Father and the Son breathe forth this blessed Spirit with one and the same Spiration or Breathing This they do Eternally Inconceivably Naturally by the Perfection of their Nature not by any Arbitrary Decree And this said Spirit is a distinct Person acting according to the counsel of his own will He is called one Spirit and That one and self-same Spirit which are very particularising terms 1 Cor. 12. he is a Person declared to be the EQUAL of the Father and Son by his equal Titles and Attributes equal Works and Worship And accordingly the gracious Man that we speak of doth EQUALLY both Honour Worship and Obey him He is not of them that have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost or no. He knows there is one one Proceeding naturally from the Father and Son in respect of Substance as hath been said And also Proceeding from them dispensatorily in respect of the work of Grace One that in the former respect is their EQUAL and in the latter respect is their INFERIOR Vicarius Christi Tertull. With reverence and godly fear be it written and read that here followeth No occasion is given and I hope none will be taken for any blaspemous thought of Inequality of Essence between the Father and Son and their holy Spirit Inequality of Office it is which the Scripture declareth and which the gracious Man believeth It is a very Maxim and granted by all that Inferiority of Office doth very well consist with Equality of Essence And it is exemplified in our blessed Saviour who is expresly named God over all and the Servant of God God EQUAL in Essence Servant INFERIOR by Office Now be it observed this eternal Spirit did freely condescend to take an Authoritative Delegation or Commission from the Father and Son unto the work of Sanctification Even as God the Son did condescend to take an authoritative Delegation from the Father unto the work of our Redemption Joh. 14.26 The Father will SEND him And Joh. 15.26 I will SEND him saith Christ And frequently this glorious Spirit is said to be SENT GIVEN POURED forth c. Namely to TEACH his People to BRING ALL THINGS TO THEIR REMEMBRANCE to QUICKEN them to COMFORT them to RESTORE them Eph. 2.13 He is named the Spirit of the Promise that is that is promised in the Covenant of grace unto all the blessed purposes of Grace aforesaid And is indeed the grand and principal Gift of all promised therein in the New Testament day The main thing promised by our Saviour unto his Church at the time of his withdrawing his bodily Presence from the same So that it is most evident this Holy Spirit doth not come unto us or act within us only in his own Name but in the Name of the Father and of the Son from whom and by whom He is Promised and Sent. Upon which account it is thought by many excellent Divines to be that the Sin against the Holy Ghost is Unpardonable which no other Sin is Even because Sin against him is Sin against all the Authority of God and all the Love of God and the uttermost condescention of all the three Divine Persons to the work of our Salvation And to come to the Mark that we would give let this be attended The gracious Man is one that payeth unto the Holy Ghost his double Honour the honour of his Essence and the honour of his Office Considered as in his Essence he believes in him worships him and obeys him as God EQUAL with the Father and Son Considered as in his Office he Values him Prays for him Grieves him not but industriously Pleaseth him Delighteth in him Dependeth upon him Thanketh the Father for giving him and the Son for purchasing him and the Father and Son for sending him as the great APPLYER of all the Benefits by the Father given and by the Son purchased As one whose Presence is incomparably more profitable and serviceable to the application thereof than the bodily presence of Christ it self And is as freely vouchsafed by him for the Sanctification of the Elect and for the Consolation of the Sanctified as ever Christ's Presence was vouchsafed for the Reconciliation of God unto thâ—m by his Blood Freely our Redeemer CAME to do that Will of his Father And as freely this our Sanctifyer and Comforter PROCEEDED to do the Will of the Father and the Son For of his Oeconomical and dispensatory Proceeding unto it and not of his personal Proceeding is that Text to be understood Joh. 15.26 He PROCEEDETH from the Father Now unto this glorious Spirit in whom all the New Testament Promises are fulfilled as in Christ all the Promises of the Old Testament were unto Him who as Jesus Christ thought it no robbery to be EQVAL with God yet was Promised as Christ was Promised by God and is said to Come to be Sent and to be Given as Christ is said to Come to be Sent and to be Given and may not be esteemed a less GIFT of God than Jesus Christ himself was unto this ever-blessed Spirit descending from the bosom of the Father and the Son and residing among the needy Children of Men unto this Inspiration of the Almighty what deferences doth the gracious Man make Sciunt qi fiunt Gracious hearts do very well know what deferences They know and feel it a gracious heart would rather be no heart than be void of this Spirit It accounteth every heart that is not his Holy Temple to be no other than Satan's hideous Dunghill In short it thus testifieth concerning that Spirit that is the Soul of its Soul the prime and principal Spring of all its Motions Heaven-ward The Son of God's Work in Redemption had been in vain without the Spirit of God's Work in it's Application Without this Almighty Work as well as that most Merciful one the Work of the Father in Freation which Sin spoiled had never been repaired never restored Without this blessed Spirit never had I understood a Truth or possessed a Grace or performed a Duty or enjoyed a Privilege in hand or in hope I was Ignorant even Darkness it ' self and he was unto me the spirit of Wisdom and of Understanding I was Unconvinced of my Sin and Misery and in a feavorish Dream of the clean contrary and he convinced me making it plain to me that I was a Child of wrath by Nature and of Disobedience by all my Life I was stupid and senseless of the wrath I believed coming and he brought me to my feeling and made me cry out I am grievously tormented with the guilt of my Sins and with the power of my Lusts He brought me into that bondage without which I had never looked out after liberty Under my Conviction and Compunction I was even totally Despairing one while and going about to set up my own Righteousness another while and he it was who came and perswaded me there was a Rock of Salvation for such as I but my
