heart and spirit Psal 31.9 10. It makes men heavy lumpish and sad averse unto all action as if they had neither life nor soul as we use to say being like unto Davids Images That have hands and handle not feet and walk not c. Psal 115.7 And Jobs three Friends Job 2.13 cast themselves down with him upon the ground and for seven daies and seven nights together none of them speaking so much as a word unto him the reason is given because they saw that his grief was very great Meaning as Junius well interprets it That the greatness of that grief which they perceived had taken hold of the spirit and soul of their Friend so afflicted them and because that sympathy commiseration had wrought such a grief in them that they sate all this while as persons astonished and were not able to stir up themselves to comfort him by these instances you may see it is the nature of grief to contract the heart and to make men listless unto action In like manner the Spirit through the ungrateful disobedient and unworthy behaviour of men towards him is said to be grieved when by such means men have wrought him if we may so speak to the like listlessness of acting and putting forth the excellencie of his power in their hearts and souls as formerly he did and doth sometime in others On the other hand a man is never in a right posture for action or for the doing of any thing that is of any good or great concernment unto others but when he enjoyeth himself upon the highest and richest terms of satisfaction and contentment So then the Spirit of God is said to be grieved by men when they shall deal so unkindly with or by him as to reject and neglect his heavenly motions and inspirations by giving over such and such waies of honour Christian excellency and worth which they had sometime lift up their hearts and hands unto and walked with delight in them When men I say shall cease to go on in such waies as these and prefer the ignoble and base motions of the Flesh or of the World before those that come from him and which are all honourable and heavenly such a demeanour of men towards the Spirit of God grieveth him that is Maketh him listless unto action and causeth him to abate and to fall lower in his operations and to give out himself more faintly than before Whereas he had been active and ever and anon stirring and provoking them and this with efficacie and power unto this and that good way and work now he withdraweth by degrees and declineth these motions and operations upon which the soul of man becomes listless and dull to any thing of a spiritual concernment like a Ship becalmed on the Seas whose Sails a little before were filled with fresh and pleasant gales of wind carrying her amain to her desired Port. Now then if it be a duty lying upon Christians not to grieve the Spirit Then by the authority of both the Rules by which we found out the true sense of our former proof both of them being as proper and useful here it is their duty also to chear and delight the Spirit I mean to keep themselves in such a frame or posture both inwardly in heart and soul and outwardly in life and conversation that he may take delight in them And if it be the duty of Christians to be pleasing unto and compliant with the Spirit simply indefinitely and in any degree Then upon the grounds formerly argued and made good it is more their duty to endeavour with their whole heart and soul to please him in the highest Now when he taketh delight and pleasure in any man in more than an ordinary degree he will signifie not only his contentment in this kind but even the measure and degree of it also by a proportionable advancement of his gracious activity upon all occasions This is that we intend and hold forth in the Doctrine from the Apostles expression of being filled with the Spirit which also by warrant of the same authority we affirm to be a duty lying upon all Christians We shall insist only upon one proof more to confirm the truth of the Doctrine Sect. 11 Be kindly affectioned saith the Apostle one unto another c. Be not slothful in business but fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.10 11. To be fervent in Spirit especially in the Service of God or of Christ requires a great presence or fulness of the Spirit of God in a man For the Spirit of a man acted only by it self or by its own strength wisdom or goodness will never rise so high in any true and real Service of god as fervency of spirit doth import Neither will an ordinary presence or assistance of the Spirit of God himself carry the heart of a man up unto any such pitch of devotion He that will have an ear to hearken to the voice of this Exhortation of being fervent in spirit in the Service of the Lord must find out a way how to engage and how to comport with the Spirit of God that he may vouchsafe unto him a measure of his presence heaped up to make him capable of so great and worthy an undertaking Yea men I suppose cannot be fervent in spirit in doing any thing which they call or judge to be the Service of God although it be a Service of their own fansie or genius or of some worse deity unless they be acted therein by a spirit more active than their own So then if it be a duty lying upon all Christians to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord then is it a duty that beareth with the same weight upon them to be filled with the Spirit Inasmuch as the performance of the former of these duties cannot stand but by the performance of the latter so that from hence it is evident that it is a duty incumbent upon all Christians to be filled with the Spirit Besides these Scriptures now argued we might if need were increase their number for the proof of our Doctrine by arguing in like manner all those Scriptures which require such things of men that cannot be performed by men without a being filled with the Spirit such passages of these which are not a few do clearly import that it is a duty yea a duty of duties such a duty without the performance whereof great numbers of other duties will suffer and never appear in their glory Texts of this import are these with their fellows Rom 8.13 Joh. 16.24 Luke 21.36 CHAP. II. The first Reason of the Doctrine propounded and argued viz That it is the duty of all persons especially of all the Professors of the Gospel or Christianity to be filled with the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God Because if men be not filled or in a way of being filled with the Spirit of God they will be filled with some evil Spirit one or other IT is
〈◊〉 be ye filled in or with or through the Spirit For to be filled with the Spirit or through the Spirit is one and the same Now fulness or filling in the Scripture Language do not alwaies indeed very seldom if at all signifie an absolute or exact fulness or a filling up to the brim as we use to say or as great a quantity or proportion of a thing as the subject or vessel is any waies able to contain or receive for in this sense no man was ever filled with the Holy Ghost except it was he that was more than a man the Lord Christ himself to whom God is said to have given the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without measure or not by measure Joh. 3.34 But things or persons in Scripture Phrase are said to be full or filled with a thing when they have a good rich and plentiful proportion of it Thus Acts 9.36 Dorcas is said to be full of good works when she had done or performed many and been fruitful in well doing In this sense of the word the Heathen of whom Paul speaketh Rom. 1.29 are said to be filled with all unrighteousness Not as if the meaning was that they had as much wickedness as they were capable of or as it was possible for them to be filled withall But that there was a great degree of wickedness amongst them and some doubtless were more vile unworthy and abominable than others But it is said that they were full that is There was abundance of unrighteousness in them or amongst them Besides other like instances So then when the Apostle wills them to be filled with the Spirit or with the Holy Ghost his meaning is that he would have them have the Holy Ghost very actuous and operative within them or more plainly That he would have them take such a course go so to work as we use to say and so behave themselves that the Holy Ghost might be very actuous operative and vigorous and put forth himself or his power abundantly in them Or if we shall urge the strict litteral sense Then the meaning will be to this effect Be ye filled with the Spirit that is Let the Spirit advance his presence and power in you as far and to what degree and height himself pleaseth Do not distaste check or grieve him in his way by any neglect or rejection of any of his motions by any unworthiness whatsoever Do not obstruct him in his Progress but comport with him in all his applications unto you and do not think you have enough of him untill you be filled with him even to the brim and the receptacles of your Souls will hold no more This Exposition supposeth that Christians should desire and labour to obtain as much or as great and as rich a presence of the Spirit of God as they are capable of and as the heart and soul and nature of man is able to bear This sense of the word may very well stand And then his meaniag is not as if the Apostle did impose a necessity upon them to reach and attain unto such a fulness as we speak of in the highest degree but only that they should not content themselves with or pitch upon any degree inferiour unto or beneath the highest enjoyment of the Spirit of God they are capable of As when a man bids his child to shoot at the Sun he doth not intend or imagine that his child should hit the Sun His meaning is that he would have him put forth his strength in shooting as high as he is able So when the Apostle layeth and imposeth this upon the Ephesians by way of duty that they should be filled with the Spirit his meaning is That they should behave themselves with all wisdom and understanding in the use of all means within the reach of their own arm as if their design and resolution was to be filled with the Spirit as full as possibly they could If it be demanded by way of Objection Sect. 5 But is the Holy Ghost in the power of men Or can men do any thing to fill themselves with the Holy Ghost Is he obnoxious unto men or within the compass of their wisdom and endeavours Have men any thing in their hands to do whereby or by the means whereof they may fill themselves with the Spirit of God We shall hereafter have occasion fully to answer to this question only by the way reserving that till God shall give opportunity for men to do such and such things upon the doing whereof they shall have the Spirit of God more operative and active more intensive and more raised in their hearts and souls I say If the Apostle maketh the doing of such things a means whereby they may be filled with the Spirit and cause him to delight in them and withal supposeth men to be capable of doing such things or using such means whereby this blessed end may be accomplished As it is evident he doth by the Exhortations and Injunctions which he layeth upon them Then men in this sense may be truly said to be capable of filling themselves or of being filled with the Spirit when they shall be faithful in the use of such means which will certainly accomplish this most desirable effect Yet doth it not follow from hence or from what hath been spoken That the Spirit of God is subject unto men or that men have any power to speak properly over him or that he is any way obnoxious unto them This indeed follows from what hath been spoken viz. That the Spirit of God hath graciously subjected himself unto his own Laws and Rules and Will in this case and hath been pleased to make such gracious promises unto men that if they will go along with him and follow his leading and ducture they shall have as much of his presence and company as their hearts can desire I say If men will but give up themsElves to his leading yea and shall love to be moved unto and acted in things that are excellent and to be carried or transported this way or that way by Him Such a demeanour of men towards the Spirit of God will put him into a holy and honourable capacity to advance in his presence in them and towards them I had almost said to what degree they please and so to work them up from one degree of holiness unto another and consequently of joy comfort and peace untill he hath as it were brought them up into the Heavens So then the Premises considered the reason why men by doing thus shall be filled with the Spirit is not simply or meerly because men do such and such things or as if there were any thing considerable in what men do in order to their being filled with the Spirit as if there were any thing either of merit or desert in them No nor yet as if there were any thing in what men do in a natural way able or tending to produce such an effect as
that kind of causes which Logicians call Causa sinè quâ non the cause without which the effect is not cannot be produced which because it contributeth little or nothing at all to the effect unless it be its bare presence therefore they call it Causa fatua the foolish cause or the fools cause I suppose for this reason because none but weak and simple Persons will insist upon this kind of cause in reasoning about effects and the Causes and Reasons of them viz. if a Question were moved Why such a man runs so swiftly He that should answer Because his head stands on his shoulders or because his heart is in his body or the like should shew himself very weak because though these be causes Sinè quibus non such causes as without which the effect of running would not or could not be performed A man could not run unless his head stood on his shoulders yet his head standing on his shoulders contributes nothing unless it be in a very remote and inconsiderable manner towards it and besides takes place in many in whom no such effect as swiftness of runing is to be found If a man should ask the reason why the Waters of the red Sea were divided when time was and stood upon heaps like a Wall on the right hand and on the left hand of the Children of Israel as they passed through He that shall say this was the reason or cause of it Moses smote these waters with the Rod in his hand should quit himself very weakly in so saying though it be probable that without this without Moses his so smiting them they would not have been so divided There is the like consideration of the falling down of the Walls of Jericho upon the Israelites compassing them about seven daies and blowing with Trumpets made of Rams horns of Naaman's cleansing from his Leprosie by washing seven times in Jordan This is an Essential or distinguishing property or Character of Sacramental causes that though there be very little or nothing in them I mean in that which is litteral natural and external in them any waies apt or likely to produce their effects as there is in natural causes to produce theirs yet notwithstanding they produce their effects most vigorously most powerfully and with an high hand The reason is because the power of God is pleased to interpose and mingle it self with these more constantly and with a higher advance for the most part than with natural causes The reason of this good pleasure of his probably may be not because Sacraments or Sacramental causes are more appropriate and peculiar Institutions or Ordinances of his than Nature or natural Causes are But because they are weak and of no strength in themselves to do that which they have to do Upon this account as he hath taught men by the light of Nature in ordering the habit of their bodies Upon their uncomely parts to put more comeliness according to that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.7 We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the power might i.e. might clearly appear to be of God and not of us So because Sacraments and Sacramental Causes are in themselves weak and without honour in respect of what Natural Causes have therefore God honours them so much the more abundantly with his strength and presence in them Sed hoc obiter Now to draw the substance of this Discourse close to the business in hand when we teach that men by hearkening unto the Counsel of God and doing that which he hath commanded in order to the obtaining of such a blessedness as a being filled with his Spirit may obtain it we neither make the Spirit obnoxious unto men but unto himself and unto his own good pleasure Nor do we attribute any thing more unto those Actions or Endeavours of men by which they obtain a being filled with him than a kind of Sacramental Efficacy and this depending only upon the gracious will and good pleasure of God God having instituted such and such means in order to this blessed end upon occasion hereof he standeth engaged to his truth and faithfulness in giving out his abundance of Grace Fifthly and lastly When we do affirm that the Spirit and so a fulness with him is attainable by men in the use of means as we do exclude all things by way of merit and likewise all such endeavours in this kind which are originally in men themselves So we do suppose that without the Spirit that is without a being prevented and without some measure of the Spirit already given no man is able to put forth his hand unto any of those works or actions whereby this same filling with the Spirit is to be obtained So that if we search the spring of these actions and waies of men whereby we affirm that the Spirit may be attained we do not find the Root in man but in something that is Extrinsical For though it be in a man yet is it not of the heart and soul of a man co-substantial with it but the root of these actions by which men are capable of filling themselves with the Spirit of God is not in themselves nor in their nature but it is in an External Agent who is God or rather indeed the Spirit of God himself as we shall shew you in the traversing of this great business For it is likely we shall have occasion to dive into that Question Whether all the men and women in the World are not prevented according to the general course of the Providence of God in governing of the World and setting forth men and women upon the Theatre of the Earth Whether they be not all prevented without asking or without any means used with so much of the Spirit of God and with such a presence of his as that thereby they are enabled to have more of him and to be filled more with him Having thus with as much brevity and plainness Sect. 5 as through the grace of God we were able to do removed that stumbling stone as we called it out of the way A conceit incident as we conceived unto some that there is no possibility for men or women to be filled with the Spirit of God by any course they can take by any means they can use We proceed now to enquire into the Scriptures what course it is that men ought to take to possess themselves of such a blessedness as a being filled with the Spirit of God imports yea and which they must take if ever they desire to be made great in the sight of God or men by being filled with the Spirit of God The first thing to be done by us in order to a being filled with the Spirit it being supposed we are clear and thoroughly satisfied about the possibility of the thing for otherwise this Corner-stone were to be laid for the building but this I say supposed the first thing to be done in direct order to a being filled with the
to receive the Spirit But on the other hand those who have the knowledge of him they are in a capacity of receiving him upon the most desirable terms and are capable of making use of him as hath been in effect said unto you In the fourth place you must pray unto God Sect. 5 or unto the Spirit of God for Prayer it self is a means which we are to make use of in order to our being filled with the Spirit We do here mention it as a part of that Method which should be observed by him who is engaged in the drawing in of the Spirit in order to a being acted by him Now then if this be agreeable to the Will of God viz. that men should pray for the gift of the Spirit and that in the lowest measure then there is no question to be made but that Prayer is as profitable means to effect it in the highest in the one as well as the other and that there is no more unlawfulness in the one than in other This then in the fourth place by way of direction how you may engage the Spirit and set him on work within you to perform what you are not like to perform by your own strength without such a presence of him to assist in your work The third and last Question was Sect. 6 In case we be able and shall actually engage the Spirit of God to assist us how the things done by him or by his assistance can be attributed unto us as the Scriptures frequently do or we be looked upon as the doers of them as we must be if ever we be rewarded for them by God To this Question we gave answer in effect formerly when we opened this unto you namely how notwithstanding men do draw in or engage the Spirit to their assistance in spiritual works and services yet they are not to be looked upon as principal Agents and the Spirit as the subordinate Agent Where we explained unto you the Agency or Efficiency of man in such works in respect of which being truly and really such as the Scriptures every where suppose them to be the said Actions and Services may truly and properly be called ours For whatsoever Action a man doth voluntarily and freely consent unto may properly enough be said to be his especially when the Act of his Will and Consent contributes any thing towards the Action Which is clearly the case in hand for whatsoever a man doth by the Spirit or by his assistance is done not only with or by means of the consent of his Will but by the more active desire and application of the Will unto the Spirit for the doing of it as we have heard yea that which is yet more and entituleth a man more clearly unto such Acts as we speak of is the contriving and studying and plotting how they may and ought to be done by the man who doth them If a man did not consider how and by what means to bring in the Spirit to his assistance the great work we speak of would not be done therefore there is no great difficulty in the question only that is to be remembred as we pass from it that they who make the Creature either meerly Passive in such Works or Services or which little easeth the business willing as we say by or from a necessitation they despoile the Creature of all capacity of being rewarded by God for such services and thus whilst they importunely pretend to be the great Magnifiers of the Grace of God they do indeed and in truth reduce it to a morsel of bread as the Scriptures speak and make nothing of it so that in them the Latine Proverb is fulfilled Stultorum gratia ingrata The grace or favour of inconsiderate persons is unacceptable or such as there is no reason why they should be thanked for it But this only by the way If you ask But why should the imploying of the Spirit of God Sect. 7 in such a manner as you have taught us be a means for a Believer to be filled with the Spirit Or how should it conduce any thing towards such a blessed effect as this is I answer That such an imploying of the Spirit as that we have described unto you is a regular use of that great Gift of the Spirit given unto us by God for the Spirit is given of God unto the Saints for this end and purpose viz. that by him and by his assistance they should do all their works which he commandeth them to do I do not say that it is the sole end but that this is one great and material end why the Holy Ghost is given unto men and why he dwelleth in the Saints 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have received saith the Apostle not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God That is for this end amongst others and for others depending upon this that by his help duly sought and obtained by us we might be able to know and rightly to conceive apprehend and understand and likewise firmly to believe the Gospel i. e. the particular things revealed in the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ and the mind and Counsels of God concerning our salvation which things are said to be given or freely given unto us by God beeause they are there exhibited and lie in a readiness for all men to receive and know that are willing to take the course which God hath prescribed unto them for such an end There is the same consideration of other spiritual Actions and Services as these Mortification Prayer c. The Holy Ghost is given for this end and purpose that by his assistance and strength they may be able to perform these things after a worthy manner and with highest acceptation unto God If so then to answer the gracious intentions of God in giving him which is by imploying him as we have heard This must need be a direct and proper means to abound with him to have an anointing more rich and full of his presence For it is a Principle in Reason and Equity that they who make a regular and worthy use of a less proportion of any good thing intrusted with them or bestowed upon them that these should no other circumstance hindering be intrusted with a greater Upon this Foundation are these and the like Sayings in Scripture built Mat. 13.12 for whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance But whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath So again Luke 16 10. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much Meaning it is meet that such a person who hath approved himself faithful in a less proportion of any good thing committed unto him should upon the account of his approved faithfulness therein be intrusted with more for God as hath been observed upon the like occasion usually walketh
every obscure and knotty passage Such a man as can do this is an excellent man too and full of the Spirit of God in respect of Knowledge and yet this man possibly may not be able or dexterous to apply or bring those things and general Principles that he knows and sute them with particular cases and questions which are brought to him and laid before him whereas another that hath not half his knowlege may be able to do it and to give a plainer and fuller satisfaction unto him that shall propound a Case or difficulty unto him So that this we would have you take notice of by the way that the Spirit of God hath variety of gifts and therefore we are not to estimate a man as not filled with the Spirit because he is not dexterous at every turn These things being premised we now proceed to the Question Now then whether a person man or woman Sect. 6 who pretendeth to be filled with the Spirit of God be indeed filled with this or any other Spirit contrary unto it may be discerned or discovered for the most part by these considerations First When a man is of a cool calm and yielding temper and deportment in his own matters his own proper and personal concernments in the World and upon occasion shall be apt to be raised and stirred in his spirit about the things of God this is a sign of very great probability at least that such a person is full of the Spirit of God For First The genius and property of the Spirit of God may be discerned and judged of by the nature and property of that Wisdom which as James saith Jam. 3.17 is from above and this as he informs us is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy c. meaning that it disposeth men and women to those worthy properties that where it is received it works their hearts and souls to these gracious dispositions it makes men first pure it disposeth and enclines men and women to avoid all pollution with sin above any other thing whatsoever it perswadeth men not to meddle not to have to do with sin upon any terms whether of Pleasure Profit Honour or whatsoever And then next to this it teacheth men to be peaceable gentle easie to be entreated c. which is to be understood chiefly in a mans own Affairs and Concernments and in his ordinary Converse with men for otherwise this Wisdom teacheth men to be as stiff and resolute in the Affairs of Jesus Christ and the Gospel as Paul was Gal. 2.5 when he yielded not gave not place no not for an hour as he saith to certain false Brethren who went about to incumber the Gospel with matters of Judaism And again when he withstood another to his face who was not a false Brother but equal to himself a great Apostle I mean Peter in a business of the Gospel wherein as he saith he was to be blamed Verse 11. and yet again when he fought with beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men 1 Cor. 15.32 Now then as it is the genius and property of that Wisdom we speak of that Wisdom which is from above thus to mould and fashion the minds and manners of men So is it the property of the Spirit of God also to do the like because this Spirit worketh not upon men but by the mediation of this Wisdom and works only such dispositions and inclinations which this Wisdom worketh This then is that we say that when men and women are very peaceably disposed and of a yielding and quiet spirit in their own worldly Affairs and yet when occasions require are apt to quit themselves like men of courage and resolution this argues that they have a very rich anointing of the Spirit of God I add this latter particular viz. That they are apt to be zealous and stirred in Spirit in and about the things of God because otherwise a softness or quietness of disposition about their own Affairs may be rather the result of their own natural complexion or constitution than any effect of the Wisdom from above or of the Spirit of God working in and by this Wisdom For though peaceableness of spirit gentleness easiness to be entreated c. be the fruits or effects of the wisdom from above viz. in the most of those in whom they are found yet it doth not follow from thence but that there may be in some persons impressions or qualities like unto these from another original or cause The Woods Pastures and Fields produce of their own accord some kind of Herbs and Fruits like unto those and of the same name or denomination with those which grow in our Gardens by sowing setting and planting yet are they but of a wild kind and nature neither so fair nor fit for use as these every palate will be able to distinguish between the one and the other As it is between those two sorts of of Eunuches which our Saviour distingusheth in the Gospel thus that some are such from their mothers wombs others have made themselves such Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19.12 Meaning that they have been perswaded and prevailed with by the Gospel to embrace a single life that so they might with more freedom of mind and with less distraction and incumbrance of secular Affairs attend the Service of God and of his Gospel intimating withal that the former kind of Eunuch was little considerable with God little set by in comparison of this latter In like manner some have a kind of goodness and facileness of disposition with some other impressions of morality commendable in their kind and commodious to a degree both unto the persons themselves who are endued with them and unto others which yet spring naturally in them but these are not like unto those of the same name or denomination that are begotten and planted in the hearts and inward parts of men and women by the Gospel and Ministry of it The Gospel is termed the incorruptible Seed of the Word which liveth for evermore There is a kind of excellency and glory which goes along with the Word of God which leaves a lively Impression or Character of it self upon those holy dispositions and qualifications which are planted or begotten by it in the hearts and souls of men which doth distinguish them from those moral qualifications planted in men and women by the hand of Nature But this only by the way The sum of what we laid down in the Character or Rule of Dijudication now in hand whereby to judge of men and women that be filled with the Spirit of God is this He that is as a weaned Child in his own Matters but is strong and active as a Giant in the Affairs of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel he I say is like to be a person so filled with the Holy Ghost But if a man be forward and full of heat in the matters of Religion
are under the Law as under the Law to them that are without the Law as without the Law to the weak I became weak I became all things to all that by all means I might win some Paul had gone so to work with himself that he had brought himself to a conformity to all occasions and kinds of services and could comply with all for their benefit When men shall see the carriage and deportment of a man and shall not be able to see what the natural temper and genius of the man is when they shall see him in such variety of action and all that which he doth to become him to have beauty and reason in it this is a sign that the man thus endued hath a very rich and glorious anointing of the Spirit of God in him But when mens natural tempers do encrease in them so as that these will have part and share in their actings it is a sign that Nature is not thoroughly broken nor wholly subdued but that there is somewhat yet more for the Spirit of God to do Elsewhere he demandeth of these Corinthians 1 Cor. 4.21 What will you Shall I come unto you with a rod or in love and in the Spirit of meekness From whence it appears that Paul could upon occasion both use the rod of Apostolical Authority where he saw cause and take vengeance on disobedience as he speaketh elsewhere And could likewise demean himself with gentleness towards Christians even as a Nurse cherisheth and is tender over her Children as he speaketh of himself 1 Thes 2.7 In matters of outward estate he knew as he saith both how to be abased i. e. to want and how to abound Phil. 4.12 Meaning that he was able and knew how to manage both estates Adversity and Prosperity according to such Rules by which these conditions ought to be managed respectively yea and may be managed to the glory of God and likewise to the comfort and contentment of men that partake in either And as he saith he knew how to be abased and how to abound so likewise in his deportment he knew how to stoop to the ground and to sit upon a Dunghil with those that were Poor and weak and of Low degree in the Church of Christ And he knew likewise how to be a Companion for Princes and to stand up with the highest and greatest of all with persons of greatest esteem Paul we know had a spirit that was able to resist even Peter himself one of the greatest Pillars of the Christian Faith then in the World and to withstand him to his face when there was just occasion so to do My Brethren He that knew how to do this must needs have a mighty command of himself For take him at another turn when the state of businesses was altered and when he was in the presence of poor and weak Saints he could act another part and quit himself like a poor and weak man as if he had nothing of the carriage or of the resolution of a man in him Thus Jesus Christ himself to whom the Spirit was given not by measure as John speaketh Joh. 3.34 is compared in Scripture as well to a Lamb as to a Lion and is presented unto the World under both these Denominations one while he is called the Lamb of God another while he is called The Lion of the Tribe of Judah to shew that he knows how to act the properties of both according as he judgeth seasonable and meet When he cometh to those who are poor in Spirit he blesseth and speaketh in a still voice unto them and when he hath to do with the Scribes and Pharisees then he pronounceth with a loud voice Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees hyppocrites Now his Spirit was up on high and full of courage and undaunted resolution Yea now he is in heaven and ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 Yet doth he still retain the same qualifications or dispositions To many Persons he doth behave himself like a Lamb with much sweetness and great condescention and otherwhile he can roar like a Lion upon others and appear in judgment when he seeth his time and when the exigencies of the business which is before him requireth it Now the reason Sect. 8 why I conceive that such a sweet consorting of a mans spirit and behaviour to all variety of occasions which he can meet with from time to time must needs be a great Argument of a rich anointing of the Spirit is this partly because to distinguish exactly between the Exigencies of Occasions requireth a very excellent degree of Wisdom a much refined Understanding and partly also because it requireth a great command of a mans spirit a depressing or dissolution of a mans natural temper whatever it was to be able to apply himself only and conscienciously to all variety of occasions respectively both which argue a large and liberal presence of the Spirit of God in men partly also because it is so rare a sight to see a Person man or woman even amongst Believers themselves in whose Conversations and Deportments that savory wise and consciencious comportment with the various natures and Exigencies of occasions is to be found First I say to understand judgment as the Scripture Phrase is to know what is comely and worthy for a Christian to do at all times and cases requires a great spiritualness of understanding to apprehend how the feries and tenour of all a mans actions may be made spiritually harmonious when to rise and when to fall and when to keep a middle strain between high and low as every of these respective carriages may best accommodate the interest of God in the World I mean his honour and praise and the interest likewise of men this requireth an heart in some degree like unto Solomons which the Scriptures compare to the sands that are upon the Sea-shore 1 Kings 4.29 Now the heart of Solomon is said to be large like unto the sands of the Sea-shore which are not to be numbred because he had a world of notions and apprehensions in his mind or understanding by reason whereof he was able to understand most exactly how he ought to behave himself upon all occasions and how to sute himself with the Exigency of every affair he had all circumstances before him and he turned them and weighed them in his hand and therefore saith he Eccl. 3.1 2 c. There is a time for every purpose under the Sun A time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted a time to build and a time to break down a time to weep and a time to rejoyce a time to cast away stones and a time to gather c. Now he must be a wise man indeed as he speaketh Chap. 8.5 6. Whose heart discerneth time and judgment i. e. that is able to discern the time and season for one Action or one kind of deportment from that which is proper
