which he very often imprints on us with that life and vigour and repeats and urges with that efficacious Ardour and restless Importunity that unless we are strangely obstinate we cannot find in our hearts to repel or resist them Fourthly Another of these ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit on mens minds is comforting and supporting them or inspiring their minds with such joys and refreshments as are necessary to support them under the difficulties and temptations they are here exposed to For this operation of the Spirit is a standing provision against such Difficulties and Temptations as are too great for an ordinary patience and courage to conâ—est with and is not ordinarily vouchsafed to us but only at such times when we are called to do or suffer something beyond our selves and above our own strength and ability in which cases we are secured of this supporting influence of the Spirit by that Promise 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithful who will not suffer ye to be tempted above what ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it For thus we read of the Primitive Church that they walked in the comfort of the Holy Ghost Acts 9.31 i. e. had the constant supporting influence of the Spirit of God to strengthen and bear up their minds under that mighty work and grievous persecutions they were to undergo and the Apostle makes it his earnest Prayer to God for his Christian Romans that he would fill them with all joy and peace in believing that is in their profession of the Christian Faith and that they might abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.13 And accordingly we find the Ages of Persecution abounding with remarkable instances of this operation of the Holy Ghost For whereas constant Persecutions never failed to exterminate false Religions from the World witness the Heathen Religion and the Christian Heresies the Priscillians Arians and Donatists which whilst they were tolerated or connived at did mightily encrease and multiply but under vigorous persecutions immediately shrunk and in a little time dwindled into nothing the true Christianity on the contrary bore up its head under the heaviest oppressions and triumphed in the midst of flames and was so far from being vanquished by all the barbarous cruelties of its Persecutors that the more they persecuted it the more it conquered and prevailed which doubtless is in a great measure to be attributed to this supporting influence of the Holy Spirit which still accompanied its Confessors and Martyrs For how was it possible that a company of tender Virgins delicate Matrons and aged Bishops could ever have endured those long and dolorous Martyrdoms as many times they did when their Tormentors took their turns from morning to night and plied them with all kinds of cruelties till they were oftentimes forced to give over and confess that they had not heart enough to inflict the Tortures which those poor Sufferers had courage enough to endure How could they have sung in the midst of Flames smiled upon Racks triumphed upon Wheels and Catastaes and there challenged their Executioners as they often did to distend their Limbs to the utmost stretch to tear their flesh with Vngulae to scorch their tender parts with fires and rake their bowels with Spikes and Gaunches How I say could they have endured all these miserable harrasings of their tender flesh with the most witty and exquisite Tortures and this sometimes for sundry days together when for one base and cowardly word they might have been released when they pleased had they not been supported with an invisible hand and refreshed with such strong consolations as not only abated but sometimes quite extinguished their pains And the same comforts though not perhaps in the same degree other good men have frequently experienced sometimes upon their undertaking some great and Heroick Office of Piety or Vertue sometimes in their conflict with some great Temptation sometimes when they have been sorely oppressed with some mighty sorrow or affliction and sometimes in the hour and extremities of Death for it is only upon these or such like extraordinary occasions that the Holy Spirit usually administers these great Consolations to our minds And this he also performs in the same manner as he doth the aforenamed operations viz. by suggesting to and vigorously impressing comfortable thoughts upon our minds for there is no doubt but that as he can impress on us what thought soever he pleases so he can also impress it with what strength and vigour soever he pleases and accordingly as he impresses a comfortable thought on us more or less vigorously it must of necessity be a greater or a less consolation to us if he think fit and our state require it he can imprint a comfortable thought on us with that strength and vehemence as that it shall even ravish us from our sense and so ingross all our attention to it as that we shall be altogether mindless and insensible of any pain or pleasure of the body For thus it is usual for serious Contemplators in their profound Muses to collect and call together all their animal spirits to