the vile Idolatries committed upon it I have taken this time as the first I could find or make for writing these Marks of true Grace Not knowing whether they shall prosper most as Spoken or Written or whether they shall be alike fruitful For I will acknowledge unto you that I do humbly expect fruit from them Physicians speak of Pills and Divines of Memorands which a Wise Man would not be without And be it confessed these Marks are such in my thoughts Wherefore consider what follows and the Lord give you Understanding and Possession of all He that truly feareth the Lord and of whom God saith that he shall be his in the day wherein he maketh up his Jewels he hath these five Marks Mark 1. GOD is Supream in his Soul both by the highest Authority of a KING and the dearest Authority of a FATHER The One only God who is Father Son and Spirit doth as truly Dwell in his heart as in Heaven And as truly Reign as Dwell therein and that by Consent and Choice VVhatever Cherubins Seraphins and Spirits made perfect be the very same this Man desires to be I mean as to honorable Apprehensions of God and Affections toward him He wisheth that his Esteem and Reverence Love and Trust and Service were of degree equal to theirs And telleth himself a thousand times that if they were so they would still be infinitely disproportionable unto the divine object of them It is against his renewed Mind and VVill that his Life or his very Salvation should be principally valued but for the glorifying and enjoying of God As our Saviour refused not to worship the Devil because he was a Devil but because he was not God So this Man argues and concludeth that the infinite distance of any created Being from Godhead is an infinite reason for denying to prize it for it self The word God signifies a Being that is not a Part but the Whole of Excellence And so well he understands it that his Soul is for a Total not a Partial Preference of Him Heathens would say That the Sun were worthy of Adoration though it were so that no benefit descended from it upon them Much more saith this Man that if it were possible we could Be without God it would be Folly and Injustice to honour any thing like Him God's DOING good is but a lower and lesser reason for his being adored His BEING good is an infinitely higher one For all the good He DOTH is but a Stream from the Fountain of good that He IS So David Thou ART good and DOEST good The impressions of both upon an holy heart are such as none can know but those that have them And of such every one will tell you that they thus far affect him They fill him with Wonder Grief and Shame that his Thoughts of God are not in a sort Almighty and able to work no more powerfully upon him Able to annihilate all the Worlds grandeurs in his Mind able to strike dead the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts able to embitter sweetest Sins and sweeten the most bitter Afflictions able to set and fix his Soul in Heaven even according to his hearts desire However he findeth these thoughts to be truly Powerful and the most Powerful of all the thoughts framed in his heart and all the good in his heart and life he knows to be the issue of these said thoughts And accordingly of desire of more good in both he operously multiplieth thoughts of God Thoughts of his Essential Perfections Eternity Infiniteness Wisdom Power Holiness Justice Goodness Truth Thoughts of his wonderful Manner of Being in the Father Son and Holy Ghost the best and most glorious manner of Being that is Possible Thoughts of his Relations unto the Church and World unto the latter of which He is Maker Owner Ruler and Benefactor to the former He is all four and over and above their reconciled Father Husband and Portion The gracious Man of whom we speak hath his times in which he goes aside and muses of all these most solemnly And efficaciously to the making him exclaim as the Psalmist Whom HAVE I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth I DESIRE besides thee O THREE in ONE Be it observed here some sincere Souls may have less Light But more intelligent Christians do take their times to think that if God the Father had been the Father of no more than Men and Angels He would have been nothing so glorious as now He is Now that He begets a Son equal to himself and without change in himself in way inconceivable And that beyond all possible thought of any Creature it is the Father's and the Son's honour to give a subsisting life to the coequal Spirit by alike eternal and inconceivable Spiration And that it is no dishonour to the Son to be thus Begotten by the Father or to the Spirit to proceed thus from the Father and the Son Being that the Son is Equal with the Father and One and to be worshipped with one and the same worship with the Father And the holy Spirit is Equal with the Father and the Son one with them and to be worshipped with one and the same Worship with them By this means these three Father Son and Spirit do infinitely and mutually love and are beloved of each other And unto this their eternal infinite and mutual delight the natural perfection of the Godhead did require this Communication of it self Nor was it therefore arbitrarily but naturally and necessarily though voluntarily that the Father begat the Son and the Father and Son breathed forth the Spirit To conclude The Child of God looks on the Son and admires the Father looks on the Father and admires the Son looks on the Father and Son and admires the holy Spirit looks on all three as subsisting in the Unity of the Godhead as dwelling in one another mutually possessing loving and glorifying one another from everlasting to everlasting He contemplates the Godhead dwelling equally in its fulness in all the three Persons in the Father the Beginner the Son the Promoter the Holy Ghost the Perfecter of all good He Knows Believes Acknowledges Worships Obeys and Trusts and Lives upon Three PERSONS and One GOD. He questions not but Angels and Saints in Heaven do the same Holy Holy Holy being their Song He is satisfied that Adam in his Innocency did the same being that he was Created by the three Divine Persons and in the Image of all three For it was the Father said to the Son and Spirit Come let US create Man in OUR Image and after OUR likeness He is certified by the Scriptures of Truth that it is the Will of the Father that every Tongue should confess the Son to be God and the holy Ghost to be God unto the glory of God the Father He is well informed that the Universal Church under the New Testament hath most expresly made One-God-in-three-Persons the Object of her Faith