changed from glory to glory and be made as like unto him in felicity as far as their nature will bear in order to the rendring them capable of enriching the World with the saving knowledge of the truth where ever they shall become this being one property of felicity and true greatness and nobleness of Spirit where ever it is to dilate and utter it self for the real good benefit and comfort of all that are round about it and within its reach Of these things thou hast a large account in the ensuing Treatise both as to the provision that is made by God in the Gospel for his Saints and those that serve him as likewise the nature of him that is the chief Agent the Holy Ghost to manage and to be their Assistant in all their spiritual Works and Services which by virtue of the abundant grace of God in the Gospel they are called unto and might be partakers of he being none other than him that hath all Power in his hand both in Heaven and in Earth Not a Creature lest any man should despair of ever being strengthened with might in the inner man or should fear of ever being able to arrive unto that blessedness which is prepared for those that love God and wait for the appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ But this Holy Spirit which thou art advised to be filled withall is no less no other than the increated Spirit God blessed for ever Which in case thou hast but such a sense of thy Salvation as to be found working of it out with fear and trembling thou mayest assure thy self that it is none other than God himself who is both able and willing yea is already at work within thee and will enable thee not only to will but also to do and that according to his good pleasure whose will and good pleasure concerning the manner of his coworking in men is largely opened in this Discourse And likewise his Godhead argued and with clearness proved both by Scriptures and sound Reason As also those Grounds and Arguments that are commonly brought to prove him to be of a created and finite extraction punctually sedately and faithfully answered and the Scriptures that are brought to serve in that Warfare are dismissed and discharged from that Service And we look upon this part of the Discourse as so much the more seasonable and we hope a good hand of Divine Providence in bringing of it forth at this time inasmuch as that Spirit of Error is now stirring more effectually than of latter times to the endangering of the Everlasting Welfare of the precious Souls of Men rendering the Gospel and the Grace of God which hath appeared to all Men by Jesus Christ and that unspeakable Gift of the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God which is to remain with the Saints until his coming again as very inconsiderable Thereby making the neglect of this Grace of God and his good Spirit a thousand times more tolerable than indeed it is or is like to be unto those who shall be found to neglect so great a salvation that is brought so near unto them and that by God himself with the gracious offer of himself and his own help and assistance herein Thou hast likewise an account given thee by what means it is that the Spirit of God himself if thou shalt submit unto his most gracious Counsels herein will advance his Presence in thee whereby thou mayest have as much of his assistance as thy heart can desire Together with some Rules laid down whereby to judge whether a mans self or others be filled with the Spirit or with some other Spirit which only pretends to be the Spirit of God but is not but a Spirit of Error and Delusion very useful at all times but more especially now when Sathan that lying Spirit is playing his Last Game upon the World his time being very short he is put upon it more than ever to mingle his spiritual wickednesses with heavenly things which are his most dangerous Weapons and thereby doth greater execution than Men generally are aware of There are many Wiles and subtil Devices by which Men are taken off from attending upon the Ministry of the Gospel which is called the Ministry of the Spirit which are very mischievous and destructive it is to be feared to many and endangering more that are here detected and their nakedness laid open As also the great business of the Saints Communion with God both as to the freeness and fulness or largeness thereof discussed together with the great advantage of a large interest in God by Prayer discovered In all which there are many Scriptures clearly opened We question not but that persons who have the use and exercise of their Spiritual Senses and are to any considerable degree able to discern things that differ will find their precious time well spent in the reading hereof and will find the discourse pleasant to their Spiritual Palate and receive nourishment thereby in their inner man Good Reader We have only two Requests to make unto thee before we leave thee First â—hat if there be not in all and every passage of this Work the same height of Stile and Elegancy of Expression as is in other his Writings thou wilt excuse the Author inasmuch as it seemed good to Divine Providence to finish the daies of his mortal Pilgrimage and to gather him unto his Fathers before this Work could be made fit for Publick View And we nothing doubt but that thy Christian Candor and Ingenuity will take this for a sufficient excuse on the behalf of those things for which we Apologize Our Second Request is if thou expect to receive good by this Discourse That if at any time thou hast been prejudiced against the Author thou wilt lay all things of that nature aside as thou lovest thine own Peace and Eternal Welfare and engage with an honest heart and sincere mind in the reading hereof For although possibly there may have been some difference between him and thee and some others in some Doctrinal Points yet this being mainly Practical he and all other good men more generally agree in matters of this nature Nâ—w that the God of all Grace may fill thee with a rich Presence of his Spirit that so thou mayest be rendered most acceptable to him in all thy waies and be put into the best capacity to serve thy Generation and in the end be made partaker of the highest Glory with the Saints in light is the Desire and shall be the Prayer of The Publishers To all that desire to be filled WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT THere is a great Ambition in the Sons of Men after Fulness and so there is in the Sons of God also but the Fulness which the Sons of the latter and better Denomination do most mind and covet is of another nature and kind than that which the Sons of the other and lower Denomination are ambitious of There is an Earthly
sixth Motive That the Reasons and Vnderstandings of men are not capable of being employed upon terms of greater benefit and advantage than in this engagement A seventh Consideration taken from the uncertainty of obtaining the things of this World by all the means that can be used and also from the uncertainty of the continuance of these things if gotten Whereas a being filled with the Spirit as it is attainable so by a perseverance in the use of means our attainments in this kind shall stand by us for ever Page 463 CHAP. XVIII The Eighth and last Motive That a being filled with the Spirit will render the Condition of men and women most desirable in this World and in that which is to come That no other course will do it but this or none without this Four things a concurrence whereof will render a man's Condition in this life most desirable 1. A freedom from all troublesome distracting and tormenting fears and cares 2. A heart and conscience abounding in Joy and Peace 3. A large and free Communion with God 4. And lastly A rich and large interest in God to be able to carry great Matters in Prayer with him Three of these insisted on 1. A being filled with the Spirit will discharge men from all troublesome and distracting fears and cares 2. The Peace and Joy of men will abound by a being filled with the Spirit 3. A third particular which renders mens Condition so desirable in the World is a free and large Communion with God 1. What is meant by Communion with God 2. What by a free Communion 3. What is meant by a large and full Communion with God 4. How this Communion renders man's Condition very desirable in the World 5. That this Priviledge must needs accompany a being filled with the Spirit What it is for God to dwell or abide in man How a man may know that God dwelleth in him by the Spirit which is given him How perfect love casteth out fear In what respect the Spirit may be said to witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God A well-grounded Confidence The Causes of a false Confidence enquired into A good Conscience a ground of Assurance Page 482 CHAP. XIX The Eighth Motive further opened in the fourth particular a being filled with the Spirit doth interest men with a rich and large Interest in God How this Interest doth arise by being filled with the Spirit of God Reasons why so little is done by Prayer now in comparison of what was done in the Primitive times Without being filled with the Spirit none of the great blessings formerly mentioned and which render a mans Condition so desirable in this World are to be obtained The Reasons whence it comes to pass And the equitableness of God's proceeding with men therein The difference between a fearless and dreadless frame of spirit that is counterfeit and that which is raised upon good Grounds A being filled with the Spirit is the only way to cause the Crown of glory to flourish on the head of a man And that with a greater measure of glory in the World which is to come Page 522 ERRATA PAge 8. Line 22. for te read to p. 14. l. 28. for of r. as p. 16. l. 23. for never r. ever p. 18. l. 23. for the inspiration thereof r. his inspiration p. 24. l. 20. for men r. man p. 60. l. 34. after on r. of p. 61. l. 8 for effecting r. affecting p. 63. l. 21 dele or doth Ibid. l. 4 r. for and r. of the. Ibid. l. 42. for of the r. and. p. 66. l. 11. for Princes r. Prophets p. 77. l. 16. for heavenly r. lovely p. 84. l 5. for it r. them p. 87. l. 10. for maniture r. manuducture p. 107. l. 2. for leaving r. left p. 109 l. 36. for of 1. as p. 121. l. last for most r. not p. 146. l. 2 for that r. though p. 162. l. 18. after whci r. it Ibid. l. 40. for in r. into p. 163. l. 41. for apparence r. appearance p. 165. l. 8. for it r. he p. 181. l. 24. for interest r. request p. 186. l. 2. r. it is the first born lb. dele it is p. 190. l. 18 for consent r. conceit p. 191. l. 10. for zealoufly r. jealously p. 213. l. 26. for or r. but. p. 216 l. 19. for undeceivedness r. underivedness p. 228. l. r. after Believer r. But. lb. 18. dele But p. 231. l. 19. for any r. an p. 236. l. 15. dele that p. 248. l. 28. add whereby p. 254. l. 34. for exhibiting r. excitings p. 268. l. 21. dele because p. 284. l. 23. for by r. for p. 289. l. 26. for having r. have p. 300. l. 21. for I r. A. p. 311. l. 25. for obtain r. attain p. 323. l. 6. dele of p. 346. l. 10. for grateful r. graceful p. 348. l. 17. for absolute r. obsolete p. 352. l. 24. for to r. who p. 354. l. 19. for picking r. higgling p. 364. l. 28. dele that p. 366. l. 25. for suits r. fruits p. 374. l. 27. dele judgeth that he p. 385. l. 8. for who r. we p. 396. l. 18. after seen r. in p. 397. l. 8 dele that p. 400. l. 24. dele of p. 423. l. 19. for chose r. choose p. 430. l. 41. for of r. for p. 445. l. 43. after yea r. there are p. 456. l. 6. for if r. which p. 375. l. 15. after sums r. are p. 484. l. 1. for where to be r. to be where p. 490. l. 11. for be r. he p. 506. l. 5. for as r. so as p. 538. l. 37. dele was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR A being filled with the Spirit Ephes 5. the latter part of the 18 verse But be filled with the SPIRIT CHAP. I. The coherence and sense of the words opened What it is to be filled with the Spirit Four Doctrines raised from the words Proved from the Scriptures that it is the duty of all Christians to be filled with the Spirit THe tenour of the former part of the verse is this Sect. 1 And be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit The Apostle having in the former part of this Epistle as his usual method was declared and laid down foundation-wise that great Doctrine of the Christian Religion namely justification by or through faith in Jesus Christ In the latter part thereof he builds upon this foundation Precepts and Exhortations to such duties and behaviours which may very justly and equitably be expected upon the account of such rich grace from God vouchsafed unto sinful men in their free justification by Christ Now in Precepts and Exhortations unto Christian duties there is not alwaies a dependence or relation of coherence between duty and duty or between that which goeth before and that which followeth after But Exhortations are many times like unto Solomons Proverbs which resemble Jewels or precious stones not set together in order
the being filled with the Spirit But the reason of this Connexion and Conjunction of these two things namely that upon the use of such means as we speak of this great effect shall be produced or end attained unto viz. a being filled with the Spirit The reason I say of this Connexion is the eternall Counsel the gracious Law and Decree of God and so of the Spirit of God himself He having set it down and determined it and accordingly revealed it That thus it shall be so that the effect of being filled with the Spirit of God is not the result of the means but the proper product of that Eternal Law and Decree which God himself hath made For otherwise if we shall suppose that there were no such Law or Decree of God in being if men should use never so much means do the same things a thousand times over it would never be accomplished so that the reason why men come to be filled with the Spirit of God upon the using such and such means is not because of the means but it ariseth from the mighty force and irresistible power of the Decree of God this is that which triumpheth over all the use of means The Decrees of God are so full of grace and bounty that they do not stand to measure inches as we use to speak in the things of men so that unless they find so much worth or goodness in them they shall never pass with God neither the performers of them be made partakers of any rich anoynting from him No This is not the tenour of the Decrees of God in general nor of that of which we are speaking particularly but it hath a more favourable aspect upon his Creature man and importeth such a thing as this I know the nature of my Creatures Men and Women and the utmost of what they are able to do their weaknesses and frailties being considered Yet let them but do what they can let them shew their willingness to comply with me and they shall have as much assistance from me and from my Spirit to help them on in this blessed design of being filled with my Spirit as their hearts can desire And indeed this is one of the highest and greatest vouchsafements of God unto the children of men that he hath opened unto them such an effectual door or way whereby they may fill themselves or be filled with the Spirit All other means which God by his providence hath vouchsafed unto men of another nature as to make them great rich honourable c. amongst them all there is none greater Nay none so great and of so sacred an import unto them as this which we are speaking of viz. That God hath shewed them a way and vouchsafed unto them means to be filled with the Spirit which hath this blessed tendency in it to raise them to the highest pitch they are capable of in the love and favour of God When men are filled with the Spirit they are no more like unto other men They are more excellent than their neighbours Prov. 12.26 For by this means as we shall hereafter shew more at large they shall be enabled to act in a peculiar Sphere by themselves leaving the world yea and the Saints themselves who have but a little or small proportion of the Spirit to move in a lower and more inferiour Region Whereas they shall mount up on high and be carried as it were on Eagles wings enabled to do worthily Great and excellent things shall put forth themselves in them things that shall have more of heaven more of glory more of beauty more matter for admiration than can be found in or raised from the stirrings movings and doings in the world round about them So that by this you may easily judge of what a blessed consequence it is unto men to be filled with the Spirit of God 3. The third and last particular Sect. 6 proposed for the opening of the words was to shew why the Apostle subjoyns this positive Exhortation or Precept concerning their being filled with the Spirit by way of Antithesis or opposition to the negative dehortation not to be drunken with wine I answer this seems to be the reason thereof because that which invites men to drunkenness is a certain kind of jollity lightness or freeness of spirit that is occasioned by the drinking of wine according to the judgments of many who write concerning the tempers of men who say that there is a kind of lightness and frenziness of Spirit which is occasioned by the drinking wine wherein some men take more content and satisfaction than they do in any other thing And therefore the Holy Ghost doth direct them to such a course wherein they shall have far better contentments not indeed of the same kind or flowing from the same cause but however they shall be satisfied in that which they so much desire they shall have jollity lightness and chearfulness of Spirit indeed of a far better nature and upon far better and more excellent terms than what they could expect from their being filled or drunken with wine That jollity or mirth of spirit which men please and solace themselves in when they are under the influence of wine is but melancholy and dull or dead in comparison of that mirth and rejoycing that pleasantness of mind and spirit which they shall certainly attain unto and be made partakers of if they would but take the same course to be filled with the Spirit which they do to be filled with Wine So that this is the reason as I conceive why the Apostle subjoyns this affirmative Precept unto the negative Dehortation The Doctrines which we shall raise from the words thus opened Sect. 7 are only these four First from the adversative Particle But which as hath been said notes an opposition between the latter part of the verse and the former Doctrine 1 This Doctrine springeth forth viz. That drunkenness with Wine or inordinate drinking is altogether inconsistent with a being filled with the Spirit Or if you will we may phrase it thus That inordinateness in drinking is inconsistent with a filling with the Spirit Secondly From the Phrase here used Be ye filled with the Spirit The Apostle's meaning only being as was shewed that he would have them use the means take such a course that they might be filled with the Spirit Doctr. 2 The Doctrine is That in matters of Religion and things appertaining unto Salvation to use the means and to obtain the end are interpretatively and in effect one and the same Or thus That in spiritual concernments a regular use of means and the obtaining the end are by the Counsel and Decree of God inseperably joyned together The Apostle had in vain exhorted the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit if having used the best means they were able thus to be filled they might notwithstanding remain empty The Counsels and Exhortations of God in the Gospel are not like unto
therefore the duty of all Christians to be filled with the Spirit Sect. 1 because if they be not filled Reason 1 or do not endeavour to be filled with the Spirit of God they will certainly be filled with some one or other worse Spirit which will lead them aside into the waies of sin and vanity and of darkness and death And most certain it is the duty of all Christians to do all things that are requisite and necessary for the preventing of so great an evil and misery coming upon them as this namely of being filled with any spirit contrary to the Spirit of God and spirit of sin and wickedness whatsoever That it is simply necessary to prevent such a polution or defilement so miserable a state and condition as this is not or at least ought not to be a question unto any man who minds but to any degree the things of his peace Now that it is a duty lying upon all c. to be filled with the Spirit is evident if we shall consider that there are many other Spirits abroad in the world every one of which hath a direct antipathy to the holy Spirit of God That which the Apostle John speaketh more particularly of Doctrines Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4.1 may be said of Spirits in general For there are many Spirits walking up and down in the World Isa 19 3. a spirit of perverseness Deut. 32.5 a spirit of whoredom Hos 4.12 a spirit of covetousness Ezek. 33.31 a spirit of slumber Rom. 11.8 a spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1.7 Now when principles or dispositions in men whether they be disposions unto vertue and holiness or unto sin and vice are grown up unto any fulness so that they put forth themselves with force and are vigorous and active in them It is usual in the Scripture language dialect or manner of speaking to express such or such principles or dispositions by the name of Spirit As when love acteth vigorously in men to express it by the name of the spirit of love So a meek and humble frame of heart by a spirit of meekness So on the other hand a perverse and froward spirit by a spirit of perverseness an inordinate love of money or inordinate coveting after riches by a spirit of covetousness Sect. 2 Now the reason of this denomination to call covetousness where it is strong and raised in men and when they favour strongly of it by the name of a spirit of covetousness and so of fear when it is active and vigorous in men by a spirit of fear There is the same consideration to be had of love meekness holiness c. for these principles or dispositions when they are active and vigorous are as well denominated unto us by the name of spirit as those which are of a contrary nature and import The reason hereof is First to shew that when principles and dispositions in men are raised to any great degree of strength and become vigorous and active and have gotten any considerable power in or over men if I may so speak they are hard to be resisted Even as Spirits or Angels who as the Psalmist saith excell or according to the Hebrew reading in the Margin are mighty in strength Psal 103.20 they are yery potent and powerful not easie to be resisted in their operations Even so it is with principles and dispositions when they are grown to any considerable height in men and become strong and potent they are hard to be resisted and therefore called by the Holy Ghost by the name of Spirit Or else happily the reason may be which I chiefly eye because all dispositions in men and principles of action whether good or evil when ever they are raised any whit high and have gotten strength within them there is some spirit or other good or evil that mingleth it self with them and by this means doth add vigour and strength unto them and doth raise them above that measure and pitch of strength and activity which they would never be raised unto without the interposure of some such Spirit good or evil properly so called It is true When holy dispositions in men are in their greatest strength and glory there is but one Spirit by which they are acted and that is the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost who through the infiniteness of his power doth answer yea more than anwer yea even far surpass in power the innumerable company of unclean Spirits and therefore when holy dispositions and inclinations are raised in men though they be many and various and spring from different principles in the heart and soul of a man Yet this one and indivisible spirit is able through or by means of his concurrence with them and influencing of them to add strength power and energie unto them and enable every one of them to fructifie and bring forth genuine fruit according unto its respective kind But now as concerning evil and sinful principles and dispositions it is very probable that the case is far otherwise For as there is a vast number and company of devils and unclean spirits so is it no waies dissonant unto reason to conceive that they have their distinct imployments and offices One sort of them may be employed to raise stir up and strengthen a spirit of uncleanness in men Another a spirit of covetousness A third a spirit of malice and revenge A fourth a spirit of gluttony and excess c. The * Eph. 1.21 Col. 2.15 Mat. 12.25 26. Scripture and that not obscurely seems to countenance this notion viz. that they are ranged into orders and are under a kind of regiment and that they are in a straight band league and confederacy to carry on one and the same grand design And if so their nature considered viz. their wisdom and subtilty it is most probable that every one of them is imployed according to his proper genius Some because they are of a more bloudy and cruel nature than others may be employed to stir up and to strengthen in men a spirit of malice and persecution Others that are otherwaies disposed may be imployed to stir up and cherish a spirit of pride and wantonness A third sort of them whose genius lyeth that way to strengthen and increase a spirit of error But we may have occasion to speak more of this afterwards In the mean season this is that which we say in the reason in hand Sect. 3 That unless men shall take a course to be filled with the Spirit of God they will by degrees at least and perhaps sooner than they are aware be filled with some evil and contrary spirit a spirit of some sin and wickedness one or other The reason hereof is plain and near at hand because the evil and unclean Spirit that is the old Serpent Job 1.7 commonly called the Devil who walketh up and down the world compassing the earth too and fro
Disciples did is because they did not see him neither know him Though he be near unto them yea though he be in their hearts by his word yet they not minding nor contemplating this word of his nor regarding his motions in their souls but suffering the eyes of their minds to be fixed upon this present world and the sins and vanities thereof do not see him though he be near unto them and ready to do great things for them had they a mind to imploy him But their thoughts and mind being otherwise engaged and entangled they do by this means and during the Regency of such principles render themseles upon the matter in an utter incapacity of receiving the Spirit because they favour so much of the Spirit of this world and render themselves such a kind of sinners and such an unworthy generation that the Spirit of God can have no will or lust can take no pleasure or content to manifest himself unto them This is the second consideration by which you may perceive that unless men shall take a course to be filled with the Spirit of God they will lay themselves open and obnoxious to be filled with some unclean spirit or other If it be here objected Sect. 7 and said Is not the Spirit of God a gracious and free-working Spirit Objection And will he not doth he not for his own name sake as the Scriptures often speak put forth his might and strength to aide and assist men and women against Sathan and his evil practices towards them when and where he pleaseth without any motive or inducement from them by way of compliance with him or any goodness of behaviour in one kind or other towards him How then can we say that it doth depend upon any compliance of the creature Man with him or any kind of behaviour of his towards him I answer Answer most true it is That the Spirit of God is a most gracious and free-working Spirit exerting and putting forth himself rising up in his might and heavenly vigour where when and in whom he pleaseth Nor doth he receive Laws Terms or Directions from men for any of his motions or actions in the world but from himself his own grace and wisdom only Secondly I answer further That though the Spirit of God be most gracious and free in all his operations and workings Yet as the Apostle Peter speaking of the Promise of the Lord Christ concerning his coming saith The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise as some men count stackness 2 Pet. 3.9 Even so say I of the Spirit of Christ That he is neither gracious nor free-working as some men count gracious and free-working he is neither the one nor the other in any way of contrariety unto himself I mean either to his own holiness or his love of holiness in men nor yet to his wisdom or the interest of his glory but only in a direct and clear consistency with these Some mens imagination or notion concerning the gracious and free working disposition of the Spirit of God is 1. That there have been and are some men to whom he never hath nor ever will vouchsafe his gracious presence to the least degree and meerly out of his freedom hath willed never to have to do with them little or much not because of any peculiar strain of wickedness in them but meerly and only as I even now said from his own will and pleasure 2. On the other hand they conceive That God vouchsafeth such a presence unto some others so powerful and effectual that they are not able to resist the motions influences and workings of it but are necessitated thereby to repent believe and work righteousness 3. And lastly Others notion of this grace and working of the Spirit is such as if no course or strain of sin and wickedness whatsoever in men though still persisted in no impenitency no neglect or contempt whether precedent or present of the Gospel and of the great Salvation offered therein were or are any way considerable as to the obstructing or hindering the Spirit of God from vouchsafing even the richest highest and fullest measure of himself and his gracious presence unto them Now that Neither the grace of God nor the freedom of the Spirit in working is to be estimated measured or computed by any such notions or principles as these hath been already sufficiently evinced and proved and might here be done again would it not occasion too long a digression That graciousness and freedom of working which the Scripture any where yea and sound reason it self asserts unto the Spirit of God consists and shews it self in these particulars First All men without exception having sinned in Adam and thereby justly deprived themselves of all friendly converse and communion with God yea and justly incurred his high displeasure hatred and indignation There was nothing of any engaging or inviting much less of any obliging import in man to move or encline the God of Heaven to have any thing more to do with him in any way of love favour mercy goodness or the like to the daies of Eternity So that God having been pleased notwithanding this low and despicable condition of his Creature man to comport with him again upon terms of grace and reconciliation and to offer himself unto him namely to be re-enjoyed upon terms and these very possible to be performed by him and to put him into a capacity of blessedness and glory his former provocations notwithstanding must needs be matter of pure and meer grace and consequently of free grace so far as it was matter of grace at all If any shall say The misery and sad extremity of the Creature man Sect. 8 in the condition wherein he had now plunged himself Objection might be some moving cause unto God or upon God to look back again in mercy towards him And so in this respect there might be somewhat in man inviting him unto that merciful compliance with him which now he hath vouchsafed and consequently his grace in this vouchsafement is not so absolutely and purely free To this I answer Answers That no man as I suppose ever oppoed misery unto grace or freeness of grace in him that sheweth mercy or relieveth It is not repugnant to the greatest freeness of grace that can be imagined that a man should be induced to vouchsafe help shew mercy and relieve a person that is in misery yea upon the occasion thereof or that his misery should be an inducement thereunto 2. That compliance which God vouchsafed unto his Creature man considered as now misrable is not properly matter of grace or an act of grace but of mercy so that though the mercy of God out of which he hath vouchsafed means of relief unto man may be said to have been invited or wrought upon by his misery and in this respect not so absolutely free Yet this hinders not but that the grace of God properly so called out of which he hath been