attend that work so as that many times there are none or not enough at least remaining to supply the Offices of their sense and carry on the inferiour operations of Nature and if we our selves by intense thinking can thus alienate our minds from sense we may easily suppose that the Holy Ghost who hath the command of our minds can when he pleases stamp a joyous thought so vigorously upon them as that it shall instantly transport them into an ecstasie and ravish them from all Corporeal sensation And that thus he hath done is notoriously evident in the above-named Martyrs whose Senses were many times so intranced by the rapturous contemplations their minds were seised with that they lay smiling and sometimes singing under the bloudy hands of their Tormentors without any apparent sense of those long and exquisite cruelties that were practised upon them And though the blessed Spirit seldom applies these strong and powerful Cordials to pious minds but in such great and urgent extremities it being much more for their interest to be kept humble and lowly than to be ravished with continued comforts yet ordinarily he administers a standing peace and satisfaction to them and when ever their necessities call for it he inspires them with such degrees of joy and consolation as their case and condition requires Fifthly and lastly Another of these ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit on Men's minds is Intercession by which he enables us to offer up our Prayers to God with such ardent and devout affections as are in some measure sutable to the matter we pray for For Prayer being the immediate converse of our Souls with God wherein our minds are obliged to withdraw themselves from sense and sensible things and wholly to retire themselves from those Objects to
illumination of the Spirit Secondly Another of these ordinary operations of the Spirit is Sanctification which consists in the purifying our Wills and Affections from those wicked Inclinations and inordinate Lusts which countermand God's Will in us and set us at enmity against him and this also the Scripture attributes to the Holy Spirit So Tit. 3.5 For according to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and in 1 Cor. 6.11 But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of our Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of our God. And this is the meaning of our being sealed by the Spirit so often mentioned in the New Testament viz. our receiving his Image or Impression from him which consists in holiness and righteousness and by this Image or Impression we are discriminated and set apart from the rest of the World as a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation and a peculiar People 1 Pet. 2.9 and made Kings and Priests unto God Rev. 1.6 upon which account we are said to be anointed by the Spirit 1 John 2.20 and by the same Image we are also intitled to and secured of all the blessings of the New Covenant upon which account it is called The earnest of the Spirit and the first-fruits of the Spirit And this Image of himself the Holy Ghost produces in us by suggesting to our minds the powerful Motives and Arguments of Religion and by often reiterating imprints them upon us with all their native force and efficacy in the most lively and affecting Characters and by these his blessed suggestions he by degrees perswades and bends our stubborn Wills mâ—lts and mollifies our hard hearts reduces and tempers our wild affections to a willing compliance with the Will of God and at length to a hearty complacency in all those instances of Piety and Vertue wherein our Sanctification or this Image of himself consists Which operation of the Spirit we frequently experience in our selves For how often do we find good thoughts injected into our minds we know not how nor whence which are many times improved into such strong and vehement convictions of the folly and danger of our sin as even in the midst of our loose mirth and jollity and in despite of all our endeavour to chase them from our minds and rock our selves into a deep security cease not to follow and haunt and importune us till they have scared us into wise and sober Resolutions and though we like ungrateful Creatures do oftentimes stifle the good motions of the Spirit and turn a deaf Ear to his Calls and gracious Invitations yet doth he not presently give us over but still as we are running away from him we hear a voice behind us calling after us to return and though we still run on yet still he follows us with his importunities through the whole course of our sinful life till either he hath brought us back or sees us past all hope of recovery And indeed such is the degeneracy of our Natures the vanity of our Minds and the prejudice of our Wills and Affections against God and Goodness that without this sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost it is certain no man ever was or ever will be reclaimed to a state of Piety and Vertue For though our Religion furnishes with such Motives as are infinitely sufficient to perswade us and though our Minds and Wills are not so depraved but that still we are naturally