own Righteousness was very Sand and by no means to be built on He Convinced me of Righteousness and that of another make than my own yea or than the Angels Being beat off from trust in my own Righteousness and coming to some knowledge of Christ's I was like to stick in the place of the breaking of Children I was very near to Miscarry in the pangs of the new Birth And he the self-same Spirit brought me forth He brought Christ to my heart and my heart unto Christ he was to me a Spirit of Faith of uniting Faith joyning Christ and my Soul as Head and Members be joyned Of Justifying Faith and such as through the Law of Grace makes Christ's Satisfaction for Sin as beneficial to us as if we our selves had payed our Debts unto God Such a Faith as put me into the City of Refuge and secured me from the pursuit of the Avenger I humbly hope so at least When this was done and I was born of Water and of the Spirit then was I all in haste for a heart much more clean and more after God's heart And he the same Spirit was unto me a Spirit of Burning as Fire mollifies Iron he softned my heart more than ever in former times and melted my will into God's Will and united it to fear his Name After this it self still was I a short-sighted Creature and in pain to know more of God and Christ of Sin and Grace of my Hearts deceits and Satans wiles of Heaven and Hell And he it was that in and by his Ordinances anointed my Eyes and made me from that time to this to make some Progress in Knowledge To grow in it both Extensively and Intensively Several times have I been in danger of being deceived by false Teachers by the craft of men lying in wait to deceive And he the only unerring Guide kept my foot his word it was that I heard behind me saying This is the way walk in it Many is the sad time that I have back-slidden and foully fallen And by him hath it been shewn me whence I was fallen he it was that came and said Return thou backslider He it was that let me not to rest till I had gone forth and wept bitterly and laid hold on him that healeth backslidings Full often I have had fightings without and fears within sorrow upon sorrow And he hath been a Comforter indeed he hath taken of Jesus and shewn me that which hath made my state presently tolerable and by and by comfortable It is never very long together but I am at a loss what to do for both Life Motion and Direction And he alone it is who makes me feel any spark of life in me makes me stir and move in Willing and Doing and guideth me in Judgment teaching me his way When I am most afflicted and need most of all to Pray even then oftentimes do I least of all know what to pray for And he it is this holy Spirit himself that maketh Intercessions in me as it is Rom. 8.26 and maketh me to Pray in him as it is Jud. v. 20. More plainly he enlightneth and he fortifieth my puzled and dejected Soul He Directeth my requests so that I ask Bread and not a Stone Fish and not a Serpent He Enflameth my Desires so that by the Fervence I discern God's Acceptance as of old Sacrifices were manifested to be acceptable by the firing of them He emboldens also my Suits unto God so that while I adore him as my Soveraign I trust him as my Father by Adoption While I am prostrate before him as a rebellious Subject with a Rope about my Neck I have the humble confidence of a Child of his in my heart and I do rejoyce fiducially while I tremble most Self-condemningly Briefly until such time as I got acquainted with him never could I heartily call God the Father my Father nor call Jesus Christ my Lord. I am sure I could do neither according to the Will of God Well might my dear Redeemer call this Holy Spirit God's good gift Luk. 11.13 Well might the Man after God's own Heart exclaim Take not thy holy Spirit from me Psal 51. And well might the great Apostle pray for his Ephesian Children that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory might give unto them the SPIRIT of WISDOM and REVELATION in the knowledge of him Eph. 1.17 18. And well will it be for me and all my dearest ones if as above all things I Pray we shall holily walk after this good Spirit Not GRIEVING his Divine PERSON dwelling in us not QUENCHING his gracious MOTIONS made in us not RESISTING him in any of his ORDINANCES instituted for us For by his blessed Operation it is that we have our Communion with the FATHER in his Love with the SON in his Grace and with Himself the Coessential SPIRIT in his Consolation Look as the Son of God is Mediator for us unto the Father unto himself as he is God and unto the Holy Spirit unto the whole Trinity in like manner is the Holy Spirit the one common Operator or Worker for us and Comforter of us from the Father from the Son and from Himself from God in Unity He is named the COMFORTER and as I conceive comparatively greater than Christ was in the days of his Flesh on Earth But how doth he comparatively so much more comfort the Children of God This he doth by acquainting them much more with the Love of the Father By giving them to see more fully that the Father himself loveth them as our Lord speaks Joh. 16.27 And by discovering unto them much more the grace of the Son the super-excellency of his Person and of his Purchases By glorifying of him in their hearts so as he never was before Joh. 14.15 that is the very word which Christ useth He shall GLORIFIE me And lastly by setting before their Eyes much more his own like infinite Love Grace and Condescention Admirable condescention to be made less in Office than the Father and Son with whom he is Equal in eternal Essence And this most freely and of choice for our good and so great good as hath been foreshewn And that although he well foreknew what we were and what cross pieces we should prove and how we should GRIEVE him PROVOKE him and QUENOH many Millions of his most holy Motions in our hearts defile his Dwelling-place and provoke him for ever to abhor US so infinitely needing his Wisdom Power and Grace to help us in all Concernments Us who without his infallible Counsel and his invincible Strength are sure by every Sin to be frightned into Despair of Mercy or hardned unto a very disregard of Vindictive Justice Who are sure by Prosperity to be slain and to be made forgetful of God by Adversity to be brought to horrible Distrust of God's goodness or as leud Disdain of his Government and Discipline by our very Duties themselves to be puffed up with
above all things Purification of heart and hands c. do so do And these are attainable Inward spiritual Sense and Perception is not to be discredited In proposing of Ends and in prosecuting them with Means we have sensations of our actions and these sensations are as worthy to be believed as our bodily Eyes at any time are There is a seeing Light in God's Light there is a Feeling of Divine Power with its exceeding greatness prevailing upon our Wills there is a Tasting that the Lord is good and his Word sweeter than Honey he that hath these may safely conclude from them that he is an Heir of Grace And these are attainable also Lastly The Testimony of a Person that can neither be Deceived nor Deceive us is worthy of all acceptation The Holy Ghost is such a Person infinitely Wise and alike Good He is sent from the Father and Son to testifie unto the Children of God that they are his Children and his Heirs and Coheirs with Christ To Testifie it with their Spirits that they are so To be an additional and deciding Witness The Word of God lays down sure marks of Grace and witnesseth those marks to be true The Conscience of a Believer or his Spirit witnesseth those marks to be found in his heart and life The Spirit of God supervenient to both presents himself and witnesseth by self-evidencing Light that those marks are true