the Faith of the greatest and best resolved Believers amongst the Children of men The second thing was this to display manage and act this Faith before the World that they may see it as it were face to face and that the fruit evidence testimony and account of it may be fully adaequate and Commensurable to the truth and all the degrees of the reality of it The third and last thing whereunto all men stand bound and by the performance whereof they must needs bless the World was the keeping of the Commands of God How and in what respects the performance of all these must needs stand the World in eminent stead was shewed formerly We have now only to shew how they cannot be performed without their being filled with the Spirit of God who shall perform them First Sect. 8 For that notable strain and generous kind of believing we spake of As no Faith no kind or degree of believing can be attained or raised in the soul but by the Holy Ghost so much less can any excellent or worthy strain hereof be raised or exerted in men but by the glorious might of the same Holy Ghost Doubtless there is no man believeth upon any other terms than those did who are said Acts 18.27 to have believed through grace that is through the gracious operation and assistance of the Holy Ghost So likewise 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing you have purified your hearts or souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit c. implying that neither had they obeyed the truth meaning the Gospel that is believed it the Gospel being there under the notion of truth as elsewhere made the Object of Faith had not the Spirit of God done very graciously by them in awaking and exciting them hereunto They would never in any serious manner have so much as though upon this believing had not the Holy Ghost put them upon it The Gospel and mens hearts are commonly strangers the World and their sensuality and folly make them so They have little knowledge one of another and doubtless would never have been brought together but by the mediation of that most gracious and blessed Spirit Now the Spirit of God bringeth the hearts of men and the Gospel together by causing a kind of enterview to be between them for a while upon which if there be not an extream frowardness and desperateness of folly in the hearts of men the glory and beauty of the things to be believed being presented unto them by the Holy Ghost will overcome them and so there will follow a blessed union and agreement between them Now as the first and lowest greeting between the Souls and consciences of men and the Gospel was procured by the simple interposure of the Spirit of God so must that glorious and more near interview between them which we call face to face viz. such a Faith which giveth presentiality or real subsistence unto the great things of the Gospel in the spirits and souls of men which alone is the Faith that will bless the World by amazing it with its glory breaking forth in semblable actions this say we must be obtained not simply by the Holy Ghost but by him in his more sublime and raised actings Eph. 3.14 16. For this cause faith the Apostle bow I my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward man c. The Apostle travelling in birth with a great matter of grace and spiritual blessing for this people and Church of God he telleth them he bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named c. meaning by this Character and Consideration that he is the Root of all that Family that is worthy to be put into account that is of all that are holy and righteous where ever they be and that they take their denomination as well as their spiritual and happy being from him But for what did he bow his knees to the Father of c It was That he would grant them according to the riches of his glory see how he laboureth and toyleth to be delivered of what he had conceived to ask of God for them to be strengthened with might by his Spirit c. But why doth he insert this clause according to the riches of his glory Doubtless his meaning is to inform them that though the request which he was now making unto God for them was exceeding great viz. that they might be strengthened with might by his Spirit c. yet there was good ground of hope that he should obtain it because the grant of it was but according to the riches of his glory that is proportionable or sutable to that glorious abundance of Grace Love Bounty Power c. which reside in him and are his Glory So that he knew that God could very well afford it notwithstanding the greatness of it being so richly furnished with all things necessary for the performance of it So that it is as if he had said I know it were in vain for me to how my knees to God for any such benefit for you as your strengthening with might by his Spirit did not I know he is exceeding rich in Glory in Bounty in Grace in Love c. Therefore in this you may be comforted that I do not beg this heavenly bread for you out of any desolate place or at such a hand where it was not to be had or from any such heart which is shut up against you no but from him who is both able and willing to give unto all that ask Good measure heaped up pressed down and running over Luke 6.8 Yea and this in things of greatest consequence and value well knowing that it is his glory thus to do Now to be strengthened with might in the inner man signifies more than simply to believe Yea more than simply to be strengthened in or by believing it imports a powerful strengthening or an excellent and high degree of corroboration or stoutness in their spirits hearts and souls by means whereof they should be able both to do and to suffer and this without much regret or trouble greater things for God and for the Gospel than the common sort of Believers can But why doth pray that this mighty strengthening in the inner man might be wrought by the Spirit I answer Because it is the appropriate work of the Spirit thus to elevate and raise the hearts and spirits of men above fears and doubtings God never conferring this high Priviledge upon Believers themselves without his interposure And besides it is considerable that it is the manner of the Saints throughout the Scriptures and so it was observed by Christ himself in his Prayer Joh. 17.11 17 19 20. that whenever they make any great request unto
Cor. 15.8 but certain it is that he was born an Apostle and came into the work of God some considerable space of time after all his fellows yet we know he laboured more abundantly there than they all 1 Cor. 15.10 In like manner they that were called at the eleventh hour might do as much good and acceptable service as those that were called early And therefore no marvel if they received equal consideration for their work with these Besides God represented by the Lord of the Vineyard estimateth as we know the frame of the heart and inward disposition of the mind into the outward works and services of men So that the body and bulk as it were of their services may be fair and large when as the spirit of their value and acceptation with God may not answer by much and yet their persons nor services be wholly rejected neither As on the other hand where the hidden man of the heart is beautiful and lovely in his sight a performance or service which is but slender and ordinary in appearance may be highly prized and accepted of by him and this according to the most exact Rules of Justice Reason and Equity Christ pronounced a just and true Sentence when he said that the poor Widow who cast in only two Mites into the Treasury had cast in more than all the rich men who yet are said to have cast in much Mar. 12.41 43. Now it is not improbable but that by the early-called into the Vineyard may be set forth such a kind of Christian or Believer who savours much of the justiciary and legal spirit and is commonly active and zealous enough in his way for God but inclined to a rugged harsh and peremptory temper which unpleasant complexion and frame of heart though it doth not make void their Faith nor exclude them from the saving love of God yet it much abates and brings down the value and esteem of their outward services and performances with him So that Believers of a more Evangelical sweet and Christian constitution and frame of soul may equalize them in acceptance with God although they have not had time or opportunity to equalize them in the one half of their external services If it be yet urged and said But the Lord of the Vineyard doth not alledge against the early-called either any defect in them or in their work or labour nor any thing more commendable in those called at the eleventh hour as any reason why he should make these equal in reward unto them but only his will and pleasure I will give unto this last even as unto thee c. ver 14. From whence it seems that the will and good pleasure of God is the only Rule by which the Saints are rewarded and that by this Rule they shall be rewarded equally whether their works have been more or fewer more or less excellent according to any computation I answer These words from the Lord of the Vineyard to one of the first-called in the name of them all I will give unto this last even as unto thee c. do not at all prove either that the Will of God is the sole Rule by which the Saints shall be rewarded or that no consideration to the difference of their works whether they have been more or fewer more or less excellent shall be had therein They only prove that God typified in the Lord of the Vineyard will not acquaint proud quarrelsome or high minded persons with the Counsels of his Will or Reasons of his Doings especially with such as are more secret but will put them off with telling them what his peremptory Will is and an asserting the justness and lawfulness of it even as men likewise are wont to do by persons of a like evil temper whereas they are willing and free to give account of matters unto those that are ingenuous and of good spirits And this disposition is found in God himself according to these sayings of David The meek he will guide in judgment that is he will acquaint him with the grounds and reasons of all that he requires of him to do the meek he will teach his way viz. by shewing him the goodness and desirableness of it Psal 25.9 So again The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him ver 14. And Prov. 3.32 His secret is with the righteous God is most wont to communicate things of a more spiritual and mysterious cognizance but only unto those that are of meek and yielding spirits and reverently affected towards him So that it is no marvel if the Lord of the Vineyard would give no other reason but his will unto persons that were evil-spirited and contentious of such a dispensation as seemed hard unto them although he was able and ready to give reason enough thereof otherwise This for answer to the second Objection The third and last Objection Sect. 12 which pleads against all preheminence amongst the Saints in glory is taken from such Scriptures which intitle the Saints indefinitely taken or the whole species of them not only unto the same glory but unto such glory greater than which none can lightly be imagined The places of this import are these with others Then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Mat. 13.43 So where it is said of Christ Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body c. Phil. 3.21 So again to mention no more where the Apostle Paul having said Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that last day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearance 2 Tim. 4.8 All these Texts of Scripture speak of the Saints in general and without any differencing some from others by way of greater excellency and yet they promise unto them all shining like the Sun in their Fathers Kingdom and having their vile bodies changed by Christ and fashioned like unto his own glorious body the receiving Crowns of righteousness from God as well as Paul himself Which all seem to be expressions of as great glory as the greatest of Saints are capable of Therefore it is not to be conceived that one Saint shall differ from another in glory But To this also I answer That these and the like places only prove an identity or sameness in the species or kind of that glory whereof all the Saints shall be partakers not that they shall all partake of this glory in the same degree They shall all shine with a Sun-like lustre and brightness and yet some out-shine others The Sun it self doth not alwaies shine forth with the same lustre and glory Debora Judg. 5.31 prayeth that those that love God may be as the Sun when he riseth or goeth forth in his might which supposeth that sometimes he riseth with a weaker and less glorious splendour Yea it is said that
Treatise is gravely and with solidity penned and worthy the perusal of those whose feer are taken in the snare of that Error or others remaining in any measure dis-satisfied about the Point Though the truth is they have as much reason to be dis-satisfied about their Christianity it self and whether Salvation is to be obtained by Jesus Christ and Faith in his bloud as to be dis-satisfied about the Holy Ghost being God We might argue the Deity of the Holy Ghost from other particulars observable Sect. 10 upon such an account from the said passages of Scripture lying yet before us As 1. That Christ saith of him that he should teach them all things 2. That he should bring to their remembrance all things that he had spake to them 3. That he proceedeth from God the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall but only glance at them First our Saviour undertakes for the Holy Ghost that when he comes he shall teach his Disciples all truth To be able to teach all truth is a Royalty too rich to be vested in any Creature it is most worthy God himself and meet only for him The Eph. 3.9 10. Angels learn many things from the Church and from the Min stry and Dispensation of the Gospel there And the Apostle Paul himself professeth of himself and the rest of his fellow Apostles 1 Cor. 13.9 who knew more than all the World besides of the mystery of Christ and of God that they knew but in part Therefore no Angel was in a capacity to teach them all things when as they themselves were in a condition to learn some things of them If it be demanded But how can these two stand together 1. That Christ should say unto the Apostles that the Holy Ghost should teach them all things and lead them into the way of all truth And yet 2. That Paul should say notwithstanding that they knew but in part Can he be said to know but in part who hath been taught all things or led into the way of all Truth I answer 1. That the all things which the Holy Ghost according to our Saviours Promise here was to teach the Disciples is to be restrained to the business in hand which is very frequent in Scripture and so such things as were necessary and meet for them to know in order to the performance of their Apostolical Office as well in teaching as in planting Churches and ordering the Government hereof For it was not for them to know the times and seasons which God had reserved in his own hand Nor doth it follow from hence either that the Holy Ghost was not able to teach them that restrained all things or that the teaching of this restrained all things should be no sufficient proof of the Holy Ghosts being God The former of these is evident enough from the common principle in reason God and Nature as they are not defective in things that be necessary so neither do they abound in things that be superfluous And therefore if the Apostles had no need of any further knowledge of any thing which did any waies conduce to the performance of their great Office as they were Apostles It is not to be conceived that the Holy Ghost should impart such things unto them which were not expedient for them to know The latter viz. That the teaching of that limited all things we speak of especially taken with that Clause that goeth along with it and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Joh. 14.26 is an Argument no waies defective in proof that the Holy Ghost who was to do all these things is truly God this I say is evident from hence For 1. He that shall be able to teach all that was necessary for the Apostles to know for the discharge of their great Office must be supposed to know all the heights and depths of the Scriptures all things that are contained and comprehended there For doubtless there is nothing in the Word of God but what was fitting and necessary for the Apostles to know and understand As namely the sitting and applying of all the Figures Shadows and Ceremonies under the Law to and with the Gospel and so likewise to know and understand all obscure Prophesies for otherwise they might have been foyled and intangled by their Adversaries which would have been matter of prejudice to them in the fulfilling of their Office Now then to be able to do this certainly doth prove sufficiently that he must needs be God For 1 Cor. 2.1 1. saith the Apostle what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him It is the Spirit within a man who knoweth all the motions of the heart all the Purposes Counsels Hopes Sorrows c. No man knows all these things but the spirit of a man which is within him which is intimous to him and upon the matter himself Even so after the same manner we may say no man knows the things of God but the spirit of God The Spirit God searcheth the deep things of God As the Spirit of a man is privy to the most secret things of a man even so the Spirit of God is privy to the secrets of God So there is no man and consequently no Spirit besides no Creature no Angel though never so great and near unto God in point of Office and Ministry that is able to search the deep things of God but only the Spirit of God which is intimately acquainted with the deep things of God 2. He that was able to bring so the Apostles remembrance whatsoever Christ had said unto them must neds be God because he must know their hearts and their thoughts and what of themselves they did remember without him and withall to know what was worn or blotted out of their memories For I suppose the meaning is not that when the Spirit comes he should be a Remembrancer unto them of such things which they remembred already and therefore it supposes that the Holy Ghost of whom it is said he should remember them of all things that Christ had formerly spoken unto them did know the state of their minds and inward parts and that he knew what things they had or did remember and what things they had forgotten and lost and accordingly shouldsupply them Which is another consideration that doth argue that certainly this Spirit of God this samje great Remembrancer of the Apostles can be no other but God 3. We might also argue from that other Clause where our Saviour describes the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God there being no plurality of Holy Ghosts to be one individual Spirit of Truth And then denotes his Process which proceeds from or out of the Father For both words should be put in from the Father and proceeds out of the Father after an ineffable and inconceivable manner Now if any such Character as this or any near to it can be found to be given of
furnished and endued them with such properties and qualities as now he hath done That so there might be fit resemblances to train and nurture up the Minds Understandings and Reasons of men in the knowledge and apprehension of the mysteries of Christ and the great things of Eternity And I make no question but that God in Nature hath contrived and ordered the matter so with that Creature which we call the Wind that it poseth and troubles all the Philosophers that though they hear the sound of it yet not any one of them can give an account of it what it should be and whence it should come and when once it is up in motion why it should Fall Nay God hath so ordered the original of the wind and things appertaining to it at least to the Vnderstandings of men that they should not be able to give so steady an account of the rising and falling of it as they are to do of the rising and setting of the Sun that so there might be a kind of rising advantage administred unto men to conceive the better of the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God and of his Transactions and manner in doing matters with the Creatures So that now we see the Holy Ghost himself is resembled with the wind and very aptly so may be but the gifts of the Holy Ghost neither are in Scripture nor with any commodiousness of resemblance can be resembled by breathing or by wind therefore by the Holy Ghost in the place in hand cannot be meant the Gifts of the Holy Ghost but the Person of the Holy Ghost himself Again this might be made to appear further by comparing herewith several other places of Scripture by which it is evident that it was the Holy Ghost himself that was to be given unto the Apostles and to be and to abide with them Mar. 13.11 Joh. 14.16 17. So grieve not the Spirit quench not the Spirit Eph. 4.30 1 Thes 5.19 besides other places Now then if Christ said unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost there is no question but they did receive him they I mean all those to whom he thusspake Now if he were a created Angel or meer Creature how could more than one receive him at once Especially how could he be in and remain with many at the same time when these shall be dispersed and scattered up and down the World in Nations and places far distant as the Apostles we know soon after were We never read nor heard of any more than one Holy Ghost as was observed therefore the Argument in hand cannot be put off with common Evasions viz. That the Holy Ghost might be in the Apostles though never so remote at one and the same time by his Deputies or Vicegerents other inferiour Angels under his command or the like For 1. we have no ground in Scripture to conceive any such power given unto one Angel over another as that any one should be at the command or disposal of his Fellows Besides when Christ said to his Disciples Receive ye the Holy Ghost if it be supposed that there is but only one Holy Ghost and certain I am that the Scripture supposeth no more and that this Holy Ghost could be but only in one of them at the precise time of Christ's so speaking unto them which must likewise be supposed if the Holy Ghost be a finite and created Angel then it undeniably follows that though Christ indifferently said to all his Disciples Receive ye the Holy Ghost and indifferently breathed upon them all yet that he gave him unto one only and that the rest had some other Angel given unto them not the Holy Ghost We might likewise reinforce it from the words following touching the power of remitting and retaining sin conferred at the same time upon the Disciples when they received the Holy Ghost from hence I say we might re-assert our former Argument for the Divinity of the Holy Ghost viz. His power to forgive sins For the power of forgiving and retaining sins being given unto the Apostles upon their receiving of the Holy Ghost plainly sheweth that Primarily and Authoritatively it resideth in the Holy Ghost himself and that it was derived unto them only in a Ministerial way and as they were to be acted and guided by him in the administration and exercise of it And if the case were so with the Holy Ghost as our Adversaries conceit it to be viz. The Holy Ghost himself should only have a power by way of Commission from God and ministerially to forgive sins and that he is or must be regulated and bound up in the exercise of this power by his Commission as well as the Disciples were by theirs Then why might not they baptize in their own Names as well as his Besides if the Holy Ghost were Commissionated by God to forgive sins he had no power to give Commission either to the Apostles or any other to transact the same work it being a general and known Rule and this very equitable that he that is Deputed or Commissionated by another having a lawful Authority so to depute to transact any business hath no power to depute or substitute others in his stead for the transacting the business committed unto him Another Scripture or pair of Scriptures evincing the same great Truth with the former that without controversie the Holy Ghost is truly God is Acts 1.16 compared with Acts 4.24 In the former place Peter speakech thus Men and Brethren this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas c. In the latter place the Disciples express themselves thus And when they heard that they life up their voice to God with one accord and said Lord thou art God which hast made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all that in them is Who by the mouth of thy Servant David hast said Why did the Heathen rage c He who in the former place is termed the Holy Ghost is styled in the latter Lord and God who made Heaven and Earth and the Sea c To say that God may be said to speak by the mouth of David because he gave order unto the Holy Ghost to move David so or so to speak is to oppose the direct and clear Letter of the Scripture with a man 's own thoughts and these weak and groundless If it had been said that God by the mediate or intervening motions of the Holy Ghost spake so or so by the mouth of David it had been somewhat colourable for our Adversaries purpose and indeed no more or if there were any such expression to be found in all the Scripture that God spake so or so one thing or other to any person by the mediation of the Holy Ghost this had been somewhat though less than the other But now the constant tenour of the Scripture speaking as to the point in hand being either that God spake or the Lord spake or
distinguished because we cannot conceive the particular manner how they are or may be distinguished Take another Instance of a thing oft supposed in the Scriptures and which is though in another kind very Fundamental too to Christian Religion at least to our embracing and professing of it The reasonable soul of a man is united unto the body and so the body is united likewise unto the Soul so as to make one and the same man or person This the Scripture supposeth in twenty places and ten we shall not need to cite any for the proof of it But who is there that is able distinctly to conceive or shape in his mind how or after what manner by what Ligament or bonds the Soul is united and knit unto the Body and the Body to it Or how or by what vertue or property inherent in the Soul it should enliven strengthen or give motion unto the Body To omit many particulars more relating to the state and condition of the Soul and Body in their union The things themselves being certain though the distinct manner of them or of their being be inscrutable unto men will a man charge him with deluding himself and others with empty terms and words without understanding who himself believeth and would have others believe also that the reasonable soul in natural union or conjunction with an humane body maketh one and the same intire man or person of man only because he cannot distinctly conceive the manner how such a thing should be Will a man go about to perswade himself that he is not a man Surely no all the Philosophers in the World and all the Learned men who have called up all their Learning and Principles to enquire about it were never able to reach the manner how such a thing should be We know not as Solomon informeth us Eccles 11.5 what is the way of the Spirit or how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child Shall we therefore deny that there is any such thing as the growing of a Child in the womb of her that bears it because no man knoweth how they do grow It is not a more common than true saying That many effects are visible and certain the reason or causes whereof are hid from men as the flowing and ebbing of the Sea that is a famous instance and the saltness of the water the Spots in the Moon the pointing of the Loadstone towards the North with many the like in Nature And if the Reasons and Causes of things be so hard to be come at so inaccessible to the Capacities and Understandings of men How much more are the modes the respective manner of the beings and subsistings of things these being many degrees more subtil and farther remote from the Understandings of men than the Causes and Reasons of the other And if the modi the intrinsical manner as the Schoolmen term them of created beings and their subsisting be so difficult to be conceived and understood it needeth not seem strange to us that the manner of the infinite and increated being which we call God and of his subsisting should be so far above our Apprehensions and capacities So that to put men upon endeavouring to conceive in their minds the particular manner how every thing should be or may be which the Scriptures only affirm to be and in case they cannot thus conceive of them to perswade them to deny their beings is in effect to perswade and bear them in hand that if they cannot he wise above that which is written they had as good throw up or cast aside that wich is written as vanity and untruth Most true it is that we ought not to believe any thing in matters of Religion but what we have a sufficient and substantial ground in Reason why we should believe it i. e. unless we have the Word of God for it which is the most substantial ground in Reason of all others why a thing should be believed But the Word of God revealeth many things simply to be the distinct manner of the being whereof it doth not reveal in which respect we stand bound to believe the truth and being of many things the manner of whose beings we are no way bound to believe because it is not revealed So that though we can not conceive nor stand bound to believe how or after what manner the divine Person differeth from the divine Essence nor again this Essence from such a Person yet we may and do stand bound to believe that they are distinguished the Scripture revealing this and not the other This for reply to the Argument propounded in the first place Secondly Whereas the Argument affirmeth Sect. 4 That it is impossible for any man to distinguish the Person from the Essence of God and not to frame two beings in his mind and consequently two Gods We reply further That this is manifestly untrue if by two beings he meaneth two things compleatly subsisting each a part by it self as for instance In Intellectual created Beings I can conceive a man or the person of a man and again the humane Nature or Essence of a man which differs from his Person for a man as Thomas or any other is not the Humane Nature but only partakes of it or subsists in it I say I can conceive in my mind the Person of Thomas and the Nature of Thomas and yet not conceive two things compleatly and a part subsisting and consequently not conceive two Thomases For the Nature of Thomas I mean the Humane Nature doth not any where subsist in Thomas his person a part by it self but only in the several and respective persons of mankind In like manner I can very well conceive in my mind a divine Person for instance the Father or the Son and likewise can conceive the divine Nature and Essence and yet not necessarily conceive or frame two beings i.e. two things completely and apart subsisting in my mind for the Divine Nature or Essence doth not really subsist apart from or out of the divine Persons which partakes therein be they one or be they more as the Humane Nature doth not any where subsist but in Thomas John and the rest of the individual persons of mankind who partake of this nature But though the Divine Essence be one and the same thing really and substantially with a divine Person and with all the Three yet doth it differ from it in consideration and respect so that I may conceive a divine person in my mind and conceive the divine Essence also and yet not necessarily conceive two things really distinct much less two Gods but two things distinct only in consideration but really one and the same As in the divine Attributes the Justice of God and the Mercy of God and so the Wisdome Patience Goodness c. they are really one and the same thing in God but they differ in consideration for when I conceive or consider the Justice of God the
here is nothing ascribed to the proper or immediate Agents the Apostles themselves but it is ascribed to the Holy Ghost And so again 1 Cor. 15.10 But I labour more abundantly than they all saith the Apostle yet not I but the grace of God which is in me But how doth the grace of God labour more than they All Not properly for it is not capable of speaking or journeying But because it did enable and strengthen Paul and raised his spirit and enlarged his heart and understanding to labour and fill the World with the knowledge of the Gospel therefore he saith he laboured more abundantly than they all The like Expression you have Gal. 2. the latter end I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ c. It was Paul certainly that lived and it is true likewise that the life he speaketh of Christ litterally or properly did not live in him But it was Christ the knowledge of whom and the belief of whom was Paul's life because that filled him with so much peace and comfort and joy which is that he meaneth by life Therefore that life which he lived he disclaimeth it as to himself and ascribeth it unto him who did enable him thus to do Like instances you have heard where that which is acted and done is ascribed not to the proper or immediate Agent but to that which qualifieth or enableth for the doing of it 1 Cor. 13.4 7. Charity suffereth long c. not that Charity doth this or that for the truth is that Charity doth none of these things It is not the proper or immediate Agent of these actions but only it doth dispose enable and encline the hearts of men and women to do them And so Jam. 1.20 is of a like character or form of speech The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God The meaning is that the wrath of man doth hinder or indispose men for acting that which is agreeable unto the righteous holy and just Commands of God Men by reason of their wrath if they be surprized by it are not in any good capacity to do the will or to work the righteousness of God So likewise when men work out their Salvation with fear and trembling God is said to work in them both to will and to do Phil. 2.13 because he assists and enables So in the Scripture before us the Spirit â—s said to search the deep things of God not because he himself reasons or argues himself into the knowledge of these things But because he assists guides and leads the minds and understandings of men into the knowledge of these things This to be the clear and express sense of the place is evident from verse 12. Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know i.e. that by him we might be directed and enabled to know the things which are freely given unto us of God Which also agreeth with that of our Saviours Joh. 16.13 When he is come he will lead you into all truth so that there is little question or rather none at all but that that is the true sense of the place in hand which hath been given I desire the Rule delivered with the several Instances that have been given for the confirmation of it may be the rather remembred and observed because the answer of the next and last Argument depends upon it But secondly If the understanding of the Spirit were distinct from the understanding of God he could not search the deep things of God because the understanding of God is infinite and how can a finite understanding reach or comprehend that which is infinite Even as the things of a man or of the understanding of a man no understanding or faculty that is beneath it or inferiour to it is able to dive into or comprehend Thirdly The sense given must needs be the true meaning of the place viz. that the Spirit is therefore said to search the deep things of God because he enableth men to search so far as is necessary for them to know because himself by his own Act in reference to himself cannot be said to search the things of God whether deep or other because searching properly implieth study or labour and diligence of enquiry and this supposeth a want of knowledge of the things searched after untill by searching they are found out but neither of these are attributable to the Spirit of God as is evident For first it is not proper to the Spirit to search and study and to come unto the knowledge of things by diligence and enquiry neither is it any way meet to be spoken of the Holy Ghost that he is destitute or ignorant of the things of God and that by labour diligence and study he searcheth them out so that this passage of Scripture is utterly a stranger to the Argument in hand Some other things are affirmed in the Argument which being weighed in the balance would be found too light But enough hath been said for the uncovering of the nakedness and to discover the inability of it to perform the device which is imagined The twelfth and last Argument we have to encounter with Sect. 18 hath upon the matter received answer already notwithstanding being the last let us hear what it hath to say He that hath a will distinct in number from that of God is not God the Holy Spirit hath a will distinct in number from that of God Ergo. The sum of this Argument is drawn up thus The Holy Ghost is said First to intercede with God or to pray unto God for the Saints Secondly He is said to do it according to the will of God Rom. 8.26 27. Therefore in respect of the latter He must needs have a will distinct from the Will of God and so cannot be God In respect of the former he must be inferiour unto God because he prayeth unto him and in this respect also cannot be God But to this Argument we reply First That whereas the Spirit is said to help our infirmities which infirmities are mentioned as lying in this That we know not what we should pray for as we ought viz. of our selves and by our own strength If the Holy Ghost should pray for us apart by himself he should not at all help our infirmities in this kind For we should or might remain under such Infirmities such Intercessions for us by the Spirit notwithstanding If it be said that the Spirit may intercede for us that our infirmities in this kind may be healed then it followeth that if our infirmities still remain as questionless they do and will do to our lives end and Paul himself was not exempted in this kind It followeth I say if so be the intercession of the Holy Ghost be that those infirmities of the Saints should be healed in case they be not healed then the Intercession of the Holy Ghost is not regarded and accepted