capable to consider and naturally free to follow those Motives yet so vain and roving are our Minds so averse to all serious and spiritual thoughts so stubborn and inflexible are our Wills to those spiritual duties which those Motives perswade to so cankered and prejudiced against them that did not the Holy Ghost frequently impress them on our Minds and Pathetically urge and apply them to our Wills and Affections we should never of our selves so throughly consider them as to be conquered and perswaded by them but either our thoughts would presently fly away from them and rove into sensual cares or pleasures or our Wills and Affections by objecting their prejudices and the interest of their Lusts against them would infallibly bâ—ssle and defeat them So that it is to this sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost that all the Graces and good Dispositions of our Minds are owing Thirdly Another of thâ—se ordinary operations of the Spiâ—it is Quickning or Exciting us in the ways of Piety and Vertue For as by his sanctifying influence he first inspires us with spiritual life so he still proceeds to cherish and invigorate it and to quicken it up into Activity and Motion wheâ—ever he perceives it droop or languish Hence the Apostle Gal. 5.25 If we live by the Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit i. e. if we have recâ—iâ—ed spirituâ—l life from him let us move and act by him and hence also we are said to be led by the Spirit of God i. e. to be moved and conducted in our motion by him Rom. 8.14 And this he also doth partly by admonishing and putting us in mind of our duty which in the Câ—â—ud and Hurry of our Worldly occasions we are too prone to forget and partly suggesting to our minds such considerations of Religion as are most apt to quicken ouâ— sluggish endeavour to allure our hope or alarm our fear or â—ffâ—ct our ingenuity and by thâ—se to excite our zeal and render us more active and vâ—gorous in the ways of Piety and Vertue and of this operation of the Holy Spirit there is no good man but hath frequent experience For thus when our thoughts are squandered abroad among our worldly cares and pleasures we are many times assaulted with unexpected temptations which â—inding our minds in a careless forgetful and incogitant posture are apt to surprise and hurry us into sinful actions before we are aware in which nick of time a good thought is suddenly shot into our minds to warn and admonish us of the precipice of sin and guilt we are falling into by which if we are not wilfully deaf and inadvertent to it the temptation is discovered and baffled and defeated and thus also when through the many temptations that do here surround us our zeal for God and goodness doth at any time languish and we begin to grow cold and indifferent in Religion we find a world of good thoughts pressing so hard upon our minds as that without doing violence to our selves we cannot avoid listening and attending to them and when they have almost forced themselves into our attention there they do so vigorously struggle with our reluctant Wills so Pathetically address to our listless affections that without equal violence to our selves we cannot avoid being moved by their perswasions and at last conquered by their powerful importunities Now these good thoughts are many times the immediate inspirations and whispers of the Holy Spirit to our minds
are all equally obliged not to Communicate with any Church upon sinful terms of Communion and that Church which excludes all parts of the Catholick Church from its Communion must in so doing separate it self from the Communion of the Catholick Church And so on the other hand that Church which refuses the Communion of any other Church upon lawful and Catholick terms doth thereby separate it self from Communion of all parts of the Church Catholick because it separates from a part that is in Communion with all the parts of it for that Church which may be lawfully Communicated with is in Communion with all other Churches that are in Communion with the Catholick Church and therefore that Church which separates from its Communion cannot be in the number of those Churches that are in Communion with the Catholick Church and how then can this separating Church be in the Communion of the Catholick Church when it is out of the Communion of any one of those Churches of which the Catholick Church consists All those particular Churches therefore into which the Catholick Church is distributed must be in Communion with each other otherwise they are so far from being distributions of the Catholick Church that they are only so many Schisms and divisions from it For if every Christian is obliged by his Baptism to Communicate with the Catholick Church and if he can no otherwise Communicate with it than by Communicating with some particular Church which is in Communion with the Church Catholick and lastly if no particular Church can be in Communion with the Church Catholick which is not in Communion with all the Churches of which the Church Catholick consists then it is absolutely necessary that all those Churches into which the Church