and are truly in the Believer and the Believer truly in the unchangeable Love of God And who dares say this Testimony of the Holy Ghost is unattainable or being attained will not give true and proper Assurance The good man knows well the Desireableness of such Assurance For without it who can Do God's Will or Praise his Name Who can come unto the Throne of Grace with a becoming boldness Who can Rejoyce or not Mourn always Who can Comfort or not Sadden others Who can Live but very uneasily or Die but very unwillingly But Assurance is Joy and Joy is our strength Our strength against Corruptions Temptations and the Fear of Death Assured Paul beat down his Body and kept it in subjection Assured Moses chose rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to be Heir of the Crown of Aegypt Assured Simeon could say and sing Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace But lastly The gracious man conceives of this Assurance as a thing most Necessary Even upon a nearer consideration Necessary I mean upon consideration of the Command of God laid on him to seek it God requireth nothing more expresly and plainly in all the Bible than that we give Diligence to make our Calling and Election SURE 2 Pet. 1.10 We desire that EVERY ONE of you do shew the same diligence to the full ASSURANCE of Hope unto the end Heb. 6.11 Yea many another duty doth God require from us as means of getting and keeping this said Assurance Our Ways must be searched our Hearts must be searched the Scriptures must be searched our H. Baptism must be recognized the Lord's Supper must be frequently repeated Men to whom is given the Tongue of the Learned to speak a word in season must be oft consulted and for what less than to get and keep sure that God's Law is written in our Hearts and our Names be written in Heaven in his Book of Life Many a serious thought of this riseth walks and lieth down with the gracious man Whose setled Judgment therefore is that if the bare want of Assurance be no Sin or Loss at all yet the neglect of it is such a sin and argues such a want of all Spiritual sense as scarce consists with grace He is satisfied indeed that spring-tydes of Assurance and over flowing Comforts may be wanted without sin For they are rather Priviledges than Duties But as for Assurance which Schoolmen call Moderate and which reacheth unto Hope and Peace though not unto Dancing for joy and Triumph this the good man thinks God seldom or never denies but upon some sinful Provocation Upon the contempt of some Ordinance neglect of some Duty unexercisedness of some Grace indulgence of some Lust And therefore inclines to think the want of this sort of Assurance to be his sin This whose want he judgeth meritoriously procured by sinful Causes and he feeleth to be malignantly full of sinful Effects Nevertheless he awefully concludeth that should he add unto that sinful want the more sinful carelesness of getting out of it should he forget or despise God's positive command to seek Assurance though therein the divine goodness maketh his Comfort to be his Duty should he together break such a Gospel-Precept and slight such a Gospel-Priviledge he should then contract a much more frightful Symptom of Reprobation upon his Soul In short our gracious Man is ever busie in Getting or Preserving and Promoting his Assurance of grace The Holy Ghost must indeed work grace in us before he can Witness it to be in us But it is most certain that he may and doth often work it in a Soul long before he doth witness unto it that he hath wrought it Nor do I dare to say that he doth not let some Children of God live and die without ever witnessing it unto them at all in this World Although we all believe and teach that ordinarily he doth first or last witness the grace he works to be true and saving And doth either by and by after their Conversion or after some good Proficience in Sanctification or at least a little before their Death Assure God's people of his grace in them There are several Seasons in which above all other times he is observed to give them the said Assurance and there are several Duties which above others he useth graciously to reward and honour with Assurance There are six Seasons which are eminent The first is when a Soul hath been extraordinarily bemoaning its sin Ephraim was heard so doing And what was the next news He was straitways called a dear Son a pleasant Child Jer. 31. The second is when a Soul hath been Praying in Prayer and that with all Prayer When it hath been most restless and denied to give the Lord rest and been most importunate for Assurance in order unto holiness then frequently cometh an assuring Testimony As when our Saviour had been at Prayer then came the voice from Heaven saying This is my well beloved Son Luke 3. The third Season is when a Soul hath been Waiting for Assurance and looking for it in all the Ordinances of God no one of them excepted It is in his Ordinances that he will dispense his Consolations See what is said of them that follow those Ordinances Psal 36. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasure In the Ordinances we see most of Christ's Blood as prevailing to God's satisfaction and we feel it most prevailing as to our Consciences Pacification The
and acceptably unto God you are void of Grace Young Joseph hath ability to repel Temptations and Older David hath ability to comply with Temptations Satan cannot force us unto Evil and the Holy Ghost doth not ever force us unto Good it is voluntarily that we do all the Evil and the Good done by us Grace doth find us sinful Men and free unto Evil and it makes us sincere Christians and free unto Good It doth not as Glory doth take away our possibility of sinning in Mind Will or Work Our state on Earth is one and that in Heaven is another 3 Your Duty of Duties it is therefore to make the best use of your Liberty To side with the Spiritual Principle against the Carnal To take the part of Purity against Impurity And strain hard to live according to the Spirit in every Walk not allowing the Flesh one step To keep the Candle of the Lord your internal Light shining And the fire on the Altar of your hearts your holy Zeal burning To see that your Minds be blinded by no Objections and your Wills blunted by no Oppositions and your Lives blackned by no avoidable Abominations For why God rewards Grace with Grace and your Obeying the new Nature in you strengthens it And the strengthning thereof is the weakning of Sin its opposite It doth make and shew it to be weak But on the other hand let it be awefully considered It is a frightful Sin to receive in vain the offer of Grace in the Gospel and far worse it is to make vain and not improve the very Work of Grace in one's Soul This is no less than going about to destroy that which is Conceived in us of the Holy Ghost For the new Nature in us like a new-born Child quickly languisheth if it be not tenderly cherished And besides the Holy Ghost who is the Parent of