for us with God and then what kind of help should we receive from him But then Secondly The Spirit is said to make intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered Now though we should grant that groaning may in a metaphorical sense and unproperly be attributed unto the Spirit yet how any groans or groaning of his should be unutterable unto him who is the Lord of all Language and Speech is not easie to conceive Thirdly Whereas the Argument insisteth so rigidly upon these words in the end of ver 27. The Spirit it self maketh intercession for us according to the will of God As if they argued a distinct will of the Spirit from the will of God I reply that the words do not signifie according to the Will of God here is no word which signifieth Will But according unto God and they answer these words by way of Antithesis in the former verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we ought Thus the Apostle had there granted that the Saints did not indeed of themselves know how to pray as they ought here he tells them for their comfort that the Spirit will enable them to pray as they ought i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according unto God or the mind or will of God i. e. as they ought and as it becometh them to pray And here is a direct answer relating to those infirmities which our Apostle had expresly affirmed to be in the Saints Fourthly That the work of the Spirit on the behalf of the Saints doth not lie in this to pray for the Saints a part in heaven which is the sense of the Author of this Argument is evident from Joh. 14.16 where our Saviour saith that when he should go away he would pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth c. So that the work which the Spirit hath to do for the Saints is not in heaven since the Ascension of Christ into Heaven Heaven is not the Stage or Theatre where the Holy Ghost acteth and bestirs himself on the behalf of the Saints but now he is come down upon the earth and his great business which he hath to do lieth in the earth even with the hearts minds understandings and wills of men stirring and moving there But Fifthly and lastly Remember the Rule that we delivered unto you in the former Argument which will fully give you the sense wherein the Holy Ghost is said to intercede with groans we gave you many instances when we delivered this for a Rule that in many places Actions are ascribed unto him that doth assist and direct and help men in the performance of them and not unto him that is the formal and immediate Agent So here the Holy Ghost doth intercede with groans because he doth fill the Saints with his Wisdom and Power and so putteth them into a posture to conceive inward groans and secret motions and desires in the Soul which the Creature indeed is not able to utter or come to God withal in his lips the Creature cannot utter it self when the heart is full of the Spirit of God yet such persons are acted beyond their own ability and very well may be because the Spirit is directing guiding and strengthening unto this work And this is the property of an Intercessor To intercede doth not alwaies signifie to plead for us but sometimes to plead with us against any Enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this word in the rigour of the Grammatical signification of it is not alwaies used for interceding for another which he seemeth to catch at as I judge from the Latine word which signifieth to go between two but sometimes to go in opposition to an Enemy and sometimes it signifieth to expostulate and debate things with another Acts 25. So that all things being considered it is a clear case that this Argument is wholly defective And it may be seen further Rom. 8.15 it is expresly said that by means of the Spirit we cry Abba Father meaning that by the assistance and impulse of the Spirit we are able to call God Father which implieth the whole duty and management of this great service of Prayer and Invocation on the name of God And in the last place Jam. 16. speaking of the Prayer of the righteous man we translate it the effectual Prayer but the word properly signifieth that which is acted within a person by a power which is superiour to that which is natural in it We call those persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are acted by an unclean Spirit as when any person is made to speak a Language which he never understood we use to say such a person is inspired acted and carried out by a power superiour to his own And so that Prayer which can do so much with God The effectual fervent prayer of the Righteous it properly signifieth such a Prayer which is full of the Holy Ghost which is inspired into man or whereunto a man is carried out and thrust forward by a Divine Power greater than his own So that these things considered it is a clear case that the true sense and meaning of the place is only this That the Spirit of God relieveth our infirmities in Prayer that when as we know not how to pray as we ought and when the flesh sometimes cometh in and directeth and leadeth into such a method of Prayer which we ought not the Spirit now interposing and directing and leading us to such a method and way that now we pray according to the mind and will of God Now concerning the business it self Sect. 19 I mean the Controversie I would only say this before I leave it that if you mind it or shall please to go round about the matters in Controversie and weigh both these Doctrines First that which denieth the Holy Ghost to be God go I say round it and take all the Arguments and grounds which the Maintainers thereof are pleased to bring forth and weigh and consider their tendencies and operations upon the hearts and consciences of men and you shall find them altogether barren and flat and no waies calculated for the nourishment of men neither is there any thing in it that is any waies apt to quicken the hearts of men to the Service of God comparable to that Doctrine which doth oppose it viz. That the Holy Ghost is God truly God In this Doctrine and in the Arguments by which it is proved there is spirit and life there is as it were great strength which cometh forth from it which bears upon the Judgments and Consciences of men It rules like a King upon his Throne Whereas those other Doctrines viz. that deny the Spirit and so likewise Christ to be God are but of a dull and flat import there is no manner of spiritual power and vigour in them It may possibly be the sense of some that the time wherein we have been
an incumbrance upon the mind and spirit of a man and so an hindrance unto him from attending chearfully to any thing given by way of satisfaction touching the manner and means of obtaining a thing when the thought of his heart is that the thing is impossible to be obtained Therefore as to the Question propounded about this how such a thing can be or is likely to be that the Holy Ghost and much more a fulness with the Holy Ghost should be obtained by the endeavours of men I reply First That he is not to be obtained by the endeavours of men upon any such terms as if men were stronger than he or could compel or necessitate him by any force or strength properly so called to turn in unto them or the like but this I suppose is the thought of no mans heart Are we stronger than he saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.22 therefore certainly it is not to be obtained upon any such terms Secondly Neither is the Holy Ghost nor a fulness with him to be obtained by the endeavours of men upon any such terms or in any such consideration as if there were any thing of any worth goodness or the like in the endeavours of men in one kind or other which might in a way of merit challenge the gift of the Holy Ghost from God much less such a measure of the Spirit as the being filled with him importeth No the obtaining of the gift of the Holy Ghost upon such terms as these is like the redeeming of the Life or Soul of a man's Brother from the Grave Psal 49.7 which as the Prophet saith must cease for ever and such a thought of heart in any man is not much better than that of Simon Magus when as Peter chargeth him he thought the gift of the Holy Ghost might be purchased with money Therefore there is no such thing as this any waies implied in the Doctrine in hand Thirdly Neither is the Holy Ghost or any fulness with him to be obtained by any endeavours of men which originally spring from themselves or whereof they are the Authors Not saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.5 that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing or to reason any thing as the word signifieth meaning in the Ministry of the Gospel as of our selves i. e. as originally or radically of our selves He doth not deny but plainly supposeth and granteth that in a sense and in some consideration we are sufficient of our selves viz. by vertue of those abilities which are properly our own being given us by God to reason or think after such a manner as he speaketh of Only he denies that in such a sense or consideration as this we have any sufficiency in this kind viz. As if we our selves were the Authors of that sufficiency that is in us either by way of nature or of any meritorious procurement because as he immediately adds our sufficiency is of God namely originally fundamentally and radically not only by way of Creation as he that raiseth or worketh it in us but also as he that worketh it graciously or freely without any meritorious engagement laid upon him by us to work it in us or give it unto us For that in Scripture Phrase is said properly and precisely to be of God not simply which he acteth or worketh but that which he acteth or worketh freely without any either meritorious or demeritorious engagement laid upon him by the Creature As for example in case either Adam or Abraham or any other person had continued in all things that are written in the Law to do them I mean had perfectly fulfilled the Law God would have justified them or declared them righteous upon it yet had not this their justification in strictness or propriety of Scripture Phrase been of God but of themselves though he had justified them because they had wrought for it and God in strictness and rigour of justice could not have denied it them And so that of our Apostle concerning Abraham is I conceive to be understood Rom. 4.2 For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It should not be translated but not before God as we have it but thus rather he hath whereof to glory but not concerning God concerning any grace or favour received from God in his Justification If his Justification had been by works it had not been from God but from himself Upon the account of that Principle which we now plead the condemnation and destruction of wicked and impenitent men though the execution be done by God yet in emphaticalness of Scripture Phrase it is said to be procured from themselves and is disowned by God viz. because there is a demeritorious engagement layed upon God by the Creature to inflict it Hos 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self So that neither in this respect or sense is it a truth that the Holy Ghost or a being filled with him is procured by the endeavours of men in a meritorious way or as if any thing that men can do did any waies oblige God in way of justice to fill any man with the Spirit Therefore Fourthly When we teach and affirm that men may take a course or use means to be filled with the Spirit we do not make the Spirit obnoxious unto men or unto their endeavours but unto his own most gracious and free promise unto his infinite goodness unto poor Creatures only lead and guided by his infinite wisdom Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name Psal 138.2 that is he had subjected all his Attributes unto his Promise and unto the Word that is gone out of his mouth so that they shall serve the World and bless the Sons and daughters of men according to what he hath declared in his Word So that the reason why any man by taking such or such a course Sect. 4 or by using such or such endeavours comes to be filled with the Spirit is not because he doth these things there is no such vertue vigour or strength in them in any thing that men can do or are in a capacity of doing in this kind which is able to produce an effect so glorious as the filling of the heart or soul of a man with the Spirit of the living God But only because the Will of God and Word of God which are potent and wonderful in their operation do here interpose therefore doth it so come to pass And if God will give his Spirit or a fulness of his Spirit unto men and women upon their observation of such and such directions from his mouth who shall ask him Why dost thou so That which men do for the obtaining of that fulness with the Spirit which we speak of is little other than Sacramental Now such causes which work and contribute towards their effects Sacramentally only are in respect of that which is litteral or natural in them the poorest and lowest of all causes being of
Wine when it is red and giveth its colour in the Cup or glass when it moveth it self upright i. e. when it springs or sparkles Prov. 23.31 Look not on it when it is red c. i.e. do not fix thine eye upon it do not continue looking on it for so the word looking oft imports his meaning is not that a man should not simply see or cast his eye upon it as if there would be danger in such a case for then he could not tell when or how to observe this Precept but his meaning is if a man will fix his eye upon it there is danger of being inflamed with inordinate love unto it So our Saviour Mat. 5.28 Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her i. e. until he lusts after her or after any such manner that he comes to lust after her hath committed adultery with her in his heart Now this sheweth when and how this lusting cometh to be propagated in the heart if there be any loveliness in the Creature this may draw our hearts forth as it were of course unto such covetings The reason why men and women hate not sin with a more vehement vigorous and perfect hatred than generally they do is partly because they do not frequently and with intenseness of mind consider the abundance of evil that is in it that violent and virulent Antipathy or contrariety that is in it to their comfort and peace in many kinds For certain it is that sin hath enough in it to set all the World on fire with enmity to it Yea as the Devil when he had sinned had that in him and upon him which being looked upon by God was sufficient to throw him down from Heaven into the bottom of Hell So likewise hath sin that in it which being clearly seen and diligently considered by men is sufficient to cast it down out of the heavens of mens love and desires into the deepest hell of their hatred and indignation So on the other hand it is as true concerning righteousness in general which Plato the Philosopher had a glimmering of And as it is with Righteousness in general so it is with and also concerning that excellent peece or member of it whereof we speak A being filled with the Spirit This is such a Master-peece of humane felicity it hath so much worth and goodness and desirableness in it that was it thoroughly known and frequently whetted upon the thoughts and minds of men and women they need take no further care how to come by such covetings after it as those now prescribed unto you as a means in the first place to obtain it unless happily it be to satisfie themselves in this that it is nothing but what is attainable For if indeed you shall look upon it as a thing absolutely out of your reach your souls will hardly put forth in coveting or desiring after it But this scruple being removed you would soon find your hearts full of those covetings and desires so full that they would not be long able to contain themselves but that they would break forth and utter themselves in such other waies and means which they shall understand to be proper and likely to obtain it If you ask me But what is there so excellent Sect. 8 so greatly desirable in this being filled with the Spirit which being known and narrowly considered by us must needs as you say set us on coveting after it and so put us into a nearer capacity of obtaining it I reply first in the general the desirableness of it is such so exceeding great that neither the Tongue of men or Angels are sufficient to express it it is of kin to the peace of God and partakes herewith in that property that it passeth all understanding so that when we shall travel many dales yea many years with our minds and understandings to search out and discover the riches of it we shall leave much hereof undiscovered and unknown But more particulary First Such a filling with the Spirit as we speak of will leave no place for foolish and hurtful lusts in one kind or other to play their parts within us which as Peter saith 1 Pet. 2.11 Fight against the soul that is against the peace comfort and prosperity of it As upon the bringing in of the Ark into the Tabernacle the Tabernacle was filled with smoak Exod. 40.34 And so in the Dedication of the Temple the Priests could not enter because of the glory there 1 Kings 8.10 11. even so when the soul when the inner Temple of the heart of a man or woman shall be filled with the Spirit of God there will be such a glory of holiness there that there will be no standing or abode for those base Companions unclean impure carnal and sensual desires and inclinations No but they will all be scattered as the Mist is scattered before the Sun when it ariseth in its might These Companions which have haunted your souls and inner man hitherto Pride Envy and Malice and inordinate love of the World Pleasure Ease and all such kind of things as these they will be sensible of the glorious presence of this Spirit of God in you they will not be able to abide it his presence will fright away all those Aliens and strangers that are contrary to him It is true the greatest filling with the Spirit that flesh and bloud is at lâ—ast ordinarily capable of obtaining will not wholly overwhelm or drown the flesh as to extinguish the motions or stirrings of it in men This is clear from many Scriptures and particularly from that of the Apostle Gal. 5.17 .. For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit When by reason of the contrary lustings between the Flesh and the Spirit he saith they cannot do the things they would he speaks not so much indeed not at all of the species kind or substance of the Action but of the spiritual and exact manner of performing it Yea cannot do the things ye would his meaning is not that though they were willing to pray yet because of the lusting of the flesh they could not pray or though they were willing to hear the word yet they could not hear but thus ye cannot pray ye cannot hear or ye cannot give Alms as ye would that is with as much Faith with as much Fervency with as much Freedom and enlargement of Heart and Soul as ye desire The Flesh will be still interrupting and mingling it self with your actions and in preciseness and strictness of speech that which a servant of God or spiritual man properly would do is not simply to pray or simply to hear or to give Alms or the like But to do these and all other services and actions after the best and purest manner without any reluctancy or gainsayingness or interruption so that when men pray and do not pray thus when they hear and give Alms and do not both the one and the other upon such terms as these they
being saved it is so full that we are already saved by it And so Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance or rather the subsistence for so Hypostasis signifies of things hoped for Faith is said to be the subsistence or existence of things hoped for because the belief of those grounds or of those Promises of God or declarations that come from Heaven That These and these things shall be given to those that believe this I say doth give a kind of existency and presentiality unto the things themselves in the minds and spirits and souls of men For it is Faith that is the ground work or that which giveth a subsistence to these things in the soul for Hope floweth from Faith and by it the heart is carried out to the expectation of them Hope doth dilate and open the heart as a man doth his hand to receive that which is ready to be given unto him But that which giveth life breath and being unto Hope that is Faith It is Faith that giveth Being unto the Truth and Faithfulness of God in his Promises and Declarations by which they are settled and secured that they are all valid and that God will make them good unto his Sons and Daughters those who shall believe And in this respect the Language or manner of the Scripture speaking is very remarkable That they who are enabled by God by being anointed with a Spirit of Revelation to put men into a steady and substantial hope of possessing and enjoying such and such things are said to give them the things themselves So Isa 61.1 2 3. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted c. So again ver 3. To give them beauty for ashes the Oyl of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness c. So that according to this manner of Scripture speaking because the Prophet offered by a spirit of Prophecy to fill theis hearts with the hope and expectations of these things he is said to give them the things themselves So again he that shall be an instrument in the hand of God to preach the Word of God with such evidence of truth and demonstration as that he fills the hearts of men full of the hope of Salvation is said actually to save them Take heed unto thy self saith Paul to Timothy and unto the Doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee 1 Tim. 4.16 Fourthly Sect. 14 Your being filled with the Spirit will cause God to take a holy pleasure and delight in you and to imploy you about many actions and services of his which will be very honourable unto you and turn to a bleffed account in due time in his Kingdom Wherefore saith the Apostle to the Church at Jerusalem look ye out among you seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost c. Which doth imply that the men that God seeketh for the acting and doing his business here in the World are such who are full of the Holy Ghost such who have a rich anointing of the Spirit of God Men that are filled with the Spirit will be vigorous active and free in their work they will do what they do with all their might As men delight to be served by such Servants who are diligent and will go through stitch with their business that will not be baffled or turned out of their way by every toy or trivial occasion that shall present it self but will go on with their business not with trifling Even so it is a special Principle in the living God to desire servants that will be faithful and fervent in their business This indeed is the very Nature and Being of God and therefore he putteth that Character of his Being upon men which he judgeth meet to be chosen as instruments to serve him and which are as I may say made for him fitly qualified for any work or employment that shall be put into their hands Who counted me faithful saith Paul putting me into the Ministry If Paul had not been the man he was a man of mettle courage and resolution God would not have delighted in his service so as to have put him into the Ministry Now where we do not see men that are in the Ministry of the same Spirit it is a sign they are not put here by God for God taketh no delight or pleasure but only in such who are fitted for his work We read 2 Tim. 2.21 of Vessels prepared and made fit for the Masters use so that there is a certain fitness as well in Persons as in Vessels which maketh them meet for such or such respective uses Now that Generation of men in the World that are filled with the Spirit are only meet for the Masters use viz. the Great Master of the World the Lord of Hosts Such men as these men who are through-hearted zealous and lovers of his Work and that take delight in being employed in his Service are Vessels of pleasure and delight unto him Seest thou a man saith Solomon diligent in his business he shall stand before Kings Prov. 22.29 Shall stand before Kings namely to minister unto them Men of this Character are only meet for their Service Even so none are fit for the Service of the Great God of Heaven and Earth but such men who are of active and vigorous spirits and that know how to manage his Affairs with diligence and faithfulness for his interest in the World These men shall not stand idle but God will take delight to make use of them in his Service Whereas men that are unqualified for his Service to any confiderable degree as all men are who art not filled with the Spirit who have no activity nor edge in them are unto God as a bottle in the smoak And as men do not love to put what they drink into bottles that are smoaky because that will destroy all the goodness and pleasantness of the taste of that which shall be put into them Even so as was but now hinted men that are unqualified that have no dexterity for his business these are persons in whom God taketh no pleasure but are unto him as a bottle in the smoak because the management of his Affairs by such men as these will rather be a disparagement unto him than any matter of glory by rendring his Sacred Things common and consequently rendring them despicable in the eyes of men But on the contrary men that are richly anointed and filled with his Spirit these are Agents and Instruments for him as the Sword of Goliah was unto David there was none like unto it There is no Generation of men under Heaven that he taketh such pleasure in to commit and intrust his Affairs withal as with these who are filled with the Spirit Who maketh his Angels Spirits or wind
Paul as Debtors to the Greeks and Barbarians to the wise and to the unwise Rom. 1.14 i.e. unto all persons of mankind without exception and will give you no rest in your Spirits but only whilst you are paying what you owe in this kind or at least preparing and putting your selves into a condition to pay accordingly I began to say unto you that it would make you like unto Jesus Christ himself in Prince-likeness and true greatness of Spirit it will draw you into part and fellowship and this in abundance in the same design and prevail with you to make one purse and to cast in your lot with him It will give you the considence and courage to say unto him as Jehosaphat said to King Ahab 1 Kings 22.4 I am as thou art my people as thy people my horses as thy horses you will joyn with him with all the strength you have and all the friends and power you can make in the World in that great and blessed work and engagement which is now upon his hand and which he is carrying on day and night I mean the advancement of the peace and happiness of the World For though particular men and women and these not many enjoy the rich benefit and fruit of his most gracious interposures and actings in that kind we speak of yet the compass of his design to do good and bless and save and the nature and proper tendency of his actings are as large as the World or generality of mankind Hence it is that in Scripture Language things of general and publick concernment are called the things of Jesus Christ in opposition to the concernments of particular men All seek their own not the things that are Jesus Christ's Phil. 2.21 meaning that generally mens hearts were straight and narrow extending themselves only to their own particular interest and concernments not caring for things of a general and publick concernment which are properly the Affairs and Concernment of Jesus Christ who is the Great Providor for the World who doth good and blesseth particulars as they are members of the Universal and come in his way i. e. as they walk in those wares of Righteousness and true Holiness whereunto his Desires and Endeavours are to bring the World and this in order to their Peace and Happiness Now this great and glorious design of blessing the World from the one end of it unto the other was raised in the soul of Jesus Christ by his being filled with the Spirit His anointing in this kind was not by measure Hence it came to pass that the complexion of his heart and soul for doing good was so large and comprehensive to go round about the whole Creation as is witnessed of him Acts 10.38 that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who went thout doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil For God was with him Look then to what degree you shall be filled with the same Spirit wâ—◠〈…〉 Christ was filled withal your hearts will be proportionably filled 〈◊〉 the same resolution as Jesus Christ was You will be enlarged in tâ—â—â— kind your endeavours and engagements to do good will be very vast and comprehensive You will not endure to see the miserable and deplorable condition of men and women in the World in one kind or other but that you will find or feel something or other in you that will provoke you yea and after a manner will compel you to minister unto them of what you have in your hand As whilst Paul staid at Athens waiting for Silas and Timotheus His spirit was stirred in him when he saw the City wholly given to Idolatry Acts 17.16 How or unto what was his spirit stirred within him Doubtless it was to relieve them by endeavouring to break asunder if it were possible that snare of death this humour of Idolatry wherewith these poor people were taken and so to deliver them as appeareth by that which followeth in vers 17. Therefore disputed he in the Synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the Market daily with them that met with him Thus then you see here is another great and worthy accommodation which a being filled with the Spirit is accompanied with which will make you like unto Princes yea like unto Jesus Christ himself You will be willing to go along with him and not so much mind or manage your own things as the things of his interest and glory You will be willing to take Christ's design along with you and still watch over that great business which he is carrying on with an high hand in the World Now who is able to estimate or compute the blessedness of such a state and frame of heart and soul as this is which we now speak of and which with the Scripture and evidence of reason otherwise we ascribe to a being filled with the Spirit The loud rejoycing of Conscience which doth accrue unto men is the natural result of such a frame of heart so enlarged and endeavours sutable unto it This great and mighty Testimony of a man's Conscience is sweeter and more desirable than life it self And we shall find the Apostle Paul make an estimate or value of it accordingly For it were better for me to die than that any man should make my glorying void 1 Cor. 9.15 From whence this glorying of his did spring we are particularly informed from his hand 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World c. He had tasted of that sweetness and incomparable satisfaction which did flow in unto him upon the account of the enlargedness of his heart and soul in the great concernments of the Gospel which made him conclude that it were better for him to die than that any man should make void his glorying in this kind How mightily did he magnifie and glory in this great Treasure viz. his rejoycing in the Testimony of his Conscience that he had served God and men with all sincerity and simplicity This he thought was enough to make the World go and do likewise Seventhly Sect. 17 By being filled with the Spirit of God you shall be enabled to pray unto God and this more effectually and with greater acceptation and upon far better terms than any other way see that known place Rom. 8.26 27. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh Intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God If this be proper to the Spirit simply and where he is in a lower and lesser degree then certainly where there is
generality of the Saints will enjoy besides that of being filled with the Spirit of God and being drawn out accordingly into waies and works of excellency and well-doing unless it be by suffering Persecution for the Gospels sake although it might be doubted too whether some good degree of being filled with the Spirit be not requisite even to put men into this capacity also For they who have not some competent anointing in this kind will hardly hold out in suffering That which maketh men constant and persevering under temptations and great tribulations to the end is a certain hope and expectation of a great recompense of reward from God as the Scriptures witness in many places which we shall not now insist upon Now such a hope which will make a man stand upright under great Afflictions cannot be raised and gotten up into the soul but by the reflection of a mans Conscience upon him and witnessing unto him that he hath walked in waies of a worthy life and excellent deportment in the World if then there shall be no place for such things as these in the soul without a being filled with the Spirit of God which hath been formerly and largely proved then evident it is that neither men nor women are likely to be capable of that best Resurrection and consequently not of the best Eternity upon one account or other without being filled with the Spirit of God But be it granted or supposed that men may be able deeply to be baptized into suffering for righteousness sake and so become capable of a greater reward in Heaven as our Saviour speaketh without being filled with the Spirit of God Yet as I was saying unto you this method or way to obtain an eternal greatness is more uncertain as to any particular person one or other and less within his liberty or power than by an abundant fruitfulness in well-doing which as hath been shewed will not be found in any man without a being filled with the Spirit nor any man found to be filled with the Spirit without that For to be called forth and strengthened by God to suffer for Christ's or the Gospels sake is matter of peculiar Grace and gift from God and so not in the power of any man himself to chuse according to that of the Apostle to the Philippians Phil. 1.29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake This Argumentative Particle also clearly implieth that to suffer for Christ's sake is not so generally granted unto men as to believe on him is I mean is not granted unto all those unto whom it is granted to believe By suffering in this place I suppose is meant a suffering deeply and to a more than ordinary degree Nor is that of the same Apostle 2 Tim. 3.12 contrary hereunto Yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution i. e. shall be obnoxious and liable to suffer persecution or to some degree or other actually suffer So then there being no way at least no way of certainty to heap up these Treasures in Heaven to lift up your heads on high and that to Eternity amongst those that shall be partakers of the same glory with you to enlarge your capacities respectively for blessedness and glory but by being filled with the Spirit â—â—is must needs highly commend such a qualification or priviledge 〈◊〉 this unto you and cause your hearts to burn in longing desires â—â—â—er it The two Sons of Zebedeus James and John made this reâ—â—est unto Christ that the one of them might sit at the right hand c. Mar. 10.35 that they might be next unto him in greatness and in glory The motion our Saviour seemeth to have distasted as in considerately made and accordingly gave the makers of it this check You know not what you ask meaning that they did not understand nor consider how great and excellent how transcendent above measure the matter or priviledge was which they desired nor yet considered upon what terms and on what kind of persons according to the righteous purpose and intent of God it was to be conferred It is not mine to give but to those or those only for whom it is prepared But now though he checked them in respect of their inconsiderateness in making the motion because they understood not what they asked nor knew upon what terms they asked it for they asked it upon the account of favour and partiality in God because related unto him as Friends and Followers Yet otherwise he doth not blame them simply for desiring it but for desiring it after such a manner viz. carnally But when he saith ver 40. it is for them for whom it is prepared He doth imply that it is not for two persons only but for such persons that are so and so qualified As if Christ should have said this on purpose to draw and wind up the hearts of his Creatures men and women to waies of excellent righteousness and holiness There shall be some places of glory higher than other and they whose hearts will serve them to come up to my Fathers terms and quit themselves like men in what he expects from them in righteousness faithfulness and holiness these shall be the persons He doth not blame them simply for desiring these high accommodations in heaven but rather enciteth and encourageth them to quit themselves at such a rate of worth and excellency whilst they lived that they might be found those persons indeed for whom they were prepared and so be invested with them My Brethren the right hand and the left hand of Jesus Christ in his Kingdom of all desirable things they are most desirable The Ministration of the Law the Apostle plainly informeth us was glorious and yet affirms withal the Ministration of the Gospel to be much more glorious Yea though the former Ministration of the Law in simple consideration be glorious yet comparatively it was not glorious So my Brethren we might very well have some such kind of notion that all Believers are blessed all are glorious yet nevertheless in respect of those that shall be superabundantly blessed and glorious the others glory shall be but little in comparison There is one glory of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the Stars and these differ one from another in glory even so shall it be in respect of the glory of the Saints Now Who is there but would be willing especially by waies that be honourable and worthy and withal are not difficult to better his estate and condition in the World that now is though what improvement soever he shall make in this kind he is not like to enjoy but for a short season here being no enduring substance Suppose he be in a competent way of subsistence at present as suppose he be worth a hundred pounds or two or three per Annum if there were a way opened to