Catholick is distributed should maintain a Catholick Communion with one another Eighthly and lastly The Communion which these particular Churches into which the Catholick Society of Christians is distributed hold with each other is threefold 1. In all the Essentials of Christian Faith 2. In all the Essentials of Christiâ—n Worship 3. In all the Essâ—ntials of Christian Discipline I. In all the Essentials of Christian Faith By the Essentials of Christian Faith I mean those Doctrines the belief of which is necessary to the very being of Christianity for as in all Arts and Sciences there are some first Principles upon which the whole Scheme of their Doctrines depends and the denial of which like the removing the foundations of a building dissolves and ruines the whole structure so in Christianity there are some Principles so fundamental to it as that the removal of them shakes the whole Scheme of it in pieces Now the great Fundamental as the Apostle tells us is Jesus Christ for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 so that by removing the belief of Iesus Christ from the Christian Religion we necessarily sink and dissolve the whole structure and accordingly the Apostle pronounces those men Apostates from Christianity who hold not the head which is Jesus Christ Col. 2.19 but yet the bare belief of Iesus Christ or of this Proposition that Christ came from God and was his Messias and Anointed is not all that is essential to the Christian Faith which includes not only his Mission from God but also the end of his Mission viz. to be a Mediator between God and Man. For Christianity as it is distinguished from Natural Religion is nothing but the Religion of the Mediator as consisting wholly of the Doctrine of the Mediator together with the duties thence arising so that whatsoever Proposition the Mediatorship of Christ necessarily and immediately implies it is a fundamental Article of the Christian Faith which no man can deny without innovating the whole Religion and turning it into a quite different Doctrine from true and real Christianity For this Proposition that Christ came from God to Mediate between God and Man includes the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and therefore whatsoever Proposition is either so necessarily included in it or so inseparably conjoyned with it as that the denial of it doth by necessary and immediate consequence overthrow the Mediation of our Saviour it must be essential to the Christian Faith and the more necessary Connection there is between any particular Doctrine and this all-comprehending Doctrine of the Mediation the more necessary and essential it is to the Christian Faith. Now whosoever believes not or at least denies any Essential part of the Christian Faith is not a Christian and that not only because he wants a part of that Faith which denominates men Christians but also because by disbelieving that part he doth by necessary consequence overthrow the whole of Christianity for so Tertul. de Praescr c. 37. expresly asserts Si Haeretici sunt Christiani esse non possunt i. e. they who are Hereticks cannot be Christians and hence it is that Hereticks who are such as obstinately deny any fundamental Article of Christianity are in Scripture ranked in the same Câ—ass with Heathens and Infidels for all true Christians are required to shun and avoid them as unclean persons the very touch of whose conversation was enough to defile them Rom. 16.17 and the Governours of the Church are required to anathematize or exclude them from all Christian Communion Gal. 1.8 to reject them Tit. 3.10 and withdraw themselves from them 1 Tim. 6.5 that is to treat them as Heathens and Infidels who have no right or title to Christian Communion and if Heretical persons are to be thus treated then much more are Heretical Churches and if every single Heretick be condemned of himself as the Apostle affirms Tit. 3.11 i. e. excommunicated by his own Sentence or Doctrine whereby he voluntarily departs from the Church and so cuts off himself from its Communion then certainly so is every Heretical Community and therefore as such must be utterly unqualified for Christian Communion And if Heresie excommunicates not only Heretical Persons but Heretical Societies then a common Agreement in all the Essentials of Christian Faith which is the opposite of Heresie is necessarily included in Catholick Communion and accordingly the Scripture frequently presses all Christian People to this common agreement as to a most essential part of their Communion with each other For so they are required to mind or think one and the same thing Phil. 2.2 to stand fast in one spirit with one mind 2 Cor. 13.11 to walk by the same rule and think the same thing Phil. 1.27 to be joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment 1 Cor. 1.10 To hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 to strive together for the faith of the Gospel Phil. 1.27 and to keep that which is committed to us 1 Tim. 6.20 which is that one form of Doctrine which was delivered to us Rom· 6.17 The meaning of all which is not to oblige us to be of one mind and judgment in all points