it will be more than a little incensed if it be but little made of and not by all possible means nourished wherefore blessed are they who set not themselves to gratifie but to crucifie their Senses Appetites and Passions And content not themselves to Possess unless they do also exercise and Increase their spiritual Gifts Graces and Comforts Going forward in them and going apace so and that sensibly and visibly Knowing that shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle I have thus endeavoured that ye may be able after my Decease to have these things always in remembrance For if these be in you and abound they make you that ye shall not be Barren nor Unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ And an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into his everlasting Kingdom Amen and Amen Bishop Wilkins his Character of the best Christians is here added for your Profit and for the shame of such as traduce us for New-fangled Opinionists and contrary to all the Learned of the Church of England THey are Persons of a Moderate and healing Temper of Catholick and Comprehensive Charity They do not Baptize their Religion with the Name of a Sect nor Espouse the Interest of a Party but love all Good men that Fear God and work Righteousness They are not guilty of the Corinthian Vanity in crying up a Paul an Apollos or a Cephas but look upon it as the great Design of Christianity to make men good and where it hath not that Effect they know it matters not what Church such a Man is of because a Bad Man can be saved in none They shun the dangerous Extreams and keep the Regular mean and in Divine Worship prefer a reverend Decency before pompous Superstition or popular Confusion neither bowing down to the Altar of Baal nor Admiring the Calves of Bethel They are true Primitive Christians and think it lawful to hold Communion with any true Church of Christ that is sound in the Substantials of Religion notwithstanding some Circumstantial Differences in the External Modes of Administration And they suspect it sinful and Schismatical to separate from any true Christians who Agree in Apostolical Doctrine and maintain the Discipline of the purest Ages They prove all Things and hold fast only that which is Good and are perswaded those Christians are most in the Right who choose out of all Parties whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just c. and not they that think every thing to be so that 's maintained by their own party They place Religion more in the serious practice of Piety than in the Observance of Ceremonious Forms they are neither fond of needless Rituals nor yet molested with groundless Scruples but long for the Philadelphian State of the Church wishing that all the World might with one mouth glorifie the Eternal God They pay a great Deference to Antiquity yet they are not so fond of Error as to fall in love with it meerly for its gray Hairs but make use of their own Reason to judge of the Reasonings of other men Though they apply themselves to spiritual Guides yet they love to enquire the Way to Sion and not follow them in the Dark except they carry a Lanthorn in their hands They refer the Decision of all the Differences amongst good Christians primarily to the Sence and Meaning of the Holy Scriptures And they know every man must Judge for himself therefore where they see men do all they can to find out the Truth to please God and to save their own Souls they give them a Liberty of Interpreting as knowing themselves not to be Infallible They know there are many Controversies amongst Christians of that Intricacy that the Day of Judgment must determin who are most in the right therefore they dare not judge of mens final Estates or of the Sincerity of their Hearts by their speculative Opinions or different Relishes of things because every man must believe what he can and not what he will They admire to see some Christians so egregiously mistake in the Notion of true Catholicism as to confine Salvation to their particular Communion and they think it strange to hear men contend for an Infallible Guide when Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles do with one consent declare that the way to the Blessedness of the Righteous is by observing the Rule and Exercise of Holy Living from a Principle of Divine Life They never charge other mens Doctrines with such odious Consequences as they never intended nor Asperse their Persons with such invidious Names as they never deserved but make charitable Allowances for their different Educations Constitutions and Apprehension of things supposing that other men may differ from them with the same Sincerity that they differ from others and sometimes from themselves They are for a Religious Loyalty and prefer the Wisdom of Publick Authority before their own private Judgments in all such Matters as are not Determined by the Soveraign pleasure of their Maker And if in any thing they differ from the Wisdom of their Superiours they do it with great Modesty and Reservation and are always ready to change their Minds when better Information leads them to it not thinking they undervalue their Judgments by so doing They are afraid of being infected with the Heresie of Bigottism and have great cause to fear that if the merciful God should damn us all for such things for which strait-laced Christians condemn one another none could be saved They think there is no particular human Form of Ecclesiastical Polity so acceptable to the great God as the Exercise of Mutual Charity under our different Forms They neither make their Opinions Articles of Faith nor their Modes Terms of Communion but believe those Principles and practise those Precepts which wise and good men are all agreed in well Knowing if they should happen to be mistaken in those things wherein they differ they could not lose the Way to Heaven whilest they sincerely love God believe in Christ and obey the Motions of the Holy Spirit They are of peaceable and Reconciling Dispositions and neither call for Fire from Heaven nor Kindle Fires upon Earth to destroy all those that follow not them as well knowing that Truth cannot be engraven in the Minds of Men with the Points of Swords nor can their Understandings be illuminated with flaming Faggots They neither make the Way to Heaven Broader nor Narrower than the Head and Pillars of the Universal Church have made it And they walk on soberly righteously and godly in that Path which upon great Consideration they take to be the Right without rudely Justling those whom they fear to be in the Wrong They think the best way to find out to what Mother the Child of Truth belongs is to make use of Solomon's Test viz. To give up the Cause to them that first lay down the Sword of Division When one Party saith Lo here is Christ in this Church and another saith Lo he is there they Believe what Christ himself hath told them That where Two or Three are met together in his Name there is He in the midst of them