud clamour against it For the Papists and Presbyterians both how ill soever they may agree in other matters hunt in couples against the Kings Power and SUPREMACY But as we denie not all to others in their places so we claim not all for the King If I shall but only now set out His Part in matters of the Church it will appear sufficiently that he is Rectus in Curia stands right in the Text and takes not upon him business which is not his own We acknowledge the Civil and Ecclesiastical to be two distinct Powers and though they may be both in one Person and were originally so yet by the Divine positive Laws both of Jews and Christians they were so distinguished that though one person were capable of both yet not without a lawful Title and Investiture to either I cannot therefore think That the King is an Ecclesiastical Person who was never Ordained or Consecrated to be so Therefore when some Learned in our Laws affirm That the KING is Supreme Ordinary and mixta persona it must be understood in some other sense and for some other purpose for we do not find that he attempts the doing any thing that is the proper act of an Ecclesiastical Person Yes they say he claims by his Title of Supremacy To govern all persons in all causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil We
begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh The Spirit is the Gospel and the Law the Flesh they are so called Heb. 9.10 Carnal Ordinances and the reason why is intimated because they were temporal imposed upon them until the time of Reformation and no longer whereas the Gospel abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 Thus we see that Christ and Faith and the Gospel and the Spirit must all meet in the title to everlasting life if we separate and divide them we are certainly deceived it is a fallacy à compositis ad divisa dividing those things which the Spirit hath joyned together And by this we may trie and examine the sufficiency of their Pleas apart and divided First For those that make their title to life from Christ alone that they are Christians at large not to be tied up by any particular rules of Faith or Obedience that is to divide Christ from his Gospel against his own will who promised to reward them that forsook any thing for his sake and the Gospel he joins them both together Mark 10.29 and will not own them for his friends that do not all that he commands them John 15. and they shall find more Work-commandments in the Gospel then a fantastical name of Christianity Whilest by this means they think to avoid Schism they make one for they are Schismaticks upon record 1 Cor. 1.10 It is declared saith Saint Paul that there are divisions the Greek word is Schisms among you every one of you saith I am of Paul I am of Apollos I am of Cephas I am of Christ Is that a Schism to be for Christ Yes sure it is dividing of him for he adds Is Christ divided and how could that be but from his Apostles whom he had appointed to instruct them in the Gospel and had made them as it were one person with himself He that hears you hears me And thus was Christ divided What could probably be the cause of this separation from them but that they were not satisfied either with their Doctrine or severity of their Discipline sought to shroud themselves under the name of Christ not out of a great respect to him and his Doctrine which we may well presume could not differ but because it was a more plausible way to shift off their Authority by appealing from the Servants to the Master Much after this Copy do our Christians of the Latitude write They believe in Christ without a Creed they obey him without doing his Will they worship him no man knows how but every man as he likes and if he likes that better not at all As these are deceived by dividing Christ from his Gospel so secondly others by the same fallacie divide the Spirit from it So fully was the Mystery of Christ made known in the Gospel by the Spirit that St. John gives a charge that if there come any that bring not that Doctrine not to receive him nor bid him God speed 2 Joh. 10. This Doctrine serves not many mens purpose they must have other Doctrines and to credit them other Spirits too Every one will have a Familiar Spirit of his own to teach him But are we to look for no other Instruction from the Spirit but what is already taught in the Gospel that is to depose him of his Office from the time that the Gospel was first revealed and leave him no work to do after God forbid there are many other excellent Offices of the Spirit besides Revelation there is the Spirit of Sanctification whereof we have continual need to infuse all divine Graces and Vertues into us to assist and strengthen us in all our infirmities to lead us out of temptations troubles and dangers which every day surround us yet not to reveal anew what we are to believe or do which is already done in the Gospel And yet the Spirit will help us in that too For when any difficulty or contention arise about them we may and must pray for the Spirits assistance to clear our understandings by removing pride and prejudice that obscure it to inflame us with a true love of truth not to dictate and reveal or whisper any thing which is not to be seen in the Gospel as well by the eyes of others as our own But doth not the Spirit bear witness to our spirits that we are the children of God This can be no other but a private Spirit That this Text stand not in our way Rom. 8.16 we must distinguish not onely as I have said already the Spirit by the several operations of revealing and sanctifying So of the several kinds of bearing witness which is either proper by affirming or denying any thing expresly or improperly by proof and argument from the Nature and Incidents of the matter in question as Acts 14.17 God left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons Rain and fruitful seasons affirm nothing of God yet prove sufficiently his Godhead Power and Providence in governing the World Now the Spirit in both these senses doth bear witness to our spirits that we are the children of God without the help of private Revelations For if we speak of bearing witness properly the publick Spirit in the Gospel will effect that where it gives this testimony That whosoever believes repents and amends his life is the Child of God when our spirits can experimentally assume that we are so qualified then the Spirit in the Gospel beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God And if we speak of bearing witness in the other sense of proving by argument and reason then the Spirit of Sanctification working a real change in us a detestation of Sin and a true love and practice of Vertue and Godliness beareth witness to our Spirits that we are the children of God Here is therefore no place in this Text for private Revelations and I wish they had none amongst us for under colour of them every one will have a private Spirit though of his own making No Chymist can extract Natural Spirits out of any thing with more ease then they can Divine any vain Dream or Imagination nay any wicked devilish suggestion shall be an impulse of Gods Spirit It were happy for this Kingdom and Church if we could lay these Familiar Spirits No Schism in the Church no Mischief in the Commonwealth no Rebellious Practice which was not carried on by the conduct and impulse of these Spirits Thus by them they trouble the World deceive simple men and work despite to the Spirit of God There is yet another title made to Life-everlasting upon the same fallacie by Faith divided from the Gospel Faith hath been an unhappy word of contention but I shall onely take notice here of the insufficiency of the Plea of that Faith which by those that invented it is called Fides specialis misericordiae that no man is justified and by consequence hath right