double or treble it will he not do it If this be counted wisdom to advance a perishing and contemptible state who would not amongst us all labour to advance in such a glorious and durable state as we speak of This then is the first thing requisite to be done in order to your being filled with the Spirit of God namely to fill your Judgments and Understandings with the knowledge of all the excellent and desirable things of it together with a frequent and an effectual consideration of these most worthy and rich accommodations which must needs accrue or grow unto you by your being filled with the Spirit of God CHAP. X. The Resolution of the Second Question further prosecuted And six Directions more given to shew how men and women may come to be filled with the Spirit of God and what is to be done by them in order hereunto A Second thing to be done Sect. 1 to fill your hearts and souls with the Spirit of God is to employ and make use of him upon all your spiritual occasions and for the performance of duties When you shall at any time apply your selves unto God to do it by him as in your Prayers unto God and so your mortifying the deeds of the flesh and in searching out the deep things of God and in keeping in mind the things of God and of your own peace Now as touching these four particulars mentioned viz. Prayer Mortification understanding great Mysteries and keeping in mind these things c. The Scriptures do plainly hold forth the use and necessity of the Spirits being employed in all these chiefly and more especially than in other spiritual Services But here three Questions may be propounded First Whether we can or whether it be in our power to engage the Spirit of God in this kind Whether it be in the reach or power of a man to draw him into part or fellowship with us in such spiritual works as lie upon our hands to do Secondly How or by what means we may engage him Thirdly and lastly In case we shall be able to engage him and shall actually do it how the things that shall be thus done by the Spirit in us so engaged can be attributed unto us or we looked upon as the doers of them For the first of these Whether it be in our power thus to draw in the Spirit of God to stand by us to stand at our right hand and to be helpful unto us in our spiritual Services To this we answer in the Affirmative We are able and may do it otherwise himself would not so frequently have admonished and called upon us to do it I mean to engage him or to do things of several kinds by him Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live This Clause but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body containeth and implieth more than an Exhortation or Charge to set the Spirit on work to mortifie the deeds of the body For it containeth a Reason to press such an Exhortation drawn from the excellent benefit and advantage that doth attend it Life Eternal you shall live if you do it Seneca hath a Saying Rogat quidem efficacissimè qui profert rogandi causas He asketh and that most effectually who expresseth reasons why he should ask so we may truly and pertinently say when the Holy Chost delivereth unto us reasons or motives whether one or more why we should be exhorted to such and such duties he doth inclusively exhort us hereunto and this after the most peircing and effectual manner Telling and promising us that if we shall mortifie the deeds of the flesh we shall live doth he not most affectionately excite and stir us up to mortifie them accordingly Now we cannot mortifie them by the Spirit but by prevailing with the Spirit in one kind or other to mortifie them Thus also Jude ver 20. But ye Beloved building up your selves in your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost that is in or by or through the help and assistance of the Holy Ghost meaning that they should do that which they well enough understood and knew would prevail with the Holy Ghost to assist and help them in praying So again 2 Tim. 1.14 That good thing which was committed unto thee speaking of that Pattern of wholsome words and sayings of the Doctrine of the Gospel keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us He addeth these last words which dwelleth in us to put Timothy in mind that the Holy Ghost was near at hand ready and offering himself to be imployed by Christians in all the great difficult and worthy occasions of their souls and consequently to encourage him to address himself unto him I mean the Holy Ghost that he would enable him to keep i. e. to preserve in memory and mind the good things he speaketh of To these places I shall only add Gal. 5.16 This I say then walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Walk in the Spirit I suppose his meaning is not in this Phrase that they should walk according to the direction and guidance of the Spirit which in ver 18 and elsewhere he calleth a being led by the Spirit but that they should walk thus by the strength or by the excitations and quicknings or actuations of the Spirit that they should walk as it were on the Legs of the Spirit so that he may carry them out to all they do and so interpose likewise in their doing it that the burthen and stress of the work may lie chiefly upon him and that men themselves may taste little of the difficulty bardness or offensiveness if any such thing be in it This or some such thing as this the Apostle I suppose meaneth by walking in the Spirit and by putting Christians upon it to walk in or by the Spirit he supposeth such a thing that may be done or attained by them if they will take a course thereafter But then it may be objected If we may engage the Spirit Sect. 2 and set him on work about any of those spiritual employments that have been mentioned or the like Must not we be looked upon as principal or first Movers in every such work and the Spirit as the subordinate Agent only and subservient unto men and dependent upon them in his workings To this I reply no First Because when any man doth awaken the Spirit and engage him to his assistance he is first awakened by the Spirit hereunto yea and engaged too by which the Spirit himself becometh engaged by himself for we are thus or after some such manner as this to conceive of the spiritual treaty or entercourse and of the state of affairs between the Holy Ghost and the soul of a Christian in whom he dwelleth in reference to the business now in hand First
own inability for this work we are about 1 Chron. 22.16 Arise saith David to his Son Solomon therefore and be doing and the Lord be with thee He doth not say stay untill the Lord doth come unto thee but arise and be doing So that this is the first thing to be done we must lay all thoughts of Confidence aside of any sufficiency as of our selves Secondly We must turn our selves towards the Holy Ghost with the like serious and thorough and unfeigned acknowledgment of a sufficiency in him that strength which we disclaimed in our selves we must ascribe unto him We know that the Lord Christ still requireth this acknowledgment from those who obtain any great Request as to any great matters Believe ye that I am able to do this Saith he to the blind men that came to him to be healed Mat. 9.28 So again Mar. 9.23 24. If thou canst believe all these things are possible c. The Father of the Child answered Lord I believe help my unbelief So then here is another thing whereby to interest the Holy Ghost in what we go about namely that we do acknowledge a sufficiency in the Holy Ghost But then Thirdly Sect. 4 We must acknowledge a readiness and willingness and a gracious inclinableness in the Holy Ghost to help and assist us in those things wherein it is any waies meet for him to interpose on our behalf He who doth unfeignedly acknowledge his own weakness and doth address himself unto him shall be sure to find his assistance Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities c. There is a very rich and compassionate inclination in the Holy Ghost towards the Saints in respect of the great infirmities which he discerneth in them to assist stand by and relieve them in their holy endeavours To help them to perform things in an holy and humble manner upon terms of acceptation It is a usual Dialect in Scripture when the Act is expressed by the means or course that usually is taken to effect it As Joh. 1.9 Christ is said to enlighten every man that cometh into the World because he affordeth them such means and taketh such a course with them which is proper to enlighten them Even so the Spirit helpeth our infirmities that is he is ready to help our infirmities toties quoties as oft as ever he is sought unto as if he should say The Spirit knoweth how unable men are for such Actions and Services and therefore out of a kind of compassion and Sympathy in respect of their weakness he is ready to help them These gracious inclinations in him are apt to advance and express themselves in their might and power when the Creature is under a full knowledge and sense of its own weakness and a full acknowledgement of this readiness and willingness of the Spirit of God to help and to relieve The poor committeth himself unto thee Thou art the helper of the Fatherless Psal 10.14 Meaning that when the poor do commit themselves unto God then he is ready to help them there is a Synechdoche of the Species for the Genius By Fatherless he doth mean those that be not in any capacity to help themselves Now they that are under a sense that they are not able to help themselves by reason of their Poverty God is wont to come in to their relief and succour So when a man or a woman is smitten with the sense of their weakness in being not able to hold out in these services if they shall have recourse to the Spirit of God as their helper this is a Signal given unto the Spirit and he taketh the Alarm and he cometh and sheweth himself in his strength unto the Creature All these three means for the interessing of the Spirit in our Services I conceive our Saviour himself Joh. 14.16 17. chiefly pointeth at and asserteth I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him c. The World cannot receive the Holy Ghost because it seeth him not neither knoweth him that is because they have no manner of sense or discerning of him in any such property wherein he desireth to be known For we should have given notice of that though there be a presence of the Spirit of God in men in the state of Nature or Unregeneracy yet the Scriptures do nor speak of the Spirits dwelling in men nor of a mans receiving the Spirit untill they receive him in a greater measure or after the manner in which Believers receive him and as he is when he doth advance his presence in an excellent degree in them to put them upon Actions of an excellent concernment But that only by the way The World cannot receive the Holy Ghost because it seeth him not neither knoweth him that is because it hath no manner of discerning of him or at least no distinct or clear knowledge of him A man may have the sight of a Person but that deserveth not the name of the knowledge of him But when a man cometh to understand of what temper or frame he is either in respect of wisdom or goodness or as to matter of Estate or the like then he is properly said to know a man when he knoweth such things as these of him It is the manner of the Scripture to express Gradations after such a manner as this so He that keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth so here the World neither seeth him nor knoweth him that is they have not seen him much less have they any considerate knowledge of him And when our Saviour giveth the true reason why the World did not or cannot receive him meaning that they cannot according to that Principle by which the Spirit of God is resolved to give out himself i. e. they cannot go beyond God's Declaration they cannot break the Bars of Gods Decree nor the Method by which he is purposed to dispose of his own Spirit This deep ignorance which the men of the World have concerning the Holy Ghost is the reason why they cannot receive him in any supernatural or in any saving manner they cannot receive the indwellings or the inhabitation of him so as to receive strength to perform services in any spiritual or acceptable manner before God for otherwise they are capable of receiving of the Spirit in a way of common illumination They are capable of receiving of him in another sense though they are not capable of receiving him in such a manner as he is to be received so as to be led by him into the waies of life By the light of this Discourse we see that they who are not convinced of the necessity both of the presence of the Spirit of God to help them and likewise of his sufficiency and readiness and willingness to afford his presence with them are under a kind of incapacity
turn to the praise of the Spirit But we must do them with a desire and purpose of heart that they may be to his praise So that to sow to the Spirit denoteth fruitfulness in good works especially in such good works wherein more particularly the glorious goodness and power c. of the Spirit may be discovered unto the World and when men are addicted unto such waies and such works which have a proper and clear tendency to discover the goodness bounty power and excellency c. of the Spirit of God then they may be said to sow unto the Spirit especially when they do these things with an intention to commend his goodness and power unto the World So to sow to the Flesh is to do that which tendeth to please the sensual part of man and this with an intent to gratifie the Flesh whether we understand it in respect of the outward Actions of the body or the corrupt workings of the mind it is clear that men in either of them do sow to the Flesh Only this is to be minded that the taking care of the outward man and the doing of such things which in a regular way tend to the maintenance and comfortable subsistence thereof are never said to be a sowing to the Flesh in opposition to the Spirit but only when men are inordinate in the use of these things then and only then doth the Interest of the Flesh come in For whilst men and women are providing for the comfortable being of the outward man they all this while walk by the Rule of the Word of God and comport with the Spirit of God These kind of doings are not properly the works of the Flesh but may be more truly said to be the works of the Spirit For the Spirit of God requireth that all things should be done in a regular manner that the outward man may not be disadvantaged unto spiritual Services therefore the Spirit of God doth charge men with particular care and circumspection over their Bodies that by this means he may rejoyce with so much the greater Joy where he findeth men manage themselves so that they may be in a good capacity to do such things which are holy just and good and that are righteous and of a good report Now the reason why such things as these must needs be matter of praise unto the Spirit of God is because the hearts of men cannot lightly when they see men full of good works but acknowledge that these things do come from the Spirit of God because such works as these being in goodness and glory above the Line of men plainly assert their Original to be Divine and plainly inform the World that God by his Spirit vouchsafeth to dwell and to act in men and women from whom such excellent works as these proceed But more particularly such waies and works which outstrip the generality of men yea of Christians and which they are not at present able to understand nor to see the reason of them such were some of the actions and waies of the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 5.13 For whether we be besides our selves it is for God or whether we be sober it is for your cause For the love of Christ constraineth us c. Paul seemed in some of his Actions as a man half-witted or besides himself and as a man bereaved of his senses yet this doubtless was of the best and choicest seed the best kind of sowing unto the Spirit of God it is true that at the first performance of them the World did not understand no nor Christians neither of an ordinary anointing as was even now hinted nor could-resolve them into their proper Principles so as to say that this was the Spirit of God that moved and stirred him up As the Seed for a while lieth buried in the ground and afterwards springeth up Even so when the reasons of such actions should be manifest unto them then they should confess that he had a great and mighty assistance of the Spirit of God with him There are some things which are above the ordinary reach of natural and moral men though the truth is there hath been here and there a Son of Nature Philosophers and such like men that have gone very far and as high it is likely as many of the Sons and Daughters of God have done or do as in that great work and strain of excellency in forgetting and forgiving of injuries and passing by all matters of unkindness disparagement and contempt which they have met withal from the hands of men Now for men and women to take no knowledge of such things from any nor to draw back from them or to withhold the hand of their goodness bounty or good will in any kind from them upon the account of any such hard measure received this is one of the highest and one of the most spiritual strains that can be that the nature of man is likely to partake of To be able to do good in the presence of all these discouragements doth argue even to the generality of men that such a man is of an excellent spirit and that he hath a great presence of the Spirit of God with him And doubtless though there may be excellent things written in this kind concerning those that have not been seasoned with the Gospel of Jesus Christ at least in so explicite a manner yet is there a more peculiar and a more rich presence of the Spirit vouchsafed unto those who enjoy the Gospel and which moveth them more strongly to spiritual actions and which have a more immediate and strong connexion with their present joy and comfort and also with their Eternal life and good of their souls But besides this there are other things of an excellent import Let your moderation saith the Apostle Phil. 4.5 be known unto all men The word signifieth let your yieldingness or comportance and compliance be known unto all men he meaneth sweetness and gentleness of disposition a readiness in men ever and anon to give away their own right to deny themselves in many things which according to strict terms and the rigour of the Law they might stand upon When ever there is danger that upon their account the Gospel is like to suffer in the hearts and consciences of men in case they should stand stifly upon their own rights then the opportunity is before a man then hath he a call to practice that moderation and that yieldingness and gentleness of Spirit which the Apostle calleth for at the hands of Christians We might instance in many more particulars of this nature but you see by that little which we have insisted upon what we mean by sowing to the Spirit But if you ask How should such a thing as this be any way or means to help us forwards in this viz. A being filled with the Spirit or any waies promote such an end I answer This is clear from the Principle insisted upon in the former
Point That to him that hath shall be given He that is willing to sow to the Spirit it is a sign that he in the sense of this Scripture is a man that hath received the Grace of God Now they that declare that they have i. e. that take a course to make the World acknowledge that they have they that have in this sense shall have more abundantly and yet still the more they have the more they shall have and the faster and the thicker that men shall sow to the Spirit they shall still have more seed As God giveth natural Seed unto the Sower so doth he give spiritual Seed unto him that soweth unto the Spirit he shall have more strength and vigour and stronger Propensions to do well and worthily yea to abound in well doing This is a third means to be made use of in order to a being filled with the Spirit of God Fourthly Another means for the same end I mean of being filled with the Sprit is to feed and cherish to nourish and strengthen the motions of the Spirit when at any time he beginneth to burn or rise up in a little flame in the soul then toties quoties to be ready to cast spiritual oyl upon the flame that so he may advance the motions which he hath begun is another excellent and pregnant way and means to be filled with the Spirit To open this means or direction unto you it is to be supposed that the Spirit where he inhabiteth and dwelleth will ever and anon be heaving and putting forth in the hearts and souls of men he will be secretly inciting and gently moving and perswading men and women unto good waies and actions unto waies of Justice Righteousness and Goodness and the like sometimes in one kind and sometimes in another yea many times it is likely he will be moving men and perswading them to actions not simply and positively good but unto such waies and actions that are higher and more excellent and more worthy than any of those wherein they yet walk or have been accustomed or have lift up their hearts or hands unto This then is that we advise you in this means or direction that whensoever you perceive or feel the Spirit rising or moving within you unto any thing that is good worthy or meet to be done as if you live inwardly and have much and close communion and converse with your hearts and souls you may frequently find that he is When I say at any time you are sensible of any good motion conceived and raised in you that then presently you provide spiritual milk and honey to feed strengthen and nourish the tenderness of it for when these motions come from the Spirit they are at first but weak and tender and faint but you may take a course by nourishing of them that of soft and tender motions you may make them strong if you take unto you such and such considerations which are apt and proper both to continue on foot and keep alive the said motions within you and likewise to fortifie and encourage them Gentle and soft motions bearing upon your hearts and consciences are but like a soft Air or breathing of wind upon a Ships sails which help her not much on her way So the breathings of the Spirit the first rise of them are but soft and gentle but there is a proper kind of nourishment to be administred unto them which will enlarge and strengthen them Let the motions be what they will as indeed there may be a thousand motions of this kind the Scripture doth afford wherewithal to nourish them all As the Earth bringeth forth all kind of of Herbs Trees c. So the Scriptures yield a proper and peculiar kind of Nourishment a peculiar kind of consideration of truth which will fortifie and strengthen all those motions and raise them up in growth and stature As suppose it be a motion unto a more constant frequent and consciencious attendance upon the Ordinances of God's House and the Affairs there the Scriptures will fill you with motives and considerations which are apt and proper to nourish fortifie and strengthen you in this service So again suppose that the motion be to works of Charity to a more open handedness unto works of Mercy the Scripture will furnish you with nourishment for such motions also Or if the motions of the Spirit be to abandon or cast off idle and unprofitable company who are good for nothing but to waste our precious time I say the Scriptures will nourish these motions also You shall find meditations there and such words and considerations that are proper nourishment for all such motions of the Spirit as these mentioned with their fellows which will cause them to wax and grow and gather strength until it be too hard for the contrary corruptions and infirmities to hinder them My Brethren there be many choice motions from the Spirit of God which may die and never bring forth As there are many Children that die in their Infancy and never grow up unto men Even so the truth is that where there is one Motion that doth grow and come to any maturity it is to be feared that there are many thousands which for want of nourishment and because they are not propagated and encreased by adding further strength unto them die and come to nothing As it is with the Seed of Mankind in their Infancy and tender years we know that they are capable of living and growing up unto men yet are they not capable of propagating in their kind till they are grown up to some maturity Even so motions to good take them in their beginning though they are capable of growing unto their full strength yet they are not presently capable of action untill they be trained and fed up until they come to maturity Then they will beget in their own likeness then they will produce in their kind Thus we see if we desire to be filled with the Spirit of God we must do as we use to do with our new-born Infants make much of them and not despise them because they are weak No but we are to be very tender of them and to nourish them and to cherish them to minister such food unto them that will strengthen them unto or at least until they are grown to Maturity A motion which at first hath little or no strength and so cannot go abroad into any Action or Service by that time you have nourished and carefully tendered it in your hearts and souls though it was but like a grain of Mustardseed at the beginning yet being nourished and fed in your hearts after a while it will be full of strength and vigour and whereas at first it might easily have been quenched after it cometh to maturity it will be able to nourish it self Now the reason of this direction in order to a being filled with the Spirit runneth upon the former Principle which we lately mentioned viz. To
him that hath shall be given Man who shall nourish and cherish the motions of the Spirit of God when they are in him as it were in swadling cloaths and little and shall be a good Foster-Father unto them shall certainly have a greater and greater presence of this Spirit untill it shall enable him to do great and glorious things and so shall delight in him daily more and more and stir and raise up other and more excellent motions which never came into his mind or heart before Fifthly Sect. 10 Another means whereby the Temple of your souls may be filled with the glory of the Spirit of God is to be led by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 You know there are some Horses will not be led but a man must pull and haule them after him but there are other Horses that are obedient and tractable in your hand So where there is a tractableness and teachableness in men that the Spirit of God leadeth them as it were by the hand this way and that way when men are easie to be taught by him this is another ready and pregnant means whereby to be filled with the Spirit My Brethren you may be said to be led by the Spirit when you go along with him or are willing to go that way wherein he would lead you by every good motion The Spirit doth take as it were every man and woman by the hand and doth upon the matter desire them to be willing to be lead Now when men and women are willing to accept of the Spirit of God for their Leader and Guider in such waies and courses as he doth like to lead them unto these are they that are led by the Spirit of God It is no great difficulty no great Master-piece to know when and in what cases we are led by the Spirit of God and when not for if we know but so much as to be able to distinguish between good and evil if we can but distinguish such motions that be good from those that be evil we may know by this alone when we are led by the Spirit of God and when not For most certain it is that all motions to good which are either mediate or immediate are from the Spirit of God therefore if it be a good motion it is easie to know what Parent it hath namely God So now if by any motions which are at any time stirring or working within us we find our hearts drawn out unto such and such a good way and work in this case if we shall seek for or consult with the dark part of our souls to find out Arguments to disparage them as if they were not the motions of God or of the Spirit of God but were from some other Principle there may be much danger in it But if men shall not seek to draw back upon any such pretenses as these only because they would not go along with the motion it being contrary to some unruly lust or unworthy design which they are carrying on in the World but shall be willing to be led by the Spirit If they need not to be pulled and hauled but shall come on freely and readily and shall be willing to go along with the motions of the Spirit without asking any question for conscience sake or rather for lusts sake this is another great advantage that will turn to an happy account in order to a compleating this great design of your being filled with the Spirit of God For there is nothing that giveth a more demonstrative proof that a man is a true born Son of God than that he is willing to be led by the Spirit in the sense declared It was a saying amongst the Romans He is an ill Souldier that followeth his Captain groaning and sighing Even so he is not a reconciled person with his own peace and comfort who studies and casteth about and would fain be excused from the service of God By the way that we may not discourage any to comply at any time with the motions of the Spirit when any person man or woman shall make a long work of finding out pretenses before they will go along with these motions nevertheless if they do comply and go along with them at last though it be late yet better so than wholly to reject and cast them off but this is not the way of wisdom there is a far better and more excellent way than this in order to the great blessedness we speak of of being filled with the Spirit which is to be freely willing to go along with the Spirit of God in his leading and guidance And so we have briefly done with this means also Only the reason or ground of this direction we shall illustrate a little further viz. He that hath shall have more abundantly Sect. 11 They that comport with the Holy Ghost in his motions who are willing to go along with him in works of Holiness and goodness they do by him as a man doth by his friend whom he symbolizeth with in Disposition Genius and Temper his waies are his waies his delight his delight his sorrows his sorrows this strengthens Friendship between man and man Just so when a man shall symbolize and fall in at every turn with the Spirit of God and shall be like unto him in his waies and shall follow him in his motions and shall own them such a deportment as this is will cause the Spirit of God to delight in a man and to rejoyce in him For if the Spirit of God be capable of being grieved as it appears he is by what the Apostle saith concerning him Eph. 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God c. Then certainly he may be pleased and delighted he may be so used and entreated by men so that he will take pleasure and delight in them We have opened this Metaphor unto you heretofore therefore we shall only touch it by the way Grief when it is applied unto the Spirit of God doth not suppose or imply any such thing as if the Holy Ghost may be grieved in a true or proper sense No but the meaning is this that such a course may be taken by men that the Spirit of God may be provoked to do as men use to do under grief As for instance when men are under the Passion of grief they are indisposed unto action they are listless unto any expression of themselves in one kind or other grief and sorrow straitens and contracts the hearts of men that they become half dead having no life no lust no spirit to any thing out of themselves So likewise the Spirit may be said to be grieved when he keepeth silence in men and doth not act as he was wont to do When there is a deadness in the Soul when there are no lustings therein unto that which is good it is a sign that the Spirit is grieved because he stirreth not he moveth not he cometh not forth as he was wont
to do but leaveth the soul solitary and to it self And when there is such a calm no breathing of the Spirit upon the soul there will be no lust no motion nor desire to do any thing that is spiritual or heavenly and then it is with the soul as it is with a quantity of Wine when the Spirits are extracted out of it that which remaineth is but as a little water Just so are the Spirits and hearts and souls of men when the Spirit of God is grieved within them when he withdraweth Their very life and all that vigour of spirit which at other times is found in them all is under hatches and doth not appear On the contrary when the Spirit of God is pleased and delighted in men he is like unto men when they are under greatest contentment and satisfaction of mind they are now in a posture and readiness to do all the good they can to please and gratifie every man This we have opened unto you formerly and have shewed you how the Scriptures run much upon it As saith Mephibosheth to David Let him take all forasmuch as my Lord the King is come again in peace 2 Sam. 19.30 And so Gal. 4.15 Where is then the blessedness you speak of For I bear you record that if it had been possible you would have plucked out your own eyes c. And so again Bless and curse not bless I say for thereunto you are called as who should say Christians by means of that rich portion of contentment and joy which they are interessed in by the Gospel are in a posture to do good unto the World under all the cursings and prosecutings of it Even so it is with the Spirit of God when he taketh delight and pleasure in a man then is he enlarged towards him he is then active stirring and vigorous in the heart and soul These motions quicknings and encitements unto waies that are good these beat strong upon a man Now the Spirit of God the more he is pleased the more he doth enlarge and give out himself unto men So then if we desire to be filled with the Spirit here is another means proper to obtain it namely if you will be led by the Spirit There is nothing more pleasing unto a man especially unto a man of wisdom than to see his Counsel followed This very impression being found in the hearts of men argueth that there is a like strain of this in the nature of God for we have often signified unto you that God made man after his own Image endued him with the same Principles of Wisdom and Understanding namely for nature or kind which were in himself he drew a kind of Copy of his own Wisdom in the Nature of man And this by the way is the reason of another thing also viz. That in his Treaties with men about the great and important business of their everlasting Peace he still goeth by such Rules which men go by and manage the things of their highest concernments But now the reason why God doth deal with men in very many cases by their own Principles is not simply because he will thus fall in with them but because these are the Rules of God himself according to the excellency of his Nature by which he ruleth and governeth the World Sixthly Sect. 12 It must needs be of good consequence unto you in order to your being filled with the Spirit to take and keep all things out of the way which are contrary hereunto I mean which are like to hinder and will hinder your being filled with the Spirit in case they be not taken and kept out of the way to see that we do not lay any obstruction in his way but that it may be plain and smooth before him Now those things in the general which are like to be an offense unto the Spirit of God and so obstructive to your being filled with him are all such things which are gratifactory and pleasing unto the flesh and tend to the encouragement and strengthening of the hand thereof The reason hereof is because the Apostle informeth us Gal. 5.17 that the Spirit and the Flesh are contrary one to the other and lust one against the other one lusteth after that or after the doing of that i.e. secretly inclineth and perswadeth men and women to the doing of that which being done is contrary to the interest of the other it discourageth weakens and disableth the force or moving power of the other in the soul Therefore a course is to be taken and something done that may restrain the motions of the Flesh or at least break the heart or strength of it It is not like the Spirit will advance to the filling of the soul with his presence so long as lust remains in heart and strength in men for this is to be remembred and taken along by way of caution at this turn that though there be a contrariety in all the lusts of the Flesh unto the Spirit yet all kinds or degrees of these lustings are not so or upon such terms repugnant and contrary to the Spirit and his growth in men but that this may proceed and go forward some of them notwithstanding For as it is in the comings in of the Tide and flowings of the waters whilst the Waters are encreasing and the banks filling there are some smaller refluxes or fallings back of the water which are presently recovered and this with advantage by the next reflux and bearing up of the Tide so that the Tide holdeth on its way maketh good its course untill it cometh to its height and fulness these lesser refluxes notwithstanding In like manner though there be at times some lesser yieldings and givings back of the Spirit in the soul meeting with the current or stream of the Flesh yet he may be brought on again toties quoties and that with power to the over-bearing and breaking the motions and current of the Flesh and so keep still upon the advance and be filling of his channels and banks daily There are two kinds or degrees of the lustings of the Flesh Sect. 13 though they be both contrary to the Spirit and his motions and advance in the soul yet one of them doth little or nothing to interrupt him in his course the other is that which grieveth him and obstructeth him in his way The former kind of these lustings are such which for distinction sake we may call natural though the word be not altogether so proper to express the thing intended the Greek hath somewhat a more significant term wherein to express them calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sudden rushing or inconsiderate risings or startings up of nature or the natural faculties in the soul which-they compare to the winking or shutting of the eye-lids when any thing threatneth the eye or so to the lifting up of the hands to the head for safeguard when a blow is coming upon the head these are Natures motions by