They do not think their Zeal Luke-warm except it burn up their Discretion but can joyn the Prudence of the Serpent with the Innocency of the Dove and are grieved to observe men contend so Eagerly about the Pinnacles of the Temple as that they threaten to overturn the Foundations of the Church They take more pains to make good their Baptismal Covenant than to dispute about the Manner of its Administration as if they were Baptized with the Waters of Strife and they are more frequent in a Devout Participation of the Lord's Supper than in Metaphysical Contests about the Real Presence They Know there 's nothing required of Man as Necessary to Salvation but what is clearly Revealed and beyond all Dispute They choose rather to take up the Cross of Christ than wrangle about it and more sollicitously observe the Complexion of their own Souls than the Colour of Ministers Garments Nor do they so contend about the Number of the Elect as to Reprobate themselves for want of Charity but endeavour to perform the Whole Duty of Man in so doing they know they are in the Way to the Saints Everlasting Rest FINIS
most complete Confirmation that can be given For in these said Sacraments God doth as appears from his Institution of them most sensibly unto our selves and most publickly in the face of the Congregation TESTIFIE his Engagement to fulfill the Promises of the Covenant expecting our fulfilling of the Demands which he had before Testified unto us by his Word and Spirit in our hearts And we in the Sacraments do as appears from our very Celebration of them besides our verbal Declarations most solemnly and openly TESTIFIE our Engagement to fulfill the Demands of the Covenant expecting God's gracious fulfilment of the Promises which we had before testified with our Hearts and with our Lips In a word the good Man learns that though it be an amazing Condescention of which God disposeth his Grace in way of Covenant yet it is a further and vastly greater Condescention of which he addeth Seals and such Confirmations There was on his part no need of them nor did he add them to help his own inviolable Faithfulness but meerly to help our weak Faith and to give us the more strong Consolation Particularly 1. The more to express his sincere and earnest respect unto our Salvation as a King expresseth his Zeal for a poor Subjects Satisfaction when he saith Come I am not satisfied my self to give thee my bare word though it be a royal one I will unto the same add my broad Seal 2. To Apply more particularly and closely unto every individual Soul this foresaid Covenant I say more particularly than in the Scripture it is applied Like a King who being desirous more abundantly to comfort reconciled Rebels though he hath in common declared their Pardon in an Act of Oblivion and Indemnity doth further Sign and Seal particularly every one's Pardon For in the Word God speaks indeed the same things as in the Sacraments but in the Word he speaks unto all generally but in the Sacraments unto every one particularly Therein his Language by his Minister uttered is I Baptize THEE and Take and Eat THOU 3. To invest Believers solemnly and as by formality of Law into a right to the good things of the Covenant As Men use when having consented to a Bargain they have made those that deal with them a right unto a House or Field they do make that right more explicite by the delivery of it to them by some formality of Law that of a House by the delivery of a Key and that of a Field by delivery of a Turf of Earth So Acts 22.14 Arise and be Baptized for the washing away of thy Sins that is Receive Baptism as a livery and Seisin of Pardon and of all other benefits of the Covenant of Grace which are inseparable from it 4. To set Christ and all his benefits before Believers in the way of greatest force to Instruct and Comfort them And that is by Proposal of them unto our Senses in visible Rites and Ceremonies For who knows not that Knowledge comes into our Souls through our Senses And both most powerfully and pleasantly through our Eyes Now the gracious Man dares not receive this overflowing of God's Grace in vain Holily to God exemplarily to Men beneficially unto his Soul he doth by the holy Sacraments of the New Testament 1 Profess his Christian Religion 2 Testifie his Union to Christ and to his Members 3 Distinguish himself from Infidels 4 Encourage and Engage his Soul to the Obedience of the Gospel He thinks it worth his while to contemplate and to praise the wonderful extent of God's grace in this signed sealed Covenant of his For the most part he is one that considers it is extended as to the PERSONS so unto the SEED of Believers And that as God said to Abraham I will be thy God and the God of thy seed so upon us Gentiles is that blessing of Abraham come Gal. 3.13 14. And we are told that our Children are Holy that is with a Covenant-holiness and such as entitles them unto Baptism the entring Seal of the Covenant 1 Cor. 7.14 They are holy by their Parents Dedication and by God's Acceptation for when the Parents dedicated themselves they dedicated their seed also unto God and when God Promised to be their God he Promised to be the God of their seed also No Man hath yet shewn us where God hath said I will no longer be the Covenant-God of my Peoples Infant-seed Or though I do admit them into my Covenant I will not henceforth as of old seal my Covenant unto them Now as before Baptism they are Holy by Spiritual Dedication after Baptism they are farther Holy by Sacramental Consecration And as the Circumcised of old were debtors to the whole Law to do it so are they being Baptized by new Obligation debtors to the whole Gospel to obey it To wit when they come unto years of capacity and cease to be accounted by God as Parts and Pieces of their Parents which in their nonage they are accounted A blessed Privilege And such as if it were but duly improved by Parents and Children we should soon see blessed Effects of it The gracious Man of whom we speak laments much his Parental and his Personal non-improvement And is one that sets himself to make it appear he thinks the past time of neglect to have been too too much One that now having received his sight in the Matter addicts himself to improve it so much the more unto Faith and Obedience He perceives that Baptism is another kind of thing than the generality of People take it for And of all things to be named God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Baptism in vain Take it in vain they do who mind their Covenant with God never the more for it Who believe the Pardon of their Sins never the more who confide in God for the bestowal of all the Promised good things of the Covenant never the more who are bent to die unto sin and live unto righteousness never the more for their Baptism But he conceives of it as a Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of Sins And makes the same use of it as a Servant doth of his Covenant with his Master as a Souldier doth of his Covenant with his Captain as a Wife doth of her solemnized Marriage-Covenant with her Husband He constantly bears it in Mind as his true and greatest Encouragement to expect the recompence of reward without doubting and as his like Engagement to Serve the Lord Jesus Christ to fight under his Banner against Flesh World and Devil and all days of his Life to Honour Love and Obey him As Warriers are not dress'd but are naked till their Swords are girded to their Sides so is it with him in a Morning he thinks not himself up dress'd and ready to stir till his Soul hath put on the Sword of the Spirit which is the Covenant-WORD of GOD as in holy BAPTISM SIGNED and SEALED Ubi VERBUM nominatur SACRAMENTA fere subintelliguntur
take another Sign and Seal thereof on my part and give another Bond and put on another Badge on thy own part and as thus anew Encouraged and Engaged go Persevere and make Progress in Faith Hope Love and Obedience The good Man of whom I am speaking is neither Ignorant nor Forgetful nor less than practically mindful hereof He no more dares to Omit what his God Commands than to Commit what he Forbids He as truly dreads to disuse the Cup of the Lord as to Drink the Cup of Devils and to deny to partake of the Lord's Table as to comply and partake of the Table of Devils THIS DOE IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME saith Christ Yea Lord saith he THIS WILL I DOE THIS I CANNOT BUT DOE I whose DESIRE and PRAYER is that in all things Thy Will be done He minds the AUTHOR of that Command who is his Supream Caesar to whom he grudges no Tribute and the COMMAND it self which is as Easie and Pleasant as Beneficial and Honourable as any in the Gospel All the Pain of it is but parting with the Plague of allowed Sin It binds to the Pleasure of receiving the greatest ensurance of Salvation The Benefit no Man knows but he that hath it and the Honour is of things unspeakable Moreover the gracious Man when there is need doth melt his heart with that Argument wherewith Joseph's Brethren did melt his Thy Father did command before he died or when he was dying He reasons with himself thus How my Soul wilt thou look my Saviour in the face at the Resurrection if thou slightest the very Charge he gave thee at his Death Thy Saviour did command this the same Night wherein he was betrayed Wo unto me if I less observe my Redeemer than the Rechabites their Jonadab and the Turks their Mahomet They being under Prohibition abstained from Wine I am a wretch if at a dying Saviour's Command I do not use holy Wine for my Soul's sake and my often infirmities He likewise awefully thinketh of the Scandal given by a neglect of God's holy Table Of the contempt it casts upon the whole Generation of them that have sought God's face therein in all Ages Yea and found it too in degrees of light and strength not communicated ordinarily in other Ordinances Of the sore reproach which it poureth upon the heads of our Martyrs in Q. Maries days who vainly rescued from the Papists the pure administration of the Lord's Supper with the Price of their Life blood if it be so very indifferent a thing that we may without Sin against God and without harm to our selves go without it Nor doth he without trembling consider what a fearful stumbling block unto raw and weak Christians his neglect of the Lord's Table wou'd be Such a stumbling-block as would cause the fall of many and it may be to the Ruin at least to the sore Wounding of their Souls in Grace and Peace In a word if Doubts and Fears perplex him the gracious Man rests not in them He carries his Evidences to Men skilful in God's Law and and takes their Judgment If his Soul be Distempered he will have the advice of a spiritual Physician And that is what God doth ordinarily bless unto his relief But being God hath given WORD and SACRAMENTS for two Breasts of gracious Consolation he cannot make or endure himself to live an Amazon or with but one Breast The Scythian Women cut off one of their Breasts that they might the more advantageously draw their Bows in Battel But the Captain of his Salvation never taught him so to do No but the clean contrary So that he dareth not to Pray for spiritual strength and victory over spiritual Enemies without the use of this especially strengthening Ordinance I mean in conjunction with all others Preparing diligently for the Lord's Table and Repairing frequently unto it and Demeaning himself becomingly at it he conscientiously sets himself to Answer the ends of it in his daily walk with God and Men. Coming from the Ordinance he Reviews the MERCY that he hath received and the DUTY that he hath performed He quickly finds a time to go and offer unto God PRAISES for both and PRAYERS for all supplies of his Spirit for the improvement of both He sedulously watches against the excess of worldly PLEASURES and BUSINESS also which he knoweth to chill spiritual Heat and to rase out holy Impressions He commands all that is within him to act the grace received against the invasion of DISTRUST and the joynt insurrection of DISOBEDIENCE To Plead what God did and what he did at the holy Table against all DISCONTENT under Afflictions against all SINFUL COMPLYANCE under Temptations against all PRIDE and SLOTH in the most Prosperous Condition So far is he from dreaming that his Work is ended when the holy Supper is ended Or that the holy Feast will work like Physick whether one do sleep or wake He tells himself that now his Encouragements are greater and now his Engagements to all Duty are stronger than before he sâ—t down at the holy Table God expects that he should now fall by Negligence more seldom and rise by Repentance more soon than he used to do before this holy Banquet He telleth himself his Baptismal Covenant is not ordained by God to be thus renewed for nothing No but that in this Ordinance seeing how Christ was Hated for sin Denied for sin and Crucified for sin we might more Hate it more Deny it and more Crucifie it Seeing how Christ loved God and us we might more love God and Him and all days of our lives exclaim O hateful Sin O lovely God and Saviour Having in this Ordinance received from Christ by the hand of his Minister another Seal of our Pardon and our title to Eternal life and having given back unto God another publick Protestation of all Gospel-Obedience we should strive and strain after another degree of Confidence in God and another size of Obedience than what we have yet attained And that upon this Motive-Consideration held in Mind and kept as the apple of our eye for the purpose For this purpose we should indeed be ever telling our selves we are God's Servants and Children by REPEATEDLY SIGNED AND SEALED COVENANT It should never be out of our thoughts We should have our first thoughts of it in the Morning our last thoughts of it at Night and as many thoughts of it as may be all day In our Prayers very many and under our Conflicts with any temptation we should have a special abundance St. Austin saith this holy Supper should be received every Lord's-Day if he might advise us and as to the taking it every day of the Week that practice he will neither blame nor praise If I erre let the learned teach me better this I judge It would be my Duty to receive it every day of the Week if I could not otherwise keep upon my heart the sense of what is aforesaid from one Lord's-Day to