his House 1 Kings 21.29 Yet evident it is by the tenour of the place that he was far from being a person truly believing or a person justified in the sight of God In like manner John was not a man endued with Justifying Faith as appears by the Character which the Holy Ghost gives of him 2 Kings 10.29 30. yet was God well pleased with him not only to do as great matters for him as he did for Ahab viz. To establish the Kingdom to him But likewise to continue this Kingdom unto his Posterity for four Generations howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam Jehu did not depart This is Character enough to shew that he was not a true Believe and yet the Lord said unto him Because thou hast done well c. Men may do well though they may be without justifying Faith It is no way probable that all of the Family of the Rechabites were Persons so justified in the sight of God and in favour with him yet was God well pleased with them Jer. 35.14 18.19 So the men of Niniveh were not all and every one of them in the favour and love of God they were not in the state of Justification The like may be said of the young man in the Gospel Mar. 10.21 22. It appeareth from that sad parting between the Lord Christ and him when he went away sorrowful from him you know upon what words speaking that he was not in the state of Justification in the sight of God yet nevertheless he did many things well and was in very great favour with Christ as man for it is said that Jesus beholding him loved him So then men that pray unto God for the gift of his Spirit may be accepted with God as to the obtaining of what they pray for though they be not in an estate of Justification Again secondly If we understand the Saying of the Apostle mentioned Without Faith it is impossible to please God of such a Faith which only importeth a knowledge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of what we do or intend to do in which sense the word is sometimes used in the Scriptures And particularly thus it is twice used Rom. 14.23 He eateth not of Faith here the word Faith is taken for knowledge of the lawfulness of what a man doth I say if we understand such a kind of Faith as this then it imports no more but this that without a belief or knowledge of the lawfulness of what a man doth he cannot please God in the doing of it Now that men may know the lawfulness of praying unto God for his Spirit without Justifying Faith and consequently please God in the Action so far as to obtain what is prayed for needeth I suppose be no mans question at least if we grant or suppose that a man may believe or know and that without Justifying Faith that God hath a Spirit to give unto them that ask him Now though it be somewhat hard to conceive how a man without Justifying Faith yea and somewhat more should distinctly know or believe that God hath a Spirit to give coessential or of the same infinite being with himself yea possibly many that have Justifying Faith may be ignorant or doubtful of this as we read of some in Acts 19. that they did not know as they professed whether there were any Holy Ghost or no yet that God is able inwardly to enlighten quicken stir up and strengthen to that which is good men may know and believe without such a Faith which justifieth and to know this I mean that God is able to enlighten c. is interpretatively or constructively to know that he hath a Spirit to give because these things are proper for him to do by his Spirit and doubtless God out of his abundant Grace and Condescention unto his Creature Man will construe his Prayer as a Prayer made unto him for his Spirit who shall pray for illumination and quickning unto waies and works of well doing This for the seventh and last means we shall insist upon at present by which men and women may be filled with the Spirit of God viz. Prayer And thus much likewise for resolution of the Second Question propounded viz. How men and women may come to be filled with the Spirit and what is to be done by them in order hereunto CHAP. XI A third Question propounded viz. How a man or woman may know whether himself or others are filled with the Spirit of God or with some other Spirit that pretendeth to be the Spirit of God but is indeed a Spirit contrary to it Wherein are several Rules laid down in order to a clear understanding thereof Prov. 6.9 10. 1 Cor. 12.8 9 10. Jam. 3.17 Prov 2.22 Chap. 9.6 Rom. 8.13 Psal 145 17. 1 Cor. 2.10 11. in part opened THe Third and last Question was this Sect. 1 How a man may know or judge whether either himself or others are filled with the Spirit of God or with some other Spirit that pretendeth to be the Spirit of God but indeed is a Spirit far differing from it For reply hereunto these five things are necessary in a few words to be premised by the way First That there are a Generation of men and women in the World who cannot properly be said to be filled with any Spirit at all in one kind or other unless haply it be with that which the Scripture calleth in Rom. 11.8 a spirit of slumber or rather a spirit of sloath such as the Wiseman describeth Prov. 6.9 10. How long wilt thou sleep O sluggard When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep Yet a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the arms together Some there are that are of a dull heavy and of a stupified temper little active or stirring in one kind or other somewhat like unto the men of Laish Judges 18.7 who are said to have been quiet and secure and to have had no business with any man We know there are some such in the World who seem to have little sense either of the one World or of the other yea scarce to know whether they be alive or in being or no. Now though these kind of persons we speak of be as good as dead unto all manner of activeness yet if this be come upon them by any Judgment of God by reason of any preceding sin or provocation they may truly and properly enough be said to be filled with the Spirit of slumber drowsiness or floth because God hath left them in the hand and to the power of some evil spirit or other who dismantles and bereavs their nature bodies and souls of that activeness or disposition unto Action in one kind or other which is natural unto them and otherwise would be found in them But if that such a kind of temper be found in any person simply by way of Nature and not by a just recompense of reward for some former sinful miscarriages then the case is far differing I
This is a second thing by the way Thirdly We may add that likewise by the way that in reference to many persons the question now under consideration is Sect. 3 upon the matter no question at all I mean in this respect because they are so manifestly and so apparently filled with an unclean Spirit one or more that there is no place left for any considerable enquiry whether they be filled with the Spirit of God or no The reason is because they do plainly discover themselves to be filled with the spirit of the World Of this sort of persons are all those who live whether in the secret or open practice of those sins whether one or more which the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures expresly declares to be inconsistent with an estate of Grace and with Salvation and for which the Holy Ghost excludeth them out of heaven We have a list of several of these kinds of persons drawn up by the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Idolaters nor Fornicators nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor abusers of themselves with Mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Railers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God meaning if they continue such But you are washed c. Some of these with a clause of enlargement which taketh in more than are here named we have elsewhere mentioned by the same Apostle Eph. 5 5 6. For this ye know that no Whoremonger nor Vnclean person nor the Covetous man who is an Idolater hath any c. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience It seemeth that there was in the Apostles daies such a Generation of men like unto which we have in these daies who are called Rantors who bear men in hand being first deceived themselves they labour to deceive others also that for such things as these are even all manner of abominations though they commit them yet there is no such thing as the wrath of God coming upon them no but they can follow these wicked practices with the greatest liberty and that they understand their liberty to be such that they may do such things as these without any regret So that concerning such persons as these we need not spend time in debating the case whether they be filled with the Spirit of God or with some other Spirit contrary unto him The case is evident enough without debate As a man needs not a touchstone for a Chip or a piece of brown Paper to try whether these be good Gold or no these plainly enough discover themselves to be no Gold without the Touchstone every mans sense will inform him of it So that the Question propounded lately is chiefly or only to be managed between persons that have some colourable or plausible pretense to a being filled with the Spirit of God and such who have a real and substantial ground for such a claim Fourthly Sect. 4 That also is to be premised and remembred by the way that we do not intend to sift or examine the difference between a regenerate and an unregenerate estate nor make a discovery of those who have the sanctifying Spirit of God in any degree from amongst those who totally want it but only to search after and if it may be find out who they are that are really filled with the Spirit of God amongst those who pretend to such a fulness and how these may be manifested from the other Fifthly and lastly This also would be taken along with us Sect. 5 that the Spirit of God being a voluntary Agent doth not utter himself in all or every person whom he filleth with his presence in all the variety of his gifts And from hence it followeth that men may be filled with the Spirit of God in respect of some one of his operations and yet make no appearance of the fulness of the Spirit in some other 1 Cor. 12.8 9 10. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit c. Here we may clearly see that one and the self same Spirit of God is able to fill several men with variety of gifts with several kinds of filling One may be filled with the Spirit of God in respect of Knowledge another may be filled with the Spirit of God in respect of Wisdom and yet may not be filled with him in some other consideration But if you ask me the difference between Wisdom and Knowledge you may conceive it thus Wisdom implieth a heavenly dexterity a faculty and ability to apply general Rules or Sayings to particular Cases to be able to find out Rules whereby to resolve Questions and Cases which another man who wanteth the Spirit of Wisdom will not be able to see As for instance Our Saviour when he was put to it by the Scribes and Pharisees to justifie the Fact of his Disciples in plucking the Ears of Corn against their unjust Clamours if he had not had a rich anointing of this gift of the Spirit of Wisdom he would not have been able to find out a passage of Scripture to have justified this Practice of theirs but you know where he findeth it and to prove the lawfulness of what his Disciples did Have ye not read saith he Mat. 12.3 4. what David did and those with him when they were hungry how that they went to the House of God and eat the Shew-bread which was not lawful for them to do And so he gives another instance of the Priests Circumcising on the Sabbath day and yet they pollute not the Sabbath Here he by the Spirit of Wisdom findeth the grounds that are contained in these passages of Scriptures laid up somewhat close out of the way of the ordinary thoughts of men It is like not any of the Apostles had been able to make use of these to plead their own cause but the Lord Jesus Christ by reason of that Spirit of Wisdom did it effectually There is the like gift of the Spirit to a degree which is discernable to those that have eyes to discern Men that are but of competent Judgments may clearly see that in some men the Spirit of God doth put forth himself in this great and happy gift of Wisdom making them able to find out grounds and passages of Scripture for the clearing and unfolding of such questions and difficulties which other men and men that are more excellent in their way in some other gifts of the Spirit are not able to do Now Knowledge noteth an understanding of the general Rules themselves and the things themselves which are delivered and asserted in the Scriptures A man may have all Knowledge as the Scriptures speak he may be able to repeat the whole Scriptures from first to last by heart and give an account of the sense and meaning of
and the same also of the same hot temper in his own private Concernments his heat in matters of Religion may be but of the same account with other mens coldness I mean may be nothing else but his natural temper and so argue no fulness of the Spirit of God I confess it is possible that he that is somewhat warm and somewhat apt to be stirred in his spirit about his Worldly Affairs and withal is zealously affected with and about the things of God may be filled with the Spirit of God But however the Judgment of this latter heat is taken away by the former though such a mans zeal in the things of God may proceed from a fulness of the Spirit of God in him yet his heat otherwise drowns the Argument of it This heat we speak of in his Worldly Affairs though it doth not contradict the reality or truth of his being filled with the Spirit yet it contradicteth and destroyeth the evidence proof or manifestation of it The reason why I conceive that some fervour of spirit in a mans own occasions may possibly consist with a fulness of the Spirit of God in which case a mans zeal for God must needs proceed from such a fulness is because the Spirit of God even when the heart and soul is to a good degree filled with him doth not alwaies dissolve the natural frame of the heart in such dispositions which are not sinful or not apprehended to be sinful And many times we find men who are flames of fire in their own occasions yet like so many dul clods of earth in the things of Jesus Christ yea this is the ordinary temper of the generality of men even of Professors themselves according to that of the Apostle Phil. 2.21 All men seek their own not the things of Jesus Christ In this case when he that seeketh or hitherto hath sought his own things with zeal and diligence but hath been remiss and cold in the things of Jesus Christ shall be reduced to greater zeal for the things of Jesus Christ than for his own this change in him must needs proceed from the Spirit of God yea from a great work of this Spirit in him and consequently such a Person continuing thus zealous for Christ may well be conceived to be full of the Spirit of Christ notwithstanding he be somewhat zealous of his own Cause and Affairs also Now the reason hereof is because his heat in his own Affairs is but somewhat of the natural frame of his heart which is not dissolved by the Spirit of God it not being apprehended to be sinful I confess there is a kind of zeal in a mans secular and worldly Affairs which is found in too many which is hardly if at all consistent with a being filled with the Spirit this is that which the Apostle calleth A warring after the flesh Now What is this same warring after the flesh It is to be importunely troublesome unto the World to quarrel almost with every man that comes in our way and with whom we have to do about these outward things and accommodations When men fight they lay out their strength and all they have as Souldiers they do it with all their might and power So when men are zealous to such a degree for their own Affairs that the managing and providing for them is a kind of Warfare wherein they are acted by the flesh and by the desires lusts and unreasonable motions of it so as to quarrel and contend with every man that stands in their way such a kind of zeal in men which appeareth in thus warring according to the flesh testifieth unto their Faces that certainly they are not filled with the Spirit of God There is indeed another kind of zeal which you may conceive better of and this is a kind of diligence in your Affairs which is worthy of commendation For men being diligent in their Callings by this means declare themselves to be Loyal Servants of Jesus Christ if he set them about their own work then they will serve him there if he set them on work for himself there they will serve him also In such a kind of heat as this there is somewhat that answers unto and is consistent with a fulness of the Spirit of God But when men are hot fiery and fierce in their own things and likewise fierce in the things of God their being hot in the things of God is an Argument of no weight no way convincing that they are filled with the Spirit A second Rule for discovery of those who are filled with the Spirit of God from those who are not filled with him but with a contrary Spirit Sect. 7 may be this when men and women have the command of their Spirits so as to keep them in and let them out to cause them to rise and to fall to go and to come according to the true exigency of the affairs of Jesus Christ and of the real benefit of men For when men are alwaies and in all cases alike hot and fiery or else alike cold and heartless and put no difference between times and times occasions and occasions persons and persons it is an argument or sign of great probability and which seldom faileth that there is no great presence of the Spirit of God with them and that that zeal and heat wherein some men upon all occasions and without any difference made between any circumstances appear is but either a kind of natural temper or which is worse some affected strain of hypocrisie It is a Promise made by God unto those that will cause their ear to hearken unto Wisdom And encline their heart to understanding c. Prov. 2.2 compared with ver 9. That they shall understand righteousness and judgment c. by understanding of judgment c. I conceive he means these two things First A discerning and understanding what is meet and worthy to be done upon all occasions according to the regular and due exigency and requirements of every of them respectively And secondly An heart and inward disposition to do every thing accordingly Now when men and women thus and in this sense understand judgment that is know how to rise and fall in their spirits how to change and temper their behaviour and speech when to be authoritative stout and resolute and again familiar gentle and submissive according as the persons are with whom and according to the nature of the occasions and affairs wherein they have to do and this in order to the glorifying of God and the justifying of his Wisdom it is an Argument of much weight to prove that they have a rich anointing of the Spirit of God We find Paul a man very excellent and active in all the variety of these spiritual postures we speak of 1 Cor. 9.19 20 c. For though saith he I be free from all men yet have I made my self a Servant unto all To the Jew I became a Jew unto them that
for another to know with what Persons and in what Cases to deal in a spirit of Meekness and Sweetness and when to deal with men in Fire Earthquake and Thunder and when to hold a course between both and to know how proportionably to measure out by drams and scruples a behaviour sutable to all cases such as will make a man harmonious with himself and not to be over-bearing when that which is less will best become him and so not be light where a greater weight is necessary Secondly Sect. 9 Many men may be better provided at this point at the intellectual part and for matter of understanding and discerning times and seasons than they are at the second which is a readiness an aptness to comport with these actions or occasions for alas there is not one man or woman of many that do live up to their light If ye know these things saith Christ happy are ye if ye do them As it requireth a rich anointing of the Spirit of God to discern times and seasons so doth it no less to have a mans heart throughly broken and subdued under him to comply with them Doubtless many persons know the necessity of duties yea of many highly acceptable and beneficial things which yet their hearts will not serve them to come up unto Their eyes are generally better than their hearts their apprehensions are more raised and full and their affections more slow and heavie within them And therefore secondly For men to have all things that may render them apt to all due and regular compliance with all services incumbent on them this doth require a marvelous degree of self-denial and mortification for the heart of a man is exceeding stâ—ff and will not bend nor bow unless it be in such and such cases that fall in with the natural frame and temper of it But for a man to be universally comportant and complying with all those spiritual occasions and affairs of God that come in his way this will never be done a mans heart will never stand upon such terms until it be mightily broken until the Spirit of God have pulled down that building of the Old man and have not left one stone thereof upon another It is true the heart of a man requires much hammering before this building of the Old man will fall before the flesh and lusts thereof will be subdued But would men be faithful unto the interest of their own souls this blessed work might be accomplished For the Word of God is abundantly furnished there is enough in it wherewithal to subdue that or those lusts which are most disturbing enough quite to change and alter the property and constitution of a man and to reduce those that are most froward to the greatest gentleness and those that are most fiery and turbulent in their Spirits to the greatest Meekness and Patience I say If men would but set that Wisdom which is from above on work upon their hearts and Spirits this would fill up all the Valleys and bring down all the Mountains and reduce the frame of the heart and soul of such a man who thus imployeth it into a conformity with it self viz. in Purity Peaceableness Gentleness and an easiness to be intreated My Brethren we do admire and we have cause so to do at that excellent temper of the Apostle Paul how active he was he could stop the Flesh as it were with a curb in the midst of its Career like a Horse that is excellently taught that will stop in the midst of his way with the least check of the Bit or Bridle So Paul's heart being broken and disciplined by means of the Gospel and by his own care and industry was brought to that same pass And doubtless we have the same Word and Gospel that he had and if we had but the same mind we might be as excellent even as he himself was if we did but love that same more excellent way as he did what hindereth or what is there in the way between him and the poorest Christian of all He saith he laboured more abundantly than they all and therefore no marvel that he got so far before them in the Race But if we respect our selves and the generality of Christians in these daies no marvel if we lie in the very Center of the Earth and have made so little advance in waies of excellency and that on the other hand we are not descended so much as one degree lower from that height and pride of spirit which we first began withal and which we found in our selves when we set upon the work of Mortification I say it is no marvel if we consider how exceedingly indisposed Christians generally are to spiritual labour without which these things cannot be attained This for the second particular But then The third and last is this Sect. 10 The rarity and fewness of such persons in the World who do thus genuinely and kindly answer unto and suite their spirits and deportments with all occasions and circumstances that come in their way There are very few that are expert in the Word of God and that can or are willing to take the pains to be able to distinguish between an ordinary presence of the Spirit and that which we are speaking of viz. a being filled with the Spirit and therefore sit down and content themselves without striving after it I make no question but the Spirit of God is abroad in the world and that he dwelleth in many of your hearts and souls But though I would be indulgent unto your spiritual credit and repute to the utmost that I am able yet I cannot believe any such thing concerning you that all of you are what you ought to be and what you might very well be The commodity indeed is rich but it is very costly yet if you would go to the price of it it is to be had at the hand of Jesus Christ But according to the present size and state of Christianity and the Professours thereof in the World there are very few to be found of that excellent Character we speak of but that their natural Temper Humour and Disposition will be found in their actions they will be stiff and not fall in nor comply gently nor sweetly with many occasions when they should quit themselves like men of courage not regarding the faces of men their hearts will not serve them but they are meal-mouthed they dare not speak they are afraid to offend such and such a man Otherwhile when they have occasion to treat about any business with those that are low and mean then you shall have them high and surly and over-bearing Now in these cases this same unworthy Principle of their Nature as we may call it shews it self I cannot by the way brook that term for there is nothing simply unworthy in nature but what sin and the unworthiness of the hearts of men have put into it It is hard and exceeding rare to
find persons so filled with the Spirit of God that they do not give some such sign or testimony as now we speak of something to discover their temper humour and such kind of Principles within them that make them stiff that they cannot bow nor comply Their Iron Sinew is not yet broken they have not taken the course they have not dealt effectually with their hearts to bring them into subjection they have not chastened their Souls every morning as David did who had disciplined and nurtured his heart to some kind of order and compliance with God in all his occasions and affairs And so much for this Direction or the second Rule given by which we may know whether men be filled with the Spirit of God namely if they understand judgment as the Scriptures speak and then be ready in their hearts and affections to concur and to measure out to every case and business according to the exigency and requirements of it this now doth declare an excellent degree of the fulness of the Spirit of God with them And Thirdly Sect. 11 A deep degree of Mortification especially when the work is uniform spreading and stretching it self with an equal force and power unto all a mans Affections Disposition and Desires which ought to be mortified with the Deeds Fruits and Works of them This I say is another great Argument or sign of a man or womans being filled with the Spirit of God The work of Mortification is performable only by the Spirit of God and therefore where it is performed and wrought thoroughly where it appears in any degree of glory it must needs argue a great presence of the Spirit For if ye live after the flesh saith the Apostle ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 If you ask me But why doth the Apostle place the great work of Mortification in the deeds of the body in having these mortified and not rather in those sinful affections and inward dispositions from whence they proceed I reply That he placeth it here in the deeds of the body because it is principally seen and the reality and truth of it found there though the work it self lieth most in the heart and inward man yet the energy and force chiefly appeareth in the abolishing or cessation of the deeds of the flesh or of the body When such sinful and unworthy actions cease to be found in men and women whereunto others are tempted by the flesh or by the occasions of the flesh and ever and anon are practicing of them it is a sign that the work of Mortification is real and in truth yet elsewhere the same Apostle placeth it in the affections and lusts of the flesh in having these crucified or moâ—tified Gal. 5.24 And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts i.e. they that are Christs i. e. that are his Disciples or that have resigned up themselves unto him or are subject unto him have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts i.e. have pierced the flesh or outer man thorough and thorough with such sharp and effectual considerations that the strength and vigour of it as to sinful demands or actions is much spent and wasted and as the natural strength and vigour of a man that is nailed to a Cross breatheth out by degrees in that bloud that cometh from him by his wounds so have ye crucified the flesh with the affections or passions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and lusts thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the passions i. e. with all those affections which belong to the irascible part of the soul as both Philosophers and Divines call it Anger Wrath Hatred Envy Revenge c. they have crucified these i.e. they have taken a course to break the strength and to suppress the motions and breakings out of these And the lusts i.e. all those affections also which belong to the other part of the soul which they call the Concupiscible such as are Fornication Uncleanness Drunkenness Gluttony Covetousness c. So then we say that when the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts and Deeds thereof are so crucified or mortified so handled that men and women are become Meek Patient Humble Gentle long-suffering c. And again Chaste Pure Sober Temperate free from Covetousness and all this to an excellent degree it is a sign that they are full of the Spirit of God the reason is because First If these things be in any weak and imperfect degree in men Sect. 12 they proceed from the Spirit of God and must be wrought by him Secondly A being filled with the Spirit is no waies to be estimated and discerned but by a proportionable excellency or fulness of his operations and effects Now the work of mortification as hath been in part described is one of the most signal works of the Spirit and therefore where it is full or any thing rich and deep it argues a great presence of the Spirit but the truth is it is very hard to be found in any such degree as that we speak of even amongst Professours yea or Believers themselves Men and women have generally some sinful humours and dispositions or other unbroken and unsubdued either they are Cholerick Hasty Froward easily Provoked Revengeful and the like or else they are given to Pleasures Ease Voluptuousness of life desires of Riches Honour Power the great things of the World And though many keep within some tolerable compass in respect of the breaking out of these and such like unmortified affections whilst the Tempter keepeth at a distance from them and some few it may be whilst the Temptations runs somewhat low and are but ordinary yet the greatest part of the persons we speak of Professors I mean are apt to be overcome and led away Captive unto Sin by every touch of Temptation any Temptation almost that will may serve it self upon them Even as some mens Judgments are so weak that they are apt to be carried about with every wind of Doctrine as the Apostle speaks apt to take impressions of any thing that is presented unto them with the lightest appearance of truth but to find a man or woman that is able to stand their ground of innocency when any strong temptations beare hard upon them is exceeding rare which argues the work of Mortification to be very imperfect and slight in the greatest part of men and consequently that they are far from being filled with the Spirit of God If it be here demanded Sect. 13 But are not all the works of the Spirit of God perfect If he work Mortification in any person must it not needs be perfect Can any thing proceed from that which is perfect yea most perfect as the Spirit of God is but that which is perfect indeed I reply The perfection of a work may be estimated or considered two waies First Absolutely or in reference only to it self