another To conclude this Mark of a gracious Man he thinks of the Lord's Supper as it was said he thought of Baptism The Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes the Lord's Supper in vain And he accounts that they do in great measure so take it who do not as is said in the Lines foregoing He knows that the strongest man in Christ doth need it and is not above it and that the weakest Babe in Christ is habitually qualified for it and the Ordinance is not above him No but is even chiefly for such as he is As Holy as Adam was in his innocent state he wanted a Sacrament And as imperfectly Wise and Holy as Christ's Disciples were before his Ascension and Mission of the Spirit they had this holy Sacrament that I speak of He is therefore one that valueth the holy Feast above his daily Bread And not without cause It is said of the Egyptian Youth whom his Master left sick in the Field that being brought to David and having eaten and drank his spirit came again to him The gracious Man can tell you that he hath often been sick and faint in his inner Man and being brought unto David's Son and Lord and having Eaten and Drank at his Table his spirit also hath come again unto him If every Lord's-Day he hath not resorted unto this Banquet yet ordinarily he hath tasted of its twelve manner of Fruits every Month if I may allude unto that in Rev. 22.2 And virtue hath come forth from Jesus Christ into his Soul and done mighty Works there even in despight of its Unbelief and deadly Fears foregoing Though he doth not think the Lord's Supper a Converting Ordinance as from a state of Sin into a state of Grace yet he doth experience it to be a Converting Ordinance as from lower degrees of Grace and Peace unto higher ones He pitieth in his heart every Soul of each sinful Tribe both those that prophanely keep away from the holy Table and those that do but come and prophane it And he spiritually hears God saying to those vilifyers of holy Bread and Wine as it is Isai 65.13 14. Behold my Servants shall Eat but ye shall be Hungry behold my Servants shall Drink but ye shall be Thirsty behold my Servants shall Rejoyce but ye shall be Ashamed Behold my Servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and howl for vexation of spirit I will here Publish the words of a Judicious and Pious Author which have been useful to me and may be so unto some of my Readers Even these of Mr. Daniel Rogers which I find in his Treatise of Sacraments Part 2. p. 241. I mourn to speak it divers Ministers neither Unlearned nor Unpainful in their kind nor Ungodly yet in Point of the Sacrament do little acquaint either themselves or the People with it almost through the Year except in a passage afar off I dare not boast my self but if I might draw any to Emulation I durst say that whereas my poor Labours for TWELVE YEARS were more upon this than any other Point I am not ashamed to say I found the Argument more FRUITFUL at the end than all the while And doubtless many good People there are who mourn for the barrenness of their Ministers in this kind So in his Preface to his Reader he harmoniously eenough saith I could not see wherein I could do greater honour to God than to enhanse the Knowledge of CHRIST SACRAMENTAL And to incite others to do it whose learned Abilities can better perform it It hath been said who is the good Man's KING and FATHER who is his ADVOCATE and FRIEND in the Court of his fatherly King who is his GUIDE and COMFORTER on Earth sent down unto him from that Court And also what are the BONDS and COVENANT TRANSACTIONS that have passed betwixt them and him Wherefore our last Mark is this Mark 5. Assurance of Saving Grace is sweetly possessed or painfully sought by him By Saving Grace I mean ELECTION REDEMPTION VOCATION JUSTIFICATION and GLORIFICATION By Assurance I understand Certainty of Mind such as is Proper tho' it be Imperfect No man living is Perfectly Assured of God's Love or is so certain that he cannot be made more certain But many a man is Properly Assured of it and hath more than a guess or a conjecture that he is a Possessor of it For many a man's Assurance is built upon proper rational assuring grounds Many a man's Assurance hath proper real Victory over his doubts and against his fears Many a man's Assurance hath proper genuine Fruits of Assurance Peace Patience Joy c. Many a man's Assurance hath the name of Assurance given it by God himself who always giveth things their proper Names St. Paul's is called a sure Perswasion Rom. 8.38 St. John's a sure Knowledge 1 Joh. 2.3 The Faith of all is called an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or evident proof of things not seen Heb. 11.1 In a word many I say have and enjoy the comfort of this proper Assurance of God's Grace And the good man that hath it not that either never attained it or having attained it hath lost it he knoweth that it is ATTAINABLE that it is DESIRABLE and that it is NECESSARY And therefore dares not to desist from seeking it or to be remiss in seeking it He knows it is Attainable For the H. Scriptures are Revelations of God's Grace and that Free indeed as to any Merit of ours but most Engaged as to the Promises and Covenant of God They are a Revelation both Full and very Plain and Intelligible yea and given of God for this very end that we thro' comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 Besides this he knoweth the Nature of Man and the Power of Conscience too well to dream that Assurance is unattainable The Scripture is a Lamp to see by and Conscience is an Eye to see with what then should hinder Assurance Conscience is we know an inner Judge and justifies or condemns us at its Bar. It is also a Witness in our selves as to the matter of Absolution or Condemnation It is likewise a Rewarder or a Punisher of us a good man is more than a little satisfied from himself and a Cain and Judas more than a little tormented in themselves Moreover the good man knows that what hath been full often attained even under the Old Testament it is not to be thought unattainable under the New Especially that thing which under the New Testament very many have attained and all are commanded to seek and consequently have a promise that in the due use of means they shall find To conclude he knows that it is possible to attain assuring Evidences and therefore possible to attain Assurance it self Those said Evidences are Demonstrative ARGUMENT Credible SENSE and Infallible TESTIMONY The inseparable and distinguishing Effects of Grace do demonstrate the being of it Preference of Christ and his Spirit