the Creature man by reason of the excellency of his Nature above other Creatures were able perfectly to understand those several Impressions c. that are in their beings respectively yet could they never comprehend those in man for the reason even now hinted In like manner though God be able to comprehend all the Notions and Principles and all the Projections that are incident to the hearts and spirits of men yet men are not able without the Spirit to apprehend and conceive what his Thoughts Notions Counsels and Projections are But now saith he the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God otherwise without this Spirit no man knoweth what are the things of God and thoughts of his heart no more than any other Creature knoweth or is able to comprehend what is in the hearts of men So again ver 12. Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given unto us of God Meaning the things of the Gospel those terms and conditions upon which life and salvation is promised and secured unto the World This sheweth that where there is any considerable degree of the knowledge of the things of God especially of the deep things of God that have been kept secret from Age to Age. This argueth an excellent presence of the Spirit of God ver 13. Which things we also speak not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth c. for the natural man receiveth not the things of God c. By the natural man in this place is not meant the unregenerate or the carnal man but the Babe in Christ I could not speak unto you saith that Apostle Chap. 3. ver 1. of the same Epistle as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even babes in Christ So that evident it is from this Scripture that these natural men who could not receive the things of God were not unregenerate men or carnal in the sense which we generally take the word carnal but babes in Christ Now these could not understand any thing but what was plain the things here spoken of the deep things of God such things which lie above the apprehensions of ordinary men these things are too strong for such mens stomacks they cannot bear them they cannot see how they should be agreeable to the Goodness Wisdom and Love of God neither can they receive them viz. whilst they are Babes or Children Yea though in their state of Childhood they are not capable of them they are capable of growing and coming to manhood A man that hath not had to do with Jewels he knows them not nor of what value or worth they are Even so it is with the deep and excellent things of the Gospel if these be set before those that are weak in judgment and Children in understanding alas they know not what to make of them they can make no nourishment of them but in time they may grow to such a capacity that such meat as this will be the most desirable unto them and they will say as the Jews Lord evermore give us this bread Men that are grown will call for strong meat such as will sort and sute with their stomacks And thus much for this Character And so we have done with our Reply to the third and last of the three Questions long since propounded for the further clearing and opening of the Doctrine we are now come to the Use and Application This Doctrine is useful three several waies For Instruction for Reproof and for Exhortation CHAP. XII The first Vse of the Doctrine by way of Instruction in four main Points First Shewing how comely a thing it is for men and women to be found obedient to the Commands of God in general and particularly how beautiful and honourable a thhing it is for men and women to be filled with the Spirit of God and to be found acting accordingly Secondly An account given what strangers the Saints themselves are unto many great Duties and more especially unto this great Duty of being filled with the Spirit insomuch that even this Generation are as it were asleep thereunto Thirdly That this great blessedness of being filled with the Spirit is no impossible thing but is attainable by the endeavours and engagements of men Fourthly and lastly That it is the will and design of God that Believers should be a Royal Generation of Kings and Priests unto himself and that they should live accordingly FIrst For Instruction Sect. 1 if it be a Duty imposed by God upon all men and more especially upon all Believers to be filled with the Spirit then take we knowledge from hence That it is a comely and honourable thing for men and women to be filled with the Spirit and to act and declare themselves accordingly I mean so to behave and demean themselves in all things that it may be known to the World that they are filled with the Spirit their Actions and Waies should be all Heroick and Princelike and have a lustre and beauty and brightness in them above the Actions Waies and Conversations of other men Even as the Lord Christ was known to be the only begotten Son of God Joh. 1.14 by that excellent glory wherein he appeared We saw saith the Evangelist his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God meaning that his glory whatsoever it was was so glorious and so excellent for the kind of it that they that saw it could not but conceive and judge that it was too full and too Majestick for any Creature whatsoever too excellent for any of the Angels themselves and much more for man and by this they perceived him to be the only begotten of God those Robes of glory were too rich for any Creature to be attired and adorned withal though they did indeed become the glory and dignity of his Person In like manner it would be exceeding comely for the Sons and Daughters of God to have such a glory of life and conversation still to accompany them as they walk up and down the World and where-ever they become which may distinguish them from all others to be persons of that rank and such a Generation that are filled with the Spirit of God My Brethren there is a strain of Action and Conversation that is apt and able to convince the World even against their minds and wills and will make them confess and acknowledge that these are a Generation of men and women by themselves for God enjoyns nothing by any of his Precepts or Laws unto men but what is comely grateful and lovely for them to do and that which will commend them both in his eyes and in the eyes of all his Angels yea of all truly judicious and understanding men Even as Parents are wont to teach their Children a good carriage of themselves and comliness of behaviour that may render them acceptable on all hands So doth God by his Precepts
kind of service which shall receive grace and thanks from the hands of God For God estimateth the works of men much after the manner that men do the services of their Children if they perform such services after the manner of Sons not as if they were a burthen unto them they shall not simply have the reward of a Servant but they shall have a further reward the reward of a Son The Parable Luke 12. implieth that Christ did thank such a Servant Why Because though in a simple consideration he did not act above what he was commanded yet he did more and above what he was commanded upon the penalty of Damnation We read Luke 17.12 of Ten Lepers that were cleansed and we know that there was an express Injunction in the Law that when they were healed they should shew themselves to the Priest and probable it is that all the Ten did according to the Law in this case only here is mention of one that did return and give the Lord Christ thanks Now though this person did no more in that Act of Thanksgiving than was a duty lying upon him in a special consideration to do and though the Nine did fulfill the Letter of the Law and so did that whereby they might escape punishment yet they did not rise up to that grace and acceptation which the other person did who did not only go to the High Priest but returned and gave thanks to his Physician also and did hereby obtain favour and high acceptation from the hands of God and Jesus Christ upon the account of such a behaviour he was as a Son of a Son-like and ingenuous frame of heart Consider that passage of the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 9.16 Sect. 5 For though I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of For a necessity is laid upon me and woe is me if I preach not the Gospel For though I preach the Gospel c. Meaning that this is nothing by way of special acceptation at the hands of God because he had a necessity lying upon him in respect of the Command of God yea under the Penalty of a Woe Woe is unto me c. But if I preach the Gospel willingly and with freeness of heart and soul so as if there were no express and particular Law lying upon me to necessitate me thereunto then I have somewhat to boast of for this Service I know my Lord and Master will give me a peculiarity of reward The Apostle in this place clearly distinguisheth the preaching of the Gospel when necessitated thereunto by a Command of God from the preaching of it willingly If I preach the Gospel I have nothing whereof to boast for a necessity is laid upon me c. A man that hath nothing to engage him to an Action or Service but meerly to be delivered from punishment hath nothing to boast of But saith he if I do this thing willingly I have my reward c. Therefore to preach the Gospel and to preach it willingly are two different Services by doing the one a man shall escape punishment it being obedience to a necessity lying upon him But if I preach it willingly then saith he I know I shall have consideration in abundance from the hand of my great Lord and Master It follows ver 18. What is my reward then The word is taken two waies sometimes more largely sometimes more strictly It is sometimes translated Wages sometimes Reward or that consideration which doth precisely answer in value to the work which is done and for which it is given But sometimes a reward as when it exceeds in value the work done and doth in a transcendent degree rise above the strict worthiness of the Service so then What is my reward That is How must I go to work in this great Commission which is given unto me to preach the Gospel to make my self capable of my reward Why thus saith he when I preach the Gospel that I make it without charge This noble excellent and worthy strain of the Apostle in performing the Service which was committed to him this was the ground-work of his rejoycing and that which filled him with so much confidence and boldness in the presence of God and this you will all find if you will but stir up your hearts and be ingenuous and noble towards God and not stand picking and huckstering with your hearts to know how you must do to escape hell fire under such a frame of heart you shall still be full of fears and doubtings you will not be like those that are genuine and noble and high spirited in the Service of God My Brethren we shall all find if we stir up our hearts and strengthen our hands to those excellent Commands which are apt when they are obeyed to enoble our Spirits the obedience unto them is that which will give us confidence and boldness before God When as your obedience to the other will possibly give you some kind of faint hope that you shall be saved and that you shall escape the wrath and vengeance that is to come but will hardly carry you up further but that your confidence will ever and anon be full of stands and your Enemy the Devil will be ready to triumph over you Whereas those that have given up themselves to obey their heavenly Father in those great Commands these are the men who are likely to have the Spirit of Adoption to be able to come with boldness unto God and to call God Father with a good courage Thirdly Sect. 6 For Instruction If it be the Will of God that all men especially Believers should be filled with the Spirit of God then take knowledge from hence that a being filled with the Spirit is no impossible attainment is an estate of happiness which is accessible to the endeavours and engagements of men why else should God call men unto it or impose it as a duty upon them Doth he invite or exhort the Saints to impossibilities those whom he desireth to put beauty and excellency upon doth he invite these to do things absolutely and altogether out of their reach Doth he perswade men to purchase the wind or to lay out themselves for that which can never be had or enjoyed Surely he doth not because it is not a thing that doth any waies answer the infinite grace and wisdom of God Some men indeed strive to perswade themselves and others that God commandeth many things which he intendeth not that any man should perform yea and which he knoweth are impossible for any man to perform But I trust none of us know these depths of Satan I mean are spiritually adulterous with them in our minds or thoughts or practically know them To be perswaded to think that God intends not desires not our obedience unto whatsoever he demands of us what is it but to break the very heart and to cut in sunder the very sinews of our obedience and weaken the hand of our preparations
those Motives which were he intent upon would do the deed would amount to such a holy and sacred anointing as now we speak of your being filled with the Spirit of God whereby you would be made Priests of the Living God So much for the First Use of the Doctrine the Use of Instruction CHAP. XIII A Second Vse of the Doctrine being a Vse of Reproof unto all those who are Enemies unto this heavenly Exhortation and Counsel of the Holy Ghost administred unto men namely to be filled with the Spirit and who by any means obstruct the course of it A first sort are such who scoff at such a thing as a being filled with the Spirit of God A second sort of Offenders are such who perswade men that the Spirit which they are exhorted to be filled with is but a finite Spirit an Angel and not God Wherein many things are further argued proving the Holy Ghost to be the most High God THe second Use was a Use of Reproof Sect. 1 and this in the general of all those who are Enemies to this heavenly Exhortation this blessed Counsel administred by the Holy Ghost unto men of being filled with the Spirit of God who either by word or by deed or by both obstruct the course of it that it doth not run is not glorified in the World as it ought to be Of these kind of Offenders there are several Species or sorts highly censurable by the Divine Authority of the Doctrine and truth delivered The first are they who being strangers altogether to the Spirit of God the Spirit of which both the Text and and the Doctrine speaketh are full of the Spirit of the World or rather of the God of the World Sathan who instead of being full of the Spirit of God laugh at all Discourses of mens being filled with him yea or of so much as having the Spirit of God in them to scorn hearing from the mouths of faithful Ministers of God sometimes and it may be from the discourse of other Christians that the Saints and Servants of God such who truly believe in Jesus Christ are led by the Spirit of God and taught by him how to pray how to walk holily and soberly and righteously in the World they make a mock at it as some of the more ignorant and prophane Jews did at the Apostles being filled with the Spirit we speak of Acts 2.13 When they spake with strange Tongues Others mocking saith the Text said these men are full of New-wine When any thing of God or of the Spirit of God more than ordinary in one kind or other appeareth in any of the Saints or Servants of God they that are ignorant of God and of his waies will never own or acknowledge the procedure of it to be from God if they can but imagine any other cause though with never so slight appearance from whence there is the least probability that it may proceed yea if they can imagine any cause in this case which is worse than other and which is more disparaging unto the persons in whom that grace and power of God we speak of doth appear this shall be the cause unto which the excellent work of God in his Saints shall be imputed and ascribed How little reason or colour of reason was there to pretend or think that New Wine over-freely drank or taken by men should put them into a capacity of speaking with Tongues strange Tongues such as they never understood or were able to speak before They knew well enough many of the Company that were there or amongst them that every one that spake had a distinct knowledge of the Tongue of their own Nation We hear them speak all in our own Language said they Now I say let any sober and considering man think but a little of the business how impossible a thing it is that New Wine should invest men with a capacity and an ability to speak with strange Tongues in a strange language yet rather than they would acknowledge that the Spirit was the Author thereof they attribute it to New Wine New Wine may cause them to speak freely and at random but not in other Tongues they may indeed speak none-sense and not distinctly or else that which no man can understand but that it should enable and qualifie men for the speaking in strange Tongues distinctly and sensibly to the understanding of other men there is not the least colour or the lightest pretense thus to argue But ignorant persons and such as are prophane what will they not do to harden themselves though in the most irrational and senseless manner that may be And besides the things which the Apostles here spake and uttered and which were understood by those who so imputed the speaking of them in variety of Languages were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Magnalia the great and wonderful things of God If New Wine had been the inspirer these could not have been the great things of God that they had spoken but the great things of the Devil and of the World So when the Lord Christ cast out the unclean Spirit out of him that was possessed Mat. 12.24 it is said that the Pharisees presently charged this upon Sathan and upon his having to do with him because the Devil is a supernatural Agent in that sense which we usually take supernatural That is he is able to do things which are strange and out of the course of Nature therefore he is a kind of reserve for ignorant and wicked men when they meet with any thing of God and of the Spirit of God in the Saints they have the Devil in readiness to impute all these things unto As I remember I have read in the Story of Martyrs when any of the Martyrs shewed any invincible courage or patience in the midst of their torments the Priests that stood by would still perswade the People that the Devil had bereaved them of their senses and had distracted them before the fire came at them and by this kind of colour and feigned pretense they thought to way-lay and to stop the course of the apprehension of the common sort of People lest they should think that there was any great appearance of God in them So when the Lord Christ taught the People with so much wisdom and understanding that they were astonished and the greatest part of them began to admire how he that had not known a Letter should speak at such a rate as he did it is said they were offended at him Mat. 13.57 implying they thought that he came not by it lawfully but by the help of the Devil they could not make it out that he was a good man because they were ignorant of his gifts therefore they fall foul upon the Lord Christ So Paul in those high strains whether in teaching or rather in practice or acting in the World which the Corinthians could not comprehend nor reconcile with such Principles as they were acted by was
for a reason or some short time only in the Ministry of John notwithstanding he was a light both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 burning and shining He was a burning and a shining light and ye were willing to rejoyce in his light John is here by our Saviour described or commended by two properties which in a Minister are most like to retain and keep as well as to procure and gain the affections and approbations of men The first is That he was a burning light secondly That he was a shining light Zeal accompanied with an excellency of knowledge are two most excellent and worthy qualifications in the Ministers of the Gospel and a man would think a Minister who is provided with these should so endear the hearts of men and women whom he serveth in the work of the Ministry that he should so captivate their hearts and affections that neither life nor death nor things present nor things to come should be able to separate or to estrange such a man from the affections of his people Yet nevertheless this we see was John's case with the Jews he was a burning and shining light he had all the advantages that lightly could be found in a man to retain what he had gotten in the hearts and affections of his people and yet they who did mightly rejoyce in him for a season after a while saw no such matter in him John who was as an Angel of God for a season was but like another man soon after not that there was any alteration or change in John for doubtless he did not decline neither in his burning nor in his shining until the very day and hour of his death And therefore that there was such a change in the minds of the Jews towards him it proceeded from the levity of spirit and affection which was so incident unto them Ye were willing to rejoyce saith our Saviour the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth an excellent degree of rejoycing to dance and leap or spring for joy he doth not simply say that they did rejoyce but that they were willing to do it that they did it freely and of their own accord they were not importuned by any perswasion or prompting by any other man yet they had enough of John in a short time when once they had gone round about him and saw his gifts and abilities and what he was able to do when they had tasted thoroughly of his Doctrine they could as freely turn their backs upon him as upon any other man they would see whether there were any other Teacher that was of another spirit or of another method of Teaching or whose Doctrine or matter was of a higher and more sublime nature or consideration than his And so likewise it fared with the great Apostle Paul amongst the Corinthians and especially amongst the Galathians to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 9.2 He saith that though it were supposed that unto others he was not an Apostle yet to them he was meaning that however they might think that he did not acquit or approve himself as an Apostle amongst other people where he preached the Gospel as either by working signs or miracles amongst them or by the efficacy and success of his Doctrine in the Consciences of many yet certainly he had approved himself both these waies and every other way an Apostle unto them For saith he in the latter part of the verse the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord meaning that their being in Christ their conversion to the Faith was a seal i. e. a sure testimony and confirmation unto them that he had the Commission of an Apostle from Christ And elsewhere he saith 2 Cor. 12.12 that the signs of an Apostle were wrought amongst them meaning by himself As in all patience so in signs and wonders and mighty deeds Elsewhere he saith 1 Cor. 4.15 That in Christ Jesus he had begotten them through the Gospel In another place 2 Cor. 11.2 That he had espoused them to one Husband to present them a chaste Virgin unto Christ To pass by much more of like import Such things as these by which this people could not but be lifted up unto heaven as our Saviour speaks in the like case were sufficient in all likelihood of reason so to have endeared this Apostle unto them and to have engaged them unto him that he should have been in their hearts as he professeth they were in his even to die and to live together notwithstanding How soon was this Son of the Morning this glorious Apostle and heavenly Benefactor of this people fallen in their hearts and respects Other teachers who were not worthy to loose the lachets of his shooes coming in the way carried away the prize of their affections and esteem from him these were the men that were all in all with them Paul was but an underling in their thoughts a sorry fellow in comparison After al the Signs annd Wonders and mighty Works that he had wrought amongst them after all those gifts and heavenly endowments as of Wisdom Knowledge Utterance Tongues yet they sought a proof of Christ speaking in him 1 Cor. 13.3 They could not tell whether he was so much as a true Minister of Christ or no unless he should give them a good account of it It is somewhat strange to think how the generality of this People having such rational foundations to build themselves stable and steady upon should yet sink so low in their esteem of him But neither did this most worthy Person and Apostle speed any whit better amongst the Galatians than he had done amongst the Cerinthians he gained high respects and large affections he telleth them that at his first coming amongst them he was received by them as an Angel of God and as Jesus Christ they had such strong impressions upon them that they could have plucked out their eyes for him Gal. 4.14 15. but very quickly he became out of credit with them and his reputation was fallen in the dust they cared not they were Kings and reigned without Paul they knew how to want his Ministry and his counsel and direction they had found out men that pleased them better they had heaped up Teachers according to their humours they had itching ears and therefore they must have some that would scratch them and fall in with them and please their fansies and thus when they had met with such Preachers and Doctors Gal. 1.6 which were commensurable to their Notions or unto that Spirit which had now taken them these were the men now and the Heirs of Paul's Inheritance in their affections and in the respects which he received from them Yea the Lord Christ notwithstanding that as his Adversaries themselves bear him witness he spake as never man spake yea though for a time he so marvelously affected the People partly with his Miracles partly with his Doctrine that they were about to take him by force and make him a King Joh. 6.15 yet
subjection to the Law Nor yet again is it any Character or property of a Legal Ministry if we take the word Legal in any disparaging sense to promise the Love and Favour of God Life and Salvation to those that shall be found the exactest observers of the things required by God in the Law in the Moral Law especially if such obedience proceed from that Faith which worketh by Love for the Ministry both of the Lord Christ and so of the two Apostles mentioned made many Promises upon these terms viz. upon keeping of these Commandments All or the greatest part of the Beatitudes as they are called pronounced by our Saviour in the entrance upon his Sermon on the Mount Mat. 5. of which we lately spake are but so many Promises made unto persons duly observant of things commanded in the Law As when he saith Blessed are the Meck blessed are the Merciful blessed are the Peace-makers c. Now Meekness Mercifulness and Peace-making c. are holy dispositions with their proper fruits and actions commanded in the Law So again Joh. 15.10 If ye keep my Commandments ye shall continue in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love Now his Commandments are no other but the very self-same things which are commanded in the Law of God Joh. 14.21 He that hath my Commandments i. e. that hath them in his mind in his life and conversation he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him c. So that still we see that the Promises are made unto the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 2.6 7 10. where the Apostle speaking of God saith that he will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing i. e. by keeping the Commands of God seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but to them that are contentious c. indignation and wrath By such Passages as these it doth evidently appear that both the Ministry of the Lord Christ and of the Apostle Paul was full of these Promises unto moral qualifications or unto obedience unto the Law Thus then we see that a Ministry is not to be termed Legal in any reprovable sense upon the account of any the three properties mentioned nor yet upon the account of them all though concurring in one and the same Ministry as indeed they ought yea and must if they will be faithful and are like to edifie men in faith and holiness Very like it is that the persons now under censure Sect. 13 do ignorantly asperse that Ministry as Legal against which they seek a quarrel upon the pretense of one or other or all the three particulars specified But the Ministry that deserves that imputation of being Legal to add this briefly by the way is first and most properly such which teacheth Justification i. e. Remission of sins by Works i. e. by the merit of Works for otherwise Faith is a Work and so called by our Saviour himself Joh. 6.29 But to Preach Justification by Faith is not to Preach Legally but most Evangelically For that was the Master vein of the Ministry of Paul viz. to avouch and prove that Justification was to be obtained by Faith in Jesus Christ whereas they the Jews held that it was to be obtained by observing and keeping the Law Now though to Preach Justification by Faith alone as was even now said be not to Preach Legally but Evangelically yet to Preach it by Faith sensu meritorio as if Faith were the meritorious cause of Justification is either to Preach Legally or upon an account every whit as bad and as repugnant to the tenour of the Gospel Secondly That Ministry may in a sense be termed Legal which like unto Pharaoh's Taskmasters in their hard dealings by the Israelites exacteth the full Tale of Brick from men yet gives them no straw whereof to make them I mean which is continually in a manner pressing men unto duties yea the hardest of duties binding the heavie burthens of the Law upon the Consciences of men with the Iron bands of sharp reproofs and sore threatnings seldom or never ministring unto them the rich and high encouragements of the Gospel whereby both their hearts and hands might be strengthened and all that which is distasteful to the flesh in such works and waies be drowned and taken away They that require of men to do Angels work I mean do high and excellent services to God should feed them with the food of Angels they had need have the highest encouragements even such as are in the Gospel They that require of men to be as fruitful and as zealous in serving God and men as Paul was who laboured to promote the interest of God and men more abundantly than they all as himself saith they must endeavour to lift them up higher as high as the third heaven for there doubtless it was that Paul learned that nobleness greatness and worthiness of spirit there he learned to act after another manner of Rate than all the men of the World besides who never came there as he had done The way to draw out mens hearts and souls and all that is within them in serving God and men doing good to their Generation is as far as possible to raise in them the consolation of the Gospel then shall you bring the World under your feet and when that shall be under your feet then shall you be able to lift up your hands to any of the Commands of God But untill men are full of the hope of the life and glory and great things of the World which is to come every good work and way will stick with them and combate with their souls and spirits whereas give men but felicity enough and then if their eyes will do you any service they will pluck them out and give them unto you But this only by the way to give a little light whereby to estimate a legal Ministry which is a Word or Phrase used by many but rightly understood by very few Thirdly Such a Ministry may be termed Legal which sendeth men forth about their spiritual business in their own strength without informing them and that plainly that without Jesus and his Spirit they can do nothing For the gift of the Spirit unto men and so also the Doctrine of Prayer upon which God doth convey his Spirit is Evangelical Received you the Spirit by the hearing of the Law c. therefore they who teach men that they have no need of the Spirit or of the gracious assistance thereof but that they may do things in their own strength are in a sense Anti-Evangelical Teachers Fourthly and lastly That Ministry also may not unproperly be called Legal which bindeth over to Condemnation where the Gospel doth not that concludeth or shutteth men up under Sin and Wrath where the Gospel doth not or that shall make any stricter bands of
Exhortation delivered and the Duty recommended therein you may please to consider this one thing farther which was lately touched on by the by that you may rise up early and go to bed late and eat the bread of much carefulness you may spend the strength of your minds and understandings to procure other accommodations and enjoyments such I mean which relate to the outer man only aad yet never eat the labour of your hand nor see the fruit of the travel of your souls or that which is little better if not rather worse ye may only taste of what you seek after in this kind that which you shall take in hunting and yet not be able to continue the enjoyment of it for any considerable space of time A day an hour yea possibly a moment may bereave you of what the care and labour of many years advanced you unto whereas first it hath been already shewed and proved unto you that whoever shall lay out themselves for this spiritual and heavenly accommodation of being filled with the Spirit shall most certainly obtain it Secondly In persevering in this course unto the end your attainments shall stand by you in glory and blessedness for ever But as the Prophet David saith Psal 34.10 The young Lions shall suffer hunger c. so it is with those that seek the glory and great things of this World that pursue the Honours and Wealth and Pleasures thereof these many times suffer hunger and want He that seeketh after Honour and Riches falleth short and so he that seeketh after Pleasures is disappointed But he that shall seek to be filled with the Spirit of God shall be filled therewith neither shall any thing be able to separate between him and it And as the Apostle reasoneth concerning the love of God Rom. 8. Even so it is in the case in hand neither life nor death nor any other thing neither Trouble nor Persecution nor Angels no nor Devils shall be able to separate and step in between those who shall engage themselves in a consciencious manner to be filled with the Spirit and the actual accomplishment and enjoyment of this felicity The Spirit of Ambition may work in you as the Grace of God did in Paul mightily and yet of this Spirit you may reap nothing but dishonour and disgrace and covering of the face with shame and confusion Absolom as we lately intimated ran with all his might and with all his strength for the Prize of a Kingdom but that which he got by his running was an ignominious and untimely death being hung by the hair of his head on the bough of a great Oak 2 Sam. 18.9 as he fled to save his life from the pursuit of Davids men in which posture three Darts were thrust through his heart by Joab Many ambitious Climers in all Ages have met with the like disasters and disappointments All Histories almost fill the World with examples in this kind that men before they come at the top of the Ladder fall down and are broken and crushed to pieces they wholly miscarry and get nothing but a covering of darkness instead of that grandeur or greatness which they lift up their hearts unto and many who did compass the grandeur and greatness in the World which they sought after were soon dispossessed The like may be said concerning Riches and of those that in the sweat of their brows and burning of their hearts have sought to sit down and rest themselves under the shadow of a great Estate As Paul said of his Country-men the Jews that following after the Law of Righteousness they attained not the Law of Righteousness so we may say of many that following after Riches they have not attained to be rich But whosoever follow after this being filled with the Spirit have and shall most certainly attain it Those carnal designs are meerly accidental and casual attempts which men often miscarry in The Scriptures are full of such Expressions which sufficiently confirm the truth of what we say I returned and saw an evil under the Sun saith Solomon Eccl. 9.11 the Race is not to the swift nor the Bâ—ttel to the strong neither yet bread to the wise nor yet Riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of skill but time and chance happens to all So elsewhere Prov. 28.22 11.24 you shall find that those who are great designers of Wealth many times are disappointed and senâ— empty away He that maketh haste to be rich hath an evil eye and knoweth not doth not consider that poverty is coming upon him And so There is that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty many times their Projects fail them and they come to poverty So that we see there is great uncertainty in all these things we do not know whether our design will prosper in our hand or no for God hath not made any such connexion between these carnal projects and their ends but that he can forbid their coming together But we have the Word of the Living God the security of Heaven that if any man will build a spiritual house carry on a heavenly design if they will lay out their hearts and spirits upon it God will stand by such men their labour shall not be in vain God hath established a Law that shall not be broken a Law like unto the Law of the Sun and Moon which shall be kept inviolable that he that desireth to eat of this bread shall have to eat abundantly he that shall run the course of this Design shall obtain He that giveth to every Seed his own body ordinarily in things natural will never fail here he hath put a Law upon himself neither will his nature give him leave to separate and divide between the means that are spiritual and the end to be attained by them He that soweth the Seed shall reap the Fruit whosoever shall ask in this kind shall receive and whosoever knocketh it shall be opened unto him Now if you please but to consider in a word the weight and import of this Motive you know that men do not love to sow their Seed in vain to part with their Silver and Gold for things that are of no use It is every mans case and they are accounted the wisest of men that can prevent such things the interposure whereof is apt to deprive them of that for which they have given their money Now then this is the case as to the business we have been exhorting you unto viz. A being filled with the Spirit it is a Commodity which if you will lay out your selves for it will most certainly be made good unto you it is not obnoxious to any disappointment either by God Angels or Men. Now then Why should any man bestow his time upon that which he may possibly not enjoy or in case he may enjoy it it will be but for a short season or if he should enjoy it for any long season yet at last it
must go all the pain and labour all the care and travel of soul will perish together Oh how happy then above all worldly Projectors and Designers are they whose hearts are perswaded to hearken to the Counsel of God concerning a being filled with the Spirit even in this respect also besides many others that they are certain of a good reward for their labour They that run this Race shall certainly attain they that seek to be filled with the Spirit shall be filled whereas as I said all endeavours about worldly accommodations are but lost labour in comparison of this CHAP. XVIII The eighth and last Motive That a being filled with the Spirit will render the Condition of men and women most desirable in this World and in that which is to come That no other course will do it but this or none without this Four things a concurrence whereof will render a man's Condition in this life most desirable 1. A freedom from all troublesome distracting and tormenting fears and cares 2. A heart and conscience abounding in Joy and Peace 3. A large and free Communion with God 4. And lastly A rich and large interest in God to be able to carry great Matters in Prayer with him Three of these insisted on 1. A being filled with the Spirit will discharge men from all troublesome and distracting fears and cares 2. The Peace and Joy of men will abound by a being filled with the Spirit 3. A third particular which renders mens Condition so desirable in the World is a free and large Communion with God 1. What is meant by Commu-with God 2. What by a free Communion 3. What is meant by a large and full Communion with God 4. How this Communion renders man's Condition very desirable in the World 5. That this Priviledge must needs accompany a being filled with the Spirit What it is for God to dwell or abide in man How a man may know that God dwelleth in him by the Spirit which is given him How perfect love casteth out fear In what respest the Spirit may be said to witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God A well-grounded Confidence The Causes of a false Confidence enquired into A good Conscience a ground of Assurance EIghtly and lastly To promote the interest of the Exhortation delivered in your Judgments and Consciences Sect. 1 in your Hearts and Affections yet one degree further you may add to to all the former Motives laid before you to perswade you to yield Obedience unto it this one more which amounteth to more than all the rest That to be filled with the Spirit must needs render your Conditions as well in this World as in that which is to come the most blessed and desirable that Creatures made of flesh and bloud are capable of enjoying and that there is no other course will do but this only In this Motive there are three things contained First That a being filled with the Spirit will render the Condition of a man or woman in this life most desirable happy and blessed in the highest Secondly That it will do the like for them in the World which is to come it will render their Conditions and Beings here the best that this World also can afford unto the Sons and Daughters of Men. Thirdly and lastly That there is no other course no other engagement or employment that a man or woman can lay out themselves and their time and strength in that will do either First For the blessedness or desirableness of the Condition in the World that now is there are are four things a concurrent enjoyment of which must needs be conceived to make the State and Condition of a man or woman in the World very happy and desirable The first is A well-grounded Vacuity or freedom from all troublesome distracting and tormenting fears and cares Secondly An Heart and Conscience abounding in Peace and Joy upon the like terms The third A large and free Communion with God The fourth and last A large and rich and considerable interest in God that can carry all matters of request with him upon all occasions I suppose if any man were in the actual enjoyment of all these four particulars his Condition and State would be as desirable as the heart and soul of a man can reasonably or with a true understanding desire in this World Now he that is filled with the Spirit of God will be invested with these four great blessings First For a man or woman in this Vale of mortality and tears to be out of the reach of troublesome and tormenting fears and cares to enjoy a constant serenity and tranquillity of mind without being afraid either of what man can or God will do unto him How great and happy must such a mans condition be Surely it is one of the special ingredients in the felicity and blessedness of God himself as David taketh notice in Psal 2.4 He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision meaning his Enemies My Brethre For poor Creatures who dwell in houses of clay and are compassed about with mortality to be in respect of their inner man in reference to any troubles or things formidable that may assault them for them I say to have Communion with God in this heavenly priviledge to laugh all troubles to scorn to be like unto a Mountain or a great Rock before Storms and Tempests and Whirlwinds How glorious above measure must such a State and Condition be To have the heart and soul like the upper Region of the Air where there are no disturbances or commotions where to be as I said even now they may be able to laugh all Enemies to scorn Not to be afraid of what either men can or what God will do unto them this is a most Divine Priviledge especially the obnoxiousness and weakness in this kind of the generality of the hearts of men considered it must needs be a very rare and high attainment for any to live out of the reach of fears Fear as John saith hath torment and indeed upon the matter nothing else hath torment but fear neither is it simply any present sorrow or suffering though very grievous even as sharp as nature it self is well able to stand under that hath any torment in it but fear proceeding from the apprehension of the danger of some misery approaching in the future Now if we were but armed in our hearts by the fulness of the Spirit no fear would enter in there we should have no cause to fear any danger for the future and consequently sorrows and suffering would not much offend us they would be but of a very light and passable consideration we should not suffer any great matter upon the account of them Our Saviour Mat. 6.34 adviseth those that believe in him not to care for to morrow telling them the morrow shall care for it self c. if we would but cut asunder from us
hearts of the Sons and Daughters of men Now he that is born of the Spirit must needs act and be enclined after the same manner he will be zealous for God bestirring himself in his way as the Spirit of God doth in his way So then this is the first thing we were to shew in order to a demonstration or proof that a being filled with the Spirit must needs be accompanied with abundance of peace and joy viz. that he that is filled with the Spirit must needs be large hearted and highly active for God The second thing which upon the same account we have to prove is Sect. 5 that such men and women whose waies are thus on high as Solomon saith are not much obnoxious to temptations by Sathan or however not like to be overcome by them First We say that persons filled with the Spirit and consequently acting with an high hand and great resolution for God and for Jesus Christ are not in this respect so obnoxious unto temptations I mean are not so like to be assaulted to be tempted by the Tempter Sathan hath no such encouragements from these men they do not stand on purpose to be tempted by him as the far greatest part of men and women in the World do who go so to work in the things of God with so much deadness and lasiness that they do upon the matter invite the Tempter As we use to say Opportunity makes a Thief so the opportunity that men offer the Tempter who is carrying on his interest in the World to render it as miserable as he can at present and as miserable as may be for Eternity maketh him so busie with them Whereas those who are filled with the Spirit do upon the matter cut him off of all opportunity in this kind and consequently make him less careful or solicitous to spend his temptations upon such as these The Reason hereof is because he hath less hope to make any earnings upon such men the excellent Spirit for waies and works of righteousness and holiness which he continually discovers in these men breaks the heart of his hopes of doing any good upon them of prevailing over them This observing of the wind keeps him from sowing his temptations in those fields As a man though he hath a Quiver never so full of Arrows careth not to shoot them against a brazen Wall So neither will Sathan the Devil care to throw his fiery Darts against those who are so hard to come at who are alwaies up and out in the heighth of their spirits for God For as the Scripture saith 1 Cor. 9.10 he that ploweth or soweth ploweth and soweth in hope meaning that no man would either plow or sow but in hope to reap So neither will Sathan care to plow or sow but when he hath a hope of an harvest Now his Harvest is nothing else but the sin and wickedness of men and unless it were for this he would not care to tempt men God of old gave this by way of motive and encouragement unto the Jews to cause all their male children to appear three times a year in Jerusalem viz. that he would cast out the Nations before them and enlarge their borders and as a fruit and consequence of this he adds Neither shall any man desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year Exod. 34.24 When I have taken such a course by magnifying thee by enlarging thy quarters then no mans heart shall desire or think of conquering of thee So when God hath filled men and women with his Spirit and by means hereof hath raised and enlarged their hearts to any Heroick kind of acting and conversing in the World and hath removed sin and wickedness far from them there is no desire of ensnaring or foyling them like to come up into the heart of Sathan And therefore it was that the Lord Christ was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted by the Devil Mat. 4.1 Mar. 1.12 Luke 4.1 He had an anointing of the Spirit of God above all his Fellows and therefore the Devil had no mind to set upon him with any of his Temptations unless it were upon some special advantage and therefore he was led aside into a very desolate and howling Wilderness amongst the wild Beasts as Mark saith there were some Wildernesses amongst them that had Towns but this was altogether without Inhabitants All which clearly implieth that the Devil had no mind to Duel with him but upon special advantages as his being ready to suffer thorough hunger his being amongst wild Beasts in a place remote from men altogether without Inhabitants for otherwise what necessity was there that the Lord Christ should be led aside into the Wilderness but only in order hereunto He continued fasting forty daies and afterwards when he was an hungry then he fell upon him So likewise the Devil observing how mightily the Grace and Spirit of God wrought in Paul had questionless the less edge to bestow time upon him in tempting of him and Paul was little other in Sathan's eye than a brazen Wall against which he cared not to shoot It is true the Apostle reports 2 Cor. 12.7 how there was given unto him a Messenger of Sathan a thorne in the flesh lest he should be exalted above measure But first That which is here termed a Messenger of Sathan and described to be a thorn in the flesh is said to have been given him meaning by God i. e. to have been by a special interposure of God disposed to him not in order to a perpetration of any sin which the greatest part of the Devils temptations are but to the preventing of it From whence by the way it clearly enough appears that the thorne in the flesh here spoken of was no last of uncleanness nor any sensual concupiscence because then Paul would not have said that it had been given unto him But doubtless it is rather meant of some false Apostle that endeavoured to undermine him Haply it may be it was some Christian Friend that did Paul a displeasure that did undermine his credit in one kind or other but however the very end for which the Messenger of Sathan was given him it was not to draw him into sin but for the preventing of sin as he saith lest I should be exalted above measure or lest he should conceive an opinion of himself above that which was meet for him to conceive Secondly It appears that Sathan was in one kind or other over-acted by God in sending such a Messenger and that the Temptation was over-ruled by some hand of God also Thus it appears in the second place why those that are filled with the Spirit of God are not obnoxious to be tempted by the Devil and that the Devil is not much enclined to tempt such persons as we speak of This appeareth further from Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you
What is the meaning of the Apostle but this viz. Give him a short and sharp and absolute answer and you shall not long be troubled with him for the Dâ—â—â— knows his time is but short it is shorter by many degrees now than it was then the Devil hath no time to spare nor to trifle away and therefore it is like he will not lose his labour nor time where he is resisted But in case such persons who are filled with the Spirit shall at any time be tempted they are not subject or likely to yield unto the Temptations The reason of this is as the Apostle informeth us Gal. 5.16 17. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh c. That is go along with the Spirit of God hearken to his motions and they that be filled with him cannot lightly but go along with him The Spirit resisteth the Flesh and being in his might he is able to overcome the flesh whilest the Tide of the Spirit runneth strong it beareth the stream and current of the Flesh down before it 1 Joh. 4.4 He that is in you is greater than he that is in the World the Spirit coming in with the fulness of his Power though the Flesh should attempt to carry men into waies of unworthiness yea though the Devil should by his temptations strengthen the flesh yet nevertheless he that is in them the Spirit of God is greater and more mighty than corruptions are or than the Devil himself is This is the second thing propounded viz. that they that are filled with the Spirit are not obnoxious to be tempted unto sin or however not so obnoxious to be overcome by temptations as others are who have but a scanty presence of the Spirit of God in them The third and last follows which is Sect. 6 that they who are not so obnoxious unto temptations or unto sinning by temptation are like to enjoy much peace much of the peace of God which passeth all understanding and of that blessed state of inward joy which is unspeakable and full of glory Now this is that which we are to prove unto you from the Scripture and likewise sound reason will stand by us in it That joy and peace which is raised by the Holy Ghost is far greater than the joy that men can take in silver and gold these kind of objects affect the heart but little comparatively or if the hearts of men should be so affected with these things that they run over with that peace and joy which can be drawn from them yet this then joy is but groundless a joy that hath no substantial ground it is such as wâ—ll nor stand by you it will ere long be gone and the end of that joy will be sorrow But that which properly is the joy of the Lord is when that passion of joy riseth and springs up in men and women from the root of holiness and by means of such objects which they converse withal which are great and excellent and of a spiritual nature and will bear them out in any measure or degree of rejoycing And as spiritual objects work upon and move mens affections to an excellent height so will men also be constant and uniform in their joy and peace which is thus raised in them unless the working of this their joy and peace be interrupted by men themselves by behaving themselves unworthily towards God and Jeâ—us Christ all the things in the World besides cannot do it When the Conscience testifieth with a loud voice that a man hath lived holily and walked humbly with his God hath been obedient unto him in all his waies and commands it cannot be but that upon such a testimony a man must like unto Jordan in the time of harvest overflow with joy and peace Mercy as the Apostle James saith Jam. 2.13 rejoyceth against Judgment a Conscience testifying to a man that he hath been merciful that he hath done much good that hath ministred like unto himself according to the ability which God hath given him such a conscience as this doth make a man to rejoyce against Judgment Now then if this one course of worthiness be so great an advantage unto men and women how much greater is it when there is not only this particular way of worthiness but when this shall be strengthened with another excellent way and another and another to that when a man shall have this Testimony in his conscience that he hath not only been a merciful man but also that in other things he hath walked uprightly and perfectly before his God that he hath not corrupted himself neither by any unmercifulness of Spirit nor with any of the waies and practices of this World When there is such a consort of heavenly practices met together these will enable men to magnifie themselves against the fears of death and make men stand like Princes before God undaunted and unapaled This then is the second of the four particulars a concurrent enjoyment whereof cannot lightly be conceived but that they must needs render a mans state and condition of life in this World excellent and desirable The third thing Sect. 7 which we told you must needs render a mans state and condition in the World desirable was a free and large Communion with God Now first that such a priviledge and enjoyment as this must needs contribute richly towards the rendring a mans state and condition in this World for of this only we speak at present excellently contentful satisfactory and desirable in the highest unto him Secondly That this priviledge must needs accompany a being filled with the Spirit and be possessed and enjoyed by all those who are thus filled may be made to appear by a little consideration But by the way give me leave to shew you first What I mean by Communion with God Secondly What I mean by a free Communion Thirdly What I mean by a large or full Communion with God Fourthly To make it good that this must needs render a mans condition desirable in the World And then fifthly To shew that this Priviledge must needs accompany our being filled with the Spirit First Then by a Communion with God I mean an inward and spiritual converse or intercourse of the soul with God or a recourse making unto God upon all occasions for direction help or comfort from hiâ— together with a readiness in God to correspond in all such occasions â—s these I confess Communion with God taking the word Communion in a large sense extendeth farther than any thing now expressed and comprehends somewhat more viz. a mutual or reciprocal propensness between God and the Creature to sympathize the one with the other according to the condition of their mutual affairs respectively whether prosperous or adverse and true it is that this Communion also intercedes between God and him that is filled with his Spirit But in the Point before us we chiefly intend the other viz. a capacity or
these high and excellent deportments of themselves in the World or as if persons in any degree charitable did perform all these worthy things in their perfection But that the nature of charity is such and that the means vouchsafed by God to advance this grace in their souls are such that men and women may be raised and enlarged in it to such a perfection or degree as to be in a capacity of doing all these great and excellent things formerly mentioned So when Paul saith We have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father his meaning is not that every one who received this Spirit in any measure or degree doth actually thus cry or is in a present and immediate capacity to do it but that this Spirit being once received may be so comported with and entreated by men as that he will advance his presence to such a fulness or degree that they shall be able by means of that strong testimony to cry Alba Father This is the first thing to be remembred by the way A second thing Sect. 15 is that when the Apostle saith That the Spirit speaking of the Spirit of God witnesseth with our spirits that we are the Children of God i.e. as we expounded mightily fortifies and strengthens that Testimony of our own spirit in this behalf He doth not suppose that every man and woman who are more than ordinarily raised in this perswasion or apprehension of themselves I mean that they are the Children of God receive the abundance of this testimony or perswasion from the Spirit of God For very possible it is that men and women who are not the Children of God but far from it may be very strongly and confidently perswaded that they stand in this relation unto God But certain it is that such a perswasion as this in such persons cometh not either in whole or in part from the Spirit of God because he never joyneth in any Testimony whereby an untruth is confirmed There may be another Spirit a Spirit of delusion that standeth at their right hand ready to fall in with them at such a turn as this and it is like will make their perswasion great within them Our Saviour Joh. 16.2 giveth an account of some that would think that they did God good service when they put to death the Disciples of Christ one of the most horrid Acts of Impiety which could lightly be committed And the Jews themselves with whom the Lord Christ had to do in the daies of his flesh were as high and as confident as confidence it self could make them that they were the Children of God yea the first-born Children of God and if there were no more Children of God in the World yet they must needs be of this Generation Now most true it is that this confidence in such persons is in a sense supernatural too for certainly the Spirit of Error and Delusion which standeth at the right hand of sinful and unworthy persons doth suggest this unto them that they are the Children and Saints of God and falleth in with them after the manner of the Spirit of God and if he finds but the least mutterings or whisperings this way in such persons whose spiritual estate and condition he knows much better than themselves do he will fall in with might and main according to his manner of working and operation to help to raise and fortifie this perswasion in them he will give them of this Wine to drink until their senses be bewitched and besotted and by this means their Judgments and understandings bear them in hand with the highest confidence that they are the only Sons and Daughters of God and therefore we must take heed and learn to distinguish and not believe the confident testimony and assurance which some will pretend unto of being the Sons and Daughters of God we must carefully distinguish between the Spirit of God himself and the Spirit of Error and Delusion who as I said doth but lie in wait to hear the Spirit of a man whisper whom he knows not to be a Child of God but to be a wicked proud formal and hypocritical person and then he will fall in amain with him to strengthen his confidence And therefore in respect of the degree and measure of his confidence haply it may be as well with him that is deluded by Sathan as it is with him that is strengthened and raised by the Spirit of God himself Yet in respect of the manner of it and several circumstances that do attend this false perswasion and confidence it may easily be discerned from that which is true The Apostles speaks Col. 2.18 of some persons that were vainly puft up with their fleshly minds whose hearts were not established with grace but with meats meaning that these carnal observations had puffed them up with swelling thoughts of themselves Therefore it is to be considered and remembred that the persons with whose Spirits the Holy Ghost joyns in Testimony that they are the Children of God are only such who are the Children of God indeed i.e. who approve themselves for such by an innocent blameless and fruitful Conversation and particularly who reverence the Counsel and Appointments of God in the Ministry of the Gospel by attending hereupon from day to day If we had time we might give this Item unto you Sect. 16 that the Spirit of God which doth bear up the heart and conscience against all fears and doubtings and contrary apprehensions and the like this Spirit I say is received by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Ministry of it even as it was in the daies of the Apostles Received ye the Spirit saith the Apostle Paul Gal. 3.2 by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith It was the hearing of the Doctrine of the Gospel by which the Spirit of Adoption entred into them and this Spirit came down together with the Gospel from heaven to attend and accompany that in the Ministry and the Preaching of it by the Apostles and others that had part and fellowship with them in that work Even as the Spirit of fear or bondage which the Apostle speaketh of went forth or issued into the World by the Ministry of the Law and upon the giving of it upon Mount Sinai unto which the Apostle alludes when he saith Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear meaning that they had received it namely in their Fore Fathers when they were in their loyns But now saith he you have received namely by the Gospel and the Ministry thereof the Spirit of Adoption by which you cry Alba Father Now then when you shall find men and women that are full of confidence and assurance that they are the Children of God if this Spirit have entred into them upon the hearing of a false Gospel or upon the Preaching of another Jesus and not the Christ of God this is a dangerous sign that it is a Spirit of Delusion
bloud to be able to stand with an untroubled and undaunted spirit before the great and mighty God of Heaven and Earth to come freely and boldly into his Presence So again to be able to stand and contemplate the inestimable and incomprehensible Majesty of the great God of Heaven and Earth to be able I say to bear the weight of this Majesty and Glory without any trouble or burthen to the mind or spirit of a man how great and how rich a glory must this needs be It was the Saying of another Philosopher who was greatly taken with that Creature the Sun he professed that if he might be permitted to stand near the Sun were it but for one day so as that he might but understand what nature the Sun was of he would be content to die at Evening so much did he prize the knowledge and contemplation of this glorious Creature We read of a whole Sect of Philosophers 〈◊〉 would fix their eye upon the Sun when it appeared and so stand looking upon it and never give over looking till it went down out of their sight My Brethen all created things are but slight resemblances and shadows What is the glory of them all if we shall but compare them with the glorious loveliness and splendour that is in God What is the beauty of the Sun in comparison of him and his beauty c. We all saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 as in a glass behold the glory of the Lord. The Angels do not see nor behold any other glory but that which is presented unto us in the glass of the Gospel they indeed see it more clearly even face to face we more darkly and yet notwithstanding that Glass of the Gospel wherein we behold the glory of the Lord is so clear and transparent that there is little difference between beholding his glory face to face and the beholding of it there every Lineament of his face being here represented to the eyes of our minds or understandings so that we can sustain little loss hereby So that if men and women would but draw near unto this Glass wherein the Face of Jesus Christ is thus represented or to be seen they might behold any thing that the Angels in heaven do and live in the same contemplation with them For here is the Power and here is the Glory and here is every thing in this Glass This doth contain the whole extent of the Face of Christ if I may so speak It holds out all the perfections of him whose face it representeth By the way As men are known by their faces so all which God is known by is called the face of God As the Mercy of God the Power of God and the Goodness of God they all make the Face of God Now then to be able to bear the weight of all this blessedness and glory without losing the use of a mans understanding without being confounded or troubled in his Intellectuals without being like a dead man cannot but be an exceeding great Priviledge I beseech you consider what other exercise or engagement of your selves or of the noble powers of your Souls can you imagine should produce any thing of a like filling and satisfying nature One thing have I desired of the Lord saith David Psal 27.4 that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the daies of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his holy Temple He thought this not only a thing desirable but he was resolved to seek after it he would first commend this his desire unto the Lord and then seek after it he would try this way and that and any way that would do This one thing which he had singled out amongst all his other requests was that he might dwell in the House of the Lord all the daies of his life to behold the beauty of the Lord. My Brethren we generally are but dull Spectators of his glory it may be many of us are more taken with other objects which seem to be of a more desirable import unto us but if we did but see with David's eyes if we had judgment within us to estimate beauty indeed this would be our One thing the thing which we would chiefly desire to behold the beauty of the Lord especially inasmuch as we have liberty to behold it without being dismayed So again that was another thing in our large and free Communion with God to pray unto God with assurance that we shall be heard They that are large in the knowledge of God that understand much of his Will they that have a large Communion with God in Prayer they can pray with assurance that they shall be accepted and that their request shall be granted unto them Now then if we shall weigh this Royal Priviledge also in the balance of the Sanctuary we shall find it to weigh down Silver and Gold all these things will be but as the Dust in the Balance in comparison of it To call upon the Majesty of the great God of Heaven and Earth and to have an opportunity to make your request unto him for all things you desire not only all that at present you desire but all things that can come into your hearts to desire and that you may upon occasion or emergency from day to day desire of him and to be supplied accordingly by the hand of your Angel I mean by your Prayer If this great Priviledge be but considered and laid to heart and measured by the measure of God it will be found to amount to as considerable a matter as any that we have presented you with And thus we have done with the third particular which we formerly signified unto you must needs in conjunction with the other three render the Life and Estate of a man in this World desirable in the highest as desirable I mean as this World will afford desirableness of condition unto the Sons and Daughters of men CHAP. XIX The Eighth Motive further opened in the fourth particular a being filled with the Spirit doth interest men with a rich and large Interest in God How this Interest doth arise by being filled with the Spirit of God Reasons why so little is done by Prayer now in comparison of what was done in the Primitive times Without being filled with the Spirit none of the great blessings formerly mentioned and which render a mans Condition so desirable in this World are to be obtained The Reasons whence it comes to pass And the equitableness of God's proceeding with men therein The difference between a fearless and dreadless frame of spirit that is counterfeit and that which is raised upon good Grounds A being filled with the Spirit is the only way to cause the Crown of glory to flourish on the head of a man And that with a greater measure of glory in the World which is to come THe Fourth and last particular was this Sect. 1 They that are
will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Page 164 Abide in me Ver. 15.4 5. and I in you he that abideth in me and I in him bringeth forth much fruit Page 197 198 But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father Ver. 15.26 even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me Page 164 c. He shall receive of mine and shew it unto you Ver. 16.14 Page 216 217 218 And now Father Ver. 17.5 glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the World was Page 136 c. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me Ver. 8. and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they believed that thou didst send me Page 516 c. And when he had said this Ver. 20.22 23. he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Page 173 c. Men and Brethren Acts 1.16 this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas Page 176 And when they heard that Acts 4.24 they lift up their voice to God with one accord and said Lord thou art God which hast made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all that in them is who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said Why did the Heathen rage c. Page 176 Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost Acts 5.3 Page 42 177 Why have ye agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord Ver. 9. Page 177 For in him we live Ver. 17.28 and move and have our being Page 86 We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost Ver. 19.2 Page 228 Behold I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem Ver. 20.22 Page 43. c Because when they knew God they glorified him not as God Rom. 1.21 Page 68 Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the Father of many Nations Rom. 4.18 Page 105 Giving glory to God Ver. 20. Page 105 c. For I know that in me Ver. 7.18 that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Page 299 But I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind Ver. 23. and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin which is in my members Page 299 For as many as are led by the Spirit Ver. 8.14 c. Page 295 We have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Ver. 15. Abba Father Page 505 c. The Spirit it self bearing witness with our Spirits that we are the Children of God Ver. 16. Page 504 c. And of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came Ver. 9.5 who is over all God blessed for ever Page 189 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Ver. 10.9 c. Page 48 But fervent in Spirit serving the Lord Ver. 12.11 Page 14 Rulers are not a terror to good works Ver. 13.3 but to evil Page 68 Attending continually upon this very thing Ver. 6. Page 68 For the Spirit of God searcheth the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 Page 171 231 232 233 For what man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him 1 Cor. 2.11 Page 171 For though I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of 1 Cor. 9.16 for necessity is laid upon me yea woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel Page 353 354 Wherefore Tongues are for a sign not to them that believe 1 Cor. 14.22 but to them that believe not but Prophesying serveth not for them that believe not but for them that believe Page 406 c. Therefore 1 Cor. 15.38 my Beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable alwaies abounding in the Work of the Lord for asmuch as you know your labour is not in vain in the Lord Page 112 113 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 3.5 but our sufficiency is of God Page 242 For whether we be besides our selves it is to God 2 Cor. 5.13 or whether we be sober it is for your cause Page 43 44 Having therefore these Promises 2 Cor. 7.1 let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord Page 133 134 Your Zeal hath provoked very many 2 Cor. 9.2 Page 47 He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly 2 Cor. 9.6 and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Page 544 For the Weapons of our Warfare are not carnal 2 Cor. 10.4 but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong Holds Page 430 431 There was given to me a thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12.7 the Messenger of Sathan Page 492 For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit Gal. 5.17 c. so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Page 252 269 Bear ye on anothers burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ Gal. 6.2 Page 50 51 For he that soweth to the Spirit Gal. 6.8 c. Page 290 Which is his body Eph. 1.23 the fulness of him that filleth all in all Page 131 For this cause I bow my knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 3.14 15 16. Of whom the whole Family of Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man Page 58 59 60 That ye might being rooted and grounded in love Ver. 17 18. may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height c. Page 71 72 73 Let no corrupt Communication proceed out of your mouth Ver. 4.29 30. c. Grieve not the holy Spirit of God Page 12 13 304 305 Knowing whatsoever good thing any man doth Ver. 6.8 the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free Page 112 Many waxed confident by my bonds Phil. 1.14 Page 47 Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 13. for it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure Page 158 Who shall change our vile body Phil. 3.21 c. Page 122 123 That in all things he might have the preeminence Col. 1.18 Page 122 Quench not the Spirit 1 Thes 5.19 Page 10 11 12 God who counted me faithful 1 Tim. 1.12 putting me into the Ministry Page 35 36 I obtained mercy 1 Tim. 1.16 that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern Page 33 For the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine 2 Tim. 4.3 but will heap up Teachers according to their own lusts